Daily Ramblings - Oktoberfest!

For several years now, husband and I have been planning to go to Oktoberfest, held at Alpine Village.  Several of our friends have been going for a few years now and this weekend we finally made it.  Think gigantic tent, a ton of folk, an Oompah band, singing and swinging of beer steins.  It's about the only place where I'll accept doing the chicken dance more than once in an evening...or should I say doing the chicken dance at all.

2010 happens to be the bicentennial celebration of Oktoberfest.  It began in Munich in 1810 at the wedding of the Bavarian Prince.  Now, that's one way to celebrate an anniversary every year!  I'm not sure what the history is surrounding the chicken theme but these chickens look like they're having a good time!

Beer drinker or not, it's certainly a fun celebration and a good way to spend time with friends...but don't forget the designated driver, or at least money for a cab!

Daily Shape - Not just for retired folk

There seems to be a stigma about aqua aerobics that it's intended for old arthritic people in retirement communities.  My gym offers "aquafit" classes 6 times a week and last year, on a whim, my co-worker and I gave it a shot.  It has to be said that our first impression was not great, but that had more to do with the instructor showing the same enthusiasm for the class as one might expect upon discovering a fungal infection.  Fast forward many months and I figured out which classes that particular girl teaches, and decided to try a class with the other instructor.  Let me tell you, it's fantastic!

You may remember me saying that I like I swim.  Swimming is my fitness sanctuary.  Listening to my own breathing and the movement of each stroke, I get the same feeling of calm and focus that others describe when jogging or doing yoga (neither of which are fun to me).  So, it figures that I'd be comfortable splashing about in the water.  I was also concerned at first that aqua aerobics wouldn't be enough of a challenge, but what I've discovered is that it's up to YOU individually to decide what level of difficulty you want from the class.  The instructor will guide you, but it's up to you to jog faster, jump higher, push harder...  We generally do a lot of exercises up and down the length of the pool, such as jogging, as well as using plastic weights for resistance training.  Pretty much everything uses your core muscles to stabilize against the movement of the water, and even if you are pretty fit - if you jump up and down the length of a 25yd pool repeatedly you're going to feel like you're body is getting a good workout!

Some interesting facts about aqua aerobics:
- This type of exercise is good for both muscle tone, as well as a cardiovascular workout.
- Being in the water reduces stress on the body, but adds resistance.  It offers resistance from all sides (as opposed to on-land activity where there is higher impact and omni-directional resistance).  This is great for people with weaker joints or injuries that need rehabilitation.    For example, I get horrible shin splits when trying to run on land, but I'm happy to jog up and down the pool repeatedly!
- As the water is low-impact and supports a significant amount of your body weight, it's great for pregnant women.  My instructor actually said that there was a lady who came to class every week until about 10 days before she gave birth!
- You do not have to be a swimmer to enjoy the class as most of the movements are done in water shallow enough to allow you to stand.  The pool at my gym is 4ft at the deep end.
- It is estimated that in a 45-60 minute class, you can burn anywhere from 300-600 calories.  That's not bad if you ask me.

One of my favorite things about the class is that I can get in that pool and feel my body working hard, but walk away from the class completely energized.  The muscle recovery seems pretty quick, which may also have something to do with the massaging motion of the water as you're working out.  All I know is that I went into class last night with a stiff back/shoulders and came out feeling great.  I'm hoping I can stick with the Thursday class because I've really been enjoying it.  I'd love to know if anybody else has given it a try!

Daily Craft - Well how about that?!

I haven't designed any knitwear for a LONG time and I'm horribly ashamed of that fact.  I've got great ideas somewhere jumbled up in my head.  My problem is getting the time to put them down on paper, knit up swatches, gather test knitters etc.  Recently I've been really getting the itch to get back on the designing band-wagon, so to speak.  I also know that I'm a pro when it comes to the best of intentions going unfulfilled though!

Anyway, to give myself a little inspiration, I decided to check on Ravelry to see how my other designs have been doing.  I was thrilled to see that other people have actually made these things!  Even more exciting is that people have given my patterns very decent ratings and seem to be liking them.  There's actually people out there in the world that are making my designs.  It's so much fun for me to look through the photos of their projects and see what they thought of the pattern, check out their yarn and color choices, etc. 

Harpa Socks
Knit up by 23 Ravelry members so far!

Roman Holiday Mitts
Knit up by 43 Ravelry members so far!

I also get really excited when I think about the fact that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of non-Ravelry members out there who have pulled these patterns from my old blog, linked through from knittingpatterncentral.com, or other sites where these free patterns ended up.  It's hilarious to imagine that there's tons of mystery people wandering the streets with fingerless mitts of my design keeping their hands warm, but alas I'll never know for sure.  ;)

Daily Travels - I made it!

In September 1997, I was an 18 year old with a suitcase, a plane ticket and a thought of an adventure. I left my home in the tiny little village of Oxshott (Surrey, England) and started my new "adult" life in San Diego, CA. OK, so I didn't really become an adult until more recently, and sometimes still don't act like one, but I digress!

