"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
- Barbara Bush, 3/18/03

librarians & archivists
who knit
←    random    →

menu »
war »
rings »

/journal

 

saturday!

hi there ~ here’s some of what i’ve been busy with this past week though there’s also been a horrible eye infection that kept me huddled on my bed for two days waiting for the pain to end with tears constantly dropping down my cheek (i kid you not. it was baaaad.), many hours on the phone with, and standing outside my apartment waiting for, dhl to deliver a package, plus other fun stuff that depressed me to no end (will the patterns ever stop! i just want new problems) and then other stuff that made me smile and laugh as soon as i opened my eyes this morning. it’s been one of those weeks, chock full.

here, one led to another within ten hours.

but at least i kept busy.

and it’s cold enough in the morning to wear this! proper pics and info soon, soon, though please note the double zipper i’m so proud of.

last but not least, some links to while away your weekend.

~ idea, the international dialects of english archive
~ spiders on drugs and the resulting webs. i’m against animal testing in labs, but it is pretty interesting. here’s a similar experiment using a human, some acid, and an ‘activity box’.
~ an amusing list of insults [via kottke]
~ pretty darn cute bitty booties make me want to sew. the pattern is free, too.
~ just discovered book mooch via library thing. dangerous stuff there.

listening to black sabbath at all volume, getting ready to go to the library, happy andrea! have a fabulous october weekend ~

comment [13]

posted 7 October 06 & filed under busy bee

i want this kind of weekend over and over again

it was filled – just filled to the brim. there were a few key things missing, but still, i feel terribly lucky to have such good friends and to continue to meet and get to know better super interesting people. ah, i love l.a.. pretty soon after i first moved out here – six years ago this summer – i was riding the buses all over the place and really got to know the city. now, it’s like deja vu all over again, as yogi berra says. my farewell tour. (the drama!)

saturday i hung out with francesca, my spinning guild buddy. she’s awesome. we went over to little tokyo, shopped around kinokuniya and both picked up some craftsy books, then hit the small but delicious (and very nicely priced) famer’s market that’s open in the plaza-area on saturdays. after that, we went back to her place and conducted a photo and video shoot for her unique tubular cast-on that uses no waste yarn – it’s fabulous! take a look at her tutorial, with images, pics, and video, she makes it easy to understand what’s going on.

on sunday, i headed over to knit cafe and hung out with julia, who i’d only met once before, but it was just pretty obvious that we had just hit it off, yay. anyhow, again, so cool to see her and chat. i met a bunch of other nice ladies (hi!) as well. i finally picked up the summer IK and as soon as i saw the icarus shawl, i had to find me some laceweight. julia convinced me to get the prettiest grey that has overtones (undertones? whatever) of green. i think it’ll turn out great, hurrah.

but. in the meantime, check out my deciduous top – so much fun to knit, though some of my stitches are wonky right now, hm. plus, i finally get the whole calmer obsession, that yarn truly is a joy to knit with. anyhow, can’t wait to try it on. i’ve been missing my knitting mojo, but it’s back in full force it seems.

ok, so then sunday afternoon/night, a birthday party at my friend’s home in highland park – she rented a moon bounce and there was also a water balloon fight, plus delicious korean food galore. excellent. a question: what do you call a moon bounce? is it just an east coast thing to call it that, or just an andrea thing? everyone there was laughing at me, because they called it a “jumper” or “bouncer”, then when i probed a bit, they admitted it could be also called a “bouncy castle”, “bounce house”, and a few other bizarre terms. is it like the whole regional soda versus pop thing? hmm. so important, you do realize. ha!

all in all, a satisfying weekend- with lots of boring reality (i.e. putting my whole kitchen back together) and sadness (i.e. blasting music, sighing and pacing around my room) thrown in to make it more real. i like it that way, i don’t trust those perfect weekends.

hope yours was equally satisfying ~ ~

p.s. oh yeah, finally i got up my madli’s shawl pics and project info – i finished it in may (!) and have been using it practically non-stop at work and on airplanes. i’m looking pretty unhappy in that foto to the right, but it was taken in may, when i was in fact fairly unhappy. so glad it’s july and not may anymore.

