Friday bits and pieces

1. Currently I'm reading "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. It's the first book in the seven book A Song of Ice and Fire series. It may be made into a series by HBO. It's been a long time since I've read a fantasy novel, but it mostly reads like a historical novel about court intrigues set in a mystical Western European medieval fictional country. It's written in third person voice and each chapter focuses on a different character. I find I really like that structure.

It was recommended by the husband of a friend who is also a Buffy and Firefly fan.

2. I'm working on a baby blanket, mainly putting a green garter stitch border on this square I made some time ago.

However it's not thrilling me. I really want to make something with the colors that Grumperina's making here. That peacock blue really speaks to me and I like the greens and white she's using too. However, I'd sub one of the greens with yellow. Blue/green/yellow/white is one of my favorite combos. At lunch, I may run to Needlenook and see what they have in the Tahki Stacey Charles cottons.

Do I need to buy more yarn? No. Is that really the point? No again.

3. Spent the MLK Day weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. Beautiful city. Lots of wrought iron work. Made me want to learn how to do it. It was me, Husband, and Husband's mother. It was our first time there for all of us. The picture of the tree at top was taken there. It's covered in ferns, which I hadn't seen before. Also stopped at Knitk.com and bought 2 skeins of Merisoft Hand Painted yarn in 2 different colorways, one of which is blue/green/yellow/white. But hand wash wool. Not appropriate for a spring baby blanket.

This trip was our gift to her for not spending winter holiday with her in Wisconsin. Husband and I went to Palm Springs/Joshua Tree National Park/Los Angeles instead to celebrate our 10th anniversary. I still need to post about that trip.

4. Still loving my iPhone. I posted to Facebook all the time and Husband just told me about the Dragon dictation app. about 10 years ago, I bought the Dragon software to use in grad school. there was just so much typing! However it wasn't very good and I ended up typing every paper anyway. The Dragon app has come very far since then.

As Violet of the Lime and Violet podcast said, the iPhone does everything except make coffee. Then in the latest episode, she mentioned that a listener has all their electronics hooked into some central control console, and her husband somehow hooked their coffee maker to that system and their iPhone, so now their iPhone does make coffee. That's taking it a bit far for me, but I love the idea.

5. Favorite new recipe: Beer bread. So easy.

Preheat oven to 350 F or 375F -- the recipes I found vary

Combine 3 cups self rising flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 bottle beer.

Pour into greased 9 x 5 bread pan

bake for 1 hour

I used a bottle of our homebrew which is a dark beer. It goes really well with the chicken, bean, rutabaga stew I made over the weekend.

6. Happy that Leverage and Project Runway are back and have almost reached the end of Angel the Series. Fred's died and turned into Illyria. I'm liking Illyria but kind of sad to know that the end of the series is almost here. Postponing the end by reading a Game of Thrones. Looking forward to Caprica. Sad the Dollhouse is almost over too. The twists and turns!

7. Just found out a friend's 9 y.o. son's been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Is 9 too old for a knitted snake?

ETA: I think I'll knit my friend a shawl out of a skein of 375 yds of blue cashmere-blend sock yarn I got last week. She'll probably appreciate it more and longer than her son would for a knitted snake.