November 27, 2002. I happened to have my camera in my bag today, so now you get to see what the view from my office window looks like.
Ok, I think I've had enough of the fancy font photo captions. I mean, I just told you this is the view from my office window, why do you need a caption saying that's what it is? Sorry, I know you're all smarter than that. No obvious captions for you.
Anyway, so the brick building in the foreground is a building across a little cobblestoned alley of a street. The other street -- the one where the building with the yellow around the windows is -- is one of the fun downtown streets with little shops and restaurants and such. The street my office building is on is also cobblestoned, which you can sort of tell by the difference in pavement colors. You know, I'm not sure if this picture really conveys it properly, but it's a very nice and architecturally interesting little view I have.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Dave and I are off to Baltimore for a few days. I'm hoping we get the Official Baltimore Holiday Dish: sauerkraut. Don't ask me why it's the official dish, but we know (by way of Dave's brother, the Official Sauerkraut Maker (for the family, not for all of Baltimore)) that it is. I don't really question Baltimore's randomness, since it produced John Waters, and calls itself both "Charm City" and "The City That Reads" (basically, they're still working on their brand).
November 26, 2002. Every morning, I walk from the gym to work at about the same time. It takes about 15 minutes. I see a lot of the same people on the walk, and have little monikers in my head for them: Woman Who Works at Bagel Shop, Woman Who Should Consider Lower-Heeled Shoes, Homeless Guy Whose Dog Is Named Ashley, Guy Who Goes from Coffee Shop to Coffee Shop. Et cetera.
Of course it never occurs to me that anyone else is doing the same thing, and that I might be nicknamed in someone else's head. So this morning Pipe Smoking Guy, who I see in the same place every day, walking in the opposite direction, stopped me and said, "You have a very determined walk." Am I Determined-Walk Girl? Is this a good thing? I figure it's better to have a determined walk than a lazy one. Still, I wasn't sure what to say, so I just smiled. What popped into my head was to say, "You smoke a pipe every morning," but that wasn't really a proper answer, so I didn't say anything.
I rode the elevator this morning with a woman who was carrying a large platter with something big on it, covered in tin foil. I said, "I have to ask what that is!" and she said, "It's a turkey. It's a whole turkey. You know you're the low man on the totem pole when they ask you to bring in the whole turkey for the office's Thanksgiving." How sad! She looked like she might be on the verge of crying. Can you imagine going home after work to cook an entire turkey for a job you don't even like that much? (I'm just guessing she doesn't like her job, considering how bummed she seemed, and also because of the reputation her company has for overworking people.)
November 24, 2002. When it gets cold here, the cats spend a lot more time inside, sleeping on the couch. They work hard at attaining Extreme Comfort. Here's an example:
Theo's on the couch, Peatie's on the pillow. They were in this position for about six hours this afternoon. (Note also another one of the Apostrophic Lab fonts: Mary Jane Tankard.)
Dave just bought a new pair of shoes, which is a shock. Dave getting new shoes is sort of like a 100-year flood. But he definitely needed a new pair of shoes for walking around. His feet have been growing at a somewhat alarming rate the past few years. I have no idea what the deal is; it's not like he's 17 or anything. A few years ago he wore size 11.5. The pair of shoes he just got are size 14. Crazy! I think it might be a combination of walking everywhere and wearing Birkenstocks. Still, size 14?!? I told him that his feet can't grow anymore, or we're going to have to start special ordering shoes from wherever Shaquille O'Neal gets his footwear.
November 17, 2002. Big storm! Very fun. We got some snow and ice, and lost power for several hours this morning. Dave and I went down to the Portland Head Light, which is our favorite place to go in a storm.
You can see there also that I finally figured out how to download the fonts. The one under the picture is "Powderfinger" which is my favorite type of font (old typewritery) and also the name of one of my favorite Neil Young songs (and favorite Cowboy Junkie songs, since they do a great cover of it).
Just so you know, the fonts from Apostrophic Lab are worth downloading just because the readme.txt files have nothing to do with the fonts. They're either fun little journal entries, mini observations, or, in one case, a recipe for turkey with pomegranate sauce. The fonts are almost worth downloading just for the little surprise gift of the text files.
November 16, 2002. I think I need a heated computer mouse. Do they make these? Someone should. I've spent the last 45 minutes downloading (free!) fonts from Apostrophic Lab, and I'm super excited about having these fonts, but at the same time ready to be done with it because my mouse hand is freezing. I guess I could turn up the heat, but where's the fun in that?
But do check out that font site if you get a chance. They have a ton of free fonts, and they're all very well done. Even the little title blocks they made to display each font are interesting. And they have many fonts named after pharmaceuticals, so how can you go wrong?
Wait...where did my fonts go? I can't figure out where they are. Silly Windows. I downloaded the fonts into my fonts folder (crazy me!) but now they don't seem to be there. Ok, so I downloaded one of the fonts to my desktop, and that seemed to work. So apparently you can't download fonts to the fonts folder. But! I also apparently don't have the program to unzip. I've got to get that before I spend another 45 minutes trying to remember which fonts I downloaded the first time. Sigh.
Ok, I need to go put my hand under sleeping Theo or something. He's an excellent space heater.
November 13, 2002. Hello! Where've I been? Not sure. But here I am now. I think it's just that it's been rainy and dreary here, so when I get home I just want to sit on the couch and knit, and I don't want to turn on the computer at all.
Ok, so here's the table runner.
The reason I couldn't show pictures of it when I finished it wasn't so much that it was drying but because I was giving it to Dave for our anniversary (last Thursday, the 7th). This was our fourth anniversary, and the traditional and contemporary gifts are linen and appliances, respectively. I took some liberty and interpreted the traditional as "table linens." He obviously saw the runner while I was weaving it -- it's a little hard to hide a loom -- but he didn't know that it was the anniversary gift. Here's a picture of the table runner where it looks like it's 30 feet long:
It's really only 60 inches long. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. There are a few mistakes, but nothing you'd even notice.
I also just finished a new sweater. Go here to see!
November 4, 2002. I finished the woven table runner this weekend. No pictures yet; it's still drying.
I'm slowly revamping the archives to be monthly instead of weekly. I'm not entirely sure what made me start doing them weekly, but monthly makes a lot more sense.
Peatie's so helpful. He just walked across my keyboard and somehow managed to open up RealPlayer. Thanks, Peatie!
