A few weeks ago, I headed out shortly after 8am to a church about 7 miles from home. No, I wasn’t heading to services; I was heading to pick up chicken.
Yes, chicken.
For the past year or so I’d been hearing about a company called Zaycon – a ‘direct-to-you’ meat company – and finally decided to try it. Back in August I saw that they were having a ‘chicken event’ so decided it was time to take the plunge. I ordered a 40 lb. box of boneless, skinless breasts. The cost was under $2 per pound.
The order was placed sometime in August and I was scheduled to get my chicken on October 8. So, I waited, and waited. Then I got an e-mail letting me know that there were delays and it wouldn’t be here until October 22nd. So I waited some more. . .
Then, on October 22nd I went to the local church to get my chicken. I pulled up and found about a dozen cars and a Zaycon truck so I got into line.
In line or here’s or the truck or something like that.
Within a few minutes of the time I was told to arrive, the line began moving. When I got to the front, the person asked for my name, checked me off on their tablet, placed a sheet of plastic in the trunk of the car and then a 40-lb box of chicken and off I went. I did notice that several of the vehicles in front of me were getting two boxes! Anyway, I had my chicken was home by 9am.
Fortunately I had read about Zaycon and learned a couple of things. Most importantly is that you need to actually do something with this 40 lb. box before it goes bad! So, I was ready.
The box
When I got home with the box, I was interested to see what I had gotten. The first thing of note is breasts were huge! I started counting but soon lost track as I began trimming.
I grabbed the poultry shears and trimmed any fat off each breast then placed 2-3 servings into freezer bags before stacking them in the freezer. Six breasts also immediately went into the stockpot to boil and shred for tacos and nachos. In all, I took off 2-3 lbs. of fat and gristle and packed up 25 packages of chicken – all in about 2 hours. When it was done, it seems to have worked out to about $3 per bag.
Thus far we’ve had baked chicken, chicken nachos, and chicken chili. I was impressed with both the size and taste of the chicken. After three experiences with the product, I know each of the 25 bags will yield at least a dinner for two and enough leftovers for one lunch – a terrific value!
Would I do this again? Probably, I need to see how quickly we get through this box!
Yesterday I did one of those uniquely Hoosier things that should be experienced at least once in ones lifetime – I braved the Vera Bradley Outlet Sale.
Over the years I would occasionally hear about this shopping frenzy in Fort Wayne where thousands of women would descend and literally shop ‘till they dropped. When I saw a small news item that this was the week of the sale I thought I’d take a drive to see if the event lived up to the hype.
To back up, in case you are unaware of this phenomenon, “Vera Bradley is the name of a luggage design company founded by Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Patricia Miller in 1982. It is an American design company best known for its patterned bags. The Fort Wayne, Indiana company produces a variety of products, including quilted cotton luggage, handbags and accessories.” (Thank you Wikipedia).
The first thing I needed for this little jaunt was a ticket so I fired up the computer and found that not only did I need a $5 ticket to go on a weekday, I also needed to select the specific time slot I would attend and ‘register’ as a customer if I planned on buying anything. This is some serious shopping! So, after a number of clicks I had one ticket for the 2:30 – 5pm time slot – the morning was sold out – and a sheet with my ‘customer information.’
Friday morning arrived and it was time to hit the road! On I-69 I noticed several vehicles crowded with laughing women and was pretty sure we were all heading to the same place. Then I spotted a billboard advertising the sale – as I said, this is the big time!
After an intermission to find a couple geocaches, I headed over to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum for the big event. I arrived about 2:45 thinking I could miss the line to get in but, oh no, the line was still all the way down the side of the building, around the corner and even doubling back on itself!
The line goes down there, around back, then doubles back on itself!Almost there!
Roughly 97% of the crowd was female and there were lots of groups. It was a very good-natured crowd and eventually we were at the door and, upon surrendering my ticket, I was given a large pink garbage bag and let in to the hall. Wow, talk about sensory overload!
WOW!
