Kim posted a few pictures from our joint Halloween on her website 1, 2, 3. We had a wonderful time! (just don't ask me what I was supposed to be)

Tomorrow's the big day and so far I know how I'm voting on exactly one question (President). Let's just say I have a lot of reading to do tonight!

The True Love Cafe has a blog now, even though they don't have a cafe anymore, to keep in touch with all of us die hard groupies. They have a question out about other cool Sacramento coffee places. I still miss the True Love pretty badly but Infusion on 17th and K sounds neat to try out and I love the Java Lounge on 2416 16th Street though hardly ever get over there now.

As some of you may know, this crazy person is my ex-boyfriend. Obviously now that he's semi-famous he is beyond fascinating to me and my friends. It's very weird to see someone you knew pretty well get all of this fame and fortune. So, ever since I found out that his book was sold to be a movie I've wanted to know who would play him. Who would play your ex-boyfriends in the movie of your life? But it's not the movie of my life, it's the movie of his life and he will be played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Crazy, huh? This is especially weird to me since of all the actors in Hollywood Jake Gyllenhall is hands down my current favorite studliest hunk, except for maybe that guy from Bridget Jones's Diary (not Hugh Grant). Let's just say: not who I would've picked.

A list of this minute:

Pink Lady apples are my favorites, but I would like to try the Honeycrisp everyone's raving about.

I stabbed myself under my tongue with my ring finger while flossing and there's still a bump two days later.

Never refer to yourself in the third person on a conference call, actually ever.

Don't you think I need pink tennis shoes?

It's nice to hear the rain at night and feel snug in your own little ark, especially if there are two kitties purring in it.

Current favorite song: Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie by Joanna Newsom

My shower is really clean. I would even confidently let my Grandma shower in it.

I kept thinking about how funny this was all last night so I figured I'd better put a link up, Mainly to protect my friends from a bunch of "it was so funny, you should've read it" type comments: One woman's account of a Billy Corgan poetry reading.

via Bookslut

Do you know your President?


"Bush supporters have numerous misperceptions about Bush’s international policy positions.
Majorities incorrectly assumed that Bush supports multilateral approaches to various international issues—the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the treaty banning land mines (72%); 51% incorrectly assumed he favors US participation in the Kyoto treaty--the principal international accord on global warming. After he denounced the International Criminal Court in the debates, the perception that he opposed it increased from 24% to 38% among Bush supporters, but a majority of supporters (53%) continued to believe that he favors it. Only 13% of supporters are aware that he opposes labor and environmental standards in trade agreements – 74% incorrectly believe that he favors including labor and environmental standards in agreements on trade.

In all these cases, there is a recurring theme: majorities of Bush supporters favor these positions, and they infer that Bush favors them as well. For example, in PIPA’s September 8 – 12 poll 54% of Bush supporters favored participation in Kyoto, 66% favored participation in the land mines treaty, and 68% favored a treaty prohibiting testing nuclear weapons (CTBT). Apparently in the absence of evidence to the contrary, Bush supporters assume Bush feels as they do."

From the PIPA Report 10/21/2004

via BBC Blogging the US Election

Peter Gabriel Quiz update: My friend Charr also took the Peter Gabriel quiz and also turned out to be In Your Eyes. I went back to the quiz site and tried to put in a bunch of random answers to see what the other songs would be. Turns out I got In Your Eyes as the answer every time except for two when I got Slegehammer (which I don't even think Peter Gabriel sang). I am starting to wonder about the accuracy of this quiz. . .

Yay!!! Now we will have two things to celebrate next week! A new President who is not borderline-retarded and the season premiere of The OC!

What I think makes perfect sense is that whenever I become unfocused, start spending too much time on things that don't matter to me, stop living my own life in my own space on my own terms, the main thing that helps me to feel like myself again is cleaning my house and feeding myself homemade food.

What I think is weird is that my cat always knows when this is happenning before I do and tries to tell me.

What I think is fucked up is that she likes to tell me by going to the bathroom in hierarchically designated non-litter box areas. The pinnacle of these areas is my bed, specifically my down comforter, to be superceded only in extreme cases by the pillow, or when the case is dire indeed directly on me when I am in bed.

The surprise issue of Knitty is out and I love the Booby Scarf (I typed "Booby Scarfy" the first time, hee!) the most! I love the round fluffy breasts but the optional nipple might be a little too suggestive for my personal taste.

p.s. the surprise issue is also a breast cancer awareness issue! These people are obsessed with breasts for health reasons as well as aesthetic ones. Have you checked yourself lately?

I saw the American version of Shall We Dance yesterday and it was really fun! I excitedly pondered taking ballroom dancing lessons for about a minute until I realized they would definitely require me to wear high heels. Anyway, I was very distracted by this beautiful honest sort of unadorned song that they played during one of the climactic scenes and I found out it is a Peter Gabriel song called Book of Love. I had a lot of trouble figuring out if this is his song or a cover or what the deal is, but in my googgling efforts I did find this delightful quiz:

If you were a Peter Gabriel song you would be :

Love indeed. You very much the Charismatic person. You try very hard to honor those you love. Romantic. Just don't strangle them! Be a lover, not a hostage taker. That's only because of your deep passion for life and people,which no one can blame you for.

What
Peter Gabriel Song are you?

Now I never post quizzes, actually I rarely take quizzes, but I thought this one was oddly relevant because of how I found it. I also like my result, because I think In Your Eyes, and now Book of Love are the only two Peter Gabriel songs I know. If you are going to define yourself by something random, it may as well be by a list of songs most of which you don't know.

