Sunday, May 25, 2008

quick european update.

barcelona is awesome! it was most awesome, though, before i fell in a very slippery placa (placa catalunya, to be exact), landed on my face, and had to get one of my front teeth extracted at a 24-hour emergency dentist at 5 in the morning. that was thursday night/friday morning. i look quite funny now and am on antibiotics. i have one fierce smile, and iºve taken tons of pictu res of it so far. one big gap surrounded by two very chipped teeth. iºm not even letting myself think about the dental work iºll have to get when i get back to the states. *cringe.*

this keyboard is awful.

in a few short hours, i will be heading to estacio franca para el tren a paris anoche. iºve gotten really good with my spanish this trip, and iºm not ready to leave a country where i can sort of get by with the language. one thing i love about barcelonians - they let you practice your span ish on them and are totally gracious about it. before i lost my tooth, i was chatting it up with these two guys in a bar. quite fun. as far as language goes, paris will be a different story altogether.

parle vous anglais? that will be my standby, sadly.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

we gonna party like it's your birthday.

tomorrow's my birthday! (but my party was last night).

the most beautiful cake ever, made by amelia. it tasted like grapefruit!
080516. also the yummiest cake in all the land.


cake cutting is serious business.
080516. cake cutting is serious business.


amelia and will - post-sushi, pre-cake and pre-drinking.
080516. amelia and will.


i kind of forgot to take pictures, until the very end of the night. thus, the ridiculousness. this is smoove (who i love and adore and is absolutely insane) and thomas.
080517. smoove and thomas.


my old coworkers from eppley came! i love those kids. here's me and jc.
080517. me and jc. awww...


i think i was trying to channel america's next top noodle here. me and matthew. aw!
080517. me doing some weird pose and matthew being cute.


i finished my clapotis scarf on thursday night! yay. i wanted to get it off the needles before i left for europe. i was afraid i'd get back, forget about it, and find it years from now, slightly mangled. it was time, and i love it! made with dive autunno yarn.
080517. clapotis scarf all done!


details:
080517. details.


hi!
080517. hi! hihihi!


so today i managed to sleep in a bit, went and got an oil change in preparation for my drive to chicago tomorrow, had a helluva time getting boombox to sally's (he puked AND pooped in his carrier on the way over, poor little guy), hung out there for a while to see if he was going to eat the kittens, then stopped at the bank, and finally made it back home. cleaned out my car, finished packing (!), watered the plants, and now i'm uploading photos and being a little lazy. i can't believe i'll be on an airplane in two days!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

mom, if you're reading this...

STOP READING RIGHT NOW (at least, stop if it isn't after mother's day by the time you see this)! anyone who is not my mom can continue on.

today has been an amazingly awesome, productive day. and it's sunday! who knew i could be so productive on a sunday? here's what i've accomplished thus far:
- went on a four-mile walk.
- perused the summer interweave knits magazine, which arrived yesterday.
- went to vote (i can't believe indiana actually counts for something this year! how bizarre... i voted for obama, among others, of course).
- mailed my mother's day package.
- returned some yarn i didn't need for the shrug i made for my mom (and got some more to make this gorgeous u-neck tank top thing).
- dropped a box of old office stuff at the new office.
- bought groceries for the week.

whew! and it's only 4:00! i am good. let's get to the photos, shall we?

here is the first article of clothing i've ever knitted for my mom. i followed the knob hill shrug pattern. here's the little beauty blocking.
080504. shrug!


it's pretty big on me, but i'm hoping it will fit my mom (and that it looks good!). i'm definitely going to get some really cool handpainted yarn and make one for myself one of these days.
080504. mom's day shrug. a little bit big on me.


on to the other day-to-day stuff: they gave out stickers at the polls! i'm so proud of my sticker. also, on a slightly related note, i got a campaign sign for my friend, geoff mckim, at the farmers' market yesterday. i put it proudly in my yard, and about four hours later... it was gone! someone took my mckim sign, which is ironic because i really wanted an obama sign, too, and they were all out. on the way back to my house, every house we walked past that had an obama sign i joked about taking the sign to put in my yard.
080504. i voted early... for obama!


thomas and i went to the farmers' market yesterday, and i had a bit of a plant shopping spree. look! i will have roma tomatoes! (i need to go get tomato cages).
080504. roma, roma!


and we have baby basil, baby lavender, baby rosemary, and two different baby cherry tomato plants.
080504. plant shopping spree.


i decided i missed having succulents all over the place - so i got a new little succulent, too. senor gnomey is watching over him. so far, boombox has not decided to try eating it, which makes me happy.
080504. simply succulent.


and one other thing - after reading thomas' latest blog about music (okay, that isn't too specific since ALL of his blogs are about music, but whatever), i decided to do a little searching on the magical youtube for some good ol' john darnielle of the mountain goats fabulousness. and behold! a gem emerged. matt kennedy and i spent an entire winter in our san francisco flat fighting over which one of us would get to marry john darnielle.