tag:blogs.halibut.com,2012:/chahn//2 2012-02-14T23:06:16Z eternal moonshine for a spotty mind! Movable Type 4.3-en tag:blogs.halibut.com,2012:/chahn//2.1396 2012-02-14T22:06:15Z 2012-02-14T23:06:16Z

Day Two of our Disneyland adventure started out with breakfast at the Storyteller's Cafe where we were greeted by Chip in the lobby. They have the more woodsy characters wandering about the restaurant & have fun stuff like playing follow...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com We decided to walk through Downtown Disney this time instead of entering via the Monorail so we could make the morning walk up Main Street. After saying "hallo" to Burt from Mary Poppins, we took a photo with Mickey and moseyed up Main Street to the new Jolly Holiday Bakery & Cafe in search of caffeine. The decor at the new Mary Poppins themed bakery is lovely and I definitely need a stained glass penguin window somewhere in my house. While drinking our tasty beverages, Z decided that despite the chance of rain she really wanted to have her face painted over by the Princess Fantasy Faire so we set off for Fantasyland. The line for the PFF was the shortest I had *ever* seen (it ended up being about 12-15 minutes) and we could not pass up that opportunity. We visited with Belle who told us that Ariel was going to teach her how to swim after seeing Z decked out in her Ariel outfit. The other princess at the time was Ariel herself. They had a little chat, we snapped some pics and were on our way to the face painting. Z chose a unicorn mask that turned out great. The gal even moved the unicorn so it wouldn't be hidden under unruly long bangs (they are growing out to be more easily incorporated into a pony tail for parade season). Now that Z was happily painted, we ventured into Toon Town where Mark & she played around and rode Gadget's Go Coaster while I took a break to rest my feet & spin for a bit. Once Toon Town had been thoroughly explored we went back toward Fantasyland and had a dilemma on whether to ride Mad Tea Party or King Arthur's Carousel. Chivalry won out over madness. After dismounting our steeds, I noticed they already have some lovely tulips blooming. At this point we were approaching lunch time and decided to meet our friends at the French Market in New Orleans Square. On the walk toward Big Thunder Ranch it started to sprinkle. By the time we reached the Mark Twain dock it was coming down pretty hard & was time to pull out the umbrella. Lunch was nice and after we parted so the littler one could go back to the hotel for her nap. We decided it was time to board a boat for a salty adventure at sea. After the ride I found some plunder in Pieces of Eight that had to be added to my treasure. The rain clouds moved on and did not return leaving us with a lovely, breezy afternoon on the Rivers of America. We arrived between sailings of the Mark Twain steamboat and were able to ride up in the pilot's cabin where we signed the log book, signaled the docks with bell & whistle, and had Z steer us on our voyage. Upon safe return to the docks we were presented with a pilot's certificate. Since piloting a steamboat is hungry work we stopped in at the Golden Horseshoe to split a mint chip sundae. After venturing through the past, it was time to move on to the future and visit Tomorrowland. As a perk of staying on property, we received three super fast passes that were good for two immediate boarding fast passes per person. I used the first one for a ride on Star Tours while Mark & Z took a rocket ride on the Astro Orbiter. The new Star Tours is such a great ride and this round took me & my fellow travelers to the Wookie planet, through an asteroid belt fleeing from Boba Fett, and through the dilapidated Death Star before shakily settling back down at the rebel base. Afterward we took a quick ride through Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and then took the Monorail back to the Downtown Disney station to take a break at the hotel & get ready for our next adventure: dinner at the Napa Rose chef's counter. Thus ended day two in the parks and the dinner experience definitely deserves its own post.]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2012:/chahn//2.1395 2012-02-13T05:31:18Z 2012-02-13T06:47:12Z