comment [5]

posted 17 July 06 & filed under busy bee, madlis shawl

an excellent weekend

first things first: i passed. officially, i’ll graduate on june 19th – though i don’t think i’ll attend the ceremony, i’m just not big on those – but really i’m allll done. i have class still, true, but the real pressure is off. regarding the actual portfolio presentation, i’ll go into detail at a later date as there’s still one aspect that has me seeing red. grr. but for now, i’m trying to just shake that bit off and enjoy the fact that i’m done. done!

and i had an excellent weekend. friday i was all sniffly and lost in memories, but saturday was much more relaxed – plus on saturday, the yarn in my preferred color came from elann in a record two days and i started on another project as well. so, here they are for now: crinkle from the latest rowan using knitpicks’ shine and urban aran in elann’s peruvian highland chunky.

sunday was the really exciting day – i went to my horse place to watch a horse show. man, there’s some fearless eight year olds out there! i think i’m small compared to horses! no comparison to those little kids, woah.

from there, i went straight to the topanga banjo & fiddle festival. they’ve been having it for almost fifty years and it takes place at the paramount ranch, where they filmed all kinds of westerns, including dr. quinn, medicine woman, and is part of the mailbu state park, i believe. anyhow, even though there was the threat of rain all day, the weather was perfect and in fact, the clouds kept the weather warm-ish but not baking and the crowd big but not smothering. the best part was wandering away from the center stage, walking among the vendors set up in dr. quinn’s town ;) and hearing the various impromptu jams going on in every nook and cranny.

literally, you could stand in some spots and hear five different groups. and the mixes! the bass-playing hipster girl with the jackie o. glasses and a 70 year old with a sassy red bandana strumming on a banjo, the two of them jamming away while a middle-aged woman sang her heart out as she swayed back and forth. an early 30s hiker (well, he had a fancy backpack, shoes, and one of those collapsible hats) with a teeny mandolin playing with a group of handlebar-moustached guitar players, all singing very softly but sweetly some old bluegrass. just lovely – so inspiring! i really admire musicians – especially those that are into spontaneous jams and singing and all that. i used to play piano – not terribly well, though i enjoyed it – but i was always too shy to play with others, much less improvise and all that. i kept grinning as a i walked around listening to all of them – who doesn’t love being surrounded by the sweet sounds of a guitar, a banjo, shoot, there was even a muscial saw! it didn’t hurt that a great spinning guild member who is a crackshot felter had a booth there, and there was a spinning demonstration as well, with some other guild members spinning and chatting away. last but definitely not least, i hung out with a couple of women from my library program – they totally rock, and we just had a great time sitting on a blanket and talking for a few hours.

then after that (yup, i was busy), i went to path to freedom to watch a documentary on how cuba survived an equivalent of peak oil when the economic support from the soviet union disappeared and the u.s. went even crazier on their trade embargo. a real interesting film, but better than that was the crowd – a cool mom and i had a nice brief conversation that just set a great mood for the rest of the night, then a woman (hi there ;) ) who took the same drop spinning class i did almost three years ago recognized me from this website (how cool is that!) and so we chatted a bit, and then i had this great long conversation with a man about bikeriding and permaculture and all kinds of other fun stuff.

all of this definitely revitalized me – bring on the weekdays, i’m ready for them! hope your weekend was equally lovely – and thanks for reading this far if you did. so chatty, and so few pics! there’s still my shawl also, which i wore all day today – i’m determined to take an outdoor shot with it, to do it justice, but hopefully i’ll get to that on wednesday.

comment [8]

posted 22 May 06 & filed under urban aran

keeping busy

~ this friday i’m off to a fiber retreat – mostly spinning, but also felting and knitting and who knows what else. should be awesome. i have several pounds of fiber to play with and some great new spinning books, so i’m ready for the weekend. yay.

~ sometime next week, i’ll receive the yarn to start the urban aran (which for the longest time i kept calling the urban armor). cannot. wait. especially after seeing brooklyntweed‘s version. following the trend, i’m making it a cardigan and using elann’s peruvian highland chunky, for which i just happened to have a color card.

