raise your hand if you've got a backhoe in your yard!
i do! i do! i bet you wished you had one.
want to know what happens to a 60 year old, non-working backhoe that's allowed to just sit for oh i don't know -- 3 years?
mother nature takes over.
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day 109 -- our neighbors love us
i have serious iphone lust. at knitnight tonight i was surrounded by 4 iphone people. i don't need an iphone. i just want one.
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day 108 -- if i had an iphone, i could have blogged at knitnight.
today's sky is grumble-y and dark and ominous. it's been pouring off and on for about an hour and a huge gust of wind came through earlier and knocked my tomatoes over.
i spent a large chuck of today (i kid you not) putting some stamping items up on ebay. a few years ago, i gave stamping a try but i didn't really take to to it. so now i've got tons of rubber stamping stuff that i still need to get rid of. you know, the stuff left over after giving some away to my nieces. you can click here if you'd like to see what i have listed. i just can't bear to just throw it all away.
anyway, i have to go out and buy some stuff for a salad. we're invited to friends tonight for dinner. i leave you with this picture i took last weekend while driving home from my inlaws.
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day 106 -- don't forget. stamping crap listed on ebay. get it now!
1. number of miles driven: Over 720
2. number of hours with my ass in my car: 12
3. number of Big Macs eaten: 2 (I never go to MacDonalds but if I get a craving while road tripping, i give in to it).
4. number of times I felt like closing my eyes and just taking a little nap while driving: 4 (but i didn't)
5. number of audio books I listened to: 1 and it sucked. (The Jane Austen Book Club)
6. number of photos taken: 364,241
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day 100 -- number of consecutive days that i've posted. only 265 left.
Stolen from Terry and Margene:
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day 99 -- yes, this post was prewritten. is this considered cheating? because i really didn't want to bring my computer on my roadtrip.
i'm a bit out of the loop. i'm not terribly cool. i'm not a geek. (it's possible that i am a dork but that's neither here nor there). and i'm still working my way through my second Firefly DVD. (don't even ask me if i've seen Dr. Horrible because I haven't and I don't plan on it unless it comes out on DVD). but word on the street is that Kim Werker of Interweave Crochet and Crochetme would love to interview Joss Whedon.
of course Joss only has himself to blame for this. you can read all about it here and here. i hope he realizes what he's gotten himself into.
so since i've got this blog and i crochet and i think nathan fillion is hot, i'm doing my part to help Kim out on her quest.
good luck Kim!
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day 98 -- i'll tell you about my trip when i get back!
1. holy crap! it's raining like a mofo right now which is making me a little nervous because in a couple of hours, i'm driving west to rochester to spend the long weekend with some knitters. the thing is, as i've probably mentioned before, i'm a relatively new driver. so this will be my longest driving trip by myself ever. seriously. so i'm a little anxious. and if it's raining like crazy (which i understand it will at least until i get across the stateline) people will be driving like assholes and i there's nothing that annoys me more than assholes on the road. (so yeah, living in massachusetts, i get annoyed a lot.) (i actually looked into taking the bus or train, you know, trying to be all environmentally responsible and everything but the bus would have taken me at least 9 hours! and by train, i just can't get there from here. i would have had to take the train to NYC, then change to Rochester which would have taken me close to 12 hours! i'm not so young anymore. i just don't have that kind of time to waste! and both the bus and train would have cost more than driving. can you believe that? stupid lame public transportation system).
2. i'm not bringing my computer. I KNOW! THE HORROR! but i've already prepared some posts in my absence (is that allowed by the way? oh who cares. i'm allowing it) and i'll be back, live and in color, on Sunday.
3. i'm also not bringing my wheel, but i am bringing some knitting, and my cameras.
4. so i made some fried green tomatoes last night. sliced up the tomatoes in small pieces (you know, after cutting out the yucky pieces), sprinkled some breadcrumbs, and sauteed them in some garlic and olive oil until they were semi-soft. and they were pretty damn good! i also made a small mesclun green salad using my own salad greens. i was very pleased with myself. no photo though, because it was too dark for decent photos.
so that's it for today. i have to get ready. shower, pack, load the dishwasher, and then i'm off.
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day 97 -- rochester or bust!
i had a couple of post ideas. the problem with posting at the end of the day like i've been doing though is that sometimes i'm too tired or distracted to post. like right now. i really just want to go to bed and read about vampires.
so that's what i'm going to do.
i'll try to get into the habit of posting earlier in the day.
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day 94 -- if i can only remember what i was originally going to post about
today, i did some spinning.
i'm an intuitive spinner. i don't plan ahead, and don't always pre-draft, allowing the fiber to dictate what it wants to be. what i end up is really a crap shoot and i can't say that i don't wish my spinning were better. but if i had to think about it too much, i wouldn't spin. the fiber is a mystery fiber that i jar dyed a couple of weeks ago and i was anxious to see what it would look like spun up.
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day 93 -- have a good night
isn't it funny that i was just talking about vacation moments just yesterday and then this week's "10 on Tuesdays" is about favorite vacation moments! clearly i'm psychic. funny thing is that i'm not really a vacation person. is that weird? i like traveling and visiting new places. and god knows i love days off from work. but i get restless if i'm officially on vacation for too long. even when i was a kid, i preferred going to school than i did being off. (i was not stupid enough to tell the other kids this however.) but anyway, here we go.
