Showing posts with label "craft swap". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "craft swap". Show all posts

Monday, August 23, 2010

a light so dim

what's up ! hey ! it's monday and i feel refreshed and totally not annoyed at work even though i had to make a stupid powerpoint ! what's up !

on friday, i got out of work at 3 and immediately came home to take a giant nap. afterward i knitted for awhile, and then got ready to go to mill creek to see mouse's band. mill creek is in my neighborhood and is a fairly cheap and large bar with good food, buttttttt they didn't uphold the smoking ban until recently so i tried to avoid it. luckily they actually started to, so i could go there and bring my knitting and not end up stinking. i had a really good time- drinks were like $2.50 and dangerbird was good. i had minimal pleasant interaction with my exbf where we acknowledged that we barely remember dating aside from watching event horizon together and playing video games.

dangerbird


i haven't actually gotten drunk in awhile so i was trying really hard to act serious but everything i was saying was nonsense. also when i drink a lot i can't feel my teeth and christina said i was tapping my teeth constantly. whateverrrrrr. i had a good time, and mouse was unusually funny- i think he had a pepsi or something.

on saturday, christina and i had a wonderful day out. we went downtown to see a movie at the prince music theater. i've seen lots of movies there, as part of the film fest- almost all smart people boring silent movies with organ accompaniment and stuff- but since they are sort of struggling to stay open right now (and will most likely be sold by TD bank soon), they're showing first run movies. soooooo we saw the other guys at the prince !

the other guys


it was... surprisingly good? it was really really super fucking weird, so of course christina and i liked it. i can't really give an intelligent review of it because it was just a bunch of weirdos being weird for 90 minutes, but it had a surprisingly low incidence of misogynist and homophobic jokes (though it did have a few, but i guess the joke was that marky mark was an asshole). i recommend watching it for free when it's on hbo.

after the movie, we... went to ihop ! i don't think i'd ever actually been to one before, but i felt like a teenager in the suburbs (though in the suburb of my rural shithole, WE used to go to denny's ! and the rich kids went to steak and shake). i want to invent a restaurant where they serve you one half of a pancake because that's all i ever want.

pancakes
i got these without all the shit on them !


i got the harvest grain and nut pancakes which were pretty good, and they also watermelon lemonade which was cool. after we ate we were stuffed, so we came home to try to entertain ourselves without cable. we watched serenity, which i surprisingly didn't hate (i am Not a Joss Whedon Person) ! it was funny and entertaining, and redbelt from the movie redbelt is in it. he's super handsome and a wonderful actor and i really wish they'd chosen him to be the doctor instead of matt smith (that was a rumor for awhile)

redbelt


i also finally finished my craft swap scarf ! i even blocked it, which i've never done before. the only thing that makes me feel weird is that like... it emitted a gross sulfur smell when it got wet and i still think it smells weird? anyway, it flattened out beautifully and is definitely long enough (which is what i was worried about). i just have to make a card for it and get it in the mail tomorrow. blocking really makes a huge difference, i feel stupid for never doing it before.

blocking
please ignore the dirty underwear and lampshade


on sunday, mouse and i were originally going to swim somewhere, but the weather was shitty, so we went to the mall. i saw two movies in one weekend, which is unusual cause i almost never go to the movies ! we decided to see the expendables because we're both meathead jocks.

the expendables


what a surprise that my idea of what is cool and sexy does not match up with a 60 year old man's idea of cool and sexy? the women dressed like sylvester stallone got their costumes from kelly bundy's estate sale and the men dressed like... well, old douchebags. lots of the scenes were super tight shots of peoples' faces (rough when the cast is mostly like... plastic surgery disasters whose faces look like the dumpster behind the leather and ham factory) because some of the actors were never in the same room as others (there's a whole scene with stallone, arnold, and bruce willis where it's obvious they were never all in the same place) and the dialogue was full of super awkward one liners delivered poorly by stupid musclemen or thoughtful stallone-written dialogue sputtered out by people whose action movies never required them to learn english.