I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was rows upon rows of tables stacked with all types of merchandise from water bottles to suitcases to comforters. After some initial disorientation I could tell there was a method to the madness, home goods were over there and wallet-type things over there and suitcase things in this area. As I didn’t actually have a shopping list, I decided the wander up and down each aisle approach made the most sense to see everything while I was in among several thousand other people doing the same thing.
Lots of bags
Quickly it was apparent that the pink bag was for ‘loot’ as people were tossing in items willy-nilly. There were also signs on almost very wall (and many PA announcements) about ‘sorting’ and how the fire marshall doesn’t want people sitting on the floor. It seems that the preferred method of shopping is to grab everything that strikes your fancy then find an area to review and discard the unwanted items. By the time I left there were at least a half-dozen laundry rolling bins overflowing with these cast offs!
Not sorting.
A PA announcement also let me in on the fact that the star-shaped balloons indicated tables where there were special markdowns and I saw one woman with 7 or 8 of one type of shoulder bag going for $20! While this was the exception, I’d say most of the prices were 50-60% off of retail.
It also struck me that Vera Bradley makes many more items than I had thought – aprons, coaster sets and flip flops were just a few of the unexpected things I stumbled upon.
As I wandered, I did drop a few things into my big pink bag and also dropped some things into the cast off bin though people watching alone was totally worth the price of admission. My big splurge was a large tote that I kept admiring as people carried them around the shopping floor. I decided to take the plunge but, when I got to that table they were gone! As I was standing there reconciling myself to leaving without it, a young women and her friend were standing nearby debating the merits of that very tote versus one of another pattern. Fortunately for everyone, she went with the other pattern and I got the tote I wanted!
Pink bags waiting to check out!
When I heard the announcement that there was only 45 minutes left in my session I headed toward check out to beat the crowd. A big sign over the door reminded shoppers that the per-person limit for the sale is $3,500 (I later learned that this is the point of registering as a shopper) – it certainly was not a problem for me!
Seen in the check-out line. The bag in the center was the $20 deal. Wish the photo weren’t so fuzzy.
Check out is in a completely separate exhibit hall allowing them to clear the sales floor in preparation for the next group of shoppers! The system is flawless, they have lots of registers and people directing people so the wait was actually pretty short. Items come out of the pink bag, get rung up, and put in to a white bag. Once the shopper crosses the line between pink and white there’s no going back!
Just in case you bought too much!
In all, from getting in line to getting back to my car it was a little over two hours – long enough but not too long.
Surprisingly, it actually was rather fun – I think going with no expectations and no shopping list was good because there was absolutely no pressure to buy anything – I could just experience the event.
For those interested, the dates for 2015 are April 8-12.
Over Thanksgiving I purchased this absolutely beautiful tatted reticule at a small shop in Asheville, North Carolina. We were strolling along some streets we’d not visited before and this small bag in the Honeypot display window just jumped out at me.
The store is quite quirky and carries both vintage clothing and accessories and items from local designers. After rescuing this bag from the shop window, we spent some time exploring what else they had – unfortunately there were no other needlework related items but I’ll certainly make a return trip on our next visit to Asheville!
Those of us who do needlework often say that our hard work will someday end up at Goodwill or in a shop like this. When I see something this pretty it’s nice to be able to ‘rescue’ it to add it to my small collection of needlework treasures! Not only are the items beautiful and represent a lot of time and effort, they encourage learning more about different types of needlework.
This bag is about 6.5 x 8.5 inches, lined with plum-colored fabric which I’m pretty sure is acrylic. I should do a burn test on some of the frayed fibers at some point to confirm this. The tatting seems superior in quality to the hand sewing on the lining. Might the piece have been re-lined at some point? The drawstrings are a dark navy cording which came directly from a fabric store.
I’ve never learned to tat, nor do I know much about the art form besides that there are two different primary methods – shuttle and needle – but I do know a lot of work went in to this piece! Tatting is often an edging or a small motif appliquéd onto an item. This is over 100 square inches of work! Wow!
