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6 weeks ago!
Jun. 29th, 2008 | 04:37 pm
So I logged in and was told I last posted an entry 6 weeks ago. I guess time goes quickly (and the slow-needs-to-go-to-computer heaven laptop probably pays a part in that too- hopefully in August I'll treat myself to a new computer). Anyway we just returned from vacation. It was wonderful- in fact A was begging to stay longer and is already plotting our next trip. Who knew he'd love Minnesota so much.
Our trip had two parts. The first was my 10 year college reunion in Southern Minnesota. It was a blast and A survived- yes that's probably the right word. He had a lot of fun despite the fact it was kind of an insane 3 days- lots of new people, lots of drinking, and lots of staying up waaay too late, but lots of fun. Campus and town haven't changed much (other than the state of the art recreation center and a new dining hall on campus, and a _great_ fabric/crafty store downtown). We walked in the arboretum and saw the oaks I'd planted 10 years ago and the praries I'd helped clear and burn. We had iced coffee at the coffee shop I first started drinking coffee at- it hasn't changed at all and is still today in my head what a coffee shop should be like. Mostly though, we talked and talked with old friends and spent a lot of time outside. We slept in the dorm I lived in my sophmore year too. I also played a game of Ultimate with old friends- it had been 10 years and we were older and slower and rusty and got beat by the 5-years, but it felt so good to run on that field with my college friends.
Then, after brunch in Minneapolis - sorry it was so brief Val!- we headed up north to Lake Superior. After 3 days of pretty shitty food (Carleton is changing food service companies this week and I really think that the current company had given up and was cleaning out the freezers) anyway we made up for the bad food at Carleton by eating really, really well the rest of the trip.. We spent our anniversary stopping at state parks along the north shore and hiking. A was brave and swam in the lake- I was a chicken- it was cold (and also didn't have a swimsuit with me when he swam and there were a lot of families on the beach). The weather was cool and we really liked the lodge we stayed at- they had a lot of activities and we did a 1/2 day sea kayak lesson and another day they shuttled us for a long hike on the Superior hiking trail. All the rivers have really steep drops into the lake, so there are big waterfalls and raging torrents- it's really beautiful. There was also hardly anyone there- it's still kind of the off-season there and during the week, so we had the trails to ourself. I promise to post pictures soon, I hadn't downloaded my camera in a while and I had something like 250 pictures on it, I'm not in the mood to sift through them right now- I just biked 35 miles on the trail near our house and can hardly walk and want to take a nap (my first long ride in a long long time). I've committed to bike across the state next summer with my parents (who just rode across Kansas- again-.
\\\\\\]n o0ikm
Our trip had two parts. The first was my 10 year college reunion in Southern Minnesota. It was a blast and A survived- yes that's probably the right word. He had a lot of fun despite the fact it was kind of an insane 3 days- lots of new people, lots of drinking, and lots of staying up waaay too late, but lots of fun. Campus and town haven't changed much (other than the state of the art recreation center and a new dining hall on campus, and a _great_ fabric/crafty store downtown). We walked in the arboretum and saw the oaks I'd planted 10 years ago and the praries I'd helped clear and burn. We had iced coffee at the coffee shop I first started drinking coffee at- it hasn't changed at all and is still today in my head what a coffee shop should be like. Mostly though, we talked and talked with old friends and spent a lot of time outside. We slept in the dorm I lived in my sophmore year too. I also played a game of Ultimate with old friends- it had been 10 years and we were older and slower and rusty and got beat by the 5-years, but it felt so good to run on that field with my college friends.
