It was National Trigun Appreciation Day. To the uninitiated that means National Doughnut Day. My office loves to celebrate food-related holidays.
(I put that in here just to annoy my brother.)

Stuck in traffic with my brother in the car behind me.

I've managed to snag an ARC (Advanced reader copy) for the last three Preston & Child books! I think I managed to buy only the second ARC that was for sale on eBay, and it was cheaper than the previous ones I've bought.
It was scheduled to arrive on Wednesday but it arrived on Monday as a surprise.

I read the whole thing in about five hours. No spoilers as certain people haven't finished reading it yet.

This mindless garter stitch is starting to take its toll.
Exhibit A: I somehow managed to ruin a completely good knit stitch.
UNACCEPTABLE.

 PREP THE PATIENT.

WE CAN REBUILD IT.
WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY


That was two days ago.

Earlier today I was knitting at the table and got up to get a cinnabon muffin. Somehow I was tangled in my yarn and dragged my shawl across the floor. By the time I picked it up I had dropped and unraveled two stitches.

Fixed it with a crochet hook.
Let's play spot-the-error.

 

I hope to be done with this in a few days.

 

It's starting to really come together. I can't wait to block this when it's done so the lace really opens up.

 

For those of you playing along at home

I got a promotion at work! I am now the Appraisal Coordinator (one step below management, hee hee hee) 

I got moved out of my beloved Training Room. Very sad day especially since...

 

My derpy brother has now started working for my company! (Happy!)

Ryan moved to North Carolina so the investor shipper position opened up. 

Anyway my job is basically acting as the firewall between the loan officers/processors and the appraisers/appraisal management companies we use. Any communication between the two has to go to through me since they are prohibited from knowing who is who until after the order is closed. I also check them for errors, request changes, open and close orders, manage disaster cerifications, call appraisers, and keep track of a shitton of stuff... it's a very busy job and 5:00 rolls around so fast every day. 

Tami and J visited la casa and we had a N64 vintage marathon. I don't suck that badly at Mario Kart but I was shocked at how bad I was at Super Smash Bros.

I only won once. 

Go Link Go.

My brother dominated so badly that we ended up doing Vin vs. Tami J and I.

We still lost. I now have nightmares of Kirby power-attacking my teeth out.

 

We took a photo to commemorate the epic ass kicking. I guess this is Vin's take on Draw-Me-Like-One-Of-Your-French-Girls. (J: "I'll never let go.")

Saw Star Trek Into Darkness with the fam and then again with Andrew last Friday. It was our one-year-anniversary and I we went to Hollywood Palms with his family. 

Andrew: You think they'd notice if I took that Iron Man statue home?

Speaking of Iron Man, finally saw Iron Man 3. I was surprise by how much I didn't like it. Individual moments and scenes were great, but overall I didn't care for it. 

It's time for Relevant-But-Not-Really GIF!

Oh hay so I am knitting a new project: Rock Island Shawl by Jared Flood, pictured here in his official glamor shot from his website, BrooklynTweed.net.

I've been a fan of this design since the dark ages of my knitting history, but was always too unsure of my skill level to start it. A while back I bought the yarn for it (Midnight by Knit Picks, a nice black lace yarn with peacock colors woven into it)

It's so much fun and so fulfilling to see Jared Flood's fucking insane instructions actually work.

So now I'm just going to nom your internets with some process pictures of it so far:

Foundation row

Knitting in the car. I now know which stretch of highway in Illinois is the bumpiest. 

(Also, got my hair cut.)

I'm on row 14 out of 24 for the Rock Island lace section, then after that it's mindless garter stitch until the ends meet. 

--

 

Mom was out of town for a few days so Vin and I took advantage of the long weekend and play through through Splinter Cell Conviction (DUN DUN DUN PROTECT SAM DUN DUN DUN)

in preparation for Splinter Cell Blacklist which comes out I think Aug. 20. (I almost wrote "on or around August 20", damn you mortgage business, damn you.)

On a whim we also restarted Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Best Game Ever and got Starbucks Frappucinos, which is our thing we do to mark important events.

 Had to resort to using online walkthrough a surprising number of times because, like, this game is harder than I remember it being. God.

Anyway I eagerly await Xetzu's "omg, you updated your blog" facebook post and leave you with

this lovely photo of Sam Fisher. 

Adventures in Coffee

 

My mama got me a French Press!

I went a little bit insane and ordered some coffee from Community Coffee, a New Orleans based roaster. They have a special menu with trial size coffee things and like a dozen flavors so I got a bunch of the dessert coffees (Vanilla Almond, French Vanilla, etc) Vin picked out a House Blend so I made that for him this evening.

I can't believe I actually had to solve for x to figure out how much coffee grounds to add to my water. I think that's the first time I've used algebra outside of school since Bush was president.

 It was a medium-dark roast which I wouldn't have picked myself, plus Vin finished off the French Vanilla coffee mate so it wasn't as sweet as I'd like. I am ashamed by the amount of heavy whipping cream and sugar and chocolate sauce I had to add to make this palpable. 

 

I did get to use my new knitted coffee cup from Caribou Coffee. (RIP awesome coffee chain)

Did I mention it's mid-April and 43 degrees today?

It was SO nice last weekend though, we had the house open and the doggies outside and the umbrella up. 

Ah perfect day with wind and sunlight, Lu lounging in the shade, glass of pink lemonade and my fat pants on, watching a documentary on The History of Computers, putting the last few inches on the mohair wrap.

 

Later that evening I finally finished it! I've been knitting this fiddly thing since October 2012.

 It took me about an hour and a half to kitchener stitch (black ops knitting) the ends together.

 The weather has been so shitty since I finished it that I haven't had a nice bright sunny afternoon available to take finished photos of it so those will have to be forthcoming.

 

I got a new desk at work.

ERMAHGERD, DRERWERS!

I accidentally a blog post

...And I didn't know Enter key would skip right ahead and publish the blog entry so I will start over.

Well, like I said it was my birthday. It was a Wednesday. 

 My desk got decorated and I didn't know how to cope with all the glitter.

 

I went to Carabba's with Andrew and got the Mezzaluna and Tiramisu, like usual.

Andrew finally got the chance to make the orange cupcakes for me!

We frosted them down while watching Harlem Shake videos and then later we had a Mario Kart / Super Smash Bros marathon with Vin.

You know Mario Kart hates you when you fall into the icy river then the derpy cloud guy puts you back on the road right in front of a bobomb. 

 

I'd like to point out I'm in first place.

"Whoever saves Lightning for the big jump in Wario Stadium has no soul!"

Andrew has found a new friend at the Randall Caribou.

 

Homemade bruschetta on a snow day.

My Mohair bias loop is coming along nicely though not as quickly as I wished. The yarn is so thin that my joints can't handle more than four or five rows before they start aching. I will finish it one day I swear. It's just so fiddly.

My bro and I had a Skyfall extravaganza feat. two venti-or-whatever-their-gypsy-version-of-large Java Chip Frappuccinos.

Lumi, the ever present vanguard.

Vin and I had an Archer marathon which was really fun!

In other news holy crap Assassin's Creed 4 will be coming out later this year. My love for Assassin's Creed 3's Connor knows no bounds and it's tough to see a new assassin but eh.

At least no more Desmond hahaha.

Appropriate gif is appropriate.

Alas I leave you with pictures of snow because it's still a novelty for me.