| This Morning's Typical Dido Dream |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|03:50 pm] |
I was hired by a cookie store to decorate cookies. The store was staffed by about ten butch lesbians. I was sitting at a table with them all, decorating cookies. I had vanilla cookies shaped like Christmas trees and bags of green and white icing and little fancy candies to stick in the icing. I was decorating my tree cookies and attempting to learn the names of all the butches. Cookies, yum. It was awesome.
...And then I woke up.
Once I dreamed about picking and eating raspberries. Raspberries, yum. It was awesome. And then I woke up.
This is entirely boringtypical.
Okay then. I'm thinking that my special dream message that my inner self is trying to tell me is:
You are hungry! Get up and go get breakfast! Breakfast, yum! It's awesome!
What? Hungry sleeping brain does not do profound. |
|
|
| Bzzzzzzzt. Fail. |
[May. 13th, 2009|07:52 pm] |
Now More AuthorFail, now with authors I have actually read. Recently. And aloud. Oh, Lois Bujold, no. D:
I am reading an unfamiliar new book aloud to Meesto. I have not read it before, my reading it aloud to Meesto is my first exposure to it, too. So far there have been 50 pages of horse-riding and exposition and so far we both can't stand the POV main character who seems to be a stupid 15 year old whiny boy. Ugh. It has a Newberry Medal and is Young Adult. It had better improve fast and cut the boy-whining.
On the other hand no matter how hard this new book I'm reading sucks, it can't possibly suck as hard as Failingtonia, The 13th (oh, please). So I'm going to go read my new book aloud, secure in the knowledgedesperately hoping it doesn't suddenly smack me in the face with something genocidal and evil.
Maybe I should stick to the internet, which has stuff about point of view, science, reactions, choices, and Little House on the Prairie. |
|
|
| The end. |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|01:14 am] |
It has been my husband's and my ritual, that while he cooks, I read aloud to him. Meesto's territorial about our tiny kitchen and doesn't much like kitchen assistance, but at the same time doesn't much like cooking alone, so him cooking while I provide audio entertainment is what we have done... well, for a shockingly long time.
Since reading aloud is quite hard work, I've mostly only bothered to read things aloud that I have read before and that I personally judge to be awesome. I have read him science fiction, fantasy, romance, economics, and how-to. After several years of this, Meesto is either used to, or else quite likes my taste. Over several years, I've read to him all my favorite single non-series books from my library. Then I went on to series.
I recently read the entire Temeraire series (so far) out loud to him, and that was excellent, except for my execrable French pronunciation. Meesto can speak French, so he kept lifting his lip and coming over to look at the book and correct me until finally I began editing things to, "and Laurence said something in French and Jane replied..." which did not actually save me from Meesto coming over to look. But they were still good reading aloud books.
So.
This evening I have at long, long, long last finished reading aloud to him the entirety of every single book, short story, and series that Lois McMaster Bujold has written. This was a spectacular run. Bujold's books are even better and more torturous when read slowly aloud to a victim. Meesto loved this run particularly. And now I am going through my library looking for something to read to him after Bujold- and I got nothin'. Everything on my shelves has either already been read to him or is simply not worthy after Bujold.
*sigh*
Maybe I'll just buy some Jane Austen or something. As everyone knows, a married man is in want of audio entertainment. Maybe. Hmm. |
|
|
| Octopaisley! |
[Apr. 23rd, 2009|02:51 pm] |
This took me a lot longer than I thought it would.
To see it repeat properly, choose 'half-brick'.
I have ordered myself a fat quarter just to see how it turns out. I have plans to make several more colorways of this pattern. What do you think? Orange octopi? Pink?
Since spoonflower is still in beta, they do not as yet have their site set up so the general public might buy my designs. While they figure out how to do that, they are doing a thing where people vote for whatever is coolest that week (Contests are here.) and then they sell samples of the winner on Etsy. ( Spoonflower Etsy here.)