There are two other pieces of tatting in my little collection – both edgings. The first is a sweet little handkerchief with a tatted border. When I think of tatting, this is exactly what I think of.
The other I actually didn’t realize I had at first. At the Embroiderers’ Guild Merchandise Night this year I bought a bag of odds and ends of lace (for a ridiculously low price) to use as embellishments on various needlework items. When showing my haul to some friends, we discovered this piece of tatted edging!
Putting all three together gives an idea of the ambitious size of the bag.
In doing some research about tatting I may have also solved another mystery! A while ago I purchased this vintage sewing kit on Etsy.
It was constructed in Glasgow and contains a nice array of tools that a needlewoman would need. The only item that stumped me was the bone ring with a chain in the upper half of the photo. None of the stitchers or knitters I’ve shown the kit to have been able to enlighten me – well, possibly that’s because none of us learned to tat in the 1800s!
According to the very informative article Civil War Tatting by Virginia Mescher early tatting shuttles did not have pointed ends so, “Tatting pins, sometimes called purling pins, were usually mentioned in period publications and were apparently the invention of Mlle. Reigo. They were used to either form the picots or join the picots to one another and were made in four sizes, with No. 4 being the largest. The pin assembly included a ring of bone or brass, which was attached to a chain about three inches long, worn on the thumb of the left hand, with a small crochet-like hook or long, blunt tipped needle attached to the end of the chain.”
I found this drawing of a tatting pin and put it side by side with my mystery item:
Ta Da! My mystery item could very well be the ring and chain from a missing tatting pin!
Every time I think I know a lot about hand work I find I still have so much to learn. For instance, I have no idea if my items were made with shuttle tatting or needle tatting, or even how one tells the difference.
It’s been fun doing some initial research on my latest acquisition and wonder what my next rescued treasure will be!
This morning i received my certificate of completion and submitted my post-course survey so my first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is officially over.
This was a quick four-week class on a revised view of Chinese history based on analysis of local-level (village and province) data. We looked at three specific areas – education, housing and ‘struggle’ during land reform. For those of you not into Chinese history, don’t worry, that’s as specific as I’m going to get.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been blogging about the process of the class – online lectures, discussion groups, quizzes. Now that I’m done, I thought I’d share some overall impressions.
While I found the information and the research methods fascinating, assessment was the weak component of this course. In fact, more than once students lobbied to either have questions thrown out or to have multiple answers counted as correct. These adjustments ultimately gave me 100% (though I must admit I did get one wrong on the final). As I was taking this course for ‘fun’ I wasn’t particularly interested in my grade (aside from hitting the 60% ‘pass’ mark) but I could sense the concern and even panic among some students. I think in the future I’d prefer a course with more than a multiple choice grading scheme.
The workload seemed very reasonable. I spent about 3 hours a week on the class – usually in a 90-minute block to watch the lectures and take the quiz and another 90 minutes in short spurts throughout the week reading the discussion boards. I still have a couple of books on my reading list that I didn’t get to during the class that I would still like to read so actually the time could have been higher.
I found Coursera very easy to use. The dashboard for the class was easy to navigate and, once I learned all of the tricks on the videos (being able to download a transcript or just the powerpoint slides, etc) it made reviewing the information quite simple.
So, overall it was a good experience. I’m interested to see how the MOOC concept continues to evolve and look forward to taking additional classes in the future!
This week I was a bit late taking my class so with about 18 hours left to finish this lesson Hemi and I sat down this afternoon to learn about income distribution in China and the West.
I have realized one advantage to procrastination – there’s already a lot of discussion over on the forums so a quick perusal gave me some insights of what specifically to watch for in the videos. For some reason my trick of speeding the lectures up to 125% wasn’t working so well this week due to audio quality so we watched in real time.
Lots of fact and figures this week and there was one tidbit that stood out. Looking at wealth inequality, the professor referenced the Occupy Wall Street movement and pointed out that it takes a net worth of $8 million or more to be in the top 1% of US households. Didn’t know that.
