Saturday, June 09, 2007
Dean keeps saying, "My bag is the best [the greatest, the nicest, the everything-est] bag ever! It's so nice.... I love my bag!" Over and over times a million. Wow!! I don't think anyone has ever complimented something I've made this much, ever. My room is covered with black thread. I think that was the most involved sewing project I have ever done. Took hours upon hours over multiple days. But it went quite smoothly, thanks to the great pattern we designed. (Haven't even started on my bag, of course.) We get to test it tomorrow! Photos to come.
Posted at 11:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
The Curly Top™ rules!
Posted at 12:19:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Posted at 5:40:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I just bought some highly goofy material for my bike bag. I didn't know what I was looking for, but when I found it, hidden wedged between two other bolts in the clearance section, I knew I had to get it.
Wore my new shoes today. But first I added an improvement. (It's one of my leftover cherry felt red stars that I cut out for my iPod case. It fell on my shoe and seemed like it belonged there, so I ironed it on with heavy-duty stitchwitchery. It seems quite secure.)
I'm in a buoyant mood. Oh yes, and I actually bought a new CD, for the first time since I can't remember when (not including Bob CDs): Patti Smith's Twelve. I already had a few tracks from online, so I knew I wanted the whole thing. Bought it at Target, since theirs includes "Everybody Hurts" as an exclusive bonus song. I wonder if Morgan and Wong like Twelve?
Posted at 1:22:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Our new bikes are GREAT!!! The hounds feel like they're just the right size (not all big and awkward like normal bikes), and they're so easy to get on and off of, maneuver, and balance. They are super agile and comfortable! It's also really easy to fold and unfold them, transfer them in and out of their hound bags, and load them on and off the plane.
We rode into town in Nantucket, got a pair of SNAKE LOCKS (!!!!!!), and had lunch at the Even Keel Cafe (it was good). The snake locks looked really scary when we locked the hounds to the bike rack near the restaurant!! No bike thieves will dare touch them. :-) The coolest part is that the keys have tongues on them, so when you insert them in the snakes' mouths, it looks like they're hissing at you. (They are double tongues, too!)
We were planning to go on the 'Sconset bike path after lunch, but it got all overcast (the forecast lied) and was too cold, so we just rode back the the airport. (Town isn't that close to the airport, so it was still a good distance.) My ears and feet were freezing! I got all lizarded and could barely warm up on the flight home. But it was still great.
When this commercial airline pilot guy at the airport started asking me all about the hounds, reminiscing about the bike he had as a kid, etc., I realised they're going to attract a lot of attention. Then when were in town, multiple people stared at them, asked us about them, saw them and exclaimed, "Folding bikes--cool!" etc.
On the way to Nan, we flew right by Block Island, and I got a good photo. When you're flying over the ocean, it can be impossible to tell where the sky ends and the water starts.
Watched "Terminal" tonight. :-( "Maximum power!!" I somehow knew that line and said it out loud along with Servalan. She needs to die.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Giant sewing project! Tried to finish for tomorrow (hound trip to Nan.), but it's impossible. Maybe I'll have some time in the morning for the inside. (Unlikely, but conceivable.) I hope I can fall asleep.
Posted at 2:53:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
I got more of those goofy shoes, since they are so perfect. My second pair looks like this.
I'm still behind on e-mail. Haven't had a moment. Excited about the 4th of July! Last night I dreamed endlessly of sleeping arrangements. And good old cottage-style cots. :-)
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Posted at 11:28:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We had to go out to dinner because the electricity was out, so it's been a long day. It was actually out most of the day while I was gone on my huge mission, came back on shortly after I got home (almost 6 o'clock, because of stand-still traffic for ages trying to get back on 91 in Massachusetts, thanks to road construction, plus a rush-hour snail around Hartford), and then went out again while we were out test-riding our hounds! But it's back now, and we love our hounds! Dean picked them up from the local bike shop (right around the corner from our house) while I was on my way home. I brought them in on Monday for their initial setup, since they were straight out of the box from New York.
I got bells for them at the Amherst bike store (did not see Emily Dickinson), along with the carrying/storage bags. Mine is silver and Dean's is gold. His is sort of nicer (it's really shiny, but mine has a dull aluminium-ish finish), but mine matches the bike, and I think the gold suits Dean better. I got two different colors so we could tell the hounds apart. They are both super-nice bells with an incredible ringing hanging-in-the-air sound. The bike store guy rang it for me and I was instantly convinced. He said it's because they're real brass.
The Eric Carle museum was cool. Fairly little, with only two galleries, but also a cute little library (I didn't go in, since they were having story time), a fun studio where you can do art, and a nice gift shop with zillions of childrens' books. It was out in the country, near farms. I bought some great Eric Carle postcards, and made art in the studio. It had tables covered with brown paper, so you could get them all sticky/messy without fear, little low stools to sit on (okay, they were sized for kids, but the studio guy said it was for all ages and invited me to do it!), scissors, glue sticks, and scraps of all kinds of patterned paper. It was collage day. Here's my finished art. It's kind of simple because I was watching the clock a bit about getting to the bike shop and attempting to avoid traffic on the way home. But it was really fun (and relaxing) to make, and I like it. Like all art, it's more striking in person. :-)
Here's a photo of the hounds folded up, and stretched out together, right before we rode them for the first time. They have a great feel and are very agile!
I'm tired. To everyone that I'm behind on e-mail with: I'm sorry!
A store in Amherst has our hound bags! This means I'm going on a big mission (!). Scary, but my GPS pal will help. And I'm going to visit The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art at the same time!
Posted at 12:11:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Posted at 3:32:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
I want a snake! Too much to post. We got a pair of hounds in New York! (Dahon Ciao -hound folding bikes, that is.) Tried them in Tango at 1 AM in the rain, because we are goofs and had to know if they'd fit. (But it was fun.) Kept waiting for the rain to stop, drumming on Lex's roof in the middle of the night parked beside Tango's tiedown at the airport. I don't feel like I went back and forth to New York today at all! We were incredibly lucky, and the store just happened to have exactly two instances of the Ciao (the exact model we picked out and wanted) in stock, so we snagged them! They didn't have any set up, so we couldn't test-drive it, but we tried a similar model, in the drizzling rain on a remarkably unbusy wide New York sidewalk. Then we had to try to fit the boxes in the back of my Beagle! (We weren't expecting to be able to take them home today.) Ha. They both fit, just barely, with the seat down in back. Had lunch at Cafe Sabarsky, before the bike shop (wonderful, as ever).
