Not the Usual

Husband went out of town this weekend for the Wisconsin-Iowa game. So this is how I whooped it up while he was gone.

I made a cake, from scratch, seen above. Chocolate cake with coconut frosting. Ugliest cake, but tasty. As someone who prides herself on making things that are both functional and beautiful, this was not my best. However, it does taste good. And considering this is my first effort in making a cake from scratch and not a boxed mix, I'm pretty happy. Plus this is my first time making frosting ever.

But still, in that picture, I did include things I have made that are functional and beautiful, like the green flowerpot, and my Malabrigo afghan.

This week I also started my pottery class. In the cake picture are three bowls I brought home to dry. The biggest one on the right is 11 inches in diameter and 4.5 inches tall.

I did not work on the Sunrise Circle Jacket, because the fluxuating stitch count was driving me up the wall. I worked on my Noro Furisode Log Cabin blanket instead. I wound up all but one of the skeins into cakes:

On Saturday I worked, speaking on a panel about the challenges of reaching out to refugees for the US Census. I barely had a voice, despite all the honey and tea I've been drinking. Basically, I said that one fear that refugees in particular have about the census, is that in their countries of origin, the census was used by the government to identify and target people of different groups for ethnic cleansing. No wonder then that refugees are reluctant to answer the census.

On the flip side, in some countries, specific ethnic groups were barred from being counted in the census, so now they're really eager to be counted.

After the census thing, I went shopping, something I don't really do anymore because very few things fit right and many stores are eliminating their petite sections. However, I did buy a dark teal blue jacket, black ankle boots, and red suede flats. Even though the jacket is a petite, I still have to have the sleeves shortened.

In another break from the usual, I didn't watch anything by Joss Whedon! Instead, it's been a Neil Gaiman and NCIS weekend. The next Angel DVDs haven't come from the library yet (actually, they have, but I probably won't go get them until tomorrow.) And, okay, I watched the most recent episode of Castle, where they wore the blue gloves. That's the closest I got to Whedonverse this weekend.

Rather, I've been watching the NCIS marathons on USA cable network. It's like Law and Order. Each episode stands alone and they're pretty straight forward who-done-its. I like the characters, especially Abby Scuito the goth forensics tech who also knows sign language. It comes up every once in a while, like when she and boss Gibbs will sign to each other when they don't want others to understand what they're saying, or when lipreading surveillance videos. Plus she has the best wardrobe.

I'm listening to "Stardust" by Gaiman on CD, read by Gaiman himself. He's pretty good as a reader, doing voices too and not sounding cheesy. I'm also reading "Fragile Things" a collection of his short stories, and the movie "Coraline" just came in from Netflix. As a crafter and especially as a knitter and someone who's done clay work, I'm really looking forward to seeing the "making of" feature. I hope there's a making-of feature!

ETA: alas, there is no making-of feature for Coraline. Plus, Brother One gave me two Buffy comics: Predator and Prey, a compilation of issues 20 to 25 of Buffy Season Eight, and Buffy Omnibus One. It was at the office when I came in this morning. On Saturday, I stopped by the office and saw that there was a package in the common area, but I was in a hurry and didn't look closely. If I had, I could have had some new Buffy for the weekend, but I'm happy with the way the weekend turned out, as it is.