OK, it's a whole new world. I was clinging to my old template that had all of the code for my comments feature, and for all of my webrings (well maybe I was only on one webring, but still)! It's all gone now and so is my simple awesome old template. Apparently now I am not allowed to have a link to a single Archive page. I used to have a simple and classic "Archive" button that would lead to a separate page with all of my archived entries. Now I have to have a link to each of my archived pages on the main page. I use weekly archives so that's about 52 archive links per year for two years and counting, seems a bit excessive. And I guess we're not using tables any more because my sidebar is shoved down to the bottom of the posts since I put up a photo that's too big! I'm sure everyone else is already over these changes and has found the happiness and bliss that come with the new and improved.

Pop Quiz:

What kind of idiot decides to tinker around with the color scheme on her blog and then unintentionally deletes everything after the very first table tags. What kind of idiot would then decide the preview feature had a glitch and SAVE the template of her newly gutted weblog thereby losing every modification she had ever made. Hi, my name is Karin, nice to meet you.

It's actually storming outside right now and our office airconditioning was stuck on. In related news this is the first day I am wearing close toed shoes since about March. I feel like I have giant clunky boats on my feet. Between the shoes and wearing my outside coat inside, I feel like I'm walking like Frankenstein with all of my arms and legs stuck straight out.

In unrelated news I will be installing twinkle lights in my house. If you think that's tacky you should see what I've already done. Mortifying the white carpet world one piece of glitter at a time.

Fall is here. I spent all drizzly day Sunday making cookies and watching movies. And this morning when I came in to work with a tupperware of homemade soup for my boss, she had brought one for me too. And Tashia brought me french fries from McDonald's, this is the best lunch day ever!

Introducing my friend Allyn's new blog Lacubrious Tempo. After ages of questioning the point of blogging he's finally come over to the dark side. I for one am very excited for the day he starts putting mp3s and gig dates up.

p.s. he loves it when you correct his grammar and spelling

Taking Risks

Tonight I am going to do something illegal. My friend Charr is a kickass photographer and I've posed for her before a couple of times, nude. Tonight we're taking it to the streets and I will be photographed nude in public. Maybe this is stupid but I'm very excited and I have this crazy vibratey feeling that I only get when taking risks that I'm not sure I'm up to. Examples of situations that have given me this feeling:

1. Getting up on the blocks to start a race when I was on swim team.

2. The time me and Kim won a bunch of money in a bar contest.

I am so torn! I really need to see both Mean Girls and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, but I hate Lindsay Lohan! She looks like she's 50. And instead of soliciting compassion, this makes me hate her. She simply cannot star in anymore quality teenaged cinema.

Here's another installment in the long neglected "kitty porn" series.

In other news someone just called and told me he wants to move in and will give me the money next week. He's a really nice kid, but things happen. Should I believe this and stop looking?

Apparently my friend Tashia had a dream and got to talk to my cat Sabine about why she is so crazy. I have really thought about taking Sabine to see either a pet psychic or pet shrink because she has some severe behavioral issues. But of course finances never seem to provide a lot of money for pet therapy so we just muddle through. I buy a lot of Nature's Miracle and warn everyone that she bites. According to Tashia, when Sabine talks her voice sounds like Katherine Hepburn and Sabine explained that she had a very rough childhood that she could not get over. This is what I have always expected to be the case since Sabine was quarantined until I adopted her when she was 10 months old. I don't think she ever got enough love to get used to getting it although you'd think that 9 years with me would trump a few months as a baby. I am so jealous of this dream, I wish I could have talked to Sabine about everything.

This is what makes me the most crazy about President Bush: the Tardfactor (trademark The Talent Show I think). I'm so glad someone has come up with a term for it so I can hate it more concisely. It's the stupid eyebrow raising, "down home" talking, stupid way he acts that apparently makes a bunch of voters believe him when he says he is keeping America safe from terrorists. The Tardfactor makes him say "you can run but you can't hide" regarding nearly every campaign issue, although this clearly does not apply to Osama Bin Laden. And can you believe he yelled at Peter Jennings on Friday?

Isn't this little minisweater so pretty! I know I've pledged to make so many things so I won't even say it this time. I'm just saying I really like it and it's small, so whatever.

This could be the most awesome thing I've ever seen/heard of. Shannon Holman makes poems for Dutch Boy paint colors (link via apartment therapy). Apparently Dutch Boy doesn't name their colors so she makes them up and in making them up a poem comes. I have always wanted the job of making up the names for the colors, but I didn't realize I could appoint myself. Likewise I tend to use the names the colors come with (I guess I'm too cheap for Dutch Boy) to help me decide on my paint. When I was painting my bedroom and the choice was between "Purple Passion" and "Mom's Lipstick" I knew what to choose.


Great moments in paint name history:

1. I made my ex-boyfriend pick up the paint from the counter when they were screaming out "Racy Red" in front of everybody.

2. When I decided I should seriously start dating again I picked out a color called "It's a Boy" for the bathroom. It worked like a charm.

Don't you wish this were your day?

Have I mentioned that I wish my days included so much more wine, soup, and Fall? In other news a friend at work just told me in an offhand way that she has a rototiller that I can borrow. FOR FREE!!!

Getting older is so weird. Now if my date doesn't call for a few days I don't wonder if he still likes me. I actually wonder if he could have died since the last time I talked to him. I don't know if that's good or bad?

