Saturday, September 23, 2006
Oh: I finished my nano's first real suit yesterday. Here's the front and the back. (The weird reflection on the clickwheel is just an artifact of the scan.) My favorite part is the echinoderm on the back. Those stitches hold on the red velcro disc that secures it closed. The whole thing is very, very pleasing to hold in one's hand. (Yeah, I know seams on the outside are goofy, but they're intentional--they make it wider and more ergonomic.) And the felty nature of felt makes it cling to everything, so you can set the nano just about anywhere (lap, bed, waistband of pants), and it will stay, even at near 90° angles.
Posted at 1:06:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
I want to make a suit with transparent red vinyl over the screen, for the plane. (Night vision, don't you know.) I hope I can find some. I think the fabric should have stars.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Barista working on my cappuccino, to second barista: "I'm not happy with this foam. ...I'm just not happy with it. You know how she likes her foam." [= that she really enjoys her foam]
Posted at 10:29:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
!! Then she redid the foam. Overhearing, lounged in my blue velvet chair, I gave her a thumbs up, happy to wait for better foam. When I picked up the cappuccino, I told her how much I appreciated it and how awful foam at other branches is. "I'm spoiled, coming here." I've definitely got to fill out a feedback form.
Nancy's tonight, and it was great. I saw Nancy in the kitchen and caught her eye and gave her a thumbs up, too. She smiled all over. I have to finish my review for TFF.
My new sheep shoes and new homemade fleece skirt with the built-in core warmer are perfect for chilly day plane trips. I had a lamb burger at Nancy's again. (Baaa.) We must bring my Gs to Nancy's. They would love it.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
At Big W today, I saw this sign near the carafes of coffee in the bakery section that said "Roaster's Reserve," but I thought it said "Rooster's Reserve." It's a perfect name; people drink coffee in the morning to wake up, right? I was cracking up when I realised I was wrong, and the bagel lady started looking at me funny.
Posted at 6:27:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Devil Beard Guy (also could be known as Spiked Hair Guy, these days), to barista: "Make sure you make her extra good foam."
Barista: "I always make good foam. But I never get to make her drinks. I'm kind of excited right now."
DBG: "I love making foam."
See why I love Rocky???
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
My new shoes are officially good: I tried them out 1) driving and B) in Tango, and they excelled in both situations. I need some tights, though. We had the calm guy and the aaaal-timeter guy today--the calm guy on both the way there and the way back! He has an ultra-breathy voice. I wish I knew what the ATCs looked like. There are some really pretty trees in New Hampshire now, but most are still green.
Posted at 11:09:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Right now the #1 song on my "Top 25 Most Played" songs list in iTunes is "Engadine's Dreamy Party" from The Prisoner (66 times). That's really weird.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
I had to break out the pink hooded cashmere zippery sweater from my kanban today, because my old one has a hole in the elbow. I've never worn out a sweater before. I would be going insane if not for the kanban, because I love this sweater and wear it constantly, but since I have the kanban, the hole is no big deal. Kanbans rule! (What will happen when my replacement sweater wears out, though??) (I just checked, and I got the original in December, 2003.)
Posted at 9:55:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I had to go to West Hartford today, but I went to the Rocky Starbucks first anyway, and I was glad I did because the Devil Beard Guy was there and was in rare form: "I want to get a big minivan--paint it like a pirate ship!" When he found out the used minivan in question was standard shift, he got really excited and said he'd have an extra-long stick with a skull shift knob. He also said he'd park it sideways in the SBUX parking lot, so everyone would know when he was there.
I'm super-tired. I got some new shoes at Nordstrom. I never buy shoes. They're warm and sheepy. Baaa.
I started working on my first real (non-horrible looking test draft) nano suit last night. Yesterday I bought a
Posted at 1:03:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
hole saw circle cutter, and it's very nifty for cutting out the clickwheel hole on 1) paper and B) vinyl, and for scoring the hole on felt like the kind I used for my sample suit. It won't cut all the way though the felt, but it makes it really easy to get the circle right with my little sissors.
