felineorigami's Journal

whew! again
last time I posted, I was moaning about how my dance teacher had seen fit to revise fundamental portions of our dance technique - like how we turn.

well, apparently blowing our poor little minds that time wasn't enough. Oh, no. This time he gave us new technique that revises the way we step. Every frickin' time we move one of our feet, we'll be working entirely different body parts than we did before.

In theory.

Near the end of the lesson, he commented on how quiet we were getting. He may also have noticed that we'd gotten a bit glassy-eyed. Then he proceeded to lead a few steps first with the old technique, then the new. Which rather thoroughly convinced me that if we ever do master this new stuff, it'll be cool. If I don't do myself or others serious bodily harm while trying, at least.

argh
last night I discovered that one of my main jewelry suppliers also carries glassworking supplies. which would have been great to learn before I placed an order with them, rather than shortly after.

today I learned that said order isn't even going to get here until sometime (probably late) next week. have I mentioned that I want my instant gratification right now?

jewelry online!
for everybody who didn't see it on Facebook:

www.foxtrot-designs.com/jewelry/

My roses have aphids, black spot, rust, and mildew (not all on the same plant). So I got a bottle of pest-and-disease-fighting stuff from the local organic nursery. Active ingredient: neem oil, whatever that is.

well, the directions say to cover the entire surface of the affected plant until the stuff drips off. Anyone who has seen my roses knows what an absurd task this is to undertake with a wimpy little squirt bottle. I need a neem oil fire hose.

in other news, I planned to get a bit more done on my workroom today. Fail: the mud dries out too darn quickly in this heat. Maybe tomorrow morning before it gets too hot.

here comes the hay fever
yesterday, the very nice flower grower at the farmers' market gave me free flowers (in addition to the ones I was buying from him). Most of 'em probably won't last for very long, but when I add the free flowers to the ones I bought and the ones I got out of my garden...well, the house is full of flowers. Very nice.

except that I need to be out of the house to tape and mud (and then paint) my brand-new sheetrock. well, I'll enjoy them in the evenings.

New socks!
As of about midnight last night, I have an entire pair of new socks.

I am currently resisting the temptation to put them on and stroll oh-so-nonchalantly into my local yarn shop and see who notices 'em (they're pretty good about noticing these things there). Except that the last thing I need right now is more yarn.

I am far too excited about these socks. Possibly 'cos they took forever to knit, and possibly 'cos they're really pretty.

The socks took an embarrassingly long time because (a) I took certain liberties with the pattern, including making the leg portion quite a bit longer than written, (b) the pattern is pretty complex, with lots of twisted stitches that just take a long time (the pattern is "Twisted Flowers," by Cookie A.) and (c) I'm not a very fast knitter in any event.

Unfortunately, the household sock photographer has gone off to work, so no photos yet (hey, you try taking pictures of your own feet - at angles designed to show off socks, that is).

Next: I think I'll use that very pretty handpainted sock yarn I got at the yarn shop that just closed, to knit a considerably less complicated pair of socks.

hungry
very hungry. should go get food. am instead posting to livejournal. sometimes I confuse myself.

landscapin'
Well, the lime tree has been moved to a place where it will not get clobbered by the neighbor's peach tree when full of peaches. It originally got planted closer to the fence than I'd really wanted, due to the inconvenient placement of my sprinkler system. It should be much better where it is now. And the apricot tree has been thinned out and looks much better. I still haven't figured out the best time to prune the orange tree, 'cos it bears flowers while there's still fruit on it. Not just now, at any rate - it's full of oranges which won't be fully ripe for another month or so.

And the old rosebushes planted by the previous owner are gone, to be replaced by newer ones that should be better for cutting (which is half the reason I grow roses in the first place). I got the guys doing the work to leave the root sections behind. Possibly I will be able to make pens or other such small items. I've used rosewood before, but never rose wood.

