One Giant Leap for a Bottle

About 2 years ago, my husband bought me a Sigg bottle. I was really excited about it. First of all, it meant that he no longer had to break his back carrying water up to our 3rd floor walkup. Second, it meant that I could take almost a liter of water with me every day. Third, I would be saving the planet from the 3-4 plastic bottles I was tossing into the recycling bin every day.

Fast forward a year or so, and we hear news that Sigg, the company who made it cool to have a non-plastic reusable bottle, announces that their bottles have a BPA-lining. I'll let you read real news to judge whether there is real merit to the reasons why they didn't release the information as soon as they knew that BPA was a problem - a whopping year before the news finally leaked out. No pun intended.

Needless to say, I've chugged the Sigg bottle and now enjoy my beverages from a stylish new SubZero bottle, free of dents and BPA (it's stainless steel). Will I ever buy Sigg again? Probably not. Would you?

Dirty Food

I love the farmer's market. Here, it happens every Thursday, from 1pm till dusk, but most wares sell out by 6pm, so if you want the best fish, meat or produce, you have to show up early.

There is something truly wonderful about the earthiness of market produce. It literally has dirt on it and I come home, laden with heavy bags of produce and I shake off all the dirt from the bag after I've unpacked it. Every November, when the market closes down and I return to buying food in the sterile bright supermarket, I start to sorely miss the dirt. I get used to it by December, when the winter chill has set in and fresh food is a distant memory.

This time of year, in late February early March, when root cellared supplies are running short and the spring crops haven't yet come in, we enter the true deep freeze of winter. The body starts to yearn for fresh food and we look at the smallest sprouts in the dirt with great hope. Soon enough, just a couple more months, and we'll taste the sweetness of fresh strawberries and smell the ripe tomatoes once more and the cycle will repeat itself again.

My New Year's Resolutions

I've been thinking recently that I rarely make New Year's resolutions, and perhaps I ought to give this some thought. What would I like to accomplish this year and what can I do differently? Here is what I've come up with:

1. Make more money and try to keep more of it in my pocket

2. Drink all the hot chocolate I want, so long as I make it at home and it doesn't cost much (see #1 and French Women Don't Get Fat)

3. Go on more dates with my husband in nice clothing with jewelry (at least earrings and necklace) and makeup (at least lipstick).

4. Find out where my food comes from and try to minimize the distance it has to travel

5. Buy less (see #1)

6. Plant a garden - this is a tough one. I live in an appartment buildings and, let's just say, we're not exactly green

7. See more cultural events like plays, ballets and operas

8. Spend more time with my girlfriends

And now that it's written in stone.. um, I mean in digital easily-erasable format, I will have to stick to it and perhaps even write a post at the end of the year as a self-evaluation of sorts, since owning my own business, I am my own boss and evaluator. You never know, I might just earn myself a pay raise.

There is a nightmare in my knitting basket

I found a pattern on Ravelry several months ago that's just the stuff I love to knit - one piece, yolk, barely any seaming. It's called Owls by Kate Davis. I am writing this post on the eve of finishing the sweater. For all of you knitters out there, you know the elation one feels when you finish something, and for yourself none the less. There is only one problem - I've had to rip out the entire body and the yoke and start all over. Nothing entertains my husband more than watching me spend hours and hours knitting something that he can then rip out in 2 minutes, muttering to himself, "One stitch, two stitch, good stitch, bad stitch".

Why do restart, then? Through my experience with clothing I've realized that those pesky little problems that you notice at the beginning will stay with the garment no matter how much you try to ignore them, and for me, it comes down to ripping it apart before I do all the finishing work, or letting it sit in the closet for 2 years while I "forget" to wear it and then ripping it apart and reknitting.

To all of you knitters who are thinking about making this pattern, keep these things in mind:

1. Because of the thickness of the yarn, this is a chunky sweater and if it's not made correctly, will make you look chunky (like it does for me). In fair disclaimor, my yarn is a little thicker than what the pattern called for.

2. The back increase and decrease is really for the strong at heart because on me it looks hideous. The top part bunches unpleasantly, so I've ripped the body out and I will make the shaping on the sides. I will try to make it smaller - something like 3 decreases and 4 increases, to see if it looks better at the end.

3. For me, the yolk (or the top part of the sweater after you've joined body and sleeves) is too short. I've seen this on pictures of other knitters for this pattern. It seems that for size L, you should knit about 1-2 inches in stockinette before starting the owls and potentially with a small decrease before the purl first owl row. I'll give it a go and see how it comes out.

Baby got wheels - stroller evolution

My daughter is a year and a half and we're on our second stroller. It's a nice stroller - a Maclaren, the biggest and best that Maclaren makes. And we're starting to think about getting a new one. Don't get me wrong. We have a great stroller. But it's falling apart because we use it in ways it was never meant to be used. You see, we live in the city, with potholes, uneven sidewalks, stairs, curbs and other obstructions that reak havoc on the stroller that, according to Eli - the owner of Magic Beans in Brooklne - is a shopping mall stroller. Ours has never seen the insides of the shopping mall. I don't own a car, so the stroller is our only mode of transport during the week and we log at least a mile a day, sometimes even more.

I am an honest believer that there is no perfect stroller, so I don't blame our for falling short. Perfection is an art that has alluded the stroller world, even with some hefty pricetags that are out there. Take our first stroller for example. We had a MicraLite. True to its name it was very small and very light. But it had a terrible basket on the bottom that couldn't hold anything. But it had full wheels on the back which could go up stairs beautifully (a trait I didn't appreciate until we got our Maclaren). It also had long U shaped handle, which was perfect because you could drive it with one hand thanks to the middle bar, but also had horns on the ends for hanging things like blankets and bags and groceries. We really miss the middle bar because it's really hard to drive the Maclaren while talking on the phone or as my husband always says - it's hard to drink his coffee and drive the stroller.

Why do we like the Maclaren? First and foremost, we had the spiffiest model which reclines to a comfortable 5 degrees. This was key when we go for day long trips or on vacations because our daughter can sleep in the stroller pretty comfortably. Secondly, we love how well it can fold. There is a slight negative part to this, since it becomes very long when it folds, so in some of the smaller cars we've rented, it has been a real challenge to get it into the trunk. Also, the basket and all of its contents are crushed when the stroller is folded.

So, what's next for us? At this stage, it's really unclear. I would like a light stroller, wich chunky wheels at the back and a big basket. I would also like for it to fold easily and compactly. It must have a middle bar so my husband can get his coffee. It must have a basinet so that when/if we have baby#2, we can have a properly positioned infant. And if possible, I would like for it be no wider than my hips. Otherwise, I fear that my hips will expand to fill the space.