Well, it's about freaking time, eh?

Thanks to all of you who've left smartie-pants comments, and those of you who've checked in on my little piece of cyberspace time after time, just to be duped once again... I'm back. And to celebrate this back-ness, there will be a DAILY update for the next week or so. Hopefully this promise will make the update process habit forming, sort of like having a snack the minute I walk into my home, preferably before I take my coat off. This particular hiatus was kind-of sadness related. I'm more than on the mend, but not really ready to talk about it. SO DON'T COMMENT ABOUT THAT PART, HELLO.

What's new? I joined the YWCA yesterday. I love it. I had a short "core workout class" yesterday that today has me begging everyone I run into NOT to make me laugh. It hurts. I also took a rebounding class. I didn't even know what it was until everyone around me got out their mini-trampolenes. Oh my gosh, yes, it was so fun. I was sweating and laughing like a crazy woman the entire time. The goal is to push your feet down into the trampolene on the beat. But one wrong move and it springs you into the air. SO much fun. Tonight I'm going back for a BOSU class. I guess it's something about part of a ball. I'll keep you posted. Any YWers, let me know when we can take a class together. I'm always up for a little humiliation.

What else? I had a baby shower at my house on Sunday. More than 30 people scrunched into our little house, playing silly games off of pastel paper plates. Actually, I was a little nervous about pulling the whole thing off until the day it went down. People stayed well past the obligatory hour or so, and seemed to have fun. I OD'd on the mints, which I normally don't even notice. I think it's the whole Weight Watchers stigma. Now that I started the program, every little thing looks delicious. But, because someone other than me now looks at the numbers on the scale, I at least think before I put random stuff in my mouth. And as for the "Points Nazi", she'll be very happy to know that I'm not on the points plan, so I only have to think about them occasionally. (Insert cute sideways smiley that lets audience know I'm joking in a kind way)

What else? I hit a pretty good estate sale last Saturday. Although the owner was totally unwilling to negotiate prices, I still loaded up on some vintage polyester, but the biggest score was a 50's cutie-cute tablecloth for the kitchen table. I'm thinking about getting a cheapo portable dishwasher that will replace the kitchen table. I'd put a butcher block on the top, so it'd double as counter space. Any input? Tacky? Gross? Awesome?

Tomorrow is hump day. Go pick up a bottle of Twin Fin and share it with a buddy. It's delicious and cheap.

More to come tomorrow.

Wow, how time seems to get away from me these days! Going back to work after vacation is such a drag. I mean, getting up and going to bed early? Having puberty-stricken youth dissing my fashion? Someone barfing in class today? (She made it to the trash can) Shopping at Dick Blick (worst store ever) in my down time so we can make plaster hands in class today??? Well, today I'm just longing for a little FREEDOM. I can't really complain though. My job is pretty good and my life is certainly good, especially because my belly dance class is tonight AND the CC meeting is tomorrow night. Yee-haw!

On the way to the Uptown Art Fair, my mom and I found this glittery tree in someone's dumpster. It's been hanging from the rafters in the garage until last weekend, when we put propped it up and put on some decorations. Zander's mom sent us the beautiful tree skirt a few weeks ago. She made it out of one of Zander's great-grandma Pearl's tablecloths. I LOVE it.



After the last CC meeting, with a crash course in ornament making, I whipped up some Christmas softies of our kitties. One of Boo and one of Juno. The one of Boo is cuter, but that does not mean that we love him more. We, especially I, love them both the same.



I'm still messing around with felted sweaters a bit more before I but together a big quilt. I made this scarf for my co-worker that I didn't think I would like, but has turned out to be a dear friend already. How is it, that so many things in life that you let yourself get freaky-psyched out about, turn out better than could've imagined? Anyway, she loved the scarf. She's funky and the scarf is funkier looking that it is in the picture, so it was a good match.

EARLY on Saturday morning we're heading out to Christmas with our Colorado clan. It'll be so nice to get away and spend time with all of them. All of you, have a fun and safe and lovely holiday!

I got tagged by the Juice to tell all ya'll five interesting things about me. Hmmm. I feel like it's all so obvious, but here goes.

