Movie of the Week

So I'm jumping on the bandwagon with yarnpiggy and beentsy today...partly as a clever trick to divert your attention from the lack of knitting success to report (I have, in fact, finished all but the collar on my Red Oak sweater...the hems took a lot longer than I'd anticipated!). And I'm posting this list as a clever trick to divert my own attention from the fact that there is a "heavy rainfall warning" in effect today, which means I will not be riding a rollercoaster. A fact which makes me terribly sad! Woe!

Instead, I'm home in my PJs, about to put in Pirates of the Caribbean (in honour of International Talk Like a Pirate Day) and tackle that collar. So here's the deal: you go through the list of movies, and check off which ones you've seen. This highly scientific test will tell you if you have a life (you've seen less than 85 of the movies on this list) or whether you don't have a life (you've seen more than 85). I would argue with its legitimacy - for example, does Rocky Horror Picture Show count if you haven't seen it in a theatre? (A failing of my own which I am embarrassed to admit!). Also, I would argue that this list is highly incomplete - missing, for instance, most of the John Hughes movies that ought to be included in any such list (for people of my generation, anyway!)

My list of movies seen does go slightly over the 85-title threshold...But in my defense, I watch a lot of movies & TV for the sole purpose of background entertainment while I knit!

(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Grease 2
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch

(X) Neverending Story
(X) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) Saw III
( ) Saw IV
( ) Saw V
( ) Saw VI

( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
(X) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3

(X) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
(X) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp

(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
(X) Harry Potter 5
( ) Harry Potter 6
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
( ) Resident Evil 3
( ) Resident Evil 4
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village

(X) Lilo & Stitch
(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
(X ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30

( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
(X) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
(X) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed

(X) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(X) King Kong
( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris

(X) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2

( ) Surviving Christmas
( ) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
( ) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(X) Hellboy
( ) Hellboy II: The Golden Army

( ) Secret Window
(X) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
(X) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You

( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(X) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
( ) The Mask

( ) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number SlevIn
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy

( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
(X) Independence Day

( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(X) E.T.
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds

( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
(X) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon

(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
(X) X-Men
(X) X-2

(X) X-3
(X) Spider-Man
(X) Spider-Man 2
( ) Spider-Man 3
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday

( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
( ) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street

( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
(X) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(X) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(X) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses

( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(X) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer

( ) Night Watch
( ) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(X) Hulk

( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
(X) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(X) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 1
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2

( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace

(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
( ) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded

( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(X) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
(X) Hannibal

( ) The Ghost and the Darkness
(X) The Meaning of Life
(X) The Sixth Sense
( ) Unbreakable
( ) Unforgiven
(X) Dances With Wolves

( ) Pale Rider
(X) GATTACA
(X) Children of Men
( ) Bubba Hotep
( ) Getting Married in Buffalo Jump
( ) Pitch Black
(X) The Chronicles of Riddick
(X) Men With Brooms
( ) Weekend at Bernie’s

Your turn! Or, you could go here and find out your true pirate name...Mine's Mad Prudentilla Flint. Now back to swabbing the decks, you scurvy bilge-rats, or I'll make ye walk the plank!

Yaaarrrr(n)!

No rest for the wicked!

Busy busy busy! I had thought I'd take the holiday Monday as a Pajama Day, but I ended up doing a lot of puttering and cleaning and cooking and baking. Including a peach pie that was very tasty...with pastry from scratch, even! (I never make pastry from scratch. I am very lazy.) But it was a rainy day, and feeling fall-ish, so I even decided I would make a little extra pastry dough - it does keep well in the freezer, after all, and punkins will be in season soon! So I measured out the shortening and flour I had on hand...and realized I had enough to quadruple a double-crust recipe:

Mmmmmm! Pie! (For the record, I did do all the cooking, cleaning, and pastry making in my PJs. Just on principle.)

Also, of course, I have been knit-knit-knitting. 5 weeks till Rhinebeck, and I still have half a sock and 2/3 of a scarf I'd like to finish before I go. Not to mention The Sweater. (Which, after knitting for Pa and Mr.Q, has gone really, really quickly. The difference between chunky weight yarn & light worsted is rather...astonishing!) I blocked the pieces last night, and they just might be dry enough to start seaming tomorrow. Here they are, on a queen-sized futon frame:

Suddenly, the idea of knitting a blanket is a lot less daunting. Not that I'm in a hurry to do so (plus, my hands kind of need a rest!) At this point, I'm starting to get super-stoked about going button shopping...next week! Woo!

But, not everything (or, should I say, everyone) Chez Q has been bitten by the Busy Bug:

Are you surprised?

Coz I'm sure not!

Saturday Night's Alright

We found out that "After Dark" admission to the PNE was only $5, so we decided to go back to try a couple things we missed. It was...interesting! We caught the last few songs of Steven Page's set, which was kind of fun.

Then we had a culinary adventure, of sorts: On the right, deep-fried Oreos - interesting, not something I ever need to eat again! On the left, deep-fried jelly-beans....YUCK! Not only too sweet, but the jelly beans got kind of slimy in the batter. Well, at least we can say we tried it!

