Parle Vous Picture?

Despite having taken three years of french in high school, I can’t speak, read or understand french. That doesn’t stop me from loving this site. The images are so compelling that I don’t mind that I can’t understand a word.

I Like the Birds

Via Bloesem I ran across Jen Garrido. Her oil paintings on wood remind me a little of Chinese brush paintings with color. The birds are especially darling. They are all such a wonderful mix of unexpected color and energy.

I Know Him!

A few issues ago as I was flipping through ReadyMade I came to a full page photo of a man who looked really super familiar. As I was running through the places I may have known him from, I read the accompanying article. Holy cow! It turns out this guy used to live down the hall from me freshman year of college. We were even friends for a little while. Now he lives in Philly and is being featured in ReadyMade because of line of aromatherapy products called 4mula. How funny. Since that article I have seen his products written about in a few more places. I really love the idea of natural ingredients and well designed product and packaging. I was thinking I should buy some stuff. Tim, if you are reading this, hi! How are you? Looks like things are going well. Congrats!

Window at My Desk

I feel very lucky. For the time being, I have a window next to me. A window that I can open. It is great because I have a ton of natural light and on a day like today, I can open my window and get some fresh air and a little bit of a breeze. It makes the difference between a drag of a day and one that is just a-ok.

Inaugural BBQ

Yesterday marked the first BBQ of the season at M &M’s place. It was a lovely affair with burgers and beers and lots and lots of potato salad. The weather was great despite a cloudy start to the day and it was terrific hanging out with old and new friends. I hope that there are many BBQs to come this summer. I especially can’t wait for movie night on the deck.

Weekends

I always have such high hopes for my weekends. I figure, “this will be the weekend that I pull out my jewelry supplies and make something fantastic”, or “I know I am finally going to make that adorable wristlet purse”, or “Gee, I promised I would knit a dinosaur for a friends son, so hey, I can bang that out this weekend” and so on. At the end of the weekend the time I finally get the laundry put away, the apartment is in a place where I don’t want to scream because every where I look is a pile of stuff and maybe I get in a drink with friends or some soccer. I think that I need better time management skills…

Addicted

While in Pittsburgh I was able to get my hands on chocolate dipped peppermint altoids. I don’t know why I haven’t seen them in NY yet, but I haven’t. I am totally addicted. I want to like plain altoids, but they are a bit too curiously strong for me. I carry one or two in my purse for emergency breath situations, but usually end up biting off a little chunk because the whole thing is a little too much. The chocolate is the perfect compliment, although we already knew chocolate and mint are a winning combination. They have been great staving off the 3:00 snack craving. I just ate the last one I have so I guess I am now going to have to go on a hunt for them in NY.

Cherry Blossoms

Spring is here! You can see it everywhere. I love when the trees have flowers on them. At the moment they are just tiny little buds, not quite open. Soon they will be in full bloom and then shower petals upon us.

Decade

M & I went back to Pittsburgh this past weekend for Spring Carnival at Carnegie Mellon. It is great because we get to see friends, talk about the old days and watch buggy races. What is buggy you ask? Well sit down and let me tell you. Where to begin…

The buggy races started in 1920 as a chariot type race with one person who would push the buggy up the hills and jump in to drive. Basically, this guy did it all. In 1953 when the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity came out with a buggy that had a student lying down designs shifted. Today buggies are only a little larger than the people who drive them, are made out of the lightest material people can get their hands on and are manned by teams that can have upwards of 20 people. The main jobs are drivers, mechanics and pushers. The competition is split into two divisions: men’s, in which the men push the buggies, and women’s, in which the women push.

Since I used to be a driver, that is where I will start. Drivers are usually the tiniest women that can be found on campus, although at almost 5′-2″ I was an exception to that rule. After donning spandex (I swear it was all just an excuse for men to see small women in tight clothing) in order to fit into the buggy the driver get in face first less than two inches above the ground. At top speed, the fastest of these buggies will go about 45 mph.

The other half is in the design and mechanics of the buggies. Keeping the buggy in perfect running order is the obsession of the mechanics. This is a huge commitment that takes up all free time and if they aren’t careful, class time as well. Many a mechanic has been invited to go on Dean’s vacation because of buggy, and while that sounds nice, it is really just the University telling you to take a semester off and get your priorities straight.

Lastly are the people who make the buggies fly, the pushers. There is no power to the buggies other than the students who run behind them, pushing them up the hills on the course. There are 5 pushers in all: hill 1 and 2, then the buggy freerolls for a while until it is picked up by hills 3, 4 and 5.

The team that I was a part of was called Spirit. Back in my day Spirit was a top contender. We set the women’s record in ‘92 and then again in ‘95 (although it has since been broken) and we still hold the men’s record of 2:06:02 from 1988.

So Easy, Even I Can Do It

As you may know, I can’t sew a straight line. Very sad. This makes hemming pants a nightmare that I avoid like the plague. Until now! Last night I hemmed, not one, but two pair of jeans in a way that took about the time it would have taken me to throw up my hands in disgust the old way. The best part is this way I was able to preserve the original hem. Now not only are my jeans the right length, but I don’t have a lame dark hem (sorry Mom, it is lame.) It is such a forgiving way to sew that even I could get it right. Try it, I promise you will never hem jeans any other way.