someone stole my imac. glass everywhere. on new year's eve, they think. happy monday to you, too, universe.

2 bottles red wine (merlot preferred; any robust reds work fine)
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup water
8 cloves
nutmeg, cinammon
1/4 lemon + peel
1 orange (cut, squeezed in + peel)
1 tsp real vanilla extract
dash of soco

repeat every 3 hours.

since it began on monday morning, my bathroom renovation is 90% done, which, if you're half-assed like i am, means it's DONE. for now.

the biggest obstacle was moving the antique cast-iron clawfoot tub. research on teh internetz gave me no real answer as to whether or not this was the craziest house project of the year, or totally par for the course. the linoleum floor was one of the first things i knew had to go; the clawfoot tub, on the other hand, was a selling point of buying la plantation in the first place.

getting the tub out was simply cumbersome and heavy. getting it back in: another story.

the demo and the tile itself was done by the contractor who did my checkerboard kitchen floor. i picked a vintage octagonal black and white mosaic tile. yesterday while the bathroom was still empty, i biked out and got m'self some paint, slapped on a couple coats, and did the grouting of the tile myself. there is something really...soothing? gratifying? about this kind of rote physical labor; it is the same satisfaction i used to experience mowing the lawns of my FL houses (the action, motion, motion, and patterns as the grass was cut) somehow blocked out the physical discomfort of the heat. yesterday, i didn't realize how hard on the body the painting and grouting really was, but today my muscles tell a different story.

putting the clawfoot tub back in the bathroom was tragic and stressful. things never go back as easily as they come out, this is a universal truth. the wrong angle, over and over again. the door frame. the sheer weight of it.

the feet fell off of the tub, only able to be clicked back into place as two bright red boys held 400+ lbs of awkwardly-shaped cast-iron, hovered above my outstretched limbs. setting the tub back, one foot kept constantly dislodging. then, a tile broke, causing the tub to sit unevenly. we wrecked a piece of plumbing, cracked another tile, and chipped the paint off the feet. we wore out our hands. i wasn't sure if it would ever go back to the way it was, but it did, and with a few final finesses and a shim, we were able to secure the tub in place. let me tell you: there was no greater reward than a long hot shower after 3 days without indoor plumbing.

my favorites.

( +2 )

biking in slush today! wish me luck!

here in portland, it snows about, oh, 3-5 inches in a few hours, and even our mayor starts calling it "snowpocalypse."

no, really.
so i went into work for a meeting, arriving late. my bike ride over i thought, "wow, it has this greyish wettish stillish quality i somehow equate with snow, having not lived around snow for 28 years but somehow feeling an expert." i arrived, had some tea, sorted emails. 2 hours later, there were big fluffy snowflakes outside my window. another hour later, the meeting i went all the way in for (17 miles on a work from home day; i'm not complaining, but it is relevant information) was cancelled, because my contact couldn't make it through the parking lot that was our freeways.

around 3ish i started worrying about 5ish traffic.
around 4ish i left early, my chariot arriving with offerings of the cure and a promise of a sake date.
we attempted to get onto the interstate, only to see 3 cars essentially parked on the side, as if between invisible angled parking spaces. we sat for 20 minutes. a man emerged from a car farther back on the on ramp, making things happen (people really do need Leaders: it's like all the cars in front of us were just waiting for someone to tell them they could make it through). i yelled out the window, "thank you for being awesome!" and he replied, "somebody's got to do it!" he looked like he just finished tearing down 11 trees with his bare hands.

freeway was insane. we made it 2, maybe 3 intersections of crawling commuters trying to get into portland. we took an exit. and a side road. all hills, in the 'burbs where i work. i sat there, not even a mile from my work, for over an hour, as cars in front of me slid, got stuck, spun their wheels, turned off their engines, got out of cars, turned on hazards, put on snow chains, talked on the phone. insanity.

the entire commute of 17 miles probably ended up taking something like 20+ miles--what with detours and trying to avoid sketchy intersections and steep-ish hills--and slightly over 3 hours.

all of my adventures in 140 characters, including pictures, are on twitter.

but, here's what i do love: there is a white blanket of snow, and more light than is typical for nearly midnight. my house, the bluffs, my bicycle: all covered in snow. kitten prints on the front steps, chihuahua prints on the back deck. pictures.

here's to it sticking.

snow snow snow snow!!

EDIT: non-locals, please be as amused by the current posts in damnportlanders as i am.
EDIT 2: i can't believe i wanted this, and now i'm, essentially, trapped at work!

ok, so seriously, che? soderbergh? what the hell were you thinking? i should've figured, but seriously, semi-engaging cinema verite aside, um, i can't believe i fell for it. eager to hit the 2:14 mark and just be done with it, i became uncomfortably aware that all i'd actually conquered was "part one."

whenever i see a biopic or historical drama done poorly, or heavy-handedly, all i want to do is just hold the director by the shoulders, spin them around, and point them towards good night, and good luck.

