Luckily for me, I have an abundance of 6th grade girls in my life.
I haven't written in a while, but I am going to skip right past catching you all up... since I am not so sure that anyone noticed the lack of posts except my father! :)
I wanted to share two things: the gifts I made for my sister (6th grade) to give to her friends for Christmas, as well as some of the joys of teaching.
Part one: Super Shawls.
Back in 2008, I made my sister a furry shawl for her birthday. She gratified my creative venture by wearing it all the time, and apparently her friends began to try it out and fell in love. Christmas 2009 rolled around with a plan in her mind: she asked if she could purchase three personalized shawls for her friends.
Armed with cuddle fur fleece, polar fleece, and some scrap felt, I came up withe these quick-to-make and comfy gifts.
I was well pleased with them. I even liked the back side, which featured the stitched outline of the flower on the other side:
Part two: Sugary Science Club
I barely felt motivated to post during the last few months, largely due to the bad quality of my old camera and the feeling I had that talking about my teaching job needed pictoral accents. Luckily for me, I am the proud owner of a new Nikon(!) and can now post pictures.
The girls I teach are amazing and so amusing. I could regale you for hours, but I will content myself to share some evidence of the fun I am having via these shots from today's Science Club.
Our activity of the day was nutrition-focused, in keeping with a recent focus at school on healthy choices. We measured out the sugar content of a few favorite snacks in teaspoons and were shocked and appalled to see the sugar we are eating! Then we made "sugar warning" posters that I can't wait to put up!
Essentially that's what I'm up to these days. You can't seem me anywhere here...but I was behind the camera, in my lab coat! :)
In other news, I am addicted to Christian rock these days. Matt Maher, Chris Tomlin, and John Waller, mostly. I think its improving my overall mood, so I am thinking it's one addiction I don't need to kick.
I would have written if I'd had a second. This teacher thing is busy... and I'm not even teaching yet! I promise to post pictures of my classroom once the decorating is done...that seems relevant to this blog.
I've been hard at working connecting with the other teachers, learning my way around my school, decorating, lesson planning, and envisioning myself as an award winning child-inspirer. I am excited to be implementing something I hope will be highly amusing: lab coats on the science department. Wouldn't that have made you want to learn science?!
I ordered this coat for myself and my fellow science teachers:
Now if only I had my lesson plans together... :)
That reminds me! Maybe it's this new science teacher role that has me interested, but I have to say that this documentary sounds fantastic!
That's just a clip... but I think it looks utterly fascinating!
Well... I'm completely exhausted. Happy Labor Day. I must say, I am glad to be laboring this labor day. All the stress now is a joy after unemployment!
While I spent my first 21 years protesting wildly against the cinematization of my favorite books, ever since the Narnia re-makes, I have been letting it go just a bit. Those movies blew my mind. Unlike Harry Potter's weak attempts (sorry, biased against that ugly Radcliffe boy) the Narnia movies have done an impeccable job with casting, CG-that-doesn't-look-like-Toy-Story, scenery, and music.
Thus, I have been more open to investigating the following. While these don't seem to be going for play-by-play authenticity, I am interested in the interpretations and nice visual treatment.
"Painting outside?... Did you ask if you could do this with us?"
"Ugh. I don't want to go home. I wish you could come over for a playdate."
(One girl to another:) "Did you get hurt? Is that really a bleed? Or did you paint yourself? DON'T TRICK ME, OKAY?!"
Oh, children... you are so strange and wonderful. I particularly like this hilariously common kid-practice of calling scrapes and cuts "bleeds" or even "bleeders". There is something very Dennis the Menace/Leave It To Beaver about it.
Camp has been eating up my time, as we've gotten quite a lot of rain. Kids come to camp with the primary objective of playing on the playground and screaming down the waterslide, so it's been a huge effort to cheer them up with crafts. But, I'm making it work. Today we had some sunshine, so our art effort was some watercolor painting, en plein air. A very interesting activity with five year olds. I think they initially thought it was illegal.
