~stars upon thars~

2 cool (but dated) videos

2011-03-23T10:56:00.000-05:00

I know this is kind of outdated, but I was just reading an article in the January 2011 edition of Wired, and it mentioned two pretty great videos that we watched last night:

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers:

and JJ Abrams' "mystery box" TED talk from 2008:

...I need to blog more. :)

xo

i think i'm in love

2011-01-22T15:54:00.001-05:00

I know there are tons of amazing bookshelves out there, but here are a few that I came across (while looking for an image) which I just adore:

Available from Katz

Created by Ron Arad

I've always had a weakness for floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

Found at this site.

Books can truly be the heartbeat of someone's life. Like mine...heh.

This one just looks so cozy...surrounded by books! Available from this seller.

Oh my gosh, I kept finding more and more and more that I loved! But I couldn't make this post that long, so I'll stop here. Hope you enjoy...and are inspired! :)

xo

2011 Support Your Local Library Challenge

2011-01-16T11:16:00.000-05:00

Oh, I am SO on this:

...But, for right now, I am exhausted and I need to go lie down.

xo

Detroit in ruins

2011-01-07T05:56:00.002-05:00

Found via FlaxenTawney, this is a breathtaking collection of gorgeous images of the ruins of Detroit. What I love most is the speculation about why things - buildings, dental equipment, a grand piano, an entire beautiful train station - would simply be abandoned. It looks in some cases as if one day everyone just walked out (or fled), leaving everything just as it had been during everyday use. I love imagining the stories behind some of the photographs...although I am sure they're not nearly as glamorous as I'd like to think. I'll bet it's more got to do with finance and politics and all that way-less-exciting stuff that is often beyond me - but that would be the frustrating cause behind stunning ruins like the ones pictured.

(I wanted to include a copy of one of the images, but I'm not sure about fun copyright laws, and since the Guardian is kind of a Big Deal, I figured I'll leave it as a link...hah.)

my own set of intentions

2011-01-06T12:13:00.003-05:00

I'm currently participating in a Mystery Sock Knit-Along using this gorgeous yarn I purchased several years ago at the MA Sheep & Woolcraft Festival. (It's Damselfly Yarns in Tequila Sunrise.)

Although I'm not usually big on New Year's resolutions (or really even all that into the holiday - it just feels like another day, to me), I've been reading a lot of others' blog posts on the topic and been inspired, so I figured I'd join in on the fun. :) Besides, it'll be nice to be able to look back at this list at the end of the year & see how far I've come (or not) on my list of intended changes (which, I suppose, is after all the point of resolutions! heh).

In any case, here are some of my thoughts (I'll add to this over the next few days as I think of things) -

write more snail mail (I've already started to do that)
knit from my stash ONLY unless I have presents which require a certain yarn
walk the dog for at least 20 minutes a day
read at least 50 books (I hit 46 this past year while swamped with school, so this should be feasible)
get back into watching more movies! (Netflix at least one movie or TV show a week)
create a budget & actually adhere to it
GET A JOB!!! (hopefully a library one, but anything will do at this point...sigh)
start school projects earlier
cull & improve my wardrobe (I need to stop dressing like I'm 16...)
stay on top of emails! (try to keep <100 in my inbox...)
clean a lot more STUFF out of my life...not sure how to measure this yet - I just am certainly noticing it as I'm moving my stuff and wondering why I think I need to have so many things!!
blog more? - I want to, for sure, but I feel as if I don't have much to write about!

Like I said, I'll edit this a bit as ideas occur to me...just trying to get my bearings here, for now. :)
xoxo

long overdue

2010-12-17T10:35:00.001-05:00

So I'm in the process of redesigning my blog, so that it doesn't look like it belongs in 2005 (which I believe was the last time I touched the design). It's amazing all the options that are out there these days! (Haha - I sound like an old fogy.)

Speaking of design, I am particularly proud of my new librarianship site: librarianna. Okay, so I didn't do all the design myself, but I LOVE the background (it came with) and I am pround of my cool banner. Haha, I'm such a dork.

Okay, REALLY, going to go do work now. Like, actual productive work.
xo

mid-December already?!

2010-12-17T09:53:00.002-05:00

Found this solid lotion snowflake on etsy & thought it was neat! Check it out here
Phew, where DOES the time go?? And I just found out yesterday that I get no Christmas break whatsoever, UGH. Basically, I just finished up my work on the 15th, and I thought that my winter/intersession course didn't start until January 2...officially, it doesn't. But my professor is starting YESTERDAY. And from what I can see of her still somewhat spotty syllabus (I keep hoping she's going to reschedule things, because it currently still looks like a draft), I have assignments due on December 20th and 27th. Whoo - merry Christmas to ME.

Anyway. I also just read this story on Fringe, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. Not a big short story person, but something struck a chord, and I thought it was really well written. Since I myself have successfully avoided getting back into writing for years now (grr), I figure the least I can do to support the art is to share a good story. :)

I have to get back to other stuff...I am trying to get some Christmas knitting done, and I WAS working on finishing up my textbooks from this past semester, but it looks like those will have to be put on hold so I can get started on my super intensive winter class. Blah.

This weekend, I'm going to go see It's a Wonderful Life with my godmother; it's her all-time favorite movie, and she knows it by heart. When I saw it was playing here on the big screen, I just couldn't resist calling her & inviting her out for a movie!

Also this weekend is my friend Jenn's big winter craft/art/music event, the Snowball, at which I will be volunteering on Sunday. And Saturday night brings my "wifey" Tanya's holiday party, which is conveniently right down the hall from my apartment in Bristol!

Whew, sounds like a busy weekend now that I put it all down on paper. Tonight? A new knitting group at the Enfield Public Library (yay, I get to see another library) and then my friend's band plays at the Hessian Lion.

I did not mean to make this post so long! Oy. Anyway, I hope YOU all have a wonderful weekend! xo

the home stretch

2010-12-10T15:46:00.001-05:00

This semester has been so overwhelming. I cannot believe it's coming to a close. I've learned SO much, and while it's been stressful at times, it's been so worth it. I just hope I did all right! But, for now, there's nothing I can do. Assignments have been turned in, and I'm just now catching up on some of the readings I didn't get around to when I was super swamped. Luckily, there isn't actually that much - this may be the first time EVER that I have finished an entire textbook before the conclusion of a semester! But I've still got 2 others that I need to read a few more chapters in. I wanna do that before I lose my momentum, and get all caught up in actually getting to do leisure activities, such as reading a novel (!), watching some Netflix Instant Watch, and playing WoW. :)

This is all about next week, though - I still have one more class to finish up! Luckily, even though the library science school ends it semester extremely early (most people I know were done with their classwork last week), this one class isn't officially over until the 15th, so it was nice that I got to knock off my other classwork and now have a "leisurely" week in which to finish up the materials I'll be submitting for review. This was one of my favorite library science classes: Digital Archiving. We are working on creating museum-style archival exhibits for the amazing project that is VOICES of September 11, which made for a very emotional but really fulfilling course. Additionally, I got to use some of my mad computer skillz (yes, with a "z") in the class; I hadn't realized how much I'd missed tinkering around with database code!

Anyway...I oughta get back to the work, now - just wanted to check in & say hi. Perhaps more soon...when I'm DONE!

xoxo

holiday baking

2010-12-06T13:54:00.000-05:00

The sisters, mother, and grandmother all got together yesterday to bake a boatload of Christmas cookies:

From Xmas Cookie Baking 2010

(Click the album link below the photo for a few more images, if you're interested.)

Looks delicious, no? :)

xo

so pretty

2010-11-14T18:40:00.000-05:00

Troy bought me a new computer today, as a kind of early Christmas present/thank you for some of the things I've done for him. It's beautiful. I have been using XP for ages now, as both my laptop (an Asus eee) & desktop (the one I built in 2003...yes, it was time for an upgrade, but it IS still running really well!) run it. So running Windows 7 on a machine which can actually handle speed & graphics is sooo amazing. I connected it to his TV (we're keeping it at his place because oh yeah, did I mention we're also playing World of Warcraft on it together? - we're so going to disappear/hibernate this winter...) using a DVI-to-HDMI converter, and after a bit of tweaking, managed to get it to look gorgeous on the "monitor". I'm very pleased. He's totally made my day. Of course, it's making getting my schoolwork done *very* difficult, although we are waiting to play WoW until after my semester is over, because we're not stupid. ;) However, I still just want to play around on my new toy!

At least reading for school (using Blackboard on the computer) is sooo much nicer now! Yay. :)

Okay...gotta force myself to get back to work....

xo

stuffy stuff

2010-11-12T12:45:00.003-05:00

I was inspired yet again by Karen's blog, this time to cook. Last night I tried to make an easy Spinach Cheddar Bake, but it was somewhat disappointing - not very substantial, which I guess I should have expected. Troy said it might be good in an omelet, and that's probably true: a spinach & cheddar one! An egg was used in the recipe, so he probably tasted that, too.

Anyway, so that was a failure. No worries - just keep trying new things! It actually inspired Troy to promise he'd cook something for ME out of his One Pot cookbook, so I'm excited for that...when he does cook, he cooks very well. His breakfast sandwiches are to die for.

Otherwise, I'm excited because I just finished up the body on my $5 in Paris (or, Autumn 2010 Sweater). It seems to fit well, which I was uncertain about! I still have to do the sleeves, but they have to wait until I can get back to my apartment and grab my set of #7 double-pointed needles.

I'm currently audiobooking Dracula, and really loving it! It's not as scary as I was worried it would be. It's nice to read in bits & pieces for study breaks and while cooking or doing the dishes. I also LOVE this narrator, Robert Whitfield; I've read some other things by him (Bleak House, Pilgrim's Progress - and now I want to hear him do Casino Royale!) and I was pleased when I realized I'd be listening to him again. His voices and pacing are fantastic.

My schoolwork is slowly getting done...I had to write a collections development policy for a library, which TERRIFIED me, but I actually think it turned out...respectably. For never having written one before. I'm still scared I did it all wrong, but...I did what I could, with what I knew. We'll see.

Now, back to work on project #2: designing a teen space! I am very interested in this one, but I'm just not sure how it should be done, or how much the professor wants from us. Guess I'll just, like the last couple of projects for this class, do what feels right.

I'm looking forward to being done with this overwhelming semester...! xo

welcome back?

2010-11-09T11:01:00.002-05:00

Karen inspired me to blog again, and so I'm posting - of course - on the day when I'm absolutely most stressed out about getting papers done, ugh. I have 2 assignments due tomorrow evening, and then one paper/project due the 14th, and another the 15th. Whoo! I sure am looking forward to the 16th...! :)

Not much to report on...I just want to try to get back into the swing of this. Who knows if I'll actually stick with it. I just like the idea of getting some thoughts down - journaling, as it were. Or keeping track of my life. A bit like a diary, but less...girly. Heh.

I have been posting a lot on Facebook, of course, regarding my everyday thoughts. And I post most of my knitting on ravelry, since I long ago lost the sweet potato knits domain to an ex. (I am keeping an eye on it, and hoping to purchase it again when it expires!!!) So I'm not sure exactly what I'll be posting up here. My goal is to keep my posts shorter, since I don't have as much time to read blog posts these days, either, so I understand that people don't want to be swamped with words.

...I'm doing a stellar job of that so far, eh?? :)

Okay, I'll keep the rest of this brief. I am still doing library school (duh) and I'm busy with that. I have a side job thanks to a friend where I am a "security guard" - imagine! me! - which brings in a bit of extra cash, but luckily I have student loans (not looking forward to paying those off!) and should be done with the program in spring 2011. (Cross your fingers for me!)

Otherwise, I mostly split my time very unevenly between Bristol (my place) & Hartford (Troy's place - his gets more time, mostly because of the dog). I am knitting while studying, but dying to get back into reading more novels. Hence why I'm not even going to bother posting what I'm currently reading - it's all boring (to everyone else) school books! (Plus, you can keep an eye on what I'm reading on Goodreads!)

That's all, really, in a nutshell. I don't have much news - oh, besides recently becoming godmother to my new niece, Violet! - and besides, I feel like everyone just keeps up with me via Facebook. I'm going to go for more goal-oriented, introspective posts on this blog, then - a la Karen, I hope!

For now: back to work!!!
xo

PP

2010-08-04T13:53:00.001-05:00

i'm chilling at Planned Parenthood waiting for my long overdue appointment (+30 mins, at this point), because i have a UTI (sorry if that's TMI! haha) and no GP right now, even though i have health insurance through the end of August from my old job. oh, well. Troy was so sweet because he wanted to come along, but couldn't because of work. so, blah. i'm totally bored, but trying to read. my librarian book is awesomeness. :)

we made marzipan today at work; it was so much fun!!

okay, gotta go wait some more...xo

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.9

baking

2010-08-02T07:39:00.001-05:00

so today i'm at work at the bakery...and i am learning to make a Gateau de St. Honore (sorry, i don't know how to do accents on my phone). this is the cake which pastry chefs have to make to graduate from the CIA. they have to do it in 3 hours. thank god i don't have to!! but i'm excited to learn it. St. Honore is the patron saint of bakers.

so far, i've just done the chantilly cream, and i'm now on my break. perhaps pictures later if my cakes come out okay. fingers crossed. xo

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.9

is anyone out there? haha.

2010-07-07T14:34:00.001-05:00

so, i've decided i might start blogging a bit again here & there, because i downloaded a Blogger app to my phone, and that will clearly make mobile blogging easier, hah. also, i wanna try to document things again, like school, the job hunt, books, knitting, movies, etc. all the important stuff. :) let's see how this goes!! xo

Icelandic libraries

2009-09-17T13:59:00.004-05:00

Since I'm now a student of Library & Information Sciences (for all of you who didn't know), I thought this was a particularly interesting & amusing bit of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth:

In the first place M. Fridrikssen wanted to know what success my uncle had had at the library.

"Your library! why there is nothing but a few tattered books upon almost deserted shelves."

"Indeed!" replied M. Fridrikssen, "why we possess eight thousand volumes, many of them valuable and scarce, works in the old Scandinavian language, and we have all the novelties that Copenhagen sends us every year."

"Where do you keep your eight thousand volumes? For my part -"

"Oh, M. Liedenbrock, they are all over the country. In this icy region we are fond of study. There is not a farmer nor a fisherman that cannot read and does not read. Our principle is, that books, instead of growing mouldy behind an iron grating, should be worn out under the eyes of many readers. Therefore, these volumes are passed from one to another, read over and over, referred to again and again; and it often happens that they find their way back to their shelves only after an absence of a year or two."

"And in the meantime," said my uncle rather spitefully, "strangers --"

"Well, what would you have? Foreigners have their libraries at home, and the first essential for labouring people is that they should be educated. I repeat to you the love of reading runs in Icelandic blood. In 1816 we founded a prosperous literary society; learned strangers think themselves honoured in becoming members of it. It
publishes books which educate our fellow-countrymen, and do the country great service. If you will consent to be a corresponding member, Herr Liedenbrock, you will be giving us great pleasure."

It's an interesting look at how libraries perhaps should be used! :)

(Thanks to Project Gutenberg for the text above.)

this looks amazing...

2009-03-30T16:29:00.001-05:00

...on so many levels.

As Liz Lemon would say, "I want to go to there."

I am seriously considering doing a masters of library & information sciences in good old Austin...I love that city.

qwerty

2009-03-27T13:01:00.003-05:00

Any mention of QWERTY always brings to mind 1) learning about that in the 5th grade (even though I'd been typing Mavis Beacon-style since I was 7 or 8), and 2) these stickers my sisters & I used to have with a little creature on it named, of course, Qwerty (what he had to do with keyboards, I have no clue).

In any case, I wanted to share this fascinating tidbit of the QWERTY article that I stumbled across this morning (while doing some brief Wikipedia-surfing, thanks to today's xkcd comic):

Sholes struggled for the next six years to perfect his invention, making many trial-and-error rearrangements of the original machine's alphabetical key arrangement in an effort to reduce the frequency of typebar clashes. Eventually he arrived at a four-row, upper case keyboard approaching the modern QWERTY standard. In 1873 Sholes' backer, James Densmore, succeeded in selling manufacturing rights for the Sholes-Glidden "Type Writer" with E. Remington and Sons and within the following few months the keyboard layout was finalised by Remington's mechanics. Their adjustments included placing the "R" key in the place previously allotted to the period mark, thus enabling salesmen to impress customers by pecking out the brand name "TYPE WRITER" from one keyboard row. Vestiges of the original alphabetical layout remained in the "home row" sequence FGHJKL.

