Things I love Thursday

With today being the first day after a string of holidays, the museum was closed today so I had the day off. I was looking forward to sleeping in, and had a long list of things I was planning to get accomplished, and was really looking forward to actually watching a playoff hockey game in real-time. I woke up this morning with a pounding headache, however, and barely made it through two periods of the hockey game (Vancouver was down and ended up loosing) before having to crawl back into bed in the hopes that a short nap would help the tylenol do its work. That ended up being the story of my day - try and do something, then need to curl up for a nap until the pain in my head subsided enough for me to get up and do something, only to need to crawl back to bed again.

So not really a great day for a Things I love Thursday, but still, here goes...

- the new shawl I've started knitting - I cast on last night (and then ripped it out and cast on again when I realized I had done so with the wrong needles... ugh) and after doing a few rows I decided that the pattern just wasn't working with the yarn. So I hit Ravelry, found the perfect pattern and started learning how to knit entrelac - a type of pattern that looks crazy confusing as you have little squares going in every direction, but once you get the hang of is very straightforward. I love the way it is working, as the yarn is variegated and instead of spreading the colour out into long long stripes and mixing it all together, the little squares mean that the colour is in blocks, and it looks incredible. Since the shawl is for me, I'm even more excited about it!

- my coworkers - one of the best things about my job at the museum is the other part-time people I work with. They are fun and we tease each other a lot. A new girl has just started and seeing the workplace through her eyes has been a reminder of just how much I like my coworkers (as was how lonely it was being the only one there on Tuesday!)

- my virtual support network - posting the other day about how nervous I was about meeting U's family, and having family and friends, as well as virtual friends I've never met, there to reassure me and give me advice.

- cooking experiments - since I'm allergic to tomatoes I tend to make a cream/cheese sauce for pasta. It is one of my quick meals, normally I'll cheat with a package sauce that I augment with fresh veggies and perhaps some meat as well. One of the things I did accomplish today was to make up a big pot of home-made sauce. I didn't have a recipe, just experimented and ended up with a delicious spinach cream (with skim milk) sauce with three kinds of mushrooms and onions and pork. I'm looking forward to being able to freeze it and have quick home-made meals.

- having a microwave! U was given one by a friend/collegue who recently got married. U had agreed to take it, figuring we could use it when we move in together (yup, watch this space...) but in the meantime suggested that I have it at my place as he doesn't have a kitchen. I still haven't gotten used to having it, and so am not using it all that much, but I love being able to easily warm up the milk for my morning latte!