On another note, related to my last post, sister Maggie and I finished a painting yesterday based on the delightful aesthetic of A Hundred and One Dalmatians. Nice, eh? And it will match her room!
Yesterday I enjoyed a post-work movie with some of my siblings and my mother. My youngest sister and I had the unique opportunity to pick out the movie without the input of the others, so we opted for the genre that might not be the first choice at a 'family movie night': a cartoon!
We both feigned interest in a few other films we'd included in the 'options pile', but settled on the movie we really wanted to see: One Hundred and One Dalmatians, made in 1961. I had forgotten how completely beautiful the animation is!
While searching for images, I discovered an utterly fascinating blog dealing with color in animated film. Check it out here. (The images I am using came from Mr. Iten's site.)
I love the almost papercut-like look of the buildings, and the way the foreground and background move like stop-animation. I also can't get enough of the color scheme... or the characters' clothing!
First day of camp job #1. This being a very general, half day, primary-grades day camp, I felt that I was running the risk of planning too many activities for such young folks. After today I had to kick myself... these almost-first graders wanted a lot more out of me. Tomorrow I will have a much more chock-full schedule for them, I think.
Not that I had a bad first day... we opened with visor and backpack decorating, which (due to the inclusion of Sharpies and stickers) was a hit. We then moved on to some waterslide time; a good idea except for how cold they get, and how looooooooong little girls take to change into their bathing suits. If only women didn't talk so much.
Next up we played some games (a variation of 'heads up, seven up' and some playground tag) until lunchtime. Despite the fact that no child under the age of eight years eats real food unless forced, lunch went alright, too. After lunch we took a vote and decided on another round of playground time, before finishing out the day with pastels and colored paper. This last bit was a 'fly by the seat of my pants' moment because I got some very flawed advice from a fellow camp counselor, and had banked in a 'storytime' period. Which I knew wouldn't work... Should have trusted my gut.
Tomorrow I am going to give it a go this way:
9 AM Arrival, hopefully wrapping up by 9:15. 9:15-10:00 Model Magic 'fake food' craft–usually a big hit. 10:00-10:30 Water games, hopefully extending well past this time period. 10:30-11:00 Team obstacle courses. The two counselors will each champion a team. 11:00-11:30 Changing out of bathing suits. (You would not believe how long this takes. It's unbelievable. I think I will have a sidewalk chalk or obstacle course game going on out on the blacktop so that once kids are done they can go join an activity. This, or the playground.) 11:30-12:00 LUNCH 12:00-12:30 Playground time. 12:30- 1:00 Simple paper kites (with popsicle sticks).
Hopefully it will work out.
* * * * *
On an another (though still vaguely child-related) note, I saw Up! today with a friend and my sister and mother. It was wonderful. Simultaneously evocative of childhood enjoyment of Disney movies while also drawing a very nuanced, adult tear from my eye, it was a real story achieved through absolutely breathtaking animation. I am pleased to say this was a movie (like Finding Nemo) that was better because it was digital. Purist that I am, that really matters. The balloons carrying that dear old man's house looked SO real, and that wasn't something that classic animation could have achieved. Reality was surely suspended!
I am too tired (ah, first graders) to go on... but everyone should see the film. The little boy's character is made to seem pesky in the commercials, but he is actually irresistable on the screen. Likewise, what can seem to be an annoying dog character in a quick preview is actually hilarious.
One warning: I cried throughout the movie. My face was consistently soaked. So was my eleven year old sister's. While we are both sentimental, I don't think I could fairly say our reaction would be unusual. You have been warned.
all throughout my childhood i was a compulsive lister. i don't think much has changed. i was constantly revising lists: in my head, in my diary, on scraps of paper and on chalkboards. i loved planners and pocket notebooks and post-it notes, and have written myself at least one daily 'to-do' list since i was about twelve. (i used to include 'wake up' every morning!) the back of my first diary--pink with ballet slippers, and my name in stickers-- held a running list of 'best friends' that is hilarious too look at, both for the ridiculous reasons i crossed people off the list, only to add them back on, and for the fact that the word 'best' didn't seem to limit my quantity! 12 best friends, really?