Assuming there’s little interest in percentages of homeownership and average net worth of various quartiles of the population, I’ll move on to the resolution of the disputed quiz question from last week. The professors did agree that the way the question was worded could lead to misinterpretation and tossed it out – that means I’m still at 100%.
The last lecture comes out at noon tomorrow so my quick little min-class will soon be over. I assume the assignment at the end of the next class will be the final exam. We’ll see how that goes!
Time sure flew. Not only have I completed the first week of my Coursera MOOC but I also just completed week #2! (If you missed the first post about the MOOC I’m taking, you can find it here)
Halfway through this little course, here’s a bit about my experience thus far:
At the beginning of lesson #1 there was a short, well-produced overview video about the class where the instructor explained the course, introduced the researchers on this project and discussed the assignments.
Then for the class itself, there were 3 15-20 minute videos that made up the lesson. I thought it was nice having several shorter videos rather than one long one. In addition to the streaming video, there’s an option for slideshow so you can just page through the slides (which is very helpful when trying to find a specific answer to a quiz question – trust me!), transcript which I think would be very helpful if English isn’t your first language, and a place to download the video.
There’s also a little speed button that I just discovered today so the videos can be played in real time, slowed down or speeded up. In playing with it I found 150% a bit too fast but 125% didn’t pose any difficulties for my ear and so did most of this lesson at the slightly faster speed.
On the discussion board there’s been a lot of chatter about various components of the course. People are recommending resources, asking questions and even challenging some of the statements. The instructors do pop in every so often to comment and respond so they’re obviously on top of what’s going on. Also, since this course is about China and we have a lot of Chinese speakers, they’ve been keeping a log of terms in both pinyin and characters – ie. jinshi (進士) – as a very helpful reference. And, since the text recommended for this week’s reading is only available in Chinese, there’s a group crowd-sourcing a summary translation into English which I think is pretty cool!
The last section is the dreaded ‘Assignments’ – which in my course means quizzes. One of the veteran Coursera students in the class pointed out that it’s best to take the quiz as soon as you finish the lectures so the materials are as fresh as possible – sound advice. There is a bit of a kerfuffle this week over what I agree is an oddly worded question. Depending on how you read it, you could have two different answers. So, as I was drinking coffee and stressing over which was the correct interpretation it suddenly struck me that a) my GPA won’t suffer if I get this one wrong b) the whole point of doing this is to learn something and I’m accomplishing that no matter what and c) I only need 60% to pass. So, I went with my first thought – we’ll see how that works out.
Overall, I’m very pleased with Coursera and how the class is going. The interface is easy to use, the course is interesting, and you sure can’t beat the price! Oh, and I did get 100% of the first week’s quiz.
No, Cecil didn’t have a run in with a bovine; it’s Sue making a rare appearance on the feed!
Last night, on a whim, I decided to enroll in a massive open online course (or MOOC). It’s a four week class offered through Coursera called “A New History for a New China, 1700-2000: New Data and New Methods, Part 1” by Byung-Ho Lee and James Z. Lee of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology*.
I’ve read about the MOOC concept and am interested to see how the whole process works. After listening to classes through The Great Courses over the years (I particularly liked the History of Ancient Egypt and Great American Music: Broadway Musicals) and trying a class on iTunes U (The Civil War and Reconstruction Era by David Blight of Yale) I’m really intrigued by adding the interactive component.
Class officially begins Monday so thus far I’ve registered – which essentially means creating an account on the website by giving them my name, email and location – and nosing around the course pages a bit. The course homepage contains links to the course outline, grading scheme, teachers’ bios, discussion forums, and a wiki for the class.
Grading scheme???? Eep! What have I gotten myself into? After reading that there will be a brief quiz each week and an open book final exam, it looks like there’s no need to fret – yet.
