Monday, April 30, 2007
i am going to be a human coolatta. and it will be awesome.
i have a new plan.
every day it gets harder and harder to go to work. every day i spend the first 20 or so minutes of my day glaring at the world from behind the safety of my coffee mug, refusing to do anything or acknowledge anyone until the delicious brew has made it's way through my bloodstream and up to my head (however that happens) and i can speak in coherent sentences (it is no good to be nasty when you don't make sense and the thrill of verbal assault on an unsuspecting victim is all but lost if said victim looks at you funny, tilts their head to the side and says "huh? that doesn't make sense" argh.) so anyway, lately even my daily, sacred, beloved cup of coffee doesn't seem to be doing the trick. i'm pretty much counting on this stuff to be my artificial perk in a glass and i'm still pissed off all the time, and still barely dragging my ass into the seventh circle of hell for work.
perhaps i need a vacation;
perhaps i need a second cup.
but i have my second cup after lunch, i NEED a second cup by that time, to give me back a little peace and give me something to hide behind while i contemplate the new hates i built up during the morning and i do refuse to become a 3 cup a day person, because that is just one step away from a 4 cup a day person and it's straight downhill from there.
SO
to go seemingly off track for a mo, yesterday i was straight domestic goddess. i mopped for crying out loud, and i have never mopped with more than one swipe of the swiffer wet since i've lived here-seriously.the floors looked awesome, like WHOLE NEW FLOORS.
and in moving stuff around to prepare for this momentous event i stumbled across some turbinado and safflower oil i had bought a while back. i had been planning on making myself a sugar scrub, because i got some for a gift last summer and loved it but adam tossed it b/c he said it made the shower gross. so, in the name of undoing compromise i had gone out and purchased myself enough sugar and oil to create a lifetime supply of "F U take that stupid ex-boyfriend" sugar scrub. and upon finding the supplies last night, the plan was renewed, albeit in a more "i''m making this because i want to and i like it" way and not so much about what-his-face. (i think the plan originally stalled because there was so much "F U stupid ex-boyfriend" stuff to do i got tired before finishing. giving away his furniture on craigslist was like orgasmically satisfying and i think after that i just smoked a cigarette, rolled over and went to sleep on my rebellion)
so anyway, and here's the tie in: last night whilst preparing my concoction i decided to ask the google what else might be lovely and fun in my cosmetic chemistry set and it said to think about coffee for invigoration and other happy things on and under my skin (look into it) and so now i know the way.
i am going to rub sugar and coffee on my butt, and this is going to make me happy and perky. i don't see how this plan can fail, it's brilliant!
i'll let you know how it goes, but i do believe the principle is sound. if drinking coffee in the morning can make me so happy and alert and ok with the world, then how can slathering myself in it be even a little bad. i fail to see any flaw in this plan, and i am in fact clinging to it life a lifesaver floaty donut thinger 20 min after the ship has gone down.
more later, to be sure. this was a very exciting weekend and the week looks to be even more so. but right now i'm taking the grinds of coffees past and present - and by that i mean my cup o joe and the used grounds from said cup - and trying to get my butt in gear. meetings galore today, and i spent all the time i should have been preparing yesterday with my face buried in The Sun Also Rises (and Ernest you bastard, i love you, and so i will use capitals in your titles even though i think i know now who you're going to kill and who the instrument of destruction will be. sigh. i cain't quit you ern.)
and can we talk for a minute about the fact that you were hot? i never knew, never having cyberstalked your young handsome self. i've only ever seen this dude old.
i would totally do ernest hemingway. yowza.
every day it gets harder and harder to go to work. every day i spend the first 20 or so minutes of my day glaring at the world from behind the safety of my coffee mug, refusing to do anything or acknowledge anyone until the delicious brew has made it's way through my bloodstream and up to my head (however that happens) and i can speak in coherent sentences (it is no good to be nasty when you don't make sense and the thrill of verbal assault on an unsuspecting victim is all but lost if said victim looks at you funny, tilts their head to the side and says "huh? that doesn't make sense" argh.) so anyway, lately even my daily, sacred, beloved cup of coffee doesn't seem to be doing the trick. i'm pretty much counting on this stuff to be my artificial perk in a glass and i'm still pissed off all the time, and still barely dragging my ass into the seventh circle of hell for work.
perhaps i need a vacation;
perhaps i need a second cup.
but i have my second cup after lunch, i NEED a second cup by that time, to give me back a little peace and give me something to hide behind while i contemplate the new hates i built up during the morning and i do refuse to become a 3 cup a day person, because that is just one step away from a 4 cup a day person and it's straight downhill from there.
SO
to go seemingly off track for a mo, yesterday i was straight domestic goddess. i mopped for crying out loud, and i have never mopped with more than one swipe of the swiffer wet since i've lived here-seriously.the floors looked awesome, like WHOLE NEW FLOORS.
and in moving stuff around to prepare for this momentous event i stumbled across some turbinado and safflower oil i had bought a while back. i had been planning on making myself a sugar scrub, because i got some for a gift last summer and loved it but adam tossed it b/c he said it made the shower gross. so, in the name of undoing compromise i had gone out and purchased myself enough sugar and oil to create a lifetime supply of "F U take that stupid ex-boyfriend" sugar scrub. and upon finding the supplies last night, the plan was renewed, albeit in a more "i''m making this because i want to and i like it" way and not so much about what-his-face. (i think the plan originally stalled because there was so much "F U stupid ex-boyfriend" stuff to do i got tired before finishing. giving away his furniture on craigslist was like orgasmically satisfying and i think after that i just smoked a cigarette, rolled over and went to sleep on my rebellion)
so anyway, and here's the tie in: last night whilst preparing my concoction i decided to ask the google what else might be lovely and fun in my cosmetic chemistry set and it said to think about coffee for invigoration and other happy things on and under my skin (look into it) and so now i know the way.
i am going to rub sugar and coffee on my butt, and this is going to make me happy and perky. i don't see how this plan can fail, it's brilliant!
i'll let you know how it goes, but i do believe the principle is sound. if drinking coffee in the morning can make me so happy and alert and ok with the world, then how can slathering myself in it be even a little bad. i fail to see any flaw in this plan, and i am in fact clinging to it life a lifesaver floaty donut thinger 20 min after the ship has gone down.
more later, to be sure. this was a very exciting weekend and the week looks to be even more so. but right now i'm taking the grinds of coffees past and present - and by that i mean my cup o joe and the used grounds from said cup - and trying to get my butt in gear. meetings galore today, and i spent all the time i should have been preparing yesterday with my face buried in The Sun Also Rises (and Ernest you bastard, i love you, and so i will use capitals in your titles even though i think i know now who you're going to kill and who the instrument of destruction will be. sigh. i cain't quit you ern.)
and can we talk for a minute about the fact that you were hot? i never knew, never having cyberstalked your young handsome self. i've only ever seen this dude old.i would totally do ernest hemingway. yowza.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
I should be working, and yet here I am(the short version, I have not yet been fired)
Surely I've used that line before. It's such a common thought string around my head. I'm down in NC today, where I came for a couple of reasons. To a minor degree I came because my boss said I had to, because we are having an open house for people in the community to come see what we are about, and they decided I should be here because I apparently give a rather winning fake smile and they thought they needed some estrogen on hand so it doesn't look like a damn meeting of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes or something.