one of my mental lists through my growing up years was that of the 'best days of my whole life'. some were very specific events--one particular Palm Sunday in which i felt very grown up, my eighth and ninth birthdays, the day my brother and i filled up a top hat with snow and made beautiful 'snow cake', some family vacations, a 24 hour period i spent exclusively painting as a freshman in college, a very hilarious fancy dinner in which my sister katie and i accidentally got drunk... there are too many to count.
today was one of the best days of my life, despite being entirely solitary and without much to speficically define it. i suppose i will just list everything, in keeping with the theme!
woke up (without an alarm) to good weather
spent a lovely almost-hour talking to my littlest sister on the phone (SHE called ME! so nice!)
cinnamon toast and coffee
did the underpainting for something new i am working on (mother's day!)
showered, got dressed in the new ($20) Audrey Hepburn pants i bought yesterday (sorry, it's a cellphone picture)
lunch on my sun deck, pretending i was on an enormous cruise ship (delicious egg salad and iced tea!)
read C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves: Friendship
and in an hour i will finish it off with Mass. the best.
after a few hours of being alternately weepy and determinedly optimistic over the phone to my accommodating mother last night, this morning am just laughing at the ups and downs of my psyche as it attempts to deal with change. never been my forte!
in any case, my chin has been up quite a bit higher about everything since nailing down my plans for the summer. (my job search has actually been a lot more fruitful, in general, since i directed it to NJ.)
this june i will be running the art (and possibly cooking!) end of things at a day camp at my elementary school. it's extra exciting because this drop-in day camp is a new idea for the program, so i get a lot of freedom in terms of what i want to teach. plus, it's little tykes: likely K-2nd grade, which will be delightful.
then, in july and early august, i will be the 2D/3D art director at the SIG day program at Stuart Country Day in princeton. 4th, 5th, and 6th graders...very exciting... and i get to set the curriculum, which should be a great challenge. comparable to my current work at the Children's Musuem, but with a bit of an older set.
here's what i dug up... this appears to be where i will set up shop:
i am especially excited about the campus of Stuart. during the school year, it is an all-girls Sacred Heart school, and one i am especially interested in. i actually applied for the summer position so i could scope out their campus...part of my long term interest in all-girls education.
ok if i don't own one or both colors of this boot some time in my life i will just feel upset. does anyone have $128?
or fashion sense they could possibly loan me?
i know if i could wear shoes like these that i would also, magically, be happily married, 28, have a sweet little baby (or two), and long hair (worn in a bun), be insanely rosy-cheeked, eat organic food from a small farm, and i would love my government.
so... if anyone wants to loan me that money, they're at urban outfitters.
i think of my mind like a computer. in general, i think i have good hardware and even good software, but in general i contend that i am lazy with software updates. however, in the last two weeks i think i must have gone into the mac store for some repair, and then they must have done all my updates for me and now everything is lightning fast. they fixed my trackpad, too.
did i take that analogy too far?
in any case. i feel wired, and busy, and fast-paced lately. i am sure this is largely due to a busier life than i have had in six months, now that i am actually doing something. plus, i've been really social lately! i am not a seriously social girl but man i have been amping it up lately with the peopled activity thing. i think it's nice, actually.
anna's visit was so great... i wish i could have elongated it. we packed it in, though... we went for a REALLY late dinner at the hopleaf as valentines... and we got a perfect seat right away! love must have been in the air. :) i got mussels (of course) and saison dupont. anna had a cashew butter and fig jam sandwich and a chocolate stout. mmmmmm delectable, with the great frites to boot.
we then woke up early and rushed around to get to Mass in evanston (with becca!). sheil was packed! we had lunch with her relatives at the lucky platter (mmm) and then split ways so she could pursue some of her other chicago people. i had some coffee time with becca and some dinner with lucy. we ended up on my couch that night watching priceless--the movie that is inspiring the growing out of my hair at the moment-- in and out of sleep, totally full, and totally dehydrated and exhausted.
we woke up feeling sick! but we were in good moods. just sad to say goodbye! i miss her so much already.
