Thank goodness.

Posted on June 17, 2008 by HappyGoth

I love these things:

Dawn sent me this meme, and although I was initially like, “pshaw – this will be a piece of cake,” it’s actually pretty hard. I can’t choose just 6.

1. Link back to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 6 unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag 4 people at the end of your entry.

1. I can do the wave with my eyebrows, and can cross my eyes independently of each other.

2. When I was four, I made up this story that I was raising baby chickens under my bed. Of course, nobody believed me.

3. I really enjoy the sound of people eating potato chips.

4. I didn’t like asparagus until one fall in college, when, inexplicably, I came to love it.

5. I dreamed of growing up and becoming a marine biologist until I discovered that I (1) hated salt water and (2) that most marine biologists end up researching pond scum.

6. If I was good at math, I’d be an astrophysicist or a particle theorist instead of a designer.

I tag the ChickenGoddess, Wendi, Gabbiana, and Yul.

Posted in General stuff | Tagged | Leave a comment

A sense of obligaton

Posted on June 17, 2008 by HappyGoth

Mostly because I’m convinced I’ll disappear into obscurity if I don’t make my presence known.

Anyway. Yesterday consisted of three things: work, end-of-quarter panel, and, well, I guess it was just those two. I went to work, then straight to panel from there, and then was in panel for FOUR HOURS, though I’ve heard tell of longer. Then I went home and surfed the internet for a while before going to bed. I made up my mind to finish the Rivendell socks in the yarn I’m already using, since I like the way it looks and the skein is so huge that I’ll probably have a whole extra pair’s worth of leftover yarn when I’m done. Besides, I really enjoyed the first bit of the sock and I should get going on the rest.

And that’s just about it. I will tackle the Super Secret project again tonight, and see if I can make some progress with that.

Posted in General stuff | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What a weekend.

Posted on June 16, 2008 by HappyGoth

And, yarn. The yarn I dyed myself!

All the colorways, in all their glory. From left to right: Violet Wand, Grape 12, Circulatory System, and *unnammed colorway because Jennie dyed it*. Pretty good for a first go-round, I think.

Violet Wand (so named because it reminds me of those weird quackery tools, and because it looks like violets)

Grape 12 (because it took me 12 packets of Grape KoolAid to get this dark purple). Unfortunately, the photo really doesn’t do it justice.

Circulatory System (I’m going to have to do this one again; when we dyed it originally, it looked very bright and very dark, and the end result is a little more homogenized than I’d like. I will go overboard on the KoolAid next time).

The yarn that Jennie dyed. I’m not sure if I’m going to knit it into socks for her, or make her learn to knit it into socks herself. I’ll let her decide that (she’s expressed interest in wanting to knit).

So. Saturday was Worldwide Knit In Public Day, and since the Chickengoddess and I are free spirits, we went our own way with it. It ended up being Worldwide Knit In Restaurants for us; first, we knit in a Japanese restaurant (our socks were noticed by our lovely Malaysian waitress, who has knit one thing but hasn’t learned to cast off yet – that was an interesting conversation). I didn’t get far in my knitting at that point, since the sock I was working on had come off the needles yet again. The Chickengoddess was kind enough to put it back on the needles for later work.

After that, there was random spot knitting in public places, like the grocery store (not Publix, ironically enough), and there was some Letterboxing in the cemetery, which was warm but fun. We discovered some really gross fungus. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and unfortunately I can’t find a representative photograph, so you’ll just have to trust me. We attempted to meet up with the Knitch Knitters at the Park Tavern, only to discover that they’d left several hours earlier (we called them wimps), so we went back home and knit there for a while, then knit at Little Azio’s, then at Morelli’s Ice Cream (where I ran into Julie S, my lovely coworker), and then back at home while watching Tampopo.

Consequently, when I woke up Sunday I had less sock than I started off with (because I ripped the thing out after deciding it was a lost cause) and a monster craving for ramen. The Chickengoddess called me after church and declared that she, too, had a craving for ramen but by the time I had decided to give in, she’d already been to Ru San’s. I ended up calling Jennie and meeting her there, and eating my ramen, and deciding that I need to pursue a really good bowl of the stuff. Ideally with fish cake (mmmm processed fish product). This was all surrounding the sprinkling of Borax on our carpet in an attempt to get rid of fleas (a friend of mine has been doing this for a while and she swears it works).

Tonight I will be going to bed early. I have panels to judge for school, and if they last too long, I might sleep without dinner (if only I could knit in them, life would be perfect).

