Pick Up Two Pieces

I once read a message that challenged everyone to pick up two pieces of trash every day. It's a very achievable goal, and I've found that I'm much more aware of all the trash people leave in parking lots and on sidewalks when I'm thinking about needing to do my 2 pieces. Because part of the problem is that people ignore it, thinking the trash will magically disappear. And maybe if someone sees you picking up a piece of parking lot flotsam, they might pick up the next piece they see, and just maybe it will spread and we won't have trash laying everywhere. So do your part, next time you're out - remind yourself to pick up two pieces of trash. Everyday.

From cool to disturbing

Recent trips have laid me over in Detroit - wait that sounds really wrong. Ahem, recent trips have been routed through Detroit as my connecting airport rather than Atlanta. Now before you uggh in sympathetic dismay, let me say that the Detroit airport is relatively new, clean, and fairly easy to navigate. And closer to the Northeast as a layover than Atlanta. Plus they have a super cool walkway between the main terminals. It has continually changing muted lights and synth music playing. Which is nice, because without that it would be a painfully long hallway to traverse underground. Also an interesting bit about Detroit is the Delta SkyClub lounge has an open bar. And by open I mean you walk up to the shelves of liquor and pour your own drink, or pull a beer from the tap.

 

However, not everything is cool in the airports. I noticed this incredibly disturbing sign in Atlanta in very highly trafficked area.

"Did you SEE something suspicious commuting 

to work or grabbing a bite to eat?

Then SAY something to local authorities

to make it right.

Report suspicious activity. Call 9-1-1"

Now, I'm not one to jump on the Nazi bandwagon, but really in this case I think you can't help see the similarity. How many Hitler Youth turned in neighbors and community members to the authorities for "something suspicious"? Let's all spy on our neighbors! Turn them in and "make it right"! Classic 1984. Also, did you notice the phone number to use? My first thought was oh, they have a 9/11 phone number for this. Then I realized it's the freakin emergency number they're telling you to call!! Like 911 Emergency Response has the time to handle every overzealous person who calls in because they think someone is behaving suspiciously while they're grabbing a bite to eat. I'm also disturbed that the motto is trademarked.

And to go from the seriously disturbing and trademarked to the mildly disturbing and slightly trademark infringing:

What in the hell is this? No, it's not Splenda. It's not even a generic form of Splenda's ingredients. I know the color yellow can't be trademarked, but I was about to put this in my tea when I saw the name and then the ingredient list. Which would have sucked, as this is essentially the pink packet sweetener with some extra chemicals added. If I use artificial sweetener at all, I want real yellow packets. Or blue if I have to. Never pink. And don't be putting pink stuff in a yellow packet and pulling the wool over our eyes.

I don't believe in resolutions

Resolutions usually seem to be set up not to succeed. I think the best ones are achievable with small changes in attitude or lifestyle, not these drastic ones touted by the January Marketing Devils. I didn't actively think of a list, but some popped up during conversations with people over the last couple weeks. So here goes, things I'd like to stick to in 2011:

Post to my blog (with photos!) at least once a month.

Visit with certain friends at least once per quarter.

Get back to working out or doing yoga at least 3 times per week.  Try to build up to a barefoot 5k.

Stop wasting so much time.


Yeah, I think that sounds like a good reasonable list. I hope I can keep with it. And in that vein, since I still don't have a cable for my camera, here's some photos I found online. The funny thing is I would totally buy both of them.  Hell, I  may try and make the loafers myself.

Looking at them again, and thinking that I do need a pair of brown shoes, I really wish those giraffe shoes were real.

Ugly Costume Blog

A hilarious website of hideous bellydance costumes - What were they thinking? I've only made it through the first few posts, but it promises not to disappoint. I love the vulva embellishments on one of them!

