Friday, February 17, 2006

hello from Japan!

Hi, everyone! I just wanted to say a quick hello & let y'all know that we made it here safe & sound...we're currently in Tokyo (and it's 7:30 in the morning!). I wanted to make sure to thank you all for your well-wishes and bon voyages and such, and I can't wait to see everyone again! :) Miss you all, wish you were all here with me, and definitely I'll talk to you soon! xoxo

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!


I knitted this yesterday kind of on a whim; I found the pattern here and was able to make it pretty quickly. I think I'll make another, and give one to each of my sisters (as a washcloth) for the holiday. Along with a few other choice gifts & candies (we have something of a sisterly tradition in that vein...).

In other news, there's not much to fill y'all in on - this weekend was fun but really rather low-key. We had a pleasant dinner at my friend Sally's house on Saturday night before rushing off to The Brattle to see a screening of A Clockwork Orange - a wonderful but tres disturbing film. Ah, I heart Kubrick, though. And it was great to see ACO on the big screen! That's what I love about the Brattle.


Just last night, I finished up a cute little toddler-sized "star" scarf (pattern info here) to give to a local preschool that was recently robbed - they lost a lot of electronics, but also winter clothing for the students! So I thought I'd chip in a knitted good or two...unfortunately (because of prior commitments to the baby blanket), I was only able to get one done before we leave for Japan. Which is unfortunate; I had wanted to try to get several in! But I guess it's good news that probably by the time we get back, the weather will start being warmer, and soon hats & scarves won't be needed. I'll have to see if they will want some more knitted goods for next year, though!

Anyway, speaking of Japan ... we leave in 2 short days! Eep! We're very not ready, but I'm strangely calm about it all...mostly. I am sure that won't last too much longer...tonight we do lots of laundry and I'll start throwing things in piles that I want to take with me. It's only a week. I think I can swing this.

Okay, everyone, make sure you get lots of kisses & hugs (not to mention candy) today! Here are some from me: xoxo

Currently Reading:

TITLE: Hopscotch (Rayuela)
AUTHOR: Julio Cortazar

TITLE: Female Chauvanist Pigs
AUTHOR: Ariel Levy



Friday, February 10, 2006

pink cake!

Benny Bakes A Cake was one of my favorite books when I was little; I always adored books that had drawings of food, for some reason. Particularly cakes or ice cream. It always just looked so yummy. That translated poorly into my adult sweet tooth, but thankfully so far that hasn't presented too much of a weight problem...

In any case, Bethany gave me a Valentine's cookbook the other day,


and I fell in love with one of the recipes, as it was for a pink cake! Made using strawberry-banana-flavored Jell-O (although I used only strawberry-flavored). I decided I'd make it for our get-together with Ashu, Sarah C, and Lisa, and I thought it'd be fun to take pictures as I went along, but it was a recipe that required one to be pretty on-schedule, so I was only able to take a few. Unfortunately, the ones I did get didn't nearly do justice to the bright pinkness of the cake, but here they are anyway, in all of their (lackluster) glory:



I forgot to take a picture before we cut it, but I'm going to play it off like I meant to do that, by telling you that I wanted to display the pink inside!



I've still got like half a cake left, sitting on the kitchen table - anyone hungry? xoxo

Currently Reading:

TITLE: Hopscotch (Rayuela)
AUTHOR: Julio Cortazar

TITLE: Female Chauvanist Pigs
AUTHOR: Ariel Levy



(after)noon delight

What an embarassing (but fun!) lunch hour I just had...

I left the house around 11:30 in order to make sure I got to my Boston Cares orientation meeting on time, as it was scheduled for noon and I had to walk a mile, not entirely certain where I was going. I made it to High Street in 15 minutes, but then couldn't manage to find any numbers on any of the buildings! I stopped and got some coffee, and then wandered around a bit (in the wrong direction, of course) until I figured out where to go. I walked in the building just behind another girl, who pressed "4" on the elevator. Turns out she was going to the same place I was, and we were both the last to arrive! So we sat next to each other and chatted until the meeting started, which was not terribly informative (I knew most of the information already), but it was nice to see all the new faces (of people who are just as interested in volunteering as I am!). The meeting was rather short, and at the end the girl who led it came over to me because she had recognized my name, and rememebered that I had emailed her about donating knitted baby blankets. So I was like "actually, I have mine, right here...can I give it to you now?" and so she had to embarass me by pulling it out and displaying it to everyone!! Eep! But, they all praised it, so that was nice to hear. It was such a simple pattern, though; I felt rather silly! Oh, well. In any case, then 4 of us girls (the 2 girls who coordinated the meeting, plus the supersweet girl I came in with, Regina) all ended up bonding, getting into this involved conversation about knitting, it was great! :)

