I know it’s shocking…but I do still knit a little. I also still buy yarn to add to the ginormous stash…

First things first…is it a bad thing to be known by my first name at the local yarn store, Knitting Sisters? Sure, I’ve been buying things there since late 2004. And yes, they do ask my name every time I make a purchase as they’ve got that database listing all of the yarn I’ve bought in the last 3 years. And yes, the woman that referred to me by my first name is one of the owners. But still…I’m not in there that often. I don’t attend classes or special events (although I’m considering the Sock Knitting Night (or just plain Knitting Night) once I stop managing full-time at the end of October and can start choosing which nights I have off each week!). On average, I might go in there once a month. But that’s a big might…I don’t think it’s that often. It really surprised me to be asked, “Did you find everything you were looking for today, Melissa?” (or whatever the actual question was).

This is kind of like when I worked at the candy store full-time and ate Cheese Shop sandwiches 3-4 times a week and they knew my voice on the phone based on what I ordered. At least then it was 3-4 times a week.

I suppose my red hair probably helps the recognition. But still…all this does is solidify the boyfriend’s belief that I am obsessed with yarn. In my defense, I only bought 2 skeins of Lamb’s Pride today and they were 20% off. And they will be used to make felted purses. Felted purses that I need to start cranking out at a rate of 3 per week (that’s the random number I’ve decided to set as a goal…ha!) as Tasha has applied for me to be in a booth with her (and Kristal) at the Norfolk Craft Mafia‘s Handmade Parade in mid November.

Oh, here’s my Chevron Scarf in progress. I was bored on the return ferry from Ocracoke Island last weekend so I took pictures of it while sitting in the car.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I’ve resisted the urge (several times!) to buy more Socks That Rock yarn to make more of these. I’ll break down eventually…I think the only reason I haven’t done it yet is that I can’t decide which colors I want.

In other news, I don’t really have any other news.

That’s about all there is to tell.

Well, I think I’m about blogged out for the day. Maybe the week. Perhaps the month.

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7-Layer or Magic Bars resting on a pottery dish
Originally uploaded by meliass.

I don’t recall ever having eaten these before. Yet I do recall knowing of their existence. I don’t believe they’re something we had as kids. We should have. They’re delicious. Nearly as good as the S’mores bars that I like so much.

I used the recipe for them in “Baking Illustrated”…they have a graham cracker crust, walnuts, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, toasted coconut and sweetened condensed milk. Yep, that’s seven layers. Seven scrumptious layers.

Yeah, I’m baking a lot. This may be why the boyfriend thinks I should open a bakery. He decided last night that the name of bakery should definitely involve my middle name. My silly middle name.

Have I mentioned how nice my baked goods look on pottery pieces made by my sister? The Ikea butcher’s block cart photographs pretty well, too. That and I’m slowing learning how to take nice pictures with my camera.

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Rogue Hazelnut Spice Rum
Originally uploaded by meliass.

I received this Rogue Hazelnut Spice Rum for free. It’s not available here. Yet I have it.

I knew of the existence of it because I’m a big nerd and use Wikipedia for everything. Several months ago the boyfriend and I wanted to learn the difference between rum and cachaca as they’re both derivatives of sugar cane. If you haven’t tried cachaca, don’t. . It’s used in a popular Brazilian cocktail called a caipirinha. Anyway, we were researching the differences between rum and cachaca and happened upon information about the Rogue Hazelnut Spice Rum. It’s made in Oregon and not widely available.

I may be allergic to rum but that didn’t stop me from wanting to try this stuff. I love Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown Ale so I figured the rum would be fantastic. But how to obtain it? Perhaps I’ll take that long-awaited trip to Oregon to visit Alison and I’ll smuggle it back with me? Perhaps I’ll ask Alison to covertly mail some to me?

Then I forgot about it. Fast forward to a few weeks ago at work. A group of 12 people came into the restaurant for dinner. We barely had room to accommodate them. Turns out that there is a beer conference in town. The owner and founder of Sam Adams is at the table. We don’t carry Sam Adams…he wasn’t so happy. There were also owners/founders/bigwigs from Brooklyn, Fat Tire, Pyramid and Rogue at the table. One of the Rogue guys asked to speak to a manager at the end of the meal. That would be me. He was very nice and very happy with their dining experience…aside from the not carrying Sam Adams thing. He was also very pleased that we have a Rogue beer on the menu. He went back to the table where they were finishing the meal.

