Weekend Recap

I know the weekend's not over yet, but I'm probably not doing much today so I feel safe going ahead with this post. I've already listed all the great things that have happened this week, but I left out a few others and also want to show off some of the neato gifts I received from some generous folks (dear friends and family, that's YOU!) I'll just show you one, from D, which is from a local store:

Cute Shinzi Katoh tote bag from Tigertree

And here is my something crafty to share before I ramble on about non-knitty things - the finished Peter Rabbit scarf using the Misty Garden pattern from Scarf Style:

It's exactly one skein of Fleece Artist Peter Rabbit using US 7 needles

The latest news: remember how I was talking about being 30 and unemployed, yada yada, and then I had my first interview on Friday? Under some very surprising circumstances (me thinking I had bombed the interview), I received a phone call at 5:00pm on Friday and was offered the job. How crazy is that? I can't believe I actually found a job before I turned 30 - with 7 hours to spare. It was certainly a wonderful surprise, and very validating. That said, there are significant pros and cons to this job, and I will have to weigh them out carefully. Compared to Toronto (and perhaps Canada), social service work is an extremely undervalued profession, and unbelievably poorly paid. To have a graduate degree and specialized training, and then be paid such a low wage is really depressing, and insulting (I could probably make more at Starbucks). Focusing on the advantages of the job (such as training I'll receive) barely combats the unjustness of the situation. I could rant for hours and hours about this, but I'll stop now since that's not what this blog is about.

We did have a lovely dinner on Friday night at Rosendales to celebrate birthdays and job offers (D was offered a great job in Pennsylvania - we will be traveling there to check things out. More on that if we decide to go). Rosendales was by far the best meal we have had in Columbus, and having read Restaurant Widow's review, I was even more excited to go (and predictably, "I don't feel like I'm in Columbus!" did come up several times). The food was absolutely delicious and the service was great too - our waiter helpfully offered us several wine choices after consulting with other staff (the chef or sommelier, maybe?). I had the Ahi tuna starter and 48-hour short ribs, and D had the seafood bisque and pork loin. Dessert was the prettiest part of the whole meal - lemon curd with ginger ice cream in a miniature parfait glass, piped with some sort of marshmallowy meringue that had been toasted somehow as not to melt the ice cream.

We had dinner at Akai Hana which was very good - I think the nicest sushi place I have visited in Columbus. Check out the sushi:


Then we went to Momo2 KTV for karaoke and sang (and shouted) our hearts out the rest of the night. I think a great time was had by all - even those who were initially a little shy were belting it out in no time. The group sang a lovely rendition of Sweet Caroline:

And being the birthday girl, I happily sang my share of cheesy classics: I proudly, and loudly, butchered my favourite, Total Eclipse of the Heart, with J and D.

Other side of my canvas tote!