Dress shopping

I went wedding dress shopping with Kate and Emily back in September when I was in Seattle, thinking it would be fun to go with those two (what isn't fun with those two?). I also figured I'd do my *real* dress shopping in San Diego, given that I actually live in San Diego. I didn't actually expect to find THE dress on the first day of shopping. In Seattle. So the last 6 weeks have been a quest to find the same dress here in San Diego. How hard could that be? Very, as I have discovered. Bridal shops only carry certain lines of dresses, and for whatever reason no shop in San Diego carries the line that I was looking for. I was on the verge of a road trip to Santa Ana before I finally found a shop that would special order the dress for me. It was a little disconcerting handing over my $$$, being told repeatedly that there are no refunds, and then being told that I shouldn't expect to see my dress before April. But it really is the perfect dress, and once you find the perfect dress, no amount of shopping will find one that could take its place. If you are not Adam, and would like to see the dress, email me and I will send you the link (of a model wearing the dress, not me--did you know these things are copyrighted and they won't let you take pictures until you have actually purchased the dress?).

Pathologic Knitter

I think my knitting is beoming an illness. I cannot stop. I'm at work, and all I can think about is coming home and knitting. I'm at the gym, and I can't wait to get off the damn treadmill and come home and knit. That is of course assuming I even made it to the gym, and didn't get so caught up in my knitting that I just didn't leave the house. I can't sit on the couch without knitting. Poor Adam is poked in the side with needles while we are watching movies together. I've decided the problem is my inability to complete any one project before moving on to the next. All part of my ADD. Currently I have 9, yes NINE, uncompleted projects. And I'm working on all of them at once which is why I feel so compelled to knit at all times. My goal is to complete each of those projects by working on only one at a time, and then limit my knitting to Monday night knitting group. I need to reclaim my life.

The current projects (in order of almost completeness):

Pink baby sweater. Adam's sister is having a baby. We don't know if it will be a girl or a boy. This is the gift if it is a girl. It needs a button for the top, and then it is done.

Ivory baby sweater. This is the gift if it is a boy. This is the current bane of my existance. I hate finishing sweaters. See all those loose threads? I have to weave all of those in. I hate that. It needs edging, buttons and some cute little embellishments. I can't wait to see the finished product, but it's annoying me right now.

The Lizard Ridge afghan. This has been an ongoing project for almost a year now. I can't wait to finish it, although it's 100% wool and far too warm for actual use here in San Diego. Yet another reason I need to move back to the northwest. I'm very homesick right now.

A felted bag. I didn't buy enough yarn for this, so it is on hold until I come up with $30 to buy the rest of the yarn. Then it should be a quick finish, it's almost done. I don't know what I will do with it when it is done, it will depend on how big it is after felting.

Brown pullover sweater. This is from the book Fitted Knits, which I love because all of the sweaters are fitted, which is better than most frumpy sweater patterns that are out there. I started this in Austria, and it is a very fast knit. But I've realized, I don't wear pull over sweaters. So my motivation to finish this is waning.

Cream recycled cardiagan. This is the yarn I frogged from one of Adam's old sweaters. It's kind of a boring pattern, and I have more interesting things to work on right now, so it's been put aside until I run out of other projects. But as fall arrives (it's certainly not here yet) I may need a cardigan to wear around the house, so maybe I'll take it up again.

Multicolored baby hat. This is knit on tiny needles and takes forever to finish, and I don't even know if I like it. And again, look at all those loose ends! Finishing this will be hell. So I have hidden it in a drawer.

Baby blanket. Yet to be determined which baby will be the recipient of this. Depends on when I finish it, I suppose. Little needles, boring pattern. But I did enjoy making the little bear who sits in the pocket. I'll finish this eventually.

And finally, the black cardigan sweater that I've been waiting to start work on. I need a black cardigan sweater, and this is a very nice yarn. But I haven't yet gotten started. Someday perhaps...

Last fire post. I promise.

Things are returning to normal here, but the fires just keep going. The winds are due to change today or tomorrow, which means the fire is going to turn around and may reburn communities it has already burned. But the weather should cool off, and humidity should increase, so things should start to get better. It's still smokey here, and my allergies are horrible today. I found some great pictures online, better than anything I could take, so check out San Diego on fire:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sandiegofires/pool/show/
Some satellite images: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/socal_wildfires_oct07.html

Ah, they have decided to take a break from fire coverage for the World Series. Thank goodness, I needed a break from non-stop video of burning homes.