For the record, we barely managed between us to eat half of what they gave us! After that, there was no way we were feeling brave enough to try the other offerings of deep-fried insanity available:

Deep-fried butter! Nom! (Or, you know, not. Friends of ours tried it and reported it even worse than imagined. Glad we saved our pennies!)

Otherwise, our long weekend has looked more or less like this:

(Well, except for a fiasco with a new pair of shoes & SportChek's customer non-service policies, but that's all better now that I've sent a ranty letter, returned the shoes, and gone to Mountain Equipment Co-op like I should have done in the first place. That'll learn me! Also there was some Indian food, poking around clothing shops in the Punjabi Market, and knitting. Lots and lots of knitting! And there may be a peach pie later on today, we'll see how that goes....Wish me luck!)

Summer Lovin'

After living on the Wet Coast for years, and right in the back yard of the Pacific National Exhibition, no less, I finally decided that this was the year to brave the crowds and go to the PNE for the first time. There was something of an incentive: the fact that your <$20 gate admission includes the Summer Concert Series, and last night's offering was too fun to pass up - Joan Jett. For that, I was prepared to shelve my dislike of crowds and spend the evening eating mini-donuts. (I know, I know - quite the sacrifice!)

Some highlights of the occasionally-surreal experience...

Giant balloons...but of what? Depth charges from the Willy Wonka universe? Space cacti?

A sand sculpture at the entrance, very cool:

Farm animals! Including wascally wabits. (Mr.Q: "Look, a pile of cute!" Me: "Look! Stew!")

Very teeny and Very Large pigs. (Mr.Q: "Wook at the widdle piglets!" Me: "Mmm! Bacon makes everything better!")

Sheeps! (Mr.Q: "Sheepies!" Me: "Kebabs! And sweaters!)

(Sensing the theme here yet?)

And these oxen...I wish the photo gave any kind of real sense of their size. They were HUGE. At least 7 feet at the shoulder. There was no joking about steak, I was too unnerved. Though they were about as threatening as a sleeping cat.

Some funky art stuff:

The stage:

Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you really, really, really happy to see me?

And then after the concert (which rocked! So. Much. Fun! And I even got to stump Mr.Q with some rock trivia, something which has happened all of...well, twice ever.) We got some cotton candy & were heading toward the exit when I came across this:

The folks playing were just a couple turns into the game, and kindly invited me to join in. I think they were sorry after, though. Ahem.

And last, just before the exit:

Is it just me, or is he a leetle creepy? I was half-expecting the Ghostbusters to come running around the corner any minute...

So that was our summer fair adventure, in a nutshell. We may go back next week to see Cyndi Lauper...I'm gonna have to dig out some leg warmers if this keeps up!

I forgot to remember

So when I left you all last time, I had all kinds of good intentions of cooking up tasty meals to pair with my tasty new wines, and then taking pics and posting them with all the details of their nomminess...

Yeah. That lasted for exactly one meal. A very yummy chicken-and-veg teriyaki, served with a very lovely apple wine, for our anniversary on the Tuesday after the long weekend. See?

Notice the steam still rising off the veggies...A precursor to the subsequent lack of posting. And picture-taking. I woke up the next day and thought I had burned the back of my tongue and throat quite badly - teriyaki sauce can get pretty darned hot, after all, and keep the heat for awhile. Never mind that I didn't remember burning myself at all; it hurt! So I ate cold, soft stuff for a day or two. I tried to ignore the blisters, writing off the extreme sleepiness as the result of going back to work after a long holiday.

That lasted about a day and a half, when I somehow had the sense to drag myself to the doctor. Burned throat? Nope. Strep throat? Yep! Not exactly how I would have chosen to score another long weekend! Bah. (On the plus side: I went to a new clinic near work, and the doctor was not only nice, and patient - he was also quite...hot!)

On the other plus side, it just so happens that one can get a lot of knitting done when still too sick (and contagious!) to go to work, but not quite so ill that one needs to sleep 20 hours a day. (Just 14-16!) I'm making good progress on my Rhinebeck sweater. It turns out that chunky yarn knits up a lot faster than the light worsted I used in Dad's & Mr.Q's sweaters! (Whodathunk, eh?)

I'm not getting cocky about the pace & progress, though, as I'm about to start on the charted panel, and that makes me a bit nervous. In the meantime, see the pretty colour?

I thought I ought to have a little "brain candy" on the needles as well, for bus knitting, since the chart for Red Oak is going to be At Home Alone In Silence With The Phone Off knitting. I sort of happened to pick up some lovely skeins of Mochi Plus the other day (oops!), and am working on a variation of the Noro Striped Scarf that coincidentally has some purple in it that matches my sweater-in-progress perfectly. It's quite addictive, watching how the stripes play out against each other!

Meanwhile, it's hotter than the seventh level of hell outside, and I'm in the basement knitting with wool. Coz I'm just that special! Hope you're not all melting. Root beer floats for supper tonight, I think!

The next adventure begins...

