ISO

Anyone interesting in being a haircut accountability partner? This is kind of serious, and I'd like to go a couple months or something without cutting my hair.

sports section

Phillies fever (phever?) is happening and people keep talking about Ryan Howard.

And every time, I think they're talking about him.

shearling

I've been buying moccasins like crazy.
Shouldn't you hold back on moccasins, because you already have a hundred pair? , you ask.

Yes, I should. Regardless, I just got these Minnetonka guys, and another pair, that's pretty much the same (but black) from Steve Madden via South Philly Marshall's.

The good news is that I really like "out with the old"ing when I get a new pair of shoes (or anything), which actually confirms that I'm not a hoarder.

fish in the percalator

I'm trying to decide if it's too late to try to throw in an additional Halloween costume this year.

Is it too late to whip up a Josie Packard by Friday? There's this really specific theme party, and I can't even really remember what she's supposed to wear.

olds

Went through some photographs last night, because I'm trying to invent a portfolio, in case I decide to go back to school.
Found some old favorites. Specifically this brother/sister team:

(Brian with Matt leBlanc)

(Sarah having a water skiing lesson, in my mom's pool)

It's hard picking things that "define me as an artist". I don't think of myself as an artist, and wouldn't begin to know how to define anyone. Yikes.

analyze

Sometimes I really like to check what Google searches are sending people to my blog.
Recently: "ballet foot boot crutches" and "ballard of the nightman".
So...those are pretty good.

Invite me to some more Halloween parties. Really.

something's really happening

'Member a while ago, there was talk about a teepee, for rest, relaxation, reflection, etc, that would be built in my yard?
It seemed impossible.
We needed giant bamboo poles. We needed the skins of 50 plains buffalo (or a lot of cotton canvas).
You know when you see that Craigslist ad that's just meant for you? Well, Josh found it, sent to to Ry and I.

Long story short, we now have a bunch of 20'(?) bamboo stalks in the side yard. Just waiting to be made into the best urban teepee you've ever been in.
Maybe Spring 2k10.

back

Some reflections after many days as a surrogate Stay at Home Mom
Wed night-Sunday night, I was babysitting. One long shot. Here's my take:

Over all, it's not a bad job. Sure, I had to get up early (6:30?!) and make breakfast (cold cereal) and get them ready for school, but after they got picked up? I had the whole day to myself. Except for the day when the maid came, and I felt uncomfortable, and walked to Target. But usually a surprisingly good amount of sleeping in, lounging around, watching Weeds, Dexter, Sunny.
I learned that if your only friends are 4 and 8, you can go to bed super early and not worry that you're missing anything more fun someplace else.
We also experienced a lot of wildlife. Some very lethargic wasps at their house, a dying rat at my house. I learned a lot of facts about both animals "wasps have a stinger on their forehead and on their butt" and "that rat has a snake tail". Oh.
The main lesson I learned is that I'd pretty much only want to do it with an unlimited budget, all the shopping and cleaning already done for me, and only if I'm getting paid. That being said, it was kind of a nice break from real life and late nights and everything.

sports

This is what "go phils" looks like.


(I could use a new camera phone. Or a new phone and a new camera).

pills

Macy's makeup counter girl: "Can I ask you a question? What do you use to wash your face?"
me: "Aspirin."
her: "Aspirin?"
me: "Aspirin."
(She let me leave without trying to sell me product).

I've started washing my face using aspirin. I wear long earrings now. I wear mascara sometimes. Kimmy and Marilyn are nothing but good influences.

A lot of blog down-time lately, take that as an indicator. Coming up? A Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday glimpse into the life of a stay-at-home-mom. Maybe I'll update while I'm catching up on my programs while the girls are at school.

dessert

Last night we went out to JB's house in East Falls for dinner. That's practically outside the city! Yeah.
Anyway, good night, good dinner, and got to see Joel and Kate (who make tons of giant sculpture stuff, but more recently make teeth and other things out of chocolate and sell them in their Etsy shop).

As someone who has to think about teeth all the time, I obviously was drawn to this, in the same way that I love most human-tooth-themed jewelry.
Also, it was delicious.

Being around Joel and Kate is great because Joel has a hundred stories involving blowdarts etc, and because they both like what they do. A lot. This feels like a weird advertisement, for a couple. Done.

walls and floors

of new house.



It'll never end I think (and our deposit is daily shrinking).
Next up is Beetlejuice floors, iShark, bonus refrigerators.

mail

Today at work I got a package. It was WAY too heavy to be those earrings I ordered, so I opened it up and found these Creative Recreation guys:

If you can't be the girl who has a boyfriend who buys you really expensive shoes, you can at least be the girl he sends them to when she doesn't really like them.

