Apple Watch

Early christmas present. Alexander Wong.

Band arrived a few days later.

Queen of Thrones - Clue 1

Clue 1 completed with barely any yarn leftover.

Lots of Dogs

Yaling is off on vacation so I have her dogs over.  That makes 4 dogs in the house which sometimes get a bit unruly.  It is nice when they settle in for the night.

Sparky is anti-social and is sleeping in my room away from these rabble rousers.

Wool Shoes

I saw a review about some wool shoes and was intrigued with the concept of no socks and washable kickers.

The company is Allbirds and I ordered a pair.

They only come in a few colors and whole sizes so I went smaller and the fit is fine but a bit snug.  Wool gives and they are super comfortable sans socks.

The test will come on long dog walks to see if they will be good for travel.  They are super light weight and the come with an extra pair of laces.

Baby Quilt for Serena

Congrats to Serena who had a baby girl named Allegra.  I haven't seen her in such a long time even though she only moved to Los Angeles.  Time flies.

I had this quilt kit in my stash that I was saving and it came in handy now.  I spent the day putting it together and it is ready to be quilted.

Farm animals in bright colors.  I also made myself a scrappy quilt with the same fabric in flannel that stays on my couch for cool nights or an afternoon nap.

Queen of Thrones Mystery Knit a Long

The new season of Game of Thrones is on and to commemorate, a new knit a long has started.

Cafe Bene with Grace

Grace and I met for dinner and dessert with dumplings at the Dumpling Inn and then to pick up her car and finally dessert at Cafe Bene.

I was stuffed from dinner but had some room for strawberry gelato.

Grace was more ambitious and tried the banana waffle.

Nice place to hang with a variety of tasty morsels.

Outlander - Clue 2

Second clue of the mystery knit-a-long dealt mainly with a knitted on border in one color so no plaid patterning.

I really like the lighter color as the boarder with the cable motif.

I'm guessing that the next clue will be to pick up from the cast on edge.

Bailey In Vegas

Since I drove to Vegas and was staying with Andrea, she told me to bring Bailey along.  He had never been on a car trip and after pacing and panting for about 45 minutes, he finally settled down to nap.

Not interested at the Barstow stop and in the car we went for the rest of the way.  He was a bit stressed, but settled down nicely.  Andrea even got a dog door for him.

He liked the couch a lot and made himself at home.

He also made friends with Max and went for long walks while I was at work.

He was more comfortable on the way home and marked a few bushes in Barstow. He was happy to be home too.

Vegas Food

I stayed with Andrea at Lake Las Vegas.  We had cajun food at the Oyster Bar in Sunset Station for dinner the first night.

Where they cook the food right in front of you at the bar with two pots.

I had a cup of clam chowder and the shrimp and lobster far diavolo.

While Andrea had the pan roast.

We also had a few meals in - steak and vegetables and shrimp and scallop pasta.

We ate outside as the sun was setting.

The last night, we went out the Brio for some Italian food.

Las Vegas Field Trip

I headed out to Las Vegas for some field work and was glad that I went this time of year.  It was already starting to get hot and next week it will be in the 90s.

The trip was moderately successful and I was able to meet up with a few of the other agencies in town for some pow wows.

There is a new federal building which you can kind of see to the left of the main courthouse.

I spent a lot of time in the SSA office and I could see the container park from the window which is a place that I want to visit - maybe next time.

The view is pretty spectacular.

For lunch, we hit Aloha Specialties where I had a Hawaiian breakfast and some macaroni salad while Lance had Korean chicken with kimchee.

We also drove by the Mob Museum, another place I want to check out.

New Mystery KAL - Outlander

I'm glad that I was able to finish the Downton Abbey mystery shawl so I can start the Outlander mystery shawl that is suppose to be patterned after a plaid. It is another Jimmy Beans wool endeavor.

The first clue was fairly easy and I used stash yarn as well.

Mystery KAL - Clue 8

I made the final push to finish the final clue to the mystery knit along for the Downton Abbey final season.

I like the wingspan and the yarn that I used. The yarn is very springy so it should spread out to be a pretty large shawl.  It still need a wash and block plus weaving in the ends.

Cowboy Liquor

I made a quick stop into Costco on a rainy day between appointments and picked up a few necessities and saw this at the end of an aisle.

I don't think you can wear the hat afterwards.

50-50 Burgers

I have been craving a good burger for a while after having some fast food ones while on pit stops on the road.

I have been part of the meat cooperative and getting pretty lean ground beef and it is too dry for burgers so I got an idea to combine some bacon for fat and flavor.

I started with one package of ground beef (about a pound) and 12 ounces of apple wood smoked bacon from Trader Joe's ground up in the food processor.

I hand mixed the two together in a bowl.

I got my trusty tupperware burger molds out and smashed up some patties.

I didn't add anything to the mix - just meat which I then panned fried to see about texture and taste.

It was still a little dry, but after adding some guacamole to it (everything is better with homemade guacamole), it was pretty good.  I'm going to tweak the recipe a bit for some more flavor and moisture and then it will be ready for the grill.

Mystery KAL - Clues 6 and 7

I got back into the groove of knitting and worked through two more clues.  The first was to finish the second wing of the shawl.

After binding off the tip, the instructions called for picking up stitches around the entire bottom edge and knitting a border.  I started the pick and and knit.

The end is near, just one more clue to go.

Mignon Pho with Yaling

Yaling and I went to a new to me Pho place.  It is fairly close to the house and pretty inexpensive.  We shared a spring roll and a bowl of pho and had a dessert drink.

I think it was called 3 colors or something like that.  The taste was pretty good but it had too much ice.

A repeat place for a quick and cheap meal.