Code Boyfriend is in the air to Seattle

Code Boyfriend is still in the air to Seattle. I've lost my motivation to type.

Tomorrow is the last day of the 30 day challenge, so I will be doing 2 posts. One last recipe for this challenge, and info on our new challenge.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Ketchup Cup Magic

I'm back in Rochester.

Both flights were really bumpy, bothering both my anxiety and my motion sickness. Blech. Not fun at all.

I do have a weird home remedy for motion sickness that works for me almost every time. 

French fries.

Non-traditional, I know. But I've chewed ginger candy, drank ginger ale, worn pressure point bracelets, and taken over the counter drugs and nothing has done as much for my motion sickness as plain old french fries.

Every time I get a little queasy in the air or in a car, Code Boyfriend runs off to find the closest place that sells french fries.

I don't know if it's a comfort thing, or the starch. I really don't care. At that point, I've gone a horrible shade of green and all I really care about is trying to feel better as soon as possible.

Now, the title of this post promises magic and for me, this may be as close as it gets.

I'm a ketchup girl. I really think french fries are very sad without their friend ketchup. I had run out at a fast food place a couple weeks ago, and Code Boyfriend got up to go get me yet another obviously too small cardboard container full of ketchup.

But when he came back, he had done something amazing.

Apparently this is one of those life hacks I never learned. The little ketchup cups are made to expand. You can pop apart the cardboard creases to make more room for ketchup. This makes way more sense for actually dipping french fries in as well.

I hope I made your ketchup consumption a little easier.

I also hope that I wasn't the only one who didn't know this.

My new Celestial Seasonings Teas

Today was exhausting. I got a haircut and we picked up Settlers of Catan.. all fun things. But this lack of oxygen just tires me out.

As promised, here is a review of the 3 teas Code Boyfriend and I liked so much we brought home from the Celestial Seasonings factory tour.

Tropical Fruit Cool Brew Iced Tea

This is, clearly, from their cool brew line.

 

While I am not a huge fan of any of the other teas in this line, I fell in love with this tea. It tasted like exactly what I wanted to drink on a hot summer's day. It was vaguely reminiscent of fruit punch, without the sickly sweetness. It was fruity and sweet, while packing a big punch of flavor, which is sometimes lacking from their fruit teas.

I couldn't leave without this tea and brought home a big box of it. I recommend it for anyone fond of zingers, or who are like Code Boyfriend and find many teas to taste like nothing at all. 

Cranberry Apple Zinger

This tea is amazing cold, which is how I tried it at the tasting. I am so excited to try it hot.

Look at that deep, red color. It tasted like cran-apple juice, which is always a good thing in my book. It was also very refreshing, like the entire zinger line.

I loved this tea, but Code Boyfriend was not a huge fan. The flavor just isn't strong enough for him.

Sleepytime Kids - Goodnight Grape

I'm not going to lie, as I poured this tea into my cup, I was expecting it to taste like cold medicine.

It was shockingly true to it's name. It tastes like Sleepytime with a hint of grape. Fruity, with all of the same Sleepytime calming powers. It is also very sweet. I drank mine without any sweetener and had to go back and make sure there was no sugar in it!

I think this would be a very easy sell for a sick child, or a sick Code Boyfriend who has a cold but doesn't want tea because it doesn't taste like anything.

Even though it is marketed as a kid's drink, Code Boyfriend and I both thought it was amazing enough to need to come home.

There you are! All of the new teas we tried at Celestial Seasonings. I hope this gave you the insight you needed to spring for a new box the next time you buy tea.

Celestial Tea Tasting Reviews

On our second full day in Colorado, I had a doctor's appointment in Boulder at 3:30.

Code Boyfriend and I decided to head over early and spend the afternoon.

We started out getting hot dogs at my favorite place to eat in Boulder.

Mustard's Last Stand. I've been eating here since I was five and always stop in for a corn dog when I'm in Boulder.

Code Boyfriend got a hot dog with cheese, he was also extremely satisfied with the food, but thought someone should have mentioned they put poppy seeds on their buns. Very old school Chicago.

The fries here are also excellent. Crispy and salty in ways that most restaurants fail to achieve. All in all a great addition to our day.

