Sorry friends, this was the year that I crocheted my booty off. (I wish literally. That is my kind of exercise!)
Also, I had another post planned for today to space out the crochet madness. However, my computer is out of commission so the one I had planned did not get written as I had hoped. So this is my quick back up while I get that figured out. I sure do miss having computer engineers at hand!
I have two more scarves to show you after this one. Rest assured, my family is warm!
This one is probably my favorite new stitch. It is called the blanket stitch, and I am a rebel by doing it on a scarf.
Here is the pattern. Once you get a feel for it, it is really easy to do. It creates a really neat look, and I must say it is actually really nice on a scarf because it creates a little bulk. Take that blanket stitch!
I then used a needle to sew the ends together. (I’ve gotten really good at this.)
I realize now that I may have gotten the infinity fever and gone a little overboard. However, my mom requested another one, so I guess I did something right!
I used two colors of yarn and did a single crochet stitch with a medium hook.
First I crocheted three strips of the same length. I did not count perfectly the number of rows. I just eyeballed the same length.
Next I braided the three strips together. You will want to do it fairly tight because it will loosen up once it is done. The picture below is too loose, so make sure you do it tighter. I took me a couple braids to get it to the thickness I wanted. Also it might be handy to either have clamps or a person to hold it while you braid.
It will look a little sloppy at this point, but don’t worry once you are done it will look great!
After you braid, you will use a darning needle to sew all the ends together.
I finished this project in an evening since it is all simple stiches. It is really easy!
You can vary this design a lot. You could do various stitches, have all the same color, or do three different colors. The options really are endless on the style.
It will make a fairly thick infinity scarf so make sure you make it long enough to double up or short enough that one go around doesn’t look silly.
I have been hearing about MREs for years. It was about time I tried one out, and I figured I would share my experience with all of you.
MRE: Meal Ready to Eat.
These are a general purpose meal that you don’t have to have a kitchen, cook, or a table to have them. It meets every purpose for war. You don’t have to keep it in the fridge; you can throw it in your backpack and not worry about it. And they keep for years…
One might think that they will only use them while in theatre (deployed), but they actually eat them a lot stateside as well depending on the training that they may be going through.
When you open the bag this is an example of what you will find.
Hot Beverage Bag-unless it is super cold and going to make coffee, you don’t usually use this. Overseas there is bottled water every where, and you would just use your “tang” bottle instead. The hot beverage bags are a heavy duty Ziploc bags though and will be used to hold maps and electronics.
Grape beverage base powder-kind of like a Gatorade substitute. Some extra packets will have Crystal Light-like packet, and the blackberry is legit according to Tom.
Banana nut muffin top-pretty good by MRE standards. It is chewy and rubbery, but it will be powder on your clothes.
The bag everything came in-becomes the trash bag at the end
MRE heater and spoon-if done right you can use the heater to heat your side and your entre. The heater is activated with water and you place the meal and heater in the bag. The instructions also say lean against a “rock or something” while you are cooking it. These heaters are not always very reliable. The best way to make a MRE heater do what you want it to do is to put sugar and water in the bag. This works wonders.
Peanut butter-This is gold.
Extra stuff-see picture below
Wheat snack bread-super doughy dense bread
Pears (side item)-The side item will vary depending on the MRE.
Spicy Penne Pasta (entre)-some of them aren’t that bad. Beef stew, cheese tort and beef brisket are Tom’s favorites.
Every MRE comes with an entre and side item. There will be the heater and some extra elements. However, every MRE will differ a little bit. Tom has only ever seen 24 different versions. Case A has it’s own assorted 12 and Case B has its assorted 12. The case is essentially the big box that they come in.
Here are some of the accessory things that come in the pack.
Gum
Sugar
Instant coffee
Matches
Creamer
Moist Towelette
Iodized Salt
Pepper Sauce (some have tabasco sauce)
Toilet paper
They are super high in calories, but if you think about the place they are in, it makes since. In the situations where soldiers are going to need to eat these, the nutritional value is spot on.