~ i’m about halfway through the madli shawl, but i plan on slowing down a bit since my hands hurt after an hour or two. mixing it up with the urban aran should definitely help, though.

~ i can spin woolen! all my yarn up to now has been worsted, which i like, but woolen is so light and fluffy and, more than anything, i just enjoy knowing i can do it. at least i think i did it.. ;) the lovely fiber was a gift from my friend rose, who i hung out with a lot last weekend. thanks rose!

~ got my hair dyed today. it’s darrrrrk. i like it. but it’s bound to lighten up a bit in the next few washes, so i’ll wait to post pics. quite a shock from the whole uber-blonde look i’ve had the last year or so.

~ my great fiber friend francesca just started a blog, fluffbuff – welcome! she’s very cool and has adorable cats, check it out.

~ along with a few other l.a. folks, i signed up for camp pluckyfluff this august. should be a ton of fun, plus i’ll come back making awesome yarn, promise.

~ my sister is pregnant again. yup, that’s right, she has an 18-month old, two 9-months, and is now a little over two months pregnant. can you say “crazy”?! of course, we’re all tickled pink. or blue. not sure yet.

~ i just accepted a mini-job proposal for the summer that has helped me go on a teeny shopping spree (i.e. the yarn, fiber, dyejob, and camp mentioned/pictured above).

once again, thank goodness for fiber and online friends, without you all i’d be rocking myself to sleep at night. off to read a good book and chill out, hope your wednesday rocks ~

comment [9]

posted 25 April 06 & filed under urban aran

happiness in mid-december

hi there ~ woke up this morning super chirpy and happy – phew, it’s been a while! of course, it can’t hurt that i got ten hours of sleep last night, yay. i just crashed after eating a quick dinner (that even my mom would’ve approved of, for once) and woke up gloriously stretching in that very satisfied-sleep kind of way. there’s a lot of work to do today, but bring it on, i’m ready ;)

ok, so here’s evidence of my crazy shopping spree this weekend - instead of studying and writing papers, i shopped. almost all on sale, and all totally unusal and mostly handmade, but still, all together, a heck of a lot of stuff. and i broke the golden rule of christmas, at least in my family, “don’t buy anything for yourself right before chirstmas – we might be getting it for you!” ah well, sorry family. couldn’t resist.

so here we go. first off, the weavers’ cottage had their tremendous annual “buy it so we don’t have to inventory it” sale with 40% just about everything, including almost all fiber and yarn. amazing! i limited my self to only fiber and a book, see?

at less than a dollar an ounce, that’s five ounces each of merino top in coral, gold, plum, and white. then 6 ounces of white soy silk that didn’t photograph very well but is one of the softest things i’ve ever touched in my life. deb menz’ book on color – she has another excellent one, but for now, this one is knocking my socks off. and last but not least, the luxury fiber grab bag seen in the basket – from left to right, there’s baby alpaca in brown and white, cashmere top in white, baby camel in brown, yak cloud in black, and some white silk hankies. wow! now if only i had a spinning wheel.. ahem.

next, the bazaar bizarre haul: first off, i’ve always been into spindly delicate looking necklaces, but for some reason on sunday, all of a sudden chunky pendants were all that was catching my eye. see, three of them! one very gothic-y risque (by photomonium), another just glittery and weird (by soopajdelux), and the last, my favorite, a snow scene (by sproutstudio) to keep my company in this l.a. land. aren’t they all beautiful! i love them – each so different, both for me and from each other.

then, some hair decoration. i’m all about bobby pins, love love them. so these three special ones make me happy.
i love the way the blissen one will, i know it will!, shape itself to my head in a really pretty way. and the crocheted cherries, what’s not to like!

next up, buttons! went a little crazy, couldn’t help it. so cute, so cheap (all the ones on the right came from boygirlparty – i love the birds especially.) then, some art. if i ever write a children’s story – and though i emphatically denied it for years and years (“i’m a reader, not a writer!”), it has crossed my brain a few times this year – i would choose jaime zollars as my illustrator. isn’t that picture lovely? the detail and color choices are lush and mysterious and sweet.