i had work today and i felt a bit like i didn't get enough done... i need to use some of my day off tomorrow to get in a bit of reading/research. it sure is nice to have research to do on the kind of thing i e-mail my sister about... playing with miniatures and dollhouses! work with kids is AWESOME.
speaking of that, check out maggie's great picture of her little critters:
they are soo cute. i love calico critters. i keep my little hamster family on my tea shelf. one sits in my pretty teacup.
ah, little anthropomorphic creatures!!!!
ooo... i have to get this recipe i cooked with my friend aamna and upload it. it was this very delicious fish recipe with a TON of paprika in it and i feel so delicious right now as a result of it. her company was also delicious. food and friends are very nice.
well, i wish i hadn't had coffee in a soy freezie tonight. i am tired but mentally buzzing!
one of my favorite cookbooks of all time is a little wonder i picked up in my younger years. in fact, it was the first book i ever bought all by myself.
i was a wee little eight year old, taking my turn at the book fair in second grade. we were living in tokyo at the time, and my copy still has--among other childhood ephemera--an envelope stuck into the back cover, ripped at the top, with my papa's handwriting on the front stating my name, 2A, 'BOOK MONEY', and 2,100 yen. (which really isn't much money.)
yes, my sophisticated book of choice is Betty Crocker's NEW Boys and Girls Cookbook.
mine seems to be the 1990 reprint. the pictures are of little ugly children in 90's gear, adding their opinions to the easy recipes, which are categorized in such groups as 'super snacks and drinks', 'good morning eye openers', and 'noontime fixin's'--to name a few. i was enamored with it as a child, but i barely made ANY of the recipes--i just looked at them and thought about them. i was strange. i actually remember envying the kids on the 'test panel'. and i had their names memorized. it was a lot like my obsession (um... at 15(!) years old) with ZOOM on PBS, and all the kids on it.
in any case, i actually got the most use out it in middle school, when my taste for cooking finally went farther than melting american cheese and milk in the microwave, adding pepper, and proclaiming it salad dressing. (seriously. and i ate it.) i have made a few of the recipes many, many times...though most of the book goes unused.
the recipes i have actually used are a funny collection: -chocolate milk shake -chocolate popcorn bars -egg in a frame -big puffy pancake (this one is actually UNBELIEVABLE and a way better recipe for a german pancake than most. i will be sure to post it at some point. mmmm. i impressed many a sleepover buddy with this... in high school! andcollege!) -i <3 shortbread -big burger cake (we forced my mom to do this one) -cranberry apple sparkler -toasty hot dog roll-ups -and of course, the oh so chocolate brownies
all in all, it's actually a great book for kids. it makes everything sound easy, explains what every term means, and has pictures of almost everything--and the pictures are fairly realistic. for instance, the one pot spaghetti looks disgusting, and the vegetable soup looks appropriately bland. i treasure this little wonder.
to be honest, all the childhood reading of this book is probably responsible for my innate ability to make chili and macaroni and cheese without ever bothering to 'learn'. cute.
and here are my oh so chocolate brownies, freshly made this afternoon--off to eat them in front of some little house!!! hooray for my 23 year old childhood!!!
today was my first day on the job at my internship at the Chicago Children's Museum and it was just lovely. the women i am working with are definitely awesome, the children i will be teaching are veritable babies (so cute), and the space is spectacular. i am going to learn a lot about writing curriculum for a very unpredictable audience, and i think a lot more on top of that.
i ate lunch in the navy pier crystal gardens, watching little catholic school kids chase eachother around the palm trees. this is going to be great!
2. weather
whatever it is that has possessed God to give Chicago spring weather in february, i hope it keeps happening. i wore a blazer, and NO SCARF (or gloves!) and ballet flats today. that is UNREAL. then, after work, i went jogging again along the thawed lake, and it was amazing~! the weather has everyone smiling... i just hope it stays around a bit.
