The holidays

Well turkey day was interesting this year. It had been a couple of years since I cooked the turkey so I looked up cooking times to refresh my memory. I found a web site that said to cook at 325 degrees for 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 hours. WRONG!!! About 2 hours after that the turkey was ready. Rather than wait 2 more hours to eat we all decided we like turkey for leftovers better anyways and ate everything else. So a kind of turkeyless thanksgiving. I thought it was fun. I like all the other stuff (especially stuffing) better anyways. Then we watched A Christmas Story. My sister had to work during the day and nieces at night. So after my twin nieces went to work my sister came over and had dinner. By then the turkey was done so she did have some. She got most of the turkey leftovers and I got most of the stuffing leftovers. I thought it was a very good day. I don't have a picture of the turkey because of the issues we had. Here are a couple of other pictures:





Some more pictures of a morning commute. Try not to get too bored with my obsession. ;-)




This weekend will be going for a walk with my mom and then making my holiday CDs. Hopefully I will have them in the mail some time this week.

The night sky 11-16-09

I just want to post a couple of pictures I took tonight of the really cool sky.
See all the pictures here:
http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/myklia/blog%20pics/night%20sky%2011-16-09/



You can barely see the star in the upper left hand corner:



Keep in mind that the only camera I have right now is my cell phone camera. I try to do what I can.

Weekend Novemer 14 and 15 2009

I had a pretty good weekend. I started off Saturday with a great haircut and then I went to a friend's house. We knew each other in high school and every so often in the last 5 years or so(?)we have run into each other, but never too much more than "hi, how are you" because I think it was usually crowded situations. They didn't lend themselves to really sitting and talking. I found her on Facebook and we have reconnected. I went to her house to pick up one carder and hung out for a while with her and her two children and had breakfast and great conversation. It was really wonderful.

After that I had ummm...girl business, but then after that I went to Zine Fest in the Riverwest neighborhood. Zines are like little homemade magazines. A lot of creativity and range of subjects. Really fantastic!!! I then went to Whole Foods and did some shopping there (I am not often in that part of town, so it is a treat for me). After that I went to Trader Joe's because they were selling pre-brined fresh turkeys. I picked one up for Thanksgiving. Should be good.

Yesterday I went to a bio poetics class about how science can influence poetry. It was really fun and we even had a biology student who also likes poetry attend the class so she had a different perspective to offer. I found out I am a syllable counting geek. I have always liked haiku's, but now have fallen in love with Fibonacci poems. There was much else discussed too.

Onto a couple of pictures. My haircut:

Zines I got at Zine Fest:


A Fabonacci is supposed to start with a zero, so a sigh will serve as my zero. Here is my poem:

*sigh*

I

One

Alone

Wanting you

You not wanting me

But I want to make you happy

You don't know me but I want you to give me a chance

You don't know that I am peace, calm, happiness, laughter, creative, hard working, and love

You are sunshine in a smile, beautiful eyes gleaming, great energy to light the world, a loving soul, warm as a summer day, I want you

************************************************************

Ok, I better go, still much to do before I leave work this morning.

Fantastic Friday Morning Commute

I worked 2 hours late last night because I knew I was going to have over 300 bills today, which is a lot and it required that much prep time to make today go smoothly. When I woke up I knew I was well prepared for the day so I woke up and went to work stress free and felt fantastic. I first stopped at my favorite bagel shop to get my favorite bagel sandwich which I always get to go. When I was driving to work there was such a beautiful sunrise and great music coming on in my shuffle.

Anyone who knows me knows I love taking pictures of my commute which is mostly country roads. I was stopped when I took these pictures. Some are a little blurry, but that is because my cell phone camera likes to do that, not because I was speeding by. Sometimes I like that effect even though I wasn't trying for it. Onto the pictures:

On Wasaukee Rd just south of Mequon Rd:


Wasaukee Rd and Donges Bay Rd:


Wasaukee Rd and Brown Deer Rd:


Park Place Rd just off of Bradley Rd:


At my parking spot at work:


And finally, my favorite bagel sandwich:


Now some of the music I was listening to:
The The "Uncertain Smile"


So it seems like I can only get "One Minute" by The Album Leaf as background music to something else and why not the surfer guy. I LOVE watching surfers and I love the sun sand and beach and track is a great background to this clip.