Fire! Fire!

Staying home isn't as much fun as it was when I was a kid. I just don't get the same enjoyment out of Price is Right. That's not even on today, because it is just fire coverage. So I ultimately plan to do something productive with my day, like cleaning, but meanwhile, I'm enjoying my coffee and watching the fire on TV. They were broadcasting live from the Harris Fire, down in Chula Vista. My grandparents live in Chula Vista. I remember visiting them when I was little and their house was on a canyon, nothing but canyon as far as you could see. They had coyotes and road runners in their backyard. Over the years, Chula Vista has been built up to where there are no longer canyon views from their home. Just housing developments as far as the eye can see. So luckily, they are now safely in the middle of Chula Vista, because it is the neighborhoods on the edges of communities or along open canyons that are burning. They were showing a wall of fire coming over the hill, headed straight for the housing development. The firefighters were just standing there, watching, because there was nothing they could do until the homes were in immediate danger. But luckily, when they built this neighborhood 4 years ago, they took fire danger into consideration and surrounded the neighborhood with what is called "defensible space." In this case, a 10 foot road next to a 6 foot trail. The fire burned right up to the road and the stopped. Neighborhood saved without a drop of water, just good planning.
Currently 300,000 acres are burning, they are estimating full containment of at least two of the fires by November 4th. Still only one fatality. Poor Tori Spelling had to evacuate her B&B in Fallbrook, so won't be able to film her reality TV show until this settles down (she was actually already in L.A. so didn't really have to evacuate). The California condor enclosure at the Wild Animal Park was destroyed, but they had already evacuated the condors since they are critically endangered animals. The rest of the animals are safe in their enclosures, as they have fire breaks and well irrigated land which should hold off any fire. What does it say about me that I'm more concerned about the condors than Tori Spelling?

Inferno

What started as two fires in east county, which we initially mistook for a BBQ, has now exploded into 7 separate fires which have consumed 160,000+ acres, over 500 homes and led to the evacution of 250,000 people in San Diego County. I've been watching the coverage on the news all day, and I don't think they've made any headway in controlling the fire. I was sent home from work today because the air quality is so bad they had to close the UCSD campus. They've evacuated nearby hospitals, so we are all on call for the next two days for "disaster backup." They have evacuated north San Diego neighborhoods. They've just evacuated parts of Del Mar, which is right near the ocean. They now have issued mandatory evacuations in east Chula Vista, where my grandparents live (but they are further west than the mandatory evacuation area). Horses have been evacuted to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which is now full with 0ver 1800 animals (including a zebra!). Qualcomm stadium has been set up as an evacuation center, where thousands of people have gone. The air is filled with smoke. I left my car parked outside for 3 hours this morning, and came back to find it covered in a light layer of ash. Freeways are closed. It is chaos, but very well organized chaos. They've been very good about evacuating people well ahead of the fire so people have plenty of time to get out. The news coverage has been excellent so everyone knows what is going on. And people are going out of their way to help others. People are opening their homes, donating the time and trailers and trucks to help people evacuate, people are bringing donations to the stadium to help out. It is better than other disasters, in that the main part of San Diego is really unaffected, so stores are still open and everything is still up and running if you get out of the areas directly affected by the fire. It's scary though, the fire just keeps advancing, the winds just keep blowing. Luckily, we are safely tucked into the middle of San Diego, well away from any canyons. We can't even feel the Santa Ana winds here. We just have to deal with this horrible air quality (which is actually better here than most places, since we are up on a hill). The weather (hot, dry and windy) is supposed to stick around until Wednesday. Tomorrow more firefighters are due to arrive, hopefully they will be able to get the planes up if the winds die down, and hopefully they'll start to make some headway.

