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ARCHIVES:
NOVEMBER 2005
Later
on Sunday, November 27, 2005
I didn't want to end my thanksgiving weekend post on a sassy note.
Now that i did some cleaning and sorting, i am feeling a bit better
about the state of things around here.
Overall, its been a fantastic weekend. I got 3 full uninterrupted
days of painting in, which is rare. I should make a point to take
more time off to stay home and less time to travel. I feel refreshed
and ready to go back to work. I think I overestimate how going and
doing I can handle.
No real baking accomplishments to speak of other than some buttermilk
pancakes thursday morning, fresh cranberry sauce and an apple
pie. After another slice of pumpkin tonight, I will be ready for
a week of rice cakes.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Sunday,
November 27, 2005
+
We
just pulled our 5 boxes and 3 trees of Christmas down from the attic.
It sure seems that one year, we really went nuts and decided that
we needed a house full of decorations.
In turn, seeing those items still packed, in our living room, has
me thinking there's no place to set anything out, cause there's
too much other crap everywhere. In turn, i am throwing away some
items and packing things up permanently in anticipation of our probable
move this spring.
It seems that us humans can't avoid the accumulation of crap as
much as we may try.
I noticed that when we visited our friends in San Diego, they would
make a comment here and there about space being tight. And space
IS tight over there. I think "space is tight" is a compelling
excuse to tell your family not to give you a bunch of stuff for
christmas and to keep yourself from buying new items from Target..
We could make the argument that a bigger house would solve the problem,
but then you'd just have more room to put more crap.
I vividly remember our living room the first 1 or 2 years we lived
here. I have pictures of that room with the christmas decorations.
It was empty and beautiful.
Wish me luck culling down these christmas items. Merry Christmas,
Salvation Army!
-=-=-=-=-=-
Tuesday,
November 22, 2005
+
My shipment came in from Fossil. I ordered some clothes from there
on Saturday morning, when I was unable to remove the tissue from
my nose in order to leave the house. Not to mention that its hard
to find time to buy new clothes for winter. Some of the fabrics
weren't what i thought, but all up I would say it was a success,
but i haven't tried on anything yet, but i wasn't stupid enough
to try and order pants or shoes.
I think a big advantage of ordering online is definitely the selection.
Woo hoo!
+No big plans for thanksgiving. It will be a cozy day with just
the 3 of us, and some football. There is no elaborate menu planned.
The focus will be to relax. I am looking forward to getting up and
making some breakfast, which will most certainly include bacon.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Saturday,
November 19, 2005
+
This picture was taken on the last day of our honeymoon, on the
big island. This photo wasn't altered...It was the brightest and
lowest rainbow i had ever seen.
+ Allergies have taken over. My nose is raw from sneezing and nose-blowing.
Looks like I'm staying home, doing laundry and catching up on some
other items around the house.
Snail had an outstanding dinner waiting for me when I got home from
work last night. It was a steak and shrimp stirfry and the flavor
was fantastic. I kept going on about it. It tasted like a restaurant.
We are about to reheat it for lunch.
I am glad the weather got cooler. I am finally starting to think
about thanksgiving food.
_+_+_This site has some nice modern housewares: Wrapables.
Great selection of shower curtains.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Tuesday,
November 15, 2005
This was lunch from Saturday. A big hot bowl of cheesy baked pasta
with porky meatballs. (Its a terrible life, we live, isn't it?!?)
We decided to try a new place, called Enoteca, which mainly serves
pizzas, pastas and paninis. Snail and I split this, salad, an appetizer
and dessert.
We don't normally rush out to try new places, but ever since my
favorite resataurant has been taken over by every Tom, Dick and
Harry and there's an hour wait.... I figured it was best to move
along.
To
the left of that salad is a bowl of proscuitto covered provolone
cubes, nestled in peppers and drizzled with olive oil. Tasty but
a little spicy for my virginia blood. The salad was light and simple,
drizzled with some lemon infused olive oil.
