So bizarre
A random vanity Google image search yeilded a hotlink (tsk tsk) to this picture:
It's a post to some sort of Russian game that seems to start with this image.
Here's a translated version.
So random. I originally blogged about the eggs here. I had a pretty cool husband. :>
Not coming home
Well, actually I probably will, but I certainly don't want to.
Costa Rica has been lovely. LOVELY! It's been the perfect beachy, sit on your lounge chair all day, catch up on books you've been meaning to read, drink pina coladas, go for refreshing swims when it gets to hot to just sit out sort of holiday. The beaches are beautiful, the weather is hot and mostly sunny, and the ocean is warm.
Of course, the trip has not been perfect (though, honestly, it's been close) - our hotel didn't have record of our reservation when we checked in. Oops! Their bad! They did find us a room thank goodness. And we have both proved completely useless at the application of sunblock and have absolutely ridiculous streaky sunburns in unlikely places. Also: my hair is a frizzy mess, but I'm not very bothered by that because of the awesomeness that lead to the frizz.
The biggest, saddest thing that's happened has been my cold. Which I fought for a week before we left, and which kept getting worse and worse and worse until finally, yesterday, my nose would NOT stop running and I went through ALL of the pocket packs of Kleenex I brought with me. Note to self and anyone else reading this: if you're getting sick before a vacation, take some sick days off to get better before your vacation. So what if you're about to take vacation days? YOU'RE SICK. GET BETTER! Anyway, this all means that I have not been able to dive at all on this trip, as you really can't dive with a headcold and you can't dive on Sudafed. Boo.
This morning we went snorkeling, though, so that's something. I think we're going to do a sunset cruise tomorrow, too, possibly with more snorkeling. On Friday, we're going into the rainforest, where we'll do a canopy tour. And then on Saturday, it's home again.
Best get my pina coladas in now...
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London
is fabulous. As always. A little grey, a little overcast, a little rainy, but very Londony.
Gareth is a wonderful host and has obliged me in many ways. We've been to Borough Market twice - the big question is always: what to get for lunch? Borough is a wonderful outdoor market under the rather vast railroad tracks at London Bridge station. It is full of fabulous artisan foods and butchers and specialty suppliers and such. A lot of the stalls cook and sell their food as well. Brindisa, for example, a spanish shop (with a restaurant on the corner) does such good chorizo in a bun with sweet pepper, rocket and a drizzle of olive oil that there is ALWAYS a line 30 people long at lunchtime when the market is open.
Yesterday, I saw Matt and we enjoyed a cocktail at the place I took the picture that is his blog banner before making a pilgramage to the Apple store. Little did we know, yesterday was the launch of the iPhone in the UK - the store didn't open until 6:02 (why 02??) and when we were finally allowed to enter (there was a queue), it was to the applause of a dozen Apple store employees. Surreal.
I am lucky in a couple of ways: My fave independent handbag brand (Kimchi) doesn't seem to be carried by anyone anymore... perhaps they're out of business? My fave German shoes (Trippen) are not in my size/style at the store that carries them here. $$$ in pocket = good. Especially with this exchange rate.
Tomorrow, I'm on a Eurostar to Paris for a day with Lisa. Cannot wait. It will undoubtedly be fabulous and delicious. Paris, and all.
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The house, it is warm.
And yesterday, it was full of people. Eighteen people, to be exact. I hasten to remind you that this is a studio apartment. Cosy.
It was a wonderful party - sort of spur of the moment so I could do it before I went to the UK. There were several people who couldn't make it, and a few people I forgot to invite because I'm blonde blonde blonde. But we did have a good time overall.
I took some pictures. A few in the beginning, then I put the camera down so I could hostess and visit. When the crowd thinned out some, I picked it up again. As it usually turns out, this means that there are several of a few people and only a couple of the larger group. Sigh. Next time I'll have a photographer. ;)
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Orange ring!
Last weekend, I realized I had a $100 gift check from work that had been sitting in my purse for months unused. I had been waiting for something worthy to spend it on. Well, that's all well and good, but it had seriously been nine months. That's like the gestation period for a baby. So I decided I'd figure out what was worthy.
The answer, of course, was jewelry. So I trekked over to Metalliferous and picked up some silver, some silver wire, a digital calliper gauge, some needle files and some other useful stuff.
I have a book of jewelry projects you can make with cold connections. This means no heat required. This is useful when you don't have a soldering torch and don't really want to deal with that. Soldering is freaking hard and takes a lot more patience than I had for a 'first project in a long time'. I didn't want to be too ambitious. So I decided to do a three-layer ring.
