11.30.2011

two hundred. three.



Finally.
Four hours to spare! 
50,087 words!
[Technically I'm not a winner because I didn't follow the exact guidelines. However, they say everyone is a winner. I'll buy into that, thanks.]
So looking forward to a bottle of wine tonight and making donuts tomorrow to celebrate. 

11.28.2011

two hundred. two.

Only 3 days left of Nanowrimo (counting this evening).
Maintaining sanity by:
-Using Eggo waffles as a reward.
-Using the S. Carey/Hudson Branch concert this weekend as a reward.
-Taking sporadic dance party breaks.
-Planning various knitting/craft/cooking projects for December
-Anticipating having friends again.

[Just over 10,000 words to go.]

going to keep plugging away...


11.10.2011

two hundred. one.

A quick update before jumping back out.
George Eliot said: "Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

I can't help but feel the same. I should read more George Eliot because she also this about music: "I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music."

Recently it would be:
  Chris & Thomas.
    City and Colour
       The Avett Brothers [always]
          S. Carey
             Sufjan Stevens

We share some common thoughts, George Eliot and I.
It's like a secret thread.

Have you read that quote? I absolutely love it [do read it all]:
“You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words: but most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that. Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life; and then turned to the friend at your side who appears to be seeing what you saw -- but at the first words a gulf yawns between you, and you realise that this landscape means something totally different to him, that he is pursuing an alien vision and cares nothing for the ineffable suggestion by which you are transported. Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction which the others are curiously ignorant of -- something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat's side? Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it -- tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest -- if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself -- you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say "Here at last is the thing I was made for". We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all.”
When I'm not writing copiously I am reading too. I just finished "Crazy for God" and well on my way through Tim Keller's new marriage book, just for kicks.

And I made this:


Clearly, super pumped about it. It's a headband, in case there is any confusion from my poor quality webcam.
All in all, a productive first ten days of November. I'm a little behind in nanowrimo but I'll catch up.
Anyhow, this seems like just a pretend post because the majority of the words were not my own.

10.27.2011

Two Hundred.

This will probably be the last blog post for a while.
In preparation of really sitting down and writing for a month [providing my follow through is the best it ever has been. agh.], I've been trying to squeeze in a bunch this week.
This evening I finally sliced up the 300 pound zucchini we've had sitting on our table for forever, donned an apron and made 6 loaves of bread with it.
Surprise, there is enough zucchini left to still feed a small country.
I told Taylor to maybe plant a few less next year.
Just a few.

I also turned some sweaters into these infinity scarves I saw online a few days ago. Sew some sweater sleeves together...boom. Infinity scarf. That was delightfully easy for my brain. At times I ponder at great length over sewing instructions, so fortunately this was a breeze.
Note: I just spelled breeze "brease."
Past my bedtime.

Last night I started making this delightful fish dish that turned freaking fantastic.
Initially though, Sheffield, that loathsome creature, decided to hop on the table and eat four pieces of the fish while I was out of the room for literally 90 seconds.
Or less.
Needless to say I was quite angry.
However, it all turned out just dandy, if an hour later than expected so we could defrost more fish.

Early this week one of our favorite customers passed away. He'd been sick for a while, although initially it had come out of nowhere.
He used to read his epic poems at open mic night. He had large, wise eyes and a white mustache, always the friendliest and kindest man, moving tables at the end of the night for us.
After we found out, we drank a cup of Moroccan mint tea with lots of honey for him.

This weekend I'll be celebrating Lauren being off chemo [huzzah!!], helping host a Breast Cancer Fundraiser and attending a wedding.
I might sleep a little somewhere.

This morning I had a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast.
Oh.
It was good.

10.20.2011

one hundred. ninety nine.

So. Hit a deer a few days ago.
I'm driving and I see one on my right
So I slow down and keep an eye on him
and don't even see his buddy leap in front of my car from the left.
[in all reality, this might be a case of the deer hitting me.]

I thought my car was trashed because it was 3:45 in the morning on my way to work and everything looked grim and terrible, but it was able to get fixed. The hood is still in terrible shape.

My Dad told me at least now I won't be picking up guys in that car.
Drat.
I spent so much time doing that before, it's going to completely alter my life.
I told that to the cook next door and he confirmed.
"You see a girl in a car like that, you stay away. She's crazy, hitting things like that."
Thanks Fernando.
Not the first time he's called me crazy.
He told me that if it had been on the side that would have been cool. Cool girls race their friends and hit the curb, causing minimal damage.
Crazy girls ram a deer head on and keep driving that car, busted hood and all.
Good to know where I land on the cool vs. crazy scale. Totally bonkers.

Been playing through my "Ukulele For Dummies" book. Great fun.
I also just finished knitting the best hat ever.
Me.
Knitting a hat.
It's like I just finished climbing a mountain. I am victorious.

Speaking of climbing, I also just booked a weekend trip in the Ozarks next April with the lovely engaged couple and Tai. Bopping around, camping, climbing.
And I signed up for NANOWRIMO i.e. national novel writing month. November will be interesting, that's for sure. You will probably never hear from me. I don't know if anyone will ever hear from me.
So many things that I'm doing.
Often I end up feeling like I'm not doing enough.
There is so much more that I'd like to reach out my fingers and hold on to.



10.14.2011

one hundred. ninety eight.

Lately I've been thinking about the things we lose when we gain convenience.
I don't think my fascination with things old are just because i like old things, i think we have a longing for things that are lost when words that define what we are looking for are:
streamlined or
efficient or
consistent or
convenient.
you know?

Yesterday Nors and I saw Ben Rector.
Absolute genius.
That's a talented man in a bow tie.
Such fun times in the city, getting a bit lost and arriving a bit late.
On the way home, to make up for it, we played the game of never stopping for a red light.
Not to say we blazed through the red lights.
But when we came upon one we'd creep as slowly as possible to avoid stopping the car but still staying roughly behind the line.
Hilarious at 1 in the morning.
This morning we woke up and lazed about before making a massive dutch apple pancake and devouring nearly all 4 servings of it.

The puppies are asleep, snoring and snuffling.
About to head out to the creperie to meet up with Pappy.
It's been a completely unproductive day.
Most lovely.

Anyone up for climbing around the Ozarks with me?

10.10.2011

one hundred. ninety seven.

Randomly stumbled across this photo today:


No, I did not spend the next several minutes searching images of Michael Caine. 
No, I don't have a mini-crush.
Not at all.