I wish it was still Fall

Family Portrait

Drawn by Don:

Solemn girl is solemn.

Earlier this month I was a part of one of my best friend's wedding, and it was a beautiful thing, lovely in every way.

Today I found this picture of most of the bridesmaids:


And here is me again as a bridesmaid three years or so ago:


Looks like I take weddings PRETTY SERIOUSLY. What every girl wants on her wedding day.

SUCH A LAME COMEBACK

I'm sorry, excuses, excuses, but I PROMISE I will write again soon.

Until then, enjoy this little boy killing it. Why did the parents even allow his sister to be in the video? STRICTLY AMAETEUR HOUR over there.

OHGODSOHOTBRAINISMELTING

Ok, summer can end now. NOT A FAN of late August weather. Remember when high school would start in early September and it was still hot as balls, but you had to be at school as opposed to lying in a pool or something else idyllic and all your exciting new school clothes got sweaty and it kind of ruined them for the rest of the year? What a crappy time of year this is. It only brings sadness and sweat.

I want to see the leaves change and drink apple cider and wrap a scarf around my neck because it's brisk outside. I WANT IT TO BE BRISK DAMMIT.

bad day, but with ponies

So, I'm pretty convinced that owning a car in Massachusetts is not fucking worth it at all. Driving in this jerk-filled town is so bad that when I imagine that I have magic powers (as is my wont), my #1 wish is the power to control car motors USING ONLY MY MIND. Shit would be on fire left and right. AND THEY WOULD ALL DESERVE IT. (Previous #1 wish: Accio Food! while sitting on the couch in the living room.)
On the bright side of things; I have a really good honest mechanic out here; plus some pizza and unwatched episodes of The French Chef. And these pictures of a dwarf pony, which negates about half of my sadness and sorrow. HOW CAN I BE SAD WITH SUCH BEAUTY IN THE WORLD??

oh hay hows it going

Continued whirlwind life. Interspersed with periods of lying on the couch all day. BOTH TOO IMPORTANT TO GIVE UP FOR BLOGGING IT LOOKS LIKE.

Here's what I've been into:

- Iced Coffee made with sun-tea style brewing. (The site says "cold brewed", but I think that's incorrect. I think cold brewed is way more labor intensive.) Anyways, SO GOOD. I mix some of this with soy creamer over ice and it's amazing. Please make it now. I'm experimenting to make a good Mexican style coffee with this method. Just adding cinnamon did not meet my standards. I think I will try brewing cinnamon with the coffee, or making a cinnamon simple syrup.

- Julia Child is the shit. I read her memoir, My Life in France, and then rented The French Chef on netflix. I can't get enough. Her attitude towards food is so unpretentious and passionate, even though we have some fundamental disagreements about what is delicious (make your own sausages with pig intestines? nope), I'm still in. There is also an incredible show called Baking with Julia on Create where she scares the bejeezus out of young bakers. Here's a small sample, where I think she says "a coon's age."



- I can't wait to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child.

- I've been designing my own sweater for the first time, but it's more theory than practice yet, since I've only gotten half-way through the back. It will be grey, very warm, and have pockets, as all good sweaters should. Would you like to see a picture? Sorry, Don has the camera in San Diego so you'll have to be patient. (Another reason I haven't posted, I have nothing to illustrate my posts. If I just use words, you'll all fall asleep.)

- Corn bread made with banana and honey instead of eggs.

- Moving, or the fact that I will be moved in about a month. The whole moving part is not thrilling me.

- Rolling Stones cover bands from Italy. Oh yes, they exist. Called The Stoners, naturally. And they were amazing. Though only Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were REALLY COMMITTED to the whole look.

i guess this is still around so I can post weird videos

I'm going to Mexico tomorrow. I just came back from New York. MY LIFE IS A WHIRLWIND.

This is a good approximation of my dancing style.

Frances and her pet rabbit: UPDATE!