then, clothing time – just a very nice shirt with weird green monkey plants (from crowded teeth), i’m wearing it right now. and that cute wristband (from chebang) that looks like it grew in the jungle. and, the whole reason i went to the bazaar in the first place, my new wallet! i just love jill bliss’ stuff – and this wallet is just another great thing of hers. made of bedsheets, so it’ll just get softer with time, i love it.

phew! that’s it. a whole lot of shopping, i know. i probably won’t do something like that again till next year, but boy it was fun. ;) lastly, my trouble cat here – isn’t she sweet? she had an exciting but scary trip out to the vet yesterday and everyone was cooing over her, she’s such a sweetie. this pic is for you, lalitha ;)

happy mid-december ~ remember, it’s the process that counts! grrroan, i know, but still. it’s true. see you later ~ ~

comment [7]

posted 13 December 05 & filed under busy bee, lots of links

december 9th, ack!

hi there ~ it’s been a very busy week and i still have two papers due monday and tuesday so this weekend will be busybusy too, but i still feel like a big part of the craziness is over.

of course, my knitting is wayyyy behind schedule – both christmas knitting and swap knitting. i’m totally embarassed to say i still owe my stitch ya neck out pal her scarf – not cool! i’m sorry! the recipient-to-be is cassie of autumn sweater, whose tubey in the latest knitty is generating a ton of well-earned compliments. isn’t it so cute looking! so, progress report: since the blocking incident, i had to frog almost the whole shrug so i bought some of those mini clover circulars a few days back and i’m bringing the wip with me everywhere so i can hopefully get her scarf out to her before christmas. ay!

in the biggest news of the moment, yesterday i gave my two weeks notice at work – geez, it felt so good! i’ve been feeling for a real long while that it was time for me to move on – i’ve been there almost four years! and when my boss announced to everyone that i was leaving, there was a very satisyingly audible collective gasp, yay. .. so, my last day of work is december 19th and there’s so much to do in the meantime. i didn’t realize until yesterday when i start organizing, how much stuff i’ve accumulated in my desk. i’m going to feel so FREE! after the 19th, in a somewhat scary free-fall kind of way, but mostly in an exhilirating i-can-do-anything kind of way. whee!

of course, me being me, i accepted a job already that though only ten hours a week will pay for my school tuition (yay!) plus a little extra and is a challenge i’m already enjoying – it’s as the webmaster for the california center for the book, a state literary center. i’ve already tweaked the design a bit and did some major structure overhaul, very fun. i’m thinking about setting up a little professional site with my resume, examples of web work, etc – but domain names are tricky to figure out. for a professional site, should i go with my full name? i’d rather not since i’m not crazy about my last name (sorry poppy!).. hm.

anyhow, here’s two pics of my tree – i got it the day after the funddrive when i was dead exhausted and just needed to chill out for a few hours. isn’t it purty? i still need to add some stuff, and yes, i know, it needs a little something around the bottom, cause that stand isn’t so pretty ;) but at night, oh how happy it makes me! i lovelove! the smell of christmas trees. and christmas lights?! oh, don’t get me started! gotta say that lighting is key in a home.

hey, all angelenos, don’t forget this weekend is the bazaar bizarre!

and that’s it for me – i’m going to do a wip-show-of-shame in a few days so that i will feel the whole public pressure thing to get. stuff. done. also, i got a great knitting gift from a friend, plus some packages are waiting for me at the post office. for now, i’m happy ~ hope you are too ~

comment [10]

posted 9 December 05 & filed under busy bee, workwork

pleased as punch

ah, what a great day already! no sarcasm, no hidden meaning, nothing, just “ohhh, what a beautiful morrrrrr-ning, ohhh what a beautiful daaaaaayyyy!” kind of thing..

first off, my secret pal triumphed yet again with this perfect gift: she knitted me up this beautiful mug-warmer! (oh what are these things called?! i’m googled-out, folks.) she wrote (in a really cute card, btw) that she wasn’t sure if i’m a coffee-tea-redbull kind of gal, so let me clarify: tea all the way! and by tea i mean gi-normous cups of mint tea. every tuesday, when i have my “all classes, all day” day, i drink so much tea i’m hopping up from my seat every twenty minutes if ya know what i mean. this lovely knitted object d’arte will come in handily, and i’ll feel so shnazzy and special, to boot.