Ten Favorite Vacation Moments
1. when i was a kid, every other year we went to france to visit relatives. most of the time, these trips were tedious. three days here, two days there. but i loved going to visit cousins at La Tremblade. mamy and papy lived in a beautiful house near the center of town with a grand marble staircase and a swing in the garden. there was always people dropping by and i loved nothing more than to be part of this active life that was so different from mine at home.
2. when we didn't go to france, we usually either stayed at home, or we'd go on road trips. one year, when we lived in California, (i was about 8 years old) we drove up the coast until we got to Canada then through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada. we went up the Space Needle in Seattle, and to Yellowstone Park. we stayed in a kitschy log cabin motor lodge at the base of the Grand Tetons. i remember seeing some amazing things (like slot machines in a bakery in Reno). but the thing i remember most? the pools at every hotel we stayed at. i loved the pools.
3. when i was a junior in highschool, i went to Greece for 10 days on a school organized trip during Spring Break. i learned that when you and your best friend are "well behaved" straight A students that chaperones cut you a lot of slack. I do believe it was the most fun I ever had up until that point in my life. it was also my first trip without my parents.
4. a couple of years after college, i went to St. Thomas with two college friends, L and B. We were there for only 5 days but L and I still talk about that trip as being the "last time we had fun." we partied all night, barely slept, got into situations that probably weren't the smartest, but we had an adventure. we sipped brandy on a yacht, cruised to St. John in the middle of the night in a rubber dinghy, sneaked onto a cruise ship and pretended we were guests. It was crazy.
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day 88 -- sorry, but i just have 4 in me. i could come up with 6 more, but i'm tired and want to go to bed. i've got a vampire book to read.
1. i did virtually nothing this weekend. or it seems that way.
2. i vacuumed most of the house and cleaned the kitchen floor. well kind of in a half-assed manner.
3. i knit and spun a little.
4. i played packrat again (which could explain #1)
5. i read. nothing too exciting, just a tami hoag mystery that i borrowed from work.
but the googlies are back.
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day 86 -- do i have to go to work tomorrow?
so what did i do today?
1. i actually changed out of my pajamas, although i did not shower.
2. i watered my lettuce and herbs and tomatoes both this morning and this evening. (by the way, when is it ok to "harvest" my mesclun mix lettuce? i don't even know what it's supposed to look like! isn't that pathetic?)
3. i watered my orchid.
4. i cleaned the cat box. eww.
5. i went to the mail box and picked up the mail. including 2 firefly DVDs. kellee loves this show so much i think she would marry it. so i had to add it to my netflix queue.
6. i watched the first two episodes of firefly. so far i'm enjoying it. although i'm not yet in love.
7. i tried out some jar dyeing and will post about the results another day. the jars are still cooling and the camera battery is charging.
8. i paid bills. eww.
9. i worked on section 8 of babette.
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day 81 -- more tomorrow
1. i was supposed to do some jar-dyeing today but i got there too late and they'd already started and finished. but that's ok, because i got to sit and knit and chat and relax. and it's exactly what i needed.
2. i baked up some chicken wings for dinner tonight. i love chicken wings.
3. i didn't take any pictures today. i know. i'm lame.
4. i have a teeny tiny tomato. but no picture.
5. and i have at least 4 bunnies living in my yard. again, no picture.
6. they're too busy eating my dandelions to have discovered my lettuce, my herbs or my tomatoes. i'm praying it stays that way. we have a lot of dandelions.
7. i went to the movies by myself friday afternoon and saw Sex in the City. i forgot how much i enjoy going to the movies by myself. and i really liked Sex in the City which surprised me because i wasn't expecting to. one thing that annoyed me though is that miranda's wardrobe seemed way too sophisticated for her look. the other actresses looked comfortable in their clothes, no matter how kooky the look, but the actress who plays miranda looked like she was playing dress up.
8. my baby niece still hates me, but a little less than she used to. she sat on my lap for a bit, while i showed her how to pop bubble wrap.
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day 79 -- photo free
if you live in the united states, july 4th is a day of fireworks and backyard barbecues with family and friends. you might wear an obnoxious flag t-shirt or really go overboard and wear an entire red, white and blue outfit. (like those freaks on the rachel ray show this morning.) it's a day of celebrating our country's independence from the british and it's birthday.
and it's also the day i got my navel pierced.
i had wanted a navel piercing for years. but had always told myself that a "fat girl" like me shouldn't have one. that if i got to be a certain size then i could get one. yadda yadda yadda.
then on july 4th, 2000 i said fuck it. it was our country's day of independence from an old tired and restrictive regime. and it was going to be my day of independence from putting my life on hold because of something that might never happen. i was at the office with a couple of much younger work friends. when i expressed my wish for getting my belly button pierced, they said "let's do it! now." you know, before i chickened out.
so they took me to harvard square.
and i got it done.
happy independence day to everyone. go out and do something that you always thought you shouldn't. you know, because you thought you were too old, or too fat or too this or too that. (however, don't do something stupid or illegal. i do not condone bad behavior.)
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day 77 -- i hope the belly shot didn't gross you out or anything.
thank god it's thursday. that's all i have to say. it's barely 8:30, but in a bit i'm going to bed with a good book and my kitties and rest up before the weekend. i don't have definite plans. just hanging with the inlaws a little, and maybe doing some jar dyeing on sunday.
then next monday, i'm not going to work.
and next tuesday, i'm not going to work.
and next wednesday, i'm not going to work.
and it will be awesome. and there will be the singing of angels.
and although it's not friday, it certainly feels like one. so i'll leave you with a little eye candy.