Then, after brunch in Minneapolis - sorry it was so brief Val!- we headed up north to Lake Superior. After 3 days of pretty shitty food (Carleton is changing food service companies this week and I really think that the current company had given up and was cleaning out the freezers) anyway we made up for the bad food at Carleton by eating really, really well the rest of the trip.. We spent our anniversary stopping at state parks along the north shore and hiking. A was brave and swam in the lake- I was a chicken- it was cold (and also didn't have a swimsuit with me when he swam and there were a lot of families on the beach). The weather was cool and we really liked the lodge we stayed at- they had a lot of activities and we did a 1/2 day sea kayak lesson and another day they shuttled us for a long hike on the Superior hiking trail. All the rivers have really steep drops into the lake, so there are big waterfalls and raging torrents- it's really beautiful. There was also hardly anyone there- it's still kind of the off-season there and during the week, so we had the trails to ourself. I promise to post pictures soon, I hadn't downloaded my camera in a while and I had something like 250 pictures on it, I'm not in the mood to sift through them right now- I just biked 35 miles on the trail near our house and can hardly walk and want to take a nap (my first long ride in a long long time). I've committed to bike across the state next summer with my parents (who just rode across Kansas- again-.
\\\\\\]n o0ikm
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(no subject)
May. 18th, 2008 | 10:58 am
I can't believe I haven't posted since spring break. Been busy I guess, and my computer is kind of on the verge of dying, so I really haven't been online much besides work stuff- which is definitely enough computer staring time right now for me. We're having good spring weather finally, it's been kind of cold and rainy so far this spring- farmer's market is proof, there isn't much besides greens and green onions right now.
I went on a very quick trip to Minneapolis a few weekends ago for my friend K's bachlorette party/weekend. It was good to see my college friends and meet 2 new babies. The excitement of the weekend (other than the SNOW in late April when we we're supposed to barbecue)was going to a Roller Girls Derby Bout- lots of fun! I went to breakfast Sunday with Val and we did a little shopping before my flight. It was great to see her and see her new place and neighborhood. A and I will be back in MN in June and will have to spend more time with V. A and I won't make it to my friend K's wedding- it's in San Diego during A's tennis summer camp (already scheduled)and my field season- which is pretty unpredictable since we're traveling at the whim of the fish (go where and when they spawn). At least I'm not tracking- those folks are doing 12-hour round the clock shifts sometimes to keep on the fish- for very little pay. They're working really hard. I already took the first two fieldwork shifts which were nearby here and Kansas City, so if I'm lucky I won't have to make it up to NE-IA, and SD this summer... we'll see. Other than that I'm pretty much chained to my desk with a cool but very messy dataset that needs to be in publication very soon. Lots of work, but it's interesting work at least.
A's tennis season is officially over. It was a really busy one, lots of weeknight and saturday matches. To celebrate we bought a treat with some of his coaching money- a big fancy (we'll it's not that big), but a very fancy espresso machine. It came the other day and we've had marvelous cappachino's (OK I don't think I spelled that right) this weekend. It's super easy to use and clean, and looks very cool and italian on the countertop. I love it- it's bright red to match the kitchen. I'm such a kitchen gadget geek... luckily we have a big kitchen with a huge amount of storage. I've been spiffing up the downstairs kitchen (mostly with older kitchen stuff that my mom gave me from her stock when I graduated from college and had my first kitchen). Next week for two weeks we'll have a Phd student from Canada staying with us. She's coming to collabroate with us at work. It should be interesting. I want her to have the option of privacy and a kitchen down there (for us too if we're busy) so I had to clean out and set things up a bit down there.
Other than that not too much going on. I've been working in the yard a lot, put an herb garden and a compost pile in, and am weeding out the flowerbeds and trying to decide what to put in the very small sunny strip we have. I am so excited to get a compost pile in finally, I've been feeling guilty about throwing away kitchen scraps (I know I'm a geek). The rest of the yard has to be shade tolerant. We have a lot of invasive honeysuckle to contend with in the back yard and I think I might be allergic to it. It's blooming and after a day in the yard I woke up with a sore throat and puffy eyes.
We're hanging out here for memorial weekend. A's got one last week of school after that and I'm still "on call" for mapping fish sex sites (no joke we had a radio in the field last week and Marvin Gaye's "Let's get it on" came on. It's a good to be the sturgeon lovin' theme song. We have a potuck down at the quarry- not sure it will be warm enough to swim yet though- the water is still cold!