Thanks. They're officially the most expensive thing I own. Oh, except my scooter.

hollow hair

Today I went to House of Beauty on Chestnut. It's like Sephora, but if Sephora was in the Italian Market or something, and was mostly products for black girls.
Anyway, I talked to the wig girl for a while, and she helped me figure out my Halloween hair ("Hallo-hair"? It's also hollow.)

I ended up with something like this, but bigger than I thought was possible. And in black, obv.
Hair is so cheap, by the way. But comes with a lot of rules, like not to let it dry in sunlight.

Tomorrow night is costume practice!

This weekend I: made up, tried to fix a washing machine(!), helped rip out carpet, and we starting painting the stairs like two different flavors of sherbet melting into each other.

cut

Last night, Cody Kleppertknoop came to our house, and did the Cutco presentation.

He was very charming, and convincing, and of course we bought an ($80!) knife. If you guys want to come over and cut some things (in about a week), please do. We'll also have the shears, in case you want to cut, say, a penny in half.
Rob told us/believes it's a cult, but I have yet to see evidence of this.

If anybody out there needs a knife, I have a salesman recommendation for you.

Halloween face on

This year, I'll probably (again) only be able to go to about half the Halloween parties that I want to be able to go to. Last year, we were Amsterdaming during The Big One, and this year, I'll be working. To make some other things possible.
Anyway: I have my costume pretty much together, (and have for about 10 months now), but I want to do a practice run on face makeup? Anyone else have a whole face full of makeup planned and want to try it out? Maybe we could have a night of it. Halloween practice.
I also don't have the two+ feet of hair I was planning for around this time last year. I'm coming up with some solutions.

teeth

Today I met with my dentist. Yes, the one that said he's grown "very attached" to my teeth. I got a treatment plan. In a year, when you see me, I'll have all my teeth (hopefully/probably).
I got to watch a powerpoint about the plan. A lot of "before" (current) pictures, and oh, for the hopeful outcome? A picture of Jennifer Gardner. Probably that's going to happen.
Next week I meet the guy who'll do my (dental) implants. Part of this procedure will be a sinus lift (?!) and some bone grafting.
"What kind of bone do they use?"
"Either from your hip, from a cow or pig, or from a cadaver". NBD.

benesh

Ben and I.

Jaffe and Carina have a new, giant studio spot. This weekend Amanda took a lot of funny pictures. Their site.

Hot Tub Johnnie

Yesterday, took that trip south and saw Whip It.

So it's Underdog Sports Movie, and Ghost World, and Falling in Love movie, and everything. But with Drew, Juno, and Maybe Funke. Sarah, you'd probably really like it.

I love going to the Riverview though.

roaring

Made a new tiger wall.

Printed out tigers, flowers, cut them out.
Started sticking them to the wall with aerosol starch (which fyi is totally removable, but sticks like glue). Got in trouble for trying to wing the geometry part*, then it was rulers and straight lines and tall people helping.

Then put lots and lots of them up. Then even more flowers. There's orange scraps of paper all over the house, but I like it.

(tiger face)
I have other ideas, for other walls (airplanes? bicycles?) but we're running out (of walls), kind of fast.


*this is why I'm nervous about this GRE thing.

q&a

Some things that have recently come to some people's attention:

Q. Why don't you ever blog anymore?
A. I got super boring. Or maybe super private. Maybe I should go back to posting funny text messages I've gotten/sent.

Q. Why'd you delete whatever blog from your blog list?
A. Because I don't read your blog, or you don't write it, (or it stopped being fun)*.

Q. Why don't you hyperlink pictures?
A. I'm not sure what that means, how to do it, but will try to find out.


(Above is an invisible link to some party pictures from this weekend It was supposed to be a hyperlinked picture. Oh well.)

*joke, kind of

prints

I like posters a dumb amount.
Big Deal movies:

spilling whole drinks

This is a big week for "studio parties". Everyone should take a cue from Goat and have waiters serving us drink! And more cheese and vegetables than we can handle, and so much candy that Kimmy needed to put some in her purse.
Anyway. Good job Dan Goat, and nice space and everything.
Later, we watched James Bond go into space? Jaws too? Who knew.
More tonight, we'll see how you do. Bar's been set.

When you move, there's usually some sort of weird deposit issues, which usually don't figure favorably in my pleasure to pain ratio, so it's something I'd just rather not deal with.
So then yesterday, my old landlord called, and wanted to know, "I'm not totally sure if you guys paid deposit, or how much it was, so, just call me back and let me know if/how much I should send you. Also, maybe you should move back to South Philly!"
So...maybe I'm getting some deposit back, and it seems like I get to name the number.

In other news, I got this cold, but it's only on half my face - thanks Acoustic Neuroma. Other medical(kind of) stuff too: approved for all dental work (timeline coming soon). So many more surgeries and stuff too. But then I'll have teeth. Like Jaws. From MoonRaker. See?