marsspyder

Time time ticky time time

2009-12-21T21:04:23Z

How long has time been the basis for existance. I could libe without that enigmatic fourth dmension. Such sophisticated systems of measuring and quantifying our one singular direction. Go left, right, up, down, in, out, forward...but you can't go back. Spend your days wishing them away, wish it was Friday, Saturday, tomorrow, the next day, but you can't go back.  Do you ever wish for a Tuesday in 2001?

I might walk back there one day.

Stand outside my apartment door.   Look at a lurid lipstick print on a pale blue door. The walls steeped in nicotine stains and eau de Indian food. Pass through the doorway, pass through time. No blinds on the window, no curtains covering the panelled walls. Stand on the carpet look to your right at the crucifix that isn't there and the bland beige furniture that likely has several stains and the coffee table which no longer holds a deck of cards whose queen of clubs is sticky with vodka and orange juice. There are no palm prints from the latest round of egyptian rat screw. watching the television that is no longer there, indefinitely tuned to a fuzzy PBS.

The lamps have gone.

Through the door to the place where through the wall you heard the neighbors fucking with a fury, at two in the afternoon. Lay on the bed, without sheets, and the plastic covered matress sticks to your arms and threatens to suffocate you as you sleep. Your PMC ashtray, no bigger than your thumb, no longer lays on the fauxrble sill. The red carpet is no longer fluffy, but dingey and scratchy. The walls where you hung your posters bare. The places the marker bled through holding no sign of what used to be. The cds on the dresser are no longer yours. The wax molds of your hands are gone, broken when you moved, before you moved really. The bootlaces are untied from the bed frame. Your clothes no longer hang in the closet.

Down the hall to the next bedroom, directly across from the bathroom. Ryan is no longer in there. He too must have finally grown up. So dark in his room. Always so dark there. I remember little of his furnishings, the fluffy blue and black comfortor, and the TarZan outfit...yeah, don't kneel down to tie your Nike.

The bathroom with the weird hole beneath the cabinet. Would have been a great place to hide. Not anymore, someone else's soapscum and spare hair litter the floor now. The green towel no longer hangs on the rack, the strawberry suave shampoo is gone.

Your life is no longer here.

The tile in the kitchen is still yellow, there is a table now. The stove is the same. And the curious smell from the cabinet above.

I have to step back to the present now, the image grows smaller as i finish the lines. It's time to go forward...

Deadlines, weddings, and bah!

2009-08-31T18:35:54Z

So I have a gajillion things to do before my wedding...

Yesterday, I finished the major stitching on my wings, so thats done :)
I need to work on the Maid of Honor's wings.

How I spent my evening...

Playing around with piecing a quilt block...by hand...as in with a needle and thread...

here's the block that started it all, on my Grandma's bed...

There are eight of these arms per star, and each star is roughly 12" square. The nice thing about piecing a quilt is that it doesn't have to be rushed. You can take a day, a week, or years to piece a quilt top, and then more years to quilt it. I think I will do this one completely by hand, or, if nothing else, this block by hand, just until I get the hang of this pattern.

I wish I knew the name of the block...

Centerpiece tutorial

2009-08-28T00:22:18Z

Materials:

Wire cutters
Floral stems (for my centerpieces, I used white daisy stems, with 2.5" heads, 4-5 heads per stem, and purple stems with 2.5" heads, 6 heads/stem)
Foam half ball-4" diameter
Floral wire
Plastic spider rings
Mod Podge(or white glue of choice)
Martha Stewart Glitter in shades of purple and green
9" inch(ish) vases(I got mine from Goodwill, they don't all match, but they were like $.50/ea)
12" wide spool of tulle

1-Strip all leaves from your stems-save these
2- Cut the heads from the stems, leaving 3-4" stem per head
3-Spider stems(make 3 for each centerpiece)
         a. cut a piece of floral wire 12" in length
         b. fold in half over the back of the spider ring
         c. put your finger in the ring, and spin the spider, twisting the wire. Twist the whole wire, making sure the spider is secure
         d. clip the ring from the spider
         e. using a paintbrush, coat the spider in a thin layer of Mod Podge, including his belly
          f. sprinkle glitter over the spider, making sure to get all the nooks and crannies
          g. Let dry completely
4. Using larger leaves, attach leaves about 1/4-1/2" from the bottom of the ball, just push them in. Glue if you would like them more secure

5. Above the leaves, push the white stems in. Don't overcrowd them, just try to overlap the edges a bit

6. Between the flower heads, push in a leaf, angling it down a bit(this will help campflage the foam ball)
     Also, above the flowers, push in a leaf above each stem, and then again between these leaves. This is a great time to use up smaller leaves

7. Next, push purple flower heads in above the leaves. My arrangements took 5-6 to provide good coverage. In the remaining space on top, push in 3-4 large leaves poking up, so just a touch of green shows through

8. Push a final white flower(or two) onto the top of the arrangement. Stick your three spiders randomly into the ball.

9. Make some glitter spiders without the wire(2-3 for each vase) Let dry
10. Stick a spider to approximately near the end of 1 yard of tulle. Push this into the vase, making sure to keep the spider up against the glass
11. Repeat for the rest of your tulle and spiders, trying to fill the vase with the tulle.
12. Plop your arrangement onto the top of the vase, it should just stay on top,if not, hit it with a dash of hot glue.
13. Enjoy!

