Saturday, January 28, 2006

Every day's a moving day

We have this song we sing in Head Start, and it's a different kind of movement for each day of the week. For example, "Monday is my marching day, I march and march and march away." It's called Every day is a moving day. It's not one of my favorites, because it wears me out. I like the jumping, but by the time I get to galloping, I'm tired. Strolling is my favorite movement.

Today we helped our friends Matt and Heather move. Thank goodness every day is not that kind of moving day, because I'm tired. I had a lot of fun today, but I guess it's nice to come back to an apartment that is already lived in. I remember moving, and it's really not that fun. So I sympathize. I'm going back tomorrow to help paint, which should be really fun.

It was a beautiful day for moving. Unseasonably warm, sunny, you really couldn't ask for more in January.

We also went to see a free jazz concert at Bowdoin, with Howard Johnson on tuba and Gary Wittner on guitar. It was ok, but it's really not my sort of music. I think Jim and Jeff liked it quite a bit more than I did. I enjoyed spending time with Luke and Alex much more. We ate and drank at Pedro O'Hara's, a Mexican/Irish restaurant in Brunswick which was nothing if not interesting inside. Their margaritas taste like lime-ade, which is not a good thing. The bite of enchilada I had was pretty decent. They were blasting Escape (The Pina Colada Song), so that scored them some points. I'm eager to try El Camino on Cushing St. I've heard good things about their pomegranite margarita.

Jim and I inherited the game Pass the Pigs from Heather and Matt. Jim swears it's good fun, and the box swears it's "The Classic Party Game And More!" Can't wait!

So one thing that's really funny is that one of the super-old posts on this blog from perhaps three years ago is called "Doggie Style" because I really wanted a dog (nothing has changed). Now that I have a sitemeter, I can see where people who visit this page are from, and how they got here (most get here through Jim's site), and a couple of people have now found my blog by searching for "doggie style." That's pretty funny. I think I'd be disappointed if I found this while looking for porn.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Sick Day

I took today off to be sick...I love sleeping in during the week! I spent three hours shopping, I drove around in the sun, I visited my parents, and I neglected housework that desperately needs doing. Yay!

Since it was so sunny, I thought it would be a good day to take some knitting photos to make this blog a little more lively, but alas, that idea was neglected along with the housework and the thank-you notes from Christmas. No photos yet! I did get some yarn to make the spikes on the cactus that I'm knitting, so you can imagine that right next to the rainbow scarf I've got going. Perhaps this weekend I'll get to taking some photos.

Until then, I do have a photo of a fantastic purse that I made for my friend Leah for Christmas. It's probably the cutest thing I've ever made! In the background you can see one of our many spider plants and the candle holder that Heather J made us for Christmas. Also a baby pumpkin which is still good!

Monday, January 16, 2006

Cold sun, warm apartment

So I'm sitting inside on a gorgeous sunny day...because I believe it's too cold to go outside. Allegedly, it's 19 degrees but feels like 3. Which is an improvement from around 10 when it was 12 feels like -4. Ugh. I had some walking errands to do, and some vitamin D to synthesize, but I'm just going to have to put that off for another day or so, or until the wind dies down. I could handle not going out at all today!

This morning I unravelled a sweater. Really I should have taken a picture of it before I started, but I didn't. It now consists of five large and five small balls of yarn on my table. Previously it was an off-white cabled extra large men's Ralph Lauren Polo sweater circa 1985, probably in good taste at the time and a fairly classic style, but waaaay to heavy as it is 85% cotton, 15% linen. Maybe extra large men are stronger than I when holding up their own sweaters. So it was given to Matt, who doesn't wear sweaters, and then passed along to Jim, who doesn't wear sweaters that are that busy, and it was destined for Goodwill when I realized that now is as good a time as any to unravel a sweater and see how fun that really is. Pretty fun, and it took me about 2 hours, which is twice as long as I'd anticipated. I'm not sure what it will become, although probably at least one fun wash- or dish-cloth will come out of it. Also, I'm envisioning a cabled purse of some sort. I'll check through my books for cotton patterns I've been putting off - it's usually not my fiber of choice. I prefer wool and All-Bran, in that order.

