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Thursday, January 25, 2007
I am Not Currently Knitting a Sweater...
Monday, January 22, 2007
Now Begone - Before Someone Drops a House(cat) on You!
Monday, January 15, 2007
Weekends are for Par-tays
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Getting it Back is Easier than Learning it in the First Place
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Talk About the Weather
It's sixty-three degrees out right now. I think it got up into the low seventies today. Bulbs are coming up, cherry trees are blooming. This would be a gorgeous day in late March in DC.
But it's not a gorgeous day in late March in DC. It's an unseasonably warm day in an already unseasonably warm winter. It's January.
Lots of people are going around saying, "Isn't this great?" I don't think it's great. I think it's disturbing as hell.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Happy Belated New Year
I am Not Currently Knitting a Sweater...
...if only because I've just finished
Ariann and haven't yet swatched for Lara. I'm pretty pleased with Ariann, I gotta
say. My second Bonne Marie, and as well-written as the first. I suck at the
self-portrait, so here's a picture of her lounging on her
ownsome:
I love the buttons I picked out - of course, I bought them at Stitches and can't remember the vendor. My brain is too full of song lyrics, random trivia, and dryer lint. There is no room for actual useful information. But here they are anyway. They are light enough to not weigh down the very soft, drapey fabric, but substantial enough to hold their own in the face of Ariann's "check me, I'm all eyelet-y and herringbone-y bee-yotch" attitude.
The yarn is WEBS' house brand, Valley Yarns, their "Stockbridge" wool/alpaca blend
On a completely other note, my stepbrother sent me an interactive ad I find mesmerizing. IKEA kitchens. Yes, I'm buying into viral marketing. No, I don't care.
I love the buttons I picked out - of course, I bought them at Stitches and can't remember the vendor. My brain is too full of song lyrics, random trivia, and dryer lint. There is no room for actual useful information. But here they are anyway. They are light enough to not weigh down the very soft, drapey fabric, but substantial enough to hold their own in the face of Ariann's "check me, I'm all eyelet-y and herringbone-y bee-yotch" attitude.
The yarn is WEBS' house brand, Valley Yarns, their "Stockbridge" wool/alpaca blend
On a completely other note, my stepbrother sent me an interactive ad I find mesmerizing. IKEA kitchens. Yes, I'm buying into viral marketing. No, I don't care.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Now Begone - Before Someone Drops a House(cat) on You!
Simon is such a darling cat -so
affectionate. He loves his stuffed toy rat. He also would appear to enjoy
recreating scenes from classic movies. Here he is, playing the role of Dorothy
Gale's house in that pivotal scene from The Wizard of
Oz:
(Credit: Ratty, playing the Wicked Witch of the East)
(Credit: Ratty, playing the Wicked Witch of the East)
Monday, January 15, 2007
Weekends are for Par-tays
We like to partay down at chez
Writingortyping, starting with the cats, who like a bit of wrestling, starting
with some
circling:
And then they're off!
Simon tends to win with the "fall backwards in order to use all four paws" technique. Dash, young and brash, hasn't learned this yet. He probably never will.
For the human contingent, we decided to do a lobster-fest. Where John and I come from, lobster is a cookout-and-beer meal, not a white-tablecloth-and-champagne meal. Pots get filled with water....
...and tables get covered with newspaper....
...and the local fauna gets introduced to the alien bugs.
We played some blues, ate a bit excessively, and the only thing I regret is that iTunes doesn't sell a single of The Standells' "Dirty Water." Awwww... Boston, you're my home.
And then they're off!
Simon tends to win with the "fall backwards in order to use all four paws" technique. Dash, young and brash, hasn't learned this yet. He probably never will.
For the human contingent, we decided to do a lobster-fest. Where John and I come from, lobster is a cookout-and-beer meal, not a white-tablecloth-and-champagne meal. Pots get filled with water....
...and tables get covered with newspaper....
...and the local fauna gets introduced to the alien bugs.
We played some blues, ate a bit excessively, and the only thing I regret is that iTunes doesn't sell a single of The Standells' "Dirty Water." Awwww... Boston, you're my home.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Getting it Back is Easier than Learning it in the First Place
I'm doing Yoga on a regular basis again,
and it makes me happy.
"Wha? Thought you taught the stuff!" I hear some cry. I did. I took an indefinite hiatus from teaching starting in the spring, since my schedule was starting to look like: workworkworkworkworkyogayogalaundry. That's a five-day work week, two mornings of yoga (teaching on Saturday and taking a class on Sunday), and a week's worth of laundry stuffed into the interstices of whatever time I had at home (my work includes lots of travel around the country and occasionally the world). I was already feeling the strain when the bomb dropped, and as much as my rational brain said, "You know, this is what Yoga is for," I listened to my Id instead, which was screaming, "I can't take it any more," and took a break. This coincided with my teacher going on maternity leave, so I let my Id and my superior skills at rationalization talk me into this being a "sign," (which I don't really believe in, which only proves just how superior those rationalization skills are) and just stopped.
Cut ahead six months and I'm re-learning one of my favorite lessons: getting it back is easier than learning it in the first place. I stepped back into the studio last week, and not only had I not lost as much as I feared, but the studio owner let me know that they're willing to have me teach again whenever I would like to take on the load. Not only that, but the chronic knee issue that I had been nursing for months apparently just needed a break. It's completely healed now.
This week saw even more recovery of "lost" ground. And when I rooted my feet to the ground and stretched my fingertips to the sky, my body had a gentle message for me, "Yep. We remember this. This is good."