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day 76 -- see you tomorrow!
yeah so that's what the mini looks like (thankfully not my mini WHICH IS STILL IN THE SHOP BY THE WAY!!). the grill shouldn't look like it's cracking a smile.
i wanted to thank you all for the encouragement and the kind words. this whole experience has been eye opening in a way that i can't really explain without getting a little navel gazy but let's just say that i need to learn to cut myself a break now and again. everyone fucks up and whereas i would have been just as understanding to someone else as you were to me, i spent the past 24 hours beating myself up.
anyway, dealing with my insurance company and the dealership couldn't have been easier. no one yelled at me. (well j did, but i yelled at him right back). no one called me stupid or rolled their eyes or copped an attitude. it was all very civil and even pleasant and took virtually no time. and by 10am i had everything squared away with other people handling all of the paperwork.
so that's that. thanks again. especially for reminding me that it's ok for me to be human.
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day 75 -- i'm going to have a good sleep tonight
the bad: i was just involved in an accident on the mass pike.
the good: it was minor. a fender bender really.
the bad: in the mini loaner
the good: in the mini loaner (at least it wasn't my car which is supposed to be ready tomorrow)
the bad: i have no idea how to deal with this. and of course no one is available at the dealership to tell me what needs to be done/what will happen/how this will get resolved/ and so i will stress about this until tomorrow.
the good: the cops didn't have to get involved. the guy seemed nice even though i plowed into him (hey, he stopped short too, just shorter than i did).
the bad: but this is surely going to cost me more money
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day 74 -- how weird is it that the first thing i thought of doing after calling the dealership was to write a blog post?
another weekend come and gone. it's official, i've decided that i need three day weekends. one day just to lounge around and regroup. get my weekend head on right. sleep in. do some knitting. just generally catch up.
then that would leave me two days to actually enjoy the weekend. you know what i mean?
anyway, i think this was a good weekend. it went by so fast that i don't really remember.
1. i took my sewing machine to be tuned up. i've had one for over 20 years and have used it maybe 2 dozen times over those years. but it needed to be cleaned and checked over.
2. i made some more squares on the babette. i finished section 6 and started section 7. no pictures though.
3. the garden is progressing. cilantro and basil have sprouted and are growing. the lettuce too. and my tomatoes have 6 or 7 flower buds on them. of course, i have no pictures.
4. i wore my pajama pants to the store this afternoon. it was awesome. i used to wear them a lot to go to the 7-11 near my condo when i lived in boston. but i lived in a neighborhood filled with students who wore their pajama pants everywhere so i kind of fit in. but in the burbs, i'm living on the edge. too bad i didn't run into a neighbor. that would have been fun.
5. i know i did other things, but i don't remember what they are.
6. i did drink a couple of adult beverages. but they have nothing to do with my forgetfulness
7. oh, i've started a sock for the summer of socks.
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day 72 -- don't forget. caro's camera straps. available monday, june 30th in her etsy shop.
i'm not much of a fashion plate. i'm usually wearing jeans a t-shirt and sneakers or clogs. sometimes an occasional handknit.
but my camera likes to be dressed to the nines.
when caro created her prototype camera strap, i think i might have gushed a little bit. so she made me one. an orange one. (gah!)
and the nikon loves it!
want one?
then make sure to stop by caro's shop on monday. you won't want to miss your chance to dress your camera up real pretty.
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day 71 -- caro's camera straps. available monday, june 30th in her etsy shop. better than new underpants, and that's saying a lot.
my "garden" seems to be thriving. well, nothing's dead yet anyway. but nothing is close to being ready to harvest. so last sunday, after doing some shopping at the grafton flea market, stitchy and i stopped at dick kelley's farm stand to see what they had to offer.
i ended up coming home with some fresh peas (in a pod!) and spinach and iceberg lettuce (who knew iceberg tasted so good!) and radishes, all grown on the farm.
i also bought strawberries (from the farm) and cherries (don't know where they came from, but they were too yummy looking to pass up).
i haven't been eating well lately so it was good to at least make an effort to try and mix it up a bit with the fruits and veggies. my goal for the week is to finish everything i bought without it becoming mush in the fridge (j doesn't eat vegetables or many fruits, so it's all me). and what i need to do next sunday is buy something that i've never tasted.
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day 68 -- who knew fresh peas, barely cooked, were so freakin' good?!
at first i wasn't going to do this week's 10 on Tuesdays mainly because i thought it would be a pretty boring list with things like "computers!" or "cars!" and then i saw terry's list which gave me some ideas. i can't promise it'll be an interesting list, but it's my list.
10 Inventions That Have Made MY Life Easier
1. nair -- the stuff smells, it burns your hair off, and it makes a mess, but it gets the job done without having to pour hot wax on my person OR cutting myself.
2. disposable sanitary products -- no need to elaborate on that one. i think all women can agree on this one.
3. ibuprofen -- my drug of choice. two days a month, it makes it possible for me to stand erect. (heh heh ... erect)
4. staedtler mars plastic erasers -- i discovered these in france when i was a kid. they erase every last mark without shredding the paper, and making a big mess like the pink erasers do. those europeans sure know their office supplies.
5. mechanical pencils - with 0.5mm leads. for someone like me who loves a sharp point, the mechanical pencil is a godsend.
6. indoor plumbing -- no chamber pots! no raw sewage in the streets! woo-hoo!
7. the drip coffee maker -- i don't think i'd be a coffee drinker if i had to make coffee with a percolator.