And, that's dessert below. The cannoli was creamy and crunchy and
we shared it with a mug of cafe mocha. The mocha was too sophisticated
for me (not sweet enough.) Snail said it was delicious and complex.
The service was great too and I'm glad we had the camera with us
so that Snail could shoot these lovely photos.
(sigh)
During the meal, the table right next to us was being cleared.
A bottle of windex was about arm's length from my face. And you
know what happens next.....the waft of windex as you're eating your
tomato-cheesy smelling meal. But no. Oh no. This place puts their
windex spray bottles on STREAM, not SPRAY. No loose chemical particles
in the air.
I was able to continue my hot pasta smelling with no interruptions.
(Its a disease that i notice these things.....A disease. I can't
turn it off!)
-=-=-=-=-=-
Saturday,
November 12, 2005
+
Today is Satur-yay!
I drove up to the craft event this morning to start my Saturday
shift. As soon as I got there I went to where I had my posters set
up to check out my inventory and bring some additional promo postcards.
(the event had already been open for 2 whole days.) What i found
was that I couldn't find my stuff anywhere. I looked the entire
(both) houses over.
I found the lady in charge and she showed me where they had been
moved. The 2 "for display only" framed prints were sitting
on the couch in an upstairs, open, general-use, miscellaneous crap
room. My
stock of prints were sitting there too and there was actually someone
else's stuff, kind of covering part of mine.
Without counting, I was pretty certain I had sold nothing. The lady
could probably sense that I wasn't that happy with my new placement.
She had the idea that we put my stuff in the mini-Asian themed room,
because my work had a different, "asian" look to it. Ha!
I said, "Well, it's obvious this isn't a fit and I would love
to have my Saturday back." With that, I packed up my wacky
trinkets and did not look back.
What
I don't get is that this lady running the show saw my work a month
ago, when this all got set up. Wasn't it bleedingly obvious to her
at that point, that my work wouldn't fit in?!
In any case, I should thank her. Without that event, I wouldn't
have been motivated to have posters printed up. And now that I have
them, I can take them into some cool shops and sell them!
-=-=-=-=-=-
Wednesday,
November 9, 2005
+ A couple of days ago I picked up some silk-screened posters that
I designed and had printed and shrink-wrapped. Tonight, I dropped
them off at a craft sale, which kicks off tomorrow and lasts for
3 days.
I feel comfortable telling you that this is my first and last craft
sale. And I say that because I didn't feel like my stuff fit in
at all. When i looked across the room at the items on display, they
all seemed to go together. There was craft harmony. I was struck
with a Christmasy feeling to shop.
But my prints looked like a raincoat on a sunny day.
I can say that it will be interesting to see if the market that
is shopping this show, is interested in my work. Hard to say. If
I don't sell anything, i won't be hurt cause I'll know that we weren't
a match. It was a blind date gone wrong... It was nobody's fault.
The biggest bummer at this point is that I'm working this gig saturday
from 9 to 5. I had agreed to do that to "see what it was like"
or save a little of my profit.
I feel comfortable telling you that I am too old, too picky and
too busy to "see what it's like" and save a few dollars
off my profit.
I am not quitting my day job. I will relish in my paycheck. I will
seek out places to display my work, that fit.
For now, its 8:30pm. I am exhausted. I am hungry. I am taking a
shower, making some hot buttery salty sweet oatmeal (maybe some
cherries on top) and I'm going to drink a glass of wine. And I'm
not sure what order I'm doing that in.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Tuesday,
November 8, 2005
+
There is nothing normal about leaving work at 6:30pm in darkness
and 85 degree weather.
+ Last night, I ran several errands. The last stop was the grocery
store for one quick item.
When I got back into my car, I had a split second feeling of panic
that someone was in my car. I was sure I was about to be attacked
from behind. I could smell an unfamiliar odor - an odor that smells
exactly like very stinky men. As soon as I felt sure there was no
one in my car, I was certain that I was driving the WRONG car. That
somehow, I was in someone else's car. And then I realized that was
ridiculous and starting looking around for the stinky culprit.