1. In college, I started out as a classical music major. Since then, I've totally given it up (except the not-so-ocassional-karaoke) and would love to take voice lessons again. Oh, and maybe learn how to play the guitar.
2. When I was a kid I'd start to have flying dreams, but it'd always turn into the devil making me levitate instead. Last night was the first time that I could actually fly in my dreams, and it was so flippin' awesome. Yep, the conservative Christian upbringing scared me to pieces. Our children will have to ask their friends what a devil is.
3. I love taking classes, but I also really love discovering things on my own. I want to take oil painting and continue belly dancing this January. I also really love the time of day (4ish right now) when there are really long, purple shadows, and everything else seems golden.
4. I'm most likely to swear when I'm happy and cry when I'm angry.
5. This last one is a tease, but I've got a secret. Don't even try and guess what it is, because I'm not telling.

Bonus Track: Oh, and in the summer my challenge is to get to where I need to go, but only go through the alleys to get there. It's not just my OCD coming to the surface, it's the best way to get the best junk.
Extra Special Bonus Track: You can find some of life's sweetest poetry in Patty's music.

Now, I'm tagging:

Messica
Reuben Sandwich
McGoose
Jackalope Ranch
The guys over at the Big Attic

A few nights ago, at the very swank Big Time Attic Christmas party, we were discussing olds trends. Specifically, the pinning of the pants. We were all quite specific that the pants needed to be pegged, but our methods varied slightly. I sewed mine so tight that my foot could barely make it through the ankle hole, and then rolled them with a cosmetic safety pin out the outside of the roll. Others constructed the peg with a single fold and roll, and yet others made it all possible with a double fold. Well, news flash... And it really is news because I've only just noticed it today, but I've noticed it on about thirty high school girls in the last half hour. The rage is now pinning the back of your shirt to make it fit even tighter. Mostly I'm seeing this accomplished with huge safety pins, but I've even seen a few with the old style diaper pins. This one's bound to be a classic.

Send a big day old smooch over to Reuben. She had a birthday yesterday!

No Child Left Behind

No child left behind, unless of course you're on an ART II field trip at the Minneapolis Institute of Art today. In that case, it's two children left behind. We realized it right before the bus driver got a call from the museum, but just before we got back to school. Whooops!

This summer I found some really lovely quilts that are pretty light weight and not so great for our Minnesota winters. I was so sad to put our old comforter back on the bed... it just looks so blah now. However, today I found this, and it's just filled with beautiful blankets made out of felted sweaters. I've been picking up old wool sweaters around town for a while now, and I've got a small collection going. I might give the whole quilt idea a try. After messing around with how to felt, I think I've got it down to a science. Hot wash/cold rinse with a couple tablespoons of dish soap. Dry on high, but empty your dryer filter mid-cycle because it makes a huge mess.



Isn't this skirt adorable? Lots of fun stuff over on their site. It looks like it'd be pretty easy to make without a pattern. So, I'd like to try and slap one together soon. Does it seem like it would be better with a stretchy fabric? I don't want it to pull when it's tied, AND I don't want something I'd have to iron. Any suggestions? This is a total side bar... The website where this skirt is from sites on every one of their pages, "Don't Steal, Karma is real". It's not like I'm going to put one together and then try and sell it to Target. I just like making skirts, but what I hate is how superstitious bullcrap sucks me in, even when I don't (especially in this situation) feel like I'm doing anything remotely wrong that'd warrant me getting hit by a truck. In my mind this goes along with the forwards that you're supposed to forward to your all of your friends within 5 minutes or a baby angel will lose it's wings and fall dead to the ground. Or, none of your wishes will come true. Ever.

On a happier note, we had a great weekend over here at the Cannon house. I took a class at the MIA about modern American painters on Saturday afternoon. I wasn't all that excited at first, when I found out that the class would last for 4 FREAKING HOURS. But, the class was wonderful! I got to see the new exhibit, which was pretty good, and heard lots of background info from the docent. Best of all, there was a 70+ year old artist that came for a show and tell about his work. His stories were wonderful. Many centered around LSD, which seemed especially cute because he was just so darned old. After that, almost ALL of our holiday parties happened on Saturday night. So Much Super Lots of Fun. Then, Sunday we got to see the Gnome, the Gnome's husband, and the Gnome's darling baby. It was great to see you coffee slurping mongrels.

