Old Staples

I think this weekend I will just curl up in bed on Saturday with the laptop and watch some DVDs. I was hoping to make it to the library this week to rent stuff, but no luck, so am having to depend on my trusty but sparse stash. This weekend I will be watching my wonderful collection that I got from mom for the birthday this year - any guesses from the picture? I've become addicted to my knitting again, but with the stress of life, I've had to redo certain parts - it's for a friend, so want it to be perfect. I'm almost done with the front, and their are no sleeves, so almost half done!



Last weekend, I watched one of my old favorites and probably the movie I have watched the most in my life (only because I recorded it off the TV in highschool and it has traveled with me ever since - the only movie that has been with me all this time) . If you are from my era, you know which movie this is from. As a hint, here's one of my favorite quotes:



Francis Fratelli: Tell us everything! Everything!



Chunk: Everything. OK! I'll talk! In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max's toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog... When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out... But the worst thing I ever done - I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa - and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life.



Jake Fratelli: I'm beginning to like this kid, Ma!




Love that movie - I've shared it with most of the kids I babysit. And, since it's off the tv, and my remote is broken, I got to watch all these old 'classic' commercials.



On the tape, after the movie, was another favorite of mine in highschool. This show was on Thursday nights, I think from 9pm to 10pm. The way I remember, is because I have about the first 40 minutes of about 4 shows. Why, do you ask, are they not complete and how do you have such a good memory? Because I loved this show, but it was on past my bedtime, but my mom would go to be early, and my dad had an evening class on Thursdays, so I would sneak down to watch the show (sometimes recording it), but would have to run up to bed when dad drove up the driveway. I never really knew how any of the shows ended.



Anyways, how well do you know your movies and shows? Just flip your screen upside down to find out!



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1- Northern Exposure, 2- Goonies, 3- The Young Riders

Easter Weekend and This Weekend

I just got pics from my old college friend, Joanne, who visited easter weekend, as mentioned in a previous post, which I don't feel like editing, so will just add more here. She was so good at taking pics, you know, in that mom-like way, which makes you wonder why you don't take more pictures yourself.



It's lunch time right now and just looking at this picture makes my mouth water thinking of our dinner at Zocalo with Amy. They do have take out, I might just have to treat myself and pick something up on my way home. That or ribs, I have meant to pick up some food at the Blue Ribbon. Not a big ribs person, but the food at this place, including the ribs is to die for (sorry cows or pigs - suprisingly, noone at work right now can decide which animal they come from - both? Does anyone know?)



It's funny since I am working on the Audobon Wellfleet project out on the cape that we went to the Audubon Broadmoore. (ok maybe that isn't funny, coincidental? - no, not really) Anyways, gorgous day, beautiful company, and stunning setting (ok, not really stunning, too strong a word, but apparently my thesarus has shut down).



So that was my easter weekend with pics. Last weekend, with no pics, I procrastinated a bit and started a knitting project - it felt soo good. I've been really missing not knitting. I don't think I've ever knitted with cotton, but started and am about half way done the front (right below the boob line) of calla, a pattern I got from magknits. I'm liking it and am making it for a bustier friend of mine. I keep bringing it with me to knit on the subway, but keep forgetting how crowded it is, so really can only knit for a few stops before it gets crowded. Plus, the two cable patterns don't sync, so have to keep referring to the pattern to remember, what I'm doing where. But it's looking good - will try to post a real picture soone. Hope it turns out nicely.

Shorter

Too many false starts this week posting, being long winded and all. I've decided to be shorter.

New Approach

Since I seem more pooped lately than usual, I thought I would try a new approach - instead of trying to rest up on the weekends, I would keep it busy (that's me sleeping on the train back from Dresden the other summer - don't really have any pics for this post). I'm a 9 hour girl, and manage to get close to that during the week. So this last weekend I accepted all the invitations put out there: Friday night I hung out with an old friend (clarification: he's my age, just knew him from long ago), his wife, and their friends - meeting a great group of new people. The combination of the end of a long week and having a great time (lots of laughter), I ended up drinking a bit more than I intended, so spent the night. They have a wonderful old farm house and a very, very comfortable/cozy guest bed.



I worked on taxes (a solo event, but no lounging around). Than met up with an old college friend, Joanne and her highschool friend, Amy. This is her match.com picture (she is going to kill me - but I'll switch it out when you send me pics from this weekend). Checked out a great nearby restaurant, Zocalo - really good mexican food. Went to the Burren in Davis Square - real fun people watching and catching up.



The next morning I went over to Joanne's mom's and the three of us had a wonderful Sunday brunch - cinnamon buns, french toast, quiche, fruit salad, mimosas, the list goes on. I even got my own easter basket with candy and colored eggs (I had one last night and I'm still alive this morning!) We went hiking over at the Audubon Broadmoore sanctuary - gorgous, over 600 acres. It was a beautiful day for exploring. Than ran errands and home again. But still, I'm tired.



I know what my dad would say - "you're not getting enough exercise", my mom would say that I have alot of stressful things going on right now (partly why I don't sleep well anymore), but frankly I feel like I'm in a rut. Even things I can control aren't working out: I don't have a good book that I'm engrossed in, I don't have a good knitting project going. The upside is that I'm realtively healthy (which reminds me I need to make several appointments - doctor, dentist, vet - for the cats), I have a great job, I have a great network of friends, I have a great apartment (which was reaffirmed by Amy this weekend - it's nice when people are jealous of your digs). Granted, there is no man in the picture, but I'm not the type that needs one, and I don't have kids which I want, but more in theory right now, than in reality. Which leads me to conclude that what I really need is a new haircut (ok, not the best logical progression, but it's an easy fix)!

