Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Airplanes
In scanning in all these photos and slides, I am seeing a lot of themes. People. Gatherings. Activities. Holidays. Pets. Places.
Here are six random photos of or taken from airplanes in the 40’s/50’s…
1. Whoopsy!, 2. Consolidated, 3. View from above, 4. Sunset, 5. Gassing up, 6. Small whaling village (?)
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Another linkdump
This? Leaves me speechless.
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Help, I have a headache! Help, I’ve cut myself!
This? Gives me the giggles.
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Choosing the right houseplants to fight toxins
This? Encourages me to pay more attention to my withering houseplants.
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Zombie Harmony - because the apocalypse doesn’t have to be lonely
This? Made me snort coffee out my nose.
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Uncle Bobby’s Wedding: a librarian answers a patron challenging a children’s book
This? Fabulous! I hope my mom and Tim’s mom (both librarians, though mine is retired now) read this.
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Thus spoke Lorena on 08/17/08 at 09:52 AM in Links, Random linkdump
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Happy birthday, Jacquie!
Today is the birthday of ... the Jacquinatrix! Everyone go wish her a happy birthday and a welcome back to San Francisco! I bet this winter will be muuuuuch different than Toronto....!
And for any of my California readers… watch out for this woman! Hide your wine and knitting!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Denvention 3: a recap (finally)
Hey, didn’t I go to a science fiction convention last week?
Anyone still interested in hearing about it?
The panels
The good: Denvention had an amazing number of panels. Every day there were more than two panels in each time slot that I wanted to get to—that is a sign of a well-thought-out program! Panels ran steadily from 10 AM to 7 PM, with some days/tracks going on until close to midnight. Sadly there were many I missed just so that I could do things like break for lunch, and eat dinner.
Panels I got to included Aunt Gay and Uncle Joe’s Rising Stars 101 panel (fantastic advice for new writers promoting themselves at a con); Traveling for the Long Term: Generation Ships (whether they’re feasible scientifically and socially); SF in CSI (how actual real science works in forensic science as opposed to in television shows); a reading by Uncle Joe; A World Without Children (a slightly argumentative panel on population growth/stagnation and the effects therof); Denvention 1941: A retrospective by three attendees (I wish this had been a 3-hour panel, not 90 minutes! I could have listened to these stories for *hours*!); and The Best Convention Panel Ever (four screamingly funny people with no topic other than starting out with what are the best and worst panels you have ever been on, and travelling on from there).
Linkdump
What are the coolest of the coolest families doing? Going on zombie walks, of course! Those kids are going to grow up right, I tell ya.
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Free Family Tree looks like an interesting place to store genealogy information. Anyone used it (or anything similar)? The only reason I’m hesitating is that it says your tree is only viewable by people already in it. What if I want it to be viewable? I mean, the point of me putting genealogy info up is so that other people searching for their history can find it, and we can help each other fill in the blanks.
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Squee! Mad Glibs!
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I think I lost days at PUNDO3000. It compares, side by side, the food that you think you’re getting with the food that you actually get. Is it just me that is fascinated by this? I could look at these pictures for hours.
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The ORIGINAL Illustrated Catalog Of ACME Products. Need I say more?
Thus spoke Lorena on 08/16/08 at 07:45 AM in Links, Random linkdump
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Friday, August 15, 2008
At last, the last of the vacation photos
1. Go the distance, 2. Antony and Denver, 3. Amusing amusement park, 4. The beauty of trees, 5. You start in your kayak here..., 6. … and then the kayak goes that way, 7. Black-eyed Susans, 8. Vines and steel, 9. A pretty sight, if you’re not walking that far, 10. Colorado Saddlery Co., 11. Stone and sky, 12. Best bookstore ever, 13. Walking down the mall, 14. Goodbye drinks , 15. Final Denver sunrise, 16. Flat land and far away mountains, 17. Beware the mountain of clouds, 18. Depth of vision, 19. Hello, Orlando!20. This space intentionally left blank.
As much as I like being home, I also kind of wish I was still on vacation.
Thus spoke Lorena on 08/15/08 at 09:44 PM in Personal, Road Trippin'
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Slip Stitch Cable socks #2
Yarn: Mind’s Eye Yarns, from the sock club
Needles: Size 1 circs
Pattern: Slip-Stitch Cable Socks from The Little Box of Socks by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott
Notes: To quote my notes on the Ravelry page for these socks—In spite of having to rip out four inches of one sock… in spite of being caught in a 14-hour horrible airport experience while knitting them… in spite of the fact that they turned out too tight for me around the ankles and I’ll have to give them away… I love these socks! I’m torn between giving them a “smiley” because I love the yarn/pattern combo, or a “meh” because I’ve had such horrible luck while knitting them…
Mmm, tastes like fiber
We had a fiber tasting at the shop a few weeks ago, and rather than spin 15 different tiny skeins, I spun them all together into three large skeins. Here’s the end result…
It’s about eight ounces total, and probably close to 500 yards or so all together. Believe it or not, I took pretty meticulous notes on which fiber was spun in which order, what I thought of each individual fiber, and how it felt to spin it. Then I promptly lost all of the notes BECAUSE I SUCK. Sigh.