I love learning about how things came to be the way they are. --All so they could simply impress clients with typing a word on a single row!

It is kind of cool that you can still do that to this day, though. Ah, how incredibly marketing affects products...it's unbelievable sometimes!

I hope all of you out there in blog-land are doing well these days! Sorry I don't post much here anymore, but I do hope to at least be on here occasionally with some neat tidbits like the above. xo

i am Google's whore

2009-02-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

But it's okay, because I totally love them and would probably do anything for them. So it's kind of like I want to marry my pimp and have his babies. Or something.

Anyway, so yesterday afternoon, I finally finally finally (yes, I've been a bit anxious for it) picked up the G1 phone:

This is not my picture, therefore that's not my hand.

It's beautiful. And adorable. All at once.

And, for the hilarious cherry on top? I received the Gmail stickers I sent away for in the mail yesterday evening!

I was disappointed not to receive the unicorn sticker - they only give you one of the 3 nameplate ones, at random - which was mainly why I even wanted it in the first place (teehee I'm such a child of the 80s), but I did get a sparkly Gmail sticker which partly made up for that.

I basically haven't been off of my phone for more than 10 minutes since getting it. It's gorgeous and exactly what I needed. It's interesting getting used to using a phone OS instead of a Windows-based one (my poor, beloved Treo died for good on me yesterday; I'm still semi-mourning it...during the occasional 2 seconds I'm not googly-eyed over my G1), but I'm getting the hang of it, and quickly. I have found everything I need for it, including a great financial software program much like the one I loved for my WM6 phone.

I'm sure I'll encounter glitches, but for now, I'm totally happy. Elated, even. I hope this high lasts for a while...xo

I am totally in love with this little guy.

rest in peace

2009-02-12T13:55:00.005-05:00

I'm not posting this to elicit sympathy or even any response; I simply wanted to share my grandfather's amazing life with everyone. He was such a good man. May he rest in peace, knowing he was certainly well loved.

John Miceli, 92, husband for 61 years of Yvonne (Remy) Miceli, died suddenly at home on Saturday (February 7, 2009). Born in Winsted on January 3, 1917, he was the son of the late Mario and Anna (DiSilvestro) Miceli. He attended local schools and served four years in the U.S. Army during World War II in the European Theater and North Africa. During this time, he became fluent in French, German, and Arabic in addition to his native Italian, and served his country further by providing translations in military court. It was also in France that he met his wife. John was a lifelong resident of Winsted before moving to Canton three years ago. For many years, he owned and operated Miceli's Market and later worked as a Department Manager for Caldor. After his retirement, John shared his time and good nature by transporting students with special needs and later by making home deliveries for Ivery and Dudley Pharmacy. In addition to his wife, he leaves to cherish his memory four children, Lori (Paul) Egan-Scollen of Meriden, Joan (Larry) Schlegel of Unionville, Michael (Kath) Miceli of South Hero, VT, Yvonne Miceli and partner Allan Schiffer of West Hartford; eight grandchildren, Joshua, Nicholas and Brandon Egan, Dr. Sarah Schlegel Doran, Bethany Schlegel Shaw, Arianna Schlegel, Erin Miceli, and Daniel Ridgeway. John donated his body for medical research.

I love you, Grandpa.

she's a maniac, maniac on the floor

2009-02-12T11:54:00.002-05:00

I am currently obsessed with (or should I say maniacal about?) this list of manias. It's fascinating. You can also check out phobias, in the link at the top of the page. I just thought I'd share with all those other verbomaniacs (yes, it's defined in the catalog) out there. :)

xo

quiet night

2009-01-22T10:11:00.001-05:00

I stayed in yesterday evening and ended up watching two movies, because I was getting some serious knitting done and didn't want to put it down. Weirdly, both of the movies were about people without their licenses, which I definitely didn't plan. I just chose License to Drive (I'd never seen that before now! such a classic Corey/Corey movie) and Smart People somewhat randomly off my Netflix Watch Instantly Queue, and they just happened to have an odd connection that I otherwise would never have put together, had I not watched them back-to-back.

Okay, that's actually not true - I didn't choose License to Drive randomly; it actually expires off my Instant queue on 1/24, so I had to watch it before then. I kind of forced myself to watch it, even though I wasn't especially in the mood for a silly teen movie. But, I got more into it - it was nice to watch a bit of fluff. And, very odd to see Heather Graham in a movie from that time! I hadn't realized she was in the acting business as long as she was - I thought she just appeared when in her mid-20s, somewhere around Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. I hadn't realized she was in Twins, Drugstore Cowboy, Twin Peaks, and Growing Pains! (Wait...now that I think about it...maybe I do remember Growing Pains...hmm. Very vague memories.)

Anyway, I wasn't a huge fan of LtD, but it was fun...ish. It still bothers me that the sister just disappeared out of the movie at the end - I don't understand what happened to her. No one seems to care that she's not around. And I thought her spotting her brother driving his grandfather's car without his license would play a LOT more importantly into the story than it did. Oh, well. I just don't like loose ends like that. They make me feel unsettled. And like the makers of the movie didn't spend too much time finishing it. Which, I guess they didn't have to - they knew that millions of teenage girls were going to rush to the theaters to see the teen heartthrobs, haha.

And Smart People was...all right. I was somewhat disappointed, given the awesome cast: Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page, Thomas Hayden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker - and even Pam's ex-fiancee! But it was...underwhelming. I enjoyed it - more than License to Drive, for sure - and it felt very real, but...it didn't leave me with much of an impression either way. It mostly just felt like an interesting look at the lives of an academic and the people who orbit around him. Nothing new was introduced.

Well. That's all I really have to say on that - I think that's more than enough, really! Have a good Thursday, everyone. xo

ISFJ

2009-01-21T17:27:00.003-05:00

I don't usually post these quiz thingies, but this one (the Myers-Briggs in shortened form, essentially) is very, very correct about me:

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer

You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal.
A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways.
In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music.
You find it easy to be devoted to one person... a partner who you do special things for.

In love, you express your emotions through actions.
Taking care of someone is how you love them. And you do it well!

At work, you do well in a structured environment. You complete tasks well and on time.
You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist.

How you see yourself: Competent, dependable, and detail oriented

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, dominant, and stuck in a rut

What's Your Personality Type?

I would have predicted this about myself anyway; I know my proclivities well. But, still. It's nice to know that there are others like me out there, and that I can do something productive with my stubbornness, desire for structure, and loyalty. :)

some more commentary

2009-01-20T13:04:00.002-05:00

* "I'm a lefty, get used to it." - Obama, upon signing his first official act as President. I love that they bantered about being left-handed for quite some time! That was great.

* And yes, I did see Chelsea Clinton, talking with John & Cindy McCain. I just was surprised she didn't walk out with her parents, but then again the only reason the children of the presidents were there was that one set was leaving the White House, and the other was moving in.

* 4 of the last 10 presidents have been left-handed. Nice!

* I can't believe Cheney pulled a muscle in his back from moving boxes!! I figured they'd have people doing all of the packing & moving for them....

* Jill Biden certainly loves her some tall black boots and short skirts. Good thing she can pretty much rock them.

january 20 commentary

2009-01-20T11:34:00.004-05:00

Just some of the thoughts currently running through my head as I watch the inauguration:

* Okay, what is with Bill Clinton?? He looks like he is having the absolute worst time ever. He used to be so good at appearing jolly and smiling all the time. It makes me so sad. I wonder what is wrong.

* That's cool about Biden's old family Bible.

* The Obama family is just beautiful.

* Why wasn't Chelsea Clinton at the event? I wonder where she is....

Perhaps more later, we'll see. xo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Cobweb AUTHOR: Neal Stephenson & J. Frederick George
	TITLE: The Count of Monte Cristo AUTHOR: Alexandre Dumas
	TITLE: Middlemarch AUTHOR: George Eliot

reading rainbow

2009-01-13T11:08:00.000-05:00

Because it feels like I move every few days at this point in my life (ugh), I've been hugely into decluttering and trying to pare my belongings down to the necessities, plus a few frills (you have to surround yourself with some beautiful things, after all). My biggest difficulty (besides yarn, but that's not so much of a problem because it really doesn't weigh much) has been books. I grew up in a family that surrounded itself with books, and I have the same addiction. Not just to reading, but to having books. I love seeing them, looking at all the possibility of what I will read next. I like displaying my tastes & personality to others via my bookshelf, stocked with books: novels about pop culture, nonfiction about the evils of advertising, history books, feminist books, knitting books. Science fiction, with emphasis on the "science". Classics. And yes, a few light reads mixed in for good measure.

So it certainly pains me to think about paring down my collection, especially when I'm a member of PaperBackSwap.com, and continue to obtain more books pretty regularly. But what I want to really try to do this year - I swear, though, I have been trying to do this for the past couple of years! - is read those unread books that I have been carting around with me, decide if they are worth keeping, and then pass them on if not. It's something I've been doing this past year, but I really want to try to get through a lot more in 2009. Part of that effort included removing a lot of books from my PBS wishlist - I've kept only the ones that seem hard to get elsewhere, or that I am high up on the queue for - I don't want to lose the opportunity to get those when I am number 3 in a line of several hundred. However, most books - especially those I am certain I can get at the library - have been removed.

And the library is my ultimate goal. I will always, always hold onto those precious books which are my absolute favorites, no question - I couldn't do without any. However, I do certainly have plenty of expendable books on my shelves, and I need to remember that the public library is a wealth of opportunity for me. (Not to mention, that it forces me to get through books much more quickly!) If I can transition myself back to being a library reader (which I was for much of my life! - PBS has been somewhat "detrimental" in that regard, as much as I adore the site), then I can borrow a book, and if I find it indispensable after finishing it, I can then purchase a copy for myself. Right? No need to cart 100+ books from apartment to apartment. I have to say, I do hate that I feel like part of my "personality" will disappear along with some of the books, but at least with the advent of social websites that allow one to list their favorite books, as well as excellent sites like GoodReads, I can keep a lot of my tastes plainly displayed - even if they're not readily visible 24/7. I think I can deal with that. (Deep breath.)

I want this year to be more about dealing with tempering some of my, er, obsessions...neuroses...I need to be able to let go of certain things better than I currently do, I think. I know I said I wouldn't make resolutions, largely because I think that people should be striving to improve themselves all year 'round, but with everyone else talking resolutions right now, it's been on my mind a lot lately. So, I guess I'll make this official: my goal this year is to remove a total of at least...10 books (I'll try to start easy!) from my shelves. That means no matter how many come & go, I should have a -10 balance at the end of the year.

Hmm, that requires me counting my books. I'll have to get back to you on that. Perhaps once I move (I got approved for the new apartment, yay) and set up my bookshelves again, I'll start from there. It does help that not all of my books fit on my bookshelf - it's nice to have a visual to see that if I have fewer books not in the bookshelf by the end of the year, I'll have succeeded. I hope I can! I certainly don't need all these books. I have to start considering the public library as an extension of my own collection, haha. Bristol has a very nice one. And I've yet to - gasp! - even get a card from there. I haven't read a single library book since leaving Boston, because I've got so many to read here. That's a sign enough that I need to make a change around here!

p.s. Sites like this and this also help, for those of you who might also be considering paring down your book collections....

p.p.s. And no, I don't want a Kindle! I love holding physical books much too much. Although...I have considered the idea at least for travel purposes. But, I'll still probably refrain from the purchase for now.

snaps

2009-01-09T11:38:00.004-05:00

Ugh, I just gorged on several of the gingersnaps that my sister & I baked last night; they are so addictive. But probably not the best idea for breakfast, heh. I couldn't help myself, though! I am definitely one of those people who is visually suggestible when it comes to food - if I see it, I want it. If I don't, I largely tend to forget about it. So, I try to keep that in mind, and keep most food out of my line of vision. :)

In any case, I thought I'd share this recipe, because it is one of my favorites, and one of the quickest & easiest cookie recipes I know. A friend named Rachel shared it with me my junior year of college; I think we baked together for the Computer Science Department get-together, and since then I've been a diehard fan of these cookies. It certainly helps that I'm a ginger-flavored-anything addict, especially gingersnaps. I am absolutely in love with Carr's Ginger Lemon Cremes and Newman's Own Ginger-0's.

Well, without further ado:

GINGER SNAPS

3/4 cup margarine/butter/shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ginger

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Mix all ingredients.
3. Form into balls and roll in sugar (not necessary; cuts the spiciness).
4. Place wide apart on slightly greased cookie sheet(s).
5. Bake 7 minutes for chewy or 10 minutes for crisp.

Enjoy! :)

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Cobweb AUTHOR: Neal Stephenson & J. Frederick George
	TITLE: I Want That!: How We All Became Shoppers AUTHOR: Thomas Hine
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens
	TITLE: Middlemarch AUTHOR: George Eliot

zzzz

2009-01-05T14:20:00.000-05:00

Insomnia again last night, so I read several essays from Augusten Burroughs' Possible Side Effects. I was literally up until 4am. It was no fun. I didn't really think that the jasmine tea that we all shared at the Vietnamese restaurant last night was the cause of the problem, but Karen reported having had the same difficulty sleeping, so that must've been it. That, and I've got a lot of stuff on my mind. I kept jumping out of bed to make lists and write stuff down. I don't know if it was the lists that were keeping me up, or that I was making lists because I was up. Eh. Either way...it was a long night. I hope the lack of sleep doesn't kill me later on this week.

I am finding the book to be fun to read, if not as amusing as I think the author would like it to be. But he's fun. Reminds me a lot of David Sedaris, but that could be a bad connection, because the last Sedaris book I read was years ago. Maybe it's just because it's a collection of humorous essays about a man's life. And they're both gay. Hmm. Anyway, I wasn't expecting the book to be what it is, but I am flying through it. Oh, and I never noticed that the cover has a six-fingered hand (see below). Seriously. I've owned this book for a couple of years now, and I never noticed it. And I only really did notice it when I was practically delirious from lack of sleep yesterday. Hah.

On a kind of amusing and entirely unrelated note, I found a note I wrote several years ago that queried: "What the hell happened to Collective Soul?" Oddly, I actually saw them play live a couple summers ago (clearly after I had written the above) - they opened for Live. I just thought that was funny, that I wondered at their continued existence and then they resurfaced. Hah, I amuse myself very weirdly. But, it's been interesting going through a bunch of old notes that I saved forever & am beginning to finally realize I no longer need....

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Possible Side Effects AUTHOR: Augusten Burroughs
	TITLE: I Want That!: How We All Became Shoppers AUTHOR: Thomas Hine
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens

it's ba-ack!

2009-01-01T11:58:00.000-05:00

So: ska (and other related late-nineties music) is apparently back, full-force. In the past year, I've seen so many shows of bands who have either reunited recently, have started touring again, or who I haven't seen since I was a wee one in high school! Less Than Jake, The Toasters, The Pietasters, Rancid, The Pilfers, and the other night: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

Also, No Doubt and The Offspring have recently reunited. Among many others. It's insanity! But very excellent insanity.

It's been fun to return to some of the venues I haven't haunted since I was a little, awkward, teenaged rude girl.

Before we left for the show, we cooked this for dinner:

Actually, it was super-delicious fajitas. But those colorful veggies were the mouth-watering first step. I just wanted to share.

Oh, and to top off all the nostalgia, Radio 104 returned last year. Hurray!

(Happy New Year, everyone! I wrote most of this post yesterday, but didn't get around to putting it up, which is why it's not really all 2009-y, haha. I'm not a big New Year's person anyway, though - it's just another day, to me. The only thing I like about it is writing the new year on checks, hah.)

resolving.