Thanks to Ilan for giving me the extra push needed to find this magical video online:



THAT RABBIT IS AMAZING AND I WANT ONE. No more of this wussy getting my own crayons from the table. Also, that dress? Better than I imagined.

In related news someone just straight up peed on the floor of the cage like litterboxes don't exist. Time to trade up.

Moving on...

...from cats with no faces- here is a painting by an artist I really like, Alexis Rockman. It's called The Farm:



I thought of this painting last week, and I couldn't remember the artist's name, so I was googling such things as "Pig with organs outside it's body", "Quadruple tomato", and "square cow". None were successful, though the pig one led to some bad images. WHICH I'M NOT SHARING, YOU'RE WELCOME.

Also, no one commented on this picture I posted earlier, but I have it as my desktop, and I've compiled a list of things that I like about it:



- that haircut
- bulletin board with her name on it
- the name Frances, in general
- rabbit sitting on the goddamn table
- the look on that rabbit's face
- striped shirt with a white collar
- crayons strewn about the table like she doesn't give a fuck
- using the crayons with an expression like she seriously gives a fuck

This is a movie still from an educational film from the 50's about Frances and her pet rabbit. I WANT IT SO BAD, but it's only sold in a pack with 10 other educational films for $60. I don't want to deal with all the extra nonsense.

...

I'm sorry if I give you nighmares about Chase the No Face cat, but I can't suffer alone.

Also, check out the comments. People aren't messing around about the "my cat has a blog" thing.

hi I'm at work being a slacker

So when I come out to San Diego now, people mention that I look like I've lost weight. I always think "Hmm, why would I have? My life is, if anything, more sedentary than when I lived over here and made an effort to leave my desk chair."

But this just happened in the R&D Kitchen at work:

Me: (Wandering around looking for food.) "Hey Matthew have you guys made any more cookies?"

Matthew: "No, we're just about to make some. Want some of this cookie dough?" (Offers lump of chocolate cookie dough the size of my fist.)

Me: YES.



OK GOT IT. Working from home: A good way to not stuff gobs of raw cookie dough into your hungry little face.

a gift for everyone

I'm procrastinating online, and I found this video. It's the ending (SPOILER ALERT) of a Werner Herzog movie called Stroszek. Enjoy. I certainly did.

OH. hi.

I know, who's still reading this? I need to GET on the new entries train again. But not quite yet, I'm going to San Diego for two weeks to eat some goddamn burritos, and work too, I guess. In fact, you can halfway blame work for my long absence, I've been preparing for a BIG presentation, and I've been stressing out about that, and my ability to present. I've decided that the answer is to get a long pointer stick, so I can use it to point at the powerpoint, as well as calm my shaking, sweaty hands. Does anyone know where you can buy a pointer stick? Teacher store?

Anyways, if I'm too stressed to procrastinate working, then I'm apparently not blogging. What a good insight.

Here's some crumbs until I get back:

I'm really into this girl's entire childhood:




We've been listening to Patton Oswalt a lot lately. Here is one I really like.


Whenever I hit a knitting slump, knitting toys always gets me out of it. Very therapeutic. Right now I'm making an elephant, and I keep fighting impulses to give him a top hat and some monocles, maybe a purple smoking jacket. Since it's for a baby, not so appropiate. The only answer is to finish THIS elephant, and make one for myself. Maybe with a cigar too. BIG summer ahead for old Hagerty.

Mad Men on dvd. I can finally see why the 60's had to happen. Against all logic, this is my favorite character:



I KNOW RIGHT? He's such a trashbag, but I just want him and the secretary to run away together and BE HAPPY GODDAMNIT.

Best movie ever

Still sick.

sick sunday

There's this crow that keep landing on our window ledge and peeking inside our apartment. Obviously, looking for a tasty rabbit snack. Frisky's days are numbered.