The upshot of this is- if you'd like to buy some Octopaisley, you should get a Spoonflower account and then, if by chance they ever decide my fabric should go in their weekly contest, then obviously you should vote for Octopaisley. Votes for Octopi! |
|
|
| Harvest 2009 |
[Apr. 7th, 2009|08:33 pm] |
This is just some of our harvest of squashes. There's More scattered around the house, and basketfulls of zucchinis that got given to our neighbors and relatives.
Last year we managed to get our stored squashes to last months, and I've been reading up on how to make them store well for months and months. I don't know how long I'll get the zucchinis to go, though.
These are our cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse, still going even though it's fall. They've stopped flowering, but there's still lots of green tomatoes there. We'll nurse the plants along and see how late we can get them to last. |
|
|
| Cannon update. |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|04:02 pm] |
They weren't cannons. It was dynamite. The town had hired blowy-up-people to blow up some dead trees on the high ridge of the park that had been ringed 20 years ago, were too rotten and dangerous to cut down with chainsaws, and too sturdy to fall down by themselves. They blew up 150+ trees on Wed, Thurs, Fri last week and may blow up some more starting this next Wednesday. .... :/
Meesto was away last week doing a film shoot in Auckland, but it doesn't look like he has to go up there again this week. Which is good. Yes, I'm so glad he'll be here this week. Perhaps his reassuring presence means the cat won't spend so much time in the closet. |
|
|
| Cannon. |
[Mar. 25th, 2009|09:35 am] |
I woke up to cannon fire this morning. Car backfire? Whatever. I put my head back under the covers and tried to go back to sleep. A couple of minutes later the cannon fired again. And was definitely a cannon. This time I jumped out of bed, dressed, and ran around the house looking out the windows. The cat hid at the back of the closet like she does when there's lightning. There is no lightning; it's a beautiful morning. No people with a cannon in my driveway either. So I make breakfast. And the cannon fires again! I run to the window. Birds are tearing across the sky in terror. Is it cannon or is it dynamite at the construction site at the bottom of the hill? What is it?! Are they going to do this all day? Gah! My poor cat is still in the closet.
ETA:
4th boom at 10:13 AM.
5th boom at 11:32.
6th boom at 12:08.
7th boom at 12:22.
8th boom at 1:11.
9th boom at 1:33
10th boom at 1:49
11th boom at 2:04
12th boom at 2:29
13th boom at 2:50 (they are clearly getting faster at loading the thing.)
Arrrrrgh. |
|
|
| Guests and Things. |
[Mar. 20th, 2009|04:28 pm] |
Our guests were AwesomeStepdad and ArtisticGodfather and ReverendGodmother. We had a lovely time and did lots of local NZ tourist things and had fabulous meals. Stepdad and LittleSister went to the South Island and had a fabulous time, while meanwhile I fixed up Godfather's website and the Godparents helped us enormously with our garden (I will have to post pictures one day). Then the Godparents went to Tasmania (and we'll see them back around Easter.)
In those few moments when I've not been entertaining guests, I have read 95% of RF09. I am interested in these ideas and must subscribe to more newsletters!
Meanwhile Meesto has been engaged in landing a very cool freelance job.
Stepdad went home to New England the other day. Then we had more guests arrive. Sweet Boston Family were here for just one day on their way to the South Island. They are off to more adventure now.
And then we heard that Meesto's grandmother died. She was 101 and a very cool lady. Meesto couldn't go to the funeral (which was earlier today). I didn't know her as long or as well as her blood relatives of course, but one of my funny memories is that she secretly loved good shoe design. Her memory was going at the end and I remember her complimenting my sandals every day she saw me one summer (because she had forgotten she had seen them the day before). She liked her own shoes in good order, too. We still haven't heard BigSister's impressions of the funeral. *waits*
And then we got a call from Stepdad's girlfriend that Stepdad, after having been home one day, is having his appendix out. Like, right now. Yeah. So we're sitting here by the phone. ETA: It's out, he's fine, he can go home tomorrow.
