My birthday--jjigae and a fish pan.

I like to try to get a picture with the kids on my birthday. This doesn't always work so well, but these turned out pretty cute.



Awwww!

We went down to O Bok Jip in Lakewood for dinner, and I got some kimchi jjigae. It was not the best jjigae I've had, but it was okay. But there was quite a lot of it so I ended up taking the rest of it home and having the leftovers for lunch the next day, and it was suddenly fabulous. That's the beauty of jjigae--it's better the next day. I was familiar with the phenomenon, but was somewhat surprised at the magnitude of improvement.



Here's my post-birthday lunch! Day-old kimchi jjigae, (new) rice, and kim. Andy was excited about the rice and kim. I gave him a few dribbles of jjigae broth on his rice, too.



Andy sneaks some kim.  He would just eat the whole package plain if I let him.



I got this pan for my birthday. It's for making goldfish-shaped waffle-cakes. (Korean boong-o bbang.) Amanda got one, and when I saw it I said, "I must have one of those!" (Got mine from Amazon. Amazon thinks it's Japanese, even though it's got Korean all over it. Funny.)



I still haven't tried it but I will post pictures when I do!

What I got for Valentine's Day

They're heart-shaped!

Happy birthday to Doug!

Doug is another year older!  We celebrated with dinner at Chevy's.



Andy's chip-dipping action.  (I have been somewhat less impressed with their food lately, but we love the salsa.  So good.)



Continuing our tradition of  "stick candles in whatever's handy."



A kiss for the birthday dad.



And here's Doug's present! It's a gorget. Because every guy needs a gorget.

Happy birthday to my cute hubby!   Mwwwwwah!

Hand Family

Kate drew this at church.  The thumb is Pikachu.

She wore her new pink dress, and I was planning on getting a picture, but we were both in a bad mood so I didn't even try. Seems like we've been butting heads a lot lately. But hey, she loves her family! And Pikachu.

Tension Headaches (me vs. the sewing machine)

I've been working on this pink dress for Kate. It's almost done now, but I did have some trouble getting started.

We have this Brother CS6000i sewing machine that Doug ordered online about a year and a half ago. He used it to make his doublet, and didn't have any trouble with the machine, but when I tried to use it I just couldn't get the tension right. (Fortunately I started on some test pieces rather than right on the skirt.)

With the tension all the way down on 1, the top thread was really tight and the bottom stitches looked like they were staggered, one to the left and the next to the right of the center line. Turning the tension up only made it worse. I had a feeling the problem was with the bobbin, but couldn't figure out how to adjust it. (It's a drop-in bobbin--it turns out there is a case, but it's just a little harder to get to.)

I looked online and found some comments about a lot of people having tension problems with this machine. I decided to take it down to Quality Sewing and Vacuum and see what they could tell me. (Sandi Pickering from church is the manager there.) A very nice lady helped me out. When she popped off the bottom plate it was all full of red doublet-lint. She got that all brushed out, and adjusted the tension on the bobbin for me, and helped me pick out a better thread. The thread that I was using was "polyester covered polyester," which may have been making the machine unhappy. Apparently anything that says "covered" is undesirable. I did not know this.

With these various ministrations, the machine performed much better, and I was able to get the skirt pieces sewn together without further difficulty. I got that all done and then sewed the skirt onto the crocheted bodice. When Jill Tracy assembled the autumn dress for me, she just seamed the skirt and bodice together on the wrong side like regular fabric. On this one I put a picot edging along the bottom of the bodice, so I decided to top-stitch it. I just sewed carefully in the ditch between two rows of crochet stitches, and then did another line on the next row up, for added security. It seemed like it worked really well.

With the kitchen table being our only work-space we have to shuffle things around for projects and eating.  I have also borrowed the neighbor's ironing board.  It's up against the back door.  We make do!

Andy-Proofing

Our fridge is now sporting this stylish new buckle. Andy keeps getting into the fridge for juice. We never had this problem with Kate.

Groundhog Day

Kate made this cute little guy at school. I remember Mr. Seewer, my high school World Lit teacher, saying that he would like to receive Groundhog Day cards. I guess the idea didn't really catch on, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology there are now a few e-card versions available.

Kate tells me that Pikachu saw his shadow too.

I have fallen down this rabbit hole

... and I don't expect to be coming out for a while.

The show does have its flaws (there are certain aspects of the premise that I'm afraid the creators haven't really thought through completely) but I am totally loving it anyway. It's like popcorn.

(And I have a new appreciation for Doug's gray shawl-collar cardigan.)