I know it's only fair that we should have to wait for Autumn since we get Spring and Summer weather so much more quickly than anywhere else in the country. But I can't stand it any more! I'm broke! I have no money at all and I want to stay home by the fire with a glass of wine and make soup and read all day until financial conditions improve. Now I don't think that's too much to ask in October for chrissakes, but it seems a bit ridiculous when the weather is 80F out. I even have knitting waiting for me, in a damned basket. I'm sorry, I am a seasonal knitter and I feel silly knitting out of a basket with a blanket in my lap when it is 80 degrees out. This issue is really bringing out my blasphemous side.

p.s. If you would like to pay me $400 per month to live in my house in Roseville, CA I am actually a lovely person and would love to hear from you at msglitter@comcast.net

p.p.s. I will now go to step class and ride my instructor's pony

The Talent Show got a copy of the notes Mr. Bush was writing during the debate. Check em out

thanks for the link Brian!

Awesome things my step instructor says on a regular basis:

1. "Here's pattern two for your beautiful pleasure."

2. "Now ride my pony."

3. "Shift the taillights back."

Ode to Tashia

Oh Tashia, how delightful thy are in the workplace. How I love to bother you with pointless questions regarding the scent of my shampoo or possible VPL. You are always so patient with my awkward ass gyrations and so soothing in your promises that no, you cannot see my pantyline. You are a source of inspiration to bleach and cleaning supply manufacturers everywhere. Thank you one thousand times for loaning me your Dave Chappelle dvd and for never failing to keep it real. Your delight in the Panini is a constant source of delight to all, and your disgust with the hair care practices of white women with mixed children will be a source of contemplation for me in the years to come. Let your shoes always match your outfit and may you never fall false victim to the WMDs again!

Fun Fact

AD&D - 2 meanings

1. Accidental Death & Dismemberment

2. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Crazy, huh!

Sarah B. is so funny. Surprisingly, my favorite part of this post is the one about “party like rock stars” which I actually say all the time. Normally though when I say it, I'm talking about doing something like yard work or watching Lifetime, The Network for Women and Dudes Who Like Made for TV movies (Brian). My possible favorite part is when "random" is spelled with three "r's," that's exactly how they say it.

I guess it's a compliment when the anorexic lady at the gym says she thinks you've lost weight?

My Fall gardening goals (and yes, I know no one else cares about this but I have to put it somewhere I won't lose it):

1. Till dead lawn.

2. Slay unwanted shrubberies in the front yard. It is only our shrubberies which separate us from the animals. Try going to North Carolina, you'll see what I mean.

3. Seed green manure.

4. Plant verbena and butterfly bushes in the front of the front yard. This may require beauty bark (wood chips to everyone else, my family is weird) which I hate.

5. Plant everything else that's going in the front bed by the house.

6. Finish the blue garden, whatever that may be.

7. Make sure all of the plants I've bought are in their new spots and not still in the nursery pots.

8. Make strides toward not being the neighborhood blight this time next year! I want to be able to say "it's the house with the partying garden," instead of "it's the house with the dead lawn and two dead trees."

I can't really believe this just happenned. I ordered some plants via mail order from Mountain Valley Growers. I posted about this before, I was really excited. Here's the response I got:

Good morning, and thank you for contacing us.
Your package was returned to us due to an incomplete delivery address.
If you feel this to be in error, you may place a claim with UPS for the amount of your package.
We will be happy to supply you with any information you may need.

Unfortunately, when the plants were returned they had expired.
Our gaurantee does not cover delivery failures due to an incomplete address.

We are sorry there was a problem.
Customer Service Mountain Valley Growers, Inc. The Nation's largest supplier ofcertified organic herb and perennial plants.

What this means is that I am out $50 and all of my faith in local organic businesses offering better service than glossy chains. Actually any service: I paid for something I never received and was never contacted about, but apparently that is my fault. I want to cry.

OK, I just spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out where I can get Joanna Newsom's two self released albums: Yarn and Glue, and Walnut Whales. I finally found somewhere I think has them and now I'm not even sure if I want to order them. For posterity, I believe Aquarius Records may have both. Here's the page that makes me think that.

interest via Largehearted Boy

Autumnal equinox: talk about a liminal moment and boy am I feeling it.

p.s. the in-office gym is looking like a distinct possibility today.

for a certain someone who likes Garden State, here is Zach Braff's blog.

via fig and plum

Many thanks to Keirsten for clueing me into what a great job Doonesbury has been doing with the election. Here is a particularly delightful post about the media coverage, and here's a link to see the comic daily for free. I don't think I've looked at Doonesbury since my Dad read it and they had Quayle as that cute little waffle.

p.s. I totally spell checked Quayle, how embarassing would it be to spell that wrong?

Beside the point of the post, but I love the decorating idea in this picture from Apartment Therapy. Why not have curtains over your inside doors to make your house feel sort of like a Moroccan harem with special mysterious twists and turns. Even if you don't have a harem. Which I don't.

I am very excited for Elvis Costello's new album to come out. Apparently all of the songs are about one story, like a musical. I love the stories you always get from Mr. Costello's songs so this should be fun.

Also, I don't consider myself to be someone who really likes musicals, but I bought the CD of Paul Simon's Capeman and listened to it everyday for a year, so I guess I'm kind of into it.

My friend Allyn is always asking me what the point of blogging is. This article finally has an answer.

