Too Much Going On

Today there is too much going on, but probably not in the way you think. It's actually been a pretty calm day - no after school activities. Here's how there's too much going on...

I started a new knitting project today. It's another mystery KAL (I seem to be into those lately). The theme of this one is Outlander. I like the pattern so far, and I like the yarn, but I'm not so sure I like them together. Here is the yarn:

It's a pretty combination of purples, blues, and grays and it's named Craigh na Dun after the stones that sent Claire back in time. And here it is knit up into the beginnings of the shawl:

I really like the pattern - it has reversible cables which is really cool. I'm just worried that there is too much going on with this yarn and this pattern. I'm afraid that the pattern will get too lost in the colour changes of the yarn. Perhaps as the shawl gets wider the colours will stretch out more and it won't look so busy. I think this pattern would look really lovely on a solid colour yarn. I'll wait until I finish the first clue and then decide if I'm going to tear it out and start again with a solid colour. I bought the yarn specifically for this KAL but if I'm not loving the combination, I won't hesitate to tear it out and use the yarn for something else and grab something from my stash for the KAL.

And speaking of too much going on, we went out for supper tonight and I tried my third Burger Love burger tonight - the Sucker Punch at Phinleys. Here's the picture of it:

Out of the three I've tried so far, I would put this one in third place. The burgers (it has two 4 oz patties) were juicy and not too dense. I would have preferred a single 6 oz burger instead of two patties. The crispy onion tanglers kind of got lost on the burger; I didn't notice any crunch in my burger as I ate it.

I wasn't so sure about the combination of the whipped garlic goat cheese and the cajun chocolate covered bacon. The bacon, well, it's bacon and you can't go wrong with that. It had a subtle chocolate flavour to it but I didn't notice any spiciness from the cajun part of it. The garlic goat cheese tasted out of place to me. Even though there was only a small amount on the burger, it seemed to overpower the other flavours. 

The Sweet & Smokey Cream Sauce and the Chipotle Molasses BBQ Mayo added more flavour to it and they seemed to be competing with each other instead of complementing each other. The Cheddar Jalapeno Kaiser was fresh but like the Dubster, the bottom bun just didn't seem hearty enough to handle all the burger. My bottom bun became soggy with the sauce and mayo combo. It was a messy burger to eat. The burger did come with a bubble gum sucker stuck into it. Since I don't like bubble gum, I will pass it on to J.

I'm glad I tried it because I had been hearing from people about how tasty it was but honestly, it wasn't my taste. There was just too many flavours going on and they all seemed to be competing with each other instead of working together. And honestly, after trying two spicy burgers first, I missed the heat they had. Of course, this is just my opinion and I know a lot of others out there have enjoyed it. I tend to judge the burgers by whether or not I would order them again. And the Sucker Punch goes on the not list. Next time we go to this restaurant, I'll stick with my usual meals.

Oops, I did it again!

Okay, so I hadn't planned on having another Burger Love burger again so soon. I figured I would wait a few days and try another one. But after we worked hard this morning giving the house a good, thorough spring cleaning (even though spring is taking it's sweet time getting here), we went out for lunch. And yes, I had another burger today.

This is the Dubtastic from the Olde Dublin Pub. Things I liked - the fried risotto ball on top was delicious. I forgot to look to see if they offer it as an appetizer. If they don't, they should. The burger itself was juicy and had good flavour. The bacon was candied maple and it added a nice sweetness to counterbalanced the spiciness of the caramelized onions with jalapenos and the chili gouda cheese. The ODP spinach dip was good, but I found it made the bottom bun get soggy and it made the burger a bit messy to eat (they do bring you extra napkins and wet wipes). The romaine lettuce and hickory sticks added a nice crunch to the burger. The bun was fresh but needed to be a little heartier to handle the spinach dip.

I made sure to rate both burgers I've had so far on the website. I rated yesterday's Southern Jack a 9 and today's burger an 8. I will not be having a burger tomorrow! One, I need a break from huge meals like that and two, the weather tomorrow is going to be nasty and I don't plan on going out. :-)  I wonder if my neighbour will venture out tomorrow to try another burger. It's the end of day 3 and he's already tried 5 (he actually has had 6, just one of them he's had twice).

