Last weekend was my friend’s last weekend in Ann Arbor. As he had never been to Blimpy Burger, and I had never been to Blimpy Burger, it was obvious that we had to go. Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger is an Ann Arbor institution, complete with long lines and tasty burgers. This is not a place for the health-conscious, nor is it a place for people who expect servers to dote upon them. You have to wait in the inevitable line, and be prepared to know exactly what you want when they ask you. This is not always an easy decision. They boast 2,147,483,648 possible combinations, so there are plenty of choices. (They even have a set of instructions about how to correctly place your order. They may make fun of you if you don’t follow their rules.) First, you have to choose how many patties you want. No, you can’t get just one. I ordered a double with a fried egg and grilled onions, while Logan ordered a quad with bacon. You can get a quint if you’re really hungry.

They put your patties on the griddle right when you order them, so you see every step of your burgers preparation. It’s hard to tell exactly what it is that makes these burgers so good, but you can tell that it’s not your standard grilling technique. The patties are pounded flat in the process, and the griddle is extra hot, so the edges get a tad crispy around the edge. Logan’s pretty sure there’s some Worcestershire sauce in there somewhere too. Either way, it’s hard to reproduce the burger at home. Logan’s tried.

All in all, I have to say that it was a tasty treat. Between the onion rings, and the hefty burger though, I can’t let this become a habit. I did find myself wishing they had avocado as one of their many topping choices, but I can see how it’d be hard to do in such an assembly line fashion. I’m pretty sure this was also my first time having egg on a burger. It’s not something I would’ve thought to do on my own, but it worked. Nom.

Nom, indeed.

Photo courtesy of phil dokas and used under a Creative Commons license.

Master Labeler
I’ve always had a fondness for label makers. In the beginning of the month, my good friend was preparing to move to New York. Her apartment in New York would be quite a bit smaller than here, so she was downsizing. After she had labeled a great many things (including the master labeler), she left it for me.

Happy birthday to me!
Ah, birthdays. This year, my husband surprised me with a shiny new monitor. It’s beautiful. And between it and my heated footrest, I can have a much better posture than I used to. (Not that I always do. But still.) So much desktop space! So pretty!

Sunflower in Progress
I took this picture with my shiny new smartphone. It’s wi-fi enabled, and I had just gotten it. I was terribly amused that I could take a picture and upload it to flickr all from my phone. I could’ve even made the blog post with my phone, but I chose not to.

Garlic Basil Flatbread
Awhile ago, I learned about Mark Bittman’s flatbread recipe. It’s quite simple, and quite customizable. Given my love for bread, it’s kind of amazing I don’t make it more often. This was the creation of choice for that Wednesday. It was rather tasty, although I still need to tweak how I make these.

Tada! One month of Wordless Wednesdays. Check.

Here’s just a few words about where I went:

#1: Café Zola
Logan and I went here for our anniversary last year. I really want to go back and try their breakfast menu – they’re known for their crepes and brunches, and also their lines, unfortunately. While their dinner was tasty (I had scallops, I think), it seemed a tad overpriced, and it seems breakfast is where they really shine.

#2: Quarter Bistro
This restaurant is near our old place, and has a giant head of garlic hanging above the entrance. It was also damaged by a fire awhile back. It was one of those places we’d been meaning to go to for awhile, but we never got around to it until both of our parents were in town. I had some delicious butternut squash ravioli (complete with heavy cream sauce), and everyone raved about their desserts.

#3: Chia Shiang
This is the place to go for vegetarian/vegan Chinese food in Ann Arbor. They have so many different meat substitutes I hadn’t even heard of them all. I think I tried a beef-like dish (Orange Sue pao perhaps), but I liked my husband’s actual Chicken with cashews a bit better.

#4: Carson’s American Bistro
Logan and I just recently went here around Valentine’s Day. I was quite pleased to be seated right next to the fireplace. I like heat. A standard American restaurant. Nothing too fancy, but well executed. I had a delicious Cobb salad that fed me for a few meals.

#5: The Blue Leprechaun
This is a relatively new restaurant on campus, and I went here with a co-worker once when we wanted to try something new for lunch. A cute Irish pub-like place. It was pretty empty at the time, but I imagine it picks up in the evening. I had an Irish breakfast thing – potatoes, eggs, cheese, etc. Comfort food. Delicious.