2008-12-29T16:09:00.001-05:00

I think my "New Year's Resolution" (I don't usually make any whatsoever, so take this with a grain of salt!) is going to be to post more on my blog...especially about my return to Connecticut, and what it's taken for me to settle back in here. For quite some time I was loath to even admit that I was back here, a state I never really wanted to end up in, and newly single again after four (long) years. However, I've decided to start 2009 with a clean breast and a fresh slate and all that jazz (did I mix up those metaphors? hmm). It's been really a very difficult year for me, but I'm growing used to being here, and really giving it my all. I'm trying to find a niche for myself here. I don't plan to stay here for good, certainly, but for the time being it's been nice to be able to save a little bit of money and slow my life's pace down a bit (sometimes too much for me, though!). It's been a time of self-discovery, as I try to figure out Big Questions, such as where I want to live next (fun) and what I ultimately want to do be when I grow up (librarian, perhaps?). Everything is still seriously up in the air; maybe I should have started documenting all of this sooner, but oh well. Here I am now. And you all will get the exciting opportunity to watch me make big decisions (eep) and, hopefully metamorphosize into much more of the woman that I want to be.

Wish me luck??

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Duty AUTHOR: Bob Greene
	TITLE: I Want That!: How We All Became Shoppers AUTHOR: Thomas Hine
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens

ghost parking lot

2008-12-22T23:35:00.000-05:00

Spurred into curiosity by villagecharm, who recently posted about Connecticut, er, curiosities, I was doing a bit of reading up on such things, and stumbled across this gem, which I am so upset that I never got a chance to see:

Ghost Parking Lot
(photo courtesy of: wonderland of awesome)

Boy, that must've been a sight to see...even if it doesn't appear to have been kept up very well....

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid AUTHOR: Bill Bryson
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens
	TITLE: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde AUTHOR: Robert Louis Stevenson

whoops...

2008-12-01T17:19:00.005-05:00

...look what I did:

No, that's not some sort of optical illusion - we have mug hooks under our cabinets, and while putting dishes into the dish drain this morning, I accidentally hit one of the hanging mugs and knocked it down. It did some impressive falling and cracking, such that it split evenly into two almost precisely-halved pieces. I'm more impressed with myself and my "breaking skills" than anything else, especially because I don't much care about those mugs - they were passed on from my mother's overstock, so they weren't particularly close to anyone's heart.

I'm just glad I won't be cleaning up pottery shards for the next several days! xo

up all night

2008-12-01T07:17:00.002-05:00

Thanks, coffee.

I definitely learned a valuable lesson this weekend. On Friday, Augie & Luke had a really interesting discussion about Augie's plans to go home (it was already into the wee hours of the morning, so I suppose I should say "Saturday" instead) and drink some coffee before going to bed, so that when he woke up a few hours later, he'd be good and awake to drive to NY to pick up his friend. I was shocked - drink coffee before going to bed?!

But, I understood it all too well tonight.

After watching Music Within (really good!) at Sarah's, then stopping at Target to pick up a gift for Frosty's Friends (my sisters & I have made this a yearly tradition), I headed to Borders for the Central CT Knitting for the Greater Good meeting (wow, it was such a giving evening...), for which I am working on this blanket. I stopped at the coffee counter to get a gingerbread latte (I love seasonal drinks), as I normally do. I didn't even make it through half of the drink throughout the course of the evening, so I was not surprised while on my way home to find myself yawning. I was pleased by this, though, because I was feeling slightly run down, and I was hoping to get to bed early. My evening company had postponed to Monday night, so I finished watching Akira and then read a few pages before turning off the light to go to sleep. It was quite early for me - around 9:30 or so. I had a bit of trouble nodding off, but that's not abnormal for me no matter what time it is.

What was out of the ordinary was waking up at 3:45...and not being able to go back to sleep! I finished a book, I played around on my phone, I read more of another book, I caught up on my blog reading, I lay around thinking about all the things I should be doing while I was so awake and alert...and finally, I gave up the battle for sleep. My upstairs neighbor, who works construction and usually gets up around 4:30 or 5, was up after I was. Ugh.

I don't feel tired, and my body doesn't feel exhausted, but...I do feel like my eyes could close, if I were able to get my body to want to sleep. Blah. I just had a little snack (bad, I know, if I'm planning to try to catch another few minutes, but I was hungry!), and now I'm contemplating getting back in bed with a book. I probably won't sleep again (unfortunately - or fortunately? - all of the books I'm reading now are quite engaging), but at least I'll be "resting".

Bah. Coffee. Now I get why people drink decaf. I mean, I'm not going to anytime soon - I largely drink coffee for the caffeine, not for the taste (although it's certainly grown on me - but I'm more apt to pick up an energy drink if it comes down to that) - but, I can understand it now. Haha!

Hope everyone else out there is well-rested for the start of another week...xo

toothbrush, toothbrush, you've come back to me!

2008-10-10T13:39:00.000-05:00

(Thanks to The State for the unforgettable title reference....)

Okay, so: I have purchased three new toothbrushes in the past month. Unbelievable, right? And this coming from a girl who buys once once every...maybe year? (Sorry, Liam.) It appears to be due to some odd mental block of mine - well, the first one, I bought because I needed a new toothbrush and actually thought to buy one. Okay, good start. The second one, I purchased because while I remembered every single other thing I needed to pack to house-sit for my sister, I managed to somehow forget a toothbrush. --Have I mentioned that my brother-in-law in a dentist? I don't know how I didn't think "dentist...toothbrush". But also, you'd think a dentist would have extra toothbrushes all over his house, right? My theory is that he hoards them all for himself.

In any case, the third I had to buy today, because I once again packed everything but the toothbrush. I guess it kind of makes sense; when I go through my bathroom gathering all the things I'll need - shampoo, conditioner, razor, face cleaner, moisturizer, etc. - I don't generally look at the toothbrush holder, since it's in its own separate place. But it's frustrating, because clean teeth is the one thing I absolutely must have. So, now I'm totally stocked up on toothbrushes for the next...3 years? :)

xo

busy week

2008-10-09T12:45:00.006-05:00

This week has been so busy that I feel like my head is swimming from everything I need to remember to get done! I love it, though, in my own masochistic way; I'd missed that feeling from my days in Boston, when I'd have a meeting or rendezvous of some sort every night, and would find the nights when I got to stay in the rare - and cherished - occasion. I'm still working on finding a good balance here - unfortunately, there are very few groups that I can or want to get involved with in CT - but, it's getting better. I am keeping an eye out and certainly trying to be more social; I had needed that, too. Mostly right now I'm connecting with old friends, but it's been nice to come across the occasional very interesting new person, too.

A look back at my week thus far:

Friday: Birthday celebrations for Sarah K, at our group's favorite It's Only Natural! Complete with pumpkin ale and a sweet potato tart entree, so delicious.

Saturday: I cleaned Sarah & Liam's house before their arrival back from Spain, stopped at Mom & Dad's, then met up with Ant for what was supposed to be an On the Drop show, but ended up being pizza and watching a movie (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) at home. Following that, it was Girls Night at Tanya's with her, Adrienne, and Kirsten - we drank wine & watched Baby Mama. Both of this day's movies were...eh. But, I guess I hadn't expected anything more.

Sunday: A visit to the Atheneum with Renee, which was great! And FREE, thanks to the monthly Bank of America program. We parked a few blocks away in Hartford and ended up walking through a biker's festival (yes, motorcycles), which was kinda neat, too. It's interesting to see Hartford events, compared to those that take place in Boston or New York. Much quieter and low-key, although always there are those enthusiastic about their subject, no matter where it is. It was cute. And, the museum was lovely - I had forgotten some of the amazing pieces that are on display there. Plus, there was a special exhibit on quilts, which was really neat! A nice, cultured afternoon - and it was good to remind myself what depths of culture Hartford can have, as well. I'd like to take more advantage of that as I continue on here. (And later that evening, some wine and catching up with my housemate, which was lovely.)

Monday: Dinner, a quick stop at the craft store, and shoe-shopping with Sarah. An early night, but fun nonetheless.

Tuesday: Dinner at Aunt Yvonne & Alan's, in order to learn what was necessary to know for house-, dog-, and cat-sitting this Columbus Day weekend. We ordered delicious takeout Chinese and Aunt Yvonne and I had a lively discussion about books, which I always love. I am looking forward to spending time with Molly (the dog) and Corky (the cat). Great animals. I left around 9:30, which unfortunately was too late for meeting up for wine & sushi-making at Adrienne's, so we decided to reschedule. That worked out okay, though, because I got to catch some of the presidential debate when I got home.

Wednesday: I took Jen out for her birthday to our favorite Thai place, in West Hartford. Yum! We both ordered our favorite, pad thai with shrimp. Then we picked up a bit of ice cream and hung around at her house with her dogs, talking knitting and (of course) boys.

And, coming up:

Today: It's going to be kind of crazy: I have to go check on the pets all the way in West Hartford before I can return to Bristol for our first spinning group meeting...I'm talking wheels, not stationary bikes (and yes, I am an old woman at heart, I fully realize this). Then I plan to race over to Sarah's for our weekly The Office viewing...and I hope to catch a bit of the SNL prime time presidential special right afterwards, as well. That will be followed perhaps by some mah jongg, as per usual on Thursday nights (yes, I already told you, I know I'm an old lady). So, essentially, I have to hit the ground running the minute I'm done with work at 5 tonight. Oy.

Oh, did I mention I still also have to pack for staying at my aunt's? Yeah.

Tomorrow, I'll work at my aunt's and then a small group of us are thinking Dessert Night (live music & delicious cakes) at Sweet Harmony in Middletown...we'll see if we actually get up the energy for that, haha. Otherwise, I'm looking at a pretty quiet weekend compared to this week, which is unusual, but I'll definitely enjoy. I am looking forward to cozying up with the pets and some knitting or a book in my aunt's beautiful house.

For now, though, I've got to finish up work & then figure everything out for tonight! xo

p.s. Also, I know it looks like I'm reading a ton of books at once, but you have to understand my system: one is for reading at home, and that's usually a dense and or huge book that I don't feel like carrying around (right now, that'd be Anathem); one is for carrying with me everywhere in my bag, so I can read snippets of it here and there (in this case, Class Matters just replaced Consuming Kids); one I am audiobooking (Bleak House, which is beautifully read); and the fourth is my first experience with DailyLit, which I'm really enjoying thus far...especially with this current pick (Beowulf).

p.p.s. Sorry, I realize this was kind of a boring entry interesting to perhaps no one but myself...I'll try to post more interesting stuff soon. I have been getting better about posting, though, right?? :)

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Anathem AUTHOR: Neal Stephenson
	TITLE: Class Matters AUTHOR: The New York Times
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens
	TITLE: Beowulf AUTHOR: Gummere

potpourri

2008-10-01T08:51:00.005-05:00

I don't really know why I'm posting today, as I don't have much to say, I don't think. But, knowing me, I'll write a lot anyway.

I'm currently housesitting for my oldest sister, while she and her husband and brother-in-law are adventuring in Spain. (I'm jealous. Need to plan a vacation soon. SOON!) The house is very pretty and I'm quickly getting the hang of all of its little quirks. Mostly my jobs are small: empty the dehumidifier, take in the paper and mail, water a couple of plants. There are no pets, so this is very easy. I think they figured I'd enjoy the time in a real house instead of an apartment, rather than that they actually needed someone here, haha. I'm taking advantage of the big screen TV to watch movies (last night it was - finally! - Shaun of the Dead, which was hilariously awesome) and a very little bit of cable, although I'm (only a little) surprised to find how uninterested in most of it I am. I watched several episodes of The Cosby Show one evening, and The Simpsons and Family Guy on Sunday night (interspersed with 21 when shows I didn't want to watch were on), but other than that, I haven't even been watching much. I was hoping to get a lot more reading done this week because I thought it'd be a quiet one, but I've been surprisingly busy. Unfortunately, some events were less pleasant than others (a friend lost a loved one, which makes me tear up every time I think of it), but there were some lovely nights spent with Tanya (crafting & drinking together) and with my parents (we watched I, Robot). On Sunday, we celebrated my grandparents' 61st anniversary (I can't even fathom that...61 years of anything). And I baked up a batch of Rice Krispie treats last night on a whim. And um...what else? I think that's mostly everything. No wonder I'm tired right now.

Oh, and I am well on my way to becoming a professional house-sitter! Haha. In August it was my parents' house, this week it's my sister's, and my aunt wants me to housesit for her condo and pets (yay!) over the long Columbus Day weekend. Score - now, to just get the word out that I'm trustworthy & leave everything as I found it, so other people will think to ask me. I love these "mini vacations". It certainly does help that I can work from anywhere.

I've gotten a lot of knitting done here; I had brought over this huge bag of various projects, and the bag is almost empty! Crazy. I usually worry too much and bring way too many things to work on (same with books when I go anywhere), but this time I seem to have been justified in my overzealous preparations. I finished up a felted bag (all except for the felting) and have just a little bit left on an adorable baby vest - maybe I'll make that tonight's goal, as I will actually be alone in the house for the entire evening for only the second time, I think. I've also whipped up a ton more squares (maybe 20?) for our blanket project. And, I'm also working on a top for which I've got most of the back done. I'm here until Saturday; I'm thinking I may have to either go purchase more yarn, or stop back at home to pick up some replacement projects!

Hmm. What else? This week holds the weird honor of containing 4 of my good friends' birthdays, all in a row: October 1-4. So happy birthday to Jen, Julia, Sarah, and Abby! Best wishes for 27 and 28! :)

On that happy note, I'm going to leave y'all here. Sorry for the ramblings; I felt the urge to post today, but I suppose there wasn't really a point. I hope everyone is well & enjoying the lovely fall weather (if they are getting any where they are). xoxo

hip to hike

2008-09-24T08:15:00.002-05:00

I went to the Bristol dog park yesterday night to meet up with Amber, Aaron, Kyle, and Joe, and I was surprised to find that we were going hiking through trails in the woods instead of just standing around while the dogs ran around in circles. Surprised when it was too late to go back and get my cane, which worried me briefly, but then I just gamely traveled on. And, to my great surprise, my hip didn't bother me at all! Not during the hike, not afterward, and not even this morning when I woke up. I hadn't even remembered to take my normal 600mg of ibuprofen yesterday, either, so I was expecting some misery. But things are good. Which is strange, because a few days before, I'd gone on a couple of walks around my parents' neighborhood with my mother and sisters, and my leg did hurt me then. I am wondering if the difference truly is between the impact of concrete on my joints compared to the relative "softness" of packed earth. Just something I've been thinking about....

In any case, last night was a lot of fun. I hadn't seen Amber or Aaron in something like 4 years, but they are fabulously easy to pick back up with like no time has passed at all. They're good people. We took a nice long hike (it felt so good to be exercising), then Aaron & I went grocery shopping together, and we all cooked dinner together back at Amber's apartment. I'm really disappointed that Amber is moving to FL next month, just when we've finally gotten back in touch! Things like this seem to happen all too often in my life. Blah.

In other news, work told us yesterday that we're no longer going to develop the product that I've been working on since January! But, luckily, I'm able to transfer to another product within the same group, so it'll be a bit of a transition, but hopefully not too difficult to get used to. I'm looking forward to seeing what this change'll be like.

Speaking of which, I should go back to reading the manual to familiarize myself with the new software.

Have a good Wednesday! xo

10 happy thoughts

2008-09-19T12:45:00.007-05:00

Because I've been having a really bad week, and because I am a pessimist by nature, I figured Wendy's idea of listing 10 things that make me happy right now was a good way to cheer myself up:

the sunny-but-chilly fall weather

feeling productive with my knitting (although still somewhat overwhelmed...)

a warm cup of French vanilla coffee

my cozy new Urban Outfitters shirt (that I'm wearing right now)

the anticipation of a good book (I'm enjoying Anathem thus far)

my new shelves

having cleared the air a bit with some people

making plans with other people that I haven't seen in ages (and was being lazy about contacting...hopefully I'll get to everyone soon)

Talk Like A Pirate Day, of course

and last but certainly not least, plans to have dinner with my family for Sarah's birthday this evening, at a lovely teahouse in Middletown (I'm especially looking forward to the cake!)

Oh and I have to add: 11. feeling like I've been organizing and purging a lot of the stuff that plagues me every day...I love the calm that I get from not having so many things. I am really trying to get rid of useless crap (and things I just don't use, even if I think I might someday...) and I've gone through a lot this past month. I hope to continue to clear our the clutter.