8. the cup holder -- is it weird that i love cup holders in cars and that one of the first things i looked for when i was buying my car was whether or not it had a cup-holder? my mini, by the way, has a lame-ass cup holder. kind of an after thought cup holder. apparently brits don't drink coffee in their cars.
9. central air conditioning -- up here in new england we don't have to use it very often but when we do, it's my most favorite thing ever. and if i can help it, i'll never live in a house without it again. you know, unless i end up living in iceland or something like that.
10. my garmin -- no studying maps ahead of time, no wasting a quarter tank of gas roaming the streets of lexington at 1am because i made a wrong turn, no having to ask for directions. i love it even when the lady in the garmin gives me attitude.
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day 67 -- hi! and bye! i'm going to bed.
My friend L lives in Brooklyn and likes to send me craigslist ads that for one reason or another strikes her fancy. This is one she sent me this week.
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This white concrete grotto is 2 feet 8 inches tall by 1 foot 4 1/2 inches wide.
Inside it is 2 feet 2 1/2 inches tall by 11 1/2 wide.Wieghs about 50
pounds. I am in White Plains, so you would have to come here to get it.
(Jesus is not included. Just there to show you what you can do with it)
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That's too bad. The jesus was the best part
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day 63 -- today is my half birthday. happy half-birthday to me! an old work friend used to bake me a little cake for my half birthday and come to my office with the cake and a candle and sing happy birthday to me. or happy half-birthday. she thought i got the short end of the birthday stick with my birthday being so close to christmas and all.
so the post that was in my head is going to have to wait another day because i'm so pissed right now, i could spit.
you see, it appears that for the past 5 years my work hasn't been up to snuff. something about not taking enough of an initiative. not anticipating enough what needs to get done. of course i haven't had a review in 5 years and today's the first i've heard that something isn't quite right. anyway, when the new grant goes in for funding in 2010, it's quite possible that i will not be written into it. the irony of course, is that if i were to stay, i would probably have to train the much more "qualified" replacement. you know, because i know everything but i'm still not good enough. (is that irony or is that just fucking crazy?)
in the grand scheme of things, this is probably a good thing. the job didn't turn out the way i was promised or the way i had hoped. and i'm sick of the commute. but good luck finding someone to do everything that i do by her/himself, without complaining, that i've done up until now.
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day 60 -- my day wasn't entirely craptastic. heard from the dealer. mini's giving me a new transmission. i have to pay for labor, but that's a fraction of what it could have potentially cost me.
when i was a little kid, the only thing that got me into any trouble was what came out of my mouth.
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day 58 -- i guess that shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me.
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day 57 -- heh
i've been a fan of tim russert's for many years, probably since 2000. he's the only political analyst who didn't make me want to throw something at the tv. so it was quite a shock when i learned less than an hour ago that he had died.
i'm somewhat taken aback by how strongly i've been affected by this news. i will miss him every sunday.
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day 56 -- a sad day
so guess what's living with me these day?
yep, it's a VW bug. 2008. in red. and it's a "loaner."
because the mini, she's in the shop, waiting for the customer service people at mini to tell the guys at the dealership "hey, let's help out this chick who loves her mini. the broken transmission -- that's totally our fault. it's a stupid transmission, we should have never sold her a car with a stupid transmission that shits the bed at only 80K miles. so forget about the fact that her warranty is up and lets just fix it for much less money."
yes i'm a dreamer. (although you never know. i did call mini. and they did say they'd call the dealership. and the dealership did say to me "oh they'll all." so we'll see.)
but seriously. how stupid is it to give me the second cutest car on the road to drive around while i wait for my car, a competitor's car, to get fixed. you know, because of a faulty transmission.
i told the guys at the dealership to tell the mini people that i'm driving around a bug right now. and if they want my next car to be a VW, they can ignore me. but if they want me as a long term customer, they know what they need to do.
because the bug, she's a nice little ride. and when before i bought the mini 5 years ago, i came THIS close to buying the bug instead.
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day 55 --wireless internet connections make long meetings almost bearable
10 Things That Annoy You About Work
this would have been easier to limit to just 10 if it had been "10 Things that DON'T Annoy you About Work" but that's just me having a bad attitude. shall we begin? in no particular order of annoyance by the way...
1. the commute. the commute sucks. but maybe that should be more about where i live than where i work. i didn't have a problem with the commute when i lived in boston.
2. the fact that i have two offices across town from one another for the same job. yep, on mondays, wednesdays and fridays i'm at one office; and on tuesdays and thursdays i'm at the other. this affects my mode of commute because at one office i have reasonably priced subsidized parking, and the other i do not. and never will.
3. at one office, i sometimes have someone sharing my office with me. which annoys the F*CK out of me. it's a small office. there's not enough room.
4. having to plan meetings. but i've discussed that before.
5. having to have an advanced degree to do my job even though sometimes i feel as if a monkey could do my job. a high functioning, able to use a minimal amount of sign language to communicate with its trainer, level monkey, but a monkey nonetheless.
6. that at one office, to save money and because people have allegedly been using way too many tissues, we now have to bring in our own tissues.
7. people who leave long voicemail messages. there's no need to have a conversation with me on my voicemail. just leave a brief message of this sort, "hey it's me, call me, i have a question about X." or better yet, email me.
8. people who cc: my bosses when emailing me under the impression that if they cc: my boss i'm more likely to do their bidding. note to people who do this: the bosses usually ignore such emails.