The first stop on our tour were the three inside the Bead Gallery/Adorn Me shops. This one above the landing (it has matching fairy windows!):

This one in the back corner of the shop:

And this one right by the door:

Close by, you can see the one inside the library – appropriately in the Fairytales and Folklore section:

“Please do not touch. These books are out of circulation. Besides there may be someone living in them.”

Heading across town, we come to Jefferson Market and Cakery (yum!):

Back to the downtown area. Coming up Ashley, there are three shops that all have their own doors.
Red Shoes (a really cute, quirky little shop):

Serendipity Salon:

and Hathaway’s Hideaway:

Then to Sweetwaters for some Italian soda and another fairy door/room:

Of all the doors, though, I think I like Crazy Wisdom’s best:

It’s just beautiful!

Peaceable Kingdom’s door looks quite normal from the outside:

But from the inside you see the door is just the beginning. There are windows in the bottom of the front display giving you a glimpse of this fairy’s life. Quite the collector of odd little things:

After the Peaceable Kingdom, I continued down Main Street to The Ark to see the Fairy Ticket Window:

and door:

Sadly, the tickets fell out of the slot for the ticket window, so I couldn’t take my own fairy ticket with me. Next time, though.

Turning around, we come to the Selo/Shevel Gallery on the other side of the street. On one of the Liberty-facing windows, you’ll catch a glimpse of a fairy who needs no door and prefers to travel via window instead (perhaps I missed an actual door?):

That was the last fairy door on the walk, but I know there are a few others out there. Google has one, but I don’t know if they’ll let the public in to see it. I’ll have to ask. Nicola’s Books on the west side of town also has one. I might have to stop by to see it for myself sometime. There are a few more too, in private homes, elementary schools, and who knows where else? Fairies are tricksy creatures, and they don’t always like to be found. Check out Urban Fairies for some inside info on where they were first found and where they might be hiding now.

From The AVA’s FAQ:

A volksmarch is a non-competitive 3.1 mile (5 kilometer) or 6.2 mile (10 kilometer) walk. It’s not a pledge walk, it’s not a race, it is a fun activity you do with a club, with your family, with your pet, or all by yourself.

Perfect! A non-competitive 10k just for the sake of going for a walk. When I got home, I looked more into them, and discovered that we had a local club and that on April 5th they were hosting a “Walk Among the Urban Fairies, Dragons, & Trolls of Ann Arbor.” Those of you who’ve read my 101 Things list also know that one of my goals is to go on a local fairy door tour. How could I pass up this opportunity to do both?

I couldn’t. So, yesterday, I headed out to go find the Urban Fairies and walk all around town. I have to say, the whole thing was very organized, and I was quite impressed. (The weather was nice too, which is surprising given today’s snow.) Anyway, the walk took me all over – from downtown to Kerrytown, from central campus to the athletic campus, from previously undiscovered parks to previously undiscovered Cakeries, and back downtown again. Along the way, the directions pointed out dragons in the architecture, fairy doors in the buildings, trolls in the law quad, and even Ferry Field – where Jesse Owens set four world records in 1935.

I saw a lot of good things, but you’ll see most of the fairy doors in my next post. Here’s just a smattering of what I found on this walk:

The first daffodil I saw of the season. Too bad it didn’t look so happy. Bet it looks even worse covered with snow today.

One of the first 6 university presidents all troll-like in a law quad arch.

The Library has some interesting books, too. “Please do not touch. These books are out of circulation. Besides there may be someone living in them.”

(I actually had to double-back and find the library door after finishing the walk. I passed it on the 10k before the library opened.)

I was quite pleased that these are non-competitive walks, and liked the fun nature of the event – the organizers even made you walk and spin the cube three times to make it a proper 10k. Between the 6th and 7th kilometer I was getting pretty worn out, so it was nice to pause and rest at the Jefferson Market & Cakery checkpoint around kilometer 8. I think I’ll definitely be doing some more of these, and I really think that Volkssporting is a great idea. The next one is at the Leslie Science and Nature Center in May. Should be fun.

In the end, however, it didn’t really inspire me to change my life or anything, but it’s nice to know that I can do it without a lot of trouble.

Back in September, I’d been training for a 5k with my friends. We registered for and ran the Big House, Big Heart race. I’d been starting to have some issues with my knee, and the others were fighting off various illnesses, so none of us were in top form. That said, we stuck together, and only needed to walk a little bit. This was my first (and only so far) race with a chip, so that was exciting. I finished in 34:10, which was really quite good for me. Sadly, since then, I’ve let me knee and the weather keep me from running much. It’d be good for me to get back into, provided I can keep myself to a schedule where my knee slowly strengthens.