In other news, Paris Hilton will be Daisy in the Great Gatsby. I am torn between being appalled and thinking it's perfect. Her voice does sound like money, but not in an attractive way. No one ever seems to talk about Nick though, and he is the whole story to me. I once dated a guy who told me he had been Gatsby for Halloween. I said Gatsby is terrible, why not be Nick. He said I'm pretty much Nick every day.

A theme at Sparklehearts will be hanging lamps. I currently have one hanging lamp. Way to kick off a theme.

Ultimate Donut Party 2000!!! There are three boxes of Krispy Kremes and one GIANT box of regular donuts here!

p.s. how lame will I be when it's 2060 and I still call everything "ultimate party 2000?" Maybe exactly as lame as I am now since it's not 2000 now either?

I really like the moral of James P. Pinkerton's article about blogging:

"But if the bloggers have power, it's because they form a robust intellectual marketplace, in which assertions must prove themselves before a jury of cyber-peers. In the words of James T. Smith, of critical-thinker.blogspot.com, "The blogosphere is the people." To be sure, the marketplace can make mistakes, but on the whole, like democracy itself, the more folks participating, the better the functioning."

Lately I have been considering my responsibility in the upcoming election. I feel pretty strongly about the whole thing but I know I don't like other people dumping their political opinions all over me. (This is also because I usually think they're wrong and I'm right, but that's beside the point) So,I've decided to participate via comments in the side bar and leave the normal content of this site how it is.

I like the idea in this post of having an annual garden party so your friends can admire your hard work and you can recharge on the beauty of what you are creating instead of always finding fault.

This post from Cold Climate Gardening made me wish I loved pears enough to wait 100 years for perfect ones. Of course I'm envious of an established garden this year.

Hey, you know how I hate people affiliated with Iowa? Well there's this girl who I interviewed to be my roommate before I found the best roommate ever. I liked her and I asked her to live here and she decided she wanted to live in white-carpet-land over by the Galleria. Fair enough, but it pissed me off. And she's from Iowa. That was in February and I have seen this girl all over town, including at Starbucks, the grocery store, DMV, and tonight at my step class. And she parked her step right next to mine way closer than necessary. She never remembers me and I never introduce myself but I feel awkward all the same. Ok, I have to say it: this town's not big enough for the both of us!

This is the purse that kicked off my little pursey phase. I wish I would've made the handle holders longer. This purse already looks like crap, apparently I am not the type of person who can carry a white purse without getting it all dirty. I just realized though that I've gotten many more compliments on this purse in the last week or so than I did when it was cleaner. Weird.

Fall Knitty is out and boy is it great! I love clapotis, zigzag, and unbiased, though I doubt I'd actually put in the effort to make zigzag. I know I don't knit anymore lately, but finishing Rogue is my FIRST priority of the fall, right after the front yard. So it's my SECOND priority of the fall!

I got an email this morning from Robot K. Synagog about "best erection treating problems at our site." I don't really have problems with erections (except for there being no men for them to be attached to) but if I did, you can bet I would go see old Robot about the cure! I also think that Robot K. Synagog would be a good name for a geeky boy rock band for me to fall in love with.

Why is it that the end of winter and the end of summer are so unbearable? I find the end of Spring and the end of Autumn quite delightful.

p.s. if you are on ebay and you are trying to outbid me on glass towel bars, you are going DOWN!!! I want all the towel bars for me!!

p.p.s. we all have our priorities

Alright, my newest foray into trying to get dates any way I can is called myspace.com. It was reccommended to me by my hairdresser who gave me dorkbangs. But she is really cute and she does have a boyfriend so who am I to argue. Here's my profile (warning, you have to be a member to look at it, but it's free to join and I'll add you to my friend's list, promise!) Anyway, I was about to bitch about how I put my profile up yesterday morning and still nobody wants to be "friends" with me but now I have one message and one "friend request." So that's more like it.

And on a similar note, here's how Mary Blaire is dealing with the search for a date. She's a bit more goal oriented than I am though.

Here's another ridiculous cutsey word reference that I just found:

"milk, a ripe banana, strawberries, maybe some yoghurt and/or honey, whizz it all up and you have the best summer brekky drink."

Note the use of the word "brekky."

I should admit that use of the term "bisky" is very prevalent in my family when discussing a dog biscuit.

This is the tomato garden a couple of days ago. Tall, huh? They are in a bed that used to be the home of two big shrubs so I filled in the holes with compost and some manure and stuff. I think that is why my tomatoes are taller than I am but not overly productive: too much nitrogen. I'm still hoping for late season development though since I only planted these in May and late May at that.

p.s. I cleaned my kitchen top to bottom last night and it really, really needed it. Now I can't stop daydreaming about going home to be in it. Dirty much?

look how awesome this review of Crayola Crayons is! Spider Man is the reviewer and he is serious. Apparently coloring the shit out of stuff is his hobby, who knew? The review is very well done and thorough.

via ljc

Here's a little nursery who I've heard of often since they are local to this area, but this time I finally ran into their website: Annie's Annuals. And they sell perennials and other stuff too, not just annuals. They will be having a fall planting party in October so I may try to go to that. The website design is really cute but my favorite thing is that they have a "wishlist" feature! I have so many little post-it notes with my favorite plants written down and then I forget what they look like or why I thought they were so special.

Another little purse. This one is based on my sister's purse which has the same basic shape and is also made with vintage fabric. Alright, it's a knockoff. But I used fabric that is much louder than hers. Here's the inside.

p.s. I've been having a lot of trouble with the inline picture feature on blogger lately. They keep leaving?