I have the flu. Probably not that swine one I keep hearing about. We'll never know for sure since the liklihood that I will go to the doctor is PRETTY LOW. I would rather stay at home complain a lot, and look at random things on the internet.

Like this:

I forgot about this website...

Pictures of women and dogs collected from thrift stores. What a good hobby.

Here's another good dog website Don showed me tonight. Beedogs.com. No explanation necessary.

This n that

Sometimes you pick up some string and pointed sticks, and you make something perfect:



I'm really happy with the way this hat turned out. It's so springy and bright! Thanks again for the yarn, Michelle!

Want to know another great thing about spring, besides my amazing hat? It no longer makes me want to rip my face off because of stuffy noses and migraine-y headaches. I have had really bad allergies for the last 2 years after what I thought was a lifetime free pass, and I finally did something about it- I got a neti pot.

In case you don't know about these, this is how you use them:



If you're like me, you will spend 2 years looking at that picture and going EWGROSSNOBADTOOCLOSETOMYBRAINAUGGGHHH, and then avoid thinking about it some more. Also, most people describe the first time as "feeling like I'm drowning."

Seriously, the idea that my sinuses and my brain separated by so little is really hard for me to take. I'm still recovering from learning that the Egyptians removed the brains with a HOOK through the NOSE before preparing bodies for mummification AUUGHHGHHGROSSSSSCHANGESUBJECT-

ANYWAYS, I finally overcame my UNDERSTANDABLE hesitance, and I'm so glad. Hot weather still makes me cranky, but now without a headache along with it. Also, it's less like drowning and more like getting knocked underwater by a huge wave. Not that bad.

So, we went on vacation last week to Montreal and New York, and it was fun, and I fully intended to post about it, but what's the fun in that without pictures? And we have almost no pictures of this trip at all. All pictures fall in following categories:
1. Waiting for the subway.
2. Buildings
3. Watching Dumb and Dumber in the hotel room
4. Damien eating poutine in Montreal.

THAT'S IT. I also look really pissed off in most of them. Or drunk, which was only true about half the time.

Here's one of me, waiting for the subway, only a little bit mad, with maybe one glass of wine under my belt. (PS: NEITHER IS TRUE, MY FACE SUCKS.)




Besides neti pots, I've been really into:

This American Life podcasts. Nothing I can really add that hasn't been said hundred times before, but SO GOOD. This one made me wish I had gone to summer camp.

Doctor Who on Netflix. Cheesey sci-fi with some British historical figures added in. It also has an awesome theme song, IF YOU'RE INTO THAT KIND OF THING:

Coy boy

Work it, work it.

sadness, scarves, and scrawlings

So I finally got around to filing my taxes, and about an hour after I e-filed I got this message from Turbo Tax:

Note: The California Franchise Tax Board has instituted a refund delay due to the
state's budget situation, but will begin processing refunds as soon as funds allow.

Excuse me, but is this a fucking joke? California doesn't have a hundred dollars to spare? There's not even a date, it's "when funds allow." If you owe the state of California any money, please to be paying right now so I can get mines.

God, look how upset I am!



That's my eyes filling with tears for the tragedy wrought upon me by the State of California. Also, a new scarf! Made from scratch!


I've started carrying the camera around, to try and capture some of the amazing graffiti I see around Boston, specifically the subways. Here are two of the best.

Along the inbound track of Sullivan Square orange line. It's nice that in the middle of all these braggarts writing their names along the wall, someone with something to SAY took the time to leave their mark. It brings back fond memories of mulletsgalore.com. Anyone else remember that site? I used to read that every week. Back when mullets were funny.



On one of the benchs along the outbound track at Haymarket orange line. I like to think that someone was waiting on this bench, saw the first, mishappen monster scrawled in the wood, and thought "Oh, HELLS no. First off, balls do NOT-", and then just took out a pen and furiously etched their reply.

Decadent Sunday

I woke up this morning and thought, "Don and I worked hard all week. Don't we deserve something special this Sunday morning?"