9. people who ignore my emails because they don't consider emails from me to be important. i don't email you because i like you. i email you because i need either information from you or you need information from me in order to do your job.
10. people who don't pay attention or are too lazy to even spend a minimal amount of time to try and figure something out first before calling me with a stupid question. and yes, there are stupid questions.
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day 53 -- if work were fun, it wouldn't be called "work"
this past week has been a challenging one. work has kind of sucked and will not be getting better for at least another week. i've been organzing a big ass meeting which is taking place next thursday and friday. (which i also have to attend).
is my title "meeting planner?" no it is not.
do i enjoy meeting planning? that would be a no.
do i/will i have sufficient administrative help to pull this thing together? HELL NO!
do i have any power at all to make a decision, however miniscule, without getting the ok from people who are virtually impossible to reach? that would make things easier wouldn't it. you know, to be able to make decisions in the event that someone much more important than me is unavailable, would be so much more sensible. so of course the answer to that question is again, a no.
no. no. no. no.
so imagine my surprise when i didn't get a no when i asked my mechanic if the noise coming out of car was coming from the transmission.
that of course would be a yes. of course it would.
bushwack's economic stimulus package check was going to be used to finish paying off my car. it looks like i could be paying for a new tranmission too. i'll know more next week.
i didn't have these problems when i lived in the city. i'm just saying.
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day 49 -- one step forward, two steps back.
YES/NO GAME RULES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
You can only say yes or no. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages you and asks!
Over 18? Yes
Danced in front of your mirror naked? No
Ever told a lie? Yes
Been arrested? No
Kissed a picture? Yes
Fallen asleep at work/school? Yes
Held an actual snake? No
Have YOU Ever run a red light? Yes
Ever drink and drive? Yes
Been suspended from school? No
Ever been fired from a job? No
Totaled a car/motorbike in an accident? No
Sang karaoke? No
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Yes
Ever laughed until you wet yourself? Yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Yes
Kissed in the rain? Yes
Sang in the shower? Yes
Sat on a rooftop? Yes
Thought about your past with regret? Yes
Been pushed in the pool with your clothes on? No
Shaved your head? No
Blacked out from drinking? Yes
Had a gym membership? Yes
Been in a band? No
Shot a gun? No
Liked someone with nobody else knowing about it? Yes
Played strip poker? No
Been to a strip joint? No
Donated Blood? Yes
Liked someone you shouldn't? Yes
Have a tattoo? No
Have or had any piercings besides ears? Yes
Made out with a complete stranger? Yes
Caught someone cheating on you? No
Skinny dipped? No
Regret any of your ex's? Yes
Been to a rodeo? No
Been to a NASCAR race? No
Been in Love? Yes
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day 49 -- relying a little too much on memes these days, i know.
my version of the meme that's been going around flickr these days:
Flickr game:
the rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker).
the questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.
photo details here.
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day 48 -- i'm in a funk these days. work is making me sad. home is making me sad.
10 Ways the World has Changed Since You Were in School
well considering that i graduated from college over 20 years ago, you can bet that a lot of things have changed since i was in school. shall we begin?
1. there was no internet. yes kids. back in the day, we did not have the internet. no googling. no flickr. no blogs. no ravelry. no amazon. no ebay. NO PACKRAT!!! if we were curious about something, we had to go to the library and look it up either in the reference area of the library, or in actually books, by looking through A CARD CATALOG!! you know, thumb through actual cards to find where certain books were shelved in the library. many families actually had a set of encyclopedias. i know we did.
2. there was also no email. well for the common folk anyway. i think techie types probably had some primitive form of email but us regular people didn't. so that means that people wrote actual letters, put a stamp on the envelope and dropped it off in a mailbox or at the post office.
3. cameras used film. and only film.
4. no cell phones. some people may have had shoe-box sized cell phones, but i could be getting my timeline messed up.
5. MTV showed only music videos. 24/7. that's what MTV stands for by the way -- Music Television. duh.
6. The Mc DLT existed. This was a burger concept by McDonalds that I personally think was flawed. It came packaged in a large styrofoam box, with half of the bun and the meat patty on one side (the hot side), and the lettuce, tomato, etc, and the other half of the bun on the other side (the cold side). the point was this way the veggies wouldn't get all soggy and gross. that's fine and all, but if you ordered it with cheese, the cheese would be on the "cold" side and never got melty. a disapointment.
7. The Soviet Union existed.
8. You still had to go to the bank to use the ATM. What was revolutionary was that you could actually access your money during non-banking hours.
9. All of my papers were typed on a typewriter. The "computer" center (a classroom in the engineering building usually manned by a surly computer science major who so didn't want to help those of us who didn't know what we were doing) did have at our disposal a very rudimentary word-processing system, but nothing ever printed right and it was just easier to use a typewriter. plus, the typewriter never rolled it's eyes at me.
10. The Celtics and the Lakers were the best basketball teams in the NBA. OH WAIT. THEY ARE AGAIN!!!
10a. Basketball players actually showed their legs when they played. The shorts were much smaller.
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day 47 -- GO CELTICS!!!
so i finally finished the scarf that i started earlier in the month. i had some issues towards the end, wanting to use as much of the yarn i had left without running out mid-row. that's the problem with crochet. it eats yarn.
anyway, i'm rather happy with it.
it came out to be about 68 inches long. i like my scarves to be at least as long as i am tall and i made it with almost 2 skeins of malabrigo in rich chocolate. it's been named Pringles by a flickr friend. and when i get my act together, i'll post the pattern.
in the meantime, i've raveled a few details here.