"Wha? Thought you taught the stuff!" I hear some cry. I did. I took an indefinite hiatus from teaching starting in the spring, since my schedule was starting to look like: workworkworkworkworkyogayogalaundry. That's a five-day work week, two mornings of yoga (teaching on Saturday and taking a class on Sunday), and a week's worth of laundry stuffed into the interstices of whatever time I had at home (my work includes lots of travel around the country and occasionally the world). I was already feeling the strain when the bomb dropped, and as much as my rational brain said, "You know, this is what Yoga is for," I listened to my Id instead, which was screaming, "I can't take it any more," and took a break. This coincided with my teacher going on maternity leave, so I let my Id and my superior skills at rationalization talk me into this being a "sign," (which I don't really believe in, which only proves just how superior those rationalization skills are) and just stopped.
Cut ahead six months and I'm re-learning one of my favorite lessons: getting it back is easier than learning it in the first place. I stepped back into the studio last week, and not only had I not lost as much as I feared, but the studio owner let me know that they're willing to have me teach again whenever I would like to take on the load. Not only that, but the chronic knee issue that I had been nursing for months apparently just needed a break. It's completely healed now.
This week saw even more recovery of "lost" ground. And when I rooted my feet to the ground and stretched my fingertips to the sky, my body had a gentle message for me, "Yep. We remember this. This is good."
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Talk About the Weather
It's sixty-three degrees out right now. I think it got up into the low seventies today. Bulbs are coming up, cherry trees are blooming. This would be a gorgeous day in late March in DC.
But it's not a gorgeous day in late March in DC. It's an unseasonably warm day in an already unseasonably warm winter. It's January.
Lots of people are going around saying, "Isn't this great?" I don't think it's great. I think it's disturbing as hell.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Happy Belated New Year
I'm off to a rocketing start, aren't
I?
Not much to say around here, except for something I have been thinking of for quite some time. I admit it comes straight out of that mythical place called "Left Field," but here goes.
With all of the ways we now have to blip past commercials and other televisionary bits we don't need, I have become intrigued by the fact that there are certain intro montages I will watch/listen to before the show, and certain ones I zip past on DVD or TiVo. Mythbusters? Unnecessary. House? Hearing the Massive Attack song without the lyrics now kind of makes me feel as if someone has played the first seven notes of a scale and left the piano (there's a probably apocryphal story about a composer who lived in a boarding house with another person who would come home late, drunk and do this. Composer would then invariably have to come downstairs and play the eighth note just to be able to go back to sleep).
But there are certain songs that really seem to set the mood and settle me into the experience (which, of course is the point), so much so that even though I've heard them dozens of times, I don't ba-boop past them to get to the actual story:
Doctor Who: This intro tune is so inextricably bound to its subject, it would feel very strange indeed to watch this show and not listen to the intro. Also, a nod to the haunting, wordless soprano vocals that have been played during the show itself - very beautiful, enhancing the theme of loss that comes with being a Time Lord or Companion.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I suppose I should seek out some more Nerf Herder, because the classic organ followed by swooshing, driving guitar really set the stage for the horror/humor/teen angst melange that this show wrought so well.
Six Feet Under: Moody, with the finicky oboe melody that almost reminds me of "Peter and the Wolf" in that it describes the Fisher family in the same way that the various parts in that children's classic did.
Battlestar Galactica: The opening vocals sound very similar to the in-show Dr. Who theme, with their soaring melancholy. The staccato beat of the martial drums are all BG, though. I also love the way they give a tiny peek at pivotal scenes during that ra-ta-ta-thump.
What about you? Are there themes you feel are integral? Ones that are listenable but not necessary (file Farscape and Dead Like Me under that category for me), and ones that are so downright obnoxious you can't bear to hear them?
Not much to say around here, except for something I have been thinking of for quite some time. I admit it comes straight out of that mythical place called "Left Field," but here goes.
With all of the ways we now have to blip past commercials and other televisionary bits we don't need, I have become intrigued by the fact that there are certain intro montages I will watch/listen to before the show, and certain ones I zip past on DVD or TiVo. Mythbusters? Unnecessary. House? Hearing the Massive Attack song without the lyrics now kind of makes me feel as if someone has played the first seven notes of a scale and left the piano (there's a probably apocryphal story about a composer who lived in a boarding house with another person who would come home late, drunk and do this. Composer would then invariably have to come downstairs and play the eighth note just to be able to go back to sleep).
But there are certain songs that really seem to set the mood and settle me into the experience (which, of course is the point), so much so that even though I've heard them dozens of times, I don't ba-boop past them to get to the actual story:
Doctor Who: This intro tune is so inextricably bound to its subject, it would feel very strange indeed to watch this show and not listen to the intro. Also, a nod to the haunting, wordless soprano vocals that have been played during the show itself - very beautiful, enhancing the theme of loss that comes with being a Time Lord or Companion.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I suppose I should seek out some more Nerf Herder, because the classic organ followed by swooshing, driving guitar really set the stage for the horror/humor/teen angst melange that this show wrought so well.
Six Feet Under: Moody, with the finicky oboe melody that almost reminds me of "Peter and the Wolf" in that it describes the Fisher family in the same way that the various parts in that children's classic did.
Battlestar Galactica: The opening vocals sound very similar to the in-show Dr. Who theme, with their soaring melancholy. The staccato beat of the martial drums are all BG, though. I also love the way they give a tiny peek at pivotal scenes during that ra-ta-ta-thump.
What about you? Are there themes you feel are integral? Ones that are listenable but not necessary (file Farscape and Dead Like Me under that category for me), and ones that are so downright obnoxious you can't bear to hear them?