100 days 'til halloween. eek!

2009-07-22T13:15:33Z

On the plus side, I have a lot done. On the negative side, the knot keeps yelling at me and telling me I'm behind. Stupid pink exclamation points...I'll give you stupid pink exclamation points... My green and purple exclamation points below. I dont like how they don't have an N/A option at the knot

The big things that I need to worry about are the where for the ceremony, I'm really leaning toward outside the dance hall. This will keep me from having to redo my invitations, and, as sinmate's family is from out of town, and our reception venue is out in the styx, they don't have to try to find two places.

This will also appease our preacher, my dear grandma's boyfriend, who won't marry us inside the hall, but he'll marry us outside...(and check off another exclamation point)

I would have to work up some nice cloaks for myself and the maids, as October in Ohio has definite suck potential.

Reception venue is booked.

Am dragging catering sister to Sam's this weekend so she can figure out(roughly) what she is going to need, and get non perishables purchased.

Teach sister how to cook only thing she doesn't cook well, macaroni and cheese.

Find out if any of sister's bartender friends can tend bar for an evening. Draw up contract for said services. Make list of alcoholic supplies. Purchase alcoholic supplies.

Purchase plates, glasses, flatware etc. We are going the plastic route so I can have square plates in any color I want. Sam's has 400 count (or piece-check this) acrylic wine glasses for $50. Should cover my needs nicely. Also investigate their other drinkware. Check chafing dish prices, better to rent? Probably buy, then sister can have a start on what could potentially be a really sucessful career. Maybe even print up business cards for her or look into catering licensure

I have to find fabric for Sinmate's pants(and I think I know where the pattern is-he is going to end up with short pants in every color by the time he's 30). Right, guess who is getting dragged to the "I'm whipped" store this weekend? He'll be thrilled... also figure out what to call Sinmate when we are no longer living in sin.

I also have to start on Sinmate's shirt. My mom began work on my dress :) !!!!

Decor is a process, but thats all just details.

Invites need to be mailed in August, they're just waiting for envelope stuffing. I need to draw up maps or make a little newsletter thing for our out of town folks.

I need to figure out my makeup and the bridesmaids makeup. Any ideas on fairy makeup...hmmm

And the damned droopy wing problem. Bah!

Mike Gravel

2008-09-03T15:51:10Z

http://www.mikegravel.us/issues

thats who I will vote for.

skippity do

2008-07-29T13:23:48Z

my sister squirted out her kid yesterday morning. and she named him jerricho xaiver (pronounced xavier, she just misspelled it-spelling is not one of her strengths)

cliffy and i are going home for a family reunion next weekend, and there will be nine people in out 3 br house. yes, thats what i said, nine. NINE. parents, brither, sister, offspring, dad's friend and his lady, plus cliff and me. im seriously considering staying at grandma's. she has lots of space.

ive been working on things for halloween. so far i have cliff's shirt, most of his doublet, my rosary, aaaaand thats about it. i do have my skirt mostly cut out. one of these days when i get some time, i will finish cliff's doublet then work on y skirt next. after that, im torn between doing his pants or more of my costume. i think his pants would be the better, that way all i have left to do for him would be his hat and jewellry. i have so much work to do for my costume...and will anyone have any idea about who i am? probably not. noone cares about por bloody mary i of england, shes always overshadowed by her sister elizabeth...sigh.

i got the forst installment of my pe study materials yesterday. they sent out a book friday, but it was the wrong one, so i had to send it back, and its replacement is the one i got, so yay! i get to study geotechnical engineering.

teetering on the edge...

2008-07-22T22:03:32Z

they say genius borders insanity, right? well, im borderline genius, so does that mean that i am already insane, or is genius more that just a line? i would think that it is a polygon, what, with supergenius, insanity, and gifted(and who knows what else) being bordertowns.

alternately, if i am on the boundary of gifted/genius as well as insane, am i at some sort of 3 point corner?

that was random...but thats not whats pushing today.

I work as an engineer and frequently i have to do some surveying/stake out work as well. (really wish we employed a ps so i could get my ps when i go for my pe, btw) stakes, to equiment operators are nothing more than target practice. it doesnt matter who tells them to be careful, be it the supervisor, engineer, other operators, the stakes will be taken out.

the superintendant on this construction site asked me(last week) to put in a few offset stakes in one area where some work will be done. the work we do requires a honeycomb-style layout, where each hole is marked with a stake, then drilled with a very large drill(10' diam) i like this layout, it makes sense to me. it makes me feel special because other people get confused by it. Anyway, i put in my offsets. They then excavated the entire area, which was not too bad, they saved all but one of my 8 stakes. actually damn good for 2 excavators and a bulldozer.

yesterday, they wanted an indication of where the boundary of this particular drilling area were. he told me a paint line would do, so i assumed the worst, and just used some cheap wire pin flags to mark the outermost holes. ok, they said, i thought no more of this layout. until this morning...

amy, can you lay out those holes again? sure, and ill put more offsets in so layout later will be super easy (can not lay out any more than one row of holes at a time, as thats just stake suicide!) ok, sounds good. everyone was happy with this situation until we got ready to go. they dug it out too low! were too close to the water table. fill it back in(losing several stakes in the process, as well as all offsets) damn. then i was asked to do it all again. and again. an again. today...blah.