I got this cool kit for making sock creatures for my birthday back in April. Ever since, I've been wanting to do stuff with it, but have been bogged down with work, teaching, and school. Finally, I finished my teaching gig and handed in my independent study paper. Burned out... I was dying for something to unwind.
And I found it. Meet my first creation:
I'm stuck for a name, so feel free to offer your suggestions. :)
Oh, and now I'm obsessed, so I expect to have bunch of them hanging around before too long.
Like we didn't have enough to do this fall, we will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. We'll have the fam over, a total of 14 people and as many as 4 dogs... a full house to say the least. We're excited to have everyone over, but were concerned about where everyone was going to sit for dinner. We have a table that was generously given to us by The Danza's before they moved into the city, but it's not nearly big enough and also pretty wobbly with the leaves in place. What to do, what to do...
Enter our good friend Mike, who makes custom furniture and promised us a table as a wedding gift. We talked styles and he went out and got the materials for the job. The Boy and I generally let the experts drive a lot of the creative process in situations like this, because they're the experts and usually come up with way cooler ideas than we ever could. We basically showed him a picture in a magazine that we liked, told him we'd like to bring the outside in, and cut him loose.
We went to visit him and the shop this weekend to check out the process, and were amazed by what we saw... speechless, actually He went out and bought a single slab of wood, essentially a cross-section of a tree. His design was inspired by a designer named George Nakashima, who was an amazing furniture designer and a generally interesting guy. My favorite quote that I read by him:
A tree is perhaps our most intimate contact with nature. Each tree, each part of each tree, has its own particular destiny, its own special yearning to be filled.
But I digress... we saw the nearly finished tabletop, and it is badass. It'll be done for Thanksgiving (in truth, we were told to expect it "late Wednesday night"), and I can't think of a better way to break it in than having a meal with our family. Did I mention that it's about 9 feet long?
Check out the tabletop as it was on Saturday night. If you look closely, you can see Mike and even Bobo:
Thanks, Mike. You (of course)rock and we love you!!
1. Who eats more? The Boy 2. Who said “I love you” first? He did, although we had both been thinking it for a while. 3. Who is the morning person? The Boy. I could sleep until noon if I put my mind to it. 4. Who sings better? We're both pretty horrid. 5. Who's older? I'm two months older than him. We got married within that span of time, so our marriage license has me listed as a year older. He'll never let me live that down. 6. Who's smarter? We're both pretty damn smart, if I do say so myself. 7. Whose temper is worse? The Boy is the least patient man on earth and I'm probably a bit too passive. 8. Who does the laundry? We both do... depends on who runs out of underwear first. 9. Who does the dishes? Both of us... we try to do the one cooks, the other cleans thing, but with our schedules, sometimes one of us sometimes has to cover it all. 10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does, although Logan and I hog the bed. 11. Whose feet are bigger? His are, but they are damn supple. Mine, not so much. 12. Whose hair is longer? Mine, although he's determined to have longer hair than me. Both or our hair is pretty long. 13. Who's better with the computer? Me, but he learns more stuff every day. 14. Do you have pets? We've got two dogs. 15. Who pays the bills? The Boy runs the finances and does a spectacular job of it. We do a good job keeping one another in the loop when it comes to finances. 16. Who cooks dinner? The Boy is the cook of the family, but I'm doing more and more! 17. Who drives when you are together? He does... he gets carsick riding shotgun in the MINI. 18. Who pays when you go out to dinner? Doesn't matter... the money all comes from the same place. 19. Who's the most stubborn? Hmmm... he's pretty stubborn, but so am I. But I think he's more stubborn than me... yeah, definitely him and not me. 20. Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong? We're both surprisingly good at this. 21. Whose family do you see more? Mine... looong story. 22. Who named your pet? Logan came with me, and we both named Bobo together. 23. Who kissed who first? We kissed each other. 24. Who asked who out? Apparently he had been trying to get me to go out with him for three years, but I was oblivious. So, it was him. 25. What did you do on your first date? We walked Logan at the beach and went out for Thai. I, however, didn't realize it was a date until the next time we went out. I told you I was oblivious! Another thing that he'll never let me live down. 26. Who's more sensitive? Me... I'm a big baby. 27. Who's taller? He is. 28. Who has more friends? He's got a huge crew of friends that he's known since he was 14. It's pretty amazing, really. 29. Who has more siblings? I've got two brothers and he's got two half brothers... so I guess that makes it 2 to 1? 30. Who wears the pants in the relationship? We've each got a leg.
Having settled into our house for a year, we have identified some work that we need to do and have put into motion a plan to improve our house. One of those things is spray insulation under our great room. It gets really cold up here in the Ewok Village, and we were sick of freezing our butts off in our favorite room in the house.
We called a few places for quotes, made our decision, and made our appointment for them to come do the work... this morning. They were to arrive between 8 and 9 AM, so I was ready for them. At around 8:30, I heard a horrifyingly familiar noise... the BEEP, BEEP, BEEP of a truck backing up, followed by the revving of a large diesel engine, quickly followed by the loud scraping noise of metal on pavement.
