Wednesday, April 16, 2008
It’s a myth! A MYTH! … Yeth?
Monday night Ginger took over the shop (thank you Ginger! Love you!) so that Sharon and I could meet with our other knitting-and-science-loving friends (who also like watching shit get blown up) and we went to go see the Mythbusters speak.
If you suffered through my twitters that night, you already know I was as happy as a little girl. It was great! GRRRRREAT!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Our favorite dinner spot
Chopstix. We must go there once a week; otherwise the universe becomes off-kilter.
1. Across the pond, 2. scallops, 3. Sunlight on posts, 4. sushi, 5. The dock, 6. do you like Pina Coladas? And beer?
Monday, February 04, 2008
Foggy Gainesville morning snapshots
Thus spoke Lorena on 02/04/08 at 10:00 AM in Gainesville, Personal, Adventures in dog walking
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Friday, July 27, 2007
Springs
Here are some photos taken last month when Tim’s parents were down, that I kept forgetting to post. Amy took us to see some of the smaller cave-diving springs.
(click to view Flickr set)
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Keeping it local
Recently I was chatting with a friend about something I’d been hearing a lot about lately: CSAs. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and if you don’t know what it is, the Readers Digest Condensed Version is that it is a very easy way to both support local farms and get fresh locally-grown (and in most cases, organic) food on your table. There are so many reasons why these are win-win situations, for reasons that range from economic to dietary. To drift into LOLcat speak for a moment, CSAs are full of win! If you’re interested in reading about this, she recommended the following links to me:
Local Harvest
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association CSA listings
NewFarm Farm Locator
Wilson College, Robyn Van En Center CSA Farm Database
The Eat Well Guide
Local Food Directories. (2006). ATTRA - The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Orange Grove Spring
Orange Grove Spring is part of Peacock Springs State Park, and although I’m not a diver, I hear that it’s an excellent place to go caving. We stuck our heads in there Saturday…
1. Green with envy, 2. Another shot of the rock, 3. Hello, little turtle!, 4. Orange_Grove_spring, 5. Tiny bubbles in the..., 6. Usually not this green
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Paynes Prairie
After visiting the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House on Thursday, we went to Paynes Prairie, where (surprise) I took a few photos.
(click to go to Flickr set)
We must be the first people to ever go there and not see an alligator. We did, however, see the bison/buffalo/beefalo beasties that I’d always thought were a myth.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House and Farm Yard
Yesterday I got to tag along with Amy and Bill and Linda; the first place we went was the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House and Farm Yard (link to Florida State Parks page; link to brief historical article). I haven’t been there in years and years, and either they didn’t have the tour on the day I went, or we didn’t take the tour, because I don’t remember anything from inside the house other than the long breezeway off the kitchen. We walked around on one of the nature trails beyond the tenant’s house and then came back and took the guided tour of the house. I wish I could remember the interpreter’s name because she was entertaining, brilliant, and personable. You could tell that she had a real love for what she was doing, and I hope that if you ever go, she’s working that day.
(click to view Flickr set, where once again I go a little crazy with the sepia)
Dinner at Satchel’s
Wednesday night we went with Amy and Tim’s parents to Satchel’s (Bill and Linda have never been there, and Amy hardly ever gets to go since moving an hour away). I had gotten an email that John Stephens, the man who played at our wedding, was playing at Lightnin’ Salvage and between his wonderful music and the fantastic food and crunchy atmosphere… well, it didn’t take much convincing to get them to go.
(click to view Flickr set)
Thus spoke Lorena on 06/29/07 at 06:45 AM in Gainesville, Personal, My random life
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Friday, June 08, 2007
Girls need beer, too
After the Flickr meetup, some of The Usual Suspects and I met up at Market Street Pub. Since I was still in artsy photo mode (I know, I know; when am I not?!)…
1. My gals, 2. Jenn and Sharon, 3. What’s on tap?, 4. Ness, 5. Get your smile on, 6. Waiting, 7. Neon, 8. This one’s for Bill
Thus spoke Lorena on 06/08/07 at 07:09 AM in Gainesville, Personal, My random life
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Gainesville flickr meetup
Our Gainesville Flickr group had a great meetup yesterday at Maude’s; following, some of us walked around downtown and took photos. It was really great to put some faces to names, and hopefully this may be something that we do more of from now on.
Monday, June 04, 2007
World Wide Knit In Public Day 2007
What: World-Wide Knit In Public Day
When: Saturday June 9, 2007; 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Where: At the Oaks Mall (or as we like to say, “The Maul") in the seating area in front of Macy’s (same as last year).
Who: All Gainesville Knitters!
Thus spoke Lorena on 06/04/07 at 06:27 AM in Crafts, Yarn, Events, Gainesville
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Tuesday, May 08, 2007
In which I screw with my dog’s head
Dear Bridgett;
I’m sorry. I know I just put on my walking jeans. I know that it’s almost 7 AM, the time when we usually start walking. I know I opened the curtains in my office to check the weather outside. I know that you are very very anxious to go outside and sniff things, pee on things, and say good morning to the other dogs.
But ... you know there had to be a “but,” right? I can smell smoke. I can smell so much smoke, in the house, that it woke me up. Logically I know that it is not our house that is on fire. Or even our neighbors house. It’s another fire; two, actually, out near the Melrose area. It’s so close that ash was falling as Tim and I were driving to a friend’s house for dinner last night. It looked like a very light dusting of snow, the kind that melts as soon as it lands. Except it was blowing around lightly in the air before settling.
So yes, I’m sleepy. I’m grumpy. I’m lazy. But the real reason I’m not going to walk you today is that I just really don’t think I can be out in that for an hour. I’m sorry that you’re so excited about going on our morning romp.