3. fake beef
i just want to talk about fake meat. i have never been really into meat--not for any high minded reason or animal rights reason, but just because it doesn't really do it for me. never has. in elementary school my favorite food answer fluctuated between 'lettuce' and 'baked potatoes' and 'soup'. (yes, i was a starving irish child.) in any case... in my adult life, i can probably count the number of times i have cooked meat on my fingers and toes. or maybe even just my fingers.
i don't worry about this AT ALL. i don't think my health is in the least affected. i eat more eggs than Gaston, and if i chance to eat out, i usually order meat because otherwise i suspect i am being ripped off. and, of course, i eat meat when i am at home with my family.
what i do cook myself occasionaly is fake meat. usually just fake beef. which is hilarious, because if i eat meat, it's usually poulty. but fake chicken is not really my style. i think i don't like the seasoning that usually goes with it. fake beef is really quite good. i love seitan, beef-style, and i love general beef substitutes (i also love tofu, but not when it's masquerading as beef).
tonight i am enjoying trader joe's beefless beef strips. one of the best things about fake meat is how cheap it is!!! it's even cheaper than the cheap meat at trader joe's! i fried mine up with mushrooms and onions and A1 and worchestire sauce and chomped it down over penne. good.
funny thing is, i can't even finish my fake meat!!!
warning: i don't think i have ever put so many links in one post in my whole life.
hi all!
yesterday didn't allow me to blog-- i had to work on printing out a lot of work, which always leaves me in a pickle--you have to watch and tweak and adjust print settings when you are printing graphics (on nice papers) so it doesn't leave much ability to multi-task. i settled for 7 episodes of little house. i ate a lot of food, too.
in any case, as promised, i am going to get myself caught up and briefly detail leigh's visit.
leigh arrived fresh on the tail of my san fran visit, so she had a real view of my apartment: no fancy clean up job. we started off the early day with a trip over to have some brunch at my favorite little place (maybe my only favorite place?) in streeterville: the cute little café that hugs the ridiculously lovely peninsula hotel. of course, we took a little jaunt through the main floor of that decadent hotel, first. and pretended that we already owned all the fur and diamonds in the little windowboxes in the lobby. the concierge smirked at us. pierrot gourmet (as that cute little café is called) is so calm-- i really like it there. i have a lot of important memories there, in fact: my mother and i sharing a sandwich a while back when she made a visit, while i was still in college... lunch with my whole family the day before my graduation... a sad conversation i had over the phone this fall... and now i have a new memory! brunch with a dear friend of mine. :)
we followed this deliciousness up with a walk down michigan, so she could experience the magnificent mile for the first time. we hit up all the glamorous stores... H&M, Forever XXI...you know the kind. big spending. that night i made rice casserole, which is a highly delicious and very affordable food item... leigh has since made one for sister, i hear. (i will share that recipe in a post to follow.)
we topped it all off with cookies, tea, and watching our long time favorite special--'living dolls'--on youtube. it details the life of some child beauty pageant contestants, namely one Swan Brooner and her TERRIBLE mother, and nothing tops it. i recommend it highly, for the sake of this alone:
the time the two of us have wasted in pursuing this trashy documentary... it's appalling.
the next day was meant for evanston! we took the shuttle after a slow morning and got lunch with a friend of mine who happened to be free, enjoying the deliciousness of unicorn cafe, as a little peek for leigh into my college days. mmmm.... the windfall sandwich. we were so cold that we really elongated that meal--tacking on an amazing cookie. then we hopped across the street to look in at what asinimali and crossroads trading inc. had to offer. (in my case, they had an $8 banana republic sweater wrap and a $7 striped club monaco shirt to offer.) then we got a shuttle home, with plans to make some chicken stir fry.
funnily enough, we ended up being far too lazy to cook! maybe the sandwiches at unicorn are just very filling. we had a bloody mary (how crazy of us!) and some snack foods, and basically played scrabble all night instead of being normal, dinner eating people. very fun. :)
thursday was one of the museum of science and industry's free days, so we hopped into a cab and spent the day playing there. we even saw an IMAX movie about the marine life of south africa. so pretty! and we had a lot of fun with all the exhibits. i especially liked one exhibit about the internet... leigh caught me "swimming through the internet". it's a very special look for me, wouldn't you agree?