This is the result, so far, of my experiment with Apartment Therapy's curtain hanging tutorial. I really like how the curtain separates the space. Here's a picture of what it used to look like when I came in the front door. I really like how the curtains hide the view of the crafty crap but still let light into the living room and allow me to watch the living room TV while I'm crafting. Also the living room feels so cozy now that it's the right size. The wire was so easy to hang and all of the hardware and everything only cost me about $10. The only thing I don't like are the curtains themselves. When I was hanging the wire I kept thinking about all the fabric I have, I was sure I would have something that would work. Turns out not.

Seeing this post at Bookslut about Dean Koontz reminded me of the two things I know about Mr. Koontz:

1. My sister used to read his books when I was becoming the book snob I am today. I was not impressed.

2. My horrible ex-boyfriend used to like to end fights with me by telling me that I wrote like Dean Koontz. I would then promptly throw him out of the house and he would not have to deal with me until at least the next day.

For the record, I have never actually read anything by Mr. Koontz.

Here is the coolest thing I bought from Park's little sale: Limelight Hydrangea. I hope it lives up to the hype.

There seems to be a little bug going around that is telling everyone to update something technical about their boring old blog layout. It's gotten to me too and I've decided I want to make special mini blogs for the sidebar to capture what I'm reading, and my current interests. I want an archived record of these things. Preliminary attempts have not yet yielded results, but we will see if I can prevail. I think so far I've been able to do everything I've wanted with my websites but I've always aimed pretty low.

p.s. Will someone please pay my supplemental property taxes?

With my little purse-making phase I've been taking a look online at the crafty girls who's purses I have always liked for inspiration. Here are some of my favorites:

Cut + Paste
Sparkle Craft
Mighty Flirt

Here's another thing I hate. A certain person who's blog I read (even though I don't know her personally or even email with her) recently had a perfectly wonderful time spontaneously getting married in the middle of the night outside of a bar. I happenned to take a look at her comments and it looks like a bunch of her friends, or at least blog lurkers, have decided to dump all over the whole delightful thing by pointing out irrelevancies like marriage licenses. Would you please just stomp the magic into the floor! Party poopers should be officially banned from leaving comments on perfectly fun people's blogs!

p.s. I certainly have become quite the hater! I should go to Dave Chapelle's Player Hater's Ball!

I am getting very excited about the fall plant sales and my fall gardening plans. I am planning on buying a few things at 40% off from Park's recent email flyer and a bunch of stuff at Mountain Valley Growers' mysterious Labor Day sale. I have been haunting Mountain Valley's site for a couple of months now to learn everything they know about herbs, and they are local to my area so I feel like I can trust what they have to say about the plants to be true for my climate. In addition I need at least one fabulous climing rose for the front of the house and I've settled on Reve d'Or. I had wanted to get this from Michael's Premier Roses which is actually in Sacramento, but they don't have that one so I am planning to try The Antique Rose Emporium. I purchased a few plants earlier this year from Park with excellent results but haven't tried any of the others. If anyone in my vast readership has any experience with any of these companies let me know.

When I got up today it was still kind of dark. It felt weird to turn on the light in the bathroom. We also are having a few days of unseasonably cool weather and cloudy days. As usual I am getting tired at the end of summer and have turned domestic. I made curtains and a peach pie this weekend. And I started working on some purses which I will try to sell at a friend's little winter craft fair.

Here are things I hate:

When people call a sandwich a "sammie." I love all other cutsey names for sandwiches including the following: samich, samamich, sandy-wich.

When people say "congrats." Why is it so much extra work to say congratulations. Are you really sincerely congratulating someone if you can't even take the time to say the full word?

I love this tutorial for hanging curtains across a room at Apartment Therapy. I have wanted to separate my dining room (used as a crafty room with all the crap that entails) from the living area for a while now, but I don't really have the cash or the motivation right now to build a new wall and with pass through windows. I had thought about doing curtains for a temporary fix since in the big picture this project will probably not even be started for at least a year. I still thought I would have to spend about a $100 on curtain hardware to make this happen and since I've already replaced all of the curtains in the house i.e. I don't need any more curtain rods, that was not overly palatable. Yay! for cheap and good fixes.

Also wanted to point out this post at Keri Smith's site about creating your own special space. Obviously I am obsessed with this notion to the point of creating a whole house in its image.

p.s. has anyone see Love, Actually? It was so good.

Look at this Random Kitten Generator and thank you to Marie for sharing it with me. I do need random kittens in my day.

This delightful recipe for minty lemonade looks like just the thing for me since I've recently planted mint and a little Meyer lemon grove in the backyard. And now that it's August for certain in Sacramento, 103F today, it sounds soo good! I only have a slight problem, which is that my plants and trees keep trying to die on me. It's a daily battle for survival and we have at least two more hot months to go. Last night I turned on the sprinkler in the tomato garden (I need to post pictures, it's growing like gang-busters and hardly trying to die at all), I had a million things to do before bed and I was so tired, but I almost couldn't walk away from the sound and smell of the water hitting the plants and the earth. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest I didn't realize that your body can crave rain the way it craves sunshine.

Anyway, for my own future reference or for any fledgling Sacramento gardeners, here is a list of the good plants that are going to town in spite of the heat, and they're only little babies. This may also be a good time to record my theory that no plant* really means "full afternoon sun" in Sacramento.