I documented with pictures, for anyone who's interested. I'll put it in the extended entry. :)
Continue reading Orange ring!.
A couple pictures...
... of Dad on Father's Day. Love you Dad.
Binary watch!
I really have no idea how this never got blogged about... but now that I think about it, I believe my birthday was around the time I lost my camera battery charger and it was a few weeks before I got a new one.
My birthday this year (a couple months ago now) was extremely pink. James got me matching leather jewelry boxes an a vanity case (pink). I got lots of pink cards and pink gift bags and everything. But the present with the biggest cool factor was...
A PINK BINARY WATCH!!!! (From Erin, who rocks my entire WORLD)
As you can see in the above picture, the time is 0111:100110, which, of course, is 7:38. Yes, it took me forever to learn how to read this without doing mental arithmetic every time. Every now and then, at work, I'd look at my cubemate Gary, and say: It's 4:40! Or: OOOH! It's 1:00!! See? See???? Predictably, he laughed at me. Dork.
So there you have it: the binary watch. :)
Etching is fun. And ironic.
This weekend, I took an etching class!
I'd been jonesing for some jewelry making fabulousness for a while, and although I'm in the process of setting up a studio at home, the creative juices have not been, how do you say...? Flowing. So hey. Why not?
I learned many things.
- Etching is hella easy. Especially if you have a laser printer.
- One ends up using lots of nailpolish and, afterwards, acetone when one is etching. Thus, any semblance of a manicure will be destroyed.
- Bring eight women together for a Saturday morning jewelry class and four of them will be hungover.
- I like making stuff.
- Etching glass takes like fifteen minutes. Instant gratification!
Part of what we did was iron on transfers from PnP paper. This is basically how they make circuit boards and stuff. You print your design onto this stuff with a laser printer and then it irons onto your metal. It works REALLY WELL.
Well. I was looking at the possible designs to choose from - the ones that the tutor had brought in and... what was that I saw? A UNICORN??
I couldn't resist. I made a unicorn pendant.
Now to discover the truth behind my vague past and possible Amberite heritage...
More images in the extended entry...
Continue reading Etching is fun. And ironic..
Recently...
I've been sort of MIA, I know. James was out of town ALL last week in India and it resulted in a lot of trouble sleeping and just a general ennui. Now that he's home, the ennui is gone, but the trouble sleeping remains. Annoyingly.
There isn't much that's happened of note. Mostly, it's been work and (while James was gone) general tidying and stuff. (Now that he's back, of course, the tidying is out the window - gah.)
Obviously, this weekend promises to be fun: the Bears are in the Superbowl!! We're having a thing at our place. If you know me and are in the area, consider yourself invited. I think more formal invites will go out a little later this week.
In other news, we finally chose a sofa! We're getting this sectional in "Heather Seagrass," which sounds a whole lot greener than it is. We chose the color a couple weeks ago and went back last night just to see... I'm impressed with my original judgement. It is indeed, just right.
We've also ordered new Mac Pros - matching! Ooooo. It would rock if those came by the end of the week.
AND I really want a pair of these (the DNA Portraits) to hang on my living room wall. I like Firesky, James likes Matrix. Although our sofa is technically green, it's really more neutral than green and I'm not sure the dark green of the picture would work. Yes, we could do one of their side-by-side ones, but I'm just not sold on any of those color combinations. I encourage comments on this - help!
I guess that's it for now - nothing too exciting over here. Time to get ready for work. Bleh. :P
Stuff we're getting rid of
Ikea birch Effectiv 4-drawer unit - sells new for $150 - in really good condition
Ikea linen box - simple, quite a lot like this:
Stuff that will be up for grabs in 4-8 weeks (i.e. when our replacement furniture comes)
Ikea Bonde cabinets - birch - these are of the nicest Ikea line and are looking pretty good despite having moved with us twice. The bigger cabinet has lights mounted in the top of the shelves. These are UK voltage right now but you could easily replace them with US voltage ones. It's Ikea, after all!
This picture is hugely old! It's from our house in Cheshunt, like, four years ago!
Two Ikea Aron chairs (quite heavily used) and two nice, red office chairs (office chairs can probably go now actually)
I'd love some money for some of this stuff, but it doesn't have to be a lot. Tell me if you're interested first, then we'll talk. Also, I have no way of getting this to you - pick my stuff up! :)