Poll #1504494 calendar girl
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

when viewing a given week or month on a calendar (say, google calendar, that gives you this option), what day do you prefer to "begin" the week?

2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2003 | 2002

top 3 concerts/shows of 2009:
1. cocorosie @ aladdin
2. patrick wolf @ WUK
3. sundance celebration of music @ sundance house
honorable mention: m. ward @ aladdin

top 3 songs of 2009:
1. big pink - velvet
2. edwarde sharpe & the magnetic zeroes - home
3. tie: lily allen - not fair; cold cave - love comes close

top 3 albums of 2009:
1. dark was the night
2. the horrors - primary colours
3. tie: edwarde sharpe & the magnetic zeroes - up from below; the raveonettes - in and out of control

top 5 films of 2009:
(not counting SFF, i saw 3 films in the theatre this year--watchmen, the new star trek, and where the wild things are--so this is going to be a list of my favorite 5 films that i "saw" in 2009)
1. push (currently released as precious)
2. head-on
3. where the wild things are
4. let the right one in
5. branagh's as you like it

top 3 obsessions of 2009:
1. all things carny. circus school & aerial acrobatics, freak show history, sideshow banners, LOVE, coney island, aerialists, you name it.
2. reconnection
3. la plantation du paon

3 "good things" of 2009:
1. tie: la plantation du paon, my job
2. travel destinations (10 of 'em), traveling visitors to portland (11+ of you!)
3. starting up yoga, circus school; cycling regularly
honorable mention: turning thirty

3 "bad things" of 2008:
1. spilling water on my laptop
2. missing my flight in amsterdam
3. swine flu
honorable mention: 100 proof

trips of 2009:
1) park city UT
2) san franny CA (x2)
3) seattle WA (x2)
4) vegas NV
5) demiworldtour (orlando, london, amsterdam, vienna, prague, nyc)

2009 booklist:
1) three cups of tea - greg mortenson and david oliver relin
2) the sexual politics of meat - carol j. adams
3) how we are hungry - dave eggers
4) a room of one's own - virginia woolf
5) hot water music - charles bukowski
6) the road - cormac mccarthy*
7) becoming a man - paul monette
8) virgin suicides - jeffrey eugenides*
9) listen up: voices from the next feminist generation - barbara findlen*
10) the catcher in the rye - j.d. salinger
11) cunt: a declaration of independence - inga muscio
12) the people look like flowers at last - charles bukowski
13) de profundis - oscar wilde
14) lullaby - chuck palahniuk
15) nerve: literate smut - genevieve field and rufus griscom (ed)
16) portland noir - kevin sampsell (ed)
17) rubyfruit jungle - rita mae brown
18) the missouri review: haunted
19) just as i thought - grace paley*
20) the whalestoe letters - mark z. danielewski
21) into perfect spheres such holes are pierced - catherine barnett*
22) martin and john - dale peck*
23) second nature: a gardener's education - michael pollan
24) oh my goth! version 2.0 - voltaire
25) spy in the house of love - anais nin*
26) by a slow river - phillippe claudel
27) school of arts - mark doty
28) look both ways: bisexual politics - jennifer baumgardner*
29) the secret history - donna tartt*
30) the death of bunny munro - nick cave
31) twitterville - shel israel
32) the b book - brian randall
*favorites

unfinished:
collected poems - dylan thomas
the filth - grant morrison, chris weston, gary erskine
temperament - stuart isacoff

greetings, ye journalers and closet photographers.

this friday signals the beginning of a new year, and thus, for many of us, the beginning of project 365. some of you are already in progress, others are retiring, and others are starting anew.

let this be your invitation to join us in 2010 with a photo-a-day. and to make it easier, here's our support network of fellow photographers who are in it, hopefully, for the long haul:

project 365 in 2010 rollcall:
jupiterjuniper yours truly. took a year off after completing 2008. looking forward to a year of new images.
ph0enixinflight my partner in photographic crime. moderator of project365_2010.
firthofforth amidst documenting her 38th year on the planet.
madmarty a talented photographer who came on board via the power of suggestion.
project365_2010 a showcase for weekly favorite photos, as well as inspiration from other participants. join and watch.
(maybes: verybadhorse, mareeuh, muero_di_risa, reqbat, rockettestar and a handful of non-LJers.)

if anyone else is participating in project 365, please comment here and i'll add you to zee list.

--

i am actually really excited to begin again. 2008 taught me a lot of things about photography, and photographing something every day taught me a lot about my life. i used a fixed image shape--a square--for all images, and i was pleased with the uniformity and restriction of that template. for 2010, i've designed a template for portrait and landscape (which you'll see implemented soon enough), as means to also force uniformity but also give an overall coherency to the posts. like 2008, i plan on posting all photos at the end of the week (which means, one week from today, you'll be seeing my first 3 shots of 2010). i debated making these posts friends only or filtered, but decided instead to keep it public, so family, friends, and other non-LJ users can follow along. my entire 2008 set can be found here:

project 365 | 2008