Project 365: Sept 14 – Sept 20

Aarrgh! I’m falling behind again!

September 14, 2009

This sign belongs to the old DeKalb Theater on Third Street downtown, which has housed a dance club, a Mexican restaurant, another dance club, and now a cosmetology school — all since I’ve lived here. Which has been about, what, nine years?

September 15, 2009

My blue Koigu Monkey socks are coming along. I’m knitting them two at a time now so I don’t get the dreaded Second Sock syndrome. Part of the reason my last pair took me 18 months was because I lost interest after I had completed the first sock and before I cast on for the second. Of course, part of the reason was also because I am extremely lazy.

September 16, 2009

Our kitchen curtains. We looked for several weeks together, trying to find curtains that looked good in the kitchen that we both liked. One set was too green, one was too dark, one had a sheen to it that NinjaHusband disdained… and on and on and on and on. Finally we found these (at Lowe’s of all places) and we both stopped in front of the display. We both thought we didn’t want any sort of pattern, but we really liked this one (it’s not really a plaid). So we took them home. NinjaHusband removed the old blinds, painted around where the old hardware used to sit, put up the new curtain rod, and IRONED the hell out of these curtains before putting them up. He did an awesome job.

September 17, 2009

The library after dark. I stayed late on Thursday night to help set up for the book sale (which was wildly successful), and snapped this on my way out the door.

September 18, 2009

On Friday we watched the Wolverine movie. We actually purchased it. The movie was disappointing on almost every level, including the underuse of Ryan Reynolds, although Jackman’s muscles provided decent eye candy. Schreiber did a good job, but he wasn’t given much. BooHiss.

September 19, 2009

Saturday we played rummy, and took turns insulting the other when we lost hands. We wrote these charming insults upside down on the scoresheet. Clearly I have not yet mastered writing an ‘S’ upside down, which is very stupid of me.

September 20, 2009

On Sunday Mary came back to town, and we went out for lunch and a little pre-knit night knitting. I had an awesome time but got a headache that put me down for Actual Knit Night(tm). It was really good to see her again.

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Project 365: September 7 – September 13

I love being caught up on pictures.

September 7, 2009

On Monday, Labor Day for Americans, I enjoyed my morning with a little classical music and some t-shirt cutting. I’m cutting up t-shirts to make more rag rugs, this time for the kitchen. I have a ton of 3X navy blue t-shirts and a bunch of white Medium t-shirts; I think they should make some very pretty and very big kitchen rugs. I cut them up by first cutting right at the armpits, then making a spiral cut around the torso from the bottom to the top, resulting in one long string of t-shirt material just waiting to be knit up on size 17 needles.

September 8, 2009

More knitting! The yarn is Koigu KPPPPPPPPPM in some unknown colorway purchased for me by NinjaHusband back when we celebrated our 10-year dating anniversary (we don’t do that anymore, because we’re beyond that ::flips hair::). I’m making my first pair of top-down socks (my first four pairs have been toe-up), and they’re Monkeys by Cookie A. I love this pattern.

September 9, 2009

Stunningly, I have taken a picture of my cat at a point in the day when I realized I had taken zero pictures. I am Kathy’s total lack of surprise.

September 10, 2009

On Thursday I was in the library’s courtyard on the phone when I noticed this cicada shell on a tree. I tried to get a good picture of it with my phone, but I got a crappy picture of the shell and a decent picture of the flowers in the background. The cicada shell was pretty neat, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.

September 11, 2009

Yet more knitting content. My brighty-bright-bright Noro two-row scarf. That is all I have to say about that, really. I’m knitting a scarf, among other things. Full stop.