Speaking of wool, I started a new scarf with my Schoeller+Stahl Limbo Color that I've been saving for a good pattern. I'm making a farrow rib scarf that I can do while reading or watching movies, and it's coming out beautifully!!!! Which means it's just about time to figure out Flickr and start posting photos of my stuff. I'm sure you'd like to see the great stuff I've got on the needles, as well as the large quantities of cotton/linen recovered yarn!

Friday, January 06, 2006

Great couple of days

Hola banditos! I've had the best couple of days!

So yesterday was a pretty good day at work, the kind where nothing bad happens and everyone has a positive energy so it's a good day by default. The ride down and back was a little scary from a slick layer of snow on the roads, and a car did a fishtail/360 deal in front of me, but the drive left me awake and alert. Plus I had the heat blasting so I got to work warm.

When I got home from work, I had two pieces of leftover Flatbreads for dinner, and then took off to go boot shopping. I went up to Freeport to check out LL Bean, and I GOT THE BEST PAIR OF BOOTS EVA! They are black, knee-high, sherpa winter boots. The foot part is smooth leather so it can be treated and polished and worked, and the upper part is soft and fleecy on the inside and soft and supple on the outside. They are very nice and tasty and beautiful. They will be perfect for looking stylish, for playing outside with my Head Start kids, for walking through Deering Oaks after a parking ban, for snowshoeing, for running errands...the list could go on for days. They are just perfect!

So after I got this great deal on boots, I took off for Brunswick. I was only a block away from LL Bean when I noticed a humongous sale going on at Bath & Body Works. So, I pulled over and went in, only to snag some fantastic deals on things that smell really good! I had a hard time deciding between the upscale Cherry Blossom body spray with skin conditioners, and the Cherry Blossom sparkly body spray (I've gotten some fantastic complements on smelling like Cherry Blossom, and I want the effect to linger far past my lotion), but I went with non-sparkle for versatility. I can always add sparkle to my body. I also got some great hand treatments (one smells lemony, the other like honey), and a clearance Christmas lotion in a wonderful caramel vanilla.

Smellin' great and toting my new kicks, I got back in the car and headed toward the Eveningstar Cinema in Brunswick....to see...Pride and Prejudice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was great, far better than I expected. Granted, it was a different take on the story, and the dialogue was disfigured, but really the overall effect was great. The Bennetts weren't as low class as I had pictured from other people's reviews, and Darcy was way hotter than the preview gave him credit for (and a bit older, which doesn't hurt), and Kiera was more beautiful than hot - all of which added to my enjoyment. Most of the characters were more likeable than in the BBC version as well. I suppose I could sit down and give a full review, but I'm not in the mood. I'll probably write those impressions down on paper for my own reference.

A couple of things added to my enjoyment of the movie. I treated myself to a gargantuan box of Good & Plentys. YUM! I saw two professors that I had at Bowdoin, and also a lab instructor, and had some nice little chats. And, I was at a girly movie all by myself! It might be the first movie I've ever seen alone, and I must say I quite enjoyed the experience. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, I should do it more often. Yay!

So today, I treated myself to a Diet Coke. I've been so good about only drinking one cup of tea a day (I'm reducing my caffeine intake, especially tea, as I'd like to no longer be anemic), so I thought it was time to give myself a little perk. It was delicious! Also, my pants feel less tight today, so I'm thinking that perhaps I've lost a half a pound or so. I have less of a roll over the waistband. I also was gifted a peanut butter and fluff sandwich at lunch today! Yay! My second ever - I enjoyed it very much, perhaps because it had less peanut butter and less fluff than the first one. A thin layer of each is key. YUM!

Ok, pardon any typos, I'll try and fix them later. My hands are too cold to type!!! It's time for a cup of herbal tea by the radiator. And maybe a little Moby Dick or knitting. Yay boots and smelling good and diet coke and solo great movie and fluff!! Yay day!

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

I'm Back!

So it's a new year, and I've decided to restart blogging. We'll see if I can keep it up this time! My goal is to have a place on the web where I can show off my knit goods, some of which I am very proud of. I probably won't spout much, as I do most of my complaining privately (to Jim). I've got a lot of goals this year, and honestly blogging wasn't one of them, but I have been more into reading blogs lately, so this seems like an obvious offshoot of that. Yay!