Um...otherwise, really not much going on with me. As I said above, I had a really bad week, emotionally and physically draining, and I am just ready to get some sleep this weekend. I am also looking forward to having some sisterly fun, as Bethany will be in town to celebrate Sarah's birthday, so we'll be hanging out a lot. Luckily my sisters tend towards more quiet-time activities, too, so I hopefully will feel rested after this weekend (since clearly last weekend I did not).

I hope you all have a great weekend, and that all of you feel rested & relaxed afterwards. xo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Anathem AUTHOR: Neal Stephenson
	TITLE: Consuming Kids AUTHOR: Susan Linn
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens

cupcakes & curry

2008-09-15T12:59:00.008-05:00

It was my oldest sister's birthday this weekend, and because of that (and because I've been wanting to try out the cookbook that Sarah K gave me), I was excited by my plan to bake up a batch of vegan orange creamsicle cupcakes:

They turned out just lovely, as you can see - I am very pleased with the result. They were moist and pudding-filled and the frosting was unbelievably delicious (if I do say so myself; I feel I can, since it was the recipe that made it, not my following the steps of it!).

However, I didn't factor in how exhausted I'd be come Monday morning, because my weekend consisted of:

going out for a late dinner + drinks on Friday evening, while listening to a fun Irish band perform late into the night

getting up early to squeeze in a stop at a local charity tag sale my friend was working (which I was unable to locate) before zipping as quick as legally possible down to New Haven to meet up with Sally for a brief visit, which included:

some shopping at Urban Outfitters & a lovely lunch at the burrito place across the street, and once Sally left, was followed by

visiting Ikea solo, which was such a bad idea, but I didn't want to "waste" a trip to NH and not stop in!

hating crowds of slow people more than usual

deciding on a smaller set of shelves than I wanted because I wanted something I could fit into my car

struggling to fit the boxes into my car (in flipflops!)...and then realizing that my GPS was wedged underneath the boxes and that there was no way in hell I was going to be able to lift them in order to reach it

finding my way successfully home, although there were harrowing moments, as in when I attempted to go from 91 to 691, and just blew right past the exit, which would've been okay had I had my GPS...

realizing it was probably better that I took 9 instead

making a quick run into Price Chopper to pick up ingredients for the above cupcakes...and feeling slightly better that at least I had the foresight to bring the cookbook with me when I left for New Haven that morning

getting home, opening the cartons that contained the shelf pieces in order to bring them in one by one...and realizing I had gotten the WHITE ones instead of the BLACK that I wanted!

getting over that, and

hauling the shelves inside piece by piece, bruising myself mercilessly in the process, and sweating like I'd just run a marathon

attempting for quite some time to put the shelves together & swearing a blue streak until I was finally successful (usually I am awesome at following directions!)

feeling in a slightly better mood once I had shelves up & was able to put things on them

making orange pudding on the stovetop to prepare for cupcake-making on Sunday

collapsing into bed...only to realize I was unable to sleep, and stayed awake until around 3 or 4 in the morning...

waking up early to successfully complete the cupcakes - here they are fresh out of the oven:

making a quick grocery store run to pick up ingredients for a double batch of Curried Sweet Potato & Apple Pilaf

going to my sister's to celebrate her birthday with cupcakes & ice cream cake (while chopping vegetables for the pilaf)

stopping at my parents' to drop some things off & have my awesome father help me with my car

running back home to cook & shower before heading over to Jenn's

finally arriving at her potluck dinner party with a successful pilaf & a few cupcakes in tow

So, there you have it: my unexpectedly whirlwind weekend! I had no idea it'd be like that. I had expected a somewhat slowly-paced couple of days, and had been looking forward to some relaxing smattered with seeing some good friends here & there. No wonder I'm exhausted today.

Plus, I didn't get much sleep again last night.

Can I have another weekend to recover from this one? Please?

xo

p.s. Very sad to hear about David Foster Wallace...I have been meaning to read Infinite Jest for years (really enjoyed A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again - bits of it still stick with me years later); now when I finally get around to it (perhaps after Anathem?) it'll have to be read in homage....

just for you, Neal

2008-09-09T13:29:00.010-05:00

Well, it looks like I'm giving up on my all-female reading list...finally!

I hit 10, then 50, and kept going...I didn't realize how many books by women I had on my to-read list! So I've been reading women almost exclusively for over a year now. I never thought I'd be able to stand even a few months, let alone an entire year! Well, maybe it was something I needed at the time....

However, I have recently been struggling with wanting to return to male authors, yet having such a difficult time deciding when and how. As in, should I wait until I hit a good round number, like 75 or 100? And what book should I start with? I felt like it should be something monumental, some work that was seminal in the development of literature, or else it wouldn't be such a poignant change. I considered Tolstoy, Proust, García Márquez. I felt like the decision was impossible to make. I want to read all of those, yes, and many more: but which first? Maybe it isn't even that important of a decision, but it feels like it is. I realize that I've been "cheating" a bit and reading some male authors, but for the most part I've been restricting that to book clubs or audiobooks. So I do feel like this is an important turning point for me.

So. I decided today, hell with it - why not my favorite author's new book? I know I'll enjoy it, it comes out today, and it's an easy decision to make. I don't want to wait on this new one like I've waited on others, because "a convenient time to read" this or that never actually happens, for me. I just have to pick it up and start reading. Which I'm eager to do - I do occasionally enjoy reading books that are à la mode so I can sometimes have conversations with people who aren't classics dorks like me, haha. (Not that I don't read other stuff...but usually I am at the very least a few years behind on whatever I read, largely because I tend to get books from PaperBackSwap...plus, I'd rather hear from people that a book is worth my time before picking it up, hah.)

Plus, I'm currently working on female-authored-books 68 and 69...and, after all, 69 ain't a bad number to end up on.... :)

And, buying it today gives me an excuse to visit Ant at work, which is an added bonus.

xo

Martha's 100 Reasons...to declutter

2008-09-08T18:03:00.004-05:00

I came across this Martha Stewart article on Unclutterer today, and although it's from a year ago, it's still got some great references for those of you looking to thin out the stuff in your life. I don't agree with some of the items, but for the most part it's a pretty nifty & comprehensive little guide. I found the information on preserve to be of particular interest...granted, some places (Boston included) do recycle all types of plastic, but I know that many places don't, so this is a neat way to keep #5 plastic out of the trash. I did a bit of searching the website, however, and while I had hoped they would offer discounts on their products for mailing in materials for their use, they do not - but they do offer postage-paid mailing labels, at least. So really all you would have to provide (besides your time & energy) is a box. Not too bad, but they still are reaping the benefits financially...still, I suppose I'd rather see the plastic used than tossed. Maybe it's just (crazy) me.

Thanks, Mom, for raising three recycling-obsessed daughters! (Well, I suppose that it's better than us being trashy...in more ways than one, hah.)

xoxo

book meme

2008-09-02T10:20:00.006-05:00

I saw this on Stariel's blog; I am changing the rules a bit because I don't have many books that I've started and not finished:

Instructions: Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones ~~you’ve started but haven’t finished~~ you'd like to read someday, cross out the ones you hated, and underline the ones on your book shelf! Combine indicators as appropriate.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

This is a very curious mix of books...I wonder if they are all someone's favorites or something. Odd.

But, always glad to see my favorite book (Cryptonomicon) listed.

xo

p.s. I'm well aware that this is probably interesting to no one else but me...but I wanted to post it, I'm sorry. :)

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Bug AUTHOR: Ellen Ullman
	TITLE: Consuming Kids AUTHOR: Susan Linn
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens

hilarious blog

2008-08-25T15:19:00.006-05:00

After laughing out loud several times just today at posts on The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks, I thought it high time to share this with my beloved blog readers.

I think what I love most are the terribly-amusing-but-oh-so-brief comments that the author adds to "clarify" (yes, quotation marks were necessary there, shush) the situation for her hapless readership, hah. Priceless.

I was up in Boston yesterday having a lovely time with Jeanette; I will try to get off my lazy arse and post about that sometime before 2010! :)

xo

(Oh, and credit goes to Bethany for pointing me in the direction of that blog. Thanks!)

Stephenson strikes again

2008-08-22T16:04:00.004-05:00

Not that many people will care about this, but, yay, new from my favorite author!

Anathem

Now, if only I could stop the saving-the-best-for-last mentality I have about books (and many other things) and finally finish off his awesome Baroque Cycle trilogy....

xo

sunny day, chasing the clouds away...

2008-08-18T09:07:00.004-05:00

Okay, has Sesame Street always been this awesome and I just failed to notice because I wasn't aware of celebrities when I was 5? Or is this a new thing, all of their cool guest stars? In the past month, I've seen Tina Fey (best EVER: "Read read read read / We're pirates who like to read!" - they were the Bookaneers), NPH (who played the Shoe Fairy!), and it looks like today features Will Arnett as a magician (not a far cry from his Arrested Development days, but hopefully he's more successful at it here than he was there...). This is the coolest thing. It makes me, as an adult, just as excited to watch Sesame Street as my 2-year-old housemate Kaelyn is. Awesome.

p.s. How cool is it that entering "NPH" into the IMDb.com search lands you directly on Neil Patrick Harris' page, instead of search results? Score one for Doogie.

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Bug AUTHOR: Ellen Ullman
	TITLE: Mating in Captivity AUTHOR: Esther Perel
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens

hilarious.

2008-08-08T11:57:00.005-05:00

So I recently signed up for YouMail, and I just love the service. It reminds me I have voicemails both via email and text message, which really helps me remember much better who I have to call back. Plus, I have an inbox where I can listen to or delete messages in any order, instead of having to worry about the linearity of normal phone voicemail systems or how quickly messages expire (they don't seem to on YouMail).

But what I am actually posting about is the transcription service they currently offer. When someone calls, they try to translate voice into text, and offer you that so you can scan the message if you can't immediately listen to it. However, voices are so diverse and voice recognition software is not quite yet up to par, so currently it's all just ridiculously amusing instead of all that accurate. But, I don't mind - I'm laughing my ass of in the meantime.

For instance, my sister Sarah called and left a message to call her back. I saw this: "Illuminating hey had a question for you mean column by. Do this."

My friend Kyle called (albeit, with laryngitis) and left a message that started off translated to: "Oh no no. Oh Regina. Shouldn't. Element lotus that's kind of." and ended with "A number isuzu for 6 it's ##### children to that. But producing but." (The number signs were actual numbers, but I didn't want to give away too much of his personal information!)

Yesterday, Ant and I tried to trick the voice recognition, but surprisingly his voice was one of the most recognizable. But we were highly amused when he tried "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and it gave us "super cal fragile as the x-p-l Delicious" (complete with the capital "d"!). Now I can only say the phrase the latter way, haha.

There have been numerous others, but I won't bore you with them all, haha. (Especially because they are probably funnier when you know what was actually said!) But definitely I'd recommend signing up for this free service! It's been absolutely worth it for me. And not just because of the amusement factor. xo

crankypants

2008-08-05T14:32:00.005-05:00

I feel really awful today because I'm being really bitchy, due to being extremely overtired. Which is ridiculous of me, because the reason for me being exhausted makes me really very happy. But unfortunately the happy didn't manage to cancel out the feeling I had of being walked all over by a friend. When I realized that I was overreacting, it was too late, the damage was done. Now, I just am feeling crappy for how I acted, because I realize it was really irrational and unfair. I think sometimes my social anxiety kicks into overdrive, and I lash out because I'm not sure how to be. I know I should be friendly & happy, especially to people I don't know well who have no idea why I'm in a lousy mood, but unfortunately sometimes I even take it out on them. And when I'm tired, I don't always have the energy to put on the requisite super-friendly act. I try always to do so when it comes to complete strangers - people in the service industry, for instance - but I think I can sometimes be terribly unfair to acquaintances who have never had to deal with an angry me before. Sometimes it comes out of left field and really throws people for a loop - because 90% of the time, I can be upbeat and cheerful as necessary. But when I'm off, I'm off - and unfortunately, people pay. I'm sorry.

I'm going to try to catch up on sleep tonight so hopefully I'm not quite so cranky tomorrow, but it'll be hard what with it being Tanya's birthday, and having a friend in from out of town for one night only! xo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Brambles AUTHOR: Eliza Minot
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens

down South(ish)

2008-07-30T11:46:00.004-05:00

Ah-HAH! You all thought I had disappeared, didn't ya? Yeah, I haven't been blogging much, I know. Not much time to write, mostly. And things are just...going. It's good. Right now I'm down in Virginia with my friend Tanya; we've been visiting friends of hers - big brothers, kind of - who have also adopted me, haha. We arrived Friday afternoon, and then spent 3 nights at shows in a row! More live music than I've seen in a long time. It was really fun. And all were either the guys' bands, or their friends, so it was all really comfy, too. Over the weekend we also got a chance to hit the beach - we saw dolphins! - and the famous Virginia Beach boardwalk, where this Neptune statue resides:

(Sorry the image is so dark; it was taken on my phone.)

Mostly we have been seeing people more than seeing sights, but it is our second visit down here (in 4 months), so that makes sense. I of course made a point to stop at the one local yarn shop I spotted down here, and chatted with the small knitting group there for a little while (before, of course, purchasing several skeins of sock yarn - although, unfortunately, nothing locally produced). Otherwise, I've been working during the day and the past couple of nights have been (self-imposed) quiet ones in, since we were so exhausted from the weekend, haha.

All right, I should get back to work for now, I just wanted to stop in & say hi. Hooray! xo

delocate yourself

2008-06-16T19:24:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to share this very cool website: Delocator. It helps you find locally run and owned bookstores, cafes, and movie theaters in your area, so you don't have to give all your money to The Man. Instead, you can keep it invested in your own community. Yay!

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Daughter of Fortune AUTHOR: Isabel Allende
	TITLE: How to Kill a Rock Star AUTHOR: Tiffanie deBartolo

overdue (knitting) update

2008-06-16T12:36:00.003-05:00

I suddenly encountered trouble just as I was about to post this over at Sweet Potato Knits, so I figured I'd post it here for now...apologies to those who read both blogs & might end up seeing this twice - if the SPK errors aren't fatal. xo

Hi. So I've been knitting, of course. And posting some things on Ravelry. But unfortunately I haven't been keeping up with SPK, nor have I really taken a ton of photos. I thought I'd quickly share a few here, though, for those of you who don't see me knitting every day:

Here is an in-progress shot of a piece I've had hibernating for quite some time now - the Trellis & Vine that was once found on Magknits:

If I can find a link to it being hosted somewhere else (it's not even currently on Ravelry), I'll be sure to share. For now, you can use any of the links listed at this Wayback Machine page.

Oh, and I'm knitting that in Brown Sheep Co. Cotton Fleece, color CW-900 Perry's Primrose.

Here is a pair of Jaywalkers (another Magknits pattern; this one's on Ravelry, and Grumperina also hosts a page with ways to find it here) that I've knit for one of my best friends; her favorite color is green:

These will be a birthday gift for her. They were knit in KnitPicks Gossamer, a laceweight yarn, but I really like how they turned out! Especially the bottom one; I don't love how the color pooled on the top one, but the striping on the bottom one worked out really neat.

Let's see, what else? Oh, here's an in-progress shot of the alphabet-block baby blanket I'm currently in the middle of:

All of it has now been knit, and about half has been sewn (well, crocheted) together. Right now I'm working on blocking the last few pieces before they go in. I should have a finished product photo soon, and with that, I promise "instructions" of a sort. I'm not too pleased with how this turned out, actually, which is why I'm glad I'm not too worried about what the giftee will think of it, heh. But next time I plan to do it with white in place of the "background" stitches to make for more of an alphabet block look. But, this was a fun & simple project to kind of work on piecemeal.

Otherwise, I'm in the middle of a few other things - another pair of socks (the second to the one I had to rip out because of the super-long foot!), and I just did a gauge swatch for a toddler hoodie I'm knitting out of cotton for my current housemate (who's 2). Oh, and I finished a scarf, but I'm not gonna post it here just yet.

Mostly, I'm trying really hard to knit up my stash and to finish up WIPs and hibernated pieces. I'm excited to feel pretty productive in both those areas (although I have to admit I've made purchases recently that sort of balance out the stash-busting...le sigh).