Z sent me a surprise bareroot rose, which was the impetus for getting this done now. Now I have a place to plant it. Now I have to plant it.

reach, meet grasp
The seed catalogs have been arriving, and I have been eagerly perusing and dog-earing pages and circling things I'd like to get.

if I got all the things I'm lusting after...well, I'd have to have a much bigger garden. With staff. And I'd have to be working on it full-time, myself. Heck, I can't even get around to weeding my tomato bed (really, it's a weed bed with a few tomatoes in it).

time to go back and edit, trying to keep some basis in reality this time.

blah
nearly a week without an Internet connection is TOO LONG.

unless I'm on vacation or something. even then I want my fix.

better now. so much mostly useless content to catch up on! so much time to waste!

Apparently I could survive for 35 seconds
chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor.

http://www.bunkbeds.net/velociraptor/index.php

They don't specify whether or not the velociraptor has just had a good meal and is feeling sleepy, or if he just wants to curl up and be petted for a while. Or what if he gets into a fight with the velociraptor chained to the next bunk bed instead?

Holiday decor
So, this year J wanted to put up the Invisipine (last year we did something else). It's up now, and I must say...it's the best lack of Christmas tree ever!

Must get pictures online. I have some on my website from previous years, but they're not very good.

serves me right for trying to be productive.
today I thought I'd get up and get a bunch of stuff done right away. silly me, none of the places I want to do business with is open until noon or so.

Thanksgiving aftermath
I really love having my friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks for coming, guys - it wouldn't have been a bit of fun without you.

I still feel full from last night - and yet I'm really looking forward to leftovers tonight. I swear I could eat Thanksgiving leftovers for the better part of a week without getting sick of 'em. This is very much not the case for any other meal.

Tho I still need to palm off extra apple pie on someone. I am so not going to eat an entire half pie before it goes bad, and J doesn't much care for the stuff. Besides, he's going to be too busy chowing down on

desdemona612 's pumpkin pecan pie.

The carnage in the kitchen is almost under control. There's about half of a dishwasher load still to do - a vast improvement.

ugh
first half of last week: recovery from my trip. catching up on sleep. plus, putting the house back together, running errands and suchlike.

second half of last week: minor illness. annoying, and I had no energy for several days.

yesterday and Sunday: finally had enough energy to tackle daunting tasks. Like laundry (including washing the cat).

last night: first signs of a scratchy throat.

today: definitely coming down with a cold.

grn.

wet cat
This morning, I gave Brie a bath (May got off easy this time). I do this about once a year, and every time I am struck anew by how well he takes it. Although he sure manages to look like an incredibly pathetic drowned rat.

When he's fully dry, he suddenly goes from "pathetic" to "show-off." Tomorrow he'll be prancing around the house, preening and showing off how pretty he looks. I love that part.

better now
Tea good. Happy tea.

chocolate cake doesn't hurt, either.

Still no tickets
But apparently they called me on my home phone at 6 AM today, asking for my mom. After I'd told them (repeatedly) to use my cell phone (hey, I'm 3000 miles away from my home phone at the moment). I don't really have to explain how many levels that's wrong on.

And the replacement tickets that I was trying to get got sold out from under me. Argh. But they say they've got me another set, but it's too late to ship them. This means that they'll have to be picked up at FedEx Field, which is a whole 'nother ball o' obnoxiousness.

Remind me to never use StubHub again. Ever. The entire experience has been a nightmare.

Still no tickets in hand
Which is scary, because yesterday we told Mom that we were giving her Redskins tickets for her birthday (she was thrilled).

The helpful person at StubHub has identified replacement tickets and called the seller, but had to leave a message. Those tickets better get overnighted tomorrow, 'cos the game is on Monday...

it's progress, at least. But it's been a tremendous hassle, and I am cranky about the whole experience.

not quite Project Runway in my living room
lately, every time I've been planning travel, I've felt the need to sew me some new clothing - a dress for the wedding in Minneapolis, another dress for my mom's birthday next week...not entirely sure what trip the jacket was for. Probably Minneapolis, too.

Finished the dress for Mom's birthday, and it's very cute (if I do say so myself). Except that I've realized that there are actually going to be several occasions on that trip when I'm going to need to dress up. And the dress I made for the wedding is way too fancy for any of them.

I am NOT sewing another dress by Monday (although, come to think of it, I probably could, if I didn't want to get anything else done).

on the plus side, my sewing skills are improving noticeably. Gotta make myself a new ballgown - now I'm unhappy with the one I made a couple of years ago.

Maybe in a month or two.

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