Flowering Weeds
Fiber: ONCE AGAIN ... I have lost the tag. Can’t remember what type of fiber this is, even though I just spun it three weeks ago.
Colorway: Flowering Weeds
Yardage/Weight: 139 y/100 g (both skeins together)
Roving From: Spunky Eclectic Fiber of the Month (June 2008)
The Denver Aquarium
On Sunday we played hooky from the convention, and went to the zoo, the natural history museum, and the aquarium. Here are the photos from the aquarium…
We were worried at first as the aquarium seemed pretty hokey for the first five or ten minutes. Turns out that’s just a ruse to make kids think that marine science is fun-- because after that we settled in for some pretty cool stuff! Word of warning about the restaurant-- not vegan friendly. Or seafood allergy friendly. Which I know surprises you all to *no* end-- har!
Thus spoke Lorena on 08/14/08 at 09:57 AM in Personal, Road Trippin'
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science
On Sunday we played hooky from the convention, and went to the zoo, the natural history museum, and the aquarium. Here are the photos from the museum…
Thus spoke Lorena on 08/13/08 at 09:38 AM in Personal, Road Trippin'
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Feather, Fan, Fire(bird)
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in “Firebird”
Needles: Size 1 DPNs
Pattern: Modified beyond belief
Notes: Started making these for a friend with larger feet than mine; realized the leg was going to be too tight *after* I turned the heel; kept knitting thinking I would keep them; may possibly give them as a Christmas gift to someone with feet slightly longer than 9.25 inches, but that person would have to also have very skinny ankles.
Xmas 2008 Holiday Socks for Her
Yarn: Interlacements Toasty Toes
Needles: Size 3 circulars
Pattern: Toe up, short row heel, knit leg until you’re worried that you’ll run out of yarn, picot bind-off
Notes: Another Christmas gift off the list!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The Denver Zoo
On Sunday we played hooky from the convention, and went to the zoo, the natural history museum, and the aquarium. Here are the photos from the zoo…
I have mixed feelings about zoos. I love animals. I love to see animals that I might otherwise never get a chance to see (they’re endangered, they live in other countries, they live in places which are hard to travel to, etc.). I worry that animals in zoos are bored, unhealthy, stressed by heat and environment and people. I am heartened that many zoos are changing and adapting, expanding spaces, making spaces more natural, giving the animals interesting things and also places for privacy. I worry that this isn’t happening fast enough. I worry that zoos may falter and go under. I am afraid that zoos may become the last refuge for many endangered species. I am heartened that some species may be able to survive, albeit not in their natural habitat. I have mixed feelings about zoos.
The Denver Zoo is not the best zoo I’ve ever been to (many of the larger animals were stressed and bored; the bathrooms were flat out disgusting) but it’s also not the most depressing (they had many good exhibits, a wide variety of animals, and most of the habitats were very well done). I’m glad we went and if we were in Denver again, I would definitely go to the zoo again, as there were even a few things we didn’t see.
Thus spoke Lorena on 08/12/08 at 09:50 AM in Personal, Road Trippin'
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Whoa, what happened to Saturday?
I tried to post this in the morning, but my website host was having a problem and I couldn’t access my site (they have a problem about once every six years, and I’m very happy with them, so please don’t leave me lists of who I can switch to-- I have no plans to switch, thanks!). And now today has been so full that I’ve forgotten most of what happened yesterday. D’oh!
Maybe this will jog my memory…
OH! Right! It was our fifth anniversary. Har! How could I forget?!
So. A panel or two at the con… lunch… another panel or two… a fantastic dinner… topped off with champagne in the hotel room. Yep. A good day!
Thus spoke Lorena on 08/10/08 at 10:02 PM in Personal, Road Trippin'
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Happy birthday, Finn!
Happy birthday! I hope you enjoy that book I accidentally sent you in… May. ;p Tee!
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Day 1825 in the torture of That Poor Man
Happy 5th Anniversary, my love.
Thus spoke Lorena on 08/09/08 at 11:44 AM in Personal, My random life
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Friday, August 08, 2008
Let’s get this party started
Yesterday was .... better, as the day went on. By 9 AM I’d explained my case and the manager was going to do the right thing (including moving my bags and having a new key ready for me at the desk). So I found the convention center, with the help of a lovely couple I’d met in the elevator - who had almost the same check-in surprise that I had, the poor folks. I got checked in, found Antony right away, and we went to a panel where Aunt Gay and Uncle Joe were talking to new and upcoming writers about the social do’s-and-don’ts at cons. Then it was back to the hotel lobby to wait for Tim. And wait. And wait. I ordered a drink. I ordered another drink. I ordered lunch to offset the two drinks. Finally Tim showed. We got our new room, chilled for a while (he takes Bonine to fly, and it makes him loopy and sleepy). Then we went to get him registered, saw the dealers room and most of the art show, met up with Antony, found a sushi place for dinner… and came back and crashed. Too tired even to find any parties. This morning we are both well-rested and ready to go. Today shall bring the fun!
Thus spoke Lorena on 08/08/08 at 09:51 AM in Conventions, Personal, Road Trippin'
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