On a more personal one, I've been a bit under the weather lately. Nothing catching, just trying to get this crappy thing called Factor V under control with... You guessed it, yeah baby, self injections. Like most people, I like to be in control. In fact, I like to be the driver. I like to be the teacher. I like to follow recipes where I know things turn out yummy. I don't like that this is probably why I miscarried last year. Right around this time. That sucks and it makes me sad in my otherwise happy world. I'm feeling pretty sorry for myself, jabbing myself in the gut every night with something that feels like poison. Ugh. So, tonight I'm making english muffin pizzas and drinking light OJ (which is surprisingly good) and we're going to watch a comfort movie like Moulin Rouge and I'm going to sing along through the whole entire thing. Lucky Zander, eh?

Last night I had an absolutely lovely time at the Mess's place for our CC meeting. The food was great, the project was fun, and as always, the women were fantastic.

Right now I'm reading A Million Little Pieces and really loving it. The writing style is choppy and sort of runs on and on, in a surprisingly good way. You might have already read it, but it takes place at Hazeldon, so it has lots of little Minnesota cameos. Reading this book makes me especially glad to have met Zander. Before Zander I dated 1 or 2 nice guys and about 100 FREAKS. One of these freaks was a guy that I met at the grocery store in the Midway. One of the previous nice guys had just broken my heart and I thought a date with someone new was just what I needed.
Him: Yeah, my car's in the shop. Do you think you can pick me up when we get together?
Me: Of course, that'll be so fun. (He wrote down an address and I didn't think a thing about it)
The next weekend, I got all gussied up for our date and went about finding the address. I drove and drove and drove. I FINALLY happened upon Hazeldon Treatment Center and (surprise, surprise) the address matched. At that point, I should have turned the 1989 Ford EXP right around. But I just didn't think that was very nice. I mean, who am I to judge someone when they're trying to get their stuff together? Well, to condense, the night was bazaar. Just a few highlights: He was the president of City Pages, but he used a different name in print, so no one would find out. He created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His father thought he was Andrew Cunanan. Hazeldon was his temporary housing. He was a millionare that really just wanted to be real. He gave away all his cars and cash to the poor. But more than anything, his family was the most important thing in his life. (This he proved to me by sharing an old picture of a family picnicing more than a block away) Enough. I've disgressed. The book is good. Pick up a cheap copy at Costco.

Right now I'm stuck in my room with about a million students cramming to finish a painting that's due tomorrow. Panic is finally settling into their cold little hearts. Mmwaah, haa, whaa. I really can't believe that tomorrow is already Friday, although I can't say that it upsets me much. Especially because I can FINALLY get my hair cut on Saturday. Melissa, if you're reading this, you're impossible to get an appointment with. Especially on my one-two day's notice.

Zander and I were supposed to be heading down to Nebraska this weekend for the family Christmas party. We're just not going to make it. There are all kinds of reasons why not, the least of which is just that I'm a big old winter riding/driving baby. Luckily we got to see my Grandma a lot in the last couple of weeks, so I don't feel quite as bad about it. So, since we're staying in town, I am super-excited for the craft and mcad sales coming up... Especially since I've done zero, zilch, nada, and nunka Christmas shopping.

Alright, the kids are outta here and so am I! Have a good end of the week!

Yesterday I taught for half the day, and then had a check up in the afternoon. I hate having to be gone and leave plans for a sub. Really, it's almost more work than staying. Anyway, my check up was quick, so it bought me some thrifting time. My most exciting purchase was a pair of rollerskates that fit perfectly. I'm a kind of sucky rollerblader, but I absolutely LOVE rollerskating! I might even put some cute little pom poms on them to bring me luck. I also scored one of Jane Brody's cookbooks, which really looks like a good one. Maybe it's silly for me to keep picking up cookbooks, when I know that pretty much everything is available online. I just really like the idea of one great cookbook that I use for everything, full of my own little notes.

In other news, if my calendar is serving me right, we should all shout a happy birthday over to Ugly today!