Turned out to be the plastic shopping bag from Old Navy. That thing
smells JUST like old arm pit! Its gross!!
Sunday,
November 6, 2005
I
talked to my friend that grew up in the same neighborhood as me
and had her fill me in on the Mickey Mouse House. She said that
their grandson was a friend of her older sister's. And that the
grandparents lived in a mini-apartment attached to the main house
with the rest of the family. She also said he was diabetic, which
is why he had candy all of the time and that the cookie jar, that
had the candy in it, had Mickey Mouse on one side and Minnie Mouse
on the other-- hence the name. Funny that i didn't remember THAT
part.
So, there you go.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Wednesday,
November 2, 2005
With
much hesitation and regret, I did not stop at the mall on the way
home from work tonight. I knew I wouldn't have the energy and stamina
for trying on clothes. I have been trying to get to the mall for
at least a month or more and its hard to find a free weeknight.
I refuse to go on the weekend.
I
know that its good that I didn't go because tonight i'm going to
do nothing, instead. All hail nothing!
Or
maybe i'll look at my Real Simple Magazine that just came in the
mail. I think I love to hate magazines. Mainly I love how gorgeous
magazines can be and you never know what's going to be on the next
page.
This also brings me to one of the possible joys that has been left
out of retail web browsing. I find the current shopping model concept
really tedious and boring. I mean, do i REALLY have to pick "Tops"
"Pants" or "Outerwear?" Can't i just look around
through your inventory without making any decisions other the fact
that I already decided to come to your site? I know that there is
a need for sorting and organizing, i get that.
Anyway, magazines do a good job of serving something up. They can
make you like something that you didn't know you liked or had never
given much thought to or that you had simple forgotten about (blogs
often do the same thing, i think). This is my most favorite thing
about cooking magazines.
I have/had subscriptions to:
Martha Stewart's Living (great design, some very tedious
ideas and projects--causing much eye-rolling, does the best job
of making me feel like my world is going to end if i don't make
this delicious recipe.)
Lucky, (lucky is a shopping magazine that makes every
product/clothing item sound like the greatest thing EVER and i don't
believe any of it but i like seeing what's in fashion and what's
coming up without going to the mall)
Cooking Light (love food but i'm never going to do any of
those exercises in there and sometimes eating light gets boring)
Real Simple (the imitation Living, not as good, also more
tedious projects and thoughts. did you see this month's cover? its
like your thanksgiving meal served up in a cold institution.)
Budget
Living
(clean design, nifty, but some REALLY cheap ideas)
(ok, ok, i know it has the word "Budget" in the title)
Our joint interest ones include or have included ReadyMade, Giant
Robot, Communication Arts, Architectural Digest, Juztapoz and then
Snail gets Cabinet (which is nothing but a mystery) and Illustration.
Clearly,
i have too much time on my hands tonight. Time that could have been
spent buying things.
sigh.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
I
was thinking about Halloween on my way home from work yesterday,
when I passed some trick-or-treaters. And, naturally, i starting
thinking about the odd and curious traditions surrounding Halloween.
I missed that we didn't carve any pumpkins this year, but anyway,
then I started thinking about my own trick or treating history and
how cold it always was and how the end of the evening totally depended
on the weather and how long you could hold out.
But then i was still thinking about the practice of going to a stranger's
house and getting candy. And then i was remembering this house that
was well known in our neighborhood, growing up. The deal was that
you rang their doorbell, any time of the year, and said , "Mickey
Mouse" and the grandfatherly gentleman would give you a peice
of candy.
Isn't that strange?!?!
We did it more times than i can count. The house was on the other
end of the neighborhood from most of our houses, and so we would
have to ride our bikes. I remember thinking it was a little strange
but i comforted myself by believing that someone I knew had some
parents that must know them. I am going to have to email a friend
of mine and ask her about that. What WAS the story there?
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