Yep, you guessed it, my internet friends, the truck got stuck on the driveway, just like our U-Haul did last year when we moved in. After a few hours being stuck and doing all of the futile things we did last year to get our truck unstuck, they finally gave in and called the boss and for a tow.
I wandered down there when I saw the tow arrive to find two of my town cops blocking off traffic in both directions (I think it might have been everyone on duty this morning), and the tow truck driver putting a chain around the tree. At this point, all I could say to myself is my God, they're going to pull down a tree. I was also fighting the urge to laugh my ass off in front of them. Anyways, when the truck driver turned on the winch, all that happened was is that the TOW TRUCK STARTED GETTING PULLED TOWARDS THE TREE!! No truck rescue, no downed tree, just a sliding towtruck, chocks and all. After a little more finagling, they managed to get the truck free.
This is where it gets good...
At this point, I expect the owner to tell me that they'll be back tomorrow with a different truck, but no... He says this: "I'm getting that goddam truck up that driveway." He jumps in the truck, backs up the street at the proper angle, and guns the thing. One quick scrape, but the truck cleared it... until the wheels started spinning on the leaves on the steep part of the driveway. He backs down the driveway, cutting his wheel at an angle that made us think that the truck was going over on its side. I swear that truck was nearly at its tipping point. Admit defeat at this point? Hell no! He backs up the street more, guns the truck even harder and goes for the driveway. He clears the steep part, gets stuck a few times, adjusts, spins his wheels, adjusts, spins some more making smoke like I've never seen, and then HOLY CRAP, he makes it up!!
While this is going on, I turn to the two workers who were staring at their boss in disbelief. "He's a stubborn guy, eh?" "Yep." "Does he do crazy stuff like this often?" "Yeah, but nothing like this." The guy who was driving the truck when it got stuck in the first place, looking terrified, says "I'm afraid to go back down." I can't say I blame him. The boss tells them how to drive the truck back down and leaves them to do the job. They two workers were sweet and polite. I offered to buy them lunch, but they wouldn't let me. I'm going to have to write a nice letter of thanks to the company.
How did they do, getting down the driveway, you ask? I'll have to let you know... they're still here working!
UPDATE: The guys finished and got the truck back down the driveway with no issues. The way down is always easier. I bet they're glad that this day is over!
On Saturday, while The Boy toiled away at his adjunct gig, I jumped into my car to go grocery shopping. I headed out to the main road in my town (the one that contains our only traffic light). I was surprised to see traffic backed up a ways on the road. Concerned that there was an accident up ahead, I crept up the road in my car. Much to my delight, I see the cause of the backup... a horse drawn carriage headed up the road. As I took my turn passing the carriage, I was awestruck by the horse. It was a huge, HUGE black horse that could probably crush my little MINI with its hoof. It was unbelievable, actually. This is just not the sort of thing that you see in the suburban paradise where I grew up.
On a warm Fall morning with all of colors of the season, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect thing, traffic backup and all.
I appreciate the fact that you deliver me so many emails for both my job and my grad school program, I really do! It's just that, as much as I know that you're just trying to be helpful, I really do know how to spell my own name. Now, I know that you're going to insist that it's not your fault, but you won't let me add any words to the web based mail service... what's up with that?
Now, I know that we're kind of stuck with each other on a daily basis, both at work and in school. But all I'm saying is for you to please lay off, okay? Plus, I've never met anyone who spells their name the way you suggest, although I'm sure they exist and that they appreciate your trying to mainstream their name spelling. Are you up to something, Outlook?
I will be a grown up about this and will do my best to grin and bear it. We should be able to coexist. But Outlook, my patience is starting to wear thin. I think that you just wanted to know.
Best, Chrysanthemum (although you know my real name)
I just saw a VW commercial that reminded me of one that made me just want to go out and buy a Cabrio. It still makes me want to go out and buy a used one. Remeber this one?
In an effort to make Bobo be the most portable, well-socialized dog that we can, we've been bringing him out with us as much as possible. He still needs another set of shots, so he's been seeing the world from up in our arms.
Last night was no different. We took him with us to my neice's softball game. It was an unusual June night, cold and breezy. Poor Bobo was shivering, so I put him inside of my sweatshirt to stay warm. Within about 5 minutes, he fell fast asleep. Within 10 minutes, he was completely inside, snoring contentedly.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard a song that I really dug on XM. It was a new song, but sounded strangely familiar. Come to find out that it's the latest release from Tim Armstrong, someone whose work I have loved since his days in Operation Ivy and Rancid.. In fact, Op Ivy was the band that I think of first when remembering the stuff I listened to in high school. His bands' music has influenced loads of ska and punk bands over the past 20 years.
Man, do I want to go to a ska show... except, I'd be that creepy old person we used to mock when we were the kids at the show.
I'm completely adventurous, passionate and neurotic...I have been accused of preferring the company of animals to people...I am a newlywed, married to the most wonderful boy in the world who loves me for who I am...I'm adjusting to my new last name...I cannot take a compliment very well...I worry, and I'm good at it...I love the way snow packs down under your feet when you step on it...