Today we departed home for another visit to Disneyland this time staying at the place we'd like to call home: the Grand Californian Hotel. We don't stay here often because of the expense but when we do set foot in...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com (Speaking of dreaded songs, it appears the Downtown Disney music turns off at 10pm. Yay!) After we disembarked it was approaching time for the Soundsational parade. We've seen this parade before but never with as good a view as we had tonight. During our wait, Mark got a call from one of the friends we were planning to meet up with. It was the Small World song. They ended up joining us for the parade. After the parade, they headed to dinner and we made our way over to Disney California Adventure to catch what was left of ElecTRONica, the Tron-themed dance party. We arrived just in time to catch a bit of the Laserman show. Good thing too, as the second show was canceled due to technical difficulties. Tonight's DJ, Adam Auburn, did a bit of a Whitney Houston tribute by mixing "How Will I Know?". That took me back to the days when that was my favorite song in, what, 6th grade? Anyway, we hung out there until they canceled the Laserman then bid farewell to ElecTRONica. This summer it will be replaced with a Burton-esque Alice in Wonderland dance party called Mad T Party. We returned to the hotel and nixed plans to head to the view deck to watch World of Color because once my shoes were off, I was done with a capital D. Sadly, my plan to upload photos and post the day's summary here isn't going quite as planned as I can't seem to get all the pics to upload properly. Bummer. I may end up switching back to Twitter tomorrow even though it feels good to think in more than 140 characters for a change. On deck for tomorrow, we are breakfasting at Storyteller's, heading to the parks until 4pm or so then coming back to get ready for our dinner at the chef's counter at Napa Rose while Z pays a visit to Pinnochio's workshop. I better go to sleep!]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2010:/chahn//2.1160 2010-05-15T16:43:26Z 2010-05-15T16:55:08Z

Well since there are a few things I'll be participating in over the next few months, I thought I should probably warm up ye olde blogg here. Since my last post in January, I have been to Disneyland twice, Stitches...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com Well since there are a few things I'll be participating in over the next few months, I thought I should probably warm up ye olde blogg here. Since my last post in January, I have been to Disneyland twice, Stitches West, & the Conference of Northern California Handweavers. I have bought a 2nd spinning wheel (a lovely Majacraft Rose), driven 200 miles alone with my 3yr old, lost 15lbs, put in the summer vegetable garden, read/listened to 9 of 10 books in the Outlander/Lord John series by Diana Gabaldon, knit two sample pieces for Miss Babs, won a blue ribbon for beaded yarn I spun and got fiber geeky personalized license plates for my car. Soon there may be posts about the Drums of Autums swap and the upcoming Tour de Fleece. tag:blogs.halibut.com,2010:/chahn//2.1041 2010-01-04T21:59:14Z 2010-05-15T17:26:34Z

December ate my brain, as usual. This is what I've been up to in order to remain (mostly) sane:...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com ]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/chahn//2.987 2009-10-31T21:57:03Z 2010-05-15T17:28:35Z

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com ]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/chahn//2.917 2009-08-15T02:35:24Z 2010-05-15T17:29:09Z

Now that it has been a week since I last blogged, I'm finally back to fill in the rest of the story. There won't be nearly as much detail as the first two posts but better fewer details than leaving...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com I returned to the hotel Thursday night and had less trouble getting to sleep but still woke up at 4am. Since I was not the only one awake, we decided to hop on MAX and hit Voodoo Doughnut. The full moon was lovely and I did indeed get my maple bacon bar. It was full of NOM and then some. First up on the conference agenda Friday was picking up a ticket for the Guiness World Record Attempt. The previous world record was set in Australia by 256 knitters. The Sock Summit crew had 1600 tickets to give out for our attempt. We had to knit for 15 minutes straight on two straight needles. At noon, I booked it over from my class to get a seat in the ballroom and randomly ended up sitting next to Celeste from Loop and Leaf in Santa Barbara. The Oregonian (Portland's newspaper) reported that we officially had 935 knitters present. In true Canadian form, Stephanie asked that we apologize to the Australian knitters for potentially blowing their record away. :) Because I was worried about having enough room in my suitcases, I left my books home and skipped the All Authors book signing Friday afternoon. There was a pang of regret there but it was overshadowed by the fear of not having enough space to bring home the yarn & fiber I bought at the marketplace. Friday night was the Sock Hop and we arrived after a lovely dinner at Pastini's Pastaria. Mmmm... butternut gorgonzola ravioli in brown butter sage sauce. Also, what is it with Portland & hazelnuts?? Two of the three dishes at Pastini's had them and they were offered with my salad at Burgerville. I'm not complaining, as I quite like hazelnuts but I found it a bit odd. Anyhoo, the Sock Hop was a hoot. Complete with ladies in poodle skirts, a hula hoop contest, and a couple of Pink Ladies. I had no problems getting to or staying asleep Friday night. :) In the interest of not having a huge post here, I'm going to close the curtain on Friday and pick up with Saturday next. I think I will talk about all the classes in a single post. We'll see how it goes. I'm being paged for bed time duties now.]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/chahn//2.912 2009-08-07T22:41:51Z 2010-05-15T17:29:38Z

