A Multi-Purposed Post

Firstly, I'm posting to show you this. I made it on Wordle today and I'm excessively proud of myself. Really, it's a little ridiculous.

Secondarily, I'm leaving Blogger. I have many reasons for this, and I will expound approximately none of them here. But I am leaving Blogger for WordPress. My new blog can be found here. I am still going to call it "A Large Cup of Tea and a Long Book."
That's all...

How to Read Victor Hugo

So I just finished reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It only took me seven days. How did I do it?

1. I took advice from people who had read it before. It really is 50% social commentary and history that you don't really need to know to understand the story.
   
2. Find someone to mock you. I got my friend, Susanna, to mock me. I didn't ask her for it. But she'd read it before and she knew that I was reading it. So she teased me and mocked me. And it motivated me.
3. Find someone to cheer you on. For me, that was my friend's little sister. She thought it was the most impressive thing ever how fast I was reading the book. So she was basically my personal cheering section.
   
4. I was listening to the musical soundtrack.
   
5. And I skimmed through the history stuff. It was boring and dry and unnecessary.
   

And I finished the book quickly.

Daylight Savings Time is Going to Kill Me

Last night, my roommate went to a concert and a friend drove her. Thusly, she didn't take her keys with her. But I didn't know this. So I locked the door before I went to bed at 11pm. Around 11pm, I also set my alarm for 7:45 am so I could shower before my favorite brother picked me up for church at 8:50am.
Then, my phone started ringing at 12:51am because the roommate was home and needed me to unlock the door. But my ringtone and the alarm sound enough alike that I opened my phone, hit clear, and then closed the phone again. "I'll go back to sleep," I thought. "I'm tired and I can get like five more minutes of sleep. Then I'll get up and shower."
Then she started knocking on the door. And I thought, "If my alarm just went off, why is Greg here already? I'll go tell him I need to get dressed before we can go to church."
So I went to the front door and opened it. There was my roommate. Then I went back to my room and realized that it was 12:51 am...not 7:45am.
I went back to sleep for another six hours and fifty-four minutes. Then I got up.

And then the USA lost to Canada in hockey. Go back to preschool and learn how to grow a beard, Sidney Crosby.

Never Trust a Man Wearing a Beaded Snood

Theoretically speaking, I am currently sitting in my school's Language Resource Center watching Mozart's opera Don Giovanni as the title character wears a beaded snood in his hair and seduces 2,065 women. The music is lovely. And I wish I owned his snood. But the point remains...c'mon ladies! Never, never, never trust a man wearing a beaded snood.

I really am watching it. It's just kind of weird that he's wearing a beaded snood. I want a beaded snood. I don't want to be seduced. And I don't like reading 90 million different adaptations of Don Juan. The guy's a jerk; I got that in adaptation #1...and now I'm on #4. Admittedly, watching an opera is more fun than reading a book.

I'm also knitting my Slouchy Cardigan. I finished the back piece last night and cast on the right front. I have to finish that piece, make the left front, make the sleeves and the hood, and then it'll be done. I think I should have it done by Easter. (Knock on wood. *Rap, rap*)

January Lady Sweater-Pt. 2

It needs buttons but it's technically done.
However, there are two problems with it:
1) one of the sleeves needs to be fixed.
2) It's too small for me. I made a mistake and made it too small. In March, I'm going to fix that messed up sleeve, give the sweater buttons, and then find a young child to give this to.
Then, I plan on remaking this sweater (possibly in a different color) so that I can actually wear it.

The reason I'm waiting until March to deal with this is that I have three other projects lined up for the month of February, which I'm committed to working on during February. I'm doing a Knit-a-long/Read-a-long on Ravelry where we're reading "Sense and Sensibility" and I'm working on a cardigan (in dark plum) for that. I'm also (starting February 12) doing the Ravelympics and making a scarf and a pair of mittens. That goes until February 28. And then I'll still be working on the KAL/RAL cardigan. And then I'll fix the JLS and then I can start a March Lady Sweater.

January Lady Sweater-Pt. 1

The real name of the pattern from which I'm working is the "February Lady Sweater." But since I started making this project on 12/31/09 and am aiming to finish it by 1/31/10, I'm calling it my "January Lady Sweater."
It's about 50% done. Well, the body is completely done and I just need to make the sleeves. I've never knit sleeves before. I've knit in the round only once before and that was when I made a pair of fingerless mittens. So...we'll see what happens. I'll update y'all on the progress-hopefully before 1/31/10.

