More Lemons

またレモン収穫。片付いていない台所で失礼。

採れたレモンでレモンケーキ作った。
切ってラップにくるんで冷凍しておけばいつでもおやつにレモンケーキ。

Got more lemons from our former lime tree and made a lemon cake. (Well, 2 loaves, actually)
The Man of the House took some to work to give away and someone tried to eat it thinking it was an orange. They don't look like lemon but they are definitely lemon.

Green Minoru Jacket: Day 1

着るのが楽なニット素材の服ばかり作っているので、重い腰をあげてワンランク上の縫製技術を目指してジャケットを作ることにしました。
型紙の名前が「ミノル」っていうんだわ。
とりあえず初日は型紙のアイロンがけから始めます。
おはな紙みたいに超薄い紙に印刷されている型紙は、折りたたまれて封筒に入っているのでアイロンがけは結構重要なのです。

With my serger and coverstitch machine, it has been so fun making knit clothes. But I have been in my comfort zone too long, so I am going to raise the bar.
Yes, woven.

My next project is Sewaholic Pattern's Minoru Jacket.
Day 1 of Minoru starts with ironing the tissue patterns. I'm surprised there are only 2 sheets of tissue papers.

Gertie's Knit Skirts

先日買った本の型紙を使って、ニットのタイとスカートを作りました。
なんと型紙たったの1枚。前身ごろも後ろ身ごろも同じ型紙使用。
その上なんとウエストはゴムっ。
ニット生地はヨガパンツに使ったあまり布でとてもよく伸び縮みするので車の乗り降りなんかも楽チンです。
多分小学生が家庭科で巾着袋作るぐらいのレベルの簡単さでした。

その上、この本には型紙を改造する方法も載っていて、このタイとスカートの型紙をベースにして、6枚はぎのすそひろがりスカートに改造してみたりしました。
この布はやっぱりヨガパンツに使ったあまり布。ニット服は使う量が少なくていい。
パー子さん並に全身ピンクなアラフォーです。イェイ。

I made knit skirts from Gertie's book that I purchased the other day.

The first one is the straight skirt. I shortened by 4" because (1) I'm short; and (2) because my legs are short, below-knee length does not look good on me.

There is only 1 pattern for the skirt. The front and back skirt use the same pattern.
Even though this is a straight skirt, with Lycra in the double knit and the elastic waist, it is a very comfy skirt. No problem getting in and out of an SUV.

What's great about this Gertie's book is that it has instruction to modify the basic pattern.
So for my second version, I modified the straight skirt pattern to make a gored skirt. Still uses same pattern for front and back, but the front has now 3 pieces sew together with a little bit of flare at the hem.

Both fabrics are left-over from my Jalie yoga pants. I sew the seams with my serger and used coverstitch for waist and hem.
I love the comfort of elastic waist and knit fabric with Lycra, and yet it is still work appropriate.
I am so glad to have bought this book.

Lemons

今年もレモンの時期がやってきました。今年は色が変わるのが早い。
ちなみに先週、今年最後のナスとしし唐をグリルして食べました。
これで花壇は春まで手付かずかな。

Lemons from our lime tree. (The lime part of the tree died from the frost a few years ago and the root stock part of the tree, which was lemon, has grown perfectly healthy.)
I don't think these lemons are any less quality just because it was a root stock. They look rather round for a lemon but perfectly tart.

I'm looking for a good recipe that uses a lot of lemons but other than lemonade, not very many recipes call for more than a table spoon of juice.
I made a batch of lemon bar, which only used 3 lemons (2/3 cup).
Hmmmm what can I make with buckets of lemons to come...

Banana Bread

仕事に持っていくお弁当には果物を必ずひとつ入れるんだけど、オットがお弁当不要な日が続いて、バナナが余ってしまったのでバナナブレッドを作りました。

ちなみに夕ご飯は春巻きでした。
春巻きの中身は残り物のグリルした海老に焼きそばと牛そぼろを混ぜてみました。
一般的な春巻きの具をかなり超越しています（笑）

Since bunch of bananas were getting ripen on the kitchen counter, I baked banana nut bread.

Also made eggrolls for dinner. The contents of the eggrolls were: left-over grilled shrimp, yakisoba, ground beef. I know, I have gotten too far away from traditional eggrolls these days.

