Happy Rosemas to all, and to all a good night

both Juliet and Leif sent me the same card from someecards... and all i have to say is that someone out there has an xmas time birthday and translated it into card comedy QUITE well.

avocado deep thoughts. snow leading to deep muscle ache

Yesterday I bought an avocado because they are DELICIOUS and I wanted to make some guacamole. In the last few months I have gotten REALLY into avocados... at first I was eating them plain, with just salt. Then I started mashing them up with salt and using them as dip. Then once in a while I would mash them up with salt and add some chopped tomatoes. Once in a while I'd add cumin too. Last night I had some extra chopped onions from a stew I was making and added some of those as well.

I've gained immense joy from each of these iterations along the sliding scale between avocado and guacomole, and found that I have gotten a huge breadth of understanding of the different flavors through this process. Then I got excited about how much more I'd be able to experiment with avocadoes... over the rest of my life. That was pretty exciting, to realize that I have SO MUCH TIME to cook and eat and love food.

YUM :)


On an unrelated note, God sh*t on us this weekend and his sh*t was 20 inches of snow. This is when I get REALLY sad that I own a car and have street parking. I shoveled for an hour Friday night, at least 2 hours (over 2 separate occasions) Saturday, and then another hour and a half Sunday. This is when I start to be able to rationalize those stories you hear about people putting orange cones, lawn chairs, and trash cans in parking spots in Southie. To my IMMENSE delight, I managed to regain the spot I had spent all weekend excavating when I parked this evening after work. Otherwise someone would've gotten their car keyed. Just sayin.

To the left - the top photo is another honda civic on my block, he probably shovelled on sunday morning but the rest of the day likely caused the blockage. It is too cold for me to go out and get better photos of the poor suckers who didnt shovel at all... for them the snow pack is up to their side mirrors.

Below is a picture of my beautifully shovelled civic. My back muscles say YOU'RE WELCOME

werk birthday

my coworkers covered my desk last night as a birthday present...

one of the balloons had a post-it that said "open me" and inside was a key. my computer mouse was missing and desk drawer locked, but the key didnt work on the drawer. I tried my buddies' drawers to no avail. but did see some creepy stuff in their desks in the process. You guys are sick.

After leaving text messages for 4 people (no one was in the office yet) I finally got a call back and it turned out that key was indeed a fake-out key - the real one was in another, unmarked balloon. And that unlocked my desk and revealed my mouse.

happy birthday to me. thats what I get for leaving the Beer Thursday event yesterday evening at 5:20...

Darn Big B&W Turine

This is my new favorite piece... I made it out of white clay and struggled for a couple weeks to figure out how I'd glaze it. I asked my teacher for advice and he suggested this "horse-eye" design (he specializes in japanese ceramics and, apparently, this is a very japanese design.) It is painted using successively bigger ovals and is supposed to occur in groups of five.



It took SO MUCH WILL-POWER to do this in just black and white (the overglaze is clear, showing the white clay underneath,) because I'm a color person. Seriously, I never leave the house with at least SOME color on me, even if it is just in my earrings. So doing this without ANY... was tough. But it was a good call in the end, and really highlights the shape and strength of the sculptural details. In my oh-so-humble opinion.


The piece is about 11.5" in diameter and 7.5" tall, table-to-knob. I threw it as two separate bowls (the top is an inverted bowl) and then threw the knob on the wheel separately. The horse-eyes are painted with a long-haired japanese brush using black underglaze, and then the whole thing was poured with clear crackle glaze.

Deep Thoughts

• Sometimes, hiding chocolate from yourself actually DOES work. Until you find it.
• There is a shameful but very real satisfaction in running into d-bag football players from high school at a bar, and knowing/seeing that you are now more successful. And didnt gain quite as much weight.
• I love buying presents for people who have very real interests/passions. Find myself having to restrain from buying them too many gifts.
• HELLO WORLD!
  

Happy Birthday, Mom!

FAMILY THANKSGIVING

clockwise from lower right:

lime and grape jello, brussel sprouts, salad, peas and peanuts, pasta salad, mashed yams, cranberry sauce, gravy, turkey.

oh yeah, and mom me dad michael juliet.