Then I spontaneously remembered the existence of the rum. And did something very unlike me…I went to the table and asked about it. Why I’m not shy in the restaurant is beyond me. Anyhow…the Rogue guy I’d already spoken to introduced me tothe owner and founder of Rogue. They were pretty happy that I knew of the rum at all. The owner referred me to the third Rogue guy at the table. I asked when it would be available in Virginia and how I could go about getting some. It’s only available in 22 states…but he said he’d send me a bottle. I ran off to get my business card. Then I ended up meeting the founder of Sam Adams and apologizing profusely for the lack of it on the menu. The Brooklyn guy was also introduced to me and he said we had a great beer list. But not a perfect one…due to the lack of Sam Adams.

So…that was a few weeks ago. I kind of didn’t really think the rum would arrive. But it did. Now I need to come up with some cocktails to drink.

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I said that I’d write a lengthy entry about the stupid borrowed Walmart tent. So here it is.

We drove down to Cape Hatteras last Friday night. We had some issues finding the campground we were looking for but after a call to the little sister and directions from her boyfriend, we found it. We checked in and found a campsite The boyfriend set up the tent and I grilled dinner in the dark. A yummy dinner. We took a nice walk on the beach, went night swimming in the ocean, and eventually returned to the campsite to go to sleep. It was probably around midnight at this point.

I should mention that setting up the tent wasn’t all fun and games as it’s a Walmart tent. It’s dumb and poorly made. The actual tent was okay. The rain flap was a joke. The directions instructed us to loop the rain flap line around the stakes. This was impossible as the stakes are the cheapest stakes in the world and cannot hold a loop. So we dragged the picnic table closer and tied one side of the rain flap to that. The boyfriend suggested that we could close the rain flap strings into my car door. We did briefly consider that. So, one side is tied to the picnic table as seen in the picture below.

This leaves the other rain flap string unattached to anything other than the rain flap itself. We almost dragged a picnic table from another site over…but then opted to leave it unattached. To help secure the tent, we put every heavy object from my car in the 4 corners of the tent. We should be okay for the night.

I should also mention that there was a pretty good chance of rain that night. We had already seen lightning in the distance over the ocean. So we kind of felt like we needed the rain flap.

So, we attempt sleep. The stupid rain flap is making all sorts of racket in the slight breeze. Very slight breeze. Yet the noise is bad enough that it takes us hours to fall asleep. I’m not sure the boyfriend ever did fall asleep. Then at around 2:30 am, he wakes me up to say, “Mel, the tent collapsed.” And it had. All of the stakes had pulled out of the ground and the stupid cheap-ass Walmart poles had half-collapsed in on us. We got up, put everything back together and tried to sleep again. About 3 minutes later, the tent collapsed across my chest. We got up, put it back together and tried to sleep again. It collapsed again.

Here’s the collapsed tent:

Here’s what it should have looked like:

At this point, the boyfriend decided to get in the car and drive around the campground in search of a more sheltered campsite. I stayed in the collapsed tent as we were half afraid it would blow away if I didn’t. He found a better site, we threw everything in the car but the tent as it wouldn’t fit. So I drove the car to the new site, he walked the folded tent over there and we set up camp again. It’s well past 3 am at this point. We’ve both been awake since 7:30 am. And we’re taking this whole debacle amazingly well. So, we set up camp again. In a very sheltered area. The damned tent collapsed again before we ever got inside of it. The sky is also beginning to look a little more ominous. After a very brief discussion about our need for sleep, we packed it all away for the second time (the stupid tent was wrapped up like a dead body inside the rain flap and shoved into the trunk) and drove back towards civilization in search of a hotel. At 4:15 am, we found a Comfort Inn. The lady kind of laughed at us when we told her we needed a room. She actually made sure that we knew we had to check out by noon. We didn’t care. $100 for 6 hours of sleep sounded like a great deal to us. And for the record, it did rain that night so we made a very wise decision as there was no way in hell that rain flap was going to protect us from the rain.

