Month: August 2003

– cows
– donkeys
– llamas
– deer
– fox (?)
– porcupine
– bison
– prairie dogs

oh, and today I discovered that I’m in the top 10 for “summer vacation 2003” on Google Japan. and I’m not even done with my album yet!

my sister (middle, not youngest) emailed me today asking if I could teach her the rudiments of web page creation, and what would be a good trade? now, I know that she’s not exactly well-off, and also that she has lots of sewing experience…but rather than have her make me something, I thought it was about time I learned how to sew.

mom tried to teach me to sew once in high school. it was something of a disaster. yes, I ended up with a skirt, one that I liked, even. but I just remember feeling like it was a deathmarch trying to get the damn thing finished. and nothing that I learned stuck in my head, especially since very shortly I had packed up and moved out of state, sans sewing machine.

12 or so years later, I’m not even sure I remember how a sewing machine works. hopefully that will change soon. my big goal is some curtains…nothing fancy, just prettier than the blinds that this house came with. and who knows…maybe I’ll end up making a good portion of my clothing.

it’s a good thing I don’t write/vent about work. (long meeting is all I’m gonna say.)

but I came home and have had the house to myself this evening, so tried out the Pilates tape I borrowed from Jen. ow. but in a good way. doing some laundry, some surfing, puttering around rearranging my “office” — we moved stuff around over the weekend, and now my desk & computer are back here again, as they were when we first moved in.

but with a nicer desk. 😉 (yay ikea!)

I even did a little jewelry work, starting on a project from some of the beads I bought last month.

and now I’m all mellow.

K is having ant problems in his new pad, and it prompted me to remember a gnarly experience from high school….

there was an ant hill was right under my balcony, and they used to come through my room on their way to the bathroom, just like my sisters did. 😉 couldn’t leave even a bit of food or an empty pop can in the room, or they’d just swarm all over it. I swear that at least once I woke up in the middle of the night with ants crawling on me. [shudder]

oddly, I don’t remember how (or even if) we got rid of the ants before I left for college, although I do remember getting the advice from a friend (the otherwise animal-friendly Eleanor?) that the best thing to do was set the hill on fire or drown it.

I still have a hidden anxiety about ants, or about anything crawling on my skin. (well, not hidden now…it may well be poetic justice for me to have a top google result for ants or something)

that was probably TMI. but I’m sure you’ll live, assuming you’re someone who doesn’t already know that story.

pages one through five of my vacation album, covering July 24 & 25, now have pictures. still no style yet, though.

“Driving on 9” by the Breeders. We both knew the tune, but the lyrics aren’t in the booklet in the CD.

(oh, and I need this album for my birthday: All Virgos Are Mad.)

vacation album…at this point mostly just notes, many transcribed from my little paper travelogue, in which I also recorded when we got gas and which has pockets for receipts, a pen, and sunglasses!

– Montana (twice)
– North Dakota
– Minnesota (twice)
– Wisconsin
– South Dakota
– Wyoming

– bales of hay
– clouds
– motorcycles
– cows
– fast-food restaurants
– dead bugs

while I futz about with long-term archiving solutions, here’s a couple of pictures:

I think this is South Dakota. I spent many hours with the 2002 Rand McNally atlas on my lap.

Lake Sinclair (?), South Dakota. Don’t know what the flower is, but it looked cool. Yes, that’s C in the background.

Sunset in Montana. I was so happy to see mountains again!