that night we had plans to meet up with leigh's uncle who lives in river north. funnily enough, i got us lost because i didn't pay attention to cardinal directions. no matter. we weren't late enough to make it problematic, and we had plenty of time to enjoy her uncle's company/beautiful apartment/delicious h'ors d'ouvres. mmmm spinach artichoke dip. he then treated us to a lovely little dinner at the exceedingly quaint la scarola. i had eggplant parmesan.
we hit the sack early because i was set to teach at galaxie the next morning. i deviated from my norm and taught a simple course this time-- 'secret stories'. i taught the basics of book folding, to enthusiastic reception. i had mostly repeat kids and a small group, so i basically got paid to chat up some nice, smart kids. they had great book ideas, too--my favorite was a girl's book--entitled 'where is the love'-- that had pictures of hearts, kissing couples, and head-over-heels-in-love faces, all of which were followed by the word "EW!!!!" hahahaha. kids are hilarious.
i came home to leigh, who having just woken up, sympathized with my comment that i was STARVING. we cooked up the neglected stir fry and enjoyed it while watching a special on scandalous pageant queens. (can i please remind everyone that is was record level freezing last week? and that i don't usually drain my brain watching people strut around in spangles?) is it bad that i can't remember what we did afterwards? what i do know is that we made tacos for dinner. and they were amazing. and this is coming from a woman who honestly could go without ground beef for the rest of her life. amazing.
saturday was lovely... we had brunch at ann sathers at my suggestion with some of leigh's friends from gwu who live around here now. (they were great fun and i hope to hang out with them again!) it was long and delicious and i had too much coffee. we followed that up with the art institute--happy hooray. i blew leigh's mind with my ranting on about contemporary art (haha) until it was nearly closing time and time for us to go home and nosh on leftovers.
which we did. a lovely combination of stir fry and italian food with some two buck chuck. (yay trader joe's.) then we headed out to hang out with the same girls we had brunch with, which was an EXCELLENT time, spent at their very homey apartment and then at fado irish pub. i sincerely enjoyed myself, partly due to the STRANGEST band ever. we could not stop laughing.
sunday was lazy! we took our time. leigh had moved her tuesday flight to monday due to weather warnings, so we just enjoyed eachother's company for most of the day, before heading off to Mass (sad! my last Mass at Holy Name for a while--there was a fire yesterday!!!) and then out to dinner. we decided to forfeit the superbowl purely so we could have more time for conversation. we had a nice dinner at bistro zinc. another place i have a lot of emotional attachment with. the food was great, the company even better.
we browsed children's books across the street at barnes & noble for a while, and then left, having bought bananagrams--my favorite game of the moment. we played into the night, and i dreaded leigh's departure the next morning!
now she's home in nj and i miss her-but what a week it was!
and as if i couldn't get any luckier with seeing friends... weekend anna is headed out here for valentine's day!!!! just when i thought i was going to have hide in a cave for the whole holiday. i love anna.
(this will be a lovely segue into my back-track through the last two weeks.)
i just got in from some errands and checked my mail, to find i had a package. i left my crocs (yes, i love crocs--i own more than one style, in fact) at my cousins', and my aunt had called for my address to mail them to me. little did i know i would get a whole package of goodies!
i love cards, and the photos were so nice, and my cousin catherine sent me a handmade potholder--and she must have ESP because it matches my stovetop perfectly! what a nice surprise, especially when a person was just about to make tea!
i can't believe it was only a little over a week ago that i flew back from san francisco. it really was, altogether, quite a vacation!
i posted just after my first day hanging out with cassie and ben, so i should fill everyone in from there. on my third day, and final day staying with the witten siblings, i had a real marathon of fun. ben and i met cassie for lunch at a potbelly's-esque sandwich shop, and then drove to napa!