Even though we’re still 2 days, 11 hours and 14 minutes before class starts (I know this thanks to the helpful timer on my dashboard page) there’s a lot of action over on the discussion board. So far it seems to be falling into two groups. First people are discussing where to find the recommended texts. Then people are introducing themselves and saying where they’re from – so far I’ve seen Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Israel, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam and lots from China. Wow! I can’t wait to see what class discussions are like!
So, that’s where I currently am with this adventure. The first lecture video will be available in 2 days, 11 hours and 10 minutes.
* As a brief note, I’m leaving the course content to the folks at Coursera. If you actually have interest in A New History for a New China, 1700-2000, ask me later.
As you may have heard, a certain person (who runs this website) received their ‘professional’ credentials for Comic-Con this year. Unfortunately, as a new ‘professional’ there was no way for him to get extra badges so I ended up in San Diego without a badge. Knowing this going in, I had made alternate plans to keep myself occupied. Trust me, I needn’t have worried – there was plenty to keep a ‘Comic-Con Muggle’ busy without venturing anywhere near the exhibit hall!
When we got in to town on Wednesday, we headed directly to check-in at the convention center. Since Bruce had his paperwork in order I just tagged along through the process. After Bruce received his badge we continued through the line and we were both handed the awesomely huge Warner Brothers Comic-Con bags that (almost) everyone carried through the week. Even without a badge, I sure looked official!
There was plenty of time before ‘Preview Night’ so we wandered through the Gaslamp District to people watch and grab some food. We stopped at the Chuck Jones Gallery, got some swag, and ultimately ended up at Nicky Rotten’s for food before Bruce headed back into the mayhem. Because it had been a long day, I sat and read while he did his thing – it was a lovely, cool evening so all was good.
Thursday was to be Bruce’s big day at the Con so I dropped him off and went geocaching – that way he didn’t need to worry about me. But, a friend had told us about a Cirque du Soleil event to be held at Comic-Con that evening so we decided to meet up and attend.
When I got back into town, I took some time to explore an area for upcoming movies located in a parking lot adjacent to where I parked. The movie Cowboys & Aliens (to premiere in San Diego Saturday night) partnered with 7-11 and they were giving away Slurpees and promotional items. Then there was the giant inflatable Smurf, the shark movie area, and the dog on the remote control motorcycle (don’t ask). Eventually Bruce and I hooked up and he was stopped to receive some quite interesting swag – deodorant (trust me, he wasn’t the only one)!
We went for pizza at a place Cartoon Network rented out and redid to look like the cartoon Adventure Time (there were also restaurants taken over by SyFy- the Cafe Diem, NBC- The Playboy Club, not to mention various video games).
Cirque Du Soleil was probably the low point of the Con. Billed as ‘Battle at Comic-Con’ it was to be a 3-D Battle from the show Ka. We’d heard so much about Cirque from friends that we thought it would be amazing. The lawn near Petco Park was packed and people were really excited about the show. First it started a half-hour after it was billed then there were technical difficulties. But, probably the most disappointing was shortly after it started I thought, “I wonder what they’re going to do for the battle” and then it was the end! Complete showtime less than 5-minutes. After this show, I just don’t see the allure of Cirque.
Friday I did take a break and Bruce and I explored Balboa Park in the late afternoon.
Saturday we spent some time wandering downtown. We ran into the Zombie Walk (remember, Zombies=bad), the Top Gear America theater (no, we didn’t go in since it wasn’t the BBC version), and saw NerdHQ. This was all before the geocaching Comic-Con Meet-n-Greet. This was held in a park near the SouthPark theme area that we never even had time to visit.
After the meet-n-greet we headed up to the 4th & B theater for the Nerdist Podcast Live with Dr. Who – excellent! It was a terrific event with Matt Smith and Karen Gillam as well as special guest star Wil Wheaton (and free burritos at the end)! I also don’t think I mentioned that the theater was right across the street from the San Diego Civic Center where they were concurrently premiering Cowboys & Aliens!