1. Whew, conferences are over. Lots of intense parents this round. I think they wanted me to define their child for them so they could decide where to send them off to college.
2. In between the 30+ parents that I saw yesterday, I was felting little balls to string on a necklace. It's extremely easy. I just felt a little ridiculous when some showed up early because I had to shake their hands with wet felty fingers. Gross. Oh, the cats found my stash of little felty balls in the middle of the night. They're EVERYWHERE.
3. Juno is going to the vet today to get his shots. He must know it because he's been a little bitch all morning long. He likes to hide under the bed and dig his claws into my ankle as I walk by.
4. My grandma is still in town and she's going to show me how to crochet today. Yeah, I know... Teachers are already way overpaid and then they give us off a non-holiday on top of it all.
5. We're getting some Grumpy's tonight and then heading over to see The Hopefuls. I haven't seen them before, so I'm pretty excited to hear what all the fuss is about. The music starts after I'm normally in bed.
6. Zander seems to be getting sick and I've got a sore throat. Ick.
7. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

So we went to see Jethro Tull last night at the State. I got the tickets for Zander's birthday, and quite honestly, I can't say that I'd ever heard their music before. We met the lead singer and flute player after the show. He's not a hand shaker, so here he is, rubbing elbows with Zander. The show was absolutely wonderful. It was great on so many levels, but especially the addition of Lucia. She's this young, beautiful, violinist prodigy that played in a frilly pink dress and bare feet. I've never heard a violin played like that, and if I had, I'd of surely taken it up as a child. Wonderful. The only down side of the night was the prissy State Theater. People needed to rock and they tolerated very little of it before sending down security. The rockers won in the end, there were just too many people that were moved and finally the security people just scowled by the back door and let us be.

Since my sister works for Parasole, she got us into their new, and not yet opened, place over on 50th and France tonight. I'm pretty excited. I remember when we opened Chino and had our first pre-opening event. It was really exciting. I'm also excited because Anthropology isn't far from there and I LOVE that store. No, not to buy anything, I'm far too cheap. Instead, I love to browse and then RIP OFF their ideas.


And speaking of stealing ideas, I'm definitely going to steal Martha's idea on making felt balls. I think you can buy the wool at Micheal's (I've got some left over coupons, you know) and then I'd like to string them into bead necklaces. Maybe even some dangly earrings. How cute!

A Reason to Knit

I found this little Yoda and it's rekindled my hopes of someday learning how to knit. I want to make one for ME!

Getting to school by 7am and getting enough sleep to make somewhat rational decisions while I'm here is proving to be a challenge. So I've been coping by making very few plans after work during the week and then cramming in every ounce of fun on the weekend. Monday morning? Sucks. Must create new system. We definitely need more weekend chill time. Next weekend there's Jethro Tull and virtually nothing else. I'm going to sleep in late and then read in bed. Oh, and drink coffee.

I'm stuggling putting together a witty and meaningful entry today. So here's some randomness:

1. Does anyone have the new Fiona Apple CD? Is it good?
2. I've got to get new paint brushes for my art room and I'm just cruising through my budget, so I've collected Michael's coupons from my students. I know that it's one coupon per transaction/per day, but do you think they'll really mind if I go through the line 11 times?
3. This weekend, Zander bought speaker guts from AxMan for 12 bucks and fixed our broken ones. So much better than throwing them away and buying new ones like Best Buy suggested! Besides, I use them for plant stands too.
4. My grandma gave me a large collection of vintage matching earring and necklace sets last weekend. They're absolutely adorable (she wore most of them to go square dancing) and special because they're from her. The clip-ons only bug me once or twice and day, and at that point I feel like smacking things with a baseball bat. Luckily the feeling passes quickly.
5. The students are super wired today. The Sadie Hawkins dance is this Friday and I can almost smell all of the hormones in the air. I even saw two students dry humping on a locker before school this morning. Barf city.
6. I want to make baked acorn squash for dinner this week with a scoop of something good inside. Any ideas on what would be good inside AND if I'd cook them together or separate?
7. Snow already? Please no.
8. I'm looking for a huge mirror to hang on the wall in the basement. Yes, so that I'll be able to watch myself practice my bad-ass belly dance moves. Instead of just imagining how stupid I look.
9. I love Method cleaning supplies. I especially love the one that kind of smells like almonds and is for wood. Oh yeah, and the grapefruit kitchen cleaner... ahh, so nice.
10. I've got to hem two pairs of pants this week. I'm so crappy at it. I really wish I could find a good sewing class that would cover basic alterations.