Spelunking at Peppersauce Cave

洞窟探検に行ってきました。

ペッパーソースというこの洞窟は、実はかなり知られている割には、町や州のオフィシャルガイドには載っていない洞窟で、公道から見えるところには標識すらありません。
実は先月一度行ってみたものの洞窟自体を見つけるのに時間がかかりすぎて、洞窟が見つかったころにはタイムアップで矯正終了という結果に終わった洞窟だったのです。

洞窟はうちから1時間半ぐらいの山にあり、今回は行ったらもう車が10台ぐらいとまってた。どうもボーイスカウトか何かのグループだったよう。駐車場とかもちろん無いので、未舗装のくねくね道路の路肩に駐車。
幸い私たちが洞窟に入ったころには団体グループは洞窟を出るころで、ちょうど良かったです。

さて、洞窟探検だけど、いや、自分の限界を見ました。肉体のではなく、精神的に。
自分でもびっくりしたね。閉所恐怖症な症状が出るとは思ってもいませんでした。

観光向けに歩きやすくなってる洞窟とは大違いで、完全に自然なままで、ものすごいタイトスペースな割れ目をカニ歩きで進んだり、それこそ手にひざで這い蹲って進んだりしなくちゃならないわけよ。
それはいいの、それは。泥まみれなのもいいの。

問題は、1時間半ほど進んだ、洞窟の一番奥（多分）のほうで、岩の間の、高さ40センチぐらいの間を3メートルぐらい進まなくてはならなかったところ（下記写真参照。ちなみに写真は一緒に行ったお友達）。

自分の体全部がこの狭い岩の間に入ったところで、ビミョーにパニック症状発生。
膝をつくどころか、ひじをつくこともできない。体勢を変えることも出来ない。
頭を上げて先を見るのが精一杯。
完全に腹ばいで岩の上を滑って進むような状態でやっと中間点。
完全に体全部が巨大な岩と岩の間。
急に心臓バクバクしだした。

最悪なのが、私が一番体が小さいから、自ら進んで1番手で様子見てくると入ったので、後1.5メートルほど進んでも広い場所に出れるかすらわからず、なんだかとっても不安になったのでした。

唯一ある地図はほぼ役立たずで自分たちが洞窟のどこにいるのかもわからず、岩肌にスプレーで矢印が書いてあったりするけどどれを信じていいのかもわからず、大体「初心者用」とか「上級者用」とかのコースがあるわけでもなく、全くの未知の世界をそれこそ手探りで進んでいる状態で、ヘッドライト消したら自分の手がどこにあるかも見えない漆黒の闇で、今ここで過呼吸になったら最悪だな、と思ったら余計に不安になって、もし具合悪くなっても自力で洞窟から出るのにあと1時間はかかるのか、とか思ったらまた余計不安になって、とにかく岩と岩、40センチの間でびっくりするほどパニクりました。

リュックしょっては通れないような狭い穴とかを通り抜けたりするので、もし本当に洞窟内で怪我とかしたら、レスキュー隊、大変だろうな、と思いました。
実際、泥と湿度でどこも非常に滑りやすく、ちょっと間違ってあたったら頭蓋骨割れるな、って思うようなとがった岩ばかり。
へき地なので、洞窟から出ても、救急車では最寄の病院まで遠すぎるからヘリコプター出動になるようなところです。
ちなみにヘリコプターで救出されると、ヘリコプター代だけで軽く100万円ぐらいかかります。
そんなことも考えて余計不安の悪スパイラルなのでした。

そのあと先もしばらくかなり狭いところが続いて、心臓のバクバクも止まらず、あたし、もうだめかも、と思ったけど、おやつ休憩とって糖分とったらたらなんとか持ち直せました。（腹減ってただけか？）
2時間強ぐらいで洞窟から出てきたころには気分上場で、また来てもいいかな、とか思ったり。
のどもとすぎれば、ってやつだな。

This is the correct orientation of the photo, by the way.

Went to spelunking at Peppersauce Cave.

First of all, "spelunking" is my most favorite English word so I like using it. I just like the sound of the word. Sounds very cheerful and fun for some reason. Interesting combination of the sound.

