Monthly Archives: November 2006
my kind of town.
You know, every so often I'm reminded of what my life used to be like before I moved to Chicago, and I gotta say I'm really glad I left Ohio. Let me share some of these moments with you...Last night, I was watching Rick Bayless on his show, Everyday Mexican, and thinking how much I enjoyed our dinner at his restaurant and how the techies at LAF are due for another evening of his incredible margaritas and ceviche. In Chicago we can go to Charlie Trotters, one of the top 10 restaurants in the world, instead of Trotters, one of the top 10 restaurants in bowling green.
Yesterday morning, I was reading through the regular email that I get that lists all the upcoming shows in the area and noting that it was too bad that Tom and I would be missing andrew bird and wilco again because we'll be out of town. Tom ended up buying tickets to see the grates at the empty bottle on the 30th. All these things we never would've been exposed to in our old life - wilco just doesn't come to Toledo. Also, I probably wouldn't have gone to lollapalooza either if it hand't been in my home city (although, I probably won't go to it again, even though it's going to be here for another 5 years, if they don't let me bring in a GODDAMN CHAIR - come on people. I can barely stand hipsters as it is but at least you can let me be annoyed and also sitting my fat ass down).
On tuesday nights, I can go to a bunch of different museums for free. People take vacation to come here and pay to do that. One of the best art museums in the country is here.
As my morning train enters the loop, we're often stopped on the bridge over the chicago river and I look out to see all of the incredible buildings and reflect upon the rich history of the city. I love those moments.
Now I know that this is not the life for everyone and it has it's disadvantages. There's something to be said for living in a smaller community, with less people, and more connections, but I can certainly survive without all that. There's the urban guilt too - wanting to just go home and hang out instead of taking advantage of all the city has to offer.
And it's dirty and there's crime and tons of people and the trains aren't always on time and the politicians are corrupt and the traffic sucks and all that jazz.
But today, I'm going to the diy trunk show. The craft shows back in ohio cant even begin to compare.
although, I gotta say - I still can't escape the OSU - MICH game. The sports fans are crazy here.
11.18.06 10:39am(2 comments)
It’s been so long… so very long.
I'm glad to have you back, baby. You know I won't wrong you again.Yes folks, it's time for another QUIZ! Got this one from Kerrie on my bi-monthly myspace check.
Welcome to the 2006 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! You know the drill. Don't be a scrooge!!!
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Both, but not together.
And the hot chocolate has to be doctored up with stuff, like mint, lavender, peppers or something. Ever since I moved to Chicago and smell the chocolate cooking every day on my way to and from the loop, plain ole swiss miss just aint gonna cut it anymore.
And egg nog must have REAL EGGS in it and NOT BE PASTEURIZED. Thank you very much.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Santa Raps! Yeah - yeah.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
White
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Yup.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
When we get around to it.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Cranberry chutney on brie with crusty french bread
and
green bean casserole
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Yeah... uh... about holidays when I was a kid...
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I always knew Santa was a lie and also a false pagan idol to which people unknowingly worshipped in the name of Christ. Or something like that.
9. Do you open one gift on Christmas Eve?
No - we open all of them, but it usually lasts until the weee hours of xmas morning. And we always get new pajamas to sleep in.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
White lights and handmade decorations
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love it - but where is it? Why is it fucking raining in the middle of November HUH!? Where's my snow? I want SOME SNOW! (get back to me on this request in march when it's been snowing and won't stop).
12. Can you ice skate?
Yeah I did it one time, that was enough for me.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
There are plenty that I love, but I'll never forget the most searched for gift and how my Gramma went to every record store in Phoenix asking for the "BeatleWhite" cd until someone finally handed her the Beatles white album and convinced her that it was what she was looking for.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Being together with the people that I love, food, booze, and then more food... and then also more booze.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Hot buttered rum, and no, Gramma, I don't need it every day.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
The one where we DON'T sit around for hours on end and read every goddamn card we give each other. Hello! Do the math! For 8 people that's 64 goddamn cards!
17. What tops your tree?
My tree gets a star but my mom's tree has this really incredible fiber optic angel that has moving wings. It's quite a sight to behold.
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
I like to do the giving a lot because I put a lot of thought into presents and often make a lot of them by hand. But hell, who doesn't like the receiving part - I mean lets be real with each other here.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Baby it's cold outside - the old one. Remakes by whichever pop band of the day do NOT cut it.
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
There exist people who don't like candy canes? What the fuck is wrong with them?