September 12, 2009

This is my sister Laura, who portrays Mary Todd Lincoln really well. She was in a play last year called “Mrs. Lincoln” and rocked it, and has written her own one-woman show about Mary Todd Lincoln’s early life (maybe all of it?). She did a crapton of research and has made a lot of her own costumes. On Saturday she gave a presentation to the Sycamore Historical Society or something, then stayed overnight at my place. She arrived still in her costume and I snapped this before she changed. Lovely! (The hose in the background? That’s our association’s way of diverting the sump pump discharge away from our foundation. Not so lovely)

September 13, 2009

On Sunday Laura left early and NinjaHusband and I made a Sunday Breakfast, one of my favorite meals to prepare because we never feel rushed. After he left for his card game I planned on an afternoon of boring-but-necessary domesticity, but abandoned that plan when Heather called from Kite Fest in DeKalb and insisted that I join her and her boys for some sunny fun. This festival has been going on for a few years, but this is the first time I’ve gone. It was pretty cool even despite the less-than-windy conditions, and I got some sun which always makes me happy. There were a lot of kites, some that were crazy big and looked more like hot air balloons. This piratey kite wasn’t the prettiest, but it is a decent shot.

And now I’m all caught up!

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Project 365: August 17 – September 6

Here’s the final catch-up post! I’m so excited! This one should bring me up to date, with this week’s pictures being posted next Monday, the 14th.

August 17, 2009

My cat is ridiculous. When she cleans herself she sits in this absurd position that makes her look like a doofy old man. I tried to capture it without the flash but she was too quick for me.

August 18, 2009

(I didn’t include this picture at first, but now I have the family’s permission!) This beautiful family asked me to be with them during the birth of their second child, a son named Clive. Samantha was in labor for a while, faced her fears, and came through like a champion. I was so proud of her (which may sound kind of weird and patronizing, but I don’t mean it that way), and so thankful to be there — I learned a lot from being with her during her labor. In exchange, her husband William created my wonderful new website which I love and think is the best website in all the land.

August 19, 2009
No photo available! Shame!

August 20, 2009

This is moss growing on the landscaping of the Lutheran church near my work. It was kind of a damp morning, and I thought the green was particularly glowy on my walk to work.

August 21, 2009

The sky, on a particularly grey and, apparently, gloomy evening as I got out of work. Not one of my best snaps.

August 22, 2009

On Saturday a whole group of friends went up to my family’s farm to shoot some guns and enjoy the day. We had a great time (I’ll post some pictures of that later, if I haven’t already). I miss being there so much sometimes. This is the view looking southwest from the barn, and I love it. It’s so hilly where I grew up, compared to most of the rest of Illinois, and being there makes me so relaxed and at ease. I need to take a weekend to go up there sometime soon.

August 23, 2009

Sunday was knit night, and Heather gave me a ride. On the way home, in the car, I realized I hadn’t taken a picture for the day and the moon looked really pretty. Not that you could tell from this picture, of course. I took this while we were moving and without the flash, so everything got kind of blurry. I kind of like it.

August 24, 2009

Remember my orchid? All the blooms fell off. I’ve been doing pretty well with all the other houseplants, but this one baffled me a bit. It’s not a great picture, but there you go. Sad plants.

August 25, 2009

On Tuesday I went to pay a ticket (gasp!) at the courthouse in Sycamore and after I was done (and I was feeling very relieved at having to pay only a reduced fee because I took care of the problem quickly) I was all sparklyhappy at the world. The sunshine helped a lot, I’m sure. The red brick + green tree + blue sky really snagged my attention. I suppose if I compsed this better I would have included the whole building or the whole tree (or both), but I like how it seems the building is peeking out at you over the bottom of the picture.

August 26, 2009

Miyagi doesn’t get into my yarn at all, which is so very awesome of her. However, when I cleaned out my knitting bag and found scraps of Grace Silk & Wool from my Clapotis, I knotted them together and tossed them on the floor to see what she’d do with them. Guys, my cat loves the crap out of this thing. She bats it around, tosses it to herself, carries it in her mouth, rolls on it… you name it. This was her playing with it in the living room.

August 27, 2009

I can’t remember what we were doing before we stopped at the liquor store, but while I waited in the car I saw the neon beer sign reflected in a puddle of something and the whole look kind of grabbed me. I took a bunch of shots and this was the clearest.

August 28, 2009

On Friday I got my hair cut, we went out to dinner with friends, and I decided to take some pictures. I really dig this new cut.

August 29, 2009
No photo available! Double shame!

August 30, 2009

On Sunday we went to the Cubs/Mets game at Wrigley, celebrating a friend’s 30th birthday and arranged by his awesome wife. We were on the rooftops across the street from Wrigley Field, and everything was perfect. It was a beautiful day, lots of friends were there, and we had an amazing time. Too bad the Cubs lost.

