My first meme tag

Ginny tagged me, so I'm going to join the fun. The rules are to post 8 random, interesting things about myself and tag 8 other people. I'm not sure that I know 8 people who read my blog who actually are bloggers, but I'll do my best...
1. My middle name, Aviva, is a palindrome. It means spring in Hebrew (interesting, because I was born in February).
2. I've lived in 4 different states - NY, NJ, NC and TX - and 3 different countries - US, Japan & France. And now we're moving to PA...
3. Our cats, Max and Frances, are named for my favorite children's book characters.
4. Scott and I met at a bar but it wasn't really like we met at a bar because it was a it was a cheese tasting at a wine & art bar. This is only interesting if you know me and Scott, because we're probably the last people who you would expect to meet each other in a bar...
5. I was proclaimed a "Duchess of Hazard" by the mayor of Hazard, KY. The proclamation was accompanied by a key to the city that doubles as a paperweight and a bottle opener. I'm not really sure why I was made a duchess, but I used to travel to Hazard once a month because I was the HR manager for a coal mining business that was a subsidiary of my former employer.
6. On the subject of work, I worked for Enron and am currently employed by Tyco. I was there until the bitter end, and got laid off while I was an expat in Japan. I've heard every possible joke on this subject(s). And no, I'm not going to go work for any of the following as my next employer: Adelphia, World-Com, HealthSouth, WasteManagement or any other scandal-plagued company.
7. I played the violin for 13 years, and was actually pretty good. But I quit in college because I never found the time to practice. I would love to take it up again.
8. I learned to knit when I was pretty young. My mom taught me when I was about 7 or so, it didn't take, and then we learned to knit in the fourth grade. I knit a purple hat and white striped hat that my mom still has.

So there it is...
I'm tagging my mom and the first seven people who read this post. Ok, I actually have no idea how to make that work, so any of you regular visitors, consider yourself tagged! Leave me a comment if you're going to do it!

Choices, Choices...

Even though its still many moons until the Pennsylvania Presidential Primaries, I've decided its about time that I throw my weight behind a candidate. I'm sure Crafty Caroline's endorsement will really be huge for any of the contenders - probably as important as the NY Times.
Here are my thoughts so far - Bill Richardson is probably the most qualified from an international experience standpoint. For that matter, he's also got a lot of good domestic experience. His energy background would be key to reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and would probably put a lot support behind a greener approach to power generation. But, he doesn't have a ton of pizzazz. I think he'll end up on the ticket as VP.
I really like John Edwards' position on poverty eradication. Ambitious, well thought out. A bit odd that someone who lives in a home the size of a small nation is focused on eliminating poverty, but I'm will to look past it. Not sure he's as strong on the international front, and in a recent Time magazine commentary by Joe Klein, sounds like he needs some more ideas on Iraq. The guilty liberal in me gets very excited by Edwards focus on poverty, as ultimately this is one of the biggest problems in our country today.
Barack is certainly intriguing, but might need some more time, and Hillary would do a great job, but is a little smug. So over the next few weeks, I'll be doing my due diligence, and sharing my findings.
Now, off to read more about the other candidates...

Whoa...

Whoa - this is so bizarre.

miss ewe knits: a video for distraction...

For any other yids reading this who get creeped out by hearing a lot of German, turn down the volume...

Ahh, Saturday...

I'm a big fan of Saturdays. There is something about the first day of the weekend that is really relaxing. Sundays, I'm thinking about all the crap I want to get done before the end of the weekend.
This Saturday has been great - I went to Loop, which I've been dying to check out. Its a really nice store - great selection, helpful staff, and well organized. They stock a lot of Blue Sky Alpaca, so it was a good opportunity to pick up some stash for one of the several baby blankets on my tkl (consider this a newly coined phrase- "to knit list"). Their Organic Cotton and Dyed Cotton worked out nicely for Leo's blanketso I picked up some more for the next blanket on the list. Different pattern from Mac & Me, but same basic mitred corner concept. It'll look nice in this pink...


So back to my Saturday... Then I moseyed over to HeaDAreA at Matthew Izzo and got a very good cut - I totally gambled cause I had no recommendations, but now I have a Philly hairdresser. Yay. Color next week (baaaaadly needed)... I'll post about my fear of new hairdressers some other time.

And then I've basically been chillin' since I got home, which has given me a chance to catch up on blog photos. Here is my package from my secret pal:

And Scott's camo socks which are progressing. Well, its still the first sock, but lets keep in perspective that these are knit on #0 needles.

During my radio silence, I almost finished the dragon scale mitts for my secret pal


And just because they are beautiful, here is a picture of some fresh eggs which one of my co-workers brought me last week. Scott's already eaten them - the review was very good!

One of the disadvantages of marriage is that if you like a certain kind of food, and your spouse doesn't like that food or is allergic to it, it tends to disappear from your cooking repetoire. So I am taking advantage of the fact that Scott is working tonight to make myself some Shrimp Scampi. Yum. But honestly, this seems to be a very small trade-off in the grand scheme of things...

Yes, I'm still doing this blogging thing...

I could imagine how one might think that this crafty-caroline thing has been abandoned. What with the limited posts and all...
Actually, however, life has been nuts and blogging seems to have fallen victim to lack of time. Since I last posted, I've been doing two jobs - my new job, and the old one which is still ongoing until sometime in the middle of June, commuting to Philly for a few days as week, finalizing the deal on the house, and being a supportive and helpful daughter as my mom and Marsha got Civil-Union-ized. Oh, and we're planning the move, which is probably not that difficult considering all that we have to do is have the moving people show up and they pack up all our crap. Not to gloat, but there is no move like a full service move. But we still have to get things organized, get our asses into temporary housing and clean this place up.
In the midst of the mayhem, I received a great package from my Secret Pal last week, which included a beautiful skein of Socks that Rock (yay!), More Sensational Socks, some yummy chocolate, bath salts and jelly bellys. Thank you secret pal! I'm so looking forward to making some cool socks!