Wow, it's 5pm and already almost dark out. Today started out just gorgeous. I went for a long, fast walk down by the river and actually got hot enough to take my jacket off. Most of the leaves are off of the trees and I'm just loving that leafy smell. I keep thinking that it'd be interesting to take one picture a day of some kind of urban beauty. Today it would have been the little boy sitting in the corner of his yard, on my way back home. From about 20 feet away he had this goofy look on his face and when I got up closer I saw that he'd been grinning at me the whole time. "What doin'?" "Goin' for a walk." "It fun?" "Yeah, it fun." After I'd walked about a block farther, I heard him yell, "BYE!" Hey, I have slow reactions too sometimes... alright, alright, maybe most of the time!

Tomorrow my entire family is coming over for an early dinner and we're making waffles. We might even make everyone wear a robe. After all that we've eaten this weekend, that might be all that fits anyway.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm slacking on the posts these days! No lack of love here, just lots of random busy stuff. Here are my highlights...

On Halloween our first trick-or-treaters were all excited to get their candy until Boo jumped out the door and they screamed "BLACK CAT!" and ran away. It probably didn't help that I kept yelling "BOO, get back here". They just ran faster and faster.

For Zander's birthday on Tuesday, we headed over to Rice Paper again. It was good, but not as good as before and I wanted it to be great for a birthday night. The server sat down the check with our meal! That's fine when the bill is under twenty bucks, but I was pretty irritated because we'd had wine and entrees and appetizers, how about offer us some coffee??? I got us tickets to see Jethro Tull for Zander's present. He LOVES them and I don't think I've ever heard their music. I'm kinda excited to check them out.

I had one of these on Thursday. It kinda really hurt. Thus, I missed my beloved Crafter's Conspiracy AND and chance to craft in a crack-users home. SHIT BALLS. By the way, despite my previous suspicions, my test results looked good and I've not recently peed out an ovary or anything.

I got two lovely vintage dresses at Value Village. One is brown two-piece dress that I adore for its conservity. Anna, is that a word? I'll wear it to conferences. And then there's a knee length, empire waisted, hot pink polyester number that I love for promising me the hottest christmas ever. Hot pink is the new red... or so I'm telling myself.

Friday I got to skip school and attend the art educators of Minnesota conference. It was a nice change of pace and I scored some great samples. It was like trick-or-treating except that I got scissors, construction paper, and Sharpies instead of Twix. The best part of the day was having a glass of wine at Thistle's afterward and bonding with my co-worker. All summer long I thought we were going to hate each other and I absolutely LOVE her. She's funky and funny and thinks I'm funny and she's 56 and got carded at the bar. We giggled a lot. I thought we were going to get kicked out.

Dinner last night was the most delicious I've had in ages. We went over to Julie and Brian's downtown swanky condo and just chilled. We drank, we played a fun game that I've forgotten the name of, and just chatted away while it rained outside. They built a fire. It was wonderful.


Today we're going to the school play and then heading over to my Mom's to make some soup because my Grandma is coming to town this afternoon. She thinks that Minnesota is the coldest place on earth, which is her version of hell, so I'm just doing my part to warm her up. I'm just dumping things together, but something with chicken, spinach, and tortelini.

Have a good Sunday!

Party Guilt

What a weekend! About a gallon and a half of red wine and a pound of cheese later, here I am, just getting through Monday. Tomorrow is Zander's real birthday, so I'm trying to figure out a fun place to go to dinner. As many of you already know, we had people over to celebrate yesterday and Zander REALLY had a great time. I had a great time too, but I'm suffering from day-after guilt. I keep thinking that I didn't get to talk to everyone I wanted to enough AND that maybe people felt weird just pouring themselves a drink and I should have been more hostesserly. So, if I didn't sit down and chat or pour you a drink, please don't think I'm a jerk... Just a little ADD in a big group, and then sorry for it the next day.

FRD

What do these crazy characters have in common? Well, F, R and D! Frodo and Frida had a lovely time at Rob and Amy's reception. Lots of red wine, good pizzas, exceptional dancing, enticing conversations, and an all around fun time. Now, so sweepy. Must go to bed. Zander is putting the meat in the crockpot as I type. Tomorrow's gonna' be fun...