Signed,
Your mommy, who can’t breathe very well when she goes outside, and also can’t see to the end of the block because the smoke looks like fog.
Edited to add this link: SSD Fire Detection Program. It takes a lot of click-to-zoom, but you can see how we’re covered in smoke here in North Central Florida.
Thus spoke Lorena on 05/08/07 at 06:44 AM in Gainesville, Pets, Randomosity, Weather
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007
A question for my local four-eyed brothers and sisters
I need a new pair of glasses; I already have the prescription. Any recomendations on where to shell out my hard-earned cash? I went to a place yesterday that I shall not name in case this was a fluke; but I was completely ignored except for the initial hello and up-and-down glance that made me feel as if I was being ignored by a frat boy in a bar.
Here’s what’s important to me:
I want a frame that has a good hard curve to the ear-piece parts (what the hell are those things called?). I spend a lot of time looking down, crafting, and I’m tired of my glasses falling off my face. I had an architect friend who had a pair that curved in a gen-u-wine “C” shape, and I’d love to get some of those.
I’d also like to be spending my money in a locally owned-and-operated business. Between Old Navy and Publix, big stores get enough of my money. I want to spend locally when I can.
Here’s what’s not so important:
Location of business.
Price of glasses.
Bonus:
If they carry contacts, too, that’d be great. I have a prescription for them also, and if I could get them all in the same place that’d be lovely.
So. Any advice...?
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Because we are geeks…
Kelly and Tim and I went to the faire today. See the photos!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Joe Haldeman book signing
From 2 to 3:30 PM on Saturday, December 23, Joe Haldeman will be signing his latest books at Goerings Book Store, 3433 West University Avenue Gainesville , FL 32607 Tel. 352-378-0363.
Hope to see some of you there!
Thus spoke Lorena on 12/20/06 at 09:48 PM in Books, Gainesville
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Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Mockingbird Grill
Psst-- get ready to have some great food! Mockingbird Grill can’t open fast enough for me!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
A hot time in the old town tonight-- fire! fire! fire!
I should preface this with (1) it wasn’t our house and (2) nobody was hurt.
Last night while watching TV (and see Kelly? I would have missed all this if we’d gotten together!) I saw flashing lights outside our living room window. This is not really surprising, since the people across the street have health problems and I can’t tell you how many times an ambo has pulled up to their house. But this was a police car. Tim’s initial thought was that the people who live next door to us who have completely insane dogs, have had their dogs get out yet again and someone has yet again called the police. We look out the window and there’s also a fire truck, and this is all in front of the house on the other side of us. When you call 911 in this town, you get everybody. So we didn’t really thing anything of it.
I came into my office to look someone up on IMBD quickly, and heard lots of shouting back and forth, and heavy engines. I looked out my window, which was closer to the commotion than the living room, and see not one but two fire trucks. Okay, for this? I’ll go outside and be the nosy neighbor.
There are three fire trucks, including a ladder truck (which is just silly, since all the houses on our block are single story, but whatever) and the fire chief’s truck. Two police cars at each end of the line of trucks, blocking the street. As I’m standing, watching smoke billow out of the house diagonally across from us, a fourth truck pulls up. They hook up a hose to the hydrant two houses down, and get to work.
Of course, my first thought is that those people have a dog, and is the dog okay?
Today I found out what the story was. Allegedly there’s a writeup in the G’ville Sun about it, but it must be just in the paper because I can’t find it on their website. Which is okay, because from what I hear the story is filled with incorrect facts anyway. Surprising, that the G’ville Sun would get something wrong! HAH!
So what happened was that the girl half of the couple who lives there was home alone. She went to take a shower, and when she came out and looked down the hallway, smoke was billowing toward her. The gas water heater down the hall had caught on fire. I don’t know them well enough to poke my head in their house and see for myself, but my neighbor told me that there’s just frightening damage from the fire and the water. One of their cats and their dog are fine, and the girl is fine although understandably shaken up. One cat has run off-- but I’m pretty sure it’s an indoor/outdoor cat who we’ve seen a lot, so I’m sure it’ll just be a matter of time before he comes home.
My neighbor and I were talking this morning, and we share the same fear. That we won’t be home, and our house will burn down, and our pets will be killed. He said he freaked out when he came home last night and pulled onto our street only to see his house completely blocked off by fire trucks. He was glad it wasn’t his house, of course, but was worried about the people across the street.
When I got back from walking my dog just a little while ago, they were working on cleaning up. There’s a pile of burnt and wet things in their front yard. That’s always a sad sight to see, even if you don’t know the people involved. And I don’t know them very well at all, but… I can’t help but feel for them.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Attention: Gainesville knitters
June 10th is World Wide KIP Day. Wouldn’t you - or anyone wanting to learn to knit in front of onlookers, and doesn’t that just sound delightful - like to meet us at The Oaks Mall at 1:00 PM on Saturday, June 10th, at the couches in front of Macys (formerly Burdines)?
Thus spoke Lorena on 05/23/06 at 08:51 PM in Crafts, Yarn, Events, Gainesville
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Gainesville gets a mention on Boing Boing
But I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing.
UF cops ask fiction writer for fingerprints and DNA
The university police at Gainesville’s University of Florida have targeted a graduate student in the English program over his publication of a piece of horror fiction on his LiveJournal. The police have repeatedly visited the student and demanded that he submit his fingerprints and DNA to them so that they can compare the fictional murder he described in his story to evidence from any similar unsolved murders.
It’s an interesting read; and hey, Unca Joe even gets a brief mention at the end!
Thus spoke Lorena on 05/23/06 at 06:22 AM in Gainesville, Links, Things that scare me
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