In any case, I signed up and then Regina and I walked out together. We parted ways at the corner; I was headed over to Staples to pick up some blank DVDs and CDs (we're running out of both at home). I found my way there (I tend to have a pretty good sense of direction in Boston, even when I have no idea where I am), and then spent like 10 minutes standing in front of the digital media section, staring at all the different kinds of CDs, not sure what to get! Finally, one of the store employees took pity on me and helped talk me through it. I headed over to the register, holding 2 large CD spindles...and one slipped out of my fingers, and barreled towards the counter, landing thisclose to a woman who looked like she would NOT have been pleased to have it hit her... Paying went just fine (even though the woman who checked me out kept saying "you're the one that dropped the CDs, aren't you?"), but as I was leaving, I managed to set off the alarm. Another helpful store employee de-magnetized my bag...and then I managed to walk out the wrong door. Oy. What an afternoon.

At least my stop at the library went okay! Haha. Now I should probably get back to work...xoxo

Currently Reading:

TITLE: Hopscotch (Rayuela)
AUTHOR: Julio Cortazar

TITLE: Female Chauvanist Pigs
AUTHOR: Ariel Levy



Thursday, February 09, 2006

you're standing on my neck

Yay! I just finished knitting up the Big Bad Baby Blanket from the first Stitch N Bitch book (while watching an old episode of Daria - hence the title of this post), so I thought I'd share some photos:



Not much news since I last posted, which would explain why I haven't posted in a while...just living, like always. I did manage to get mostly everything set re: tickets for our upcoming Japan trip (yay), and the other night I also got to see one of my favorite Vassar girls EVER. It was wonderful to catch up again; we hadn't hung out in several years, which I find absolutely unacceptable! Hehe. I tend to do that, though - go long spans of time without seeing someone, and then having so much fun hanging out that we swear we'll make plans to see each other all the time...and then things just fall by the wayside, and we don't end up seeing each other for another 6 months. Oh, well - at least my friends are such wonderful people that it doesn't matter how long it's been - we still click instantly. Guess that's the sign of a good relationship with someone!

Okay, I have to go take a shower now, before work. xoxo

Currently Reading:

TITLE: Hopscotch (Rayuela)
AUTHOR: Julio Cortazar

TITLE: Hairstyles of the Damned
AUTHOR: Joe Meno



Thursday, February 02, 2006

seamless

Last night Sally, Dan, Bethany, Kevin, Sarah C, and I all went to Seamless, a fashion show put on by the Museum of Science's "where science meets art" series. It was very neat - most of the clothes & concepts were fantastic, and it was so impressive how much it felt like we were at a "real" fashion show! Very professionally done. Dan wrote up a good review (incl. photos) here, so check it out if you are interested in further information.

The funniest thing from last night was when Dan & I were walking home; Sally wanted some company to get safely to the T, so we hung out on the concrete island amidst all the traffic near the Science Park stop, waiting for her. While we were standing there, I noticed something rather odd about the stoplight across the street from us...it was facing the concrete bridge it stood next to, and thus reflecting off of it, like so:




At first, I was thinking the photos might not do the weirdness justice, but then I realized it's a traffic light reflecting off something, which isn't really normal. And probably not the most effective. I wonder how it got that way...Dan tried to turn it back, to no avail. Oh, well - at least people can (hopefully) tell by the reflection when they're supposed to stop & go!

Have a lovely day, xoxo.

Currently Reading:

TITLE: Get A Financial Life
AUTHOR: Beth Kobliner

TITLE: Idoru
AUTHOR: William Gibson