But, the most pressing of these reasons was to tell my company that I will not be relocating to lovely North Carolina come the fall. It had been something they had planned for me, and I had even planned for myself until kind of recently, when I spent a week down here and realized that as much as I love churches and strip malls, I do need more out of life than a place with several convenient escape routes and more God per capita than anywhere else I have ever been (except Illinois and Oklahoma).
Besides, Baltimore is growing on me. Kind of like a fungus, but not one of those horrible fungi. A nicely colored fungus, slow growing (*slow*) but it has happened, and I am enjoying myself and I want to stay for a while. I'm tired of moving and I don't like Wake Forest, I'm finally making friends in B'more and I'm happy where I am and ready to be settled for a while (ok fine, and I met a boy) and so I came to tell them that I was not moving. I was a little afraid I would get fired but that doesn't seem to be the case yet. So yay!
and furthermore, as an aside: I am big time now. I have a stalker! another el yay!!
As another aside: this may be the year of the pig, but it is the week of the run-on sentence. You should see some of the emails I'm sending out from work, it's great. The best part is, I am completely serious. ha.
So anyhow, because I can stall like noone else I know (except all my closest friends and several people I work with) I got here to NC late last night. I was a little punchy from all the coffee I drank to stay awake on the ride, but I was finally able to get some sleep with the help of Benadryl (another shout out to cold and allergy meds, woot!) and my friend Jake said I was like Johnny Cash, with caffeine to stay awake and benadryl to go to bed. Supposing caffeine is like amphetamines (ok, I see this parallel) and Benadryl is like downers (again, I'm with you), I can see the JC reference. I usually use Elvis but I like the Johnny Cash better. So I'm like Johnny Cash now, ok everyone?
and that sadly is all the time I can afford to waste right now. There are people looking at me, and I have just given them The Hand and tried to look busyt but they are not going away and so I have to wrap this up before they come to see what I am working so hard on. (ha, i totally said hard on)
I'm sure I will be reporting back later on the excruciating affair of the open house tonight. At least there will be wine, and I will have had another 3 cup of coffee day by then so it should be a trip, of one sort or another.
oh! and! Crazy Aunt Purl wrote a book! I don't care who you are, that's exciting.
But, the most pressing of these reasons was to tell my company that I will not be relocating to lovely North Carolina come the fall. It had been something they had planned for me, and I had even planned for myself until kind of recently, when I spent a week down here and realized that as much as I love churches and strip malls, I do need more out of life than a place with several convenient escape routes and more God per capita than anywhere else I have ever been (except Illinois and Oklahoma).
Besides, Baltimore is growing on me. Kind of like a fungus, but not one of those horrible fungi. A nicely colored fungus, slow growing (*slow*) but it has happened, and I am enjoying myself and I want to stay for a while. I'm tired of moving and I don't like Wake Forest, I'm finally making friends in B'more and I'm happy where I am and ready to be settled for a while (ok fine, and I met a boy) and so I came to tell them that I was not moving. I was a little afraid I would get fired but that doesn't seem to be the case yet. So yay!
and furthermore, as an aside: I am big time now. I have a stalker! another el yay!!
As another aside: this may be the year of the pig, but it is the week of the run-on sentence. You should see some of the emails I'm sending out from work, it's great. The best part is, I am completely serious. ha.
So anyhow, because I can stall like noone else I know (except all my closest friends and several people I work with) I got here to NC late last night. I was a little punchy from all the coffee I drank to stay awake on the ride, but I was finally able to get some sleep with the help of Benadryl (another shout out to cold and allergy meds, woot!) and my friend Jake said I was like Johnny Cash, with caffeine to stay awake and benadryl to go to bed. Supposing caffeine is like amphetamines (ok, I see this parallel) and Benadryl is like downers (again, I'm with you), I can see the JC reference. I usually use Elvis but I like the Johnny Cash better. So I'm like Johnny Cash now, ok everyone?
and that sadly is all the time I can afford to waste right now. There are people looking at me, and I have just given them The Hand and tried to look busyt but they are not going away and so I have to wrap this up before they come to see what I am working so hard on. (ha, i totally said hard on)
I'm sure I will be reporting back later on the excruciating affair of the open house tonight. At least there will be wine, and I will have had another 3 cup of coffee day by then so it should be a trip, of one sort or another.
oh! and! Crazy Aunt Purl wrote a book! I don't care who you are, that's exciting.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
i'm sorry, could you speak into my good ear?
so apparently the old lady who coughed on me monday had typhus or something because though i've been feeling somewhat "'subpar" all week, this morning takes the cake. and by this morning i mean 9am when i woke up as opposed to my usual 5 or 6 am hour. i slept for almost 11 hours last night. i do love me some powernapping, mm hmm. i don't care what the government says about me being a crackhead or whatever their issue is with cough medicine this week, i will stand in line at the pharmacy counter for the good stuff every night of the week (that is until the G men come to my house for suspicion of meth making ?) , it is magic and i love it. F the new NyQuil, it SUCKS. long live pseudephedrine! viva la revolution! and shit.
i cant hear out of my left ear, my sinuses are 'not good' and when i blow my nose these weird creaky noises resonate through my head. but i hate the dr, so im not going. i believe i can handle this with way too much vitamin c, some vitamin D (thats for denial, not doctor) and the good medicine.
the upside of this illness bit?
1)sudafed makes me feel funny, and though this harms my work ethic it's still kind of fun. i feel very tall, go figure. and the work ethic thing might not be so bad. i'm writing up a paper on some work i did, and the funny feeling in my head sort of unblocks my verbal creativity and allows me to be a capital BS artist, which is apparently what they are going for. so cool i guess, eh?