August 31, 2009

On Monday I spoke at a local Rotary meeting about a project the library is putting on. The group meets at the visitor’s center of the Ellwood House, a mansion from the early part of the 1900s that is now a museum. I’ve been through it on a tour and think it’s a beautiful place. I meant to get a better picture of parts of the house before the meeting started, but ran out of time. This is the picture I took through my car’s back window as I was leaving.

September 1, 2009

Another piece of my town. The plaza/parking lot on 2nd and Locust in DeKalb. It’s now named after our last mayor and has been updated with pretty cobblestones and benches. This is where the Farmer’s Market happens every Thursday afternoon in the summer. Which reminds me, I haven’t been there at all this year.

September 2, 2009
No photo available! Triple shame!

September 3, 2009

This is my Aunt Pat, my Dad’s sister. She got remarried this past weekend and this was at her bachelorette party/dinner. I love my Aunt Pat so much, and it’s amazing to see her so happy about her new husband.

September 4, 2009

Approaching the intersection of Coltonville Road and North First Street. I’m really surprised this came out as well as it did, as we were driving at the time.

September 5, 2009

Aunt Pat, getting ready on her wedding day. There are other great shots from this day (and the party that night), but this one tops the list. It’s almost the same view I had of her when I walked into the room she was in, and I just instantly started crying happy tears, she looked so beautiful and happy. My family just freaking rocks.

September 6, 2009

And on Sunday, I went with my friend Jill to welcome her second son into the world. It was a very good day.

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Project 365: July 19 – August 16

Here they are, TWENTY-NINE photographs, all uploaded within a minute because of technology.

I feel like the Red Queen, running like mad just to stay in one place, but I will catch up soon. Possibly.

July 19, 2009

I know I’ve already posted this knitting project, but what can I say? This was one of the few pictures I took that day, and they were all of this hat. I like this pattern (Ravelry link) a ton. Very easy to convert to baby-size.

July 20, 2009

This is what I do when confronted with something new or problematic: I go to the library and get some books on the subject. I had so many ideas about paint effects for the kitchen walls. But we painted them straight-up blue.

July 21, 2009

Again, the baby hat in an already-been-posted picture. Our aloe plant Chuck Norris is modeling this lovely piece.

July 22, 2009

This was our three-year anniversary, and I took this picture while eating lunch at the best local restaurant, The Thai Pavilion. When I’m there on my lunch hour I like to sit in the window and look out onto Lincoln Highway. It’s not a bad view. No more pictures from that day. None that I can show you, anyway.

July 23, 2009

More knitting content! These are some of the washcloths for Baby Henry, standard ball-band dishcloth pattern. It’s amazing how much knitting I can get done if I actually sit down and knit.

July 24, 2009

Black and white shot of one of the washcloths. There’s not much more to say about that, really. Except that I really like black-and-white pictures.

July 25, 2009

On this Saturday our friend Lindsay (mom-to-be of Henry) had a baby shower at Anderson Gardens (sound on that website) in Rockford, which was totally awesome. After the party we got to walk around the grounds and I took about a hundred nice shots, but this one kind of stood out. I like the contrast.

July 26, 2009

On Sunday we went up to my parents’ house to celebrate July birthdays (three of them) and our anniversary. While we were there Mom & Dad asked NinjaHusband to extricate a wee bat from their patio umbrella. The bat had apparently been under there for a while (a day or so?) and everyone else was too freaked out by it to try moving it. N got a yardstick to ooch it along, but the damn thing wouldn’t budge for a long time, then it crawled on the stick, then it flew out, flew around the deck, and flew back into the umbrella. This happened three or four times. It was both awesome and kind of annoying before the bat finally flew off into the birch tree.

July 27, 2009

Monday’s dinner was curry, and the spices made kind of a pretty picture.

July 28, 2009

I won this orchid at the baby shower on the 25th, and I wish I had placed it against a better background. I’m a fan of the way the orchid turned out, but the background could stand to be improved.

July 29, 2009

The tender side of Chuck Norris the aloe plant.