The boyfriend and I both agreed that had the tent belonged to either of us, it would have been thrown directly into the dumpster at the campground. We also agreed that if either of us had reacted poorly to the entire situation, we probably would have had a very nasty fight. Fortunately we both thought the entire situation was hysterical despite our lack of sleep.

The next day went much smoother. We got up and checked out of the hotel before noon. We went back to the campground and wandered the beach for a couple of hours.

The Atlantic Ocean at Frisco Campground…

The boyfriend and I at the ocean.

Then we drove further south and took the ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island. We drove the length of Ocracoke Island and vowed to come back soon. He may get to go camping this year before it closes for the season. I probably won’t get the opportunity. When he does go, it will be in his new $200 tent. I bet the rain flap and stakes will work beautifully.

Me on Ocracoke Island

Then we went back to Cape Hatteras, found a picnic area and grilled another delicious dinner.

Mmm….bratwursts and vegetables.

Then we drove home. We certainly weren’t about to mess with the tent again and we didn’t really want to spend another $100 on a hotel room.

Despite the tent fiasco, we had fun. And I will camp at the beach again. Maybe not this year…but next year. In the good tent. I look forward to the good tent.

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Ginger Spice Cookies
Originally uploaded by meliass.

Yes, all of my blog entries related to food will start with “Mmm….” in the title.

These were good. Even if I did burn them a little on the bottom. You can’t really tell when you’re eating them.

I baked these to take with us to the Outer Banks this weekend. We had lots of fun and I’ve got a couple of stories to tell. But that will be a blog entry for another day…complete with lots of pictures.

While talking about random stuff this weekend, the boyfriend has concluded that I should without question open a bakery. I’m not a great baker. I’m decent and do make some fantastic things and Williamsburg could use a good bakery. We have the right kind of residents to support one and we don’t really have one. When customers at work ask where they can find a bakery for pastries and stuff, we usually have to send them to a grocery store or Panera. That’s pretty sad. So that’s the idea of the week for my next profession. Baker. If I’m gonna think about it anymore, I’m going to need a good name for the business.

Anyway, I need to think about going to work this afternoon and I need to send a school assignment so I’m done for now.

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I’ve been particularly bad about posting and emailing lately. I really haven’t fallen off the face of the earth…it just seems like it.

Work still keeps me busy. It’s nice that summer is over as we get a little bit of a reprieve in the restaurant for a couple of weeks. It’ll pick up again by late September. But for now, a lull is great.

Being a student again for the first time in 10 years is keeping me occupied as well. Both of the classes I’m currently taking are online classes and I’ve been spending the bulk of my days off studying. The math class has the potential to kick my ass. I take my first tests in both classes this week. Wish me luck. My third class starts in mid-October…fortunately by that point, I’ve only got a couple of weeks left of full-time managing and will have more time to devote to homework.

I’ve started walking at least 3 or 4 days (really it’s nights) a week. I walk from my apartment and through all of Colonial Williamsburg. Sometimes I’ll walk onto the W&M campus as well. The walking thing started one night because I’d eaten too much that day and felt icky. It’s continued as a good way to burn all of the energy I have when I get home from work and can’t go to sleep. And if I had a bad night, it seems to help get rid of my bad mood.

I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t been knitting much lately…the Chevron Scarf is coming along nicely but homework has kind of taken over my spare time. I’m also dying to cast on the new Zephyr Style sweater, Juliet. I’ve got the pattern and the needles and half of the required yarn. All I need to do is order the rest of the yarn.

The boyfriend & I are headed to the Outer Banks again this weekend. We’ll camp for 2 nights again…possibly at a different campground than when we went in July. It’ll be nice to be able to sleep comfortably in the tent. I’m also planning to remember the sunblock this time as I don’t want to come home a lobster again. Maybe I’ll take some pictures this time around. I took my camera last time and didn’t touch it.

There’s not too much else to report from here. I’ll try to post again soon.

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