Thought for the day

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." Edith Wharton

When I read this quote, my immediate response was that I want to be the mirror. Thinking a bit more on it, my reason was that the mirror can reflect the light of many candles, spreading more light than a single candle could do on its own. It can also increase the light generated by a single candle. It's not bound by itself to spread light, but can partake of all the light around and pass it along. Of course I realize the opposite reasoning, that some people would want to be the initiator of the light, and feel the mirror is nothing without the candle. But for myself, I know better.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. ~Maori Proverb

2009 review post & epiphany

It was so great for 2008, let's see how my 2009 blog review stacks up. Here's the first sentence from the first post of each month for 2009:

Do I talk about fiber and yarn too much on this blog?

Ok, I'm finally back online.

You ever have those days where you really want something chocolatey, but just can't figure out exactly what you're craving?

Now that the weather's brightening up, I'm spending more time outside with the dogs.

Flying Bosoms!

I wish my collection of Legos included an ark of the covenant!

We moved last weekend to our beautiful new house.

Reading another blog (CrazyAuntPurl's) she had a post that I just had to share a bit of.

I've seen some strange things driving on the interstate, but rarely do I have my camera handy to snap a photo.

So remember that pair of socks I was knitting and FROGGING, and just couldn't get the size right?

I just made a trial batch of Southwestern Thumbprint cookies - shortbread cookies made with blue cornmeal and jalapeno jelly filling the thumbprint dent.
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Well, certainly not the insight into my life last year's review post was, but in a way still representative of what things were like this year. Frankly 2009 just disappeared on me. I can't still blame my lack of gumption, organization, or time on moving to our house. After all, that was like 6 months ago! Wow, has it really only been 6 months?

Where does the time go? Seriously. Is there someone akin to the tooth fairy that sneaks in your house and steals your free time? What do they leave you in return? It's certainly not a basket of clean laundry. Oh, I know! They're the dust bunnies! You can tell they've been there stealing spare moments because they leave tell-tale tracks along the baseboards and under the furniture. The more time they steal, the more likely you are to find their remnants in your house. I'm going to go battle them and see if I can win back enough extra time to post a proper new-year's blog entry later.

The insane first snow of the season

Well, I guess all the posts this week will be published from drafts I saved weeks ago and never hit the "publish post" button.

No way was the snow going to be bad. Picture it, Sicily 1925...

Friday morning all the schools are closed because 8 to 10 to 12 to 24 inches of snow is going to start falling sometime around 3-4 pm! I went out at lunch and it neither smelled nor looked like snow. Then at 1:55 someone says it's snowing - no preliminary flakes, just a switch from nothing to a downpour. Our boss (bless him) walked around telling us to wrap things up and go home. After 25 min. on the road (my normal commute time) I was only 2 miles away from work. The road was incredibly slippery and all the cars and trucks in ditches made it look almost like a movie set. The snow was so heavy that I couldn't even call anyone or get a text through. Hey! How dare you think I'm a text-while-driving person? We were as such a dead stop people were playing in the snow on the interstate banks. I finally got a text through to D, tersely insisting he leave work ASAP. My shoulders and neck were painfully tight from keeping control of my car and the fear someone was going to slide into me. After 3 hours I was approaching the turnoff for my street when D called and warned me there were 5 cars skidded out on our street and I should park at the church on the corner a mile from our house. I looked down at my skirt and dress shoes, and out at the ankle-deep snow and knew it was going to be a rough trip...uphill...in the blinding snow...with no pants or real shoes. I bundled up as best I could and headed towards our street. A guy straightened up from putting chains on his tires and asked where I was headed. I vaguely told him up the main street through our neighborhood. He nodded, told me he lived there too, and asked if I wanted a ride. I told him the road was blocked and saw him hesitate. I asked if he wanted to try the back route and he agreed. On the way he commented that he was glad I knew about the back way, since if I was unfamiliar with it I might have worried where this strange guy was taking me. He's not kidding, it's a winding road up a ridge, with all these old scary homes down in hollows. He dropped me off at my door and I was so thankful to still be relatively warm and dry. Tire chains are freakin amazing!