This all is gonna start sounding gushy soon but damn, it is way cooler than I could have ever imagined. I'm trying to get this down before today mingles with yesterday but it all is such a blur that it...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com At 1:30 I took my first class, the one hour Hooked On Beads with Sivia Harding. She was super fun to have a class with and we got to play around with putting beads on our knitting using a freaking teeny crochet hook. She was wearing Aphrodite from the current Twist Collective and it was fabulous to see it in person. Abby Franquemont had also given her a handspun beaded shawl to show us. It was truly amazing. I got to see the original Queen of Beads sock too. It had hexagonal beads on it that were really cool. After class we headed back to the hotel to switch out stuff and hang out until the market preview at 4:30. Despite telling myself I wasn't going to buy any Socks That Rock, I found myself in the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth and the next thing I knew there were 4 skeins in my bag and I felt a little dizzy. :) Next up was a visit to Crown Mountain Farms where I got some Corriedale pencil roving (Merlin) and some BFL roving (As Above, So Below). I picked up my pre-ordered skein of Summit Gnome at the Snicklefritz booth and the Kromski bobbins & mini niddy noddy that John from Village Spinning & Weaving brought up for me. Unfortunately, my jumbo flyer didn't make it to the shop in time for the trip to Portland. The other bummer was that Carolina Homespun had sold out their "J Mac" kates (they hold the bobbins at a 45 degree angle to use gravity for tensioning). I'm going to email Morgaine when I get home to see if she can hold on to one for me so I can pick it up when I'm in the Bay Area. On my second trip through the marketplace, I found the spinning wheel tshirts at A Verb For Keeping Warm and decided the blue one needed to come home with me. The biggest line I saw in the marketplace was for the Sanguine Gryphon. Her Bugga Bugga sock yarn sold out in the first *half hour* of the *preview night*. It blew me away. My roomie said there was a woman with EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS worth of Bugga Bugga in her arms. After my wallet was lightened, I ran into SloBeachGirl and we went over to the Silent Auction that was raising funds for Doctors Without Borders. We also found KiniaCat there. Next up was heading into the ballroom for the opening night reception. We found a spot to sit, grabbed some munchies, and settled in to chat & knit until everyone filed in and the festivities started. Stephanie & Tina shared the podium and they started off with Stephanie reading the proclamation by the mayor of Portland that declared it Sock Knitting Week in the city. We then heard the story of the origin of Sock Summit which was highly amusing and had the terribly sleep deprived duo in giggles & tears at various points. There was someone recording it so hopefully it will be available at some point. They announced that in one hour the silent auction raised $5700. Sorry for the cliffhanger here but I'm gonna have to go get ready to head downtown to grab dinner before tonight's Sock Hop. ]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/chahn//2.909 2009-08-06T12:42:59Z 2010-05-15T17:30:42Z