Anyway, the Peppersauce Cave. I had never heard of it until a friend mentioned it a couple of months ago, but the Peppersauce Cave is I guess pretty well known around here. It's all natural cave and many people visit there. But is is never mentioned in any of the state's or town's official visitor guide. There is not even a sign visible from the road. I guess no governmental entity wants to maintain this cave because it is probably just too cost prohibitive to make it a tourist friendly place. Just too much liability, I guess.

The cave is off of a winding dirt road. There is no actual parking spot, but there is a good place to park a few cars without blocking the traffic.

We actually tried to find the cave last month. The thing is, when we Googled it, the map was pointing at a totally different place. So we were looking for the cave for a couple of hours in the entirely wrong place. By the time we actually found the cave, it was just too late to go in.



The cave is at the 2nd bridge after Peppersauce Campground if you are coming from Oracle.
Park your car after the left curve, walk back to the bridge, go down into the wash from the right side of the bridge.
The main entrance to the cave is to your right, up on the hill surface, just past the cave sign.

Few things I leaned:
-The cave is very humid. While it's not hot, it is not cool either so definitely a short sleeve T shirt weather in there.

-You will need a good pair of hiking shoes. The ground is packed clay dirt over a rock so very slippery and muddy at many places.

-Wear long pants. Some places, I had to climb up some slippery slope on hands and knees. While the shoes lost traction, the jeans helped.

-Wear gloves. This is not hiking. I had to grab rocks and cling onto dirt surfaces a lot and gloves really helped and kept my hands clean, which was nice when I wanted to take cell phone pictures or get a snack/water out of my backpack.

-Wear a hat. A baseball cap will do. So many low ceiling tight spots with jagged rock.

-Bring a protein bar in addition to water/sports drink. It took about a good 2 hours to come out of the cave, and you will need some good dense snack to take a break at one point in the cave.

-Good LED headlight is a must. Multiple sources of light is nice so I recommend going with a group. I went in a group of 3, each with a headlight, and that helped illuminate the cave well. In addition to my head light, I also had one small hand-held flash light (the kind that you can get it for free at Harbor Freight) with a strap. The strap was very helpful while using ladders (there are a couple places that you have to climb up/down the ladders) or when I had to grab rocks. The size of the flash light (approx. 3.5") and its cheapness were also nice so I don't have to worry about banging it around. (I know many of the maglights don't even come with a place to hook a strap, which I don't understand. Hand-held flashlight without a strap is useless in any occasion.)

-Bring a change of clothes, and make sure to bring a change of shoes. Also don't forget a garbage bag to put the dirty shoes/clothes in. Not only will you be more comfortable in clean clothes on your way home, your car (and the owner of your vehicle if different from you) will also appreciate it.

-If you have any inclination of claustrophobia, this cave may not be a good idea. (Well, any cave for that matter but...) Because not only are you going through some tight sports, like you have to craw or you have to take your back pack off, but also you may be 1 hour into the cave, and it will take another hour to get out. (And if you do need medical attention for any sickness or injury, you will more likely to require an air evac because the area is too rural for a ground transport, which will cost you easily $10k.)

I never thought I was claustrophobic. But I had some serious panicked moments while I was on my belly, between the ground and a huge rock, less than 1.5 foot high, where I couldn't stand on my knees or pull myself up on my elbow, barely enough height to lift my head up, totally flat on the ground for about 10 feet.

At half way through the 10 foot crawl, I realized that my entire body was totally under this very low ceiling, horizontal fissure. My heart started beating really, really fast. It must be what some people feel when they are in an MRI machine. But it's worse because no one will pull you out in a second in the cave, and it still takes another hour to get out of the cave.

It's funny how different it feels to be in the 1.5 feet fissure when you are flat belly down when compared to walking through a vertical fissure of 1.5 feet wide.

So, that was my spelunking experience. We all enjoyed the experience and I'm sure the guys want to come back and explore more of the numerous off shoots ways through the cave.
Today, I am just suffering from all the muscle pain.

Butterick B5044 Polka Dot Pajama Shorts

ワニ柄の布で作った短パンの型紙で、またしてもパジャマ短パンを作りました。
ま、パジャマって言ってもこれ着て犬の散歩とかするけどね。
型紙はバタリックの5044番。
ちなみにTシャツの裾がナミナミしてるのは、このTシャツが私作ではなく、オット用に買った安物の既製品だからです。

ポケットもついてるんだけど、見えないね。

I made another shorts from Butterick B5044. Still shorts weather inside the house.