As mentioned, we tried one of the Rieslings with last night's dinner - lemon-sautéed zucchini, tossed over pasta with fresh-grated Parmesan. It's a lovely dish, light & tasty & quick, and it's become one of Mr.Q's specialties. He doesn't cook much, but I have to admit he does a smashing job with this particular dish!

The wine was also quite nice, but the with the lemon & cheese, the zucchini was just a little too sharp to work well with the vino. So, with a bit of the bottle left, I tried something else for dinner tonight:

I baked a salmon fillet with some mango sauce we picked up in Keremeos; the green beans and the peaches in the salsa are from the same farm stand. I cooked up some brown basmati in coconut milk, with a couple cinnamon sticks tossed in the pan. (The rice needed a little more jazzing up for next time...maybe a pinch of garam masala &/or some dried apricots as well...in the meantime, I just added a bit more of the mango sauce & that did the trick!) A much better fit with the wine! And I have another adventure planned for tomorrow.

This may, perhaps, become a bit more of a foodie blog over the next while. Please bear with me! But I do promise knitting content as well. I've actually got a good chunk of the back of my Red Oak done - about 1/2 way to the arm-hole shaping. For me, that's a pretty decent pace!

Now to try & gear up for work again - always a bit of a foggy brain after a holiday!

"Life is too short to drink bad wine" - Anon.

Back from holiday...it was a grand time! Usually when we go home for a visit, we high-tail it there & back, as it's a 10-12 hour drive. And every time we do, we pass through towns and places that we always think would be fun to explore. So, this time - we did! We took 4 days to make the trip back, and it was fabulous. Also, we got to check out a handful of the fantastic wineries en route. Starting with this one - Skimmerhorn in Creston...picked up a couple of very tasty bottles to start the proceedings:

Then we spent a night in Nelson with my brother & his girlfriend, where we had some excellent Indian food, and got to connect with an old music-school friend of Mr.Q's. We had a lovely visit, and briefly considered camping on the beach...Fortunately, we decided not to, as a Rather Big Storm kicked up that night. We hit the road at the crack of noon, and got as far as Greenwood - a wee little town (Canada's Smallest City, in fact!) that has always intrigued Mr.Q. Upon hearing that there was outdoor live music at a venue with great BBQ burgers (and being unable to find a campsite!) we decided to get a hotel and spend the night. It was, as you can see, the height of contemporary interior design:

Before hitting the road the next morning, we stopped at one of the best cafes ever:

Where breakfast was literally just out of the oven:

It was actually as good as my mother's - and I don't say that lightly!

So fortified, we got another 2 hours down the road to Osoyoos, where we planned a stop at a winery I've wanted to check out for several years.

The city, from the Anti-Christ hill (OK, yes, technically it's the Anarchist, but the other name more accurately describes how I feel about going down that Very Steep Hill!)

And, our destination: Nk'Mip Cellars...

The vineyard:

In front of the wine shop (where of course we bought more wine!):

The cool bi-lingual signs around the grounds:

At the entrance to the Cultural Centre parking lot:

There's a lot to explore, and we didn't have a lot of time - but hopefully next summer we'll make it back for a few days. There's a campground right on the lake, and events at the Cultural Centre, tours of the winery, and if I'm not mistaken, guided walks around the desert as well as trail riding. I could easily spend 2 or 3 days without even leaving the resort/vineyard property!

We made one other stop in Osoyoos for wine:

And that's about where the picture-taking stopped. We got distracted by the lake (it was about 30 degrees by 10:00 a.m.!) and decided to see about another hotel. Then we took our pool noodles down to the water, where we spent much of the afternoon watching the para-sailers over the lake, and debating whether we had the money (& the nerve!) to try it. (We decided we'd give it a go if we make it back next year.)

Coincidentally, Little Sis & her wee fambly were also in Osoyoos for the night, on the spur of the moment, so we met them at another beach & played in the water with her laddy. Then we spent the evening reading in our air-conditioned hotel room (it got up to 37 by mid-afternoon...oy!); though we did go for a walk at about 11:00 to watch the heat lightning over the hills.

Next morning, we hit two more wineries around Keremeos - about 30 minutes from Osoyoos -most notably, Forbidden Fruit Wines, where I almost had a publicly-inappropriate response upon tasting their "Caught Apricot Mistal". I swear to Bob, it tastes like sunshine! We also stopped at Orofino Vineyards, where they were not quite as warm and friendly as at Forbidden Fruit, but we did pick up some very nice Riesling.

A couple of fruit stands (fresh-picked freestone peaches!) and garage sales later, we finally headed back to the Big City - having taken 3 days to achieve about 6 hours worth of driving. Delightful!

Now that we're home again...It's good to see the cats; I haven't missed the traffic!; we need another wine rack; and I've cast on for what will hopefully work out to be my Rhinebeck sweater. And our grocery-shop this morning was based mainly around what would work well with some of the wines we brought home...I 'spect the Blog will feature a bit of those experiments over the next while! (Tonight: pasta tossed with fresh-grated parmesan, and slices of baby zucchini, sautéed in lemon juice, with some of the Riesling mentioned above; fresh peaches for dessert!)