After, we walked to Pearl Street. It's just not our kind of place. A little too hippie.

We then went on the Celestial Seasonings factory tour. This is my favorite place to take people on vacation in Colorado. Code Boyfriend loves factory tours, even though he's not a huge fan of tea, so it seemed like a great place to go.

The actual factory tour is a great time. You get to see all the steps to make their teas, usually with a spunky 25 year old tour guide who spends his time trying to set up bad puns. There is no photography allowed in the factory, so you'll have to trust me on this and go yourself.

What I think is really special about the experience is the tea tasting room. They give out samples of any of their teas. I could sit in their cozy, little cafe and try teas forever, but since I had to leave eventually, I decided to review the ones I did try.

Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride  

This is one of Celestial Seasonings Holiday teas.

 Sugar Cookie Sleigh ride is a much lighter tea than I was expecting. Also, it's not as sweet as its name implies. While the tea tastes remarkably like a sugar cookie, the flavor was not strong enough for either mine or Code Boyfriend's preference. It reminded me of white tea, very subtle in flavor.

I would highly recommend this tea to a white tea drinker looking for a festive seasonal tea, but it was not one of the teas that came home with me.

India Spice Chai - Decaf
Sorry guys, my picture didn't turn out. Which is kind of ok, because I really disliked this tea. It has some very strong deep flavors, but the tea had no substance. No sweetness, nor anything that stuck around after you swallowed. I typically love the flavorful layers of a spiced chai, but I feel like this tea only hit one note.

Jammin' Lemon Ginger
I was not expecting to like this tea. I'm not a huge fan of lemon or ginger. But neither flavor was overpowering, and I was pleasantly surprised with how mellow this tea was. I imagine this would have been loved by anyone who enjoyed either lemon or ginger tea. Sadly, it was not for me.

Sweet Apple Chamomile
I love chamomile tea. I am also a huge apple fan. This tea, however, was only fine. So mellow as to be boring. Neither of the flavors were dominant, leaving a very bland tea. I was so excited to try this tea, only to be let down. It is very similar to their Cinnamon Apple Spice tea, which I am also not a huge fan of. 

I hope these comments will be helpful to you if you can't get to Boulder, CO to sample Celestial Seasonings teas. Tomorrow, I'll do a post on the three teas I liked so much that I brought some home.

Plane Knitting: Hooded Cowl

I am a really terrible flyer. I get motion sick, anxious, hungry, and I always decide I have to pee right as the captain turns back on the fasten seat belt sign.

Because of all these things, I really hate the parts of the flight where I can listen to music, watch a movie, or whatever other electronic stimulation I try to use to distract me from the fact that I am hurling through the air at 500 mph in an aluminum tube.

Since I can't just sit there and contemplate my own mortality, I knit. Please don't ask me to fly without my knitting, I won't do it.

For this trip, I wanted to switch up my project from what I had been working on lately. A chunky scarf for my mom, a chunky baby blanket for High School Best Friend, and Fuzzums for the Hooks and Needles Sale.

Long story short, I've been itching to use some thinner yarn, on a project I actually get to use.

Enter my idea for a cowl. My ears get cold in the winter, but hats always make me overheat. I thought a nice, lace cowl is just the ticket.

I happened to have picked up some Cascade Pima Tencel when on vacation in Niagara Falls with Code Boyfriend. It seemed like a great fit.

Unfortunately, it was a pain to fine a lace cowl pattern I like for DK yarn.

After a lot of searching on Raverly, I found the Smoke Ring pattern. It has beautiful, leaf-like lace pattern, not too complicated for plane travel. I don't like to use patterns that I can't easily remember, because of the whole motion sickness thing...

I need a pattern that I can memorize and work for 5 minutes before consulting the chart again. This pattern is easy to memorize and works up quickly.

The circular needles it calls for are also TSA approved and a great size to have on planes. I feel like needles that are too big or too small are just too much fuss on planes.

I'm not done yet, but I'm very happy with this plane knit.

Chicago O'Hare Airport Review

I am now safe and sound in Colorado for Thanksgiving.. and I am exhausted.

Code Boyfriend and I flew from Rochester to Chicago O'Hare, then to Denver. Very long day for someone who hates flying.