randy couture (mma fighter) played the crazy one and they kept talking about how crazy he was and how he sees a THERAPIST, but randy couture is like a bowl of oatmeal who can wrestle and was totally bland, but they did put a hawaiian shirt on him to indicate how zany he was. overall, i think this may have actually been a slightly better movie if stallone hadn't tried to shove every action movie star ever into it. the plot was mildly interesting and some of stallone's intelligence and sensitivity accidentally leaked out at some points. i also appreciate that stallone didn't actually get to kiss his love interest because she was super young and gorgeous and he was older than her father (a character in the movie).

speaking of her, what does it say about modern film that when the bad guys capture her, i was relieved when they only waterboarded her instead of trying to rape her? i've never seen a movie with a female hostage or prisoner where she wasn't raped, assaulted, or nearly raped and assaulted, so it was refreshing that they... well, used some other kind of torture? of course like 20 minutes later some prison guards try to rape her, though, but at least stallone saves her (um, spoiler?).

overall it was terrible, of course, but i appreciated that everyone got their moment to shine- randy couture got to wrestle steve austin, jet li got to karate dolph lundgren, mickey rourke gets a sort of touching soliloquy (he's such a good actor, too bad he looks like a hot dog you microwaved too long), jason statham got to beat up 2 different groups of guys, "crews" (the... pepe le pew of the movie white chicks?) got to blow people up with a gun, etc. plus i have a weird boner for dolph lundgren that i've had my entire life, so it was nice to see him wearing sleeveless shirts and picking on people who were smaller than him again. i do feel bad that eric roberts and steve austin were such BAD GUYS though- eric roberts is a soulless businessman who exploits a whole nation because of his greed, and steve austin is a thug who likes hitting women. luckily they both meet an end that involves guns, swords, AND fire (spoilers !!!!!).

dolph lundgren


jet li and jason statham were pretty fly too.

after the movie, we walked around the mall for a bit, which was fun because like what the fuck are me and mouse doing at the mall? we gawked at the rich people and how expensive all their stupid shit was, and i got some body butter at the body shop on sale (strawberry, satsuma, and moringa). then we went to su tao, the vegan chinese buffet in malvern. that didn't go that well because neither of us were buffet hungry, but i really wanted to go there cause i haven't been since my... 25th? birthday.

su tao
featured: spring rolls, fried vegetables, lemon chicken, some other chicken, steamed dumplings, fried rice


thennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn i came home and was very quiet while christina watched 'true blood' (which was excruciating because i kept wanting to go 'true BLEHHHHHHHHHH' in a dracula voice ! but i didn't !) and started my herringbone neck warmer with the sheep shop one i bought last weekend.

herringbone


the pattern is super easy and fun to knit- i had a hard time making myself put it down to go to bed ! but eventually i did, and then i woke up and came to work, and now i'm going to eat lunch because it took me forever to write this.

p.s. when these aging action movie dudes get plastic surgery, why do none of them get their broken noses fixed? they all go right for lip plumping.

Monday, August 9, 2010

all the stars were shining bright

i have had the weirdest craving lately- fruit punch gatorade. i don't like gatorade OR fruit punch, but i can't stop thinking about it. i just got one and i'm choking it down right now despite its disgustingness.

gatorade


i'm gonna try to do a quick weekend recap because i have a lot of work to do today- i didn't write my german essay or do the quiz online this weekend and i have to do it ASAP. i guess, despite what i said before, i still don't get the different cases. i also need to watch some history lectures and do some reading.

too much homework


speaking of homework, on friday i stayed at home and did some homework. i tried to get as much as possible done, which ended up only being 2/5 of what i was writing. HOWEVER, i finished it around 2pm on saturday (instead of 5:30 like the last few weeks) and went to trader joe's and dropped my laundry off. i spent most of saturday night bro-ing down with christina (who i have barelyyyyy seen lately) and:

1) working on my craft swap project
2) catching up on DVR'd shark week stuff

entrelac scarf


my craft swap scarf is really coming along. unfortunately, the due date is like... this week? and there's no way i can finish it this week. i didn't think about how much school would affect my free crafting time before i signed up, but all my finals stuff is this week (for my german class it's like.. 4394093 things? and a history exam that should take HOURS), plus brooke is coming ! anyway, i'm on my final ball of yarn and one solid weekend should do it, so i petitioned for extra time.