Hope everyone's well. I'll try to post more often here. Miss you all. xoxo

birthday books

2008-06-04T20:08:00.002-05:00

I have been meaning to post a list of all the awesome books I received for my birthday this year; some were on my Amazon wishlist, and some were purchases made with me in mind. All were very appropriate, and they're on my to-read-in-the-near-future list. I hope against hope to get to most of them this summer:

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero)
Given by: Sarah K.
Unaware that it was recently added to my Amazon wishlist, Sarah K. mailed this to me entirely out of the blue! It's, clearly, a vegan cupcake cookbook. I can't wait to try some of the recipes.

The Knitting Circle (Ann Hood)
Given by: Sarah (sister)
Because I love books & knitting!

The Friday Night Knitting Club (Kate Jacobs)
Ditto above. This one I've already read; it was an enjoyable, light, chick-lit-ish read, and would be even for those who don't knit, I think. And luckily it wasn't quite as tepid and fanciful as some knitting novels I've read in the past...but we won't get into that right now.

The Killer Angels (Michael Shaara)
Given by: Mom & Dad
On my Amazon wishlist because Dave recommended it a few years ago (I forget why). It's a historical novel, about the "four most bloody and courageous days" of the Civil War. My one issue with it right now that it's the mass market paperback version. Ugh. I wish they'd never invented that format. Those don't ever feel like real books.

Sin and Syntax (Constance Hale)
Given by: Mom & Dad
On my Amazon wishlist because I think I saw it on someone else's...? It's subtitled "How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose." I don't know much about it; I'm looking forward to cracking it to see what it's got to say.

Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)
Given by: Mom & Dad
On my Amazon wishlist because of a review in Bust magazine. It's an autobiographical "graphic novel" (how do you describe this format without calling it a novel? - it isn't one) about a girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

The New Penguin History of the World (J.M. Roberts)
Given by: Mom & Dad
On my Amazon wishlist because my friend & coworker Karen highly recommended it after we had long discussions about history (and how we wanted a comprehensive, over-arching understanding of it) over microwaved lunches in the atrium. I plan to read this in small, digestible bites over a long period of time, somewhat like Zinn's A People's History.

Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary (Vivian Cook)
Given by: Bethany
This title was difficult to type. Bethany knows of my love of proper grammar & orthography. The book looks to contain photographic examples of many common mistakes in everyday writing (mostly images of signs) as well as thorough notes on history, historic mistakes (some by very famous authors), other problematic spellings, etc. Also: I thought it was written by a woman, but Vivian is in fact a man.

Thanks, everyone, for such thoughtful and such appropriate gifts! You know you generally can't go wrong giving me a book (my to-read pile continues to grow out of control...), but these were just so spot-on. I'm excited for each & every one of them.

xo

NB: These books were listed by order of receipt, not by order of preference or order I intend to read them.

i'm a peach

2008-06-03T09:42:00.003-05:00

I have never in my life lived on Limmer Lane in Cairo, GA. In fact, I've never lived anywhere near Georgia! So why in the world is my credit card apparently now being billed there? I'm very nervous about this. I don't know if it's fraudulence, or if it's a mistake made by my credit card company. I called immediately when I noticed the problem, but I'm keeping an extra-close eye on my account for the next week or so. It doesn't look like there have been any suspicious purchases yet, but you never know. Sometimes they take a while. I'm so scared to have to go through the hell of sorting out fraudulent purchases once again. Ugh.

I'm thinking that maybe this was actually a credit card company mistake. The only information I can find online for the above address is an outdated real estate listing, which means that maybe someone recently moved in, and applied for a new card. Could they have reissued my number or written over the wrong database record, though?? Is that even possible?

Oy. Wish me luck that this isn't yet another few months of Credit Card Hell. I hate this stuff. There has to be better way of making things secure. Bah.

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Daughter of Fortune AUTHOR: Isabel Allende
	TITLE: Drinking: A Love Story AUTHOR: Caroline Knapp

ah, sunshine

2008-05-23T09:44:00.004-05:00

Working outside today, because it is warmer outside than in. What is with this weather? It's been so cold. I don't know why I expect hot temperatures in May, though. Maybe just 'cause we've seen them in recent years. Aside from the cold nights, though, I don't really mind - I prefer daytime weather like this (at least the outside temperatures) rather than extreme heat & humidity. I like t-shirt-and-jeans-and-sweatshirt weather; I've always preferred it. I just hate when I dress for warmer weather during the day and then am not prepared for the almost-freezing temperatures at night - so I walk around huddled in my thin jacket and wishing I'd worn socks.

I am totally digging warming myself in the gorgeous sunshine right now, though. Yay for laptops and wireless Internets. :)

xoxo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Friday Night Knitting Club AUTHOR: Kate Jacobs
	TITLE: Daughter of Fortune AUTHOR: Isabel Allende

treat your mother right

2008-05-12T15:32:00.000-05:00

Just thought this was appropriate for yesterday...yay, Mr. T!

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Special Topics in Calamity Physics AUTHOR: Marisha Pessl

ugh, tests...

2008-05-07T10:59:00.003-05:00

Well, I've decided it's high time for me to take the GRE. I keep putting it off, but I figure that's the first step in getting me anywhere on the road to grad school. I've been seriously considering (again) studying NLP, because I do love computers + grammar, but I want to do something that actually makes a difference. That's what I've really been struggling with a lot lately. So I need to do a bit more research into ways research into that field might actually help make the world a better place, someday. I'll keep y'all updated on any further developments in this vein.

For now, I'm looking into GRE books. I was thinking taking classes would be fun (mostly for the social aspect, as I kind of hate the whole marketplace of "here's how to get the edge on standarized testing!"), but they cost a whopping $1200, so that's been counted out. Besides, I know I can do fine on my own; I just need a little brushing up. It'd be fun to find a community of people to study with, though. Give each other flashcard quizzes and whatnot, haha.

It feels nice to have some sort of direction. But, I've said this sort of thing before & it's gone absolutely nowhere because of my lack of motivation. I really need to get my act together. I'll be 27 very soon. I want to actually feel like I'm at least on a path to somewhere good by 30.

Wish me luck? xoxo

free & cool

2008-05-02T10:39:00.004-05:00

Dave is probably already all over this one, but for those of us who aren't such avid comic book readers, I thought some of you might be interested in hearing about this: Free Comic Book Day! Free is always good, and comics definitely don't seem to get enough recognition these days. I may go for a beloved Archie tomorrow (if Jughead were real, he'd totally be the guy I had an irrepressible crush on, a la Big Ethel), but...I may also branch out and try something new & exciting. I don't give comics enough of a fair shake, myself.

Have a good (and comic-filled) weekend, everyone! xo

(Thanks to Liquid Treat for the notification on this one.)

who knew?

2008-04-26T11:57:00.005-05:00

Granted, I wasn't paying much attention to the economy at 10, but I had no idea that the "alterna-grunge" fashion movement had anything at all to do with the recession, as this article indicates:

Economists say this teen spending slump could be the worst in 17 years, when teen frugality led to the demise of once-hot Merry-Go-Round Enterprises Inc. and ushered in an era of flannel shirts and torn jeans.

I guess it makes sense - my friends & I were doing most of our shopping at Salvation Army stores throughout high school, although we definitely weren't of the Abercrombie norm where I lived....

I am just picturing the early-90s fashion icons of Kurt & Courtney. Babydoll dresses weren't quite something you could buy secondhand, but I guess things like plastic hairclips (I totally rocked those) and torn tights weren't too difficult to obtain or upkeep.

I'm also definitely glad to see this closing sentence:

Block noted that buying second-hand is also appealing to a growing eco-friendly sentiment among teenagers.

I sure hope to see that trend continue!

xoxo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Dematerializing AUTHOR: Jane Hammerslough

let's go Bruins

2008-04-21T15:47:00.001-05:00

Win that 7th game!!

etymology simply fascinates me.

2008-04-11T16:48:00.000-05:00

Well...I was going to write something out, but I don't think I could say it any better than Wikipedia -- this is about the Friars Minor Capuchin, an order of the Catholic Church:

The order arose in 1520 when Matteo da Bascio, an "Observant" Franciscan friar native to the Italian region of Marche, became inspired by God with the idea that the manner of life led by the Franciscans of his day was not the one which St. Francis had envisaged. He sought to return to the primitive way of life in solitude and penance as practiced by the founder of his order.

His superiors tried to suppress these innovations, and Friar Matteo and his first companions were forced into hiding from Church authorities, who sought to arrest them for having abandoned their religious duties. They were given refuge by the Camaldolese monks, in gratitude for which they later adopted the hood or capuccio worn by that order--which was the mark of a hermit in that region of Italy--and the practice of wearing a beard. The popular name of their order originates from this feature of their religious habit, and after this the Capuchin monkey and the cappuccino coffee are also named by visual analogy.

Here are some fun visuals to cement the idea for you:

cappuccio

capuchin monkey

cappuccino

p.s. This is a capuchin monkey too, but it's mostly included for your entertainment.

p.p.s. Another word for cappuccio is chaperon, which is the headgear that protective escorts once used to sport...which also explains where that word comes from, too!

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Poisonwood Bible AUTHOR: Barbara Kingsolver
	TITLE: Bleak House AUTHOR: Charles Dickens

remember the daze?

2008-04-10T08:00:00.003-05:00

I don't know yet what I think about this movie, but hey, yay class of 1999!

Very Dazed and Confused for a new generation, but we'll have to see if it can live up to that. So far, I'm thinking not. But I'll definitely give it a shot if it comes our way.

(Stumbled across this thanks to good old Daily Candy.)

the big one

2008-04-09T08:38:00.004-05:00

Wow. This is the first time I can actually say that I read the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year, thanks to my book club. I probably never would have picked the book up myself, if it weren't for them. But I did absolutely love it - largely for its geeky references, though...and good writing, of course. :) I'll have to keep an eye out for future work from Mr. Diaz.

I'm lucky, too, because it was a close call - I didn't read either of the other 2 nominees, which were Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson Shakespeare’s Kitchen by Lore Segal.

Maybe I'll have to add those to my ever-growing list, though....

xo

la-la-la-library

2008-04-08T21:27:00.005-05:00

On my way back in from work tonight, I stopped at the public library because I had only 70 pages left of (the long-overdue) The Brothers Karamazov, and I had every belief that I could finish those pages before the closing hour of 9 o'clock. ...And I would've gotten away with it, too, if not for those meddling, er, guys!

See, I had settled myself into one of those nice, comfy chairs they recently set up near the new books section, and I was flying through (the trial part of the book is quite engaging), and I was just thinking to myself, "My, how nice this is. I should come read in the library more often! I'd get so much reading done."

And of course, that's when Awful Dude comes and sits down a couple chairs away from me. First, his annoying antics were just mildly so; he took off his shoes and promptly curled up and started snoring. However, that caused a security guard to come over and wake him up, telling him that sleeping wasn't allowed in the library and that if Awful Dude persisted, Security Guard would have to call the police (oh, gosh - I know he means, like, using it as a place to sleep instead of falling asleep over your books, but how many times I've been guilty of the latter...whew). Of course, during all this, I got very little reading done - especially when AD started muttering threats to SG.

Things quieted down for a bit, though, and I was able to read again...until this guy sat down between us, and AD started going off on him. I nicknamed him "Awful Dude" because what spewed out of his mouth from that point on, towards this perfectly innocent and totally silent (and unprovoking) man were some of the worst, most slanderous insults, racial slurs, violent threats, and homophobic and xenophobic bullshit that ever I have heard from anyone. AD was just ranting at him - and I was just mere feet away, trying to pretend to be totally engrossed in my book so as not to incur AD's wrath. Believe me, I would've loved to have stood up to AD (or even just stood up and left), but I have to admit I was terrified. He definitely didn't seem in his right mind...and he was way bigger than me. Really, really scary. For the next several minutes I got no reading done whatsoever (although believe me, I stared a hole through my page, trying to avoid any notice by AD!).

Then, apropos of nothing, AD silenced and curled up in his chair again, to once again begin snoring. My fingers stopped clutching the book...for a few seconds, at least, until SG and his buddy came over again, this time to kick AD out of the library once and for all. Whoo boy, that did not go over well. I tried not to listen to what AD was yelling now about the guy next to me and the security guards....

Finally he was gone, and at that point I only had a short time left before the library closed, and too many pages to finish. Sigh. It had been my goal to finish the book at the library and then leave it there. Now, I'll have to finish it tonight & drop it in the book drop tomorrow. I know, no difference in terms of late fees, but still. It's the principle of the thing. I so had it. Damn AD.

But, in better news, I think I'll be able to finish The Brothers Karamazov and Sense and Sensibility tonight. Wohoo! It's been a while since I finished any books at all, so I'm quite pleased to get to check 2 off at once.

And, to that end, I leave you all for now.
Goodnight.
xoxo

saddest. thing. evar.

2008-04-08T10:00:00.001-05:00

(Thanks, Sally!)

foggy

2008-04-05T00:52:00.002-05:00

I'm in such a state. I am still up, waiting for a build to complete. I'm PMSing. I'm ripping out about 6 inches of knitting because I realize I've been working with 49 stitches instead of 51 the whole time. (How did I not notice that until now?!?)

Needless to say, I've been terribly weepy today, with all the frustration. Ugh.

I hope I can catch up on some much-needed rest & relaxation this weekend...and the same to all of you!

xo

last stop

2008-03-28T09:12:00.003-05:00

Ahahaha okay I *definitely* need to get more sleep...I almost just didn't make it off the train! I fell asleep halfway through my ride this morning, totally thinking that I normally wake up at every stop, so I'd be fine...but my eyes flew open and I looked up to see the signs for Riverside moving away...and Riverside is the last stop! Which meant I was headed into the train yard with only the conductors! I was so thrown off...usually, even if I do fall asleep, I manage to wake myself up in time, no problem. Not so today. I had to walk to the front of the train and say, "Excuse me, sir...?" The conductor was totally nice about everything, and let me off at a place where I could just easily cut back through to the platform, but still...I felt like such a jerk. We were both laughing because he said he usually checks the cars before he moves the train on into the lot (by the last stop outbound, there are usually very few people in the cars; I have definitely been the only one left in my car before) and I said that I normally wouldn't have slept through the last stop! That definitely means I'm way overtired. Usually I'm a pretty light sleeper. I think the rain trickling down the T windows lulled me to sleep this morning....

It probably also doesn't help that The Brothers Karamazov is so dense. I am loving the book right now and am really engaged in it, but sometimes there are just so damn many words on the page, haha. I've heard tell that Dostoyevsky was paid by the word for his newspaper serials (of which TBK was one). This would not surprise me in the last, as my copy of the book is almost 800 pages. Well, at least I've got less than 300 left to go! (I really only read it on the T, which is why it's going so slowly for me....)

I have been up late every night this week, and last night was no exception: Shaina took me to see a production of Annie at the Wang. I don't think I've ever seen a show there, and the coolest thing was that she had gotten her tickets through work, so we had awesome (free!) balcony seats! It felt so privileged, haha. The show was good but not the best version of the play that I've seen...some of the actors were very good, though. And the dog! So impressive, how well trained he was.

Anyway, my ultimate conclusion from all of this is that I really have to try to be better about sleep. I think it would probably really help to not schedule so much after work...but I like doing lots of things! Arg. Conundrum.

Well, I hope you all stay warm & dry on this yucky day. I am so looking forward to curling up all cozy in bed tonight....

xo

ringing joyful and triumphant

2008-03-17T13:25:00.001-05:00

No, this post has nothing really do to with the sentiment in its title. When I thought "ringing", the first thing that came to my head were the above lyrics, which is from one of my favorite scenes ever in Veronica Mars. (The song is apparently by Mike Doughty. It's excellent.)

Anyway, why was I thinking "ringing"? Because I've been suffering from a mild form of tinnitus for the past several days, maybe even a week? It's not really fun. In my right ear, it sounds like there is a machine running or a car idling continually in the distance. 24/7.

I don't know if that's been contributing to my insomnia or not, but there's another thing that has been plaguing me. The last several nights, I haven't been able to get myself to actually sleep until 2 or 3 in the morning. Even if I'm lying in bed, eyes closed. Although normally it manifests itself in my not even thinking I'm tired enough to go lay down. I think part of it is I hate that moment between waking & sleep where you have to lie there, at the mercy of just thinking whatever thoughts happen upon you. Maybe I try to exhaust myself so I can just fall into a blissful, deep sleep - but I've never been that kind of a person. So I don't know what I'm expecting. I need to figure out a better way to get myself unconscious - without resorting to drugs or, you know, knocking myself out with a cast-iron pan.

