New York City!!

Part 2 of my birthday present every year is a trip to NYC to go shopping and sight seeing. After reading a very positive blog entry by Stephanie (and just about everyone else that's ever been there), I had to check out Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn. Let's just say that I will be back many, many times (OMG, the square pie!! I'm still purring about it). Mr. DeMarco was not the cranky old man I was expecting from other blogger's testimony. He was cheery, sweet, and almost chatty with me. Joe thinks he must have a thing for redheads. MMMM. Maybe he's onto something. ;)
Then, we went to Purl. I forgot to take pictures of the yarn I bought, but it's just cascade 220 & some more Jitterbug. I think we can officially confirm I have a Jitterbug problem.
Then, we stalked the Waldorf Astoria for a while to see if any NASCAR drivers were hanging out there since their awards ceremony is tonight. We saw Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, and Dale Jarret. If you're not a NASCAR fan, I'll just say these are pretty big names. We were stoked. We swung by M&J trimmings at some point. I didn't get anything, but that place is just amazing:

We went to top of the rock next:

It's the roof of Rockefeller center and it has AWESOME views of the city & beyond. It's 17.50 per person and way less crowded than the Empire State Building. I highly recommend it. And, no trip to NYC is complete without a cheezy self poitrait in front of the tree at Rockefeller center!

Thanksgiving & birthday recap

We always fry a turkey on Thanksgiving. This year was no different:

The finished product:

Mmmmm. Deep fried goodness. Yes, it's worth all the work. Yes, it will be the best thing you ever tasted. Feel free to ask any more questions you have. I am now an expert at this.

Then, today was my birthday:

Joe totally surprised me with a new dress form:

I named her Scarlet. What else could I possibly name her, right? I thought he was a good boy and got this sucker on the black Friday special at Joann's. Um, I would be wrong. My little honey bunny paid FULL PRICE for this. No coupon. No special. I wanted to kill him. He promises he will go to Joann's tomorrow with the coupon and convince them to refund the difference. It really was a great surprise, though. And I thought I was getting the Harmony needles from Knitpicks. Ha!

When was the last time you went wahoo?

Alternate title: Holy Mackerel!!
We're back from Aruba. SO. MUCH. FUN. We told Joe's parents to just go ahead and section off the timeshare in their will to go to us. We have found our second home. So, here's what the post title is all about:

Joe is so proud of it! It is a wahoo, which we are told is some kind of mackerel, but it tasted way better than mackerel. I caught a few small tuna, so we had the wahoo one night and the tuna the next. We only took a small chunk of the wahoo, but cracked up when we saw that the special that day at a local restaurant was fried wahoo salad. Here's the tuna at Chez Jenny:

I never realized how much of a difference fresh caught fish makes. It tastes a zillion times better than anything I ever got from a fish market.

Anyway! We sat by the pool a lot, shopped a lot, ate a LOT, drank a lot, and had the best time ever. We both agreed it was better than our honeymoon, which is really saying something. As promised, here is my dress, modeled:

I thought my plane knitting was pretty funny, so I thought I would share...
This is how much plane knitting you can do when you are all jazzed up about your impending vacation:

And, this is how much plane knitting you can do when you are so tired from said vacation that you could pass out at any second:

Well, I better go get started on my 354 unread blogs on bloglines. Forgive me if I don't comment! I'm tired!

FO: Simplicity 4224

So, did I MENTION that I'm going to Aruba on Saturday?! (I know I have, but I just like saying it). I took sundress inventory on Friday and determined that I was one short. I hit the fabric store Saturday morning, and by Sunday night I was spinning around in this little baby:

Sorry for the lame hanger photo, but dudes, I am WHITE right now. I'll model it after my spray tan on Friday.
It's Simplicity 4224 (scroll down to 4224, then click the link), view B (the green one).
Closeup of the fabric:

Stats:
Pattern: Simplicity 4224
Fabric: Henry Glass Plain & Fancy cotton
Mods: none
Rocco:

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

So, I didn't carve our pumpkin this year. We usually have a pumpkin carving contest at work, and after that got nixed this year, I just wasn't in the mood. Apparently, someone was though:


We couldn't figure out what could have possibly done this, but when Rocco started barking at the window yesterday, I saw the culprit:


It was hard to get a picture without Rock's big head in it, but I managed one:

I guess there's slim pickings out there for food this year, so we bought a new bag of bird seed for the poor little critters. They supply such great entertainment for my boy; I have to keep them happy!