secondly, i’m almost done on a certain creation of mine—but i haven’t decided yet to make it the full turtleneck-length or have a lower more-open neckline.. either way, it’s topsecret. ;)

lastly, oh my apartment is overrun with ants, my hair is going curly-crazy (which i’m loving but also am having some control issues with—i gotta let that hair know i’m in charge here), and i’m behind on some important work-, school-, and other-stuff i gotta do, but hey! it stopped raining! and hey, i’ve got a plan, man!

happy happy day to all of you! and once again, you rock secret pal. (and don’t think i didn’t notice it was sent within the u.s.—though you cleverly hid somehow the state it was sent from.. sneaky and crafty is a dangerous combination.)

comment [2]

posted 23 February 05 & filed under busy bee, knitting

illusions

happy friday ~ i hope everyone is as excited about this weekend as i am—- and what do i have planned that is so exciting? nothing. yup, nothing nada zilch. there’s lot of things i should do, but there’s a mile-wide chasm between should and must. phew.

like so many out there, i’m trying to not slow down but literally cut off my horrible spending habit in regards to knitting. i was doing good for a while and then i decided that buying patterns, magazines, books, needles and other non-use-up-able things were really investments and thus could not in the least bit be considered ‘shopping’. well, i’ve nipped that bad idea in the, well, not the bud, but at least mid-bloom. (in defense: the defuzzer to the right i bought weeks ago but only days ago bought the required batteries.)

my topsecret sweater is inching along – i don’t like the yarn (bernat’s illusions) one bit, and my fingers are unhappy. ah well, my illuisions have been shattered. (such a dork, i know.)

i love my new defuzzer – cheap and so fun to use. this is what it took off my felted tab bag i made in august that already had a ton of fuzzies on them.

also, last week i mentioned laundry and sweeping/mopping my place. well, the great thing about a world-class procrastinator is that i’ve built up so much stuff i have to do that when my procrastination-bug kicks in, i procrastinate from doing the things i should be doing (i.e. laundry) by doing other things i should’ve done months and months ago (i.e. finally organizing my bills and school papers). so, yup, this weekend i still have a ton of laundry to do (in the last pic you can see trouble daring me to move her from my laundry pile) and floors to clean. or there’s that dirty tub that could use some scrubbing…

lastly, i’ve given up on the whole idea of keeping my bloglines subscriptions to equal my age – for those of you that had already predicted that, kindly keep your gloating to yourselves.

p.s. check out my new re-design for ucla’s saa chapter – just went live this morning.

comment [2]

posted 4 February 05 & filed under busy bee, topsecret

short and sweet

hi secret pal! here’s my questionnaire. ;)

and to everyone else, i need some help! i’m starting knitty’s topsecret (i am determined to make a sweater that is comfy and big on me!) but i’m immediately thrown off by the gauge. it says ‘12 sts = 4” over st st using size 10.5 needles’. ok, that’s 12 stitches horizontally, which hallelujah, i do get on 10 1/2s, but what about row-wise/vertically?

also, if you made this, what size did you make – do you wish you’d gone up or down a size?

i must report that yesterday i walked into a gorgeous local yarn store (with usually a snobby staff, but yesterday someone actually came up and asked me if i needed help and seemed really sweet; oh and tracy ullman was in there buying all this beautiful $$ yarn!) and walked out without buying a thing. i was pretty cranky for the next hour or so but it still counts as quite an accomplishment. (sad, really.)

it’s a beautiful sunny day and my apartment is a mess. so, off to do laundry and some mopping (yuck).

comment [1]

posted 30 January 05 & filed under busy bee, topsecret

organization

[i love my new bookshelves!]this is what happens to me when my site is down for two days: i get super organized. not only did i get a brand new fridge (well, used, but it’s new to me) that doesn’t need de-frosting every week, but i also tossed the following things that hadn’t been touched in over a year:

[look at all that space!]and i got new shelving!