Ah, today's gonna be difficult, what with the lack of sleep. At least office noises (and listening to "I Hear the Bells") help me ignore the ringing in my ears.

xo

just another manic Monday

2008-03-10T20:56:00.004-05:00

This weekend was fun. I got to do some stitching & bitching with the North End knitters up at Diesel Cafe at midday on Saturday, then hopped the T back down to Harvard Square to meet up with my mom & sisters, who were in town for the weekend. We had some drinks at Algiers, and wandered around Beadworks, Woolcott, the Garage, and Rodney's despite the pouring rain.

That evening, we went to Right Turn to see one of the best performances I've ever seen Sweet Wednesday put on. (My oldest sister met Lisa randomly one day in a park about 10 years ago, and our family's been following their shows on & off ever since!) It was fun to go with the girls.

Then we stayed up really late watching 90210 and Waitress, which unfortunately was not as good as I had hoped it would be. But, Mal from Firefly was in it, so I enjoyed that!

The next morning, I met up with Shaina for my first Johnny D's jazz brunch experience! It was really fun (although close quarters, and really crowded), and the food was pretty good, although not the best I've ever tasted. I guess I'm still partial to Pour House brunches. You can't beat pumpkin pie pancakes.

I spent the early afternoon getting things done around the apartment, and then attended my first Code Pink meeting in ages. I can't believe it's been so long since I've seen some of those people! It was really good to catch up, though, and feel once again like I was back in the thick of things. Granted, I'm not much of an in-your-face protester, but I am definitely looking forward to Knitting for Justice (at the new Stitch House in Dot.) this Tuesday! That's something I could really get into.

Lots going on otherwise, but I don't feel like talking much about any of it. I got a ton of knitting done over this weekend, and surprisingly my wrists don't seem any the worse for it today. I'll try to share some of the several things I worked on at some point soon.

Till then, have a good week.

xo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Brothers Karamazov AUTHOR: Fyodor Dostoevsky
	TITLE: The Poisonwood Bible AUTHOR: Barbara Kingsolver

excuse me while i geek out

2008-03-07T10:35:00.001-05:00

I was just scanning an old C++ textbook to find this information that I need, and I came across a very profound statement: "Friendship is not inherited." Granted, probably only those of you who know OOP will understand the geeky side of that phrase, but I thought it was pretty neat.

xoxo

damn they're good

2008-03-07T10:22:00.003-05:00

Wow. I just got my first Google Calendar invitation spam. I am speechless - I didn't even know they could do that. As much as I passionately despite spammers, I do have to admit that sometimes I have to grudgingly respect them, as well. They can really impress me with their wily ways. I still plan to ignore their every advance, but I definitely concede their smarts. Well, some of them - not those who write poorly spelled & ridiculous subject lines when trying to sell me penis enlargements or dates with hot teenage girls. But those guys at the top? The ones who really do the scheming, and pass their ideas on down to the peons who pester me? They're good. Evil, but good.

blah

2008-03-04T08:57:00.004-05:00

I'm already having the worst morning. I can just feel this day going downhill fast.

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Brothers Karamazov AUTHOR: Fyodor Dostoevsky
	TITLE: Women Who Run with the Wolves AUTHOR: Clarissa Pinkola Estes

bookworm

2008-02-29T12:32:00.002-05:00

I'm totally looking forward to two exciting visits this weekend, from two of my favorite people in the world: Steph & Rodrigo. Should be lots of fun, between the two of them. No specific plans as of yet, but we always find plenty of fun for ourselves, hehe. They don't know each other yet (Steph's an old school friend; Rodrigo is from Austin), but I do think they'll hit it off....

Only question is, when will I manage to get the remaining 550 pages of The Brothers Karamazov done in time for Sunday evening's book club meeting?? Hah...I probably won't end up attending, after all. I'll have to wait for the next book, I guess. I was looking forward to discussing the TBK, but I was just at a book club meeting last week for another book I didn't quite finish in time, and believe me, some big plot points were ruined for me. Well, not so much ruined, because I'll still finish the book, but they certainly won't be the surprise they were to everyone else! Ah, it's entirely my own fault - I tried to squeeze two book club books in at the same time. Three, actually, but I managed to finish Middlesex in time for that meeting. That definitely made the discussion more enjoyable. Next month, though, I'll either just have to be more selective about which groups I attend, or really buckle down & get to reading my ass off! Haha.

Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful weekend!
xo

oh SNAP

2008-02-28T17:07:00.000-05:00

So the movie last night was fine; nothing to really comment on. It was pretty, the story was good, I enjoyed it. However, I have something even more interesting to report on: the passes scandal.

See, Code Pink Boston got invited by the movie's publicist to go see the film; our organizer posted the provided free pass in the file's section of our group's site. All we had to do in order to attend the movie was to print out the pass and bring it with us to the theater. Having had trouble getting into free screenings before (hey, it's understandable, when tickets are over $10 a pop now), I knew I had to get there early. I arrived at the theater shortly after 6 for the 7 o'clock show; there were already maybe 60 people in line ahead of me. I staked out my place and pulled out my knitting to kill some time.

Around 6:30, they started letting people into the theater. I showed the ticket collector my pass, and had no problems getting in. Luckily, Jeanette also had no problem convincing the guy downstairs that I was holding her ticket & seat; she joined me shortly thereafter. The theater was already packed, but I was no longer worried: we had our seats! What could go wrong now?

Well. It wasn't quite as smooth sailing as I had hoped for. We noticed rather quickly that some girl was standing in the aisle next to us, yelling into her cell phone, waving a pass identical to mine around, and - most significantly - making this poor girl, the holder of the pass, stand & wait next to her. Phone Girl was exclaiming that there were all of these "fake, photocopied passes" going around and that they weren't supposed to be letting people in with them - there was no movie title even listed on the pass, just the date and time and place! Oh, was she upset. She sounded like heads were going to roll at the office tomorrow morning. I assumed her office was somewhere in the theater, despite how I couldn't totally take her seriously, as she was wearing an outfit fit for a thirteen year old. But, I just kept quiet and watched the action play itself out, because I didn't want her to know I was also sitting on one of these "questionable" passes! We were safely in, weren't we? What could they do now, kick us out?

Shortly before the movie began, this girl stormed to a row several aisles in front of us and demanded that about half a dozen people move - saying that those were seats being specifically reserved for "VIPs". (Yes, that was the word she used.) Jeanette & I were intrigued and making wild guesses as to who those VIPs could possibly be (movie stars? the mayor?) while we watched the poor displaced souls (people who had been sitting in those seats since the theater doors first opened; by this point, there were only random empty seats scattered throughout the theater) gather up their things in bewilderment and shuffle out of the aisle in search of somewhere else to sit.

We kept an eye out for these VIPs, but I guess they showed up just as the movie started, because we never got to see who they were.

No matter, though - really. Because, see, you wanna know the thing? Phone Girl didn't even work for the theater!!! I'm totally serious. I told Code Pink's organizer about the whole debacle this morning, and she contacted the publicist who had originally offered the passes. I don't know the whole story, but I guess the publicist told her there was a "rogue staffer" who was scamming around at the preview. Un-fricking-believable. Seriously. Who does that?!?

Especially because it just occurred to me that she probably was worried her friends wouldn't get in okay - seeing as so many people had these "fake passes" - that she decided to up and claim some seats, Christopher Columbus style, from the innocent people who were already sitting there! So not cool.

And I have to say, I feel totally guilty because I didn't want to question her "authority", even though I should have. And maybe I would have, had I been subject to her outrageous behaviour. But still. I wanna say that I'm impressed by her tactics - so very Frank Abagnale Jr. - but I just think she's a bitch. Plain & simple.

xo

mishmash.

2008-02-27T12:11:00.000-05:00

I feel like it's been way too long since I posted, but...what to post about? Nothing much to report, here. I am just doing as usual, and keeping really busy. Almost too busy. I think I need to slow my life down a bit. But I guess it's by choice, how things are. And I certainly do hate to have to stop and think - I get too neurotic that way! :)

I'm currently working lots, knitting lots, and in the midst of 3 book clubs. I haven't watched a DVD or movie in ages, save for a few episodes of Firefly that I squeezed in recently. I have...really no idea why I'm so busy. But don't get me wrong, I'm certainly enjoying it! (Usually. Except for the lack of sleep thing.)

I feel like there's always something more that can get done. I adore multitasking. It's gotten really bad. I wish I could knit at work, for example, while I'm reading all of these IBM documents to learn all the ropes.

I feel like there's a zillion things I could tell about what I've been doing recently, but I just am so overwhelmed thinking of it. Tonight, J and I are supposed to attend a sneak preview The Other Boelyn Girl; we'll see how that goes, especially since I'm not particularly fond of either of the 2 main actresses. (I don't think they're terrible actresses, I just don't particularly like them.)

My hip's been doing okay recently; not much pain there, which is very good. But I do use my cane anytime I'm out, so that is of course part of it. I've got more PT exercises to do to help strengthen & limber me. And they want me to find a pool, or a gym. I don't want to find either. :( I really loved the excuse of not having to exercise! But the therapist told me that I need to work on my cardiovascular fitness, now that my core strength is better. Sigh. I wish walking everywhere counted towards that. That's the kind of exercise I like.

Sorry this is such a disjointed post. I'm just trying to think of things to update on. Umm life is pretty okay. Just living. Trying to plan a few trips in the near future, or at least for 2008 sometime: visits to friends (Jen, Karen, Sally) and with friends (Tanya, Steph, Sarah) to various locales...if I can ever get those worked out. I've got the vacation time; I just need the money and planning to come together. (Have I said this already before?) I also want to go to Algeria with Dan, haha. Or, somewhere fun & exotic again, anyway. If we can afford it, which we prolly can't right now.

I really do want to post more, but I guess living life is more important, n'est-ce pas? I would do more frequent, smaller posts probably if I felt like I had the time when I got back in every night, but I get in really late what with the commute & all. I try to squeeze a ton in even then, and end up going to bed way too late every night! Oy.

I always have all these little trains of thought that I feel would be good blog fodder, but by the time I get around to thinking of blogging, the ideas are already too stale! Oh, well.

Speaking of food (stale? get it?), I need some better ideas of things to bring in for lunch at work. Anyone have any good recipes I could whip up and port easily? Ideally nothing messy. I have been trying pasta & vegetables; I think next week I'll sautee some vegetables, cook up some rice, and wrap it all in a tortilla. Or maybe I'll just make some egg salad. Someone also suggested that I freeze yogurt; that way it is nice & thawed out by lunchtime even if I just leave it at my desk.

BLAH I've got a zillion thoughts in my head. Sorry to overwhelm y'all! This is the worst post EVAR. I need to stop for now. I'll try to write more (and more concisely) later on. At least more frequently than once a month. Maybe I need to travel to Austin again...heh.

Oh, and one more thing, here's a picture of me & Jen from Sarah's wedding:

I'll get the original (non-watermarked) copy up there as soon as I can, as well as some other cute ones of my family. In the meantime, check out the photographer's other stuff here, though. His work is amazing.

xo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Brothers Karamazov AUTHOR: Fyodor Dostoevsky
	TITLE: The Whole World Over AUTHOR: Julia Glass

(very late) holiday knits

2008-02-20T09:51:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd cross-post this from SPK because I know not all of you read that blog...apologies, though, to those of you who have to come across this twice!!

I didn't have that many holiday pieces this year, but for some reason it took me a long time to collect pictures of them all! That, and write an actual post. I am slow.

To get down to it, I now present to you:

Dad's Apple socks:

pattern: Tech Guy Socks
yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport in pewter (& a little bit of black)
He's a big fan of Apple, so I figured these would be perfect for him! The duplicate stitch (to add on the logos) was tricky, but I managed it surprisingly well once I got the hang of it...granted, one of the logos is a bit off-center, but, nonetheless wearable. And the yarn seemed very comfy!

Liam's illusion scarf:

pattern: based on this and this and even some of this
yarn: Knit Picks Swish Superwash in Deep Ocean & Truffle

Yes, that's supposed to be a tooth (with cute eyes) in the last image...Liam's a dentist. I wanted something that was neat but didn't stand out too much, so I thought illusion knitting would be the perfect choice. Planning the pattern was a bit tough - and I had to rip out the tooth several times, because it kept turning out much too elongated! - but it finally turned out okay. Despite the fact that my original tooth idea looked nothing like that one....

Kevin's binary scarf:

pattern: Knitty's Binary
yarn: Red Heart Supersaver in Black & Spring Green
Along with Dad's socks, this scarf was knit up way early in 2007...but I had to hold onto the finished products all year before I was able to gift them! Like me, Kevin (my new brother-in-law) is a computer geek, so when I saw this pattern on Knitty, I just couldn't resist knitting it - and I knew the perfect recipient. The binary spells out his name down one side & my sister's down the other.

Mom's chevron scarf:

pattern: a modified Chevron Scarf from Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Knitted Gifts
yarn: silk yarn created from old kimonos; I don't know the brand
This actually wasn't intended as part of Mom's present, and thus was presented the night before Christmas as a kind of "side gift", because while I had knit it the entire time with her in mind (it really seemed her style), I didn't know if it was something she would want. Also, I had received the yarn for free (!) from a good friend, and since it was such luxurious yarn, and since she had given me several other expensive yarns, I thought maybe I should pay her back with something knit from them. However, she said she already had a scarf very much like it, and she thought it would be a lovely present for my mom. I think part of why I'm always so reluctant to give knitting to my mother is because she is the one who taught me to knit, and was so good at it before she stopped...I feel like my work couldn't possibly measure up, so why make her wear it?! Heh. Anyway, it ended up being something that really suited her, so it all worked out in the end! Yay.

That's it, for now. Again, sorry for the incredible delay on this one!

xo

what's up.

2008-02-13T10:30:00.000-05:00

Working from home today. Feeling really sick & yucky. I wish I had more to post these days; I feel like I've been so busy, but don't have much to write about! What's up with that?

Maybe I should never have separated my knitting blog from my regular one! Hah. Speaking of, if I can muster up the energy, I'll be going to my knitting group tonight. I always enjoy that.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with Dr. Millis for my hips. As usual, that meant a long time at the Children's Hospital, but it's worth it to get in to see the doctor and hear how they think my hips are doing. I apparently have *bone spurs* (I hate the sound of that phrase!; it always makes me shudder in disgust) both on the outside of my hip and one growing into the socket, which might be seriously messing up my cartilage. But the doctors think I still have good joint space, which does indicate the presence of enough cartilage, so they're hopeful that I can put off a hip replacement for several years, at least. (Although, I do also have enough to get wicked arthritis, yuck!) And I was also told that the core strengthening physical therapy exercises I've been doing are really helping - I no longer walk with my butt sticking out! Well, most of the time, I don't...sometimes when I am rushing I think my body defaults to that because it's the easiest way to get speed, and I'm not paying attention to positioning my body the right way. Anyway, I have more exercises to continue with which will hopefully help make it even easier as time goes by. And I'll see the good doctor again in 6 months.

Hmm...what else? Well, this coming weekend is Sarah & Liam's wedding! I am very happy for my sister & I very much like Liam; I think they will be good "life partners". It'll be a small ceremony so that'll be nice, as well. That's pretty much the only big thing coming up in my life...otherwise, lots of small plans here & there. And maybe some upcoming road trips or trip trips in the works! I certainly hope so; I can't wait. I've got the time to take off; I just hope I have the money!

Have a good Wednesday, everyone.

xo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Brothers Karamazov AUTHOR: Fyodor Dostoevsky
	TITLE: The Whole World Over AUTHOR: Julia Glass

da bears

2008-01-31T14:48:00.001-05:00

I meant to post quickly about the Bruins game we went to see on Tuesday night. Bethany, Tara, & I got tickets for the team's Go Red Awareness Night, which meant that $5 out of each of our tickets went to the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women campaign. So, the 3 of us ladies decided to hit the Garden & do our part, while enjoying one of our favorite sports! :)

Here we are, just pre-faceoff:

And here's a shot of the ice from our seats, which indicates our nosebleed status. (Not to say we didn't enjoy it! We had a blast.)