Yes, yes we do.



These were as amazing as they looked, with some veggie bacon and coffee. I'm now considering going to the Apple Store and buying one of these bad boys. Because I deserve some decadence.

P.S. Matt Paul, Frisky has some words for you....



Yikes. It was shocking to see how angry he was, pounding away at the keyboard.

P.P.S. Paws using keyboards!!! Oh, it never gets old.

One for the money

Since my blog's most die-hard fan (my mom) has been missing the updates, well, here's one for you ma.

Uuuuuuuhhhhhh, not much to say. But I do have a new picture of everyone's favorite lard butt bunny!



Here is Frisky putting his keen intellect to good use. According to Don, his insights in to the Post Classic Mayan period is going to throw the archeology community into upheaval. Scholars will be running amok and throwing scholarly articles on bonfires left and right.

To me, the best part of this picture is the image of Frisky furiously writing down notes. Paws holding pens! Lordy, it's TOO MUCH!

(Side note, once we took this photo, we realized we had crossed a line. A definite lifestyle choice has been made.)

Right now it's noon, and it looks like 7:00 pm outside. It was really nice out for a couple of days, and I, foolish non-winter surviver that I am, thought that meant it was spring. WRONG WRONG. It then hailed and snowed and generally acted like a horse's ass outside for the next couple of days. Even though, I like the contrast between terrible weather and nice and sunny days to come. They just better come soon.

San Diego, here I come.

I haven't posted much lately, since it would all be a boring, boring log of my days filled with working at home/ staring at the internet, knitting while watching TV on DVD/History Channel shows about unknown creatures (Why is the History Channel obsessed with Bigfoot?), sleeping far too long, and repeat. Don and I went out to a coffeeshop on Sunday night (the only coffeeshop open past 8 around here, Boston is a big believer in early to bed, healthy and wise and all that), and we were giddy with excitement. Giddy. To be at a coffeeshop. At least Don is in grad school, I have no excuses. Just first real winter blahs.

But I'm about to snap out of that, since I'll be in San Diego next week! I'll be working, true, but I will also be seeing friends and family and BURRITOS. My obsession with burritos has not abated, it has only grown stronger in my absence from them. I'm going to grab my rental car from the airport, race to Ray's Mexican Food, and snatch the first (vegetarian) burrito from some startled jerk's hand and stuff it down my throat, laughing hysterically. The fact that I can forsee this still leaves me powerless to stop it. Um, see you all there?

Frisky update: Don has mastered the art of hypnotising Frisky. If you haven't seen a rabbit do this before, it's pretty amazing.



It's also hard to capture in picture, without looking kind of creepy. But he just lies there, totally asleep. We can clip his nails, pet his belly, all the things he refuses to submit to while awake. Tail touching, however, is still off limits. The first time this happened, it kept us entertained for hours (see above, re:coffeeshops).



This "trick" is something only Don is able to do. Whenever I try, Frisky wakes up right away. Obviously, this is because he knows that I have more of my ego invested in being able to pull off this kind of trick. And Frisky might be older, his reflexes slower, but he is still, and always will be, a total asshole.

Yarn time! I finished the sweater I was working on:



I can't believe it, either. It looks good, fits really well, and has almost no major mistakes. My major knitting problem is that I rush through things, and you have to be very disciplined when trying to create complicated patterns. I almost won on this one, but one of the underarms got screwed up, with a giant hole. I fixed it, but it looks kind of lame. I guess I never win. (Obscure musical reference, anyone?)

Here's a work in progress scarf with the yarn I dyed:




Pretty pretty.

The more I look at this, the less cute/more creepy it becomes.

Update on Winter:

Snow= still pretty cool.

Icy Streets where you fall hard and bruise your hands= over it. Thank god I had plenty of wine flowing through my veins to cushion that fall.