You're doing it wrong

Some recent landscaping in the lot next to my office building. I'm not sure which tickles me more- that these trees stayed "planted" on the asphalt all summer, or that they refreshed the blacktop around the trees (note the blackened mulch) rather than wait for them to be moved. The trees went through full leafing and flowering cycles happily (?) growing on the pavement. They were finally removed to their final home just before the fall weather started.

Awesome Product

I love high heel shoes. It's not because I need the added height, I'm always shocked when I see a "very tall" woman in a store and as I come closer realize we're the same height. So I feel slightly self conscious at how tall I must seem in heels, but from my perspective it's only a few inches difference from my normal height and doesn't seem like that big a deal. I just love the way they look, and how dainty my ankles and feet seem. Yes, I recognize I have a problem compulsively liking things that make me feel dainty in any way. I know being dainty isn't necessary for being feminine, and I probably would hate it if I really were dainty, but logic and compulsion don't really go together, now do they?

But that's not really why I'm writing today. Heels need to be broken in so they're comfortable, yet it's hard to wear them enough to break them in until they are. And my stupid pinky toe that broke and healed wrong isn't helping. Oh, don't worry about me, I broke it in college tripping over this jerk RA who refused to get up from laying across the hallway. He got his in the end, though - his hall duct tape mummified him and left him in the lounge. Anyway, the toe was really bothering me after wearing my newest heels and my new toe awareness made all my shoes disturbingly painful to wear. I was disheartened to think I wouldn't be able to wear any of my pretty shoes again, and that if I tried I'd damage my feet. Then I found the awesome product that is driving this post:It's an old fashioned Shoe Stretcher, but made especially for high heels. You apply a stretching spray to the inside of the shoe (I think it's just rubbing alcohol truthfully) and stick the stretcher in. Then turn the handle to start stretching the shoe and leave overnight. Natural leather shoes stretch very quickly, but synthetics or shoes with a lot of stitching take multiple treatments. But it's totally worth it. Because I can once again wear my new green patent leather heels :)

Do I win a prize?

We got a fresh batch of samples to test at work yesterday. Someone said one of them had orange string in it, and showed it around while people tried to guess what the item actually was. I thought it looked pink, not orange, and could be a strand of bubble gum. After we had our fun guessing someone opened it and rooted around until they found the "orange string". And lo & behold it WAS a piece of pink gum, maybe Trident from the size. I threw my arms up in victory and cheered. Yeah, it was one of those days at the end of a long week where everyone is a bit more overwhelmed than they can handle and things get silly.

I do have a disturbingly accurate rate of guessing foreign objects in samples. Maybe it's my deductive reasoning that helps me recreate the whole picture in my mind and not be swayed by misleading evidence. Maybe it's just years of experience. But ultimately - Why? Why do I have both the skill and perverse desire to figure out what things are? It's always a little thrill when you realize what you've found, but egads, who really needs this?

(I reread my post and think it's "safe" unless you know exactly where I work)

Me me me

Last evening of break before going back to work. Last week I listed a bunch of stuff I needed/wanted to do with my week off. I did some of them. My toenails are blue, I mailed off the bra, I ran with the dog. I fought endlessly with winamp, my ipod, and my computer (they're still winning, by the way). I spent way too much time spinning & watching Crash with a great friend. Actually, I'm having trouble remembering what I did with my week off, but I know I had fun doing it. I figured out how to sleep late even with a dog that refuses to let you stay in bed past 7am. I rarely got dressed before noon. I did whatever I wanted rather than what I felt I should do. The only chore I kept up with was laundry. It's been great. Now, instead of clearing the kitchen or doing any of the things still on my list, I'm going to watch the Sex & the City movie again, drink a beer, and knit on my "Katie Scarf" until I have to go to bed.