breechin'


the shark week stuff i watched was all pretty good, too- as a result, though, i have a new favorite hunky zoologist. you guys know i'm not shallow (not really anyway) and my other celebrity crushes are like... kevin james and snagglepuss, but dave salmoni is the handsomest charmingest and loooooves animals. he lived in the wild for 6 months with lions !!!! the best part about all this is that he didn't have any shark experience and was totally a terrified wimp the entire time.

lion


he is also a dictionary defintion hunk with a ninja turtle bod if you want to check it out.

on sunday, mouse and i went to tyler state park ! we met up with mike, which took forever cause he got lost and his dog got diarrhea in the car. my intent was to take portraits of them butttttttttttttttt mouse wore a damn tie dyed shirt and mike took his shirt off immediately and tied it around his head like a roofer, soooooo. we walked around for a bit and settled at a picnic table near some corn fields and talked about guns? as i've mentioned, i don't know anything about guns, and i have very little interest in shooting, but i agreed to go shooting with them if i could shoot an ak-47. they both seem to be into the 1911, which is nice and everything, butttttt i don't know or care about guns !

dogs


those are mike's dogs, beale and berry (they were found on a highway in memphis, hence 'beale', the worst name for anything ever). they were cute and everything but were totally uninterested in petting so i'm basically uninterested in them !

after the park, mouse and i went up to his mom's house to hopefully see the baby butttttttttttttttttttttt he was asleep ! jenny let me gently squeeze his foot though. i did get to pet mouse's parents' dog, daisy, who is one of my favorite dogs and totally made up for mike's duds.

dogggg


after that, we went to whole foods and i came home and knitted and worked on my german homework, before going to bed way too late and now i'm awake and very tired and cranky. and this entry still took me HOURS to write even though i didn't do anything or put any jokes in. oh well, at least you got a hunk.

p.s. blehhhh jeanne's on vacation and i miss her !
p.p.s. there was a show on the history channel about the war of 1812 and two people asked me my opinions about stuff independently of each other ! aw.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

eating popcorn on a piano

ahhh, school. did you guys know school was a lot of work? my german class has kind of been light on homework so far (attending daily class, doing an interactive lesson on the deutsche welle site, recording answers to verbal questions, writing an introduction for myself on the class facebook... !!!) but the history class has been killer. i need to pace myself better as far as the reading goes- i need to do the reading over the weekend every week so tuesday and wednesday aren't super stressful.

time management
the time management octopus or banana


i'm stressed out already ! buh ! and it's only day 3 of classes. i'm also already resentful that i'm missing out on fun social stuff, like anna's birthday ! and now i'm anxious that i won't finish my craft swap scarf by august, though i guess i could work on that reallllly hard on the weekends or something. i'm trying to be really reasponsible about obligations now, and since it's the first time i've done this particular craft swap, i don't want to be late or a deadbeat !

entrelac
someone else's beautiful entrelac stuff


i also watched a few futuramas with ken last night, including the one where bender becomes human. favorite. i wish i could make that 'wooooo' noise my text message sound or something.

bender


oh, speaking of text messages, i also restored my iphone to factory settings by accident so i lost all the apps i had and my most recent like, cat pictures and shit. and most of my better sexts ! just kidding. or am i?*

what else? oh, i just bought a used copy of resident evil 5 to play with a friend. it looks kind of stupid and weird (basically, killing zombies and monsters and a matrix guy in south africa- has caused some controversy because the zombies are mostly black), but also like it'll be fun since it requires a lot of cooperation.

resident evil 5


some other suggestions for cool scary games where maybe i could kill monsters instead of zombies are also welcome.

tonight i have more class, which is already making for a boring blog. but !!! nate and anna can't use their phillies tickets for tomorrow so mouse and i are going to go ! and we might go tubing on the delaware on saturday? and then i'm going to spend a thousand hours reading and knitting and being miserable about having responsibilities i think.