1. Lamb's ears, seriously, with very little shade

2. Butterfly bush, I plan to fill every space still available with these babies

3. Tomatoes and cucumbers with afternoon shade

4. Rose of Sharon, or hibiscus, or whatever you call it, with afternoon shade. The one out in the open is pathetic

5. Culinary Sage and Oregano, flourishing

6. Peach Trees, these may get a little tiny bit of afternoon shade but I think I planted them in June and they are still lush and green

*Obviously "no plant" does not refer to super plants Lavender and Rosemary. These are partying like rockstars.

On occasion my job requires me to look at how people die. I remember reading my first autopsy and t

On occasion my job requires me to look at how people die. I remember
reading my first autopsy and thinking: "If I die and someone writes
'Buttocks of victim are grossly unremarkable,' I will be so pissed!"

 

This is the layout view of a quilt I just did for my friend Rachel who's pregnant with Naomi (they are really on the ball with names!).  This picture turned out clearer than the ones of the finished quilt, but you can't see how cool the free motion quilting turned out.  And since I knew the baby's name I quilted it on there.  Lately, every time I make a baby quilt I think "boy this one is turning out really lame, this person is getting crap."  And then when it's done I end up loving it and feeling very proud and happy to give it to the person.  Now that I know that's the pattern I just ignore it.  I hope this won't lead to me making worse and worse quilts!

This is the map of how, basically, I want my garden to look.  Of course I did this a few weeks ago and have already departed and enhanced.  For instance, when I created the map I was  planning to nix the purple garden (located under the white crepe myrtle) so it isn't shown.  It is now one of my favorite new spots with Russian Sage, Lamb's Ears, and some other stuff I dont' know the names of,  and I even put a little froggy sculpture that came with the house in it.  I'm not sure that I want to show a lot of pictures yet.  Because, while it looks good to me, I know it looks sort of lame to anyone who doesn't know how much sweat went into it the tiny plantings so far.  Just wait till next Spring, then it'll really take off!

I've been wanting to name my house since I moved in, but it's not much of an estate. It is only now

I've been wanting to name my house since I moved in, but it's not much
of an estate. It is only now becoming anything worth naming through
living in it. (Somehow I am not impressed with the prior owner's skill
in this area and have felt I am the one who needs to breathe life into
the place.) I stumbled upon this entry* which mentioned naming the
garden only. Perhaps I will consider this since I plan for the front
garden to be rather masculine in nature now that the back yard has
turned into such a girly party.

*
http://fortyfour.typepad.com/bookishgardener/2004/01/i_christen_thee.html


p.s. I started the Lolita socks and am now solidly into the arch of the
foot. This could take a while. But the pattern is really easy to
follow (I've never done lace before) and quick.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/artandlife/apother_story.asp?category=1404&slug=Translucent%20Concrete

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/artandlife/apother_story.asp?category=1404&slug=Translucent%20Concrete

I love this idea. Makes me wonder if you could acheive a similar
effect at home perhaps using glass marbles as the aggregate?

doesn't a daffodil sponge cake with nasturtiums decorating the top sound delightful! So many things

doesn't a daffodil sponge cake with nasturtiums decorating the top sound
delightful! So many things and I have no time. What a wonderful
weekend, I went dancing with the sexy boys at Faces, Second Saturdayed,
planted in the purple garden, made some squares for another baby quilt,
ate quesadillas on my couch.

p.s. Best friends should never be allowed to move far away. Especially
not to anywhere as lame sounding as Watertown. Doesn't every town have
water?

well I'm doing such a good job of staying in the moment that I hardly have any inclination to post. I am counting last holiday weekend as a success because of the following:

1. I wore a bikini two out of three days and managed to drive in it both times. Ever wonder why I live in California? That's why.

2. Went swimming twice and finagled my way into plant watering for a friend with a pool who will be gone in August.

3. Got a bear hug from a homeless man who got high fives from everyone else in the room.

4. Bought peaches from a roadside stand in the middle of orchards.

5. Drank honey wine by candle light.

6. Bought a new belly button ring from a guy who said I looked "breaded." (I think that meant wealthy?)

7. Planted two peach trees and a plumbago.

One thing I can't stop thinking about is these lolita socks from knitty. I know I've said it before and I'll probably say it again: I am definitely making these as soon as fall hits. Or late summer. Usually in late August/early September the frenzied summer starts to wear and I like a good reason to park it on the couch in the air conditioning. I just wonder what shoes I would wear them with? I am too wimpy for any type of heel so it's tricky.

Here's hoping you're enjoying your summer as well!

Since I'm too lame to provide a real post, I would like to tell you what happenned on my boss's rece

Since I'm too lame to provide a real post, I would like to tell you what
happenned on my boss's recent business trip, as explained by her. And
since this trip reminded me of something that would happen on Dave
Chapelle's "When Keepin' It Real Goes Bad" sketch, I will report it as
such.

A man woman and child board a flight to Minneapolis. The family seems
normal enough with the exception of the man wearing his jacket on his
shoulders like a cape. The child is about six years old. After they
are seated, the flight attendant asks them to please leave the plane for
reasons unknown to onlookers. The woman and husband decide they should
be on the flight and that this is a good time to keep it real. "No,
this is our flight, we're not getting off. We're keepin' it real."
The flight attendant explains that she will call security if they do
not deboard immediately. At this time the family could have deboarded
the flight and could possibly have received a free upgrade of some type.
But instead they said: "No, this is our flight, we're not getting off.
We'll stand up if we have to." So the security staff comes, and in turn
the Air Marshalls. The man and woman are asked to leave the plane. At
this point the family probably could have deboarded the flight and been
detained for a short time only. But the man and woman decide to keep it
real. They refuse to leave the plane. The Air Marshalls cuff the man
and woman and the child follows his cuffed parents off of the plane.
Apparently the Air Marshalls were keepin' it realer.