In all, there were plenty of free things I didn’t see and some ticketed things we didn’t get tickets for. So, even if I can’t get a badge in 2012, I have a plan to make the most of my Comic-Con time!
Total swag without really trying: Looney Tunes and Pan Am bags, obnoxiously green Psych sunglasses, blowup sword, Slurpee, Butterfinger bar, bag of PopChips, many, many fliers, coupons, etc.
Earlier this year Bruce asked for a pair of fingerless gloves – the type that keeps your hands warm but leaves the fingers free for using the iPhone and other techie types of things. In looking for patterns on Ravelry, I ran across what were called ‘Trigger Gloves” from a booklet Knit for Defense published by Red Heart during World War II.
These were exactly what I was looking for! I grabbed the yarn Bruce selected when were in Asheville over the holidays and began working.
The pattern was very straightforward with nothing fancy – just plain serviceable gloves. I did a bit of internet research and found that all of the Knit for Defense items were designed to be very basic so patterns could be easily memorized and reproduced by folks knitting for the troops. In fact, the only changes I made were by request – the cuff is an inch longer and the fingers each a round or two more than recommended to give just a bit more warmth.
Bruce was very pleased by the finished product though I don’t think they would have passed muster for regulation wear!
In fact, I was so pleased with the pattern, I’ve since made a pair for myself! The only change I made was to knit the fingers straight rather than in ribbing to cut down on a bit of the bulk.
Lesson learned, if the pattern works it doesn’t matter the time period when it was developed.
In other news, I’ve currently got my Holden Shawlette blocking. The Northside Knitting Guild did it as a knit along and again, I’m pleased with how it came out. I used a skein of hand dyed yarn I bought in Wales with all sorts of spring colors.
The photo really doesn’t do it justice – maybe some outdoor shots will bring the colors out.
You’ve heard all about the wonderful time Bruce had at C2E2 in Chicago earlier this month. I did tag along but my experience was much different than Bruce’s! The comic did show generally what I did while in Chicago – went geocaching, spent time reading, and visited an amazing knitting shop in the Loop!
I finished a very large project at the office on Thursday so I was really ready for a break by the time we left for Chicago. Geocaching was a great way to get back outside for a bit after being cooped up at my desk! Found about 10 on Friday afternoon including making a stop at the place where the Chicago Fire started. It’s interesting that the Chicago Fire Department Training Academy is now at the site!
Kicking back was my primary goal so, thanks to the nice people at Hyatt McCormick Place, we had a corner room with an amazing view of the skyline. It was a great place to catch up on some reading and knitting!
But, while Bruce was tremendously excited about the copies of Mouse Guard he bought, I was excited to visit Loopy Yarns – in the Loop, of course! The shop is about 4 blocks from the Hilton on Michigan Ave. in the Printer’s Row area.
When I walked in the shop was packed – no, not crowded, PACKED! I asked the woman at the counter what was up and she told me it was a crochet group doing a tour of Chicago area yarn shops called, “Chain on the Train.” Fortunately they were making purchases and then heading off to lunch so the shop did clear out.
The shop itself is small but has a full basement. I did the basement first while the group did their thing upstairs – it was all classrooms and sale yarns. Bummer. In looking around I noticed they had Koigu sock yarns 50% off! I have a scarf made of this gorgeous yarn so spent quite a bit of time selecting some colors to add to my stash.
Back upstairs, they had a fair number of interesting things I’d not seen before including a very, very thick alpaca yarn (rope?) that is knit with knitting needles that could double as broomsticks! Also there were fibers I’d not seen before including one made of mink! Make Mine Mink by Jade Sapphire is actually made by combing the little critters and then spinning the yarn. I was sorely tempted but resisted – this time.
So, in all, I purchased five skeins of Koigu, a skein of Tosh Marino wool in Tomato, a button for a jacket I recently bought but didn’t care for the button it came with, and a sock monkey project bag. All around not too bad.
Oh, and that comic event, I think Bruce had a good time, too!