I went on a very quick trip to Minneapolis a few weekends ago for my friend K's bachlorette party/weekend. It was good to see my college friends and meet 2 new babies. The excitement of the weekend (other than the SNOW in late April when we we're supposed to barbecue)was going to a Roller Girls Derby Bout- lots of fun! I went to breakfast Sunday with Val and we did a little shopping before my flight. It was great to see her and see her new place and neighborhood. A and I will be back in MN in June and will have to spend more time with V. A and I won't make it to my friend K's wedding- it's in San Diego during A's tennis summer camp (already scheduled)and my field season- which is pretty unpredictable since we're traveling at the whim of the fish (go where and when they spawn). At least I'm not tracking- those folks are doing 12-hour round the clock shifts sometimes to keep on the fish- for very little pay. They're working really hard. I already took the first two fieldwork shifts which were nearby here and Kansas City, so if I'm lucky I won't have to make it up to NE-IA, and SD this summer... we'll see. Other than that I'm pretty much chained to my desk with a cool but very messy dataset that needs to be in publication very soon. Lots of work, but it's interesting work at least.
A's tennis season is officially over. It was a really busy one, lots of weeknight and saturday matches. To celebrate we bought a treat with some of his coaching money- a big fancy (we'll it's not that big), but a very fancy espresso machine. It came the other day and we've had marvelous cappachino's (OK I don't think I spelled that right) this weekend. It's super easy to use and clean, and looks very cool and italian on the countertop. I love it- it's bright red to match the kitchen. I'm such a kitchen gadget geek... luckily we have a big kitchen with a huge amount of storage. I've been spiffing up the downstairs kitchen (mostly with older kitchen stuff that my mom gave me from her stock when I graduated from college and had my first kitchen). Next week for two weeks we'll have a Phd student from Canada staying with us. She's coming to collabroate with us at work. It should be interesting. I want her to have the option of privacy and a kitchen down there (for us too if we're busy) so I had to clean out and set things up a bit down there.
Other than that not too much going on. I've been working in the yard a lot, put an herb garden and a compost pile in, and am weeding out the flowerbeds and trying to decide what to put in the very small sunny strip we have. I am so excited to get a compost pile in finally, I've been feeling guilty about throwing away kitchen scraps (I know I'm a geek). The rest of the yard has to be shade tolerant. We have a lot of invasive honeysuckle to contend with in the back yard and I think I might be allergic to it. It's blooming and after a day in the yard I woke up with a sore throat and puffy eyes.
We're hanging out here for memorial weekend. A's got one last week of school after that and I'm still "on call" for mapping fish sex sites (no joke we had a radio in the field last week and Marvin Gaye's "Let's get it on" came on. It's a good to be the sturgeon lovin' theme song. We have a potuck down at the quarry- not sure it will be warm enough to swim yet though- the water is still cold!
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Quiet Weekend
Apr. 6th, 2008 | 10:59 am
We had a great trip to Utah for A's spring break. He really liked the scenery and the weather in Moab. And all the stars- he keeps talking about how great the stars were there- and the fact he needs more gear for camping :). I've been telling him for ages that he needs gear but now he knows for himself so that's a good thing. A good fleece will keep him a lot warmer at tennis matches than a sweatshirt (he's been stubborn in the past about the cost; but a good fleece will last a decade.) We had fun with Sarah, Carrie, and Shan (and Notch and Ollie!) camping and hiking, and when they left we hit Arches (kind of a bad call- way too crowded- would skip it next time), spent a day in the Canyonlands Needles (probably our best day of the trip hike wise), and 1/2 a day at Dead Horse State Park before driving back to Salt Lake and Staying with Paul, Amanda, and Kaia (she's so cute- and is such a good baby!).