This is a super cool picture taken by Philippe of his wife Soojin taking a picture of me. I don't know why but I love this picture. Together Philippe and Soojin comprise Jade Studio Photography and were such a pleasure to sit for: so nice, and so professional. If you are ever getting married in the Bay Area you should definitely try to get them to shoot your wedding, and they do portraits too. How often can you hang out naked with people you've never met before and feel totally comfortable?

Well, I've been doing a buttload of gardening/swinging a pick ax. The top picture is my inspiration for the leftover cut and broken tiles from the patio, mainly because they were already stacked there. So here's a couple pictures of what I have planted so far: plants & more plants. These plants include but are not limited to honeysuckle, hydrangea, rose of sharon, hibiscus, 3 Meyer lemon trees, mint (well controlled I hope), oregano, delphineum, butterfly bush. More to come. I also pulled a scraggly rose from the side of the house and plopped it in the middle of the herb garden because roses are herbs, right? I also picked up some extra delightful crap from garage sales to turn into garden art. And just in case you've started thinking I'm really as cute as I think I am in my cute pictures, here's one for the "oh, that's why," files.

How could I forget!!?

How could I forget!!?

Happy Summer Solstice everyone in the Northern Hemisphere! Enjoy the longest day of the year and feel free to dance naked around a bon fire or anywhere else you please!

Well now it's June, going on July so of course I find myself seduced by all things Autumny. I tend

Well now it's June, going on July so of course I find myself seduced by all things Autumny. I tend to be like this, a few months a head of myself even in summer, my favorite season. I don't know why it is so hard for me to stay in the moment! Anyway, I guess a lot of people are feeling like they have trouble enjoying because look what I found:

Keri's summer plans

because she in turn found:

Jen's list


So here is what I will do:

1. Tend my garden all summer. Just watch me!

2. Pretend I live in Tuscany. I have already planted 3 lemon trees.

3. I will leave doors and windows open all night and take cool baths.

4. Drink beer and eat olives and spanish sardines.

5. Take time off to be with Julie while I can.

6. Eat peaches.

7. Work on quilts when it's too hot outside in hippy summer dresses.

8. Plant honeysuckle and mint.

9. Stay up late when it's hot.

10. Be with my favorite people at Lake Berryessa.

11. Eat tomatoes with olive oil and basil.

12. Enjoy the patio at night.

13. Drink herbal iced tea out of glasses with ice in them.

14. Swim in everyone's pool who invites me.

15. Learn to make pie crust with my grandma.

16. Skinny dip. I have only done this once and I loved it. I hope I will have the nerve to do it again this summer.

care to check out the Designs on the White House finalists:

care to check out the Designs on the White House finalists.
My favorite is probably the "Don't drink and Vote," just because I like booze based humor. My serious favorite is probably the "If George Bush doesn't scare you..." one. I will definitely be buying one as soon as the finalists are chosen. Can't wait to wear it to my workplace full of conservatives on casual Friday!

this is probably my cue to read it:

this is probably my cue to read it:

http://www.rejoycedublin2004.com/

coincidentally it is written on a piece of paper on my desk to read it
soon

Did you ever wonder what I would look like as a sci-fi diva? Well here you go. I was trying to take another self portrait for my "look how hot I am" series but it turned out more grainy/too much flash. But I think I look pretty cool in molten metal or whatever. And, speaking of how hot we all are, I really liked this article from The Morning News about being confident with your natural assets.

Before

This is a picture of the barren wasteland I call a backyard, and my newest canvas for self expression/backbreaking work. I have been a bit stalled creatively lately since I have several projects bouncing around and only one budget for them all and I just couldn't decide which was the most important. So I put it to a group of friends and they sagely decided that I should garden first so the plants could get to growing while I worked on other things in the future. And they're right: if I put up a wall in my house it will be exactly the same in 2-10 years, but trees and shrubs will awesome by then (I hope). So another post with no point since even when I put everything I have planned in it won't look like much. Mainly we will use today's post as a comparison to posts I will make in the future i.e. year's down the line. Next year I hope to point to this archive with satisfaction!

And for something actually entertaining to likeminded people, well at least the really dorky ones: here is the first installment of what I plan to be another recurring feature: Kitty Porn (worksafe).

If there was ever wallpaper I needed, this is it. See 'Syrie.' Now if only I could get to New York

If there was ever wallpaper I needed, this is it. See 'Syrie.' Now if
only I could get to New York . . .



via
Apartment Therapy

Wishes

Wishes

Can you believe that if I bought everything on my Amazon wish list, it
would only cost me $205.26? Plus shipping and handling of course, but
still. That really makes me think that I should just try to buy all of
it the next time I have some extra cash to spare. I wonder what this
means? Should I wish for more things or should I be happy that I
already have everything I want except for what I could get with an extra
$205.26? Of course if I had real wishes I would probably never use one
for anything on my Amazon wishlist no matter how much I want that book
about jam or Weekend Knitting.