*puts head on desk* What a week. On, no wait, it's been a month. o_o |
|
|
| Wheee! |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|11:54 am] |
|
I have been madly cleaning the house in anticipation of our guests arriving (which is why I've not much been on the internet) and now our guests are here. Guests are my stepfather-in-law, my godfather-in-law (www.jonbrooks.org), and my godmother-in-law. So now that they are here, I shall again not be much on the internet. See ya'll later! |
|
|
| Luv. Tru Luv. |
[Feb. 16th, 2009|03:53 pm] |
For Valentine's Day, Meesto and I went over to LittleSister's house, which she and her roommates were moving out of, and while they were moving all their stuff out, Meesto and I cleaned. We both variously vacuumed and scrubbed, and Meesto used a rented Rug Doctor (wet vac for carpets) on every carpet, and I scrubbed all 3 toilets/bathrooms in the house. Since two of those toilets were entirely used by girlfriend-less filthy young men, you can imagine how entirely scary these here toilets (and walls and floors and sinks and tubs and lightswitches and and outlets and stairs and freaking ceilings) were. I was on hands and knees scrubbing piss off every surface for nine solid hours (except for those moments when I was scrubbing while standing).
That's love for you.
Also, to all you young ladies out there who wish to receive their deposits back on rental places- boy roommates are so disgusting that they are simply not worth the seeming help on rent. They spatter pee like firehoses and then they wipe their hands afterwards on the lightswitches. True facts. Run. Run away. |
|
|
| Whoa. |
[Feb. 1st, 2009|12:51 am] |
|
I've been reading all the links (http://rydra-wong.livejournal.com/) related to the Famous White Writers and Editors Publicly Remove Their Pants and Put On Their Racist Assless Chaps thingie. It's jawdropping amounts of Fail. I don't think I've ever seen this many semi-famous people flock together on the internet in order to publicly suck that hard. Wow. O.o |
|
|
| Guests! Work! Guests! Chickens! Garden! Rabbits. |
[Jan. 16th, 2009|01:24 pm] |
I and B were here! We had a great time with them and played tourist in our own town and looked at squid, and then sometimes we had to run off to work and leave them to explore Wellington by themselves. They are now exploring the South Island. (Hi, hope you're having fun on the South Island!)
Work was more tweakage and extras on the film title job. More similar stuff maybe later on this year...
We have more guests coming in late February: Meesto's Stepfather and his godparents. Yay! Oddly enough, Stepfather and Godparents claim to want to help us in the garden and so we have decided to do a Project. ...When they get here we're going to build a chicken house and fenced run. I've done the research (read chicken books and the local poultry bylaws, etc.) and drawn up plans and we have priced things. We will now assemble supplies. I figure 3 guys with carpentry skills will make short work of a chicken house. Yay! Chickens!
Clearly everything I put on my LJ interest list eventually lands in my lap. Rabbits, chickens, whatever. I have adjusted my interest list to take advantage of this convenient coincidink. ;)
So anyway, I only want a few chickens. One each of a NZ Lavender Araucana ( AKA Ameraucana), Red Brown Barnevelder, Black Australorp, Buff Orpington, Light Sussex.
These are the chickens that are available here in New Zealand and most likely best suited for our weather (cold, wet, and windy) and with the sweetest dispositions. Meesto wanted Rhode Island Reds because he had them when he was a kid, but I think they sound mean. But anyway most of the awesome chickens are far away on the South Island, so I may end up buying fertilized eggs to incubate. And probably I'd do it the cheep way. And, knowing me, I'd also like to do things in the lazy techy way.
But first there's a lot of info gathering, building material gathering, and building we have to do. So no chickens for a while.
Our garden is going well, though. We've been eating homegrown salad, snow peas, ordinary peas, and zucchinis for a while. The tomatoes are setting fruit. Homegrown really does taste better. LOTS better. Broccoli is supposed to be sweet, who knew! And I don't think I can go back to storebought salad...