i’ve been hankering for some more shelving recently but when i go to thrift stores, i never see the type i want. so, in a fit of inspiration, i went to a hardware store yesterday, got some lumber and bricks, and ta-daa my new shelves! very exciting. the top picture shows my newly-organized computer space – that’s my kitchen table and the fridge is on the right. now it’s such a cozy nook, especially with the christmas lighting. i love it.

i figured out that the more of the floor i can see, the bigger the room feels. so, in this second picture, it’s a pretty low bookshelf but the cleared floor underneath it makes that space just open up so much. these shelves make up my craft space, so organized! i love the baskets, just got them, they’re from lantern moon, two out of a set of four.

yay.

comment

posted 25 October 04 & filed under busy bee, knitting

phone home

hello and happy friday ~

in an attempt to save some money, i’ve been thinking about dropping my landline (so weird to call it that; i never even knew that term existed till cell phones came along) and getting a cell phone. i use the phone maybe six hours a month on a regular basis, tops. and all those phone calls are to maybe five or six different people. but i still pay over $25 a month for my landline ~ on top of that, my number used to belong to a scamming water heater business and a couple of very in debt people so i get lots of hang ups, creditors, and angry water heater customers calling at all hours of the day. very annoying. a prepaid cell phone, on the other hand, would cost like $60 for the phone itself and then roughly $20 every three months. much better.

one definite problem is that you usually can’t get dsl (much less dial-up) without a phone line (that idea will be ridiculous in a couple of years, i predict) ~ but speakeasy.net, an isp i’ve heard good things about, can somehow get me dsl without a phone line for about the same price i’m paying to earthlink now. excellent.

but then today, i find this: skype.com. get ready, this is pretty amazing stuff: it allows you to call people over your computer. for free. can’t believe i’m quoting michael powell, chairman of the fcc, but here it is: “I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype. When the inventors of KaZaA are distributing for free a little program that you can use to talk to anybody else, and the quality is fantastic, and it’s free – it’s over. The world will change now inevitably.” (fortune magazine, 2/16/04) check out this nytimes article about it (posted on slashdot).

first of all, the application itself is free. then, it’s a great example of p2p that is legal. using skype, i can only call those who have downloaded skype on their computers too, but since i only call a handfull of people, i think i can convince them to do that. besides, there’s also skypeout which allows me to call people on their regular landlines and cellphones from my computer. skypeout costs something, but it looks to be about 2 cents a minute. wait: 2 cents a minute!? and, according to their rates page, i can not only call anywone in the US for 2 cents a minute, but also anyone in Italy, Mexico, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and more at that same 2 cents a minute rate. hmm. sounds too good to be true, but i will test it out this very evening and report back, promise.

the only problem now is calling 911. i don’t think skype would work for that and though i’ve never called 911 (except that time when i was 10 and i called 911 from the bathroom at a chichi’s restaurant because i was bored ~ as soon as the operator picked up, i hung up, adrenalin racing. but then the 911 dispatcher person called back and once she realized there was no emergency, she gave me a long lecture about the evils that can be caused by crank calling 911. funny now, but i was pretty freaked out then.) ..anyhow, though i’ve never called 911, if i don’t have it if/when i do need it, i’ll be pretty pissed off (or dead. yikes). so, more thinking, more research.

(oh, note to savvy techie self: more p2p info here. and drm articles here and here.don’t forget web 2.0 bloging. also think about “In the future, peer-to-peer may be the norm, and we may look back at today’s client-server systems as some sort of weird, unreliable, transitory technology.”)

comment

posted 8 October 04 & filed under busy bee, techno-babble

the last weekend

i tend to write here on fridays ~ this will be the third friday in a row that i post something, and i’m sure the same is largely true for most of the other months. i do feel a definite lightness in my step, ready to relax and have the best of all things: unscheduled time!

some things that make me happy right now:

~ my mom gave me a gift card two christmas’ ago for a food chain that only existed on the east coast.. until a few weeks ago when i discovered a brand spankin’ new location just minutes away from work. yay for free food!

~ i’m developing a schedule that will last me through the year that is slowly but surely looking to be a pretty good balance of what i want to do and what i need to do (knock on wood). if that sounds too vague, sorry. but trust me, it makes me happy.