In my attempt to participate in the Amateur Gourmet's Bring Your Gourmet to Work Day. I have failed rather miserably. Since yesterday I happened to be at Trader Joe's right after reading his Pasta Pesto Peas entry I decided to grab a bottle of pesto and a bag of whole wheat penne and sort of go at it. And by "go at it" I mean I boiled the pasta and then dumped the pesto in there. I don't really like peas so I didn't put them in. It turned out pretty boring but I am eating it at work and I'm glad to have brought my lunch since I'm on a restricted budget due to buying a couch with a chaise and a half (1.5 chaises) stuck on the end. I've been living pretty happily on alternating cheese veggie sandwiches and peanut butter banana sandwiches, but this was a nice change of pace. So maybe the failure wasn't miserable, just not exactly "gourmet." Or maybe kind of gourmet, but heavy on the "amateur." Anyway, it keeps reminding me of this salad I used to buy at the CoOp downtown that was basically pesto penne but it also had little bites of chicken and chopped up sundried tomato in it. But with all these fancy ingredients we're sort of getting away from the whole point of eating less expensively. Here's hoping your gourmet experiment is more stunning than mine!

p.s. Last night I unearthed a seriously fuzzy and thick spider (like a baby tarantula with a giant body and stubby little legs) about the size of a ping pong ball hiding halfway down in my pile of steer manure bags. It was something I never would've imagined living in North America and I really wish I hadn't seen it.

This is a picture I happenned to stumble upon of my craft table in ultimate chaos in my old apartment. It made me feel kind of nostalgic and happy and like I need to get to fiber arting a whole lot more than I have been.

life is trippy sometimes:

At a party this weekend I met the nephew of this woman who is a Spy. He in turn is some kind of crazy theoretical scientist and he brought his granddaughter who is a ballerina and totally looks it (I made her eat one of my cupcakes). Here's what he said about me in his thank you note: "Julie, I enjoyed talking with your friend from Sacramento(?)-the one who made the cupcakes. She looks like a Pre Raphaelite painting."

There is actually no point to this post except that I was tickled that this cool old guy with the fascinating stories liked me!

I think I need to make these cookies pretty soon, maybe during the week or definitely this weekend. I have no idea what they may have to do with Neiman Marcus, or even what Neiman Marcus is now that I really think about it, but they look really tasty. I have been on quite the little baking binge lately:

5/31/04 - yogurt cake (I know it's supposed to be French but how long can I really be expected to remember all of those vowels?),

6/4/04 - rather pretty little cupcakes made from boxed yellow cake and topped with preprepared cream cheese frosting and coconut. Perhaps not the most homemade but they were very tasty and I was on a deadline. I guess I should've taken a picture, they were awfully pretty.

p.s. If you are going to take cupcakes to a party instead of strawberry delight, you should first ask the following:

a) will any of the hosts be providing a gigantic wedding cake sized cake with three layers;

b) will a renowned pastry chef be bringing or sending with her husband a cake which everyone will know to be extra delicious.

If the answer to either or these questions is "yes" you may want to reconsider bringing your rather pretty little cupcakes.

Cookie recipe via Chocolate and Zucchini.

Check out this hallway. I visited a house and the kitchen was actually painted this exact color. The girl had lots of cool turquoisey blue and white stuff in there to really set it off, like big colorful maps of South America with lots of pretty water. I vowed then and there that I would use the color as well, probably in the kitchen. (p.s. probably not until next year though. I am planning a minor remodel in the kitchen next Spring and don't want to mess with it much until then.)

7. Night with the windows open.

7. Night with the windows open.

6. The smell and texture of fresh mint.

I must say I am a bit of a Heidi Fleiss eater so I loved this comment:

I must say I am a bit of a Heidi Fleiss eater so I loved this comment:

"Do you really want to limit the enjoyment of your fine dining years so
you can extend the duration of your baby food years? Let's hope not."

Wimpy eaters are a serious pet peeve of mine. It's just food, it's
not going to kill you. Thank you Amateur Gourmet

things I love

Inspired by Nothing to Declare's list of 50 things she loves, I also will post 50 things I adore, but not all at once. Actually it will be more like Keri's list of new things she's learned, numbered and returned to periodically. Here are a few on my mind today:

1. Any opportunity for anyone to sing "Livin on a Prayer" out loud. I
got to last weekend.

2. The first day the tomatoes turn from green to kind of yellow and
orange flames.

3. Singing Air Supply and playing air guitar while driving the Bay
Bridge. (This is actually the only good reason to ever drive into San
Francisco.)

4. Washing my hands in cold water when it's hot.

5. Pedicures.

Can you believe just this morning this was a healthy happy plant? One day in Sacramento's early summer out of the ground but in it's appointed spot. And I just watered it yesterday! Time to get serious.

Check out my friend Charr's new blog. She's a fabypoo photographer and artist extraordinaire.

Here is a section of email correspondence between me and my bestfriend who just got her PhD in Chemistry.

J: Would you like to hear a passage from my thesis?
"The signal reaches a constant level, shown in hot pink... that's right, hot pink!" It's actually magenta but if I have the chance to put "hot pink" in my thesis, I'm not passing that up! I had to add the last part because Janette just challenged our whole lab to put hot pink in their thesis and
I decided it wouldn't be rebellious enough to just put hot pink anymore.

K: You are crazy! Yesterday one of our brokers dropped by unexpectedly to talk to me and I was wearing so much pink, inlcuding my new pink birkenstocks and my hair was in braided pig tails. I sort of wished I had worn something more businessy, but then I thought, "I underwrite in pink all the time, he'll just have to deal with it."

J: I really like this line, I think I'll use it:
"I do science in lipstick all the time, they'll just have to deal with it." Yeah!


And now you know what big dorks we are!