Remember the days?

Remember when a chemistry set was the cool gift for an aspiring science geek? Maybe a microscope with some prepared slides? We've come a long way baby:

Now we have Genetics & DNA Experiment Kits, for Biological Inheritance and Genetic Engineering - ages 10 and up! I have no idea what's in the box, but damn, what an exciting toy. It was right next to the Forensics & Fingerprinting kit. Combine those and your kids will have a CSI station set up in the living room that afternoon. Of course, who has to play Hodges in the lab, and who gets to be Warrick with the black fingerprint powder that gets everywhere? I wonder if it includes a tube of Superglue for vapor fingerprint collection, or would that be bad for the target age group?

Must share - shopping other ppl's stashes

I just stumbled upon a fantastic feature in Ravelry that is going to save me tons of money. People list yarn from their stashes to sell, and you can search directly within that group for stuff that's a great deal! I needed 2 skeins of a certain brand and color, and found someone selling exactly what I needed for about 40% less than list price. Now I also know what to do with some of my impulse purchases I'll never use.

From the homepage I clicked the search icon (magnifying glass). Then chose to search stashes. There's a click box on the left to select For Sale or Trade. Then you can search for specific names, colors, fibers, yarn weights, etc. Woo hoo!

Gotta run, there's stash mining to be done!

All is right with the world again

Yep, I went to Target today. I needed laundry detergent and like the Method kind they have with the pump. I also looked at hats and purses and scarves. Would've looked at earrings but there was a mom there accusing her teenage daughter of lying about stealing shoes from her cousin. I tried not to listen but had to give up and leave when the mom said "Jesus knows when you're stealing, Jesus knows you're lying". I may not be religious, but I thought that line of reasoning was reserved for Santa near Christmastime.

So off to the bedding and shelving area! And while there I rediscovered why I like Target - they have cool affordable stuff! They have king-size duvet covers - something I've been searching high and low for since we got our new summerweight down blanket. And all their bedding now comes in bags made of the sheet fabric, complete with buttons and flaps. Very cool idea, and I can't wait to figure out what I'm going to do with mine. Because surely there must be a use for a rectangular pouch made of sheeting that buttons closed. I've never found a use for the plastic ones, but save them all because they seem like they should be useful. Yeah, this cloth one will be way more useful once I find a use for it!

On Target!

It struck me today that it's been MONTHS since I've been to Target. This is somewhat disturbing to me. Admittedly I have to drive half an hour to get to one now, compared to the 4 minutes it used to be before we moved. But I drive past a Target probably once a week, so that's no excuse. I remember when we were first talking about moving years ago, I said I could live anywhere that had a good grocery store and a Target in town. So what happened? I really don't know, I'm not sure where I'm buying all the things I used to go to Target to get, or even what all those things were. It's a bit disconcerting, like I've lost part of my memory.

We had a sub this week for my normal yoga class, and rather than try to teach the Jivamukti style we're used to she taught her normal Hatha Flow class. I would say she is an advanced level teacher, the only time I've had a more challenging class was that crazy balance workshop a few months ago. After I was shaking and drenched from the effort I glanced at the clock and realized in horror that only half an hour had passed and we still had 45 min. to go. I took a breath and hoped we'd have some easy poses to rest before the next strenuous part. Thankfully we did, and by easy I mean laying flat on our belly just breathing. The climax of the class was a series of poses leading to forearm stand.

This is a new pose I hadn't tried before, but one I'd really like to be able to do one day. I was able to get my upper body in position, but my feet were only able to leave the ground for a second, as I tried to kick up off the ground. One day... We also tried to walk up the walls, which I totally want to be able to do. We crouched with our back to the wall and palms flat on the ground, then put our feet on the wall and started walking up it. It's way harder than you'd think, mostly to overcome the mental aspect and trust what you're doing. I don't think I'd want this class every week, but it might be fun to challenge myself every once in a while like that. So long as I had a few days to recover before doing anything else.

This has gone too far

I went to the store.
I went to the store to buy some Oreos.
(Do not talk to me about what's actually in an Oreo.  All I know is it's a dark chocolately cookie stuffed with crack)
I went to the store to buy some Oreos and really wanted the normal basic kind.
I went to the store to buy some normal basic Oreos and encountered a problem.

Where the hell are the normal Oreos?
There are dozen varieties in this photo, and NONE are the regular kind. Until this moment I had no idea how out of hand things had gotten.
1. I don't want Golden Oreos.
2. I don't want Golden Double Stuf Oreos
3. I don't want Golden Chocolate Oreos.
4. I don't want Chocolate Oreos
5. I don't want Peanut Butter Oreos.
6. I don't want Oreo Fudgees
7. I don't want Cool Mint Oreos.
Well, wait, those actually sound pretty good.

8. I don't want Sugar Free Oreos (how is that even possible?)
9. I don't want Candy Cane Oreos (It's February, why are these on the shelves?)
10. I don't want Reduced Fat Oreos (If I'm going for terribly artificial, I want it all!)
11. I don't want Double Stuf Oreos
12. I don't want Great Value brand chocolate sandwich cookies.

I did finally find the normal kind, on the very bottom shelf. And damned tasty they were!

MDSW Roundup

I had such a good time at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival (MDSW).  I stopped for amazingly good donuts on the way up.  I also stopped by a MAC store (no, not the Apple store, although they are side by side at that particular mall) and picked up a new ridiculous shade of bright blue/purple eyeshadow.  They still don't have a good green, but did find an emerald green cream eye pencil that will do nicely.  My rainbow is nearly complete! 