But we did land both flights ahead of schedule and made it to Chicago by lunchtime, which is a very fine place to be in the Chicago area.

Both Code Boyfriend and I got deep dish for lunch.

While not the best food I'd ever eaten, it was far better than the usual McDonald's and Burger King fair I eat at the airport. Fast too, while Code Boyfriend and I had a 2 hour break, you could grab this pizza to go in under 5 minutes. 

This place was incredibly good for airport food. We ate in Terminal C, but we walked through Terminal B and there were several places I would have wanted to try had they been closer to our gate.

There is a lot of walking at this airport. But there is a Starbucks every 12 feet, so it wasn't so bad. While the airport was busy, I never felt boxed in, very important for an anxious flyer.

All in all, I'd say Chicago O'Hare is a great place to fly through. I much a layover here than in Atlanta.

They also got extra points for having a Brachiosaurus in the middle of Terminal B. It was kind of awesome.

Unfinished Objects

As week 10 ends and the quarter winds down, I'm beginning to try and wrap up loose ends so I can start new things next quarter.

Then I looked at my knit-list. I have no idea how it happened. I used to be perfectly content with a single knitting project. I would work on it until it was finished, then I'd move on.

Those days are now long gone.

I'm starting to pack for my Thanksgiving trip back to Colorado and the sweater vest for my mom is about 3 hours of knitting from done... and has been for about 4 months now.

The pair of socks I started to be able to not feel like such a poser as the president of Hooks and Needles....

 I've been about 2 inches from finishing the second sock since June.

I just keep getting distracted. My best friend from high school is pregnant, so I selected a beautiful pattern to knit for a blanket and it keeps me busy now.

If you would also like to knit up a great, albeit bulky baby blanket, follow this link to the Norma blanket on Knitty.

I'm 9 rows from starting the edging. Only problem is it's too large to carry around in my backpack. When am I going to work on it now??

At least I can curl up with my new distractions from the Winter Sale.

I'll have a more detailed post about how to make Fuzzums, like Clyde here, as soon as I can get home in the day light to take some better pictures of the group.

The only project I've finished in the past 6 months has been for Hooks and Needles. The snowboarding team asked us to make hats.

To recreate this hat to be more specific. 20 times. After many, many hours of loom knitting (not my favorite activity, but a great place to start crafting) all 20 are done.

I need to buckle down and finished some of these projects. I want to start new ones! Well, I guess I'm doing that either way.

You Can't See an Elephant in the Dark

Spring Break is almost over now and I feel like I haven't stopped moving since I left my apartment in Rochester last Friday.

I'm talking insane amounts of travel people! BF and I drove to Phili, then flew to Pheonix, AZ, where we met my parent.

Then Flagstaff -- where we met up with many of my old friends from before I transferred away from NAU (Northern Arizona University for those who don't know). 

 Plus we saw the Grand Canyon...

All in 2 days. Then we drove down to Tuscon, to meet up with some of my parents old friends and my extended family. Poor BF. He spent the whole time we were in Tuscon being left out of conversations because he wasn't in Tuscon 20 years ago.

 Luckily he got to spend these long car rides watching me make knit roses for the people we are seeing. This is some of them in the door to the car. I'll have a tutorial for them up soon.


BF survived the scrutiny of many family members of mine during this trip, much thanks to the help of a wonderful frosty beverage called an Eegee. Eegee's are a magical substance, like a fruit based Icee, but a bit thicker. 

 

BF had never had one before, but after going from a chilly Rochester March to a 85 degree Tuscon spring, he has been converted.

If you haven't noticed the title of this blog, it happens to be a quote from my dear Aunt Paula. This woman is amazing. After she turned 50, she spent 5 years in Botswana, Africa with the Peace Core, fulfilling a life-long dream she had. When talking to her about her travels, she said something so sincerly it was adorable, but it is a quote that continually helps me with my anxiety.


"You can't see an elephant in the dark."

So everytime I'm worried about something, panicking about something I believe no one else can see, I turn on the light to see if it is really an elephant. 

Maybe that makes me a little nuts, but so is my Aunt Paula, and she's the happiest person I know. Maybe accepting your little bits of crazy that allows you to be happy.


All I know, is that you can't see an elephant in the dark.