Potential Epic

Task of the morning? Getting this bike:


into it's FAA regulation size suitcase so that I can take it with me to a conference in Albuquerque.

Fortunately I have step-by-step instructions from N... First we carefully pad it and take it apart.


Then fit it into it's box Tetris-style.


Then stuffing clothes in as extra padding, and I'm ready to go! Hopefully the re-assembly goes as smoothly, and hopefully I can carve out some time in the very full schedule to get some rides in.

Le Tired

Two days of running the dog in the morning, then pedaling to work, then hiking around all day, then pedaling home & entertaining the dog some more is maybe too much. BUT I only have two quilting squares left, then it's on to... what comes after making the squares? Hopefully something less painstakingly detailed.

What I should be doing right now is adjusting Clyde-the-Ritchey-Breakaway's front derailleur so that I can use the big chain ring tomorrow (and fixing the handlebars, and swapping the saddles). But I'm tired and want to watch the Daily Show and go to bed. And make breakfast and walk R somewhere in there.

I'm starting to collect pictures of poison oak (the plant, not the rash on my arm) on flickr. They really are quite pretty, despite their bad rap.

And that concludes my random listing of thoughts.

Attempting a Resurrection

Okay, so I know we thought I'd let this thing die, but all of a sudden it seems like a good idea again. I just bought a new camera (after leaving the old one at a plot...) and so am feeling inspired to take pictures and post them somewhere. I'm also in the midst of making a quilt - my first attempt at such a thing. It's turning out to be a lot more precision cutting and ironing than actual sewing, and unlike knitting, you definitely can't do it while watching TV (at least the beginning, square-sewing part). But it does feed my need to be obsessive. And since I'm sortof tired of the Big Bad Baby Blanket (Stitch & Bitch), but everyone I know keeps having babies, I figure I need a new gig. Also working on a knitting project, but that doesn't look like much yet.

This is what a quilt square would look like if you were 1 inch tall:


And this is what a finished square looks like:


The pattern is modified from a Denyse Schmidt quilt.

In other news, I'm hoping this blog will keep me from obsessively searching craigslist for apartments for me, N, and R to share (trumpets blare!) which has been quite a process. And, if you haven't seen it yet, it's absolutely mandatory that you read over Mark Bittman's 101 salads. Awesome.

K. Time to go turn over the laundry and run the dog to Trader Joe's.