3rd book of 2012

Plague Year by Jeff Carlson

From Goodreads:

The nanotechnology was designed to fight cancer. Instead, it evolved into the Machine Plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever.

The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape the plague struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out-there is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station-and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line...

My take:

This book lost me with all the Nanotech gargon. I gave it 2 stars. It just couldn't hold my attention for long.

2nd Book of 2012

Fighting to Survive Book 2 by Rhiannon Frater

From Goodreads.com:

Katie and Jenni have found new lives with the survivors of their makeshift fort, but danger still lurks. Nothing is easy in the new world where the dead walk and every day is a struggle to keep safe.As the elements, bandits, and the zombie horde threaten their safe haven, Jenni and Katie join the other survivors in fighting to survive as the world dies.

My take:

Great zombie book. Has all the elements: zombies, bad humans, peril, fight for survival, interesting lead characters. I won the 1st book in the series from Goodreads and the second one was just as good as the first. I gave it 5 stars.

Kings Win!! Kings Win!!!

I mentioned to Hubbs a while back that we should try to see a Sacramento Kings game at home before the Maloofs move the Kings to another city. So Thursday night we got tickets to see the Kings play the Milwaukee Bucks. I've been to see major league baseball but never basketball.

We had pretty decent seats behind the hoop. After seeing the game, I think next time we should try to get tickets from the side. I spent a lot of time trying to see but the back board was in the way.
They had a very nice opening with the national anthem. And during the game they had dancing girls and break dancers.

Of course I wore a hand knit, Roheline. It was the sweater that I knit last year for Stitches West and the sweater I wear most of the time.

Jimmer Frebette, I guess he's a big deal. They had all kinds of shirts that said, "Got Jimmer?" He was a good player and made lots of baskets. The game was really exciting even if I didn't really know what was going on most of the game. I'm pretty sure I asked Hubbs a thousand questions. But the game was fast paced and fun.

In the last period the game was really exciting becuase it was so close. There were lots of fouls and we finally pulled it out in the end for a win. The crowed was going crazy and everyone was on their feet. Right at the buzzer the Bucks shot a 3 pointer which would have tied up the game but it bounced off the rim. Everyone was screaming and hollaring. It was a great game and a very fun way to spend the evening. I defenitaly want to see another one.

1st book of 2012

11/22/63 by Stephen King

From Goodreads:

ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THREE SHOTS RANG OUT IN DALLAS, PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED, AND THE WORLD CHANGED.WHAT IF YOU COULD CHANGE IT BACK?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King—who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer—takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away—a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life—like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963—turning on a dime. Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

My take:

Interesting story of how time travel could tear a world apart. Best part was revisiting two characters from It in the first part of the story. I gave it 5 stars if only because Mr. King doesn't write himself into this one.

Gnarled Oak Cardigan

When I first found out on Alana Dakos blog that she was co-writing a pattern book with Hannah Fettig called Coastal Knits, I was so excited. I've knitted patterns written by both of these ladies and met Alana last year at Stitches West. So of course I pre-ordered Coastal Knits. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out on Ravelry and then order the book. Lots of really cute patterns for sweaters and accessories.

Two of the sweaters that I really fell in love with were Wildflower Cardigan and Gnarled Oak Cardigan both by Alana Dakos. I was trying to pick between these two cardigans for a sweater to try and knit for Stitches West this year. I finally decided on Gnarled Oak because it has longer sleeves, not that I couldn't have made the ones on Wildflower longer.

I love this sweater. It's a bottom up, seamless pattern with lots of stockinette so I'm hoping that I will be able to finish it in time for Stitches. I ordered 7 skeins of MadelineTosh, Tosh DK in Filigree to make this sweater. This is going to be the most expensive sweater I've ever knit. Tosh DK isn't cheap. But I do love the color, Filigree, that I chose. It's green with brown accents. I'm thinking it's going to be perfect for this pattern. But of course, I have to wait until the yarn gets here before I decide if it's going to work.

Normally I order all my yarn either from Knitpicks or from Jimmy Beans Wool. I always get good, fast service from both of these companies. But I placed my order with Webs this time. I've never ordered from them before but they had enough skeins of Tosh DK in Filigree and Jimmy Beans didn't. I ordered it over the weekend, so I guess I'm going to have to wait a while before it arrives. I've gotten so spoiled with having Jimmy Beans so close that I get things almost next day. I hate waiting for yarn to come in the mail. I guess this is where I learn some patients.

Year End 2011, Part 2

I set myself a goal at the beginning of 2011 to read 100 books. I actually read 103. I posted almost all of them here but then I got lost in craziness that I posted about yesterday. But I did meet my goal and actually exceeded my goal. 103 books. 37,621 pages. That’s a lot of reading. Honestly I didn’t think I would make my goal, 100 books is a lot of reading.