Of course my girl Bek-Jean Stewart, here as lead singer of Eva Trout, these days she is skinny sporting blond hair and is drummer for a band called The Leisure Suit which contains band members of Eva Trout. They all seem to be a close bunch. I really just love Bek-Jean Stewart. All her music, Eva Trout and her solo music, has so much heart. There are the pop songs, but there is some very deep stuff as well. Anyways, LOVE this song:


This song didn't come up in my shuffle, but should have. It was hard to find a decent version with an embed code, but this isn't too bad, performed live by Aimee Mann. "Coming Up Close" by Til Tuesday:


One other picture taken over a week ago that I like:


Hopefully more pictures by Sunday night, I have a great busy weekend ahead.

Fiber Fest!!!

My friend Nicole has my number alright!!! Such amazing gorgeous yarn!!!! Nice and sparkly. Also some soap to try out as I am looking for good soaps to shower with (though the UNSCENTED Dove is working good, but the SCENTED Dove made me near sick). I would eventually like all vegan handmade unscented soap (unless it is a nice natural lavender scent). Anyways, onto fiber goodness to make yarn with. Yay!!!

The group shot:


Individual shots:





Whenever I get around to spinning them I'll post pictures. Will be a while yet.

I never mentioned that I have also entered the realm of dying roving:


I will be spinning up some of this one this week:


Yay!!!

A fantastic walk

Well the plan was to stay at home and do nothing but knit all day, but then I noticed it was getting over 60 degrees and it was sunny out. I HAD to go for a walk. First I opened almost every window in my apartment. mmmm....Fresh air. I went to Garrison's Glen in Ozaukee County on Pioneer Road about 1/2 mile west of Hwy 43. It is pretty much a prairie with some trees around the edge and a few trees on the inside. It looks deceptively small, but it isn't huge either. Really cool meandering trails, almost like a maze. I highly recommend going, it is quite pleasant. All the pictures are here.

Onto the pictures:





I think this milkweed would make great yarn. I should look up to see if it has been done. (yay, someone has done it.)

An Amazing Commute

I really had the most amazing commute tonight!!! A fiery sunset, country roads, and fantastic music!!!! Oh wow!!! So I couldn't really get a picture of the fiery sky because I was driving and a car was riding my tail, so I couldn't slow down or stop a second to get a picture. Anyways, I have a couple pictures I took when I went to the grocery store. After the pictures is a video of the song I was listening to on my way home. It is "Moon Dream" by Desolation Wilderness. The video shows them performing it live, but I listened to the studio version which is a little better. It really was a great soundtrack to the drive.





Video:


Enjoy!!!

Breast Cancer Awareness hat

First off, I'm not really proud of this hat, but the idea was there. I really just used the wrong chart for something the size of a hat. The idea was that I would wear this hat on "wear Pink to work day" for breast cancer awareness. I HATE the color pink, so this was my contribution, but the hat turned out a little too large. When we had our bake sale to raise money for breast cancer I contributed this hat. Someone donated $5 to get it, so I am happy for that. Next year I plan on doing more knitting and NO baking. I will need to create my own hat friendly chart for the ribbon. Not sure yet if I'll do all hats, all dishcloths, or a mix. Right now I am thinking a mix. Anyways, here is the hat (not the best picture).

What is going on

I think I need to rethink my idea of a blog post. Instead of writing a book on everything since I last wrote, just simply write a few things every couple of days or so and offer a couple of pictures (I love pictures).

Today is busiest day of month at work today, so it means I will be working late today. This month I will attempt NaNoWriMo (that would be National Novel Writing Month). Really, I am most comfortable writing poetry and non fiction, so this is a real challenge for me. I'm going to try it. I won't lose too much sleep if I don't succeed, but my plan is still to succeed. I am already way behind because I was trying to do research for things I don't know much about, but a friend suggested putting in "place markers" and then go back in December and do the research for the details. The idea this month is to get as much written down as possible.

Work has been insane, but we won't talk about that. I feel like there is tons more to speak of, but I am drawing a blank this morning. Oh well, later.

Some pictures:
If you listen to NPR you may have heard This American Life hosted by Ira Glass. I got to see him speak and then I met him in person afterwords. What an amazing man.


As I was driving home from work one day:


As I was driving to work one day:


On my last camping trip at Harrington Beach State Park, I am amazed I got this picture, I love it:


Have a good day all.