Icy cold air that gives you a runny nose and then you don't have any tissues so you surreptiously wipe your nose on your scarf, make a mental note to wash the scarf later, forget mental note and then curse your forgetfulness the next time you wear the scarf on a icy cold day, repeat as necessary= over it as well.

Here is my new hero:



Everytime I see his fat little face, lit up with joy at that muffin he's going to mow down, I feel better about life.

What I did on my vacation:

1. Learned how to crochet, but not very well. The crochet instructor used to teach kindergarden, so she was not afraid to yell and grab it out of your hands to show you how wrong you were. A little unnerving.

2. Dyed some yarn with Tracy:

This one came in a light, kind of beigey green, and I was over it. I dyed in in kool aid lemonade, which slightly changed it, then striped it with real dye at Tracy's. Much better.



This is the unraveled sweater yarn. I first dyed it with lemonade kool aid and blue and green food dye, trying for a green color, and it turned out limey mint. Kind of sick. The yarn was really resistant to dye for some reason. I took it to Tracy's for some dyeing help, and it finally got some good saturation of color. The color goes from yellowy green to bluey teal, and it looks amazing. I think I'm craving green because the entire world is dead and white and slushy grey snow. Here is our backyard this afternoon. Not like it's ever a verdant wonderland, but you get the idea:




3. Started knitting a sweater while watching all kinds of tv on our new high def set. No hitting required. There is a channel out here which shows Bob Ross all day. YES.



4. Ate amazing food. For those in SD, it's similar to Urban Solace, without the cringe-inducing name.

5. Finally busted out the pasta machine, and made some fresh pasta tonight. It worked much better than I expected for my first attempt.



I still conspired to ruin it by making the WORSE pasta sauce ever. In further denial of the weather outside, I made a lemon and parsley sauce. So light! So fresh! So acidic, it tasted like vomit! Seriously. It is a testament to the strength of our relationship that Don could honestly tell me that, and I could take it. Because it did. Taste like vomit.

In further kitchen experiments, I tried to make homemade veggie meat slices. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure some of you will follow that link and be pretty sure that vomit is a good guess. I'm more optimistic, but I used to be vegan. I'm used to eating weird things like that. We will see.

And of course I have to work tomorrow. Well, it was good while it lasted.

Here are some other knitted things I've made lately:

Cowl with Christmas yarn from Michelle because she is awesome:


Cowl with Malabrigo:


This yarn is amazingly soft. And Im sure I picked the color as another reaction against snowy winter blahs.

Here I am, engaged in some serious business:

Why Hawks Suck #77

THEY GET ALL UP IN YOUR SHIT, OOGLING YOUR HOT BOD, MAKING YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE.

GOD, SUCH ASSHOLES.

Another winner.

I went to the bank atm today, and someone had written in a new logo for the bank's consideration:

Citizen's Bank: THEY BANG YOU SO HARD.

I need to start carrying the camera around with me so I can capture all these wonderful messages.

I have a week off Trader Joe's, and I've been using my time wisely. Knitting, listening to Animal Collective non-stop, and staring at Frisky.
Tonight, I'm going to see Temple Grandin give a talk about her new book. I read about her in Anthropologist on Mars, and I think her story is really interesting. She gave a talk at Jack in the Box about animal welfare, and I'm still bummed out I didn't get to go.
I'm going to take a crochet class tomorrow. So for most of you, that will mean more pictures of things made of yarn that you can ignore. But at least two of you are excited, the ones who agreed that all is allowed for glory of knitting. You know who you are.

New Winner

I saw my new favorite public transportation graffiti last night- Some one changed a sign reading NO PASSING THROUGH to NO ASSING ROUGH.

Really, A GOOD LESSON FOR US ALL.

Previous favorite was someone meticuously replacing all mention of the Mattapan stop with Murderpan on the subway map. So now I know not to go there.

Look what else I found:



The accompanying story enhances the whole aura that picture radiates.