There's No Place Like Oz: July 2009

Today I was making a mental list of all the things that have frustrated me lately. My cooking skills, for example, are at an all time low. This could be because I'm under pressure to cook a decent meal for someone other than myself now or it could just be that our oven needs to be serviced because it's not heating up properly. Yesterday, I whipped up some nachos for dinner. Chosen for its relatively easy preparation, one would expect a good outcome. I used a taco seasoning recipe from a friends blog, but due to a lack of measuring spoons I guessed at the spice measurements using regular utensils then proceeded to spoon two large tablespoonfuls of the taco seasoning into the meat. BIG MISTAKE! It was so spicy hot that we could barely eat it. I had obviously mismeasured the cayenne pepper and probably didn't put enough of the other spices into the mixture to offset it's spiciness. I had also decided it would be good to whip up some homemade guacamole. It was ok, but a little on the garlicky side which SM kept emphasizing. I had to run out to the shop to buy more tortilla chips and sour cream to offset the spiciness so SM could finish eating his dinner. As SM just verbally volunteered, "I didn't mind the taste, but my bum did."

Aside from my cooking misadventures, I've also had trouble starting my new knitting project: socks. Socks are complicated to knit. They require the use of four knitting needles instead of the usual two. I found an online knitting tutorial to walk me through the steps of knitting socks - great... but before I even get started I have to knit a swatch to check my gauge so my socks don't turn out too big or too small. That's where the trouble is. I've knitted several swatches and have not found the right sized knitting needles to achieve the right gauge yet... and I'm getting sick of knitting swatches. I just want to get started on my socks already! Finally, I think I've found the right size needles I need for one of the pairs of socks, but I can't locate the size needles I need in any stores. So I'll be ordering them online and that may take a week or more to get them sent to me and I need to have them finished to mail to the States in a few short weeks!!!

Last on my list of frustrations is the internet. We've only had our internet set up for about a week and I'm already angry with it. We can't seem to set up a wireless home network on the service we've had installed. It's one of those things where no one seems to have a solution for you that doesn't involve spending more money to get what you want. I spent most of my day off trying to solve this problem and still haven't found a solution.

On a high note, the weather the past few days has been beautiful and I managed to get outside to enjoy it yesterday. SM and I hiked to the summit of Greenmount - the hill we live at the base of. We walked about 5 kms up the hill and back. The view from the top was gorgeous and you could see for miles. Looking out we could see the airport and city....