11.16.06 4:43pm(3 comments)
Brought to you by my drupal install experience
Oh everyone loves drupal because it's teh new hotness and so userfriendly blah de blah. But where's the installer? I ask you? Why in this day of open source cms's that practically install themselves do I have to create tables manually? Huh? Give me a good answer for that!So here's the lyrics from a song by noted Nerd-hopper Monzy that expresses my feelings pretty thoroughly
I guess I'll have to shut you down for good this time,
Already tried a SIGQUIT, so now it's KILL DASH 9.
You gotta learn when it's time for your thread to yield;
It shoulda slept; instead you stepped and now your fate is sealed.
I'll take your process off the run queue without even asking
'Cause my flow is like reentrant and preemptive multitasking.
Your sad rhymes are spinnin' like you're in a deadlock,
You're like a synchronous sock that don't know when to block;
So I pull out my keyboard and I pull out my glock,
And I dismount your girl and I mount /proc
And I've got your fuckin pid and the bottom line
Is that you best not front or else it's KILL DASH NINE.
KILL DASH NINE,
No more CPU time.
I run KILL DASH NINE,
And your process is mine.
I run KILL DASH NINE,
'Cause it's MY time to shine
So don't step outta line or else it's
KILL DASH NINE!
See it ain't about the Benjamins or Pentiums or Athlons,
But you rappin' 50 meters while I'm spittin' in decathlons.
Your shit's old and busted, mine's the new hotness;
You're like CLR and I'm like CLRS.
You're running csh and my shell is bash,
You're the tertiary storage; I'm the L1 cache.
I'm a web crawling spider; you an Internet mosquito;
You thought the 7-layer model referred to a burrito.
You're a dialup connection; I'm a gigabit LAN.
I last a mythical man-month; you a one-minute man.
It's like I'm running Thunderbird and you're still stuck with Pine,
Which is why I think it's time for me to KILL DASH NINE.
Yeah it's KILL DASH NINE
No more CPU time.
'Cause it's KILL DASH NINE,
And your process is mine.
I said KILL DASH NINE
'Cause it's my time to shine,
So don't step outta line or else it's
KILL DASH NINE!
My posse throws down like leaky bucket regulators;
I was coding shit in MIPS while you were playing Space Invaders.
With my finger on the trigger I run ./configure
Yo, this package is big, but MY package is bigger.
I roll my weed with Zig Zag while I zag-zig splay,
And I do a bounds check before I write to an array.
I'm a loc'd out baller writing KLOCS a day,
'Cause it's publish or perish, fool, what can I say?
I'm 26 now, will I live to see 28?
Some days I wonder if I'll survive to graduate.
But hey, that's just fine, I won't ever resign,
And if fools try to step then it's KILL DASH NINE!
Yeah it's KILL DASH NINE,
From my command line
It's KILL DASH NINE
Sending chills down your spine,
I said KILL DASH NINE,
'Cause it's my time to shine,
So don't step outta line or else it's
KILL DASH NINE!
fs sa rlidwka
I'll chown your home and take your access away
Comin' straight outta Stanford, ain't nobody tougher,
Control-X, Control-C, I'll discard your fuckin' buffer.
You're outside your scope, son, close them curly brackets,
'Cause I drop punk-ass bitches like a modem drops packets.
Dump your motherfucking core, and trace your stack
'Cause where your ass is going, there won't be no callback.
See my style is divine and my code is sublime,
My career's in a climb and yours is in a decline.
I'll write a pound-define and assign you as mine,
So refine those sad rhymes or remove your plus signs,
Or it's KILL DASH NINE,
No more CPU time,
'Cause it's KILL DASH NINE,
And your process is mine,
I said KILL DASH NINE
'Cause it's my time to shine,
Bitch you stepped outta line and now it's
KILL DASH NINE!
11.15.06 3:23pm(3 comments)
Take it easy….
It feels so strange that I don't have anything in particular planned for this evening. With all of the running around I've been doing lately, it's quite a nice change of pace. Tom and I are going to cook dinner in (BBQ chicken, greens, mac n' cheese), cuddle up on the couch, maybe watch house, and I'm going to finish up some crafty stuff I need to do for the dog swap (because it needs to get done and lord knows I can't sit still to save my life without something in my hands to play with).In other news - I ordered *the* dress on Friday. As it turns out, going to 9 different bridal stores really gave me a good idea of what I wanted. I was going to order it from this one shop in Schaumberg that I really liked and had a good price on the dress that I wanted, but then they faxed me a quote. Unfortunately, the good price was completely blasted away by extra fees - +$95 for plus size, +40 for shipping (?!), +$245 for alterations (all I'm going to need is a bussle, I'm the right height for the dress), and an extra $75 to put in the laceup back. WTF-ever. I didn't like schlepping all the way out to the burbs anyway, even though it put me dangerously close to Mitsuwa, the japanese market with all the good authentic stuff. The extra fees combined with the 19 BBB complaints from the last 3 years spurned me to look elsewhere.