We ate overpriced pizza & delicious ice cream, saw some good fights, and Boston won that game against the Nashville Predators.

Go Bruins! xo

pumpkin cupcakes

2008-01-23T14:42:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Bethany, Tara, and I baked some fabulous pumpkin cupcakes - just for the hell of it!

Don't they look yummy? The recipe was from Crazy About Cupcakes (Krystina Castella), and we added a cream cheese frosting that was made like so:

recipe for cream cheese frosting:
one 8 oz package of cream cheese
6 tablespoons of butter (room temp)
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 teasp vanilla extract

cream cream cheese and butter. sift in confct. sugar. add vanilla.

(Thanks for the recipes, Bethany!)

Totally worth making. They are very moist and très délicieux. xo

just stuff

2008-01-23T10:28:00.001-05:00

I wrote this yesterday, but totally failed to post it. Whoops!

Not much going on with me these days...yesterday, I finally saw Juno, which I just loved. I'm a big fan of Michael Cera, even despite the abysmally disappointing Superbad. Although he always plays the same character (a kind of innocent, confused, sweet boy), I invaraibly adore his portrayals. I did find myself crying at the hospital scene at the end; it's been a long time since I've cried at a movie. I think I'll definitely be adding Juno to my list of favorites.

Otherwise, I am just busy with work & a ton of knitting projects (scarves, hats, fingerless gloves, baby blankets, etc.), most of them commissions. I think I'll make sure to dedicate some of this year to knitting for myself, though. I also am really trying not to buy a lot more yarn (I did so well with Knit From Your Stash 2007, in that I didn't buy anything for myself...but I bought a TON of yarn for making presents for other people!), but yeah...yesterday I placed an order at Knit Picks. Oh, well - at least I'll finally get to try out their Harmony needles! :)

I hope everyone has a lovely week. Mine will be busy, but hopefully very good. xo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Middlesex AUTHOR: Jeffrey Eugenides

jet lag

2008-01-18T16:20:00.000-05:00

I know I wasn't even in Austin that long, but I still feel like I'm an hour off with everything. Last night, I couldn't sleep because it felt too early to be going to bed. This morning, I got to work about an hour later than I usually do, although that was due to a combination of factors. First, Dan had to go to work so that woke me up, and I wanted to try to sleep a little more once he was gone, but I was all jittery and couldn't. Then, all of a sudden, it was the complete opposite: I was exhausted, and unable to stay awake no matter how many times I pressed snooze. In my half-asleep (and confused-by-weird-dreams) stupor, I figured that was okay, because I'd just work from home for the day. Unfortunately, at around 8 o'clock, I remembered that my team had started scheduling a Friday meeting - and I didn't have phone forwarding or anything set up! So I scrambled to get into work (it was really interesting seeing the kind of people who are on the train at that time of day), and made it with about 1/2 hour to spare...only to find out that the meeting had been cancelled! Haha. Oh, well. No big deal; it's not like I had any real reason to be one place or the other. But it's just my luck that that would happen...not to mention that I actually felt like I was having a good hair day...and that definitely got ruined by the indecisive rain (not light but not heavy) on the way to & from the train. Thanks, karma!

/me shakes her fist

I wonder what I did to deserve this. (Haha, yeah, I've been watching way too much My Name Is Earl lately....) xo

more on Austin

2008-01-14T17:14:00.000-05:00

I realized I didn't really explain to anyone what's going on, and why I'm in Austin. Some of you already know, since I've told you the news in person, but not everyone, so: I have been moved to another team in my company. Actually, the team I had originally interviewed/been hired to work for. Unfortunately, between the time that I was hired and the time that I started (that was a couple months, due to the need to complete some work for my old company), I was reassigned to help out with a team that had a big workload. But I've since been reassigned again, yay! I am truly excited for this new work...I just hope I can manage it! It'll be in C++, which I'm very, very rusty in, but which I definitely prefer over Java. And from what I learned today, it looks like very interesting work! My team is great so far. I am still learning a LOT, so I can't say how well it's going to go at this point, but things are looking good at the moment. For the week, I'm down here training - learning the product and the system I'll be using for development, etc. Luckily, I've got an excellent (and patient) teacher. We'll see how things go - I'll update more from down here (but maybe not much more about work, unless something big happens), but for now, I have to go check on a build.

Also, sorry I was not posting at all & now I'm posting like mad! I think part of it is that I feel completely disconnected, being down here without anyone I know (Rodrigo, I miss you!). I guess it's just nice to have somewhere to get all my thoughts down...because, while I could talk to Towel Bunny, he's unfortunately not very responsive, heh.

Have a good evening, everyone! I'm going to go enjoy the last few minutes of the warm day. xo

pantlessness

2008-01-14T08:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, watching the news always makes me want to keep up a running commentary, but I promise this'll be the last post for now - I have to get ready for work.

Is it weird that I am kind of disappointed that I missed out on the No Pants Subway Ride? I had heard about it recently, but I didn't realize it would be happening while I was away.

Mostly, I am disappointed not to have been around to see the reactions of certain people. Since I would have felt "in" on the joke, it would have been hilarious to see the reaction of those who were taken by surprise! Haha.

Okay, for real, I do have to go get ready for work now. Eep. xo

watch instantly

2008-01-14T08:18:00.000-05:00

So, I just saw them mention on CNN that Netflix was offering a new feature where you could choose to watch streaming video of some of their catalog, instead of waiting for the actual DVD to arrive in the mail, as per usual.

Uhm...I've had that feature for over a year now. Hasn't everyone??

the domain

2008-01-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

So, I never did end up napping. Ava, the awesome administrative assistant down here in Austin (who had me call her when I got in, to make sure I made it okay - she was looking out for a fellow woman traveling alone, which was so sweet of her), convinced me that I should get out. I had kind of thought I should, too, but I was kind of overwhelmed, not knowing the area, and the places I was interested in possibly visiting (the sculpture garden & O Henry's house) were much too far away. (They would have been easier to visit last time I was here, when we stayed in the hostel down by The Lake. This time I'm much further north.)

In any case, she told me of a very classy outdoor mall-type thingy called The Domain, where I could wander around outdoors (and enjoy the beautiful weather!) and keep myself occupied/see a bit more of Austin. So I hopped in a cab and headed over. It is a very pretty - but very high-class - area. I felt like I was dressed too scrubby for it, but otherwise, it was a really pleasant afternoon. I stopped in some familiar stores, since most there were chains, but I mostly stuck to places I'd never heard of. (They may have been chains, but at least they weren't ones you can find up North.) I picked up a pair of earrings, a cute bag, and a birthday card for a friend, but mostly just enjoyed sitting in the sunshine and people-watching. When it started getting dark (and I started getting hungry), I stopped at this awesome (and totally local!) tea shop for one of the most delicious roasted vegetable sandwiches I have ever had (I think it was the butternut squash, caramelized onions, and goat cheese in it that really kicked it up a notch). I finished off my evening out with a pot of chocolate-banana-flavored rooibos tea. Sooo delicious!

I think that might have been the first sit-down meal that I've ever eaten on my own, and totally intentionally. I tend to worry about how it'll look to other people, to be seen eating alone. But I really didn't mind it at all, once I was actually doing it. I was seated at a window so I got to watch the goings-on outside, as well as get part of a letter written, and some of my book read. It was really pleasant, and the waitresses were so nice. We chatted about books and other such things. I do have to say, I find Austin people much more inclined to strike up a conversation than us cold Bostonians! I made friends (meaning, had somewhat lengthy conversations with) with two taxi drivers, the front desk guy (always someone you want on your side!), this guy who worked at White House Black Market, and the waitress at The Steeping Room. But even beyond that, I had small conversations with a lot of the people who worked in the various places I stopped. The guy at the coffee shop told me he liked my bag, and we discussed that. The woman at the bookstore told me she was afraid of sock monkeys, and we discussed that. I really like how much more friendly & open these Texans truly seem to be. Maybe part of it is the warm weather, though. I'm much less likely to linger anywhere when I am freezing, or in a cranky mood from being wet & cold from crappy winter weather! Haha.

Well, I am going to go get ready for bed...I definitely need to get some rest before my Big First Day tomorrow. Oh gosh, I'm absolutely terrified.

I just hope I can keep up. xo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Poisonwood Bible AUTHOR: Barbara Kingsolver

from Boston to Austin (again)

2008-01-13T14:38:00.000-05:00

Just checking in from sunny Austin, TX! I flew out of Boston at 8:50 this morning, and just arrived a little while ago at the Marriott here. The plane ride went pretty uneventfully (although I did get my bag inspected by security! I had ziplock-bagged my "liquids", but I hadn't removed them from my carry-on - there was no signage telling me to do so - and so they had to manually inspect my bag - good thing I had arrived my usual way-too-early - I almost boarded a flight to California because I got there when the plane before mine was still at the gate). I watched Zoolander & knitted & read a bit, and tried to nap, although that is never easy to do in-flight.

Anyway, so here I am in my cute little hotel room...well, not so very little; I guess I got upgraded to a king suite, or something like that. Nice, right? Here's a shot of my towel-bunny (I'm pretty sure that's a rabbit...right?)

and of my room (the glare couldn't be helped; I tried to close the blinds but then of course the room was plunged into total darkness!).

I'll check back in another time if I get bored enough here; for now, I think I need to go take a nap (I didn't sleep much last night, between dinner & a movie & then packing). Then maybe I'll see what I can do about exploring Austin...although I might get too lazy for that. I'll have to look into the bus system, see what the deal is.

Hope everyone's doing well - especially those of you in the Northeast who are expecting a snowstorm! Not too disappointed I'll miss that one. :) xo

yet another reason to hate public transportation

2007-12-28T14:30:00.001-05:00

Oh, I was ripping mad to see this article today:

Wireless Services Launched in Subway’s Core

Like it wasn't bad enough to have to have half of my train ride (the trolley/above-ground part) taken up having to listen to obnoxious, loud, totally unnecessary phone conversations, now I also have to deal with those people underground, too?!? It used to be somewhat justified when we'd hit Fenway and I'd know that the obnoxious person talking loudly into their cell phone with no regard whatsoever for those around him having to listen to him talk about the latest rash on his ass or how his girlfriend's mother wouldn't take the money he wanted to pay her (because these conversations really must be pressing and got done now) was going to be cut off midsentence when the train went underground...I thoroughly enjoyed gloating while those people would yell a few last "hello?"s into their phone before getting frustrated and hanging up. Of course, I'd rather not have to deal with them at all, but I figured there really was no way to cut off cell phone reception above-ground.

And don't even try to tell me it's for safety's sake - even the MTBA doesn't attempt that. They fully admit that they already had a safety system in place, and that the reason they are wiring the tunnels is so that people can do business. ARGH! The last thing I want is to have to listen to some jerkoff in a tie yell at his suppliers about how they aren't getting enough toilet paper in their warehouse. Or something. I hate hate hate being stuck in enclosed areas, being forced to listen to people's phone conversations. I think it is perhaps one of the rudest things in the world, to subject people to listening to your half of a telephone conversation. I get so angry at those assholes who think the world revolves around them, that I'm at some points close to causing them bodily harm just to get them to realize that there - wow! - might actually be other people in their vicinity who don't want to hear all about their incredibly fascinating lives.

And does the MBTA really want to be implicit in murder, now? I highly doubt they could also afford that, on top of all of the other things they really need to fix (for starters: the old trolley cars, the leaks in the station roofs, their card system...those would have been good things to invest their money in!). I'm livid that they decided to spend money on wiring the underground areas for wireless phone access when they could have done so many more productive & wonderful things. Instead, they just subject me to more talkative assholes. Ugh. Thanks a billion, T.

miniature fo

2007-12-28T13:17:00.000-05:00

[Cross-posted from SPK]

sweater ornament

Here's just a little sample of my holiday knitting, for now. I've got pictures of most of the gifts, but not all of them (one still has to be blocked! although it was luckily knit in time, anyway), and I want to wait until I can do a comprehensive post of all of them...all 3.5 of them, really. There wasn't as much holiday knitting to do this year as I had thought, especially because the majority of the pieces I had finished well before the holiday (some by March or so!). But I of course had a few things to finish (including final touches on the early ones) right at the finish line.

I hope to get started on next year's presents early again this year. We'll have to see. I have already found one present, but I haven't been inspired by any other patterns yet - and usually, I prefer to see a pattern and think "that looks like something [insertnamehere] would love", much like shopping, rather than think that I really ought to make this person a scarf and that person a hat, and I have to search out a suitable-enough pattern.

Okay, enough talking from me! I will just add that I knit the sweater ornament from some Claudia Handpainted Yarn that is much like KPPPM, because I picked it up on a whim when I was out shopping for the latter. The pattern was this one, knit with these same modifications (see sweater #2). I will be knitting another for my other sister soon. It's a lovely, lightning-fast little knit - I knit it all up on the train ride home from work on the Friday before Christmas. It was inspired by a sweater-and-booties ornament set that my grandmother once knit for my father - I hope to enhance my sisters' collections soon with some more miniature knitted goods. Socks would be fun. xo

so true.

2007-12-26T08:48:00.001-05:00

metalgirl...to the rescue?

2007-12-03T12:56:00.000-05:00

Was there an eclipse of the sun that happened recently, that I wasn't aware of? Because I'm pretty sure that I've recently acquired a new superpower. Of course, I don't yet know the full extent of my power, nor do I have control over it, as it's still new to me. But I'm really, really good at breaking through solid metal...inadvertently, of course. For now.

First, right before Thanksgiving, it was my cane - yes, it is wooden, but it was not the wood part that broke. Nope, the actual screw that held the 2 pieces together snapped clean in two. I reached down to tighthen the connection one morning (sometimes the head unscrews a bit from the base), and it came apart in my hands. The cut was smooth, and seemed unnatural.

The second time was this morning, when I was on my way out the door (and I left early, both because of the inclement weather and because this is Meetings Week at work). I stopped at the mailbox to post a couple of letters, and when I turned around, I felt something snap and go flying...turns out my awesome messenger bag, which I've been using 24/7 since I got it, decided it couldn't handle the stress anymore: the bottom of one of the metal buckles holding the strap to the bag simply snapped off. It's irreparable! Not to mention seriously uncanny.

So maybe this does mean I have special powers? That, or I just overuse the things I own. =\

Hey: save MetalGirl, save the world. Hah! xo

a semi-FO

2007-11-29T22:35:00.000-05:00

Behold! The Pine Street Inn blanket that I seamed (using squares others had knitted) - using crochet! My first crochet "project", and I do think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself:

(Thanks again for the impromptu lesson, Wendy!)

I actually like the "reverse" side better, even though the side without the white crochet showing is supposed to be the "front", since all the better sides are facing that direction. But, luckily it looks pretty good from either side! That always helps with blankets, as they always end up all twisted about anyway.

So, now comes the mailing part...I have to find a box I can package it up in, and then figure out how to mail it cheaply...first, though, I'll contact the woman it's going to. Maybe she'll let me hand-deliver it, instead?

I am so pleased that I got it done before the holidays...hopefully it'll be a lovely present for a PSI guest and even their family! I like to imagine this keeping someone nice & cozy on a cold winter night....

Recently Read:
	TITLE: Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America AUTHOR: Barbara Ehrenreich

trains & canes

2007-11-20T09:37:00.000-05:00

I waited forever for a D-line train today. So long, in fact, that I was convinced that they weren't running those trains today! I saw at least 3 of each other line go by before a D came through. And the worst part? Bostonians are cutthroat. Instead of spending the waiting time sitting on the benches along the wall, I have to hover near where the doors open, because otherwise I would have to trade sitting on the bench for getting a seat on the train. Seriously. I have gone almost entire train rides without sitting, even though I use a cane!! So I learned my lesson pretty quickly - suffer up front (standing for a while on the platform), for rewards down the line (getting a seat!). Rather religious of a concept, if you think about it. Anyway, I won't generalize to all Bostonians - I know there are plenty of you very nice people out there who do offer me seats on the train. I even commiserated with another woman waiting for the D this morning, and she was so nice as to allow me to get on the train before her (even though I'm pretty sure she had been waiting even longer than I had!).