Last time, I made a size Small and it still felt baggy. This time, I tried size XS and I can tell that it is tighter. I should stick with size S if I am to make another pair or sew the seam with less seam allowance.

I made a View C with flap pocket. But the pocket is pretty much buried in the polka dot pattern and almost invisible on the pants.

By the way, the reason why my T-shirt hem is so twisted is because it was not made by me.
This is what happens when we buy cheap T shirts for the Man of the House from JC Penny. Something that is intolerable now that I have learned to sew. (Plus the T shirt shrunk after 1 wash and thus it is now mine.)

McCall's 7014 Red Dress

赤いワンピースを作ってみたくて、作ってみた。
型紙は以前も使ったマッコールの７０１４番という奴で、前作ったのはストレートスカートバージョンだったけど、今回はフレアバージョンで。
あまりにも赤すぎて、クリスマスかバレンタインしか着れないかも。

I wanted a red dress, so I made one.
But maybe the red was too red that I'm afraid I can only wear it for Christmas and Valentine's Day, or a Chinese wedding.

The pattern I used is McCall's M7014. My previous version was a straight skirt and this time I tried the flare skirt version.

I made a View C, a sleeveless with flare skirt version. As the photo below shows, I actually tried to make a View D with 3/4 sleeves. However, I encountered issues with armhole and I had to ditch the sleeves.

Like my previous version, I used knit fabric instead of woven. I used poly/lycra scuba knit with embossed pattern. 

This was my first experience with scuba knit, so here are some of my thoughts of the fabric:

- Beefy! Very substantial. 

- I had to test various combination of thread tension and presser foot pressure. 

- Used longer stitch length.

- Ripped seams show. I don't know if it's the scuba knit or the embossing, but once the needle poked a hole, it stayed visible.

- Good for cold weather. I guess I do not want to wear this in summer time.

- Surprisingly, pressed very well. The below photo shows pressed seam on left and unpressed seam on right. 

Last time, I cut a size 12 and went through a lot of alteration. This time, because the scuba knit has very good stretch and recovery, I went down to a whopping size 6 to fit my upper back. The back fits well and no pool of fabric for my sway back. Love the back contouring.

Changes I made:
- Let out side seams at waist 3/8" to accommodate my rectangular body.
- Pinched out about 5/8" from back neck for gaping neck and blended in to CB seam at about 4" down.
- Trimmed off a bit of the flare from the skirt's side panels.
- Changed the front neck slit to a V neck.
- Bound the arm holes with purchased double fold bias binding.

As I mentioned earlier, I originally wanted sleeves, I did put one sleeve in. However, it turned out not wearable. Because this pattern is made for woven fabric and I made it a more form fitting than the pattern's intention, the arm hole was too low, the sleeve was very uncomfortable when I moved my arm up. The arm hole did not have enough fabric to even attach a bias tape as a facing and that's why I had to use bias tape to bind the arm hole. I'm glad that the color of the pre-made bias tape matched the dress very well.

Things I should do differently next time:
- Don't use ivory color lining for a very red dress.
- Raise the arm hole.
- I could pinch a bit at back princess seam at the arm hole.
- I should probably stabilize the neck line. I don't know if the V shape will hold in this dress since I did not apply any stabilizer (The V neck was totally an afterthought).
- Trim the bust darts. I did not even think of trimming (I had never sewed fashion fabric this beefy), and I had some sub-par pressing, and one of the darts looks pretty bad.

Comment from the Man of the House: "the neck line is too floppy." He is even more critical than I am.

I had fun sewing and I think the dress looks rather fancy for a poly knit dress.