~ i’m in the middle of a really fun book, “Sorcery & Cecilia”. yes, it’s a YA book; YA fantasy books are hands down my absolute favorite reading. this one is a great example of it: smart writing, believable, creative, funny!, suspenseful, and with some really personable characters.

~ i have lots of yarn projects to choose from, with everything ready & waiting: yarn, needles, and patterns. which would you choose: a sweater, a slip, a short poncho (the infamous paris loop), some slippers, or a bikini?

~ i’m going to the central library this weekend, probably early sunday afternoon, which is one of my favorite places in l.a.

~ also, i’m considering getting some audio books from the library for my morning commute and even to listen to sometimes while at work (cutting & pasting is deadening to the brain i tell you.)

~ i got a copy of a dvd recently called “yoga for inflexible people”. the name alone is priceless, but i’m pretty excited about getting some muscle back into this puddle of skin i call my body. :)

~ also, i bought a jumprope a couple weeks ago, the kind you used to use in school with the little plastic tubes that rattle around and make that nice jumprope sound when they hit the ground. (ooh, i’m a poet i didn’t know it my feet showed it, they’re longfellows.*) anyways, i just need to remember to warm up (before jumproping, pathetic, huh?) because last time i hurt my calves a lot. sheesh.

~ it’s friday!

(*my family always says this whenever we accidentally rhyme. it’s fun, give it a try. also, to be real goofy, stick out your feet and point to them while saying it. ah, i’m such a dork.)

(oh, and this post is called ‘the last weekend’ because school starts next saturday for me. yes, school on saturdays! but only every other saturday, phew.)

comment

posted 24 September 04 & filed under busy bee

spring cleaning for the fall

i’ve been feeling for a while that i have just way too much stuff, some of it definitely junky or never never used, and my apartment is just way too small. well, i can’t fix the small apartment thing, though my hand my be forced if they raise the rent anytime soon, which i’m afraid they will.. anyhow, but i can take care of the stuff part. i’ve been telling myself for a while that once the crazy month of traveling, that is, august, ended, then i would do some serious purging. about a month ago i got rid of seven or so groccery bags-worth of clothing (some sent home for safekeeping, sentimental-worthy clothes you know, and some put right out on the curb, disappearing within five minutes).

but now i have some serious more work to do: i need to get rid of ninety-five percent of my pants and jeans. i’ve written before that i’ve grown out of smallish hips and now have “birthing hips” as my sisters call them. i was sad about it, but i’ve gotten over that. i bought two new pairs that fit me great, new hips and all, so i am ready to begin the purge. but, it’s always painful. especially when i remember how much i paid for all these pants. literally i must have over a twenty-some paris of pants and jeans. i’ll do the count and post it (scintillating stuff, huh?)..

this post seems awfully superficial and i’m slightly embarassed about it, but i know that everyone has problems with organization (hence the tlc channel with it’s sweep up shows, etc) and over-consumption. i figure if i have half a dozen pants and jeans, a few skirts, a few dresses and lots of tops and sweaters, i’m good to go. plus, they all have to fit me well and don’t look like i’m trying to be a teenager nor a frumpy middle-aged woman.

beyond clothing, i have some serioius paper-work organizing to do and i need to basically empty out my whole filing cabinet and just start from scratch. as it stands now, the only time i go near the filing cabinet is to squeeze it open an inch and stuff a handfull of old receipts in. ay, and it’s gotta be done before school starts in a month.

comment

posted 31 August 04 & filed under busy bee

impatience

[done, all done!] how much does it suck that yarn stores i finished my beautiful bag on saturday and since then, my hands have felt a bit useless. last night, after an unfruitful day of yarn shopping (went to three, count ‘em, three! yarn stores, two were closed/just closing and the third was just too expensive (though i did get some really pretty alpaca yarn. oh bolivia! but i’m saving it for something more useful than a scarf..)), i cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom, getting rid of old broken appliances, mopping the floor twice, evicting some cockroaches from under the sink, and in general freaking out my poor kitties.