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day 44 -- it was exciting enough when my first scarf pattern ended up on whip it. imagine my surprise when my little old scarf got noticed by the folks at craft.! thanks beth for the head's up.
i don't remember where i found this meme, so unfortunately i can't link to the original blog.
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Accent: i've lived in massachusetts for 20 years now but i still don't think i've picked up the accent. i pronounce my R's with gusto. i honestly don't know what kind of accent i have. it's just kind of a generic american accent. when i speak french i sound like an american with a parisian accent.
Breakfast or no breakfast: I would not get up if not for the promise of food. and coffee.
Chore I don’t care for: scrubbing the floors.
Dog or Cat: cats
Essential Electronics: camera and computer and my new best friend of gadgets, my garmin.
Favorite Cologne: chanel #5.
Gold or Silver: silver or white gold.
Handbag I carry most often: i love bags and change them all of the time. they must be big enough to hold a little bit of knitting and some reading material. lately i've been carrying around a green ellington tote that i bought at spa.
Insomnia: i'm a pretty good sleeper. but sometimes i wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble falling back asleep. i start thinking about things. usually going into another, cooler room, with a book does the trick.
Job Title: project manager, data coordinator, kisser of asses, wrangler of egomaniacs.
Kids: none of my own. a lot of nieces and 2 nephews. my cats are not my children.
Living Arrangements: 3 bedroom ranch in the suburbs that i share with my husband and my 2 cats.
Most Admirable Trait: my sense of humor?
Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: i had a mouth on me that got me into a lot of trouble. but i was always well behaved in public and a "joy in the classroom." seriously.
Overnight hospital stays: a couple. once when i was a teenager for rheumatic fever. and 10+ years ago for cellulitis in my left foot. yes i rarely get sick, but i manage to contract diseases and illnesses that no one else seems to get.
Phobias: hmmm phobia is a strong word. the closest i have to a phobia is claustrophobia. i can get a little anxious in enclosed, dark places. also i don't like snakes or other creepy crawly reptilian-like creatures. but i certainly don't freak out about them.
Quote: "fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son" -- Dean Wormer, Animal House. it's pathetic that this is the only quote i can think of right now.
Reason to smile: i have tomorrow off.
Siblings: a younger brother. i worry about him.
Time I wake up: the alarm goes off at 5:15. i'm usually up by 5:45. (although this morning i didn't get up until 6:15). on the weekends i get up around 7ish.
Unusual Talent or Skill: i'm a little psychic? i can stand with my heels together and my toes pointing beyond 180 degrees? i can bend my pinkie finger and touch the palm of my hand without bending my ring finger? i have a photographic memory? i'm not sure that these are all that unusual and or skills for that matter.
Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: i don't like cucumbers (which are technically a fruit) but generally vegetables are pretty inoffensive to me and if i were to eat a cucumber by accident it wouldn't be a tragedy.
Worst Habit: over-eating. is that a bad habit?
X-rays: well other than the usual dental x-rays, i've had x-rays of both of my feet, one ankle and of both of my arms. i was a clumsy kid.
Yummy Stuff: it's easier for me to say what i don't like. i especially like crispy, salt, and fat and i'd pick dinner over dessert 95% of the time.
Zoo Animal I Like Most: i love the monkeys except when they touch their poo. (the word poo makes me giggle). and giraffes. the last time i went to the zoo was years ago and i got to feed a giraffe. and it was such a weird and slightly gross feeling since his tongue basically licked my entire arm as he tried to eat from my hand.
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day 42 -- i like a good meme now and again.
it took me over two and a half hours to get home tonight. first there was the rubber-necking on the mass pike, then when i was 5 miles away from home, three lanes of traffic were merged into one, because of road work preparations. what a freakin' cluster fuck. it took me 40 minutes to go 1 mile. people, i walk faster than that. a couple of times we were at a standstill, so i turned off the ignition. and i just sat there, like everyone else. oh wait, except for the half dozen or so asshats who thought it was ok to drive down the breakdown lane.
HELLO!!! IS YOUR TIME SO MUCH MORE PRECIOUS THAN THE 1000+ OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE FOLLOWING THE RULES OF THE ROAD? ARE YOU THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND? ARE YOU ESCORTING THE PRESIDENT? WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE????
it's a good thing i had this waiting for me at home.
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day 41 -- some people really suck
this is my first time writing a "10 on Tuesdays" blog post. other topics have intrigued me. "10 movies i must see." "10 things i'm good at." but this week's topic spoke to me: 10 Favorite Time-Wasters.
oh yeah, baby...
i'm a procrastinator of the first order and go to bed every night, ticking off in my brain, all of the things i'd like to accomplish the next day. the next day comes and *poof* it's all gone. and here are the reasons why:
1. spending time on the computer. i think if you're a procrastinator, you spend a lot of time on the computer. i have a friend who spends virtually no time on the computer outside of work. she says it reminds her of work and that she feels compelled to read her work email. she is not a procrastinator. but instead of a purse or bag, she carries her wallet in a Fanny Pack all of the time. she is barely 40 years old. i see a correlation.
2. flickr and etsy. i don't think i need to elaborate. luckily i haven't checked out facebook, myspace, etc. i'm not interested. for now. (it used to be ebay. i've gotten over ebay.)
3. reading blogs. duh. if you've seen my bloglines list, you know that i don't fool around when it comes to blog reading.