p.s. what iphone apps did i have?
p.p.s. homework sucks

* yes

Monday, June 28, 2010

it doesn't really matter if we live or die

hey buds ! what's up ! i'm at work with a fan kind of blowing my skirt up. JEALOUS? the first thing i heard this morning was a security guard telling everyone who passed her that a guy had died on the bench outside my office over the weekend. i was like, 'oh, that's really sad' and she reacted really blankly. i blame video games !

i don't actually remember what i did on friday? i think i may have taken a nap, watched tv, and knitted. working on the entrelac scarf is kind of stressing me out. no matter how many people reassure me, i have major knitting anxiety and cannot imagine what type of person would wear this thing.

here's a good example
here's a good example, from this stage crew nerd's blog


i'm also a little unsure because the yarn is thick/thin and i think it looks lumpy? maybe i can fix that by blocking it. anyway, i don't know- i think i'm going to send it to my craft swap recipient with express instructions to give it to a high school art teacher or with an IOU for something better.

on saturday, i got a car share car by myself (christina had to finish her paper for her class) and went yarn and grocery shopping. i had to parallel park outside of the hospital at 19th and south, and it was like... the most stressful thing ever. the second i started backing into the spot, both the person in front of me and person behind me got into their cars and tried to pull out of their spots? but there wasn't room because 19th is a narrow one lane road there, so everyone was honking at me and i wanted to cry.

hayyy parallel parking


i don't drive often, don't have depth perception, never really learned to parallel park, and crack under honking, so i finally gave up and just drove around the block and pulled into the now-gigantic spot. man, it doesn't sound like that bad of an experience now that i wrote it out but at the time i was suuuuper embarrassed ! i immediately put out an open call when i got home to anyone who will teach me to parallel park and i've had a few takers. people i know, i mean, not like craigslist sex and parking maniacs. anyway, i went to loop and got more noro kureyon 250 for the aforementioned craft swap scarf.

noro kureyon 250


i also finally caved and got two skeins of imperial stock yarn because they were on sale for $7.50 each (down from $12.50). there was a color i'd been admiring for awhile and i couldn't resist, though i try to be conscious of not being a Yarn Person- a lot of my friends who knit get overwhelmed by all the beautiful yarns in the world and buy yarn faster than they can use it, or with no projects in mind- this is not a judgment, it just doesn't make sense for me/my budget/my knitting skill.

imperial dusty rose
imperial dusty rose- the color is a lot paler and more muted in person


after that i went to trader joe's to get some bagged risotto because i want all of my dinners to cook in 5 minutes or less during the summer, but the entire italian frozen crap case was empty. i did get some pretty cool chipwiches though.

chipwich
i wish trader joe's was not so drama club-y in its demeanor and packaging. it's JUST A CHIPWICH


mike and mouse had plans to wrestle (they both do jiu jitsu, though mouse does brazilian jiu jitsu and mike does um, japanese art of softness jujutsu) which i wanted absolutely no part of, so they did that while i took a nap. then we went to lemon grass, which is normally my favorite thai restaurant but they served me a bum royal bath this time- the royal bath being the thing i always order. it's just a gigantic pile of spinach and tofu with peanut sauce

tofu and peanut sauce
sorta like this but with better presentation


but this time the tofu was all desiccated and there was barely any spinach, and it was $1 more expensive ! i wasn't super hungry anyway but it was still a total ripoff. after dinner we came back to my house and watched futurama and had dessert, and christina finally came home and we deliriously bro'd down until she had to go to bed.

yesterday i slept super late and tried to tackle my to-do list. i worked on my scarf a little and played borderlands with perry and gavin (i think i may just like... not be good at borderlands? but not being able to read quest text or weapon stats on my tiny tv doesn't help) and watched inglourious basterds again because of daniel bruhl.

bruhl


i didn't even like the movie THAT much, but i am totally weird about celebrity crushes- like, NOT like fan fiction and posting on messageboards and calling them by a nickname weird but like... uh, when i liked bill paxton i befriended billy bob thornton's former personal assistant to get dirt. so like, not harmless stage crew virgin weird, but like actual creepy real life weird?