"Edge of Tomorrow"

トム・クルーズ主演の映画、「オール・ユー・ニード・イズ・キル」を最初に見たのはもうけっこう前なんだけど、原作が日本の小説だったってオットに言われるまで知らなかった。
オットが原作を読みたいというので図書館で借りて（英語翻訳版）、オットが読み終わった後で私も読んでみました。

感想は、ちなみに、イマイチ（爆）話が、ではなく、文章のテンポやスタイルが（翻訳だからか？）。めずらしく、原作より映画のほうが良かったです。
締めに映画版も見直してみました。やっぱりトム・クルーズ映画は、なんだかんだ言ってちゃんとどれもいい娯楽作品なのがすごい。

I had watched Tom Cruise's recent movie, Edge of Tomorrow, a while ago and I did not know that it was based on a Japanese light novel, "All You Need Is Kill."
The Man of the House wanted to read it so I got it from the library and I read it after he was done.

Well, this is one of the rare occasion that I say the movie was better than the book.
I did not like the writing style and tempo of the story. It was just not good writing and I had to force myself to finish it. Thank goodness it was a "light" novel.

As it has been the routine, we finished the book with the movie. The movie is quite different from the book actually, so nothing redundant.

I also watched The Bourne Identity right after Edge of Tomorrow, not knowing it was done by the same director. I really like The Bourne series. Maybe I should read the original novel... (if only I could read faster.)

Sewing Book Purchase

気になっていた裁縫の本を図書館で借りたら期待以上だったので、即刻購入。

I have borrowed Gertie's book Gertie Sews Vintage Casual from the library.
Well, as soon as flipped through, I knew I had to get it for myself, and I did.

I have been following Gertie's blog for a while now but the vintage style isn't really my thing, so I usually just enjoy reading the blog and that's it. I wasn't particularly drawn to her first book either as far as I can see from Amazon's "look inside" feature.

But I really liked the design of her underwear pattern from Butterick, and I recently bought her blouse pattern when Butterick patterns were on sale at Joann. So I decided to get this book from the library.

It's the great thing about the library system: I can just borrow it to see if I like it and if not, that's fine too.

Anyway, I really like this book. I have not read the first part (the "how-to" part) all the way, but I just like all the designs of the patterns included. There are 10 patterns of basic wardrobe building patterns included in the book, and what's more is that there are instructions to alter the patterns to make variety of different design variations. A fitted sweater pattern can be a cropped sweater top or cardigan, a knit pencil skirt pattern can be an A-line skirt or a gored skirt.

I really like all the patterns and variations (maybe except for a jumpsuit variation). This book is definitely worth the price.

Fall Outing

最近やっと秋らしくなってきました。
毎年行ってみたいと思いつつ、機会をのがしていたトウモロコシ畑迷路に行ってきました。
巨大なトウモロコシ畑が迷路になっているわけです。

この国に住んでもう10年以上たったけど、これやるの初めて。
迷路の中は、2メートル級のとうもろこしに囲まれて、自分がどこにいるのかさっぱりわかりません。
オットとお友達の男子二人が導いてくれたので、私はただただついていくだけ。
彼ら二人はよくただのとうもろこしの道を見て、「ここ1回通ったな」とかよくわかるな。
上級者向けは45分ぐらいかかる、ってガイドの人に言われたけど、そのとおりちょうど45分で出られたよ。

迷路のあとは、梨狩り。
えぇ、ここの農園にはなんと洋ナシではなく、日本の梨が育っているのです！
二十世紀！幸水！
それも自分でとってその場で食べる分は食べ放題。（持って帰る分は量り売り）
たわわに実る梨。梨狩りは男子にまかせて、私は一人、もいでは食う、もいでは食う。

梨狩りするのも初めてだけど、皮付きで梨を食べたのも、梨を丸かじりして食べたのも生まれて初めてでした。（アメリカ人、基本的に皮むかない）
とてもしやわせな一日でした。

Now that the weather has finally turn to fall, we went out to a orchard/farm for fall outing.

The purpose of this outing was a corn maze. This farm has a pretty big corn maze in October and I always wanted to go. Yes, it was my first time ever in the corn maze.
We got out in 45 minutes. It was fun.

The other purpose was to do pear picking. This orchard has many varieties of Asian pears. Pears are my most favorite food in the world and they have 20th Century pears and Kosui pears.

The good thing about this orchard is that "tasting is encouraged." Yes, as long as you are in the orchard, it's basically all you can eat... I let the guys do the picking and I just ate pears. Ah, it was wonderful.

By the way, it was also my first time ever eating pears with skin still on, and eating pears whole for that matter. We civilized Japanese peel and cut pears.