Posted in Cool things, knitting | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Today

Posted on June 13, 2008 by HappyGoth

Is a first for me. After a few days of crazy work, we’re all going out for cocktails. I feel very incredibly grown-up, in a much more pleasant way than the first time I did my taxes. (Of course, afterward there might be a trip to the comic book shop, but then again – I hope I’m never too old to go to the comic book shop).

A useful tip for client meetings, that I have discovered today, is that you should not mention Chief Takehomeasack in the same conversation as diversity. Not the greatest idea.

I will have to email an ex-instructor; the most productive thing for me (creatively) from the meeting (which was very enlightening nonetheless) was that I came up with an idea for the failed Biota project of my seventh quarter of design school. It is an excellent idea, and I am currently frustrated at how creativity never responds to my demands. I am sorely tempted to execute it anyhow, and then enter it into a student competition under a pseudonym, and then when it doesn’t win show up to the award show in costume and drink a lot and complain about “the kids these days” or something. But this is really only in my imagination and I’m far too inhibited to actually do something like this.

My favorite thing this Friday is Ampersands. And pilcrows. And fists (I can’t find a link for this; it’s that little pointing finger character thing). And other obscure bits of type that have wonderful names. Favorite thing number two is dying yarn in the microwave with Koolaid, which I will do with gusto once I’ve dealt with our annual flea problem (Don’t get me started, Don’t EVEN get me started).

Posted in Cool things, General stuff | Tagged , | 1 Comment

not yet

Posted on June 12, 2008 by HappyGoth

I’ll get to it later on, when I’m not at work, feeling alternately frustrated and elated; elated, because the presentation I gave went really well, frustrated, because I just realized I haven’t knit anything in two weeks. So you can stop wondering why I’ve been going over the minutia of a relatively insignificant road trip, because I’ve been avoiding bringing up the subject of knitting. I’m feeling very optimistic about Saturday. In the meantime, I’m going to do what I’ve been doing the past two weeks in my free time – freaking out about how little I’ve accomplished as pertains to SCA, and daydreaming constantly about my novel, which I’m afraid I may never finish. I keep writing things and then deciding they aren’t pertinent (even though they may be good exercises), and then not getting anything useful done.

But the yarn is in, and when I get home from giving my students their final grades, I’ll show it off.

Posted in General stuff | Tagged | Leave a comment

I do not know what today holds.

Posted on June 11, 2008 by HappyGoth

Okay, so I have a pretty good idea, but it will probably be full, so in lieu of leaving this hanging, I’m going to continue with the meme the Chicken Goddess tagged me for.

The Rules:

Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you’ve been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. Your answer, of course, is the answer to the following questions. Here we go!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was, hmmm… well, it was high school, but this would have been summer vacation. I think I was working for my mom, filing insurance papers, and alternately reading (I believe this was the summer she yelled at me for being lazy, and the year when I developed a real work ethic).

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
Get the project ready to present tomorrow, clean the bedroom so we can de-flea it, eat some lunch, make a list of things I want from Japan, and return the videos I rented.

3. Snacks I enjoy: gummi bears, rice cracker mix, popcorn, cherries, beef jerky

4. Places I’ve lived: Lawrence (KS), Fort Smith, Van Buren (both AR), Chicago, Atlanta.

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: First, I would PAY OFF MY STUDENT LOANS (it’s funny how a bit of higher education changes your perspective – before college, my answers involved only cars and trips to exotic places). Then, I’d pay to import and fix up one of those excellent Audi diesel cars that gets ungodly mileage, I’d set my parents up for the rest of their lives, I’d treat my friends to an awesome trip somewhere exotic (see? still cars and exotic locales), I’d buy some houses – one in France, one in England, one in Chicago, one in Atlanta, one in Baltimore, possibly another somewhere else (like Canada) – just enough not to have to stay at hotels for extended periods in my favorite places, I’d freelance so I could paint and write when I wanted, I’d invest a lot of it, I’d buy a lifetime membership to DragonCon, I’d stay in lots of excellent hotels. I wonder what’s going to change in the next ten years…

I have to tag six people for this, so I tag Dawn, Gabbiana, Wendi, Jennie, Milligan, and Devon. Go forth and meme!

Posted in General stuff | Tagged | 1 Comment

And so it ends.

Posted on June 10, 2008 by HappyGoth

In which our intrepid heroine rides a duck and spends some time at roadside attractions.

