morning procrastination

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new tool

I have wonderful and exciting news!!!! I'm happily typing to you from my new laptop. She's a lovely MacBookPro in glossy, shiny silver. She plays video, downloads pictures, files, and more! She's light. She's fast. Meet Dot. She's my new MacBook Pro. We're just getting to know each other, but based on my past Mac relationship, I can already tell we'll be going places and together through thick and thin.

I'm sad to retire Computrix; she's a feisty old broad, but alas, no longer meeting my needs. I'm going to have some friends clean her up and potentially donate her, or sell her (for a very low price) to some kids for their first computer. I really can't stress how much I've loved my iBook G4. We've been together through a very influential and important time in my life. I've spilled water, beer, wine, and puke on the keyboard. Dropped her countless times, and yet, she still runs. Computrix hasn't always run like a dream, but over the nearly six years we've been together, she's been a reliable little machine.

Santa was very good this year. I'm so thankful for my family, friends... and Dot. I wonder what challenges lay ahead of Dot and I. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

progress can be slow

The weaving is going slow.  I'm not going to lie, its kind of taken the back burner lately.  The warp threads are the ones we put on the second day of the workshop back in October.    Although the progress is very slow, I'm throughly enjoying the entire process.  Only downside is I originally intended to use some of this for holiday gifts... alas, December has some how slipped past me.  I ended up buying gifts this year, but never fear.  I bought them all from local small businesses and locally made when I could. 

The weave pattern is a herringbone (slightly visible in the blue stripes) and the oatmeal colored tread is my own hand spun.  There isn't really a rhyme or reason to the stripes or their widths.  It's telling me when to switch it up.

'real' adult

M & D sent flowers to the office last Monday.  Before I read the card I was flipping my wig a bit.  I never get any mail or packages delivered to the office, and to be completely honest, I was a tad afraid/concerned about who they'd be from.  It probably didn't help that the office was full (a rare occurrence in itself) and a-buzz with "Oooo!  Liz!  Who's the new boo?!"  I called M after reading the card and we both had a good chuckle.    M & D were congratulating me on my first Finals Week with no finals... apparently a milestone into adulthood.  I'll take whatever excuse to receive flowers.  

The flowers sat on my desk all week and made me (and my office mates) smile.  I brought them home Friday because they were still looking great... and almost an entire week later, they're still beautiful.  Do M & D rock, or what?

mr. fish - harper's magazine

providence canyon, georgia

This weekend several friends and I went on a quick hike in Providence Canyon State Park in Georgia.  The park was only 4.5-5 hours away from Gainesville and had a 7 mile backcountry trail.  Our group was originally of 7, but by the time we departed, we were down to 4 plus a pup.  When we drove up Saturday morning it continually rained.  We kept our fingers crossed that the weather prediction of sleet wouldn't hold true.  At the start of our hike, it was a whopping 38 degrees and still rainy.  We would not be deterred and decided to hike in 2 miles and make camp.  

Surprise, surprise.  I'm in the back of the pack.  

The rain never let up.  It continued throughout the night and into Sunday morning with torrent waves coming and going.  We decided over breakfast that we should probably head back the way we came and call it a short hike.  Everything was soaked.  We packed up very wet tents and gear and headed the two miles back.  However, we could never have predicted the surprise we were in for.  The creek bed had risen 6 inches to a foot in some places.  Of course, our trail was the creek bed.  There was no alternative but to walk through the flowing chai colored water.  The rain pounded down and we trudged through.  We all laughed and rolled with it.  It was exciting, refreshing, and just plain fun.  I remained relatively dry (so to speak) until the water reached my knees.  There's really only so much water prevention Gortex can handle; my boots were probably carrying 5lbs of water.  We reached the segment of trail back up out of the creek bed and turned to survey our triumphant path.  We all laughed at our orange, clay covered bodies.  The hike might have been cut short, but the adventure hadn't.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of us when we reached the cars.  Everything was soaked, including the camera.  Naturally, the rain stopped once we got off the trail.  Figures.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my companions and the challenge of hiking in the cold and rain.  I also learned just how out of shape I am.  I suppose I need to get back into the real gym and get back on the bike.  Simply rock climbing twice a week just ain't cuttin' it.

tat #2

I did this while in CA with Mess.  I'd been thinking about it since coming home from India about a year an a half ago.  Dominic Vasquez at Full Circle Tattoos drew the image and then inked me up.  We found them on yelp.com (which I'm also quite pleased with).  It took a total of an hour and a half.  I'm not going to lie, it hurt.  But the end result is AMAZING. 

Thankfully it's not as red and angry looking anymore.  It has healed up quite nicely, and I'm increasingly tickled with it.  I couldn't have done it without Mess there cheering me on.  Hooray for sisterly bonding.