We got back from Utah and tennis season started immediately. I'm now a tennis widow a couple of weekends a week and a few weekends (this weekend included). It's been quiet with A gone, but I've gotten a lot done. The weather's finally gotten nicer- it rained most of last week, so I can run outside now. I've been doing more organizing in the kitchen this weekend. We moved in so quickly that things weren't set up the best way and the pantry had become a disaster- so bad that instead of looking to see what we had (canned tomatoes or wheat flour) I had gotten into the practice of just buying more- which then added to the pantry orgnaization problem. So I spent a lot of time sorting stuff and combining partially filled bags of flour and also bought a bunch of large mason jars and spent some quality time in the bulk bin aisle getting beans and grains and organizing them. I'm trying to cook with more whole grains and whole beans instead of canned and now that the pantry is organized and I can find stuff hopefully I will use them. My mom gave me a new cookbook "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" that's great and I've been inspired to cook with more whole grains. We're not vegetarian, but we only eat meat occasionally, and I'm trying to stick to meat sources we know more about. We have a lot of great local meat producers, and we're getting a chicken (dead, I don't think I could process them myself!) every two weeks this summer from a farm.
Other than getting things (my closet and craft room too) more organized in the house, things are pretty quiet for me. Work is picking up speed as we head into the field season, and I head to Louisville next sunday for a week of training for work.
We got back from Utah and tennis season started immediately. I'm now a tennis widow a couple of weekends a week and a few weekends (this weekend included). It's been quiet with A gone, but I've gotten a lot done. The weather's finally gotten nicer- it rained most of last week, so I can run outside now. I've been doing more organizing in the kitchen this weekend. We moved in so quickly that things weren't set up the best way and the pantry had become a disaster- so bad that instead of looking to see what we had (canned tomatoes or wheat flour) I had gotten into the practice of just buying more- which then added to the pantry orgnaization problem. So I spent a lot of time sorting stuff and combining partially filled bags of flour and also bought a bunch of large mason jars and spent some quality time in the bulk bin aisle getting beans and grains and organizing them. I'm trying to cook with more whole grains and whole beans instead of canned and now that the pantry is organized and I can find stuff hopefully I will use them. My mom gave me a new cookbook "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" that's great and I've been inspired to cook with more whole grains. We're not vegetarian, but we only eat meat occasionally, and I'm trying to stick to meat sources we know more about. We have a lot of great local meat producers, and we're getting a chicken (dead, I don't think I could process them myself!) every two weeks this summer from a farm.
Other than getting things (my closet and craft room too) more organized in the house, things are pretty quiet for me. Work is picking up speed as we head into the field season, and I head to Louisville next sunday for a week of training for work.
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Small Planet
Feb. 26th, 2008 | 10:55 pm
So I'm in Nebraska City, NE this week for a Missouri River conference. I'm presenting the last talk on the last day (Thursday). We'll see if there is anyone there. The conference is at the lovely Lied Lodge run by the Arbor Day foundation. Too bad it is cold and snowy and I've been sick, so checking out the trails is kind of out of the picture this week. I just came frome the evening social and ran into Tyler H. from USU (saw him here last year too). He's in Montana working with sturgeon on the upper Missouri. Had a nice "good old grad school days" chat. He and his wife are doing well in MT and say hello to all.
A's been sick with the flu and then I got sick the end of last week. The three day weekend we had a huge swim meet in town again this winter and I got to see 2 world records broken and lots of very fast swims by very fast olympians- dozens of them. I really enjoyed watching it- especially seeing Dara Torres swim- she's 40 and currently holds the american record in the 50 free. She swam in the 1984 olympics and is swimming against people who weren't even born in 1984. How cool is that to see someone come back that big that old (for swimming at least). I'm excited to see them all swim on TV in Bejing this summer.
This weekend is quite possibly one of the most exciting weekends of the year in Columbia (for us at least) or at least the weekend we spend the cold dark winter looking forward to- the True False Film fest. A and I have passes and tickets to lots and lots of movies for a crazy documentary film bender weekend once again. I can't wait.
A's been sick with the flu and then I got sick the end of last week. The three day weekend we had a huge swim meet in town again this winter and I got to see 2 world records broken and lots of very fast swims by very fast olympians- dozens of them. I really enjoyed watching it- especially seeing Dara Torres swim- she's 40 and currently holds the american record in the 50 free. She swam in the 1984 olympics and is swimming against people who weren't even born in 1984. How cool is that to see someone come back that big that old (for swimming at least). I'm excited to see them all swim on TV in Bejing this summer.