July 30, 2009

This Thursday found us at our friends’ home for dinner. They have a beautiful garden and I got a ton of really pretty shots, but this one stood out for me. A bit further down you’ll see these lights lit up over the ivy arch.

July 31, 2009

On Friday I drove to Waterman for a childbirth class (as a speaker, not as a student) and felt kind of entunnellated. That’s right, I made up a word to describe the feeling of driving on a road surrounded by tall fields of corn.

August 1, 2009

Another while-driving shot, coming home from my cousin’s wedding, driving west on 64. Those clouds are kind of awesome.

August 2, 2009

Our friend Matt’s painting, kind of washed out because it was one of those last-minute end of the day shots. The kitchen light is crap and I don’t like to use the flash if I can help it.

August 3, 2009

This picture kind of rocks my world. The orchid is backlit, so the veins in the petals leap out more, plus the blur adds some motion. It doesn’t look like a good picture at first but it really makes me happy.

August 4, 2009

See, I love my kitchen. Do you see how much? Do you?

August 5, 2009

This is a wee bit of a giant jade plant at The House Cafe in DeKalb on Lincoln Highway. I go there for lunch some days and it’s always good. Like the Thai Pavilion, I like to sit where I can look outside and get some sun.

August 6, 2009

Radishes from my co-garden, all googly and not pretty. I love them.

August 7, 2009

Here’s the ivy arch at our friends’ house all lit up.

August 8, 2009

Ah, the old workplace. In the morning. Strong lines, nice contrast. Good times.

August 9, 2009

This is an example of how bad my pictures get sometimes.

August 10, 2009

Femiknitter, cat, blanket, knitting. It was an awesome visit, I’m so glad we got to hang out — and at my house too! It was nice to reciprocate the hosting.

August 11, 2009

Peach slices, with horrible flash. My captions are getting less awesome, aren’t they? It’s getting late.

August 12, 2009

The Star Doily Blanket, for Baby Waggie. After I blocked this out I realized how many mistakes there are in it and now I’m kind of ashamed to have given them something so flawed.

August 13, 2009

Meegs all blurry, after jumping up at me and demanding attention.

August 14, 2009

Baby blanket on the birth ball. Alliteration FTW.

August 15, 2009

On the 15th we went to Madison and Spring Green for Margaret’s baby shower. The ladies went to the shower at Marg’s parents’ house, and the dudes stayed home and made this video. Seriously, it was awesome. Ninjahusband and Mark, lounging.

August 16, 2009

And on Sunday I gave Margaret my Tuscany shawl, which she had admired. I originally planned to knit her one of her own, exactly the same as mine, but felt like the pregnant lady should have it. Plus it is full of leaves, which is kickass.

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I heart fiberoptics

This is just to tell you that as I type, 29 days worth of Project 365 pictures are uploading to my Flickr account via the magic of fiberoptic internet, paid for by the taxpayers of DeKalb.

(And. And while I was typing that sentence, all the pictures finished uploading. Done.)

I’m not sure if you understand that. 29 pictures. TWENTY-NINE, people. Do you know how long this would take me if I were to attempt it at home? On my anemic (though delightfully cheap and sufficient if-you’re-not-uploading-pictures) internet connection? It would take me approximately ALL THE YEARS THAT HAVE EVER BEEN to upload twenty-nine pictures.

This is why it’s taking me an age to get caught up with all my daily pictures, because I would die in the attempt if I tried to do it at home. Where I spend most of my time off work.

However. I have devised a clever scheme wherein I transfer the pictures from my camera to my work computer (while off work! o ye who would screech at me and belittle my ethics) and then from my work computer to the Flickr account. This clever scheme has saved me much pain and agony and has allowed me to upload TWENTY-NINE pictures to the internet, all at once. In less than a minute. CAN YOU EVEN COMPREHEND HOW GIDDY THIS MAKES ME?

So. Thank you to TBCNet of Sycamore, who got the library a great deal on the hookups to an existing fiberoptic network (amazingly enough, it stopped just 5 feet from the library’s property line and TBC got the library connected easystyle), thank you to the taxpayers of DeKalb, who both pay my salary and make it possible for me to use the library’s services, and thank you to the pioneers of fiberoptics. Well done all.

(Pictures are coming soon. Soon-ish.)

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