It wouldn't cut the special extra-thick fancy felt I'm using for this suit at all, though, so I had to rely on my good old scissor skills (which are neither that good nor that old, since I've only developed them in recent years). But the hole turned out pretty nice (it's very round, but a tiny bit smaller than I intended)--much better than my rectangular screen hole, actually. My screen hole has a lot of character.
Since the screen hole is somewhat wonky and this fabric (it's leftover from the spargle pouch I made Mary) has a bit of give, I decided to stitch a sheet of clear 12 gauge vinyl to the entire section that will cover the front of the nano, rather than just have a small piece over the screen. I usually like to be in touch with my clickwheel, but having this soft clear vinyl over it actually feels just fine, and it adds a lot of stability to this fabric.
After I hand-stitched the vinyl to the back of the felt, I realised I should have put the knots in the space between the fabric and the felt, rather than on the outside of the vinyl. They won't show, but I don't want them to rub against my nano. So this morning I cut out another sheet of clear vinyl that will go between the stitches and the nano. This will not only cover the knots, but also protect all the stitches. I cut a hole for the clickwheel and the screen in this sheet, so it won't be double in those places, but will still cover all the thready areas.
Here's how it looks so far, but I will probably add more echinoderm-esque decorative stitching before I attach the second piece of vinyl and stitch the whole thing shut. The tiny hole in the bottom is for the headphone jack.
Monday, September 18, 2006
It's insanely nice out again today. Low 80s, warm, sunny, perfect. My new exercises are hard because there's lots of arm & chest stuff, and my arm and chest muscles are almost nonexistent (my arms and chest are almost nonexistent, period). My arms are trembling! I like it!
Posted at 3:08:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I got some more felt at Fabric Place to try out on the nano. (The goofy looking green piece I used was the only non-stretchy scrap I had.) We're bonding now.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
That was great. And I officially like my Nano now. (Finally!) And I got zero gigantic headaches today. (Finally!)
Posted at 9:16:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Quote by me on Froozie's coffee (Dean recorded it in Palma): "Jim's Organic Coffee Dark Roast Witches Brew is almost as good as Kona! The complete opposite of 44N coffee, which tasted like dishwater. Rich, smooth, and intense." He asked me if it was better than Kimball coffee and I admitted that it was, indeed.
Later I got a mug of coffee at Bweel's, but it was so bitter and undrinkable that I had two swallows, then surreptitiously poured the rest into the trash. From such highs to such lows, in the same day!
But we had a great dinner (of our own concocting) at Bweel's! And, had the place to ourselves. The pumpkin cheesecake was truly grand, even though I don't approve of eating pumpkins before October. The best part was the carrot-dill soup, though. They should have it at ION, to make use of that giant carrot that attacked Middletown. (As depicted in their mural, lest one forget the fearsome event.)
We saw a whale at Scotch Beach. Yes, a real one. In fact, the whole reason we went to Scotch Beach in the first place was that the rental car dude warned us we might want to stay away from it since there was a beached whale there and it was really smelly. How often do you get a chance to see a whale up close??? We hightailed it there immediately. As we approached the beach a little boy and his father were leaving, and the little boy was saying, "Whimper whimper whale... whimper whimper whale," so I took that as a sign we'd come to the right place and that it was still there.
From a distance down the beach we weren't sure if it was a big rock or the whale, but it was definitely the whale. It was about 50 feet long and didn't smell at all on the ocean side, but smelled like really strong cheese on the other side. Some other people were looking at it too, and they held towels up to cover their noses, but I didn't think it was all that bad. I walked round and looked at the whole beast up close, of course. It was lying on its side, with a big flipper out, and had an eye (it was closed) and a giant stripey/ripply textured expanse on its underside. It was very interesting, and was almost entirely intact even though it had been there for weeks. I wonder why no animals (stray dogs, crabs, or whatever) ate any of it? [Edit: Here's a picture of the whale, with some random people in the background for perspective.]
After the whale, we scrammed from Scotch (volleyball-infested beach) and visited Pots & Kettles, then Grace's Cove after the sun started going behind the cliffs at Pots. I went on a long walk all the way down to the tip of Pots (couldn't go any farther without getting wet), twice, with my Nano in his new suit as company. It's weightless. It was grand. I completely loved Block today.