annnyyyyyway, here's what was on my list:

- straighten up bedroom
- read my history chapters and take notes
- work on my craft swap scarf
- hang out with christina

- tune up/grease/clean bike (mouse and i are going to nockamixon this weekend)

i absolutely need to do the rest of that stuff this week, and i only have plans wednesday (mike and jeanne are coming over to watch wolfhound !), so it shouldn't be too hard. here is my revised list:

- straighten up bedroom
- read my history chapters and take notes (despite the first chapter being called "DOING HISTORY")
- tune up/grease/clean bike
- straighten up the kitchen and livingroom
- go back to trader joe's for some frozen crap
- catsit hoolie ! (i didn't make it on thursday cause of the storm- i'm not the worst person ever, there is someone else sharing cat sitting duties)
- brush my own cat and clip her toenails

i'm going to keep you guys abreast of the situation as it develops.

p.s. i changed the way my blog looks
p.p.s. OH YEAH ON FRIDAY NIGHT I ATE CAT FOOD BY ACCIDENT. i was crushing up a pill in some wet food for my cat and i ABSENTMINDEDLY LICKED THE BACK OF THE SPOON. it was so disgusting and tasted like gross unseasoned gravy without human flavors and ufslkdjflskdjglskhg. i'll never be the same again.
p.p.p.s. i saw a guy eating taco bell somehow at 8:30 am (philly BARELY has taco bells and i don't think they open that early?) so when i pick up my birth control and buy tokens, i'm totally having the most taco bell for lunch. 21 layer burrito !

Friday, June 18, 2010

romeo and juliet

hey ! last night i went over to mouse's after work- we initially were going to watch pulp fiction, because christina hasn't seen it and she's like the #1 bruce willis fan of all time, but christina had to work late. we ended up watching the rescue, a doctor who two parter that introduces the second companion, the hilariously named vicki.

koquillien


the basic story is that a human ship crashed onto the planet dido, and then a mysterious explosion killed all the native... didonians and humans, leaving only a teenage girl, vicki, and a jerk named barrett. barrett and vicki are being imprisoned by a weird space monster named koquillion, and barrett pressures vicki to be nice to koquillion so they can escape. because a rescue ship is coming to perform the titular rescue. the twist was pretty predictable, and sort of nonsensical, but the costume for koquillion was pretty awesome. the other great thing was that there was a scene where vicki is being descended upon by a sandbeast and barbara instinctively zaps him with a laser, and vicki bursts into tears and says, "you killed sandy !!!". cutest.

sandy
sandi jo mcsandmonster


mouse is cool. i'm glad i went to his house. he's been pretty accommodating since i've started being a weird hermit, about coming over to my house (i do have the superior movie watching tv, though !!!!) but i'm going to try to go over to his house more because i'm comfortable there and if i were him, i'd want to be able to hang out at home more too.

soooooo big plans for the weekend ! i'm going to like, hang hard and watch muppet things on my xbox ! christina and i set a brodown date for this evening, since she's been so busy with class and work lately and i've been like, hanging out in my room killing zombies. i assume we're going to eat dinner and get something stupid on payperview? and knit? i signed up for a craft swap on an online community i participate in, and of course i got this amazing woman who does amazing shit as my recipient. i have NO CLUE what to make her. i might try the pfeiffer falls hoooded scarf

pfeiffer falls


or this entrelac scarf i found on ravelry if i can find a way to do it without spending $50.

entrelac !


i don't really have plans on saturday. nick and sandi may come down from nyc and hang out with us??? i've already promised to let them watch me play video games and i think they're like, beside themselves with excitement. okay, i'm gonna go do some junk.

p.s. don't forget father's day if you have a cool dad ! since i had a deadbeat dad and he recently croaked, i got my mom some reusable grocery bags with philadelphia scenes on them- they had them at the grocery store and they have beautiful photographs of all of her favorite shit here on both sides, and she loves reusable grocery bags ! haha.
p.p.s. hi