4. writing blog posts, like this one. i'm writing this at work. when i was in college, i used tell myself that i could start my paper, studying, etc. on the quarter hour. it's 2:50 now, i'll start working again at 3.
5. making or getting coffee/snack/food. good for at least 15 minutes.
6. watching tv. it's the first thing i turn on in the morning. to watch the news, get the weather. unless i have to be at work super early, i watch the today show. 90% of the time i think it's stupid. but i still watch. when i come get home tonight, i have 7 days of "the young and the restless" to catch up on.
7. knitting/crochet/spinning. yep. they're hobbies and i love doing them, but they're important weapons in my procrastination arsenal. "just one more row!" "let me finish this pre-drafted pile of roving."
8. playing with my hair/checking my face/waxing my eyebrows. ok, i admit, i don't do this very much anymore. but this was my favorite time-waster back in the day. pulling out grays perhaps has taken it's place.
9. reading. magazines. books. old catalogs. the metro paper. the back of cereal boxes. if i'm looking to avoid doing something, i'll find something to read. anything but what it is that i have to read.
10. reorganizing. so here's the thing. sometimes my plan is to reorganize. clean out closets, sort through old books. in which case, i'll find myself doing items 1-9 on the list. however, i have decided to organize in lieu of cleaning the bathroom, going to work, studying ... on many occasions. the lesser of evils i say.
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day 40 -- at first i was going to just make a vague comment on the soup-like air we had today and then i saw this piece on boston.com. what's offensive in this ad isn't rachel ray's black and white scarf that some Fox News nimrod has decided is a symbol of terrorist sympathizing, but rather rachel's overdone eye make-up. what's up there rachel? oh, and the fact that Fox News nimrods still have enough power to have a perfectly innocent ad pulled from the airwaves over a paisley scarf. i mean really. it's dunkin donuts for pete's sake.
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day 39 -- the official first day of summer
remember when i speculated that i would lose readers if i admitted to loving crochet?
ha! i was right.
at least 2 people removed me from their bloglines.
or maybe they're sean hannity or bill o'reilly fans who didn't like me dissing their beloved FOX news. (you know, the sucky liars, george bush ass kissing, news channel. )
but i don't care, because my gathered scarf is on Whip Up today!!! oh yes it is! ha! take that!
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day 37 -- WHIP UP!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?
1. this morning, i saw two turkeys cross the road near my house. of course i didn't have my camera. i was driving anyway. but it's the first time i've seen turkeys around here. i thought my town wasn't urban enough. i guess these turkeys thought the country was a better place to raise their young.
2. the dunkin donuts closest to my house has their TVs tuned to FOX News ALL OF THE TIME. i think i'm going to have to frequent another dunkin donuts.
3. this morning i yelled at the guy who collects money at the parking lot at the T. i know i should feel bad but you know, he's always mean and unhelpful. and i'm always wishing him a good day and everything. and i'm a stupid rule follower and today, he gave me grief and i told him off. i don't like it when i lose my temper but sometimes i just have to.
4. lunch consisted of a very tasty greek salad but i forgot to tell them to put the dressing on the side. it was good, but the lettuce got all limpy. i don't limp lettuce.
5. i left work late which meant that the T was packed with red sox fans leaving the game. i had to wait for 4 trains to go by before i could get on. i hate baseball season. and fans who don't know how to ride the T. and have to stand right next to the door because they're SOOO afraid that if they don't, they won't be able to get off the train.
6. i made meatloaf for dinner. it was ok.
7. i'm glad tomorrow's friday.
8. after i post this, i'm going to bed to read.
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day 36 -- overall, a grumpy day
i've got my eye on you....
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day 34 -- not smudge-proof
i almost forgot!
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day 28 -- this counts. right?
hi! i just got home and now i'm going to bed. i'm pooped.
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day 25 -- nothing wrong with a quickie now and again!
hey, i'm on my way to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool festival right now. i've loaded up the mini and i'm probably somewhere on 495 maybe sipping on a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and eating an egg mcmuffin. i travel in style, yes i do.
anyway, just a quick post to announce the winners of my Rosie Craft Book contest that I had on Monday. thanks for all of the comments. not a bad number of entries considering that i now blog every day. and i did close comments yesterday so maybe i could have had more. but whatever ... you want to know who the winners are, don't you.
[if this were American Idol, we'd go to commercial now]
heh heh
my first winner is ....
MANISE!!! i'll be seeing you later so i'm bringing your copy of the book with me.
the second winner is ....
and finally, the third winner is ....
BOOKISH WENDY!!!!!
i'll be getting in touch with you two ladies in the next few days. Congratulations! I think you'll all love the book. I gave a copy to my niece who is still in the hospital (no worries -- the docs are just being overly cautious) and she and her mom love it.
and for those of you who didn't win and would like another chance to win a copy, remember that i'm donating a copy as a prize to Claudia's Knitter's Against MS fund drive. so go donate.
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day 24 -- have a kick ass saturday!
inspired by michelle and kim...
4:15 am: the alarm goes off. and i push the snooze button. this is not my normal waking time but i'm driving j to the airport this morning. j's already up. he has trouble sleeping when he's nervous.
4:30 am: BBK (big black kitty) comes and sniff my face followed by j (well j doesn't sniff my face) who suggests i make the coffee this morning. (usually j makes coffee on weekdays but we've run out of half 'n' half and he refused to drink coffee with anything but half'n'half. therefore, if i want coffee, i need to make it.
