I wonder...

Do thunderstorms only happen at night, or am I just not as observant during the day? The lightning is just more impressive against the black night, I suppose.

How much would it take to buy you?

Out of your house, that is. If you've seen Up (which, if you haven't, go, do it now!) you'll recognize a stubborn refusal to sell in the midst of gigantic construction. Apartment Therapy has a great post on homeowners refusing to sell. The pictures are great. I'm not sure how I feel. I mean, I feel for these people who have had their neighborhood and home obsconded with, but at the same time, if someone offered me $300 million for any house, let alone a 3 story row house surrounded by huge garages and office buildings, I'd jump on it and retire to my awesome luxury airplane that would fly me around the world until I died.

Awesome prefab homes

This house is so cool. It's made entirely of premade beams (albeit on a gigantic scale). But if we're being honest, it's the pool we really love. (Where did the "royal we" come from?) How cool would it be to swim in this?!




There's also this really cool time lapse video of the construction of both the scale model and the actual house. Plus, it's in Spain, so really, there's no way I could want to live here more.




Marmol Radziner also does some cool prefabs too. It seems cheaper than buying an existing house, but then you have to figure in shipping ($6-8/mile!) and land costs. So maybe a wash? Your take? Would you go the prefab route?

Greetings from Corn Country!

So the last few weeks have been busy, resulting in the glaring radio silence of late. After the last post I didn't, in fact, get to meet KRS-One. I did get to meet Bob McGrath of Sesame Street fame. He came to our booth the borrow a book and we had a chat. Earlier that day I also got to meet Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary). The man is a sweetheart and I love him to death and seriously we sang Puff the Magic Dragon (not about drugs, straight from the horses mouth on this one), This Land Is Your Land and Leavin' On a Jet Plane and he kissed me and it was awesome. Really, it was an afternoon that summarized the entirety of my childhood experience. It was a good day. I have photos of both, but not right this second, and since no one really reads this at the moment (or do you? You can chime in.) I don't feel so bad updating with the details when I get back to New York.

Oh yeah, I'm currently in Nebraska visiting Ari. It's lovely and warm but the days are slightly tedious as he has to do that pesky work thing...

Before Nebraska, but after Bob and Peter, I was in California for my cousin Sam's bar mitzvah. It was great fun, got to see all the fam and I broke out my old (film) SLR and took some photos have half a roll to shoot out still, the get them developed. I'll see how they turn out, it's been a while since I last shot fully manually. And I always liked the dark room better than the camera anyhow, but I'm trying to get over my insecurity about that, and I figure the only way to do that is get out there and shoot a ton of photos until I'm better. I must just be in a creative kind of phase. I finished the back and I'm halfway done with the left front of the cardigan I'm knitting. Here's hoping I have enough yarn. I have crocheted 3 trivets and 3 coasters in the last 3 days. Yesterday I bought a calligraphy pen and book and I'm trying my hand at that too. That's on the slow and steady plan as well. It's like a slightly-easier-but-still-difficult version of learning to write. I think it'll get a lot better once I get it into muscle memory. On the horizon I want to learn how to do fancy cake decorating. Fondant and poured sugar and gum paste flowers. Maybe I should become a justice of the peace and then I could be a wedding in a box. Or something.

I'll leave you with some classic Bob. Maybe when I update this with pictures I'll tell you the story of when I was Bob's opening act for an appearance.



On second thought, maybe this should have been more than one entry...

The Verdict

So I went to the allergist yesterday. The verdict? I'm allergic to cats, mold and dust mites. (Really sad but unsurprised about the cat thing.) I have 5 medicines to take every night (2 pills, 2 nasal sprays and 1 eye drop). But apparently I'm not allergic to dogs so yay! Ari was very magnanimous and didn't rub it in my face. (He loves dogs and hates cats. I still think it was some trauma in his childhood.)

Anyhow, I'm off to book expo to get lots of free books and meet KRS-One.

Still think Big was better...

You know, the part in Big when Tom Hanks plays the very same gigantic piano in FAO Schwartz? (This was the only video I could find of the original, it's a recording of a tv. But honestly if you haven't seen the movie, you have no business watching this, just go rent (or buy, it's probably super cheap these days, I think I saw it in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart) it.



Figured I'd include this while I was strolling down my random things marginally related to childhood favorite movies. But still, these girls totally beast it.

A post in which I reveal to you that I am a Scrabble nerd.

I LOVE Scrabble. Probably due to the fact that my mom and I used to play when I was a kid. (She's good, at word games, we played a lot of Boggle too.) I'm pretty good too. I really love to play. And though I'm not as good (or crazy) as the people in Word Freak, I'm not bad if I do say so myself. So when I saw this, I was in total lust. I really want to take up wood working with Ari so we can make one of these.


I really love the juxtaposition of the old world feel of hand-sanded wood and a technological device. Plus, hey, Scrabble!