This weekend is quite possibly one of the most exciting weekends of the year in Columbia (for us at least) or at least the weekend we spend the cold dark winter looking forward to- the True False Film fest. A and I have passes and tickets to lots and lots of movies for a crazy documentary film bender weekend once again. I can't wait.
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2 days in a row!
Feb. 12th, 2008 | 08:30 pm
I'm going crazy here and posting two days in a row. BUT I'm on the computer tonight and wanted to say Happy Valentine's day, and I'm not in the mood to get on the computer most nights lately since that's where I spend my days.. glued to the screen and ArcMap, excel, command lines, and powerpoint. That, and tomorrow night is Project Runway night... and I'm a little addicted, I probably won't be on the computer.
So...
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I had intentions in getting these in the mail, but it just didn't happen. I drew the design and printed them with my gocco and embossed them (which involved putting them in the oven!) to get the opaque effect.
AND... yes, Bea, the elephants are the Wee Wonderful's pattern from the book "Last Minute Patchwork Gifts" (I love that book- so many fun projects). They were much easier to sew than I thought they would be- the birds were kind of a pain because they are so small, but the elephants came together quickly and I love them. If you want to make them I advise you iron often and pin a lot. I had them in my office for a day the day I mailed them. I got some weird looks. A wants me to make one for us. I love how chubby they are.
AND
Here's one of the shirts too- this one came out the best of the three:
A says the fabric is very retro. He teases me when I wear it with the jeans I made (that I have to wear with a belt because the waist is too big) that I'm wearing my "homeade" outfits. I like the red buttons. I found a red velvet blazer for 15 dollars at an eddie bauer outlet that looks so cute with this shirt. Or at least I think it does, the rest of the world might be shaking their heads...
Have a happy heart day on thursday!
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And now it is working...
Feb. 11th, 2008 | 08:40 pm
Here's the print I did for the gocco swap.
I took the original photo on cross country
skiing on a trail near the house right before Christmas.
Here's a two screen print of orchids.
I printed a bunch of these on cards.
I'm trying to be better about bringing my own bags
to the grocery store this year so I made up a bunch
of fun canvas ones to take. These are from a morel
gocco print, and parsley and dill prints.
And,last for today I have my "baby geologist" onesies-
with trilobites!! I love the trilobite print,
I want to make a geologist tote bag with them too.
Here's a two screen print of orchids.
I printed a bunch of these on cards.
I'm trying to be better about bringing my own bags
to the grocery store this year so I made up a bunch
of fun canvas ones to take. These are from a morel
gocco print, and parsley and dill prints.
And,last for today I have my "baby geologist" onesies-
with trilobites!! I love the trilobite print,
I want to make a geologist tote bag with them too.
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Still Winter...
Feb. 11th, 2008 | 08:15 pm
So we're in this weather pattern where it is (literally) 50 one day and 15 the next. It kind of sucks. That and we haven't had a decent snow storm since December, we only get these 1/2 inch or less storms so there isn't even any cross-country skiing to do when it is cold. A and I have been keeping warm with fires in our wood stove. He's currently down for the count with the flu.
I've been keeping busy this winter, I've been trying to learn how to bake bread, and so far have had decent results with french bread and with "Almost no-knead bread" (which doesn't really count because it's so super easy). Still though, it's nice to have fresh bread. We have a good bakery in town, but it's downtown and parking is a pain in the winter. In the summer they're at the farmer's market and it's just easier to buy fresh good bread. I've also been sewing a bit, I bought the book "Sew U" by Wendy Mullen and have had really good results with button down shirts and skirts, and am on my second try with pants. They look good but don't fit so right yet. Like all pants I find, I want them to fit in the waist (or waist-ish area), hips, and be the right length. So far I have 2 of the three. I can't seem to buy pants that fit either, but I'm taking the waistband out of the pair I just made to make it smaller and then I'll hopefully have the pattern conquered. I've also been making baby gifts. We had 4 friends have babies (2 girls, 2 boys) in December! I made them bibs, blankets, toy elephants, and trilobite onesies with my new gocco. That's been my other winter hobby. So far I've made a lot of cards, and printed on canvas, cotton, dishtowels, and t-shirts. It's been a lot of fun to play with. I also particpated in a gocco print swap and had fun creating a print for that. I'll post some pictures very soon. Right now I'm having problems...