MREs replaced the rations that were served in earlier wars. You can learn more about the historical context of MREs here.
There are lot of things that these MREs can be used for besides just eating, which is one thing I didn’t know before Tom started talking about them all the time. Like the matches are used for smoking or to light anything on fire. They aren’t really used for eating the meal.
A soldier may not need to eat everything at once. You may eat the entre and save other things for a snack later if you are on patrol.
MRE swaps also largely occur. With each pack having various accessories, this provides opportunities for soldiers to do tradeseys on any item they are not particularly fond of. The items people fight over: chocolate peanut butter, tropical Skittles, and first strike bars. Just picture elementary school lunch box swaps with adult hungry soldiers.
So how did my experience go with eating one of these ready to eat meals?
These are my pears. This was the only thing that tasted normal.
At first taste, this wheat snack bread isn’t so bad. Then you keep chewing. And keep chewing some more. And maybe just a little more chewing. They are super thick and dense. I ate one bite by itself and then two bites with peanut butter. It tastes like an old pop tart, without any of the good pop tart parts like the filling. Done with that.
My entre was the spice penne pasta. While it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t something I would choose to eat again freely. It has a weird after taste. I guess if I scarfed it down it wouldn’t be bad, but I am a slow eater. Tom chastised me the whole time as I sat and ate my meal at a leisurely pace.
It was really interesting to actually see what these were all about, but I will say it will probably be a pretty dire situation before I choose to eat one again. Also Tom says that he is not very happy about having to eat one over the weekend. He is a pretty rocking husband who loves me and wants to help me with the blog!
Here is a video of Tom eating an MRE, and keep in mind that this is actually a slow pace since I kept talking to him. If the situation calls for it, he can eat it under 4 minutes. There is some profanity at the beginning, but I promise this is a good video. And you actually get to see a “Talks with Tom” live!
I hope you enjoyed this special “Talks with Tom” and my education on MREs!
Fancy tricks, concession stand food, and basketball?
Sign me up.
I have always wanted to go to the Harlem Globetrotters. Every since I was little, I would watch the commercials in awe wishing I had those basketball skills. Inevitably though, every time they came to a city near me I would have something going on that one night they were in town.
But not this year!
We were also able to score a discount on tickets, so it was a fairly cheap date night!
It was pretty fun. They do play an actual game just with some twists and special point rules. They will break every so often to interact with the fans and do a comedy sketch of sorts with the refs. And of course it was fun to see what they could do with a basketball.
This would be a great family outing with kids. Although Tom did say, “I wonder how many TV screens and windows were broken in Clarksville with kids trying to be like Special K?” So you might want to watch out for child imitators. (Or grown ups for that matter)
This has been on my bucket list for years, so I am glad I was able to scratch this off!
In other news, I have joined the Instagram bandwagon, so if you are interested in lots of boxer pictures, check me out there.
Also I am now doing blog button swaps, so if you want to swap buttons let me know! I am not able to post the html on my side bar for an easy grab, so just email me if you want to swap. Or if you know how to make the html code stick on WordPress without turning into the picture I would love that advice too!
They’re back! These are all shows that I did not review in the fall and just started in the past couple weeks.
abc.com
The Bachelor
Has anyone else been watching Juan-uary? I am loving this season so far. There have been two episodes so far, and the drama has already begun. There has been drunkenness, nudity, gimmicks, and ridiculousness. Juan Pablo is proabably one of my favorite bachelors though. He is so real, quirky, and super funny. I really admire how much he makes his daughter a priority in all his decisions. I am a hopeless romantic, so deep down I really want to have all these engagements work. However the realist in me knows that most do not. It can’t be easy falling in love in a group on these fantasy dream dates and then try to step back into the real world. I always wonder how many are actually going on the show to find love instead of the 15 minutes of fame. Tom thinks the show is stupid and gives false expecatations to women everywhere, but he still watches it with me so we can guess what dramatic thing will happen next. It is our guilty pleasure. I also really enjoy the added specials on Sunday nights too. It gives more details to the show, which obviously keep me more invested. I am really excited to watch Catherine and Sean’s wedding and then touching base with all the couples who have gotten married or are still together. Trista and Ryan are celebrating 10 years this year, and they were the first season I watched! So obviously I feel like I had something to do with their love story success.