DIY Tablet Cover

義母用にタブレットを買いました。義母はあまりコンピューター操作に詳しくないので、オットは送る前にメールのセッティングをしたり、ゲームや遠隔操作用のアプリなどをインストール。
私はタブレットを入れるスリーブを作ろうかと思ったんだけど、時間がなかったのでその辺にあったノートを利用してタブレットカバーを作りました。

作り方。
１．ノート確保。かなり硬い厚紙がついているので強度抜群。カバーはプラスチック。またこれがタブレットにちょうどいい大きさなんだわ。

A perfectly sized spiral bound notebook with thick cardboard at the bottom and plastic cover. (Mead notebook will work if the size is right)

２．タブレットの大きさに切った別の厚紙にかわいい布を張る。これはユザワで買ったビニールコーティングされてる布。

Cut another piece of cardboard a size of the tablet and cover it with fabric. This is a vinyl coated fabric I bought in Japan.

 ３．こんな感じ。ノートのカバーにも同じ布を張っておく。

Covered piece. Also cover the notebook cover with same fabric. Since the vinyl coated fabric does not fray, I just cut the fabric the same as as the cover page (less the spine side edge where binding holes are)

 ４．厚紙の角にゴムをつける。セロテープで張って長さを調節してるとこ。

Add pieces of elastic on the 4 corners of the cardboard. I used scotch tape temporarily then hot glued them down securely.

 ５．角こんな感じ。

The corner elastic on the cardboard piece.

 ６．この厚紙をノートの内側に貼り付ける。

Hot-glue the cardboard piece to the notebook.

 ７．タブレット装着。

Tablet inserted.

 ８．ノート閉じたらこんな感じ。このノート、もともと端にゴムが着いていたので、ノートのカバーを閉じてゴムでくくれて便利。

This is how it looks with the notebook closed. The notebook came with the side elastic so it can hold the front cover page securely closed.

 ９．立てても使えます。

Sturdy enough to use it standing too.

The Man of the House bought a tablet for his mother. While he was pre-installing apps for her, I made a tablet cover using a notebook.
To be honest, it looks rather a bit too "DYI" for my taste as a gift but if she does not like it, she can throw it away, it's only an empty notebook shell.

One Year Seizure Free

てんかんもちのライチですが、年取ってきたせいか、最近はすっかり症状が落ち着いて、なんと最後の発作からもう1年もたっていました。
12歳だけど、いまだにハイパーです。

Our little one has been on medication for epileptic seizure for the past 7 years. Maybe because her metabolism and brain activity is slowing down from aging, she has been doing pretty well and she is now 1 year seizure free.

For a while, she was taking 1.5 pills of 1/4 grain phenobarbital and 1 pill of 125mg potassium bromide twice a day. We went down the phenobarb to 1.25 pills twice a day, and now she gets 1 pill twice a day (plus K bromide).

She gets tired easily now that she's 12 years old (assuming she was about a year old when we took her in), but when she's up and running, she is still the same "forever puppy."
I try to prepare myself for her death that will come in the very near future. I just hope that I will be there when she crosses the rainbow and that she won't die while she is having a seizure.
Ah, dogs.

Dog Walking: Flower

めずらしく、2週続けてシェルターの散歩ボランティアに行ってきました。
今日は歩いたどの犬も歩きやすい犬ばかりで楽でした。
特にお行儀が良かったのは、7歳のメスのレッドヒーラーのフラワー。
ケージの中でも、外に出てからもとてもおとなしく静かで散歩も上手でした。

Went to dog walking volunteer two weeks in a row.
All the dogs I walked today were easy to walked so it was nice.
Flower is a 7-year-old red heeler. She was very calm in the cage and she walked very nicely outside too.

Jalie 3022 Yoga Pants

この前作った短パンと同じ型紙から、ヨガパンツを作りました。ヨガなんてやったこともないけどね。
型紙はJalieの3022番。
なんかカメラのレンズが小汚かったよう。
布が分厚いので、まだ暑い砂漠でははけません。

I made a yoga pants from Jalie 3022, the same pattern I used for my shorty shorts.
The issue is, I used poly double knit for this pair and the weather is just too hot to wear this pair at this point. So I will wait for the weather to cool down to try them on.