then, with energy to spare (!) i emptied out my blue chest of drawers into what is affectionally called ‘the monstrosity’ (this great big chest of drawers, seen here [sideview of my beautiful bag] on the bottom left-hand side) and then dragged the old blue chest of drawers out to the alley for trash pick-up. with this change came the sudden inspiration to finally buy a bed. and not just any bed but a queen-size bed! it fits in my ‘bedroom’ with four inches to spare width-wise. now, as to when i’ll get it, maybe between saa and italy? i’ve been eyeing a nice firm one at ikea for the longest time now. it would be the first time since 2000, my senior year at bryn mawr, that i will have my own real bed ~ not a futon, a couch, some comforters on the floor, other people’s beds, but my own! sadness should overwhelm me with this past sentence, but really i’ve enjoyed trying out all the other stuff ~ and the floor, with a nice comforter or two underneath, is surprisingly comfy, cool, and really good for the back. !

so, back to my yarn griping: today during lunch i went to two closed yarn stores – argh. that’ll teach me, i guess, to call ahead and make sure they’re open. and, coming back from lunch, i got an email from hallycon yarns saying my order (to make “hush-hush”) is backordered for 2 to 4 weeks. double double sigh/argh.

lest you think i’ve gone knitting-mad (which happens often, i think, to newly-made knitters), believe you me i still want to work in a library, with books!, and i still love to cook and sing to music and make other people laugh a lot, and play with my cats. and i still shower and keep clean, in general (i am from the south after all..) ~ i’m not just a yarn fool slobbering over patterns all the time. i swear. just sometimes.

boston is in three days! wow. and then italy just days later ~ i cannot wait for italy, i love love my family and my sisters are a riot to hang out with. plus i get to be big sisters and impart some hard-worn wisdom to them blah blah blah. yay.

~ andrea

speak [2]

posted 2 August 04 & filed under busy bee, knitting

downpour

hello!

it’s raining! not just a drizzle but a real downpour. i love it.. i’ve been looking forward to this weekend for so long, not because of anything special just cause it’s the weekend. argh, i’m so tired of school and work and traffic. i support the mta strike and the supermarket strikes but the mta one is really making the traffic even more of a headache. this weekend there are two very cool things going on: at ucla, the maquiladora murders conference, on the women of juarez; and on sunday, the southern california handweavers’ guild is having their annual weaving & spinning festival! very cool. oh! also very cool, i’m the new technology officer for the society of american archivists’ student chapter at ucla—basically that means i’m the new webmaster. yay! tonight has been a great halloween night with two sweet cats, one sweet boy, and a comfy clean warm apartment with great music and good food. this coming month is going to be really crazy but so far i’m on top of things except for sleep.

speak

posted 31 October 03 & filed under busy bee

catalina st.

hello!

finally moved in a week ago (already!) & i love it. i love living by myself and my two sweet cats and having a nice clean comfy home. now i have to catch up with work at the archives and keep on crossing my fingers about ucla (yeah, they still haven’t gotten back to me :Z ) ..hopefully i’ll get a dsl line at the apartment real soon and then, man, i’ll be flying. nice maria at work gave me a php book so i’m a-studying away and hopefully that will soon be popping up here and there. my brother marcus put up a cool new site. maybe sometime soon i’ll see my seestors here in california, whatcha think chicas? un beso a todos,

bye, andrea

speak

posted 7 May 03 & filed under busy bee

transition

hello.

had a beautiful weekend so far & it’s only saturday night—i definitely feel i’m in a transition stage & so far it’s extremely peaceful & exciting. the library is soon to close so i don’t want to forget to check out this page of the rant collective page.. also, anarchism in action: methods, tactics, skills, and ideas looks promising.. importantly, i bought a set of tarot cards this weekend & really feel so positive about that decision i can’t quite believe my luck {thanks maria}—spent several hours this morning with my best friend doing readings and am positively in love with this magic. (they’re the the mini motherpeace ones)
busy busy as always—tomorrow work & more work—also, ucla talk i want to go to… ay

bye, andrea

speak

posted 11 February 03 & filed under busy bee, more me

last updated: May 6th, 2008. feeds: rss or atom.
i like valid xhtml, css, rss, and i'm crazy about textpattern