In the past thirteen years, it's amazing to think of all the things that I've done - graduated college, become accomplished in my career, created my own family of friends, married the love of my life, bought my first home....and there's so much more.

With my little brother, Warren, who also moved to CA.

The reason for now thinking back over the years since moving to California is because I finally made it. The light at the end of the tunnel just became a reality as my permanent green card, that beautiful little piece of plastic, finally arrived! I've been on a variety of different visas since I moved here, from my initial student visa to a work sponsored visa to the temporary green card that was issued when I was married. I've had my fair share of visa related issues - like the time when I took my (now) husband home to England for the first time and wasn't allowed to board the plane at Heathrow to return to the U.S. I ended up stuck in England for a month with nothing but ill-fitting high school clothes and my brother's soccer shorts to wear.

I'll say that staying here legally is hard work. Even after getting married, the immunizations that are required in order to file for the temporary green card seem crazy. I had to pay an INS approved doctor $500 to give me 6 shots, a TB test and draw blood. It's not hard to think of a million FUN things that $500 could be used for instead!

At the end of the day though, I'm finally done and can breathe that sigh of relief knowing that it was all worth it. I no longer have to worry about visa expirations, having to turn over my passport to the U.S. Embassy in a foreign country so they can stick bits of paper in it, worry about not being able to board a plane to re-enter the country... Life is good! The final step in my process will be applying for citizenship and while I will be doing that some time in the next couple of years, the pressure is off and I no longer have an immigration clock ticking over my head.

I've never been so grateful for all the support I've received from my family, close friends, and co-workers throughout this process. They've provided unconditional love and belief that I could do it, even when it just all seemed like too much. I'm a lucky girl indeed.

Daily Ramblings - Blogtoberfest?

I just heard about the Blogtoberfest phenomenon today and while I don't know if life will permit me to actually blog every day, I figured I'd give it a shot to see how much I can blog this month (although I'm not officially signing up for fear of being an epic failure).  Also, I'm not really sure how interesting I am and whether or not I can come up with something to share with you all every day, but I'm down to see what happens. 

My calendar says it's Rocktober (of course, I work at a record label) so I figured I'd kick off the month with a little music for you.  Earlier today, I was outside my office and being greeted by gigantic explosions of rumbling thunder with the occasion flash of lightning visible above the nearest mountains.  The weather this week has been a little strange to say the least and made me think of this song - "What Else Is There?" by Royksopp. Hope you like it!

Daily Ramblings - An identity crisis

Not me, the weather in Los Angeles that is.  We had an incredibly mild summer and only a few days here and there that involved the disgustingly hot weather that we usually dread.  Of course, the second it turns to "fall" (as if defining seasons is of any particular relevance in Southern California), the weather totally didn't get the memo about what it was supposed to be doing.  After the hottest day on record in downtown Los Angeles, today I'm driving home in my summer dress (might as well milk it), and I'm greeted by rainbows, thunder, lighting, rain and sunset all at the same time.  It's still 80 something degrees out there.  So, mother nature, what's going on?!

While everybody I know seems to have posted a mobile upload of a rainbow on their Facebook page at the same time, here's a couple of pictures from my front door...

Daily Tutorial - A photo lightbox

While I have beautiful natural light in my house, which was one of the reasons we bought it, for the purposes of product photography I've been finding that relying on the natural light just isn't enough.  Seeing as I'm at work during the majority of the daylight hours during the week, that leaves me limited to taking pictures on the weekend, and which window I set up by depends on what time of day it is.  For that reason, I decided it was time to make a light tent so that I can take consistent pictures, no matter what time of day (or night).

There's a lot of light boxes/tents that you can buy, but if you're on a budget, they're also pretty simple to make at home.  I looked up a variety of tutorials, lots of which involved constructing a frame using PVC piping, or cutting up a sturdy box, then using white fabric or tissue to diffuse the light.  With these tutorials in mind, I developed my own plan for a simple (and inexpensive) light tent.

I opted to use a frosted white plastic storage container that I already had, therefore there was no construction involved (and less chance of me chopping off a finger by accident!)  The lamps are clip desk lamps that I found at Bed Bath & Beyond on sale for $5 each.  They only had 2 left in stock, so I am planning to go get a third to provide downward light some time this week.  The card stock was purchased at the Dollar Tree - 2 sheets for $1.  The most expensive individual cost was the bulbs for the lamps as I bought a set of energy efficient "daylight" bulbs to give light as close to a clean white as possible.  Total cost?  Just under $20.

For a test run, and using my point and shoot on automatic settings (but without the flash), I decided to take some test shots.  I'm already pretty happy with how these turned out and I know that once I have the third lamp shining downward, and I start using my DSLR (on a tripod), I'll be able to produce some really nice shots with a minimal amount of editing required, if any!