This always makes me stop & wonder what I will be like with normal hips...will it be as big of a deal to me, then? I know part of why I like sitting is because it's an hour-long ride, and I'd much prefer to be able to read to keep myself from dying of boredom. But part of that is also related to the cane, again, because it's rather difficult to try to lean on the cane with my right arm, hold onto a railing of some sort with the left, and also hold a book or paper (don't even mention turning pages!). So, caneless, that in itself will be easier. And, I wonder sometimes if I've ever had a really "normal" outlook on standing - I think it's always been a bit difficult for me to stand for any long period of time. I think I thought that was just normal. But I think if it didn't hurt a bit, I'd be much more inclined to want to stand, or at least to be okay with it. Right? I mean, normal people's hips don't hurt every time they stand or walk for a while, I don't think. And I can't really remember a time that mine didn't bother me in some way.

So, will I be less cutthroat myself, more inclined to go with the flow? I hope so. But I know that's a ways off, and sometimes I hate to watch myself in the meantime. It's like the public transportation version of road rage, and I can't stand it.

i guess i'm hip

2007-11-14T12:06:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I had to leave work early to go see my hip surgeon, Dr. Millis. It has been several years since I last consulted with him, because of various health insurance problems. But I was glad to get to have a checkup with him, because my hips really have been bothering me. As is customary, I went in for x-rays before the actual appointment. I got there at 2:50 for what was an appointment schedule for 2:45 (stupid trains...I left work at 2! it's supposed to be a 20-minute ride). I didn't actually see the doctor until 2 hours later. However, he's wonderful & entirely capable, and totally worth the wait. Every single patient of his raves about how much they love him. So while I had hoped to get out of the hospital earlier than 5:30, I still made the movie in time (more about that later) and met & bonded with another patient who had been through a PAO, so I wasn't complaining too much.

When I did finally have my appointment, I was surprised to see that it was with both my doctor & the physical therapist (who I usually only see after my hip checkups). It turns out that there isn't nearly as much structural bone damage as I had been thinking (it really felt like there was!) so much as it is muscular, and has a lot to do with my poor posture. Those who know me probably notice that I walk with my ass sticking out a little bit. That ends up causing bad support throughout my entire body. So what the doctor & PT want me to work on are exercises and stretches that will help me strengthen my lower abdominal muscles, so that I am "organized" more stably, and am walking and moving correctly. That, they believe, ought to help ease a lot of my hip pain! Hurray!

I'm well aware that a total hip replacement is imminent at some point in my life, but the doc wants to stave that off at last for the next few years. I am hoping that this PT will really help me carry myself so that I can even eventually do away with the cane again! (I have to admit, a tiny part of me was hoping he would say I should start looking into a hip replacement, because I know that will be the first time maybe in my life that I'll have "normal" hips and be able to bend and flex in ways I never have before! He does, however, want me to start consulting with THR surgeons, so that everyone can keep an eye on me and so we'll all know when it's really time for one.)

So, I was sent home with some exercises and 2 more upcoming appointments: one in a couple of weeks to re-consult with PT, and one in 2 months to re-consult with Dr. Millis. They want to see if this muscle-building really is going to do the trick for me. I'm hoping that's the case.

The last and weirdest thing for me was that I was also sent home with the instruction to take 1200mg of Ibuprofin a day! (600mg in the morning, and again at night.) I feel kind of weird doing that...I've never been huge on taking medications, and I rarely take painkillers. I had been doing so a bit more often recently, because of hip pain, but even then "often" was maybe 400mg once a week. This seems like so much! I don't know how my body will react. I know Ibuprofin is really mild and probably won't do anything (except thin my blood? no, nevermind, that's aspirin), and I know it's an anti-inflammatory so should help with my arthritis, but still...it seems strange to me to be taking it every day, even when I'm not hurting. It's probably partly a preventative measure, but...I still don't feel 100% comfortable about it. I had a hard enough time being okay taking oxycontin post-op back in 2004! I am not so worried about becoming addicted to Ibuprofin...but maybe I am a bit worried I'll become dependent on the pain-free-ness of taking it regularly...?

I suppose I just need to think of it like taking a multivitamin every day, which I currently do. It's supposed to be helpful, and more of a supplement than a crutch (either in the supportive or restrictive roles). I'll give it a go. As they said in the movie last night, "[It] can't do any harm, right?" (Or something along those lines....)

And yes, to return full-circle, Bethany & I finally got to see Gone, Baby, Gone in theaters! We were able to put together this exciting afternoon with the entire plot of the story. And, I got to see my most favorite actor, Casey Affleck, take one of his first real leading roles (and do amazingly with it!). Oh my goodness -- I've said it before & I'm sure I'll say it again: I love those scrappy Irish boys! xoxo

p.s. In knitting news, there is a new post on Sweet Potato Knits.

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics AUTHOR: Jennifer Baumgardner
	TITLE: Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back AUTHOR: Claire & Mia Fontaine

Recently Finished:
	TITLE: The Inheritance of Loss AUTHOR: Kiran Desai

boo(hoo)

2007-10-31T17:05:00.001-05:00

I'm thinking I'm not cut out for this "new" job of mine...I've been here 5 months, and I still feel like everyone thinks I have no idea what's going on. I sometimes do feel that way, too, although I do think I'm understanding more and more as time goes on. But I should never have taken a job in Java when I wasn't trained in it; I'm not confident enough in my abilities, and thus I ask really basic questions or aren't certain enough of what I need to do (try/catch blocks are killer to me, because I just don't always know where they are necessary). I have had two assignments that were once mine reassigned to someone else in the past two days. I feel like I'm being thought of as completely incompetent, and everyone's just figuring it's better to give the work to someone else, even someone who's overloaded. I don't know what to do. My old boss has offered me a position at my former company; I'd take over all the programming work from the old, established part of the company, and probably get a somewhat significant raise from what I was once making. And I know, for whatever reason, that he has confidence in my abilities...even if those abilities are in yucky Visual Basic.

I am not taking the reassignments personally like I might once have done; I'm not angry or upset at anyone, save for myself. I just am terrified that they presume me to be entirely incompetent. More trouble than I'd be worth, in the long run. I wish I had never agreed to stray outside of the comfy bounds of C++. Not that I'm not interested in learning new things...but to be the only new recruit that wasn't all that familiar with the language coming in makes me look really ridiculous, relative to everyone else. They know their stuff. I'm sitting here trying desperately to learn not only a new system, but a new language, too. It's incredibly frustrating. And I'm sure not only to me - also to my boss and the rest of my team. I'm pretty sure they'd be better off without me.

I'd hate to leave a new job after only having been here less than half a year. But it just doesn't feel like a good fit, as much as I like all the people and everything. I am sure the incredibly long commute every day also doesn't help matters, since I am much less inclined to "stay late" when that means I'd be getting home at 7 or 8. I value the time I get to spend doing my own stuff; work isn't my life. I feel like it's kind of got to be, here, or I'm not doing enough. And I don't want to forfeit my life for my job.

I don't know what to do. :(

p.s. Happy Halloween.

words words words

2007-10-24T09:07:00.001-05:00

Maybe it's because I was doing a little bit of this this morning, but I just saw the word "microphone" and instead of my brain registering its normal use, I swear I thought, "Oh, neat, they have this miniature phone?" It took me a few seconds for the fog to clear out of my mind (I think it doesn't help that I feel so exhausted right now, so my head's not really on straight) and then I laughed at myself.

I just hope I can stay awake through work & get something done! xo

p.s. Thanks go to Christine for showing me the Free Rice site, which I'm currently now in love with/addicted to. But I could only get to level 45. :( I wanna be among the few that get to 50! Well, I'll have to spend more time on it some other time...when I'm not at work...heh.

coupla pictures...

2007-10-15T07:20:00.000-05:00

...one way better than the other. But I forgot to share the first one the other day!

1. Just a meal I cooked myself the other night, one of the first improvised (sans recipe) meals I've ever made...it was very simple, just a sautee of yellow squash & tomatoes & onions with some seasoning over some thin linguine...but I was still proud of it! And even more so of my awesome new square red plates:

Bad picture (kind of blurry), but it'll have to do.

and 2. First photo from the wedding! I'm sure I'll post more soon. Doesn't my family look beautiful?? Love them. :)

This one was kind of small, sorry. There's a larger picture out there somewhere, but I don't have a copy of it. But you can at least get the general idea. I think the colors of the wedding were just beautiful - so vibrant and brilliant. Congratulations, Bethany & Kevin!!! xoxo

who'dve thunk?

2007-10-10T08:07:00.000-05:00

I didn't think this could actually happen (what is the probability?), but I actually received a tracking # that UPS has already used! I figured with their 18-digit random string dealie (well, I know at least the "1Z" part in the beginning isn't random, so 16-digit, anyway...), it'd be a long, long time (maybe 16!*10 packages, I think? if I recall my discrete math & permutations correctly, which I probably don't) before they needed to reuse one, even with the amount of packages they ship. But I received a tracking number yesterday for a bag I ordered online, and when I clicked the link to check out the status, I was infuriated that my package had been mailed to Fort Walton Beach, FL! And I thought that some guy named "Miles" was probably wearing the bag that very moment (I imagined he looked very cute). But then I noticed the date: "Delivered on: 09/08/2006 1:47 P.M." Yeah...that was over a year ago.

So either someone mistyped the number into the computer, or they actually did reuse it. Either way, I just hope my bag gets to me! I'm so excited for it. (I have a thing for bags...my friends - especially Tanya - can vouch for the fact that I've got dozens!)

Cross your fingers for me that UPS doesn't actually provide "Miles" with a lovely new handbag. xoxo

it's hip to knit squares

2007-10-09T16:47:00.000-05:00

So, I have kind of put a lot of my other knitting on hold to work on knitting up squares for the Pine Street Inn, although I have to admit it's largely because I love the stash-busting of it all!! I've blown through a ton of the Cheese Grandma yarn, and I've got some other extra random balls here & there that I can also contribute. I also have gotten all lame and gone from knitting actual fun patterns to mostly doing mindless garter stitch. The reason for this is twofold: one, I get to watch in front of movies or shows that I'd rather be putting my mental energy towards (and kind of need to), like Heroes (love Milo Ventimiglia!); and two, because some of the yarn I've got, you really can't do much else with. It's thick and stiff and I don't really feel like wrestling it into submission to make some otherwise pretty pattern that probably can't even be appreciated because it'd look bad with the yarn! So I'll save those fun patterns for the lighter-colored, softer yarn I've still got lined up...and for when I'm watching some "lighter" DVDs. :)

I plan to share some pictures of my square-work-in-progress, especially those squares that are not just boring garter stitch. Soon. Promise.

You're also going to love the ones I did where I clearly ran out of yarn before I expected to! Hehe. But hey, they add splashes of color and a little bit of a change of pace...right?

xoxo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao AUTHOR: Junot Diaz

sleep attack

2007-10-02T09:07:00.000-05:00

I meant to go home and get things done last night, but instead I went to bed almost as soon as I walked in the door (around 7:30, I think it was). I was dog-tired yesterday; I fell asleep on both the train to work & back. I guess I just really needed to sleep. Getting up this morning wasn't any easier, though, really. I still had to hit the snooze button a ton of times. But I guess I feel slightly better, in general. I'm going to try to devote this week to sleep, I think. Without it, I can get cranky & go kind of crazy when I'm already in a slump. Sometimes I fly through several sleepless nights, being uber-productive, but these days I am just feeling rundown. I think maybe slowing down on everything in general is a good idea.

We'll see how true I can stick to my goal; I've tried this before, but haven't been great at it...xoxo

grammarama

2007-10-01T15:22:00.000-05:00

When someone writes group posts like the following two, I find it hard to believe that they're not deliberately misspelling everything as much as they possibly can:

This is for all veiwing these messages. I feel the erge to leave the group do to the fact that i barly talk to anyone anyway and because I'm not use to being in a group unless it's with my friends at school. Yes, frankly I'm out of school but i still have my gain there and I would appreashiate if someone would delete my request on joining this group. Its not the group's fault, its just I need time to figure out my oun problems.
Thank you.

i have asked the head leaders of this group to let me out but it seems
like im still in this group. i will make this quite cleer. GET ME OUT
OF HERE!!!!!!!!!! i want out and that means, no more e-mails about
chats im in no part of, no more e-mails telling me how to do this knit
stitch where i can only learn by watching before doing, no more e-mail
about where to go to get the best sail on yarn. I want out, thats all
im asking.

I mean, really. That is probably how I would write if I were trying to make it appear like I couldn't spell or select words properly.

No offense intended to the person who wrote these (hence why I didn't use the name), but I was bothered enough by the anger and self-righteousness of these posts anyway (and it's really not necessary for the entire group to have to read these; I don't understand why people don't get that), that I guess I don't feel too badly pointing out the horrendous writing.

p.s. And omigod, check out what happens when things get a bit too personal in the group! My jaw literally dropped reading this, which was sent between complete strangers & rather out of the blue:

I am sorry you are so fat that your husband doesn't want to have sex
with you anymore...so you spend your free time reading dictionaries.....

Good lord. What is with this world?!? xo

a clarification

2007-10-01T08:49:00.001-05:00

Let me just add (because that last post sounded so despairing) that I am otherwise doing really well! I had an excellent weekend and a great last couple of weeks. I was so happy (despite hip pain) and busy and keeping my head more than above water. But this morning was just a bummer, and of course it colored the post I wrote. I'm stressed about some major things in my life that I just don't have any control over; I just have to ride them out, I guess. I just wish it were easier to let the waves take me where they will. But I get frightened that they'll put me off in a worse place. I realize worrying won't help, I just can't seem to turn my brain off. Which is difficult, because I really need to concentrate here at work. I wish there was something I could take that would just shut off all the things I don't want to think about right now. I mostly just want to shut out the world & go back to bed!!! I never get enough sleep. I have to work on that.

hip woman

2007-10-01T07:53:00.000-05:00

My hips aren't doing so well these days, and I'm getting really scared. I have been in pain almost every single day, some more bothersome than others. I am using my cane all the time, of course, but I hate to have to. I don't feel like I could go very far without it, though. I'm so frustrated; things had been going so well with them. But I am terrified that my doctor's going to tell me that next up for me is a total hip replacement. At 26. I'll see him in mid-November; that was the earliest appointment I could schedule with him, unfortunately. I guess I'll just get by until then.

This morning's commute was especially killer; the D line train was only 1 car long today instead of its usual 2, and that of course made for a crowded ride already. I certainly hope they aren't moving to that format to "cut costs" or anything, because that was just awful. People couldn't even get in the door I was standing near, it was so packed! But the worst part was that I had to stand all the way from Government Center to Longwood. I was standing right in front of this guy who was in the seat that indicates that one should give it up for people with crutches or canes or other reasons they'd need to sit, right? But I'm never going to ask someone to move. I usually don't even take a seat when someone offers it, but it is nice that people are courteous enough to ask. This guy, though? Didn't even look up, he just hunched even further over his computer, which he spent the entire train ride basically showing off. He had a tablet PC, and I wanted to be like, "Dude, you're not special just because you can write on your screen. Could you please just let me have your seat? I know you can't demonstrate your 'awesomeness' while standing up, but I'm sure the world can survive for one more day without seeing that." I probably should have asked for the seat, but I just couldn't bring myself to. Clearly, as Mike says, I can sometimes be too nice. I get walked all over. But I mean, come on. Is it that hard to be nice & give up your train seat for one morning? The guy was clearly not in need of it (save to display how damn cool he was using his tablet); he was probably a few years younger than me. And he pissed me off even more because he was this businessman in a suit & tie. They always tend to be inconsiderate jerks, at least in my experience.

Sorry, I just needed to rant. I didn't used to often need a seat; in fact, I have given up my seat at times to people who looked like they needed them even more, even when I was using my cane. But when I do need to sit, as much as I feel badly about it, I will gratefully accept an offered space.

I think I'm also coming down with something, which doesn't help me feel any better; when I finally did get to collapse into a seat today, I didn't even bother reading the rest of the paper, I just napped the rest of the ride. That's very not like me. But I'm feeling so under the weather.

I need things to get better, soon. I feel like everything is just spiraling out of my control. I don't like it. It scares the hell out of me. But I don't know what to do.

At least they were handing out free samples of Advil on the way into the train this morning. Painkillers are always welcome, haha. xoxo

~*stars upon thars*~