2)i have sexy phoebe voice. i'm considering going to karaoke tonight to sing some joan jett or janis joplin. because i am all "throaty" and deep and stuff.
and i may need a character reference soon, so be ready. i was trying to find out whats going on with the yarn store on my street and tripped over the blog of the girl who teaches the sock knitting class there. i want to knit socks so bad, i can just see myself in knee high custom made fuzzy, loving, warm, possibly striped socks all year round if only i could figure out how to make them. so anyway, i can never quite work my schedule to make the classes so i emailed her to ask her if she would teach me privately how to knit socks. the kicker? she's in high school, so i kind of feel like a dateline internet predator asking her to meet up. i keep expecting the cops to kick down my door followed by a tv crew asking me how could i do such a thing? i offered to meet her in public, but in a way that makes me feel weirder. clearly i have issues. somehow trying not to feel like a stalker makes me feel more like a stalker? i have no explanation for my shame.
i cant hear out of my left ear, my sinuses are 'not good' and when i blow my nose these weird creaky noises resonate through my head. but i hate the dr, so im not going. i believe i can handle this with way too much vitamin c, some vitamin D (thats for denial, not doctor) and the good medicine.
the upside of this illness bit?
1)sudafed makes me feel funny, and though this harms my work ethic it's still kind of fun. i feel very tall, go figure. and the work ethic thing might not be so bad. i'm writing up a paper on some work i did, and the funny feeling in my head sort of unblocks my verbal creativity and allows me to be a capital BS artist, which is apparently what they are going for. so cool i guess, eh?
2)i have sexy phoebe voice. i'm considering going to karaoke tonight to sing some joan jett or janis joplin. because i am all "throaty" and deep and stuff.
and i may need a character reference soon, so be ready. i was trying to find out whats going on with the yarn store on my street and tripped over the blog of the girl who teaches the sock knitting class there. i want to knit socks so bad, i can just see myself in knee high custom made fuzzy, loving, warm, possibly striped socks all year round if only i could figure out how to make them. so anyway, i can never quite work my schedule to make the classes so i emailed her to ask her if she would teach me privately how to knit socks. the kicker? she's in high school, so i kind of feel like a dateline internet predator asking her to meet up. i keep expecting the cops to kick down my door followed by a tv crew asking me how could i do such a thing? i offered to meet her in public, but in a way that makes me feel weirder. clearly i have issues. somehow trying not to feel like a stalker makes me feel more like a stalker? i have no explanation for my shame.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
im about to dismantle some shit.
so we're having a windstorm tonight; let me tell you about the wonder of engineering that is my front door. whoever hung the outer door and inner door managed to hang them so that the handles are at *exactly* the same level. it's perfectly lined up, latch to knob. the problem is that the door frame is about 1/4" too thin to accomodate them both.
the consequence? you can't have both doors shut at the same time. so usually in the interest of my personal warmth i keep the inside door closed. only with all the wind, the front door is flapping open and closed and smashing into the inner door. for some reason i dont ever remember this happening before, and it keeps surprising me. it sucks and if it werent cold and raining out, i would surely have attacked the whole kit with a hammer by now.
the consequence? you can't have both doors shut at the same time. so usually in the interest of my personal warmth i keep the inside door closed. only with all the wind, the front door is flapping open and closed and smashing into the inner door. for some reason i dont ever remember this happening before, and it keeps surprising me. it sucks and if it werent cold and raining out, i would surely have attacked the whole kit with a hammer by now.
picture blog
because i am lazy and tired and don't feel like going out in the rain to do the errands i didnt do yesterday (which inlcudes buying meat for beef stew i absolutely must have today), i thought i would blog to stall from having to get moving :0)
here are some pictures from the week:
these muffins are from a cookbook my dad got me for Xmas. here's the recipe online, but these muffins have a twist. i was out of blueberries so i creamed frozen peaches in the blender and used raspberries in place of the whole blueberries. good is all i'm saying. like wow.
behold, the lusciousness of my muffins. i don't want to talk about what happened to the 4 missing muffins. get off my back ok ?
and here we have proof that hell (or baltimore) has indeed frozen over. star is willingly letting kitty push his bare kitty self up against her for heat. the weather's not so hot today either, hence the stalling on leaving the house. but it's better than it was. the little scamps are still all snuggled up.
"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria"
and yes, kitty is pawing at my humps. he's quite the ladies man.
ahem. TA DA!!! look, i made a cable knit! ok, so it is dead easy like becky said, and i should have done it months ago, but still yay! i'm not allowed to start any new projects until i get courts scarf and my sisters curtains done, so this is of limited use to me. but it's exciting.
hot neighbor brought me some tulips on weds i think. pretty and still going strong, this is them this morning. i love a hardy flower.
and now out into the nasty i go. after a hot shower and probably a second coffee. or maybe i'll go get a delicious coffee as a reward for going out. mmmm, white chocolate mocha. yeah baby.
here are some pictures from the week:
these muffins are from a cookbook my dad got me for Xmas. here's the recipe online, but these muffins have a twist. i was out of blueberries so i creamed frozen peaches in the blender and used raspberries in place of the whole blueberries. good is all i'm saying. like wow.
behold, the lusciousness of my muffins. i don't want to talk about what happened to the 4 missing muffins. get off my back ok ?and here we have proof that hell (or baltimore) has indeed frozen over. star is willingly letting kitty push his bare kitty self up against her for heat. the weather's not so hot today either, hence the stalling on leaving the house. but it's better than it was. the little scamps are still all snuggled up.
"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria"and yes, kitty is pawing at my humps. he's quite the ladies man.
hot neighbor brought me some tulips on weds i think. pretty and still going strong, this is them this morning. i love a hardy flower.
and now out into the nasty i go. after a hot shower and probably a second coffee. or maybe i'll go get a delicious coffee as a reward for going out. mmmm, white chocolate mocha. yeah baby.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
woe is me. again.
All my bitching today is in monotone. I've gone right past caring to totally numb. I'm just intellectually noticing bothersome things at this point, how pathetic. Just ugh.
PMS is such a cruel joke. I know I'm ridiculously bitchy, I know I don't need a half pound of salt on a full pound of french fries, and I know that one does not need 2 candy bars, -just because one has nuts and one doesn't and sometimes you feel like a nut sometimes you don't and sometimes you feel like a little bit of everything so you eat one of each- but I am helpless to fight it. It's such a strange sensation to know in one far off corner of your mind that you're acting like a total nutter and yet be powerless not to be compelled by the weird ideas and food cravings that flood my brain. I feel like something out of a sci fi movie, where like my brain has a spaceship of little men steering me while looking through my eyes ( although in rereading this I do sound a bit mentally ill so maybe that's it. shh, our secret, k?)
Today's rants are as follows:
1)I'm still a little angry with the doctor community. Seriously, while we're on the subject of the computer thing, if you're not in there working then what the hell are you doing when you're all shut up in the office? Eating PB&J sandies? And furthermore, what's with the waiting? Anyone gotten into a Dr appt on time lately? If you're so smart, figure out you're contstantly behind schedule and adjust.
2)the fact that I have to work for a living. I mean seriously, I get that there are people out there who like it, but it's just not for me. Please jebus, *where* is my winning lottery ticket?? I see all these people in the news who win $100 million and hate it. I would not be one of those people, nor would I wantonly squander the money. I would buy whatever stuff I wanted and pay my friends not to work, but absolutely no hookers or blow. This is what I want to do with the rest of my life, please!
4)meetings. noon meetings, 5pm meetings, meetings people cancel, hell meetings people show up to. They just all suck, and not in the good way. I have to pick up the VIP squad at the airport today, so I can shuttle them back and forth to a meeting I don't even want to go to, which starts at 5pm. Honestly! Just really, who does that? Who *starts* meetings at the end of a normal workday. Why?
5)pizza places not opening until noon. What the hell? I've been up since 5, this is my lunchtime. Pleasepleaseplease I want a pizza.
However, the day has not been all bad. The other side of this hormone wave is the domesticity thing. I baked this morning at 6am! I woke up and all I could think about was muffins. It went something like this "Muffins....mmmm.....mmmmmuffins....need..muffins. MUFFINS!!!!!!" at which point I went bounding into my kitchen, grabbed a cookbook and whipped up a smashing little half batch (1/2 dozen) raspberry/peach muffins, because I was out of blueberries.
I'm not going to lie: DELICIOUS people. I can apparently bake now! Either that, or I'm so willing to eat anything that stands still long enough that you could serve me a shit sandwich and I would thank you. I am a tank right now, totally unstoppable! I ate *more* food *faster* than a man yesterday. We were both a little weirded out by it. hide your children, cause I ate a baby once!
Pets. The animals are good today. it's freezing but I refuse to put the heat on so we're all huddling by my Windows XP space heater for warmth. Star's so cold she's letting the cat touch her.
I have pictures of all of this, and will post them soon but not now. too lazy.
PMS is such a cruel joke. I know I'm ridiculously bitchy, I know I don't need a half pound of salt on a full pound of french fries, and I know that one does not need 2 candy bars, -just because one has nuts and one doesn't and sometimes you feel like a nut sometimes you don't and sometimes you feel like a little bit of everything so you eat one of each- but I am helpless to fight it. It's such a strange sensation to know in one far off corner of your mind that you're acting like a total nutter and yet be powerless not to be compelled by the weird ideas and food cravings that flood my brain. I feel like something out of a sci fi movie, where like my brain has a spaceship of little men steering me while looking through my eyes ( although in rereading this I do sound a bit mentally ill so maybe that's it. shh, our secret, k?)
Today's rants are as follows:
1)I'm still a little angry with the doctor community. Seriously, while we're on the subject of the computer thing, if you're not in there working then what the hell are you doing when you're all shut up in the office? Eating PB&J sandies? And furthermore, what's with the waiting? Anyone gotten into a Dr appt on time lately? If you're so smart, figure out you're contstantly behind schedule and adjust.
2)the fact that I have to work for a living. I mean seriously, I get that there are people out there who like it, but it's just not for me. Please jebus, *where* is my winning lottery ticket?? I see all these people in the news who win $100 million and hate it. I would not be one of those people, nor would I wantonly squander the money. I would buy whatever stuff I wanted and pay my friends not to work, but absolutely no hookers or blow. This is what I want to do with the rest of my life, please!
4)meetings. noon meetings, 5pm meetings, meetings people cancel, hell meetings people show up to. They just all suck, and not in the good way. I have to pick up the VIP squad at the airport today, so I can shuttle them back and forth to a meeting I don't even want to go to, which starts at 5pm. Honestly! Just really, who does that? Who *starts* meetings at the end of a normal workday. Why?
5)pizza places not opening until noon. What the hell? I've been up since 5, this is my lunchtime. Pleasepleaseplease I want a pizza.
However, the day has not been all bad. The other side of this hormone wave is the domesticity thing. I baked this morning at 6am! I woke up and all I could think about was muffins. It went something like this "Muffins....mmmm.....mmmmmuffins....need..muffins. MUFFINS!!!!!!" at which point I went bounding into my kitchen, grabbed a cookbook and whipped up a smashing little half batch (1/2 dozen) raspberry/peach muffins, because I was out of blueberries.
I'm not going to lie: DELICIOUS people. I can apparently bake now! Either that, or I'm so willing to eat anything that stands still long enough that you could serve me a shit sandwich and I would thank you. I am a tank right now, totally unstoppable! I ate *more* food *faster* than a man yesterday. We were both a little weirded out by it. hide your children, cause I ate a baby once!
Pets. The animals are good today. it's freezing but I refuse to put the heat on so we're all huddling by my Windows XP space heater for warmth. Star's so cold she's letting the cat touch her.
I have pictures of all of this, and will post them soon but not now. too lazy.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
OH FOR FUCKS SAKE PEOPLE!!
honestly. how the fuck do these people get through fucking medical school when they cant get their fucking heads out of their asses long enough to figure out how to use a fucking phone or computer. are you people fucking kidding me? you stick knives inside peoples' fucking bodies and you cant fucking return a fucking phone call? who wipes your fucking asses for you that youre so fucking imcompetent. and furthermore would it kill you to exhibit some fucking courtesy? i recognize you think you're the coolest fucking thing since sliced bread, but i can't make a sandwich with your happy ass and i disagree. GOOD FUCKING CHRIST PEOPLE!
can you guess where i am today? dingdingding! NSI.
\rant
can you guess where i am today? dingdingding! NSI.
\rant
because blogging is more fun than working...
here i am!
hope everyone had a fantastic easter weekend. mine kind of started off rough, what with the powers that be cowtowing to the jesus freaks and cancelling the naked chocolate man extravaganza. that really soured things for me, but i managed to regroup and make the best of it.
friday was a retail extravaganza. i hit the town and painted it green. went to home depot (mmmm, dremel), ikea (mmm, retail haven, square miles of stuff), garden shops, a bike shop and more. seriously i got my shop on and it was good.then there was my venture into redneck adventures in rockabilly bowling. it was actually an awesome time, and the band who played is from baltimore, and is an old roots rock favorite in these parts. website here, if you are at all into country, bluegrass or willie nelson (he's the man and he gets his own category) you should give them a listen. the whole scene was like urban cowboy meets city life or something- very hard to describe but certainly a bit surreal, all the while being a great time. the bar was chock full of rednecks and baltimore locals alike (not a huge stretch from one to the other), you could order your bud in a tall boy 22oz can or a longneck bottle, and the band was set up in the center 3 lanes of the bowling alley, just wailing away right up in your grill. it was fucking classic, and well worth the $7 cover charge for an evening of live music and bowling.
first, here is my traitorous dog, pining away for "someone" after he left saturday morning. it was gross, she stayed this way for like an hour:
it was cold and she sat there shivering in silence, so naturally i couldn't resist the urge to dress her up: notice where she's still looking. ugh. hussy!
then one thing led to another, and to celebrate the impending holiday i went up into the basket o headgear and found to my delight that i had in fact kept the remnants of last year's celebration. naturally, being 12 inside i dressed the dog up:
and then, just because i had a fez and i could, i bring you: easter shriner doggy:
Excellent fun. Dogs= dolls, but way way cooler.
hope everyone had a fantastic easter weekend. mine kind of started off rough, what with the powers that be cowtowing to the jesus freaks and cancelling the naked chocolate man extravaganza. that really soured things for me, but i managed to regroup and make the best of it.
friday was a retail extravaganza. i hit the town and painted it green. went to home depot (mmmm, dremel), ikea (mmm, retail haven, square miles of stuff), garden shops, a bike shop and more. seriously i got my shop on and it was good.then there was my venture into redneck adventures in rockabilly bowling. it was actually an awesome time, and the band who played is from baltimore, and is an old roots rock favorite in these parts. website here, if you are at all into country, bluegrass or willie nelson (he's the man and he gets his own category) you should give them a listen. the whole scene was like urban cowboy meets city life or something- very hard to describe but certainly a bit surreal, all the while being a great time. the bar was chock full of rednecks and baltimore locals alike (not a huge stretch from one to the other), you could order your bud in a tall boy 22oz can or a longneck bottle, and the band was set up in the center 3 lanes of the bowling alley, just wailing away right up in your grill. it was fucking classic, and well worth the $7 cover charge for an evening of live music and bowling.
first, here is my traitorous dog, pining away for "someone" after he left saturday morning. it was gross, she stayed this way for like an hour:
it was cold and she sat there shivering in silence, so naturally i couldn't resist the urge to dress her up: notice where she's still looking. ugh. hussy!
then one thing led to another, and to celebrate the impending holiday i went up into the basket o headgear and found to my delight that i had in fact kept the remnants of last year's celebration. naturally, being 12 inside i dressed the dog up:
and then, just because i had a fez and i could, i bring you: easter shriner doggy:
Excellent fun. Dogs= dolls, but way way cooler.
Friday, April 6, 2007
oh wow. i was cranky yesterday!
how did i not even notice that yesterday was thursday, my favorite day? i was so cranky and cynical all day i didnt even stop to savor the sweet anticipation of Friday, also known as "boo yeah, the weekend is here; f*ck you all!"
i'm glad that my cranky phase passed. i actually manually jacked it out of my life last night, because being angry gives you wrinkles and who needs that shit. i got home from work, in a bit of a snit (as you may or may not have gathered by way of the C bomb i dropped), and i decided i needed to turn my frown upside down, or at least try so i turned to my 2 major therapy outlets: shopping and climbing.
first, because i am a good citizen and like to patronize local businesses, i went to the falls road running store to get new sneakers. my current shoes are about 2 years old, and i have been hemming and hawing on buying new ones due to laziness among other factors but it's to the point where they just look beat and they can't be helping. (and i think we all know i need all the help i can get) anyhow, so i went to the running store and just marched in no nonsense and said "i need a pair of air pegasus right now. thats my favorite shoe" because this is the shoe i wore all through high school and college when i ran and it fits me very well. the last pair of running shoes i had deviated from this, they were one of those ones with the bubble in them and they were ok, but the foot just felt kind of funny (also might have been because the guy who sold them to me convinced me i needed to be wearing socks when i run so i went up half a size. turns out, its not true. i will not/cannot run with socks on) so anyhow. salesdude sensed i was not kidding and brought the requested shoe, in a very nonoffensive blue with red trim and i put them on, loving them as much as i knew i would and then he said "but". i gave him the hand and said "but nothing" and he continued on, mostly being ignored (i admire your tenacity bud) but i did hear the word "sale" which perked me up. whazzat salesboy? it turns out they had some newfangled fancy cushion based shoe (as opposed to air bubbles) that had the same body as a pegasus but some bells and whistles, and it should be $110 but was on sale for $70. in the name of being open minded -and loving a discount- i gave them a whirl, fake jogged around the store as best i could in my work clothes and bought them. the only hesitation came from having to look at them, because theyre pretty ugly. they look like something wrapped in tin foil, or "hubcaps for your feet" as the sales guy said. i decided now is not the time to start worry about how i look, so i bought em.
Call me the flash, bitches. Oh, and that little side panel is in case you have bunions, it stretches to mold around them. uh, thanks ?
directly upon leaving the running store i called katie, one of the girls i climb with and i told her i was feeling motivated and to get her ass to the gym, lest i have to climb alone with all those shirtless hunks around, and noone to talk to about them. we had spoken earlier in the day about whether or not we would climb and it was a lot of "eh, i dont know" so when i called her with my renewed vigor she was game, so we met up and did our thing for a couple of hours. and guessed who climbed her first 10.b ever? well since i'm definitely way too lazy to blog someone else's accomplishments, you would be correct in guessing me! i have never done a 10.b, not even in new mexico, which means that i am officially in the unchartered waters of progress and improvement. yay me! the other part that was fun was at one point we needed a break and so we were just sort of wandering around the gym observing and katie said "i can do a handspring, wanna see?" which mildly intrigued me, but the real meat of that sentence to me was that katie has no issue fucking off in public. we have just started climbing together so i have no real knowledge of how she is, but the fact that she was willing to fuck off and have playtime in the middle of the gym was music to my ears. we went up into one of the little climbing nooks upstairs and proceeded to test our gymnastic prowess. i have none by the way, but i did manage to nail the yoga headstand, which is where you make a cradle with your hands and put your head in it then go up to a headstand. katie can do tricks in hers, like wave her legs around helicopter style and stuff like that. i can not, but i did manage to hold the headstand for a bit and that was fun enough. she tried to teach me to do a backbend but i just don't and never have bend that way so she gave up and we did wall handstands instead. she was all "look i can do a walkover and then a backwards one too" so i had to pull out my big guns and do 3 somersaults in a row. she did a good job at hiding it, but i know that shit is awe inspiring.
i capped off the evening with some excellent conversations with a bunch of my favorite folks, including my nephew in arizona, who just turned 4. in speaking with him i was informed he had his foot in the kitchen sink, because he was "being up on daddy" (aka being held by my brother) and since he could stick his foot in the sink, he thought he should: i can totally see his point, and i expressed such opinion to him. i was also informed that he had lots of boogers(he's got a cold), his daddy said he was pink(he's got a fever) and he still loves fishes but not sharks, and that i have big hair. on this bit let me say i'm a little weirded out. when he was 22 months old they came to visit and i took him to the aquarium, where we loved on the fishes and he freaked out about the shark, and at some point he told me to make my hair big, which is baby slang for "rapunzel rapunzel let down your hair. so i can pull it". this was 2.5 years ago, and everytime i talk to him he brings up the trip. i'm a little worried he was traumatized somehow and that's why he recalls it so vividly. otherwise, dude's just weird or something.
and now today is FRIDAY! i do have to go to NSI, but only for half a day (the late half which is fine by me because showering before noon robs me of the chance to marinate in my own filth) and furthermore, i do *not* have to go into NSI tomorrow, or the next day. my weekend plans are not glorious, they are mundane. things like sewing projects, weed whacking and dusting, but somehow the more time i spend at NSI, the more satisfying things like that become.
i'm glad that my cranky phase passed. i actually manually jacked it out of my life last night, because being angry gives you wrinkles and who needs that shit. i got home from work, in a bit of a snit (as you may or may not have gathered by way of the C bomb i dropped), and i decided i needed to turn my frown upside down, or at least try so i turned to my 2 major therapy outlets: shopping and climbing.
first, because i am a good citizen and like to patronize local businesses, i went to the falls road running store to get new sneakers. my current shoes are about 2 years old, and i have been hemming and hawing on buying new ones due to laziness among other factors but it's to the point where they just look beat and they can't be helping. (and i think we all know i need all the help i can get) anyhow, so i went to the running store and just marched in no nonsense and said "i need a pair of air pegasus right now. thats my favorite shoe" because this is the shoe i wore all through high school and college when i ran and it fits me very well. the last pair of running shoes i had deviated from this, they were one of those ones with the bubble in them and they were ok, but the foot just felt kind of funny (also might have been because the guy who sold them to me convinced me i needed to be wearing socks when i run so i went up half a size. turns out, its not true. i will not/cannot run with socks on) so anyhow. salesdude sensed i was not kidding and brought the requested shoe, in a very nonoffensive blue with red trim and i put them on, loving them as much as i knew i would and then he said "but". i gave him the hand and said "but nothing" and he continued on, mostly being ignored (i admire your tenacity bud) but i did hear the word "sale" which perked me up. whazzat salesboy? it turns out they had some newfangled fancy cushion based shoe (as opposed to air bubbles) that had the same body as a pegasus but some bells and whistles, and it should be $110 but was on sale for $70. in the name of being open minded -and loving a discount- i gave them a whirl, fake jogged around the store as best i could in my work clothes and bought them. the only hesitation came from having to look at them, because theyre pretty ugly. they look like something wrapped in tin foil, or "hubcaps for your feet" as the sales guy said. i decided now is not the time to start worry about how i look, so i bought em.
Call me the flash, bitches. Oh, and that little side panel is in case you have bunions, it stretches to mold around them. uh, thanks ?directly upon leaving the running store i called katie, one of the girls i climb with and i told her i was feeling motivated and to get her ass to the gym, lest i have to climb alone with all those shirtless hunks around, and noone to talk to about them. we had spoken earlier in the day about whether or not we would climb and it was a lot of "eh, i dont know" so when i called her with my renewed vigor she was game, so we met up and did our thing for a couple of hours. and guessed who climbed her first 10.b ever? well since i'm definitely way too lazy to blog someone else's accomplishments, you would be correct in guessing me! i have never done a 10.b, not even in new mexico, which means that i am officially in the unchartered waters of progress and improvement. yay me! the other part that was fun was at one point we needed a break and so we were just sort of wandering around the gym observing and katie said "i can do a handspring, wanna see?" which mildly intrigued me, but the real meat of that sentence to me was that katie has no issue fucking off in public. we have just started climbing together so i have no real knowledge of how she is, but the fact that she was willing to fuck off and have playtime in the middle of the gym was music to my ears. we went up into one of the little climbing nooks upstairs and proceeded to test our gymnastic prowess. i have none by the way, but i did manage to nail the yoga headstand, which is where you make a cradle with your hands and put your head in it then go up to a headstand. katie can do tricks in hers, like wave her legs around helicopter style and stuff like that. i can not, but i did manage to hold the headstand for a bit and that was fun enough. she tried to teach me to do a backbend but i just don't and never have bend that way so she gave up and we did wall handstands instead. she was all "look i can do a walkover and then a backwards one too" so i had to pull out my big guns and do 3 somersaults in a row. she did a good job at hiding it, but i know that shit is awe inspiring.
i capped off the evening with some excellent conversations with a bunch of my favorite folks, including my nephew in arizona, who just turned 4. in speaking with him i was informed he had his foot in the kitchen sink, because he was "being up on daddy" (aka being held by my brother) and since he could stick his foot in the sink, he thought he should: i can totally see his point, and i expressed such opinion to him. i was also informed that he had lots of boogers(he's got a cold), his daddy said he was pink(he's got a fever) and he still loves fishes but not sharks, and that i have big hair. on this bit let me say i'm a little weirded out. when he was 22 months old they came to visit and i took him to the aquarium, where we loved on the fishes and he freaked out about the shark, and at some point he told me to make my hair big, which is baby slang for "rapunzel rapunzel let down your hair. so i can pull it". this was 2.5 years ago, and everytime i talk to him he brings up the trip. i'm a little worried he was traumatized somehow and that's why he recalls it so vividly. otherwise, dude's just weird or something.
and now today is FRIDAY! i do have to go to NSI, but only for half a day (the late half which is fine by me because showering before noon robs me of the chance to marinate in my own filth) and furthermore, i do *not* have to go into NSI tomorrow, or the next day. my weekend plans are not glorious, they are mundane. things like sewing projects, weed whacking and dusting, but somehow the more time i spend at NSI, the more satisfying things like that become.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
welcome to the monkey house
so im at NSI today, again, forever (?) and the day is dragging a bit. i decided to take some matters into my own hands, because like most large institutions everything here is decided by committee and they get some serious analysis paralysis going on. i on the other hand, like to charge ahead blindly, flailing my proverbial machete and just act without thinking- it seems like it should even out nicely between the two worlds no? so i let them do their thing for a while, then i do mine. and i began the forward charge for the next phase this morning, ruffling some feathers with my quickness but hey- it's their dime. they will thank me for this someday. plus, the main hold-up creator is out of town this week and i really needed to get this shit going while he had no say. sneaky? you bet. effective? si!
right now i'm waiting for someone who is supposed to meet with me. she fancies herself very important, and lots of people here blow smoke up her ass. im pretty sure she's going to hate me and i'm going to hate her back, it should be a picnic. i called her 30 min ago to confirm, and was told she will "most likely" make it (mental note: advertise punch and pie next time, for this is the way to get responses) but that i should wait past the appointed time in case she's late. i wonder how long they think i'll stay (she is notorious for blowing people off without a word). i wouldn't mind so much except that i got a way better offer and turned it down because of this meeting. boo work intruding on my fun!!!
i'm working on my next creation a la paint, but i have to be somewhat discreet about what i'm doing so i might have to pick it up later. who knows, maybe by then i will have a nice dragon lady aspect to add to the thing. the good thing about waiting on this woman is that if she does show up, i get the worst of the lot out of the way first (she is the first in a series of meetings with people who all think they are so great, but they're not. ok maybe they are great in some sense of the word, but curing blindness does not make you a good person, unless you do it for free in 3rd world countries sometimes, which some people here do; coincidentally, these very people are the ones who insist you call them by their first name, and you would never know how esteemed they are if it were not for the signatures on their emails. /rant lol)
so anyway. what's happened today that's interesting:
1) i bumped into some guy that i see at the climbing gym. funny, because i always see him here and think i know him but cant remember from where, and i always see him there and think i know him but the same deal. i think it's the complete 180 in attire that was throwing me, but today it clicked, and so don't you know when i introduce myself to him in front of a crowd of people waiting to get on the elevator i say "i didn't recognize you with a shirt on". haha. kerry does it again, cause yeah, you know how i do. i got lots of wide eyes at that comment, and a nice big smile from mr man (hello mr man. i see you have a sense of humor; this is good.)
2) something else happened i know it, but i just got so lost in my little reverie about mr man and his muscles that i have totally forgotten it.
3)update 5:15pm: fucking bitch totally blew me off. it was awesome, because she called and said she would be late and to wait a little more. then she called and said she wasnt coming at all. fucking cunt. there,now that that's out of my system. sigh...
right now i'm waiting for someone who is supposed to meet with me. she fancies herself very important, and lots of people here blow smoke up her ass. im pretty sure she's going to hate me and i'm going to hate her back, it should be a picnic. i called her 30 min ago to confirm, and was told she will "most likely" make it (mental note: advertise punch and pie next time, for this is the way to get responses) but that i should wait past the appointed time in case she's late. i wonder how long they think i'll stay (she is notorious for blowing people off without a word). i wouldn't mind so much except that i got a way better offer and turned it down because of this meeting. boo work intruding on my fun!!!
i'm working on my next creation a la paint, but i have to be somewhat discreet about what i'm doing so i might have to pick it up later. who knows, maybe by then i will have a nice dragon lady aspect to add to the thing. the good thing about waiting on this woman is that if she does show up, i get the worst of the lot out of the way first (she is the first in a series of meetings with people who all think they are so great, but they're not. ok maybe they are great in some sense of the word, but curing blindness does not make you a good person, unless you do it for free in 3rd world countries sometimes, which some people here do; coincidentally, these very people are the ones who insist you call them by their first name, and you would never know how esteemed they are if it were not for the signatures on their emails. /rant lol)
so anyway. what's happened today that's interesting:
1) i bumped into some guy that i see at the climbing gym. funny, because i always see him here and think i know him but cant remember from where, and i always see him there and think i know him but the same deal. i think it's the complete 180 in attire that was throwing me, but today it clicked, and so don't you know when i introduce myself to him in front of a crowd of people waiting to get on the elevator i say "i didn't recognize you with a shirt on". haha. kerry does it again, cause yeah, you know how i do. i got lots of wide eyes at that comment, and a nice big smile from mr man (hello mr man. i see you have a sense of humor; this is good.)
2) something else happened i know it, but i just got so lost in my little reverie about mr man and his muscles that i have totally forgotten it.
3)update 5:15pm: fucking bitch totally blew me off. it was awesome, because she called and said she would be late and to wait a little more. then she called and said she wasnt coming at all. fucking cunt. there,now that that's out of my system. sigh...
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Picture post
ok, so I have work to do this morning and in the name of avoiding it, I thought I would catch up on my picture posting since I have found my cable.
First up is this little guy. For no reason I was completely taken with him, and I didn't even kill him! I found him when I was digging my sunflower patch last weekend...
What's up Big Worm?
Then this is some little tree we saw at the races. I don't know why, but I really liked this tree. The view is from where we were lying in the grass, it was just that kind of day.
Idyllic
This is star's new way of greeting me. I'm not sure what she's been watching while I'm out at work, but I think I need to cancel cinemax.
Wanna bite of peach?
And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the wombat sculpture!
Just as a warning though, it's not looking too Wombat-y just yet. We were still working on the exoskeleton, but use your third eye to visualize, and I will try to paint a picture with my words...The end result is going to be a wombat, standing up, riding a skateboard (this explains why he looks sideways, because he is)
Here is Jason, welding a bolt plate to the vehicle frame. BTW, this wheely thing was a Craigslist freebie! rock on.
Jason checking his progress. You can see the skeleton is suspended from a pulley on the ceiling, because David has shit like that all over. Coolest workshop ever!
Here's a shot of David through all the mess.
In the background you can see someone whose name I forget grinding on one of the wheels.
and here is pilot Eli, making sure he fits and has steering control inside the wombat. He does, and like the work of genius that it is, the wombat mobile rocks the house. and rolls. It's currently missing a back lag, but there's other things to be done first.
First up is this little guy. For no reason I was completely taken with him, and I didn't even kill him! I found him when I was digging my sunflower patch last weekend...
What's up Big Worm?
IdyllicThis is star's new way of greeting me. I'm not sure what she's been watching while I'm out at work, but I think I need to cancel cinemax.
Wanna bite of peach?And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the wombat sculpture!
Just as a warning though, it's not looking too Wombat-y just yet. We were still working on the exoskeleton, but use your third eye to visualize, and I will try to paint a picture with my words...The end result is going to be a wombat, standing up, riding a skateboard (this explains why he looks sideways, because he is)
Here is Jason, welding a bolt plate to the vehicle frame. BTW, this wheely thing was a Craigslist freebie! rock on.
Jason checking his progress. You can see the skeleton is suspended from a pulley on the ceiling, because David has shit like that all over. Coolest workshop ever!
Here's a shot of David through all the mess.
In the background you can see someone whose name I forget grinding on one of the wheels.
and here is pilot Eli, making sure he fits and has steering control inside the wombat. He does, and like the work of genius that it is, the wombat mobile rocks the house. and rolls. It's currently missing a back lag, but there's other things to be done first.Oh yeah and completely off topic: I always wondered what the point of census data was, but this is a bit creepy. From now on, I lie when asked questions. Just in case.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
horses, wombats, and platypusses (platypi?) oh my!
haha, tgisunday. i'm sick, beat, tired and content. i can't find my camera cord, but check back later for actual pictures (not of the drawn variety, i've hit an artists' block)
for now, here's a picture of a wombat. more on this later:
i've been struggling with a cold for the last week or so, and i think i'm at the part where it's winning a little. the weekend was great and i got tons of fresh air, but i'm glad to be curled up in bed with the dog right now.
friday night i played it low key and watched "about schidmt" with jack nicholson. it sucked, the whole time i kept waiting for it to get going and then it just ended. ugh.
then saturday was the shawan downs green valley point to point race day. . it was as funny as i knew it could be, though i think i missed out on some of the local flavor i was seeking. where we were was a different crowd. there were entire families straight out of the banana republic and j. crew catalogs, madras plaid represent!
there was a little bit of race related excitement too. in one race, 3 jockeys got thrown and one got stepped on. they all ended up being ok, but one of the horses continued to run without the jockey and actually gained on other horses before taking off completely. it was pretty funny to watch (sorry jockey dude, but it was)
then yesterday we went to the house of david hess, who might be hands down the coolest person and funnest father i have ever seen. his studio/workshop is amazing, and he is the nicest guy ever. he gave us the a great tour of all his studio and work spaces and we even got to poke around his storage units, where he stores all the things he might eventually want to use for projects. his sculptures appear all over baltimore, and other parts of maryland both in private residences and public buildings. i was just totally blown away by how cool he is. i don't know why i would have expected differently, i guess i just anticipated some sort of attitude because he's a pretty big deal around here but i can't say enough good things about him. and he also has a very cool 12 year old son, eli, who has been working in his shop with him since he was 5. it's pretty funny for a 12 year to pipe up with mechanical suggestions in the middle of a project discussion, and even better for him to be right.
the project discussion in question revolves around the building of a 2nd team sculpture for the baltimore kinetic sculpture race, which is an annual event. read more about it here, but the short version is you build a sculpture of some sort that can move on both land and water. it's like 12 miles of land riding, 2 miles in the water, and there are various odd rules to be followed. david is historically known for his 8 man platypus sculpture, which will be running again this year, but he is also adding a wombat mobile which will be piloted solo by eli. david was gracious enough to let me wander around his shop, getting in everybody's way in the name of photo-journaling my day near baltimore arty greatness. as soon as i find my f*cking camera cord, i will upload my booty.
AND! we actually got to help work on the wombat sculpture. it's still in the early design phases, and i am obviously a total disaster in any sort of machine or adhesive based situations, but i was happy to do some of the more menial tasks for the crew. i was tasked with rolling pvc pipes into circles for the wombat's skeleton, and fashioning 20 finely hewn wombat claws using some tubing, a bandsaw, and a grinder. (all of the machines used were the old school belt driven types of stuff. insert homer simpson drooling here over david's shop, which anyone who has ever wished to make anything they could think of would die for) overall, it was a very fun weekend and when i get my camera connected i will update with the images.
and that's it for me, i'm off to sleep like the dead for a hopefully solid 12 hours or so before this week kicks in.
here's a little official blurb about david's platypus sculpture from the kinetic sculpture race's homepage.
"Eight independent bicycle pedal sets link into a master powertrain, using gearing so each pilot could pedal at their own personal rate. The sculpture weighs 3500 pounds with no one on it, and uses an SUV transmission providing 2-wheel-drive low gearing for pavement, and 4-wheel-drive high- and low-gearing for rough terrain."
for now, here's a picture of a wombat. more on this later:
i've been struggling with a cold for the last week or so, and i think i'm at the part where it's winning a little. the weekend was great and i got tons of fresh air, but i'm glad to be curled up in bed with the dog right now.
friday night i played it low key and watched "about schidmt" with jack nicholson. it sucked, the whole time i kept waiting for it to get going and then it just ended. ugh.
then saturday was the shawan downs green valley point to point race day. . it was as funny as i knew it could be, though i think i missed out on some of the local flavor i was seeking. where we were was a different crowd. there were entire families straight out of the banana republic and j. crew catalogs, madras plaid represent!
there was a little bit of race related excitement too. in one race, 3 jockeys got thrown and one got stepped on. they all ended up being ok, but one of the horses continued to run without the jockey and actually gained on other horses before taking off completely. it was pretty funny to watch (sorry jockey dude, but it was)
then yesterday we went to the house of david hess, who might be hands down the coolest person and funnest father i have ever seen. his studio/workshop is amazing, and he is the nicest guy ever. he gave us the a great tour of all his studio and work spaces and we even got to poke around his storage units, where he stores all the things he might eventually want to use for projects. his sculptures appear all over baltimore, and other parts of maryland both in private residences and public buildings. i was just totally blown away by how cool he is. i don't know why i would have expected differently, i guess i just anticipated some sort of attitude because he's a pretty big deal around here but i can't say enough good things about him. and he also has a very cool 12 year old son, eli, who has been working in his shop with him since he was 5. it's pretty funny for a 12 year to pipe up with mechanical suggestions in the middle of a project discussion, and even better for him to be right.
the project discussion in question revolves around the building of a 2nd team sculpture for the baltimore kinetic sculpture race, which is an annual event. read more about it here, but the short version is you build a sculpture of some sort that can move on both land and water. it's like 12 miles of land riding, 2 miles in the water, and there are various odd rules to be followed. david is historically known for his 8 man platypus sculpture, which will be running again this year, but he is also adding a wombat mobile which will be piloted solo by eli. david was gracious enough to let me wander around his shop, getting in everybody's way in the name of photo-journaling my day near baltimore arty greatness. as soon as i find my f*cking camera cord, i will upload my booty.
AND! we actually got to help work on the wombat sculpture. it's still in the early design phases, and i am obviously a total disaster in any sort of machine or adhesive based situations, but i was happy to do some of the more menial tasks for the crew. i was tasked with rolling pvc pipes into circles for the wombat's skeleton, and fashioning 20 finely hewn wombat claws using some tubing, a bandsaw, and a grinder. (all of the machines used were the old school belt driven types of stuff. insert homer simpson drooling here over david's shop, which anyone who has ever wished to make anything they could think of would die for) overall, it was a very fun weekend and when i get my camera connected i will update with the images.
and that's it for me, i'm off to sleep like the dead for a hopefully solid 12 hours or so before this week kicks in.
here's a little official blurb about david's platypus sculpture from the kinetic sculpture race's homepage.
"Eight independent bicycle pedal sets link into a master powertrain, using gearing so each pilot could pedal at their own personal rate. The sculpture weighs 3500 pounds with no one on it, and uses an SUV transmission providing 2-wheel-drive low gearing for pavement, and 4-wheel-drive high- and low-gearing for rough terrain."
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