I set a goal of 100 books again for 2012. I got a Kindle Touch for Christmas from my mom and a $25 Amazon gift card from my sister so I’ve been buying and downloading books into my kindle. I can also borrow Kindle books from the library but there aren’t that many available so I’m on the waiting list for a few of them. I will of course still be reading good old fashioned paper books too. As fast as I read, I can’t afford to be purchasing books all the time from Amazon. Not that the prices are outrageous or anything but it’s still hard to pay $9.99 for an e-book that I read once and most likely won’t ever read again.

I know that it’s only the 4th of January but I finished 3 books already. I spent most of Sunday just hanging out at home and reading. Work has been so crazy that I really needed some down time to try and recharge my batteries before I start my Half Marathon Training again. Christmas day I purchased 11/22/63 by Stephen King and I finished it on New Year’s day. I also had purchased Fighting to Survive, As the World Dies, Book 2 by Rhiannon Frater. I read the whole thing on New Year’s day. Honestly, I never got dressed. Just hung out all day in my jammies and read. It was beautiful. I’ll have reviews on these books coming up.

In addition to reading 100 books in 2011, I had 8 goals for myself. Sadly I didn’t accomplish that many of them.

1. Finish Valpuri (done), Central Park Hoodie, Girl Friday (done) & Vintage Knee Socks (done).
I didn’t finish Central Park Hoodie. I didn’t even try to finish it. I just need to redo the sleeves and it would be done. Honestly, I’m thinking about frogging it and never going back to it. I just don’t know what I want to do with it. So languish it does.
2. Complete at least two of my WIPs (listed in #1) before starting any new projects. (done)
This one I did do. I finished everything but Central Park Hoodie before I started new projects.
3. Read 50 of the books on the list of Best Post-Apocalyptic Books on Goodreads.com (done)
Done and then some!
4. Finish the Christmas Quilt Wall Hanging.
Nope, still in the state it was last January. I don’t think I sewed a stitch on this.
5. Learn Stranded Color Work.
Not a chance. Didn’t even attempt this one. I really didn’t do that much knitting all year.
6. Knit 2 pairs of socks from Around the World in Knitted Socks for Gram. (done)
This one I did do! Yay! Sort of. I knit one pair for her and one pair for me but I still knit 2 pairs of socks from this book.
7. Make 4 quilt tops from the November Shop Hop.
Nope, not done. I did one top and almost got it quilted but not the others. Like knitting, I didn’t do much sewing in 2011. All my project mojo went into my running.
8. Have no more than 4 WIPs at any one time.
I did pretty good on this one for most of the year but then I lost it as I lost interest in the projects I was working on and just cast on for new things.

My 2011 Goals are still posted to the right. I’m not sure if I’m going to set any goals for myself for 2012. Usually I have all my goals planned out before the end of the year but this year the end came so fast that I didn’t really have much time to dedicate to thinking about goals. I was just trying to survive the end of the year. I do have my 100 book goal again and to run my Half Marathon goal. But other than that…not much has been planned. My goals are going to be fluid this year. They can drift and change as the year progresses.

Year End 2011, Part 1

Really? Nothing since November 7th? Wow. I posted almost daily for the last year and then nothing. But looking back at the last two months I’m not surprised at my sudden disappearance. Up until Thanksgiving I was working hard on my ½ Marathon training and work was crazy. The my grandmother got ill and my mom needed help and my husband’s grandfather ill too which meant that I was making trips to the bay area twice a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas and work was still crazy. My training schedule went out the window too and other then spending all my time either working or driving, I didn’t do a whole lot.

But it’s a new year. Happy New Year everyone! No more pity party for me. It’s time to get my training back on schedule. My half marathon is two and half months away, March 15th. Yikes. It’s so close, close enough to be scary. Really scaring since yesterday I ran for the first time since December 7th and I couldn’t even run a mile without stopping. Yikes. But that’s ok, I have two and half months. I can totally get back on track with this.

I did do a little bit of knitting while I was gone but not much. No sewing at all happened. None of my Christmas knitting happened. When things went haywire with the family something had to give so it was the knitting and the running. I’m embarrassed to admit it but I gave no hand knit gifts at all this year. Not one hand sewn place mat or table runner. Nothing. I literally did all of my Christmas gift shopping in a couple of hours on a Wednesday night about a week and a half before Christmas.

But I did manage to knit myself a couple of things. Selfish knitting, it’s the best.

I knit myself a scarf. I used Jacob's Ladder Seaman's Scarf by Jennifer Hoel but I modified mine to continue with the pattern all the way across instead of doing ribbing in the middle like the pattern called for. I used 2 skeins of Berroco Vintage in colorway 5125 which is a teal color. It was a nice easy knit that only took a couple of days.

I also knit myself some mitts from Tideland by london leo. No finished pictures on this one. It's hard to take pictures of your own hands. I used Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk for the mitts in colorway 5630. The color matches the Berroco Vintage that I used for my scarf perfectly. I did the long version. The pattern offers several different lengths of mitt. I have enough yarn left over that I'm thinking of knitting a short pair for when I'm wearing long sleeves and don't need them to cover half way to my elbow but want my hands to be warmer. The pattern was beautifully written and easy to follow. I'll have to get Hubbs to get some pictures of them for me.