End of the Week

I won't be waxing as elegantly this time as I just pushed the wrong button and lost all that I had just written. To recap, what I moments ago recorded: I have decided to post the pictures of my friends reading this, which isn't a daunting task at all since I don't really give out this address. The latest to join the gang is Amanda, a friend through cec. I read a total of two blogs on a regular basis: cece's and amanda's (well and mine too, so I guess it's really three). Sorry I don't have any good pictures.



On another note, it must be the change in weather, but I, along with almost everyone I know, seem to have lost my energy and have the blahs. I sooo did not want to get out of bed this morning - it felt like Saturday, but it wasn't! I am definately going to have a low key weekend, nothing too much planned. I want to find a new knitting project (yes I do knit, but not enough to have a real knitting blog). I've started a few sweaters but none that have gotten me really excited (not in a hot and bothered way, silly).



Also, another ending, on my way into work I finished my book I was reading this week, Jenny & the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett. I found it laying around the office and took it. Someone had left it at a Roundtable months ago and it went unclaimed. It was republished a few years ago with an intro by David Sedaris (love him) which is what got me to pick it up.



At first I foud the short stories good, but than as the week progressed I realized I wasn't going to return the book. She has a similar style of wit and humor as Sedaris (although not as eccentric) and many of the stories nicely lingered after reading. Spattered amongst the narratives were sudden strange twists, such as in Resume (not sure if this translates when it is taken out of context, but there really isn't much context to begin with),

Still. The fact is, I could easily have been a Good German.

Now at this point I could do two things. I could say, But look, I'm not a Good German. But that shouldn't cut any ice with you. It doesn't even impress me. Here's the other, more interesting, way I could go: I know I'm Good German material. That is, I may not amount to much, but I don't kid myself. So I should get points, etc.

But I'm not going to go that way. Not because you wouldn't fall for it, because, frankly, you're not too predictable. Meaning no disrespect, of course, but every once in a while you don't make perfect sense to me. For instance, every hour of every day of my life. Example: the wildebeest.

And on it goes, but you get the gyst. Anyways, it's sad that it's all ended. No more stories to discover on the way home tonight. I think I'll stop by the library.

Aghhh! - Beginnings

So here are my issues with technology right now:
1- I can't get the blog to register spaces between paragraphs and that is driving me nuts! I must be a simple line command that can be put in the html, but I don't know it...yet. But I will spend several hours hunting it down and figuring it out (which just proves a friend's husband's comment that blogs can become time sinks).



2- I want to adjust the size of the font for the title but can't figure out how to do that either - the formatting is too clunky.



3- I took pictures on my new cell phone but can't figure out how to get them from there to here. What's the point of having a camera if you can't use the pictures - it's like taking fake pictures!



4- I write tons at work (mainly word and outlook) and because of microsoft I have become accustomed to the auto correct so I don't even bother spell checking anymore, which just enables my poor spelling skills. And now, now I am sure this is full of misspelled words (see, I don't know if mispelled has one or two s's - I'll use both versions for good measure, although I'm leaning towards the single s version - it looks better but doesn't make sense). And I know there is a spell check button, but I've never been a fan.



So this is where I stand at my third post. I'm sure, years from now (maybe even months), I will look back and think how simple I was - not knowing such basic features, but right now all I can think of is... aghhhh!
I had to put a picture in, because...., well frankly postings with pictures just seem more interesting. Plus I had a great catch up call this weekend with Kara, pictured above, who twisted my arm into giving her this blog address, and let's face it, we all like to see pictures of ourselves (granted maybe not this one:) - Fräulein Sie!

Old friend

Still trying to figure out the ins and outs of blogging, so wanted to try out posting pictures. This picture is my knitting friend Cece that first brought me to blogger.com. (Check out her knitting blog, fiberfish).

We really first became friends during our study abroad in undergrad. We were in Swansea, Wales and this is taken after a day of horse back riding along the beautiful coast on a late autumn day. Cece had found this great deal where we could take horse back riding lessons for a day, including lunch for something like 8 pounds. So Cec, myself, Joanne and Kira (everyone likes to see there name in print) schleped out to the countryside to experience the great outdoors welsh style.



This was at the end of the day, we were waiting for a bus to take us back into town at this random store in the middle of nowhere - no town in site - all countryside. It was really getting cold, we were exhausted from our excursion and our butts were starting to get sore from the hard leather saddles we had been riding on all day. All we wanted to do was get home and take warm showers and the bus just wouldn't come!



Fast forward quite a few years and here we are within miles of each other, and we still don't see enough of each other (even when I crashed at her place for several months). I was hoping that moving to New England would increase my visits to friends and family, which has happened but it still isn't the same as that microcosm that is created at college or in your hometown growing up.

Why Blog

ONE: I never was good with journals except one semester in school when I was abroad and I emailed daily to the family. I love rereading those entries. It's amazing how fast life slips by and how much I've forgotten - both the good and the bad. I want to record some of it and have high hopes for this forum.



TWO: I have met so many wonderful people, but am so bad at keeping in touch (even though I am always thinking fondly of them - honest). I have been able to keep up with what some old friends are doing through their blogs, (even though they don't know it - I'm not a comment leaving kind of person).



THREE: I've been wanting to write more - but my writing it less than good, so hope this will get me back into practice and finding my own voice (and accent) again.



FOUR: I had to get a blogger name to leave a comment on someone's site, so here I am.