4:45 am: i make coffee and check my email/flickr/bloglines.
5:00 am: shower. while washing my hair i feel a slight pinch in my neck. it doesn't hurt yet, but it will later. since when has washing my hair become such a physically demanding exercise?
5:15 am: j is getting twitchy and hasn't had coffee yet and is therefore turning into a monster. i tell him to settle down, have some coffee without the freakin' half 'n' half. he doesn't need that crap anyway and that i'll be ready to go in 2 minutes.
5:20 am: i'm ready and out the door.
5:22 am: i forget my glasses, go back inside.
5:26 am: we pull out of the driveway
5:30 am: we get coffee at dunkin donuts. all is well.
6:08 am: we get to the airport. the airport is over 40 miles away but at this hour the drive is magical in it's swiftness. and complain all you want about the big dig, but the mass pike all the way to logan is the best thing ever. seriously.
6:15 am: j unloads his bags (he's going to Ohio for 2 weeks for work), we kiss good-bye. he walks through the departure terminal doors and i get a little verklempt. proof that i am not dead inside.
6:30 am: after getting back on the pike, i get to work. it's weird being at work at this hour. and for a few minutes i consider leaving the house every morning at 5:30 to beat the traffic.
7:30 am: i get a bagel at *$. i order a multigrain, i get a cinnamon raisin. i eat it anyway because i don't want to go back to *$.
8:00 am - 12:00: i do some busy work, read bloglines, check email, check flickr, do busy work, read blogines, check email, check flickr, do busy work, etc. i also think a lot about lunch.
12:00: it's cinco de mayo today so we're having a little morale boosting shinding in the lunch room that only holds a fraction of all of the people who work here. so that means that the rest of us poor schmucks end up eating by ourselves in our offices. but hey, the corn jicama salad is good. and we get flan!
12:30: i have a 1 o'clock meeting with my boss halfway across town. i walk to his office. i wish i had a camera with me. i see a turkey in brookline.
1:00 - 2:30 pm: i meet with the boss. my eyes glaze over.
2:30 - 3:00 pm: i chat with his assistant, and other coworkers.
3:00pm: i'm done for the day (see the 6:30am start time) and go to wait for the T shuttle. i get accosted by a cute boy with an australian accent trying to get me to stop so i can listen to him talk about saving whales or children or the environment. i try to bargain with him. "cross the street with me, where i have to wait for the shuttle and i'll listen to what you have to say, but over there." he refuses. i guess he doesn't care about the whales, children or environment as much as he says he does.
3:15pm: waiting for the T
3:30 pm: get to the hospital where my 12 year old niece K is. she was born with hydrocephaly (i think) and has a shunt that sometimes acts up. it acted up earlier in the week so she's had to have surgery to remove it. she's currently attached to an external shunt and she's being watched. (she's scheduled to have an internal shunt put back in on wednesday).
3:40-5:20 pm: sit with her while she watches TV. we barely talk but that's ok. she loves her TV. and i'm proud of her for being such a trooper under these circumstances.
5:20 pm: another aunt shows up so i head back to work for my car.
6:00 pm: i'm in my car, heading home. it's after 6 so the traffic won't be totally heinous, if i'm lucky.
7:00pm: traffic not heinous so i'm home by 7. feed the cats. make dinner. just pasta leftovers with carrots. and leftover strawberry shortcake (yeah i'm not really on the plan these days. although the cool whip is sugar free. yes, i like cool whip better than whipped cream. ). i watch the "young and the restless" on the soap network.
8:00-9:00pm: i check email, bloglines, flickr while half watching that show before "how i met your mother" that is sometimes kind of funny but who's title i can never remember. i also half watch "how i met your mother" while winding some freshly plied yarn onto a niddy noddy.
9:00pm: get ready for bed, planning on watching "two and a half men" and "terms of engagement" in bed, knowing though that i will fall asleep within minutes.
Sometimes after 9:05pm: i fall asleep.
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day 20 -- when stuck for something to blog about, steal from others.
this daily blogging thing is hard work. can i just tell you? you've got the pictures to take then you have to download them and then you've got to come up with something to say. funny thing is that i don't have trouble talking. but this writing thing. ugh. and i can't keep posting pictures of my cats.
anyway, i do have a couple of posts planned for the next few days. tomorrow i've got a book review. an OFFICIAL book review. complete with books to give away. so come back tomorrow and leave a comment (you know, if you want to win a book).
i've also got a couple of FOs to show you. details later.
good thing i've got to go to work tomorrow and actually get out of the house because i need new material.
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day 18 -- staying in my pjs all weekend does not make for interesting posts. even i'm boring myself.
the skies today were gray and not very springlike. it was a perfect day for hanging around the house in my pjs until 3pm, which is when my sister-in-law called and asked if we wanted to go to Friendly's. Duh.
other than that i didn't do much. but i did manage to take pictures of eggs.
these aren't any eggs though. these were laid by carole's friend, blogless sharon's chickens.
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day 17 -- i might have knitting or fiber content tomorrow, but i can't promise anything.
today's been kind of busy and in a few minutes i'm running out to pick up some prints and my car before meeting the girls for a little knitting.
so this is all i've got.
#008080 |
Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively. |
at 5pm earlier today: at this very moment ... right this second ... i'm sitting in my office "participating" in a bi-weekly conference call that more often than not makes me want to kill myself. or someone else.
i say "participating" because in actuality i just sit and listen for my name to be mentioned should someone want to assign to me an