Urban Family Thanksgiving (plus Bangs)

First of all, i got bangs.
see self-snapped pic to the left for visual

I realized, after the fact, that I had used a picture of one of the Pussy Cat Dolls to show my hair dude what I wanted. Ummmmm weird.


Second of all, yesterday was my First Annual "Urban Family" Thanksgiving! I got the idea from a coworker - basically you invite your "urban family" (all your closest friends in the city) for a Thanksgiving Dinner the weekend before everyone goes to their family homes for REAL Thanksgiving.

It was super fun!!! I made a turkey - first time doing it, but Alton Brown / The Food Network steered me well and it came out quite yummy.


I had over 9 other people (was supposed to be 13 total but a few people couldnt make it last minute) - was suprised/impressed I was able to fit 10 comfortably. I suppose that's what a hardcover-book-raised-coffee-table and $16 Christmas Tree Shop folding table and folding-chairs-from-mom will do!

After much wine/cider/port Lindsay stole the camera and got a candid of me with the new bangs. And I followed up with a picture of the aftermath - turkey carcas and MUCHO MUCHO leftovers. Yay!! I can eat well for the next 3 days... until I eat well again for REAL thanksgiving :)

This was super fun and I am 150% going to do it again next year!

NEW CAR awww yeah

PRETTY SWEET, HUH??


My brand new 2009 Honda Civic LX Sedan in Atomic Blue Pearl.




I learned I needed a new car on Thursday 11/13, test drove vehicles Sunday 11/16, Bought a vehicle 11/16, and picked it up Tuesday 11/18. Pretty speedy for a multi multi thousand dollar expenditure. I'm pretty sure it takes me longer to decide on a pair of boots!













When I uploaded these photos I found some from election day - polls opened at 7am, I arrived at 6:50 am and was about #50 in line. I got to the voting booth at 7:30 am. When I left, this was the line... HOLY CARP BALLS. I love democracy, but hate city planning/infrastructure

i <3 zombies.... but not recession

tenuous at best, but i love zombies so it's ok

I BOUGHT A CAR!

yes, another one

The 1999 Elantra I got before has been having a lot of issues, and after sinking a carp load of cash into it the mechanic recommended I just get rid of it (because they didnt know how much more $$ it was going to take to make it pass inspection.) That was thursday. I spent much of thursday and friday researching cars, and then today went to some dealerships with my coworker Devon. He knows a ton about cars and loves the car-buying process, so I thought he'd be a great help (plus he's a dude, and we all know how car dealers dont like to deal w/ chicks.)

My plan was to just look today, do some test driving and then decide what I wanted. Then I was going to wait until the last weekend of the month to actually buy, since I know dealers have to meet monthly quotas and thats supposed to be the best time to get a good deal. I brought my checkbook just in case I decided to buy - I figured I'd make a ridiculous low ball and see what happened.

Well, I managed to get a 2009 Honda Civic Sedan LX Automatic at Invoice price. Edmunds.com says that the true market value (i.e. what people are ACTUALLY paying at the dealerships right now) is full MSRP on this vehicle. Umm, like woah. So basically I saved a bunch of dough, which is nice since I lost a bunch on my first car. I'm pretty happy with the purchase... for now all I have is the website photo (I cant pick up the car until Tuesday since they have to install the fog lights I ordered... i hate delayed gratification!!!!!) I'm SURE I'll post live pics at that point.

On a related note - Today was my first trip through a car wash (as I prepped my Hyundai for trade-in evaluation.) Car washes are f*ing awesome!!

no energy to post more...

... so here are some pics of recent pottery

Trip to Holly's

When I went out to Spokane for my half-marathon I extended my trip for a couple days to drop by my sister Hol's place in Seattle.

SUPER CUTE FAMILY.


The first day we all went to Pike Place market to get some organic local produce. This was Isabella as we stood waiting for the bus. Love the hat, kid.









The next day we went for a 2 hr hike on Tiger mountain. Crazy that we could get such a great hike only ~20 minutes outside of the city.

Here is Hol, with her baby Melanie wrapped to her.












And this is my holding my ADORABLE newest niece.