One of my supposed "resolutions" for 2009 is to take more random photos of things in my life. I'm a shy photographer, so it'll take some work. So in that vein, here's a self-pic of me letting the dog out on a really windy day. Given the strength of the wind, this photos says a lot about how heavy my hair is.

A blogger's conundrum

Do I talk about fiber and yarn too much on this blog? I sometimes feel like I do, and my non-fibery readers get bored. But when I look back over prior posts, there are a lot that have nothing to do with knitting, so maybe it's my own self-consciousness. Also a problem is that most of the other blogs I read are truly fiber geek blogs, so you feel this pressure to write about your own fiber adventures, and I just can't get *that* into Ravelry, regardless of how many times I try.

No, the truth is that I carry knitting with me almost anywhere I go, and that even something like my obsessed watching of this insane new series on Starz called Crash involves fiber. I was visiting a friend to do some handspinning (both of our wheels were dusty with disuse), and she played the first episode of this series. I was instantly hooked, and went back a few days later for a Crash & handspinning mini-marathon (I don't have starz). This series involves a number of seemingly unrelated story lines - Dennis Hopper is great as an off-the-wall producer - and there's something about it that makes you have to keep watching. Thankfully there's less gratuitous sex than in an HBO series. Hey, I'm all for sex scenes in a show, but HBO tosses one in anytime they have a hiccup in the plot, rather than using them when it's part of the story. Handspinning is perfect for watching this because you don't have to look at your hands and can keep your eyes glues to the insanity unfolding in front of you.

Well, I guess overall I don't talk about knitting specifically all the time, but just like it flavors most events in my daily life, it certainly is going to flavor a blog about my life. Mmm...speaking of flavor I just caught a whiff of the potroast I'm making for dinner tonight. nom nom nom

I love this hotel

More photos from my recent trip. The sun started to rise while waiting at the gate to board on my way there. This picture is special for more than just the sunrise. For those of you who fly out of the same airport -- Look! A jetway! Can you believe it? Made me feel all high-dollar not having to go out on the tarmac to board. I always do an extensive yoga routine at the gate before boarding. It helps get the blood flowing and keep limber during many hours of sitting. I really wanted to get a photo in Warrior II (my fav. pose) at the gate but just couldn't bring myself to ask a stranger to take a pic. Esp. since most of them were staring at me surreptitiously over the rim of their coffee cups that early in the morning. Even knowing that no amount of embarrassment is worse than regret/failure, I still couldn't get the nerve to ask. Maybe next time.

The hotel is famous for its "View from the tub". It has plantation shutters that you can open to see into the room, and since my room overlooked the ocean it was possible to sit in the tub and see the water. Very cool, and I made sure to take a bath one day to experience it. Actually, the shutters were a great feature. I kept them open the whole time, and it made the room feel really big, plus kept the bathroom from steaming up. It was easy to keep my iPod dock on the ledge separating the rooms and access my music wherever I was.

Stepping out onto the balcony, this was the view:The rectangular pool bridged the lower one with waterfalls sheeting down on each side into the bottom pool. The "hole" in the middle is actually glass, so you could see people swimming in the other pool. It was fun to be in the bottom pool and have someone swim down to the glass from the top. The ocean was great too, warm enough so long as you stayed in the water. No waves though, which was disappointing. And the water wasn't nearly as salty as I had expected (my last ocean experience was the Pacific, which was really salty tasting). So many people went from the ocean to the heated hotel pools that the pool water was slightly salty instead of chlorine-tasting.

Stepping back into the room, you had to step over this 5" lip on the door frame. I don't know why it was so high, it's not like the floor had a flood hazard that high up. Now, given you knowledge of me, why do you think I'm including this in my post? Could it be that I tripped so mightily over the lip the first few min. in my room that I went almost 10 ft. before landing? See where the bed and my shoes are? That's where my shoulders impacted. I hoped the scuffs on the carpet from my fall would show in the photo, but alas they don't. And I neglected to take a photo of my carpet burned, bruised, slightly bloody knees. Though I'm sure they looked great the rest of the week with my skirts.