Chicken and Mashed Potatoes: A Recipe

Betty Crocker and Julia Child and Erma What's-Her-Face-From-the-Joy-of-Cooking probably all have their own variations on this. But seeing as I came up with this today, I thought I'd share. This is part of my quest to find more lactose-free meals for myself (and future roommates and family) to eat.
The way I made this it feeds two but I'm sure that with some very simple math, it could be made to serve more.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 cups chicken broth
1 small onion-diced
1 clove of garlic-crushed/sliced/pressed
2 tbsp parsley

3-4 medium sized potatoes
2 tbsp margarine

Boil the potatoes until they are soft. Drain the water and mash them. Mix in the margarine.
At the same time, heat the broth and mix in the onion, garlic, and parsley. When it's come to a boil, turn the heat down a little and put in the chicken breasts. Cook them thoroughly and then remove them from the broth. Put them on a plate to serve.
Take the excess broth and pour it into the potatoes. Mix the potatoes well.

Serve the meal.

Total prep time: 25-30 minutes

Please do not participate

So, I have now gone to all of my classes once. (Yesterday was the first day of Winter 2010 semester for me.)
Here's how this semester is looking for me: three Spanish classes, one English class; two pedagogy classes; one class that will kick my a**; one class that will probably be a breeze.
I have friends in all of my classes.

My first class of the week is Monday at 6pm; it's Spanish pedagogy. It won't be easy but it shouldn't kill me. I know the professor; that helps.
My next class is on Tuesday (and Thursday) afternoons; that's English pedagogy. It will be difficult but it will be good.
Later on Tuesday (and Thursday) afternoons I have Spanish Reading and Storytelling. This is Spanish 300. I've taken 11 or 12 Spanish classes over my academic career and I've been studying Spanish since age 12. We went around the classroom this afternoon and introduced ourselves. It quickly became clear that my friend Kaylin and I are more advanced than the other students in the class-and significantly so. So the professor told us that we will be called upon less frequently and our participation will be less important because we don't need to practice vocabulary etc as much as the other students. Fun times...
And then I have my Don Juan class. The name is not a joke. The course is genuinely called SPA 495: Capstone, Don Juan. It's being team-taught by two professors. I've had one before and we get along; I'm not really familiar with the other but they both seem nice and good.
I often knit before/during classes and Profesora P, one of my Don Juan professors, is familiar with this. I wasn't doing it today and she came up to me and asked me if I had stopped knitting before classes. I said no, my knitting was in my bag; I just was a bit tired. We then engaged in a discussion of why I knit/crochet. It was fun. And I was glad to see that she noticed that about me and considered it to be of value/a cool thing.

In sad news, I'm getting sick. I'm coming down with a cold. So I'm drinking lots of tea to soothe my throat and try to calm the congestion. I also need to sleep more.

In pressing news, I bought a French press (press pot for coffee) and a garlic press today. I used a Target gift card I received from one of my aunts for Christmas. I've been wanting a garlic press for a while and looked at different ones in various places. I ended up deciding that while I'll probably get what I pay for, I'm a college student and all I really need is a cheap garlic press for now. I can get a nicer one when I'm a real adult. So I paid $2.99. And then I spent $19.99 on a French press. That will be expected to last a bit longer.

Now I want a flowering teapot. Barb H. has one and she let Kyle and I play with it during the UCO end of the year party last year. (By play, I mean she put the flower in the infuser, put the infuser in the teapot, and put the boiling water in the teapot. Then she let the two of us creepily hunch around her kitchen counter for 15-20 minutes watching the flower bloom.) It was so cool. And now I want one.

Just an interlude...

The following are a few random quotations from my interactions with various wonderful small children in my life.

"Did you know that I'm grown up? I used to be a lot smaller." -Damien, age 4

"Dolls don't have names. They can't talk so they don't need names." -Cosie, age 3
(I disagree with the implications of the above statement.)

"Damian says his fingers are going to fall off so we need to go home." -Thea, age 6

Half a Birthday

So today is New Year's Day and my half-birthday. Last night, my parents and I went to Divine Liturgy and then out to dinner. We were joining by our long-time family friends-the S family. It was Mr. and Mrs. S, their son (Mark), his wife (Susanna), and infant daughter; and their younger daughter (Clare). At dinner, Mrs. S asked me if it was indeed the night before my half-birthday and I said yes. Clare S then told me that her mother is really bad at cutting things in half.
And then Mark reaches down and pulls out a bottle of Sprite and a Snickers bar. He hands them to me and says "Happy Half-Birthday!"
And then Susanna jokingly told me that I should give her the other half of my Snickers bar when she comes over for dinner this evening because her half-birthday was last week. I think I will.

But I got my first half-birthday present ever!
Happy 2010 to all!