We did do a bunch of house cleaning this morning. The kids' rooms are once again put back in order and neat. The both are bad about putting things away when they are done with them so tonight I made them clean up and put everything away before they got to watch TV. That will be my plan for the next few weeks until they get in the habit of cleaning up when they are done with something.

I did actually get a little time to work on my Snow Queen shawl this afternoon. Unfortunately, I had to take out the one row I did since I made a mistake on stitch 12. Of course I didn't discover it until I was almost at stitch 624. I think it took me twice as long to unknit the row as it did to knit it twice. At that point I put it down and did other things. Hopefully when I pick it back up in a bit I will have better luck. It is the final clue that tells us how to do the edging and the bind-off.

Of course The Unique Sheep had to go and announce their next MKAL - The Once and Future King. This time it will be rectangular instead of circular and use lace weight yarn instead of fingerling. I want to do it because I am enjoying doing MKALs lately so I will be ordering yarn for it. But I won't order the yarn until I finish my Snow Queen shawl. Also, I want to wait a bit since I'm having trouble deciding on a colour for it. I'm hoping that the wonderful dyers at TUS will come up with some new special colourways for this MKAL like they did for the Snow Queen. Of course they came out with those right after I made my SQ choice. So this time I'll wait a bit and see what happens. I don't have to have my order in until June so I have a bit of time. I want something that will tie into the theme but won't be something everyone else uses, so I need to ponder it a bit.

The weather for the next few days is going to suck. Tomorrow is a mix of rain, freezing rain, and snow. Oh, and wind. Sunday is looking like a high chance of flurries. And of course Monday, when J has two different ice sessions for spring hockey, is listed as 'periods of snow'. That's never a good thing. I'm hoping that things will change between now and then. But for now there is a big, bright moon shining outside my window. I'll enjoy it for as long as I can.

Mmmmm Burgers...

Yesterday was April 1st, and around here that means that Burger Love has begun. Burger Love is an event that lasts the entire month of April. Restaurants around the island come up with one-of-a-kind burgers and the best burger wins the right to be kept on the menu. Some burgers are normal and then some are...unique. Like the burger that has ice cream sandwiches for buns...yeah. To see all these burgers, check out Burger Love's website. There are 60 burgers this year which means there is no way I am going to be able to try them all. And I'd be impressed by anyone who was able to try them all. That is 2 burgers a day. Good luck with that!

I did try my first Burger Love burger today. It is called the Southern Jack and it was really good. I had never been to The Whiskey Pub before so I wasn't sure what to expect, both food-wise and decor-wise. It's pretty much a sports bar but the food was really good. The bun was really fresh, the burger was juicy and full of flavour, all the fixings on the burger were fresh and tasty, and it came with a side of fresh-cut fries that were really good. The burger was a good size - some of the burgers on the website look like they are huge. This one filled me up but didn't leave me feeling overfull. All in all, a very good way to start off Burger Love. Here's a picture of the burger:

I'm looking forward to trying some of the other burgers on the list. As I try burgers at different places, I'll share pictures and my review of the burger. I'm hoping that Saturday the weather will cooperate enough to let me get out and try another burger.

Yes, the weather is looking bad for the weekend. Fun! Tonight we're suppose to get some snow and then that snow is to turn to rain on Friday. That's not too much of a problem - the garage has been dry lately even with all the melting. I'm sure we'll get a little water in but they're not calling for a whole lot of rain. Saturday is a bigger concern. We could get more rain or we could snow...like 15 cm of snow. It all depends on how the storm tracks. We'll most likely get snow since our contract with the snow removal people ended yesterday.

Won't that make for a fun Easter weekend? At least we don't have any hockey this weekend. They changed the schedule so we don't have to be in the hockey rink on Easter. I'm glad about that. We can have a relaxing day, looking for eggs in the snow. Or most likely we'll do the hunt in the house. I'll be working this weekend on making our special family dishes that we like to have for holidays so it might be gross outside but it will be fun inside.

Tomorrow is Friday, which means the final clue for my Snow Queen shawl comes out! I'm excited about that but also a little sad. I've really enjoyed working on it and will miss the excitement of a new clue each week. I do have the Solar Flare mystery shawl to keep working for the next few week. And I also have the Hobbit scarf that has been on hold while I've been trying to catch up on the Solar Flare shawl so I'll get to work on that again once the Snow Queen is done. Lots of long term knitting projects are keeping me happy!