So Cal Sunday

Today was the quintessential San Diego Sunday. I slept in, enjoying every one of those 11 hours. Then Adam and I walked down the street to the neighborhood farmer's market. I've said it before, and I will say it again, I love that we can get fresh produce all year long here. In addition to the local produce, they also have a number of vendors selling everything from homemade tamales to handmade hats. I got my morning coffee from the local coffee roasters, and we bought some fish, which we are told was just caught yesterday (except the salmon which he flies in from Alaska). Tonight Adam is grilling the Ahi tuna, and on Tuesday we will be trying the yellowtail (which I mistakenly believed was also tuna, but I have been informed it is in fact a *cousin* of the tuna). I also bought the most beautiful broccoli I have ever seen, tasty Fuji apples, and some lovely heirloom tomatoes which I made into a tomato salad tonight. Once I get my camera cable returned to me (I has been located. In Seattle) I will post pictures of my lovely salad.

After I made Adam his weekly blueberry muffins (I like to play housewife on Sundays), we headed out to the beach. It has been unseasonably warm the last day or so, thanks to the Santa Ana winds, so we took full advantage of the sun for a little surf side smash ball. I perused my wedding magazines, while Adam researched our honeymoon. We stopped for tacos on the way home.

Now we are watching the Red Sox. We thought one of our neighbors was BBQ'ing, because there is an aroma of smoke in the air, but it turns out 8000 acres of east county is on fire (one fire to the north, and one to the south of us) and the winds are carrying the smoke our way. The Santa Ana's do make for a lovely day at the beach, but they do not help with fire fighting efforts and things are just getting smokier here.

Weekend in the Desert

This weekend I'm at a conference in Palm Springs. I drove out today after work. I expected the trip to be all interstate, but I was pleasantly surprised to find most of the drive was two lane highway though the mountains with an amazing sunset. I probably would have enjoyed the drive more had there not been other drivers on my tail the entire time. I have trouble driving in the dark. I don't see well, and so I need to drive slower that I normally would. Apparently other people can see better, and thus are able to drive narrow two lane mountain roads in the dark at about 70 mph. But I survived unscathed. Palm Springs is an odd place. You drive for hours with nothing other than a few scattered Indain reservations, come down out of the mountains and there you have it--high end strip malls as far as the eye can see. Tomorrow I will spend the day exploring the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort while learning about various aspects of internal medicine. Yeah, sometimes what I do with my freetime is a little boring. Perhaps when I get back to San Diego Sunday, Adam and I will go flying. He's been wanting to that, and it would give me something more interesting to write about. :)

Finally...

...a day off! This last week was a long stretch. I worked 8 days without a day off. Which wouldn't be too bad, except during those 8 days I worked 115 hours. Needless to say, I had to skip out on the Cure cover band Adam had tickets for and I slept for 13 hours Saturday night. Sunday we went to Kobey's Swap Meet. I hadn't been to a swap meet since I was a kid and we used to go whenever we'd come to San Diego to visit Grandma and Grandpa. It was great, we went with the goal of getting some art work for our living room, and within 5 minutes we had found the perfect pictures. I was all set to use my bargaining skills to convince the guy to sell us both pictures for $5, but when I asked how much they were and he said $2 each, I must say I was actually disappointed as I handed over my $4. I would post pictures, but I have lost the cord that connects my camera to my computer, so my pictures are stuck on my camera for the time being. We also found some mixing bowls, a tape measurer, a grill brush and a fish bowl. I found a sleeper sofa that I think would be very nice in our guest room and I'm trying to convince Adam that it is a good idea. But it is hard to justify spending money on things while we are trying to pay for a wedding. Speaking of the wedding, we are making headway on the planning. We have a venue, a photographer and a band. We should have a caterer by the end of the week. And stay-tuned, the wedding website is in the works and will be unveiled once I have more than 3 entries on it.

This is my last week in the ICU. While I really enjoy working here, the call schedule is killing me. I spend a few hours a day at home, I miss Adam, and I am falling way behind in my knitting! There are babies being born, and I have at least 3 different baby gifts in the works. It would be nice to finish them before the kiddos arrive. As of Friday I have two months of research, which I am really excited about. I can't wait to get back in the lab, and it will be nice to have weekends free. The rest of this month looks to be pretty busy. I'm going to Palm Springs on Friday for a conference. I need to submit my licensing application. I need to finish my fellowship applications. I need to find a wedding dress. But I will get to sleep in my own bed every night. And I can turn my pager off for two whole months. Yay!