We have 2 salad beds now, one old one filled with elderly bitter salad that I feed to rabbits. The rabbits are doing pretty well. Still not entirely litter-box trained, but better. Daphne is sleek and beautiful. Phil wasn't getting rid of his winter coat very well (it's summer), so we brushed, plucked and groomed him and he looks much tidier. He feels very skinny though. He still loves eating and likes going outside and getting petted, but I think he is showing his age and getting all skinny like Baucis did in her last months. *sigh* |
|
|
| You bastards! |
[Jan. 2nd, 2009|07:56 pm] |
The giant coal ash spill in Tennessee (bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill but getting no press) is spilling into the river I grew up on. Fish are dying, people are getting sick, the government is telling everyone it's fine and not to worry and that's my childhood home. That's *my* river that's dying. You bastards!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_fpiZpSJkU&eurl=http://www.ilovemountains.org/tvaspill/
http://pa.photoshelter.com/img-show/I0000XTkWHqg9FmU
http://www.ilovemountains.org/tvaspill/
----
...Oh, my long holiday post got eaten and I'm not up to rewriting. I meant to say I went to Christchurch for Christmas to be with Meesto and LittleSister and LS's Boyfriend and Boyfriend's Family, and it was lovely. And then we went to Napier for New Years, our car broke/totalled on the way ( http://meesto.livejournal.com/200300.html ), we bought another, had a lovely time in Napier with our friends G and K, then drove home.
...I'm still horrified by what those assholes did to my river. Feel free to imagine me doing one of those movie screams of "Nooooooooooooooooo!" I mean it, too. |
|
|
| Tomatoes? |
[Dec. 19th, 2008|02:09 pm] |
I have 5 or 6 extra tomato plants. They are all cherry tomatoes, all are repotted into larger pots with good fertilized dirt, some are taller and staked, some are shorter and unstaked so far. Anyone want them? You just have to come pick them up. =)
 |
|
|
| Check. |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|09:46 am] |
I voted a while ago by mail. Yep. Ages ago.
And I'd like to send a great big "I LOVE YOU!' to all the Californians who have worked so hard on NoTo8 to try to prevent my brother's gay Californian marriage (and all the other gay marriages) from getting annulled. No matter how it turns out, thank you so much for your work. It means so much to my family. <3! |
|
|
| Stuff, Garden, Potluck Thanksgiving! |
[Nov. 1st, 2008|03:49 pm] |
1. Did the typography for some film credits (which Meesto then animated), some typography for some film effects (which Meesto then animated). The work was fun and we get to go to the wrap party next week sometime. I still can't tell you what this film is titled until they announce it, but it's a summer wire-fu film with Korean and American actors and a Korean director.
2. Bought more second hand clothes of TradeMe. I love getting bargains, I love that the stuff in this country actually fits me, and I love that so much of it is made of wool. Mmm, wool.
3. We have been collecting all the parts to turn our lower garden pergola into a greenhouse (with polytunnel film not glass). We have plastic, wood, trellis, staples, screws and other connectors. It's just got to be put together now. (Which is about time, because some of our seedling are trying to crawl out of their pots.)
We're having a lot of trouble with the gale force winds blowing the leaves right off our veggies, so we have some further plans to create wind blocks, cold-frame-like things, etc.
4. Our friends K and G (who returned to NZ from Singapore) were staying at our place while they found a new place in Wellington. They found a new place and moved in and we'll visit them for the Nov 5 fireworks. Our guest room is now free again. ...Who's next? I think we have some family coming in the new year. =)
5. We're going to have another ex-pat Americans' (and Kiwis' who like pumpkin pie) Thanksgiving Potluck! November 29th! Hey, you! My local Wellington friends! You're invited! Who's coming? I think we're making turkey and assorted pies (pumpkin pie made from homegrown pumpkins). Not to mention, award-winning homebrew beer!
Tell us what you might want to bring, just to make sure everyone doesn't bring the exact same green salad. ...Although everyone loves salad so that could be okay. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