As I drove up my brother's street I saw several people having fun painting a pull-behind trailer.  I wondered about it, then realized it was parked in my brother's driveway!  I did a quick U-turn, grabbed the donuts, and walked up to join in.  A few hours of paint and turpentine fumes later, check out the awesomeness they will be hauling across the country. 

We cleaned the paint off ourselves as best as we could (fingernail beds are apparently a permanent paint location) and had tasty sushi for dinner.  I've never been so full from sushi before that I thought I might burst.  Well, there were bento box goodies and ice cream too.  Mmm...mango, red bean, ginger, green tea, mochi...why do Americans only believe in chocolate and more chocolate?  Thankfully the filling dinner saved the donuts so we were able to slice them up into little wedges and enjoy them with our otherwise healthy breakfast of eggs, turkey bacon, turkey sausage, and oatmeal-applesauce pancakes.  Sure, they roll out the healthy goodness, and my contributions are donuts and mimosas.

It was a fun drive up to MDSW, until the last couple miles that added nearly an hour onto our travel time.  Gads they needed a cop at the intersection!  Once we got near enough we all piled out of the van and started walking to the festival rather than sit in traffic anymore (Thanks Daven!).  Ever had a dandelion fight?  It's really fun, although hard to attack someone if you have to run up to catch them.  Here we are at the climax of our battle - I wish the camera captured the cloud of dandelion fluff we're standing in.  I also learned a dandelion in the ear is shriek-worthy no matter who the victim is. 

I haven't been to MDSW in 8 years or so.  It was great, but less overwhelming than it felt back in those days.  I think I've learned so much in the intervening years I don't need to see/touch/do everything (oops, I mistyped 'everyone' at first).  I did learn a few things that are handy. 
1. Kilts are great as they totally replace a shoulder bag or purse and leave your hands completely free.  I wasn't sure about it at first (my brother handed out kilts left and right when we were all leaving that morning) but by the end of the day I was glad to have it.  Seriously, I had my wallet, camera, phone, notepad, pen, and snack in my pockets and then clipped all my purchases into the convenient belt clip.  There were quite a lot of kilt wearers there that day, which brought questions from some confused folks who thought we were in a dance troupe or something.
2. Golding Ring Spindles really do spin longer than any other, and are totally gorgeous.  But after using them I lost my decade-old desire to have one.  All the extra spin time is meaningless since you have to stop once you near the ground.  And the shafts are kind of tacky feeling.  It might have been because of the heat melting the wood wax, but they had a feel reminiscent of the Mongolian Grill wooden platters you put your bowl on.  It's kind of like losing a crush.

Oh, you'd rather see the haul of stuff I bought?  Special thanks to my husband for demanding that I buy whatever I wanted.  Here's the pretty yarns:

Top: Mountain Colors sock yarn.
Left to Right: Zauberball laceweight, 2 balls of Mini Mochi for alternate colorway striping, 2 skeins of Claudia's Handpaint for striped socks, maybe the Jaywalker Pattern.
I didn't photograph the blue faced leicester wools, since a camera can't capture the feel of them.  I also got a supremely awesome pendant I'll post later.

We stayed to the end of the festival and by that point were trudging along after a day of dizzingly hot weather.  I knew how hot it was when I realized I'd drank 3 quart-sized lemonades and a bottle of water and never had to pee.  Here's part of our band heading out.

I'm so glad I got to go with such a fun group of people.  Maybe we can all meet at Estes one year...

Awesome thrift store find

My bellydance class meets at the local dance studio, which happens to be part of the YMCA building, which also houses a thrift store. I usually pop into the shop for the few minutes before class starts to see if there's anything worth picking up. Today something near the entrance caught my eye, more of a decorative display than a sales rack. I was shocked to see an Egyptian Riq on the shelf. A riq is a frame drum with zills inlaid in the rim -- a tambourine to most people. Here it is with my other drums - an Alexandria doumbek and Remo 16" frame drum.The goatskin drumhead was broken, but still held a surprisingly good sound. The zills need some work to be reshaped into the correct orientation, but have a pleasant tone. Given the lack of tuning pegs I think I may put a Remo drumhead on it.The intricate inlays wrap around the entire frame, and the drum would be a pretty decoration even if I can't get it in good playing order. Even cooler, it's really made in Egypt.
Best of all, check out the pricetag! I've wanted a riq for a while but didn't think I could buy one. This one definitely needs some work but hopefully will end up being part of my drum set :)

Who skinned a giraffe?

I've been looking for a new purse for a while. My whole life my purses have been functional rather than accessories. Small-medium cloth bags with lots of pockets. I wanted something different this time and I had my eyes peeled for one in green, purple, or red, maybe that shiny leather that's popular now. Totally new territory for me, and I wasn't liking what I saw. Then I went shopping at lunch one day with a friend from work at a cool consignment shop nearby. I'm able to talk myself out of almost any purchase if I'm alone, but if someone is with me I find it harder to say no. I think that's part of the reason I asked her if she wanted to come with me. I found one I liked, even stuck my current purse into it to see how it handled the weight, carried it all over the store, then hung it back up. Thankfully my friend was patient and encouraging, and waited while I talked myself back into buying it. Yes, it's ridiculous. Different in every way from my normal bags. No convenient pockets, far bigger and heavier than others, yet I can't help grinning every time I put it on. So far it's working out great, and the added room allows me to easily hold everything I want to carry with me.

Of course it led to a very interesting conversation over dinner the night I brought it home about fashion, and what disconnect happens in women's brains that make them buy an item like this. I didn't have an answer at first, I just knew I liked it. We had a fun time trying to tease apart the reasons behind it, and weird fashion trends in general, and finally came up with a succinct undeniable answer - it's made to catch the eye. And it certainly does.