i didn't realize napa was in such approachable distance, so it was quite a surprising jaunt. the driving scenery was awesome--the golden gate bridge (cassie made fun of me for calling it 'that big red bridge'), the miles of vines, the hills. very beautiful. it was rather grey out--which anyone who knows me knows i was glad about--and all the colors were really coming out. we stopped in so i could attempt sophistication with a wine tasting experience, and with the first glass, clearly not from any threat of intoxication, but only clumsiness, i toppled over some red wine. oh dear... can't take me anywhere, i guess. but it was delightful and very educational!
one of the vineyards had a lovely red barn...
that night, we all cooked dinner. and by that, i mean that cassie made (awesome) guacomole, i chopped up some sausage and some apples, and ben made risotto. so, you might say ben cooked dinner. :) it was delicious and cassie had a friend come by, and we spent the night discovering how terrible i am at blockus! i was already sad to leave--but my family had already been kind enough to extend cassie an invitation to the new baby's baptism, so that helped the goodbye feel less sad.
the next morning, bright and early, i was shuttled off to my cousin's school assembly for the chinese new year. they attend a chinese immersion school, and the assembly was very beautiful--with lovely dances and songs, and a very impressive lion dance! i wish i could have gotten a video of the large scale puppets. all three of my participating cousins did a lovely job.
i spent the rest of the weekend with the whole clan and my grandma, which was utterly lovely and relaxing. i was put in a good mood that will last a long time...it is always so nice to hang out with other big families, considering how much i love my own. and it's doubly nice when you're related, too! all of my cousins cracked me up and we had a great time playing the game i brought them--bananagrams (which i was tipped off about by the small object).
i got to eat my first dim sum (very delicious), went to my cousin patrick's indoor soccer game (cassie came, too! what a good fan!), and of course--got to see a baptism, which is always special. all in all, totally wonderful. and i got peet's coffee EVERY DAY! a big plus to being in california!
i could go on for ages, but i have a lot to do today if i want to check anything else off my list.
here's how i have done so far:
clean bathtub done
get throat blessed (feast of st. blaise) done
buy rose water done
mail comcast bill done
buy binder with clear protectors done
walk around outside for at least 20 minutes done
buy a movie at blockbuster done(ok clearly this wasn't originally on the list... but see above)
blog done
put graphics work into said binder with short write ups
i have been very MIA, my apologies. i have been a busy bee, preparing for a trip i am taking to san francisco-- leaving today. first time out there and i'm excited!
i will start the week with my lovely friend cassie (not to mention her brother, ben!), stealing as much of her day as she has left over between and after work hours. i am excited for the reunion-- for the last four and some years we have seen much more of eachother than her move out west has recently allowed. it will be great to catch up and see what her new chapter is like.
once the weekend hits, i am very excited to be getting in a visit-- and a baptism, no less!-- with my san francisco cousins! i have never visited with them in their home territory, and i can't wait. i get to meet my littlest cousin, and catch up with the rest of the troop, whose company i so completely enjoyed at the november wedding. it is nice to have some relatives with such a comparable experience of siblinghood (a parallel family of six kids!) to mine.
i have been sewing like a maniac so that i can bring presents, which is my way. i am very pleased: for baby, a baseball bib:
the last two bags in the series i have been showing you:
for my grandma (who is visiting, too) a little travel jewelery case:
i didn't know what to whip up for the boys, but i found (alas, didn't make) some great gifts:
a reporter's notebook for my encyclopedia brown loving cousin, a nice compact moleskine set for the oldest of the family, and bananagrams for everyone, in the guise of a gift for my uncle.
hopefully none of them are reading my blog too much so the surprise won't be spoiled... but at this point i think they are probably too busy to check before i will see them, as my cousins emma and elizabeth are singing at the inauguration today!!! so totally exciting. i have been up all morning and sifted through the channels enough to hear them and to see that they caught elizabeth looking lovely in every song! nice job guys!
in any case, i am still in my flannels and glued to the tv. my stomach hurts terribly from the 5 cups of coffee i've had, and the two eggs and three pancakes i ate for the occasion. i am praying the snowflakes won't upend my flight patterns. i can't decide if i should be lazy, and take a cab, or cheap, and take the el...
