cubicle skirt

I finished the skirt out of the cubicle fabric last night, and wore it to work today. This was the first time I made a skirt from this pattern on my own (my mom helped with pinky skirt), and I endeavored to follow all the instructions and do everything all good 'n' proper. I also wanted to add a lining to make the skirt warmer and less translucent. I found some instructions and managed to figure it out, so now it's business on the outside, white cotton with light pink polka dots on the inside.

It seemed to take forever to put it together, and having to hem two skirt bottoms (once for the skirt, once for the lining) was a drag. But it was a good learning experience. It still has many imperfections, but I love wearing this skirt. It's flouncy and a little poufy and in general fun to wear.

On:


Off, with glimpse of the lining, and cat:

garbanzo goodness

Yesterday I was searching the internets for a recipe for lemon scones, as we had some lemons in the house and I needed to make something quick for the weekly knitting get-together. In the process I discovered Orangette, a food/foodie blog run by a woman in Seattle. She posts recipes (and excellent pictures of the result), I found inspiration in her most recent post about a chick pea salad.

I've actually been making a heated version of this recipe for about a year or so, and it's one of my favorites: heat up olive oil and garlic in a pan, add chickpeas, heat; add salt, pepper, and parmesan. This recipe came from some fellow* on NPR talking about the fact that Americans don't know how to create meals that are tasty or healthy. He provided this as a typical Italaian lunch, which, when served with good bread and a salad, is nutrilicious, easy, and elegant.

So when I saw the Orangette post of essentially the same recipe, except cold, and with a little fresh lemon juice, I couldn't believe I'd never thought to make it that way for lunch. This morning I did, and there was much rejoicing.

*This may have been the same guy who famously carted an entire pig carcass on his Vespa and butchered it in his NYC apartment. I can't remember his name, and one look at the results of a Google search for "butcher pig" had me wishing I had not tried to discover it that way.

vagina friday!

Really, I don't look for the vagina-related news; it finds me.

-A new movie about vagina dentata, (aka "thorny ladyflower" aka "fang tang"). Made by a man, natch!
-Menstruation-related ephemera from the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health. the museum is in Germany, and run by a man who's sensitive about menstruation (but not Dave Foley). The website is so terrible it makes my head explode and is virtually unnavigable.Old ads for feminine hygiene products, including one that came with 3-D glasses! Pamphlets designed to simultaneously educate pubescent girls about the bodily functions no one wants to talk about and make sure they feel good 'n' ashamed about it! Oh, and naked Danish cartoon teens from the 70's. I don't know what they're saying, but I think it has something to do with feeling 'fresh' for a date with that hot 45-year old dude at the discotheque.

things i learned before 10 am

It snowed here this morning for the first time in two years, but what really amazed me today was the many insane things I learned in this article of the Washington Post.

1. David Lynch and Donovan are travelling around together telling people about the wonders of Transcendental Meditation.


2. And were hosted by the Hungarian ambassador to the U.S. in what was probably the craziest dinner party of the year, or since Salvador Dali died.


3. "...D.C. diplomat band Coalition of the Willing..." Wh-What?! Not, however, the same as Bobby Previte's band Coalition of the Willing. So confusing! But what I would pay to see them both on the same bill...

iRaq

Can two wrongs make a right?

With Photoshop, apparently yes.



(Originally here, via here.)

car falling apart

The other day I was driving on the highway, and a piece of my car fell off. Not all the way, but there's this large plastic piece that hooks under the engine and whatnot on the front that is no longer attached in the way it should be.





If it weren't for the bungee cords, it would be dragging on the ground. It seems fairly non-essential, so my plan is to just remove it entirely for the time. But do I need to replace it? Since it's just plastic held on with hex nuts, I figure I could replace it myself rather than paying whatever absurb cost a repair shop would charge. I've browsed a couple of car parts websites, but I can't figure out what this thing is called.

Give me your ideas, oh wise ones.

i am totally into self-referential clothing

Which is why I just bought two yards of this:



I can't wait to make a skirt out of this and wear it to work, which looks just like the design on the fabric, except that at my office some of the particularly anti-social computer programmers rigged up makeshift cardboard doors on their cubes.

I'm thinking of using the same pattern I used for pinky skirt, which I've been wanting to make again since the pink seersuckerish fabric is a bit out of season at the moment.

But I really need to stop buying fabric until I actually complete some of the projects I dream up and purchase supplies for. I want my weekend project to be cleaning out the 3rd bedroom in our house enough to be able to use the sewing space for sewing, but putting together grad school apps may take precedence.

By the way, I bought it at ReproDepot.com, which is awesome.

return to routine

Pre-vacation December was hell, due to a combination of legal things, massive work bullshit, frenzied grad school application preparation, holiday things, and ongoing inability to have money in my checking account for longer than a week after I get paid. The whole Christmas thing was a much-needed break. I went to my sister's place in [city next to] Norfolk, Virginia, and had a pretty nice time knitting and spending time with the fam and making cocktails out of vodka and whatever else she had in her house.

Dick was in New York for Baby Jesus Day, and I flew up there the day after Xmas. We had a lovely time. Details of our adventures are forthcomning, but for now let me say that the most suprising things about our trip was how sore my feet and leg muscles got after a couple days of walking around and how damn much we missed the kitties. They, apparently, missed us too, and since we got back three days ago it's been a human/kitty love fest. Except for this morning at 4:00 am, when Astro Cat decided it was time to run around the house and Macy Cat decided it was time to eat the Christmas tree.