I think this was my 9th or 10th trip to Seattle. I realized that it is the city I've been to the most times besides Boston. Umm crazy.

half marathon - CHECK!

ran the Spokane WA half marathon this morning

13.1 miles in 2 hours, 32 minutes, 19 seconds.

highlight: the freaking awesome views from lots of parts on the course, especially the bridge around 2 miles that went a few hundred feet above the Spokane River. AMAZING

lowlight: "Doomsday Hill" at 10 miles. WTF. wtf. That was the start of a VERY tough final 3 miles, but I managed to power through (and by "power" i mean "walk large sections")


overall: glad I did it. very likely to do other HMs in the future. But, for now, I am going to go lay in bed and veg for SEVERAL hours.

in Seattle

just spent two great days with Hol and her super cute family

now with Manish in Bellvue and mentally building up for the half marathon in Spokane in two days

here's for hoping that no puking on the sidewalk is involved!!!

my life is crazy/awesome and here is some catchup

In mild chronological order...

I bought a present for Juliet. I dont think her boyfriend likes it very much. Maybe he is intimidated, not sure. This 2 foot plastic gorilla now resides on top of our television.



















Juliet and I went hiking in New Hampshire near Lake Winnepau-sakidontknow-howtospell. Pretty awesome hike with great views at the top.

I played a little recorder at the summit to call to the birds and other nature residents. They said HI back.



























I got some new pottery back out of the kiln - 4 mugs made out of black clay, with my FAVORITE glaze combo (you may recognize this from a set of four slightly-squared bowls a few months ago.)






These mugs are some of my favorite pieces yet. The handles were a bit of a creative departure for me, but I actually am pretty satisfied there.






















I played in a golf tournament at work.
It's a good thing I took that Golf PE class in college (literally, I took it because I thought it might be useful in business.) I was in no way a super star, but at least I didnt 100% humiliate myself. Just around 98%.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure I carried the fashion baton for my team... agreed? agreed.





I became an accordian master.

well, no, I just played Juliet's accordian most ridiculously for about 4 minutes and she thought it was fun to take photos. But we did play a bunch of duets (her on accoridan, me on tambourine) and they were amazing, I am SO excited for our first performance in a couple weeks.





And now.... I'm off to Seattle for my half marathon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 days with Holly and her family, then 3 days with Manish in Spokane. Wish me luck/not breaking a leg!!

The most important vote you will cast this year

what should I be for halloween?

Option 1: Leeloo (of The Fifth Element)











Option 2: Cheetarah (of The Thundercats)




Option 3: Miss Congeniality 1984 (of the Great State of Alaska)
including sash AND flute!



THOUGHTS!?!??!
Plz vote. Many thx

just cleaned my wallet...

... and found receipts from paris, st helena california, versailles, some highway in arizona, bruges, antwerp, amsterdam, san francisco, and capitola california

i miss my travels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(and clearly do not clean my wallet enough)

yesterday was an eventful one

• took the bus to the back bay
• almost got hit by a car because a light was out at an intersection
• spent 4 beautiful hours in the pottery studio
• brought home some awesome bowls I made with some bad-ass beige-with-magnesium-black-specks clay (see photo)
  
• found out that there is a studio at MIT that, as an alum, I can take classes with after my BCAE studio closes in February (umm, that is big news. Not only is that super close to me, but their studio is accessable 24 hours a day.... DANGEROUS!)
• called the police to let them know about the broken light at mass & comm
  
• bought my sister's car from her. Yay for no more annoying bus to work! boo for hurting the environment. See right, picture of Rose's Funkmobile
  
• ran 10 miles. 10 MILES!!! my half marathon is in 3 weeks so I need to keep getting up there
• went to a dinner party at Lindsay's in celebration of her sister being in town. Gorged myself on delicious spanish food and AMAZING cuban flan.

yay for non-lazy saturdays!!

Komen 5K last weekend

i was pretty amazing, as you can see in below pictorial
and I just realized... my nose looks freakishly odd. 'just sayin.

MY ROOMATE BROKE A CUP

The thing about pottery is... you have to embrace the chaos.






















I am just posting this because I like this picture... it looks like Juliet's glass eyes are about to pop out of her pretty little face