I've been keeping busy this winter, I've been trying to learn how to bake bread, and so far have had decent results with french bread and with "Almost no-knead bread" (which doesn't really count because it's so super easy). Still though, it's nice to have fresh bread. We have a good bakery in town, but it's downtown and parking is a pain in the winter. In the summer they're at the farmer's market and it's just easier to buy fresh good bread. I've also been sewing a bit, I bought the book "Sew U" by Wendy Mullen and have had really good results with button down shirts and skirts, and am on my second try with pants. They look good but don't fit so right yet. Like all pants I find, I want them to fit in the waist (or waist-ish area), hips, and be the right length. So far I have 2 of the three. I can't seem to buy pants that fit either, but I'm taking the waistband out of the pair I just made to make it smaller and then I'll hopefully have the pattern conquered. I've also been making baby gifts. We had 4 friends have babies (2 girls, 2 boys) in December! I made them bibs, blankets, toy elephants, and trilobite onesies with my new gocco. That's been my other winter hobby. So far I've made a lot of cards, and printed on canvas, cotton, dishtowels, and t-shirts. It's been a lot of fun to play with. I also particpated in a gocco print swap and had fun creating a print for that. I'll post some pictures very soon. Right now I'm having problems...
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Happy 2008!
Jan. 17th, 2008 | 09:18 pm
So we're now over 2 weeks into the new year. Amazing- I actually had to look at my calendar twice at work today before I believed it was the 17th! Time has flown. Work's been crazy, but crazy-productive-crazy, which always feels better than the plain crazy it often is. I've done a ton of data analysis this week- so much that my head was a little foggy from it all this afternoon when I had to summarize it into an abstract for a talk at a conference next month.. and an informal talk I'm contibuting to on Tuesday. It feels good though- two hard years of data collection are coming together and the results are exciting and new and very publishable. It feels like the first time in a long time I've been really excited about science.
So A and I had a great break. Very relaxing- it was nice not to leave home and spend our first Christmas together in the house. His whole family was in and we did a bunch of big dinners, and our party on the 22 was a success. A's hoping for snow so he can use his skiis. He gave me exactly what I asked for, a Japanese screen-printing machine thing called a Print Gocco. He gave it to me a few days early because he knew I'd want time to play with it. and so far I'm really impressed what it can do- especially after individually printing Christmas cards with a linoleum block again- it takes so much time, with this little device I can whip up cards almost as quickly as it takes to draw the design. I'm especially excited about the applications for fabric printing- I have inks and an attachment that are designed for it and have so far had really good luck. I'll post photos very soon, I'm pretty behind in my photo-organization. I've been printing up fabric and making sewing stuff (bags, a sun hat, a fabric belt) with it though, which has been fun.
Other than the Gocco, A and I celebrated my birthday with a very nice dinner out and a quiet evening in front of movies and the fireplace. It's cold, cold, cold here and is supposed to be all weekend.
So A and I had a great break. Very relaxing- it was nice not to leave home and spend our first Christmas together in the house. His whole family was in and we did a bunch of big dinners, and our party on the 22 was a success. A's hoping for snow so he can use his skiis. He gave me exactly what I asked for, a Japanese screen-printing machine thing called a Print Gocco. He gave it to me a few days early because he knew I'd want time to play with it. and so far I'm really impressed what it can do- especially after individually printing Christmas cards with a linoleum block again- it takes so much time, with this little device I can whip up cards almost as quickly as it takes to draw the design. I'm especially excited about the applications for fabric printing- I have inks and an attachment that are designed for it and have so far had really good luck. I'll post photos very soon, I'm pretty behind in my photo-organization. I've been printing up fabric and making sewing stuff (bags, a sun hat, a fabric belt) with it though, which has been fun.