Anyway. This item is done! Checked off!

P.S. I originally blogged about it here.

He’s a colorful little octopus, with a mischievous little grin. I had a blast making him (although I did get a little sick of the legs after doing 8 of them…) He’s got pipe cleaners in his legs to make him pseudo-posable, and he was sent off on his travels after a brief stay here with me.

After finishing up with Charles, I had a fair bit of yarn leftover, and I wanted to try my hand at something a little more complicated. So, since I always have a need for new socks, I thought I’d try my hand at a pair of those. The first time I tried, I got to the heel, was convinced I was doing it wrong when I got to the part about short rows. (I’d never done them before, the pattern didn’t explicitly say that you didn’t knit all the stitches on the needle, just gave a count, and I had no clue what I was doing!) So, I ripped the whole thing out. Then, of course, I found a Sock 101 page (which now seems to be broken), and realized I was doing it correctly all along. Ah well – I tried again, and made these:

They’re fun, and colorful, washable, etc, but unfortunately, I made them just a tad small, and the fabric isn’t the most comfortable for walking around all day. I’ll probably still wear them around the house a little – they’re extra thick, designed to be slipper socks, so they’ll stick around. I think I’ll try socks again, but not with this yarn, and I’ll err on the side of too big next time.

When I worked on the socks, I ran out of yarn just before finishing, so I had to buy another large skein, which meant, of course, I had to knit something else with it, too. Deciding to continue with the increasing complexity trend, I decided to try my hand at some fingerless gloves with a mitten cap. (Glittens!) I was afraid of the pattern at first, but I didn’t really need to be. It’s not as hard as you might think. I’m really happy with these. My glittens don’t quite match, as I changed my mind about how far up I wanted the finger part to go after finishing the first one, but I still wear them all the time now. So, these definitely qualify for my “knit something useful” goal. Check! I’m still pondering about lining with mitten cap with a soft, fuzzy fabric for added warmth, but I haven’t yet.
It’s a mitten!


No, wait! It’s a glove!

Now that I’ve started knitting again, I’ve been doing a lot of it. I’ve got a number of projects and some dreams. This morning I put the finishing touches on a hat for my friend Peter, I’ve got a scarf in the works for Logan, and a super-secret project too. I’m getting the urge to start a sweater, but we’ll see. I’m in love with this pattern, but I think it’ll be awhile before I get there. I’m finding I’m getting better though – I wasn’t sure the hat would work out at all, but by the time it was all done, lo and behold, it did, even with me modifying all the stitch counts to match my gauge! Do you like it?

Back on August 11, I went on my first (and only so far) AABTS bike ride. It was a Monday night, and I biked over to Beth and Nathan’s to meet up with them before the ride. They hadn’t been biking in awhile, and I was a bit nervous about biking with a group too. I’m not terribly fast, and this This was the “Civilized Ride” – a slow ride to the Dairy Queen in Dexter and back. It was a beautiful ride there by the river, but our group was definitely much slower than the rest of them, and the hills took their toll on us. The ride leader stayed back with Beth, Nathan, and I to make sure we didn’t get lost or anything. There was one section of road that was in the process or being repaved, and biking on that was not a lot of fun. I was quite thankful for the rest stop when we finally got to the Dairy Queen. A caramel sundae sure was tasty. Still no sign of the other riders though – I guess we were just that far behind. The ride back seemed long, the hills tiring, and I was ready to get home. My knees were starting to bother me with this trip. I think I pushed myself a little too hard. At least the view was nice when the sun was setting over the fields. Even saw a couple of deer. I think I’ll have to do some more preparing if I want to go on another one of their rides. The leaders were all quite nice, but I still felt a little bad keeping them back. We’ll see what happens next summer!

After my post-doc friend moved away at the end of July, I decided it would be a good time to tackle item #45 on my 101 things list. He was a coffee buddy whenever we needed out of the office or lab, so it seemed right to have a little break from coffeeshops when he was gone. (We miss him!) My coffee-shop hiatus was a success though, and I lasted two weeks without buying anything. It was a little hard towards then end. Thankfully, the two weeks were over on our local coffee shop’s Latte Day. $2 lattes. Any size. It was nice to have one. I made the following photo on the day I resumed my trips to the coffee shop. (It was also useful for an Utatan project – Diptych with a Message.)

Coffee Break! (Get it? I had a break from coffee, and when I went back, I took a coffee break! Ha! Sorry, ignore me. I think I need sleep.)