trail tail

We took our first hike in the mountains around Santa Fe today. We hit the Borrego trail with Matthew's co-clerk Sarah and had a great time. However, I forgot that if you go down a really big incline, you have to go back up it. With the altitude that was a little rough. Also, my darling puppy got so excited while running with another pooch she came across while hiking that she knocked me over with a tackle that would make any Sunday football fan cringe. Surprisingly, the blow doesn't appear to have caused any major damage. Scarlett had a fantastic time romping in the woods and frolicking in the creek. She did a great job off leash and we were able to keep track of her thanks to her blaze orange vest, which we received as a hand-me-down from our good friends Susan and Danny. I must say she looked adorable in it.
Enjoy some of the photos we took:
on down the trail
the queen of the forest
Our first family photo!
super puppy!!!

crashed out

We were all exhausted yesterday, but I think Scarlett was the most in need of serious R&R. I think the klink, I mean kennel, really wore her out.

in memoria

After a long battle with Alzheimers desease my grandpa Bob passed away late yesterday. I am at the Alburquerque International Sunport waiting to fly all the way to Atlanta and then on to Milwaukee, where I will join the rest of my family in celebarting both my grandmother's birthday and my grandfather's life.
While I am deeply saddened by the loss of my beloved granfather, I am happy that there is finally an end to his suffering and peace for our entire family. My grandfather was a quiet man who liked to garden and to read, and loved to play with me when I was a little girl and even let me sit on his lap when I was a gangly 17 year old scared to leave home for the first time. He was a good man and I miss him.

Shoptastic

I made a sweater! I've made shrugs, started sweaters, but this is my first ever finished, I can wear it, it makes me feel cute and accomplished sweater! It is the Shopping Tunic from Twinkle's Big City Knits by Wenlan Chia. I've had the book for awhile and oggled the designs, but have been unable to afford any of the necessary super bulky yarn. Yesterday, in desperation for a finished sweater, I decided to use the Rowan Ribbon Twist I purchased nearly two years ago to make my "first" sweater, the Beth (I know). Here are the results:



Knitting Details:
The patterns in this book are horrendous, filled with errors and not at all clear. This one was no exception, but was fairly easy to figure out. Now the Ribbon twist is only a bulky yarn and so there was no way I could get gage, so I knit a couple swatches on both 19s (the size needle called for in the pattern) and 17s. I decided to knit the sweater on the 17s but two sizes larger than what should be my size -- voila it actually worked. I only made one alteration, besides making the cowl a couple inches shorter, which was to add some 1x1 ribbing at the bottom to keep it from riding up. It is supposed to be a tunic but it came out a bit short (I did knit it an 1" short but it shouldn't have been as short as it came out, I think it was the result of my monkeying with the gage). I used ~270 yards of yarn.

I would make this again. It was really easy and super fast. I love the cowl neck. If I did it again I'd skip the pockets: they aren't as cute as they looked in other people's blog pictures and they were a real pain in the ass. I think if I did it again I would do some sort of ribbed lower half and use a super bulky in a solid color.

So there you have it, a knitting post on a knitting blog, who'd of thought?

After Sex

One of my advisers, Georgia Warnke, has a new book coming out this December from Cambridge University Press. It's not just a "philosophy" book or a "theory" book, it's also a really good read, well written, easy to understand and very interesting. I have read it twice in manuscript form and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in issues of race, sex, and gender. Georgia worked her savvy so that it will be available in paper back immediately, making it affordable for everyone. The book also comes with a helpful index, which was done by yours truly (toot, toot... that's the sound of me tooting my own horn). The book's original title was After Sex, but apparently that was too much for Cambridge, la-ti-da. Anyways the title is a reference to Alasdair McIntyre's classic work After Virtue.

sassy is back

eye candy

I bought the dahlias at the farmer's market today. They are supposed to inspire me to write my dissertation. The Chimichangas are Matthew's creation. We had them for dinner last night and they tasted as good as they look.

Fiesta

As I mentioned earlier, the first week we moved here it was Fiesta, a celebration of the reconquest of Santa Fe by the Spanish in 1692 after those pesky native folks had taken it back in 1680, apparently they thought it belonged to them, silly Native Americans. Anyways they have big parties and parades and lots of mariachi bands and tons of food and a good time is had by all.
We took Scarlett to the pet parade, but she wasn't a big fan because of all of the marching bands - too much drumming for her taste.

That night we headed down to the plaza to check out all of the action, which was really just an oldies cover band and bunch of food, but it was fun.
This is where I acquired my fire, I mean green chile, laden sopaipilla, it was delicious but i did not sleep very well that night as the fire tormented endlessly:
Here is the Horchata (Mexican rice milk drink) that made it possible for me to eat the above mentioned stuffed sopaipilla:
We also went to Zozobra and hung out on the plaza during the day. It was a very busy week for us, especially since it was my first one here!

One of those days

My dog chewed up my favorite pair of shoes.
The financial aid department is finding new ways to screw me over.
We owe money to everyone, and they all want it NOW!
And did I mention that my dog chewed my favorite, absolutely perfect, go-with-everything, comfortable stylish amazing shoes?
I'm telling you, it's just been one of those days.

The 505

the great thing about living at 7,000 feet is that you can get wasted on two and a half beers. viva santa fe.

Zozobra

= 50 feet of marionette burning good times. For more on our adventures read this.

Inticements

The thing I like most about my new house: the kitchen. It's open and spacious with a breakfast bar, which serves as a laptop station most of the time and nice built in shelves to show of my new goods.Now people just need to start visiting so we can entertain them in our new digs here in Santa Fe. My mom and Tim have already booked the last weekend in October and may be our first guests unless anyone else chooses to come before that - any takers?

How about some nice locally grown, organic green chile, still warm from the roasters on fresh baked bread with homemade goat cheese all just purchased from the farmer's market next door? Anyone interested yet?
Come on, we have a really nice guest bed in spare-oom and a second bathroom, and if you're really lucky someone might even cuddle with you:
Not on the floor of course. Scarlett will snuggle anywhere, anytime. It is her way.

So who's coming to Santa Fe???

Green Chile and Donkey Kong

It's official we're New Mexicans! We have been so busy and are just having an amazing time here in Santa Fe. So far we have walked down Guadalupe Street to the Cowgirl BBQ to play pool, enjoy a few PBRs on tap (OK, that's what Matt drank, I classed it up with a fat tire), and have dinner. It was awesome. On Saturday, we went to the farmer's market, which is currently located right next door to our house, and got all sorts of goodies including fresh roasted green chile - yum. Later that night we had more green chile and lots of local delicacies at a dinner at Justice Serna's house, where we met wonderful people who all treated us like family. Labor day we ventured down to the Plaza for an arts and crafts show and took little Scarlett with us. She did well, but still has lots of learning to do about how to behave in public. That night, Matthew and I walked next door to the DeVargas Center to see a movie at the little independent movie theater. We saw the documentary, The King of Kong: A fist full of quarters, which was really, really good. We are so happy to be in community with so much going and where we can walk everywhere again! Yesterday Matthew walked to his first day of work and Scarlett and I waved (and woofed) goodbye. Tomorrow we are going to the burning of Zozobra, a huge tradition in Santa Fe held during Fiesta, which is celebrated all this week. We are really excited!