The day after the wedding, we slept in, and then went to meet the newly-Mrs. Shear at her hotel. Then, en masse, we all rode into downtown to take a Duck Tour, which is something I’ve always wanted to do but never got up the courage to accomplish. It was lovely. I got to chat with Lessa’s au pair (from when she was a little girl), who is a really awesome person, and then we all piled into a WWII-era amphibious vehicle to ride around the city. They gave us quackers so we could quack at pedestrians:

And they really meant for us to do it. I wasn’t as embarrassed as I thought I’d be. Anyway. On our way, we saw many interesting things, including real ducks:

A gondola (bobbing about miserably on the bay):

And this curious little kid on a bus:

Plus some interesting boat names. My favorite:

Then we said our goodbyes and went on to Geppi’s comic and culture museum, which Jennie liked (she’s a comic book artist) and we liked the second time through. That evening, we went out to have ice cream with the grandmother-in-law, ate some pizza for dinner (a Sunday evening ritual), and went to bed to rest up for our drive home the next day.

The drive home was fairly uneventful. I slept most of the way. However, we did stop off at South Of the Border for some wacky photos and browsing through more doodads than any one person could ever possibly need. Here is that adventure, in photo essay form (it needs no explanation):

And that was that. I spent all of Tuesday at home, in bed, which was awesome, and then it was back to work Wednesday. It was an excellent road trip. It feels like it took waaay longer, though, and my brain wouldn’t cooperate until the following Wednesday, but it was so worth it.

Posted in Cool things | Tagged | 4 Comments

KSA

Posted on June 9, 2008 by HappyGoth

Or, alternatively, What I Do When I Leave Both My Camera Cable and Hard Drive at Home (which I totally did, and which sucks, since the Kool-Aid yarn has come to me in the mail – thanks, Wendi – and I can’t show it to you, although I have some excellent photos of it).

So in lieu of that, here’s your Knitterly Service Announcement:

It’s Worldwide Knit In Public Day this Saturday! You have to go out and represent, people. Last year, a bunch of folks went to IKEA and knit, and I was in L.A. knitting in between press checks (so I sort of participated). This time around, I think that the Chickengoddess and I have many plans to knit in the most absurd places we can think of, for example, in front of the Armani store and possibly Tiffany’s in Phipps Plaza. Then? Who knows? I’m sure we’ll come up with something fantastic. I think there’s a large Knitch contingent that is knitting in Piedmont Park, but since this past Saturday I spent all day outdoors in the god-awful heat, I don’t think I want to repeat that experience in the park (I have never been so grateful for air conditioning in my whole life). As it is, I’ll probably be only knitting socks, because anything else feels oppressively hot. Including (perhaps especially) the Super-Secret project.

I’ll post photos afterward. It’s sure to be an amusing experience, even vicariously.

Posted in Cool things, knitting | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

As promised

Posted on June 7, 2008 by HappyGoth

A real post! With photos! Of things!

Okay, so where was I? Right. Day 3/4.

After our fabulous visit to Virginia, a place we were loathe to leave, we went to Maryland (a place we were excited to see). I’ve been many times, but Jennie‘s never gotten a good look at Baltimore, so I thought I’d show her around.

After we arrived at the in-laws’ place, we all went out to Hamden to look at comics and eat at Cafe Hon (which is awesome, and also I might have to go to HonFest some time soon). Then we had a leisurely evening and left, pizza in hand, to pick up the husband from the airport. I brought him pie. He was pleased (Cafe Hon’s pie is really quite excellent).

The next day, we’d planned to go sightseeing, so we went to lunch with the entire family, including brother-in law of husband (married to his sister) at a local diner, one of the family favorites. Following that, we drove into the city to go to the American Visionary Art Museum, which is always excellent. This time around, the exhibits were on the theme of religious experience, and they have hundreds of Post Secret postcards displayed around the building. They’ve also installed this sculpture:

And we introduced Jennie to the little “treehouse” out in the courtyard:

(Hee)

The wedding was that evening, so I bought a Guatemalan good luck statue, some bridal tissues, and some grow-your-own pink flamingos as a gift at the Uncle Fun in the museum (I seriously cannot get enough of this store – the original one is in Chicago and it’s awesome).

The wedding was lovely, and in a castle:

No, seriously. It’s called the Cloisters and it’s partially assembled from pieces of period buildings, shipped over from Europe. And the courtyard is possibly the best part:

And the rest of the festivities were lovely, but not as lovely as the lucky couple:

And then we went home and went to bed. There’s more for the next day, but I’ll get to that later.

(The rest of the photos are on my flickr page)

Posted in Cool things, General stuff | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tonight

Posted on June 6, 2008 by HappyGoth

Is when I will blog. Promise. But there will be photos! Of things! Yay!

In the meantime, one of my fellow classmates from the Creative Circus has a blog about the amazing ampersand. Go check it out.

Posted in Cool things, other links | Tagged | Leave a comment