So I started looking around for another place to get the dress and found one on ebay. It's a website that also does auctions, but when I called them up, they were incredibly friendly and willing to accomodate. The dress was ordered on friday for a good half of what I would've paid at the place in the 'burbs. When it comes in, I'll go looking for a good tailor. Even if I do end up paying another $250 for alterations, it'll still be cheaper than what I would've paid. Hell, I might even get the bridesmaids dresses there too. Gotta pick those out, soon too.
Planning a wedding is tough. And expensive. Tom and I are having a bit of a role reversal here too, which gets sort of frustrating. I would much rather go off to some cool place with close family and close friends, pay a package deal, put all the money we would've spent on a normal wedding towards a downpayment on a condo, and be done with it. Tom really doesn't want to do it that way, and it's good to err on the side of one who wants the most in the wedding. Unfortunately for me, he's not much of a planner either (not a poor reflection on Tom - some people are just not planners and Tom is one of those people). So I'm sort of stuck doing the planning for something that is really not my vision.
Don't get me wrong - I like the direction we're going in, we're customizing it to be a very T + K wedding, and it'll be a lot of fun. But good god is it expensive! And a whole lot of work! Finding a caterer in Chicago that will charge less than $50 bucks a plate is next to impossible and since we're having all of these out of towners coming in we can't throw a simple cocktail reception. When people travel, you gotta throw a party. It's only fair. It's practically a destination wedding for almost everyone who we have on the guest list already.
And of course because it's us, we gotta do it our way and turn all the traditions upside down. I won't spill all the beans because many of you readers are expected to show up, just rest assured that the reception will not include cake smashing, bouquet tossing nor garter grabbing. No one likes that stuff anyway. I'm trying very hard not to get caught up in the wedding industrial complex and so far am succeeding. However, there's still a lot of shit to do even when you're not planning the fairtale. I plan on making centerpieces, favors, jewelry, and doing all the flowers. Tom is in charge of the invitations which will be DIY as well. But there's still some things you cannot do yourself - photos, catering (well, I could if I were criminally insane), etc.
I'm stressing out just thinking about it - and tonight is a free night!
11.14.06 6:21pm(6 comments)
Two. Two seats left in the senate. Gold. Elite. Democrat.
If you don't get the title, go reread my blogs about japan. I think I reference it during a breakfast at Nagoya.Anyway, looks like we're pretty close to taking over with two seats left in too close to call elections. Even if the dems lose both, that's still pretty damn good. And in Ohio! That ass Dewine is out finally, and Blackwell didn't make governor. My faith has been partially renewed in that state.
I'm starting to feel a little bit better about this country, but I'm *incredibly* worried that the Dems will drop the ball and fuck everything up. Don't let us down, folks. Please.
11.08.06 8:45am(2 comments)
furshizzle.
So I finally got around to putting up a gallery and a blog for the Japan trip:Right now, only my pictures are there. I plan on uploading some of Tom's pictures tomorrow where I can feast on some sweet upload speeds after hours, instead of the piddly squat that AT&T believes to be high speed. You may or may not see my karaoke rendition of "Baby Got Back" and my mother's reaction to it. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk. Hopefully the rest of the family will upload some pictures, but until then, there are plenty there. I still need to go through and label / flip some pictures, so bear with me.
It's going to be kind of busy. Here's part of my to-do list:
1. Clean the house
2. Hang up Laundry
3. Devise a plan with Tom to lower the box springs to the ground level so that it can be put in storage
4. Play with puppies
5. Finish crafting for craftster dog swap (I've got some sweet things in store for that, but I'll need ALL the crafting time)
6. Make 'be my bridesmaids/matron/attendant' cards and possibly groomsmen cards for Tom - send out, hope everyone will accept.
7. Work on Group project stuff for school (what I should be doing instead of posting on kristyland)
8. Go try on dresses at 7 different places (!)
9. Hang out with my Mom while she's in town from the 4-7th
10. Hang out with Brandon while he's in town from 4-12th
11. Plan wedding (!)
12. and much much more that I can't think of right now
Fuck it dude - Let's go bowling.
11.01.06 10:22pm(2 comments)