One final thing that was a nice touch. The in-room coffee maker was pretty neat. No steamed milk or froth, but far better than the dreck one normally gets as in-room coffee. Until next time...

Tasty foods from travels

I took all sorts of random photos from my trip to Southern FL. I figured it's the odd ones that make you smile later. Going through them when I got home, I apparently took a lot of photos of food. You already saw the steak pic, and I thought I'd share some others.

This Gingerbread house was actually the coffee shop in the lobby of the hotel. It was made out of real gingerbread and icing, and there was a continual parade of people mugging for the camera pretending to eat pieces. I probably would've done it too, but alas was by myself and too embarrassed to ask a stranger to take a picture of me doing it.They were giving out these juice drinks along with the sodas and water, and I picked up a couple to try. They are basically just pressed fruits and juice with no added ingredients, thick like a smoothie but not pulpy. Mixed really nicely with fizzy water. Very tasty and filling, made me wish I'd grabbed a couple more. Great to take the morning hunger edge off before getting down to the conference and your real breakfast.And for the piece de resistance - the scariest piece of sushi you'll ever eat. Sorry for the bad image quality, I took the pic with my phone. I'd never had a spider roll before, and wondered if there would really be legs hanging out. Boy it did not disappoint. It looked disturbingly like the face suckers from the Aliens movies, and I made it scrabble across the plate while making scary noises. I played with it for several minutes before getting up the courage to eat it. I bit the sushi part off, and was left with the legs, which I planted in a wad of wasabi at the prow of the serving boat. There was one other piece with slightly less scary legs, and later in the evening I ate it in one bite, feet first. It was damn tasty, and next time I'm at a good sushi restaurant I'm going to order it again. Although after doing a GIS for spider rolls, I think mine might be one of the scariest presentations I've seen. Hope I'm not disappointed in the future ones.

The terrorists won - here's proof

Just returned from a trip that included several airports. I've grown to accept the 3 oz. toiletries in their magic ziploc bag. Having to take off my shoes and go barefoot through security. The inability to bring a drink through. I do appreciate the airports that have the segregated lines for "black diamond" travelers who know what their doing. And being allowed to carry scissors and knitting needles again. Overall these "security measures" are pretty ridiculous and certainly don't make us any safer.

But having dinner during a layover I encountered the final straw. I ordered a steak at TGIFridays. I somehow never eat red meat on business trips, and usually by the end really crave it. See, I'm not really a vegetarian, I just play one on TV. A lot of meals are sponsored and usually chicken or veg., and we always seem to eat sushi as our late night supper. Anyway, I get my steak and silverware. Instead of the normal big steak knife I'm used to seeing, I get this instead:A cheap plastic picnic knife. Not even a high duty one, just the crap that would come with a fast food salad. It was a pretty thick steak cooked medium-rare. I almost called the server over about it, but then realized I was already through security and could have stolen my steak knife and done nefarious things with it on the plane. No point in complaining. I started cutting my steak. No, I started sawing at it, shredding the meat. Each stroke of the "knife" got through about a millimeter of it, and it made a horrid sound of muscle fibers tearing. It took almost a minute LITERALLY to cut off a couple pieces. I kept at it, rapidly losing my appetite and thinking this is the type of meal that makes me lean towards going veg. It wasn't long before my knife broke and I gave up.

So now, 7 years later, the response to the terror attacks are still far-reaching. The point of terrorists is to cause terror and disrupt normal life. And they've succeeded. They prevented a tired American traveler from enjoying a grilled steak as her last meal before heading home. And made her worry about using buzzwords like 'terrorist' in an innocuous blog post. Really, I have a slight nervous feeling, like the PATRIOT police are gonna come get me. Tsk tsk.