It is currently 5:45am here in lovely Portland, OR and I've been awake since 3:30am. I'm taking advantage of the hotel business center computer since my iPhone got plugged into a bum outlet last night and wasn't recharging. My traveling...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com My traveling cohorts & I started our journey yesterday at 7am when I picked them up in the Prius to drive us all from SLO to San Jose to catch our flight. The drive was uneventful just like I like and the airport was mostly uneventful, save some shuffling when checking bags due to wine bottles. We had about half a dozen Sock Summiteers on our flight and we all gathered and rode MAX (lightrail) to our various destinations. After checking in at the hotel and ditching our bags, my roomie & I headed back to the convention center to register. On our way down the hill, lo and behold, there is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee leading a cadre of helpers up the hill carrying boxes (Yes, she had a box too). We moved to the side to let them pass and made our merry way down the street where we promptly saw Tina Newton headed toward the same hill. Then I tweeted a picture of the Sock Summit banner. :) At registration, I got my class list, a lovely show book, badge materials and various tickets for the extracurricular events and kinneared Tina from my phone while my stuff was being gathered. Next thing I know, there are Jasmin & GiGi walking across the lobby! Next up was a visit to the swag room to collect the Sock Summit souvenirs I pre-ordered. Most folks parted ways to head for their various dinner plans and my new pal, KiniaCat, and I decided to stay close to the hotels and hit Burgerville for dinner. Where we promptly ran into the Knitmores again. This time we chatted with them a bit while we enjoyed our cheesburgers. Again, pics to come but Burgerville does something I've never seen at a fast food place: They put the nutrition information right on your receipt. Dude. Good thing I hadn't had much else to eat during the day! After dinner we delivered some cookies for ST-1 & ST-2 (aka the organizing goddesses behind this whole crazy adventure) to the registration booth and then went for a walk to Walgreens to get nail clippers that we both sorely needed. After toodling around the neighborhood a bit more, we headed back to KiniaCat's room and then to the 9pm mini-skein swap at the Red Lion lounge...where the teacher's dinner was just letting out. We saw Lucy Neatby with an awesome chicken purse by the elevator and others inside included Stephanie, Tina, Rachel H., JoAnn D., Cookie A, Abby Franquemont, Denny McMillan, Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, Stephen HizKnits, and probably other folks we didn't recognize. One of the swappers had baked sock shaped cookies for the organizers and we took her picture with the cookies, Stephanie & Rachel before being serenaded by a chorus of "Goodnight Ladies" as Steph & Rachel departed for the ST meeting. I had a short chat with Mark & Zoe on the phone before they headed home from Disneyland where Zoe promptly told me "Mama? I'm hungry." She also went on the Matterhorn for the first time and apparently said "I want to go on the Matterhorn again!" as the ride ended. So they did. That's my girl. :) Not long after I headed back to the hotel where my roomie & I compared notes on the day and plans for tomorrow (aka today). Then I promptly laid awake until about midnight and woke up at the aforemetioned 3:30am. At least I got about 10hrs of sleep the night before I left. Now it is almost time for breakfast and then a visit to Trader Joe's and probably Voodoo Doughnut (I'm still trying to figure out how to get a Maple Bacon donut back to Mark :). Sayonara!]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/chahn//2.903 2009-07-30T06:50:38Z 2010-05-15T17:32:10Z

In preparation for heading out on my Sock Summit adventure next week I thought I would see if it was really feasible to blog from Safari on the iPhone. The way has been perilous thus far as I lost the...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com ETA: Well that was tricky and kind of a pain but should be minimally workable. ]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/chahn//2.860 2009-06-02T22:43:47Z 2009-06-03T02:22:46Z

On Saturday we went to Maker Faire at the San Mateo Expo Center (aka fairground). We got there really early to be able to park on-site in case of a toddler meltdown and our spot in line was right next...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com We were also interviewed by a camera crew who said they were from a show called "Extreme Conventions" on the Travel channel. It will be interesting to see if we're actually on the show! Right inside the big building full of kid stuff & craft demos we ran into my BFF. Shortly after we found a table sponsored by Crayola. They had all kinds of cool art supplies but Zoe was only interested in one thing. While she was busy cutting her paper, I kinneared Cookie A after she arrived for her sock knitting demo. Then I learned how to needlefelt! I was still stabbing away at my fledgling needle felted flower when Cookie started her sock knitting demo but when I finished I took a pic at the demo, where I stood in the back and tried to look like a friendly face rather than a scary stalker or someone who was completely baffled by a demo that only had 30mins to teach knitting a sock. I felt rather silly for hanging around afterward without having a copy of her book to get signed (I did want to look at her sample socks more closely). The funny part was that we both had the feeling that we had met somewhere before. While I was at the Craft area, Mark & Zoe went to a different section. Can you guess which one? Here's a hint: After getting lunch and squeezing through the Baazar Bizarre (where I picked up a couple lovely skeins of Wool Candy sock yarn) we went to the Main Stage and settled in to wait for Adam Savage's talk. We were in the back row in case Zoe went ballistic (it was way past nap time). I had a good time but man it is exhausting to wrangle a toddler in those kind of crowds. I had to a two day ticket and decided that I wasn't going back Sunday so we gave it to Mark's sis who took her boys. I'm sure we'll be headed back next year. ]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2009:/chahn//2.810 2009-02-17T04:49:42Z 2009-06-03T02:22:29Z