abc.com
The Assets
This show is brilliant so far. We have watched two episodes of this ABC mini-series. It is about CIA intelligence officers during the Cold War era who are trying to save “assets” from being killed. The first show laid out that there is a traitor in Sandy’s office, and she has vowed to find out who this person is. It shows how she has to live a double life herself with the secrets of the CIA and going home to a doting husband and kids who don’t appreciate mom’s work. I don’t know much about the Cold War since most of the classes I took focused on early America and up to WWII. Tom’s history knowledge picks up right where I left off. So it has been really interesting to talk about the historical context of the show. It is a smart show but it does have some dark moments about what spies put on the line and how quickly some one can turn if offered the right price.
abcfamily.com
Switched at Birth
This is just one of those teeny bop shows that I adore watching. Initially I started watching because one of the main characters debuted as Luke’s daughter on Gilmore Girls. I was intrigued at what she had grown up into. And come to find out that the show is based in Kansas City, so obviously I had to keep watching to see how they butcher my city, which they do on a pretty regular basis. I will forgive them though because they say it is Kansas, so they can just continue with the bad rep. For your education though, most of Kansas City is in MISSOURI. They show some of the skylines in the show which is really fun to point out (to myself). All in all, it is not a bad show. It is about two girls who were switched at birth at the hospital and did not know until they were in high school. The two families are from very different backgrounds: very affluent family with one and a single mother raising the other. One of the girls happens to be deaf as well, so you get to see exposure to that culture. I am not real familiar with sign language, but from some research I have done there are mixed reviews on how the show portrays the Deaf community. On the one hand, the show has hired several Deaf actors and started a conversation, but on the other hand what I gather from some critics is that some of the sign is not an accurate portrayal of the way of the real world. As with most TV shows, I think Hollywood does take some creative liberties with most cultures. I do feel that the show is innovative by at least talking about the experience that Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals have, but I would agree that the show would benefit from integrating more Deaf individuals into the behind the scenes process to make it more accurate. Even if they do not portray it perfectly, as someone who is hearing abled, I feel that it encourages folks to learn more about these individuals, what we unknowingly/knowingly do as hearing abled to halt progress, the significance of sign language, and the beautiful Deaf culture that has been created. I am interested to see where they continue to go with the show as the girls are in their final stretch of their senior year. They also don’t portray the military very accurately either in the show as one of the main characters is enlisted. So maybe they just need a panel of experts all around on their writing team (Kansas City, Deaf, Military…). I am also nervous that they are headed in a pour direction with alcohol and sex becoming more common on the show. However, I think it isn’t as dramatized as other teeny shows have made it. It just wasn’t a direction I was hoping for. I am still intrigued by the concept and am invested in the storyline. And unlike some other ABCFamily shows, the cast can actually act. This is a show that I would recommend if you were wanting a light drama with a different plot line than most mainstream shows.
And just for fun, this is currently our feel good song. Tom loves all things Ke$ha. Seriously, he knows all her lyrics, ALL of them. Any pop song that has my husband singing, I am for. So naturally, we are all about this newest dance jam. And a partnership with Pitbull just makes it all that better! Judge away, but I love this song (not so much the video). The tune is just so catchy! I have also gotten the dogs excited about this song. We dance away in the kitchen every afternoon when I get home! And it’s the kind of dance that you only do when you are alone-or for me just whenever. I let the music move me.
findingmyyellow.com 