Good Day Sunshine

The Socal weather is finally here. The sun is out and I've had to break out the flip flops.

I took a stroll down Main Street in Santa Monica. It's not Haight Street in SF. My only complaint about LA is that it's at the end of two extremes. Shopping areas are either brand name shopping malls or shopping districts of inconsistent shops spread over many blocks. Main street was the latter, with most shops either hit or miss. It's a whole lot of walking. Perhaps I wasn't in the shopping mood.

The only store that spoke to me was the MOCA shop where I found some nifty cards and some socks. Almost everything in the store made me think of my friends beergeek and Izzy. And it's funny because Izzy once lived in LA and hated it.

I got really hungry and I walked into not 1, but 2 casual cafes and neither of them were too quick about the service so I left. I eventually found a cute little diner and it was worth the extra walking. I had a yummy lunch at Joe's Diner where I encountered Titch, an Australian expat wearing a Boston Red Sock hat. He's been living in the states for the last 20 years and switches his accent back and forth between American and Australian. I had a delicious taco salad, and the service was entertaining and prompt. The dinner menu looks tasty (and half the price of the swankier joints on the street) so I'll probably go back.

In the end I shouldn't be surprised to meet an Aussie in this neck of the woods. Santa Monica reminds me of some of the beach front cities and towns of Australia. The weather is similar, but the beaches are better in Australia (they're pretty hard to beat!)

So today I was a traveller and not a tourist, which you will understand if you've read the yarn harlot's latest book.

GG

Unemployment Week 2: where the author starts freaking out about money

I'm a lucky girl. I've spent the last week out of work, at home, knitting, writing projects for a book proposal. This is a good thing. Perhaps I have put myself to work to forget the fact that in a few weeks I'll be entirely broke.

And now I'm totally freaking out about it. I know I qualify for unemployment, but how long is that going to last? And don't they make you try to find a job when you're on unemployment? I don't want to go back to work until this book proposal is finished and if I do go back to work I don't just want to choose any job. I want it to be a good job with nice people close to home working less than 30 hours a week... preferably in a crafty setting, but not work weekends.

To alleviate this freakout, a pot of boiling water is on the stove in preparation for a delicious carb-fest, lemon pasta with asparagus, onions, fresh tomatoes and feta.

I'm also knitting another swatch for the book, continuing with the Rowan denim swatch, but trying to make the stitch pattern larger and more spread out, and testing out a larger needle. I've determined that the larger needle is too large and I have to rip out a few rows because I've messed it up. Darn it.

The good news is that I made it to knit night, due to a last minute postponement of my trip to LA. I even took some photos. And I splurged and bought a skein of the Claudia's Handpainted mohair boucle. Somebody slap my wrist.

Anyway if you are a craft-related enterprise and you're hiring: email me.

I'm hoping that Mr. G comes home early from work tonight so that we can drink beer and play video games.

GG

Bad Brain

Just got back from lunch.

Why haven't I figured out that I just don't like quiche?

My brain looks at quiche and thinks "hmm quiche, that looks nice, let's try some of that for lunch today... it has eggs, cheese, veggies and pie crust... these are all things that I like to eat... yes eat quiche"

But then when I actually eat it at lunch, quiche almost always tastes awful. A total let down. It's too egg-y, not cheesy enough and the veggies just drown in it. Bad texture, bad flavor. Yuck. Sometimes you really can have too much of a good thing.

And this isn't the first time this has happened. I think I have to give up the fight on the good quiche. It just doesn't exist.

So for future reference brain: I don't like quiche.

It's necessary to train my brain in this way because there are so few foods that I dislike.

GG