I'm going to attempt to get a plugin that will repeat my Twitter updates here since that tends to be what I update the most. I'd like to start posting more of my knitting photos here if I can drag...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com Baroness Von Wigglestein is in perpetual motion, as usual. She just hit 26 months and is doing new stuff every day. Her verbal skills are still exploding which is awesome because she can tell me what she needs a little easier every day. She has learned to respect the ocean so we have made several trips to the beach before winter finally settled in (now that it is freakin' February) and I can sometimes even sit down! Woohoo! Now that the weather is cold, windy and wet things have been kinda challenging. One day we cleaned the garage, a few times we ran outside between rain clouds, and today we put on our rain gear and ran errands. It was great that we needed cat litter because Petsmart was a fun place for a kid that loves animals. We walked a circuit from the fish to the cats to the rodents to the birds several times before checking out and heading to Costco. The garden is green. Very green. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll need to remove another whole lawn from the front yard once the rains finish up. Seeds blew in and, much to my dismay, have taken over. Additionally, I now have a new planter bed to fill with soil so we can plant more veggies this year. Right now I have green onions and peas to harvest and some blueberries that are slowly trying to mature after blossoming during our January heat. Now I have to get back to my knitting. :)]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2008:/chahn//2.712 2008-10-09T18:54:21Z 2009-06-03T02:21:37Z

I'm reposting this contest button to enter into a drawing on The Knit Witch's blog. She makes some pretty lovely ceramic yarn bowls and has other goodies too....

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com ]]> tag:blogs.halibut.com,2008:/chahn//2.614 2008-07-20T18:06:20Z 2009-06-03T02:20:40Z

After not being able to find the mega remote that controls our entertainment system we pulled up the couch and found it has velcro panels on the back. Upon opening these panels we found the following: - the DVD player...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com After not being able to find the mega remote that controls our entertainment system we pulled up the couch and found it has velcro panels on the back. Upon opening these panels we found the following: - the DVD player remote that has been lost for months - Mark's wedding ring - Mark's iPod Nano - a length of parachute line - a padlock - two crochet hooks - a fingernail clipper - two cat turds (likely dingleberries) - several receipts - a business card for iFixIt - 3 linked baby toy rings - a sock - 3 hair rubber bands - a knitting row counter - a paperclip - the gauge swatch for Zoe's sweater - 2 blocks - a syringe for dispensing baby Motrin - lots of dustbunnies The mega remote was also inside the couch, still being digested. tag:blogs.halibut.com,2008:/chahn//2.456 2008-02-12T12:34:38Z 2009-06-03T02:19:46Z

I'm officially taking a break from blogging (She says after not posting anything in the past 2 months). Things are just too crazy with adjusting to the transition from caring for a baby to parenting a toddler and when I...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com I'm officially taking a break from blogging (She says after not posting anything in the past 2 months). Things are just too crazy with adjusting to the transition from caring for a baby to parenting a toddler and when I have some time where I can actually think complete thoughts, I'm using it for knitting or updating my knitting stuff on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com -- it rocks!). If things ever settle down, I'll be back because I am going to miss preserving memories here. I just can't do it right now. TTFN. P.S. I am continuing to upload new photos to Flickr, so if you are interested in seeing my little monkey grow up, give me your Flickr name and I'll add you to my friends list there, as I am not keeping any baby pics public there any more. Knitting and miscellany are still public. Also, I will still be reading blogs & LJ and sometimes commenting so I'm not falling off the face of the earth completely. I'm just picking other things over maintaining my own blog. tag:blogs.halibut.com,2007:/chahn//2.350 2007-09-19T17:21:42Z 2009-06-03T02:17:54Z

Sure you've come to the proper place. But keep a weather eye open mates, and hold on tight. With both hands, if you please. Thar be squalls ahead, and Davy Jones waiting for them that don't obey. We pillage, plunder,...

blackmoondog www.blackmoondog.com We pillage, plunder, we rifle and loot, drink up me 'arties, Yo Ho, We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot, drink up me 'arties, Yo Ho, We extort and pilfer, we filch and sack, drink up, me 'arties, Yo Ho, Maraud and embezzle and even highjack, drink up me 'arties, Yo Ho, Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me. We kindle and char and inflame and ignite, drink up me 'arties, Yo Ho, We burn up the city we're really a fright, drink up me 'arties, Yo Ho, We're rascals and scoundrels, we're villains and knaves, drink up me 'arites, Yo Ho, We're devils and blacksheep, we're really bad eggs, drink up me 'arites, Yo Ho, We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do well cads, drink up me 'arties, Yo Ho, Aye, but we're loved by our mommies 'n dads, drink up me 'arties, Yo Ho, Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me.]]>