Other than the Gocco, A and I celebrated my birthday with a very nice dinner out and a quiet evening in front of movies and the fireplace. It's cold, cold, cold here and is supposed to be all weekend.
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One more day at work
Dec. 19th, 2007 | 09:00 pm
Until vacation! Yea! I'm taking Friday off, and M-W next week, then Mon and my birthday off. I'm working a little next week to stock up days off for future vacations. I'm ready for a break. Feeling a little burned out on computer work/data processing.. although I'm learning to program in python and run automated scripts to do a lot of the repetitive data processing steps, but it will be a while before I'm very proficient at it. J at work is really good at it though and is teaching me.
We're having a partyopen house on Saturday, so I'm going to spend most of time on Friday cooking- I haven't made any cookies yet this year. Not sure what our turnout will be as a lot of people will be out of town, and the weather isn't supposed to be great so some people might not to drive but we will see I guess. We'll at least have A's family, and they can walk over if they want. I actually got all my packages and cards out last week (due to the gift of 2 snow days!) and finished up the last bit of christmas shopping tonight (I was totally stumped on A's dad and brother, so they're getting smartwool socks. kinda boring, but they make great socks, so at least it's a functional gift and something they wouldn't spend money on themselves). With all the errands done (besides food and drink shopping and prep!) I'm feeling pretty relaxed and exctied for the next week. I've even wrapped everything and stashed it all under our tree, which looks great in our living room. The open house has been a good motivator to work on the house and get the basement looking better too. There were piles of boxes I hadn't touched since we moved in that are now at least cleaned up or stashed in a closet. A's getting cross-country skiis for christmas (which aren't under the tree yet as he'd immediately guess what they were). I just hope we get more snow this winter so he can use them. We got 6 inches last weekend and I skiied right out our door down the street to the trail and skiied the route I usually run. We live in a great location for skiing whenever we get snow and A's always a little bummed to see me head out to ski when it snows, so it should be fun to go together.
I wish you all could come to our party saturday... have a good weekend!
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Ice Storm(s)
Dec. 11th, 2007 | 09:27 pm
We've had some excitement- first, snow last week and then cold weather and rain and several ice storms. My office is closed if the schools are out, so A and I have had the last two days off. We're not 100 sure that there will be school tomorrow, but I HAVE to go into the office and put the finishing touches on our annual report. It's been a nice 4-day weekend though, I have to admit. I've not done a whole lot outside of the house other than a couple of trips to the gym, but I've been busy with Christmas Cards and present-making. That, and Saturday (it just rained, it hadn't frozen yet) A.G. and I went to St Louis to play. We had Thai food for lunch and went to the Rock and Roll Craft Show, Independent Holiday Art Fair, and of course Trader Joe's and REI. If we'd only had longer we would have hit the Body Worlds exhibit, and probably the malls and CostCo.... but there just wasn't enough time in the day. The Rock and Roll Craft Show was fun- I'd read about it on cnn.com. THere was a lot of cool stuff there, but a lot of it fit into the "I could make that!" category, and the line to see the jewelry was looong. I did pick up a few Christmass presents though.
I finally figured out how to post multiple images well, so here goes... hopefully this will work. Here's what I've been up to the past few months/ some house pics:
Log cabin couch pillow:
Throw/quilt for the new couch:
Stocking for A (and Petey):
My stocking:
Cube ottoman covers:
Fabric on entryway closet (used to be wallpaper):
Placemats woven from wedding silk table runners (there's also orange wedding silk in some of the throw pillows and showing up in a lot of the christmas presents I've been making that I don't have pics of yet):
Closeup of second set of wedding silk placemats- these have a green warp. The white-warp ones are a christmas present for my mom. I made 12 total- 2 sets of 6, and I still have a ton of silk left!
And last, pincushions:
