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April 2007 Archive
Saturday,
April 28, 2007
Borscht
Carnage
Tomorrow I'm hosting a soup swap. My contribution is borscht. For
the swap you need to make 6 quarts of soup. Alise lent me a 8 quart
pot that I easily filled, and spilled.
posted on 4/28/2007 04:54:00 PM
This week's flowers:
I'm anti-purple, but these were the best and brightest of the bunch.
posted on 4/28/2007 03:52:00 PM
Wednesday,
April 25, 2007
I couldn't find Gunther. He was in self-imposed kitty jail.
posted on 4/25/2007 02:12:00 PM
Monday,
April 23, 2007
This
week's flowers:
I really love tulips. I love how much they grow/stretch while you
enjoy them.
posted on 4/23/2007 12:44:00 PM
Sunday,
April 22, 2007
YUCCA!
This corner feels much better now that it's got a plant.
I had wanted a plant for this corner for awhile. I went to Gethsemene
and had in mind The Plant I Wanted and The Plant I Should Get. The
Plant I Wanted was a large jade plant that was vertical with huge
trunks and the green all up top. It was $140 and I was worried that
it wasn't going to get enough sun. The Plant I Should Get was a
Mother-in-laws Tongue/Snake Plant/Sansevieria. Good vertical plant,
better with less light. But I wasn't as charmed.
In the meantime, I adopted Gunther and looked up poisonous plants.
Turns out Sansevieria is toxic. I figured the plant + one vet visit
= the jade. And I didn't want Gunther sick is he decided to eat
the plant.
I toddle off to Gethsemene with Jen and Josh. No jades! Huh! Before
I can think Plan B, nearby Jen says, "What about a yucca?"
Hey! Yes! Gorgeous Yucca! Lovely Planter! Happy Corner! Happy Brandy.
posted on 4/22/2007 04:49:00 PM
As you can see, I've been finally posting
photos from four months of belated blogging. Spend all day Saturday
picking, cropping, posting pics. I'll be adding text a bit every
day at the coffeeshop over my morning iced latte.
posted on 4/22/2007 02:36:00 PM
Windy City
(Rock and) Rollers
Way back when, my friend Leah had joined Chicago's first flat-track
women's roller derby league. She said, I should join. I absolutely
loved it in theory, but I had to say no for two reasons:
1. I don't like roughhousing.
2. I don't have medical insurance.
So, that was that. Since then, I've been enamored of the Windy
City Rollers and their discipline, work, tenacity. These are
some tough broads, and I say that with the utmost respect.
I met Kara shortly after she moved to Chicago from Colorado. She
was a derby girl there and was itching to get on a team here. She's
a force, Typhoid Mary to be exact. She recently made the Manic
Attackers team and last night had her first Chicagoland bout:
A one-woman epidemic.
If you are late to the game, women's roller derby is back. And back
in a big, badass way. There's leagues all over the place. Here in
Chicago, the Windy City Rollers started in the fall of 2004 (?)
and the Chi*Town
Sirens took up in October 2005.
If you think this is fake like wrestling, think again. These women
work their backsides off with practice and they bring it to the
bouts.
Here's the jammers ready...
... and rolling.
The
WCR page will do a better job of explaining your jammers from
your pivots from your blockers.
Once upon a time I went to a WCR bout at the Congress
Theater. I got there just as it started. It was packed with
enthusiastic, hipster fans and I got a lousy spot. I had to stand
on my balcony seat to see the action and didn't really have a clue
as to what was what. This year, their home is The Cicero Stadium.
I think it's smaller, but it's a big ol' gym with stadium seats.
There isn't a bad seat in the place for absorbing all of the action.
If you think roller derby is all troublemakers waiting to pick a
fight, you're wrong. These are devoted and respectful fans.
The Cicero location isn't CTA
friendly*, but I highly recommend getting a carload of pals to go
sometime this season!
On the superficial, girly side, I do so love the uniforms. These
are just the legs of:
The
Fury. They are darn uniform in their uniform and I love the
orange stripe tube socks.
The
Manic Attackers. I'm a consistency freak, but I gotta say I
love the anything goes approach to the MA's.
Enough color commentary. Go see
these women tear up the track!
* The CTA isn't even CTA friendly these days.
posted on 4/22/2007 11:19:00 AM
Saturday,
April 21, 2007
Gunther chillin' in the office. Some folks have asked if Gunther
will get his own blog. Nah, cats are a known quantity, so there
isn't as much to write about my feline friend vs. Numo
the hedgehog. Plenty of folks write about their cats, but as
much as I love Gunther, I don't think I'd be adding anything new
to the kitty discourse.
Since he's such a handsome fella, he may need a
gallery of his own.
By the way, on the wall behind Gunther are post-it notes delineating
changes I need to make to the site. I've been so very behind on
the site since I decided to move and then moved. Working to update
the homepage by my site's eighth
birthday on May 1!
posted on 4/21/2007 12:05:00 PM
Monday,
April 16, 2007
Gunther framed by the sun and
my pink toes.
posted on 4/16/2007 03:56:00 PM
Make
No Little Plans
Make
no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably
themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope
and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded
will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing,
asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our
sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us.
Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.
Daniel Burnham, Chicago architect. (1864-1912)
Just today, while Chicago celebrates being to US city vying for
the 2016 Olympics, I learned the whole of that quote! I (heart)
Burnham and how he shaped this city and I love his advice to "make
no little plans." I've even got a bright yella' shirt with those
words on it from the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Especially
chuckleworthy when worn by my busty self.
But, man. What a quote! I especially love the last two sentences.
I'm a big proponent of order coupled with beauty. Reminds me of
more favorite words from William Morris:
Have
nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe
to be beautiful.
p.s. Since I adore Chicago, I am proud that Chicago is the US city
of choice. If we get it, I'll be terrified of the crowds descending
on us, but also excited for all the people who'll get to discover
my home and favorite city.
posted on 4/16/2007 12:25:00 PM
Sunday,
April 15, 2007
Milwaukee-ing
While I was in England, Alise
emailed and asked, "Do you want to go to Milwaukee Sunday?"
Sure. Why not?
We had a lovely day. Perused the Milwaukee
Public Market. Wander an empty Third
Ward. It's "Milwaukee's Best Kept Secret," but it's still a
mystery to me. Got tasty-but-deadly butter soaked burgers at Solly's
Grille. Headed back south, not without a stop to:
Mars Cheese Castle
has a fantastic sign that's
a beacon for folks between Chicago and Milwaukee.
It was chock full of cheese. Alise poses with a state-shaped chunk
of cheddar.
I picked up some curds (unsqueaky  ),
summer sausage (yum!) and great mustard. I felt transported to "Up
North" in Minnesota (where I grew up going going "up north").
posted on 4/15/2007 07:09:00 PM
Saturday,
April 14, 2007
Apartment
Tour!
A reason I've been so quiet on my site the last six months is that
I moved. I tried to downplay moving for the first time in 8 years.
Boy, I'll admit, it is an
ordeal! Plainly, it sucks.
I decided to move the day before Thanksgiving. I had my housewarming
April 1st. In between I did an enormous amount of purging, organizing
and schlepping. But now I am overjoyed with the change! I truly
was the fish that grew to the size of her aquarium and now I have
room to move again.
Here's the tour. Enjoy!
This is the view from the front door. You can see my living area
(with Gunther on the futon), the dining area with Numo's cage on
the bookcase - clear through to the back corner of the office where
Avis is smiling at you naked in yellow goggles and a red cowboy
hat. I still haven't dressed her. I call this her Burning Man outfit.
She's pining for the Playa.
The dining table is set for my housewarming and I've got a better
shot of the Wall O' Art below.
My futon/bed on the left and the comfy green chair on the right.
The circle rug was a real score. 50% off at Pier One and it perfectly
tied the two pieces together. In the last place, the green chair
was too far from the futon for conversation, so no one ever sat
in it. Now it's close enough for two people to plan a conspiracy.
Thrown over the back on the futon is a Crate and Barrel comforter
(half price too at the outlet!) in Marimekko's Kivet pattern in
orange. I'm not a brand name person, but I appreciate good design
(Viva la Marimekko!).
On the shelf are two planters filled with pipecleaners ready for
my housewarming guests to play with.
Here's the green chair on it's own, with the lamp made with a mask
I got in San Francisco's Chinatown back around 1997. The green chair
is Ikea's Ektorp who's off white cover was dyed with Dharma Trading's
procion dyes.
I want to make different runners for the tops of the cabinets and
I need a great big plant for the corner on the left!
My shrine to symmetry. If you're just tuning in, I am a TOTAL symmetry
freak.
Waaay baaack in 1997 I bought 20 of these storage cubes. They were
the best darn value, because I use them in 4 different configurations
in the last apartment. Along one wall, then along a different wall,
then as a platform for the futon, then as a big ol' wall blocking
a drafty window.
In the new place, they do a great job defining the living room.
With 10 here in the photo and nine more on the green chair wall.
Those black stick-y things and pod things are from Pier One. I saw
a huge bundle of them, I really liked the pod thingies. I decided
to just go for a vertical thing. They're in Ikea vases and I like
how they are a linear element and really reach upwards. And they
kind of camoflauge the television antenna.
I like than those white, oversized-egg-cup planters have a better
spot. The blue things are just paper mache orbs. I can hide stuff
in them. They were very quickly made and could use redoing.
I hate the Television-as-God living room arrangement. Honestly,
I'm home alone 95% of the time and I love watching movies. So functionally
the teevee is front and
center. I like to think that this arrangement making it aesthetically
pleasing.
Boy, doesn't it look like I picked Gunther because he matches my
rug? He's sleepy from just waking up from an under-futon nap.
A pink arrangement on the black cabinet near the window seat. It's
an Ikea PS1 cabinet and it holds all of my sewing stuff: machine,
fabric, sewing box, patterns.
I don't have pics of my window seat yet. I'm working on the latest
incarnation of it. It was all pink. Then it went to red-orange/yellow-green
like the futon and chair. Now in the new place it's along West windows
and can be whatever color I want. I decided on yellow and white,
since it's so sunny over there. I'm waiting for the weather to get
warmer to paint the base in my office with the windows open...
The bathroom from a corner in the shower. It's got this very charming
turquoise tile detail, so I brought that color in. My towels were
baby blue, but I've bleached them white to be fresher in the new
place. The last tenant had a radio up on the little corner shelf.
I've got a bunch of odd stuff, plus cotton balls and swabs.
From Avis's point of the view, the office. She stands next to my
yellow Ikea Ivar desk. Really the only new addition to the apartment
was two Ikea Expedit bookcases. They are laid horizontally with
a drafting table top on them. Working fantastically as a standing
work table! I cover the table with 36" wide paper to protect the
top (lessen learned from wrecking my dining table as a work table
in the last apartment) and give me room to sketch.
The Ikea cubbies (name?) live in the office now. Instead of being
stacked 2 wide and 3 high, they're one long row. I still need to
rearrange the drawers in a better color order and a more logical
contents order. I used to have them memorized unlabeled. Now I end
up opening at least 6 drawers to find one thing.
It's also fantastic to have a work wall big enough to hang 48" tall
paper (above the cubbies). That's the size I use when I'm doing
graphic facilitation work. Nice to be able to work big. In this
pics they hold all the To-Do post-it notes organized before I went
to the UK. The ones on the door are done. The ones on the wall didn't
get done (nearly all blog posts to catch up on, like this one.)
I've only got two downsides to my new place: I lost my lake view,
and me kitchen is a closet. Thankfully, I can still walk over to
the Lake and visit it. And I'm a simple cook who did figure out
how to adapt the tiny kitchen.
It's 4 feet by seven feet. Knowing this before I moved, I decided
it was time to phase out the mismatched dishes and opt for all white,
all matching. Visual consistency, to help the small space feel less
cluttered. The shelf holds all my dishes and utensils. The wall
to the left holds my dish drainer out of the way. The wall to the
right is covered in Command Adhesive wire hooks to store bigger
utensils with easy access. Two of the cupboards are outfitted with
plastic lazy susans from the Container Store. I've always kept my
drygoods in specimen jars from Nasco. Each lazy susan holds 5 big
jars. I can turn them to get to what I need easily.
Not every problem is solved in the kitchen. Still need better access
to my spices. But it works pretty well for me. And I do like I that
if my feet were bolted to the floor, I could (nearly) still cook
a meal.
Yeah, I hate the dark wood cabinets. I may get a bee in my bonnet
to repaint them. They are hideous.
___
This place is a 570 square foot one-bedroom. My last place was a
425 square foot studio. Both are corner apartments with loads of
light. The last one hardly had any wall space being mostly windows.
The weather outside became my wallpaper. And every other inch felt
covered.
In the new place I've got my walls and I did not want to cover them.
So I picked one wall to be the "panopticon" covered in stuff:
I love it. Loads of different colors and textures. Some of my art,
some of other people's art. The other walls are empty and clean,
save two lamps. It's fantastic.
*whew*
There's a tour of the new place! I'm pleased as punch. It's fantastic
to have space to breathe. I easily came into this apartment with
a third less of my crap and a third more space. Happy housewarming
to me!
posted on 4/14/2007 11:06:00 AM
Thursday,
April 12, 2007
Cat
on Bus
Heard
the story of the bus-riding cat in England? My friend Sunshine
sent me the
link (with pics of the purdy kitty). Bizarrely, it's the town
I am working in! Wolverhampton.
p.s. The UK is treating me well. Lots of walking and siteseeing
around my gig. Gorgeous weather. Double luck, since apparently Chicago
go hit with a mess of snow yesterday.
posted on 4/12/2007 02:50:00 AM
Sunday,
April 08, 2007
Cheers!
I am sitting in London, totally wiped out by my second day of walking
around London.
After a hotel breakfast, I hit the Tube to go to the Westminster
stop and catch a London Walk. I was there nice and early, so I walked
around Parliment Square. I found a statue of Abe Lincoln. An appropriate
place to perch for a Land of Lincoln gal. I watch amoebic groups
of tourists go by. Guessed countries of origin. Enjoyed the beautiful
Spring day. But, I kept thinking, "I wish I knew the time..."
A bit later,
"I wish I knew the time..."
A bit later,
"I wish I knew the time..."
Then in ding-dong-dawned on me, I was facing
Big Ben.
Or as I now know, The Clocktower. Since Big Ben is the bell, not
the whole darn thing. Whatevs. I was enamored of the London Walks
site the first time I laid eyes on it, and my first Walk was awesome!
Sort of a Greatest Hits.
I'm happy and freaked out that today I laid eyes on:
The Ambassadors by Holbein
Arnolfini Portrait by Van Eyck
The Rosetta Stone
The Great Court of the British Museum. Lovely!
a bajillion daffodils in Green Park
only three dogs!
I friggin' loved the music of the Changing of the Guards marching
past. Makes me pine for a parade.
posted on 4/08/2007 01:11:00 PM
Thursday,
April 05, 2007
A
Nice Poem
It's National Poetry Month. Lynn K. sent me this lovely one a few
weeks ago. I am 110% stressed, 24 hours away from leaving my front
door, head toward the airport and leave the country for the first
time. It's exciting and scary and I feel a little bit like one of
the subjects below.
Bugs In a Bowl
By David Budbill
From Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse
Han Shan, that great and crazy, wonder-filled Chinese poet of a
thousand years ago, said:
We're just like bugs in a bowl. All day going around never leaving
their bowl.
I say, That's right! Every day climbing up
the steep sides, sliding back.
Over and over again. Around and around.
Up and back down.
Sit in the bottom of the bowl, head in your hands,
cry, moan, feel sorry for yourself.
Or. Look around. See your fellow bugs.
Walk around.
Say, Hey, how you doin'?
Say, Nice Bowl!
posted on 4/05/2007 07:02:00 PM
Tuesday,
April 03, 2007
Gunther,
110% Personality
Nefarious:
Gentlemanly:
Mostly he's just a goof. He loves to play and gets all wound up
and bitey. He stalks me around the apartment. When he catches me
he kind of spazs like he doesn't know why he wanted to catch me
in the first place.
When I come home and in the mornings he's Mister Cuddlebutt. And
Mister Motorboat because he's got one deep purr in him.
I really won the Cat Lottery!
___
I took the gorgeous sunflowers than Jen and Josh brought me and
integrated them with my housewarming flowers. The red gerber daisies
were shot, so I hid them underneath, so you could see the color,
but not see that they were superdroopy.
posted on 4/03/2007 12:29:00 PM
Monday,
April 02, 2007
Super
Soup
I'm feeling very clever. I took the leftover crudité from yesterday's
housewarming, chopped it up, added a can of chunk chicken, a can
of broth, minced garlic and loads of pepper and made a wonderful
soup!
posted on 4/02/2007 12:37:00 PM
Here are the gorgeous sunflowers Jen and Josh
brought me yesterday! Thank you!
posted on 4/02/2007 11:22:00 AM
The Giant
Wall of To-Do's
Yesterday's housewarming was wonderful. Friday I toddle off to the
UK for my first international gig! In the meantime I'm determined
to get a heckuva lot done. Thus, post-it note and a plan of attack.
They are arranged by day (the M,T,W,T,F at top), then in layers
from most important towards the top, nice to do, less urgent, along
the bottom.
posted on 4/02/2007 10:52:00 AM
Sunday,
April 01, 2007
My
House Has Been Warmed.
Hooray! It's Sunday night and I'm basking in a post-soiree glow.
I really like having Sunday afernoon parties, and my housewarming
was no exception. Thank you to my friends who came over and made
my house warm!
The table o' food. Normally, I throw one party a year, my holiday
open houses. At those I make a crock pot of cider and a bigger crock
pot of soup plus a bread. I was in a tizzy about what to serve for
the housewarming. It looks like I figured it out!
Oh, and I made a festive tablecloth out of a polka dot fabric that's
been in my stash forever.
I like the Coca-cola red and crazy green plastic cups with my gorgeous
flowers. I love this arrangement!
Recently, when Cinnamon was visiting, I mentioned that the two small
pots on each side of my tv needed aloe plants. She said that she
had a Big Mama Aloe with lots of babies. Her hubby Andrew brought
two over for me. Lovingly wrapped in wet paper towels and plastic
wrap:
I bought hundreds on pipecleaners for the party. Folks had loads
of fun with them and left my place littered with bendy, fuzzy creations.
Here Pat and Andrew model their facial hair:
posted on 4/01/2007 08:05:00 PM
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