Thursday, February 15, 2007
Well, that's reassuring!
It is always good to hear, when calling one's cable modem service, that the tech on the other end of the line would not recommend the service he is supporting because it doesn't work very well, especially in our area. Sigh. The next house we move to (Yes! We are moving again!) will either have Amnet or we will get Acelera through the ICE. Double sigh.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Help me name this quilt!
At long last, here is the first pic of the quilt top that I've been working on for a year (or so), and that I hope to enter in the Costa Rica quilt show in May:
As you can see, this is only the quilt top, and still needs to be backed and quilted and bound, plus the embellishments (like whiskers) will go on at the very end. It looks a little wonky because it's just pinned to a curtain, but it really is pretty straight on the edges! (The border is wonky, but it's supposed to be that way -- it's called a crazy border and is made similar to the way a crazy quilt is put together, using leftover pieces of material from the quilt itself.) The quilt is based on a poster by Laurel Burch for the ASPCA for "Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month" back in 2005:
I got the poster after the cat shelter where my mom used to volunteer was done with it, and I immediately liked the art and thought what a great quilt it would make. I love the graphic style of Laurel Burch's artwork, which lends itself really nicely to quilting. I had originally intended to donate it to the shelter to hang on the reception room wall when the quilt show was over, but now that my mom no longer works there after a falling out with some of the leadership, I'm reconsidering. Then I thought that I'd give the quilt to my mom (who has 27 cats) after the quilt show, but since she will probably not make the quilt show (my first ever), and hasn't always been there for some of the more important events in my life (e.g., graduating from two colleges), with the exception of my wedding and the birth of my son, I'm reconsidering that also. Maybe I'll just keep it for my son. What do you think?
At any rate, before I can quilt it, I need to make a label, which includes the title of the quilt. I was thinking of something along the lines of "Laurel's Feline Friends" or "Laurel's Rainbow Cats for Colin" (he told me the border looks like a "wainbow"), but I can't decide. I would like the title to pay homage to the original artist, while capturing the essence of the quilt. HELP! I'm not so good at titling things.
What do you think of my interpretation of the art? Will it fly for the quilt show? Comments are MUCH appreciated!
Speaking of quilts, you may remember my fiasco of a quilt block that I donated to the Quilt Pink project. Well, the quilts are finally finished, and here is the finished quilt. I also donated a couple of blocks to this quilt; can you guess which ones they are?
As you can see, this is only the quilt top, and still needs to be backed and quilted and bound, plus the embellishments (like whiskers) will go on at the very end. It looks a little wonky because it's just pinned to a curtain, but it really is pretty straight on the edges! (The border is wonky, but it's supposed to be that way -- it's called a crazy border and is made similar to the way a crazy quilt is put together, using leftover pieces of material from the quilt itself.) The quilt is based on a poster by Laurel Burch for the ASPCA for "Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month" back in 2005:
I got the poster after the cat shelter where my mom used to volunteer was done with it, and I immediately liked the art and thought what a great quilt it would make. I love the graphic style of Laurel Burch's artwork, which lends itself really nicely to quilting. I had originally intended to donate it to the shelter to hang on the reception room wall when the quilt show was over, but now that my mom no longer works there after a falling out with some of the leadership, I'm reconsidering. Then I thought that I'd give the quilt to my mom (who has 27 cats) after the quilt show, but since she will probably not make the quilt show (my first ever), and hasn't always been there for some of the more important events in my life (e.g., graduating from two colleges), with the exception of my wedding and the birth of my son, I'm reconsidering that also. Maybe I'll just keep it for my son. What do you think?
At any rate, before I can quilt it, I need to make a label, which includes the title of the quilt. I was thinking of something along the lines of "Laurel's Feline Friends" or "Laurel's Rainbow Cats for Colin" (he told me the border looks like a "wainbow"), but I can't decide. I would like the title to pay homage to the original artist, while capturing the essence of the quilt. HELP! I'm not so good at titling things.
What do you think of my interpretation of the art? Will it fly for the quilt show? Comments are MUCH appreciated!
Speaking of quilts, you may remember my fiasco of a quilt block that I donated to the Quilt Pink project. Well, the quilts are finally finished, and here is the finished quilt. I also donated a couple of blocks to this quilt; can you guess which ones they are?
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Dee has horrible taste in music
If you don't want to spend a ton of money buying brand-new things when moving to Costa Rica, do what I (and many other expats) do: check the classifieds for used stuff for sale. I recently bought a beautiful couch (ok, only partially bought it because my ex-maid stole $100 of the $200 I was going to pay for it with) from a friend, who'd bought it from someone else. It's from Altea Design, like new, and that store's stuff is ridiculously overpriced. But for $250, ain't a bad deal at all.
Lots of people come, buy stuff, then decide to go not long after and sell their crap when they leave. Such was the case with Dee, who was selling her iPod. I wanted to get one for esposo, because, as a chef, he can really get "in the zone" when working, especially to music. Hers was only a tad more than the ones you can get in the U.S., and it came with "lots of music from the itunes store." Now, I didn't figure that being much of a selling point for me, because I have odd, er, eclectic tastes when it comes to music. I like punk rock, ska, swing, some "rock en espanol," bossanova, and a lot of music from the Middle East (especially anything in Arabic; I just love listening to the language even though I only understand one word: "habibi"), Asia, and Africa, and I do adore the cheese factor of anything Bollywood. I can't abide most country, "soft rock," dance music, or hip hop (though I do like a few hip-hop bands, Black Eyed Peas being one of them). I really didn't figure Dee would have much to offer on the iPod in the way of music.
When I got it home, I downloaded all of the music to my computer, added it to iTunes, and discovered that I had to "deauthorize" my computer to even listen to at least 60-70% of it. So all of those went right in the trash can. Of the remaining, I think I kept some disco from the 70s, a couple of 80s tunes, and some John Denver songs (why is it that "Country Roads" always makes me cry?). Dee had a lot of what I will call "high energy dance music" (think the crap you listen to while doing aerobics) that I just could not abide, so those all went. I think I ended up with 20 songs total. Oh well, one could always just download whatever one wants illegally using LimeWire or some other such p2p software. No great loss, believe me!
Come to think of it, though, I bet Dee would think my taste in music is just as crappy as I think hers is. Or perhaps not. I used to have a radio show on KAZU in Monterey, California that at least a few people listened to, and in fact of which I was quite proud...damn, I sure do miss those days sometimes!
Anyway, I made a CD of Dee's leftover music ("In Memoriam: Dee," I call it) that I could, in fact, stomach, and have threatened to make esposo listen to it in the car. He, in retaliation, has threatened divorce.
Lots of people come, buy stuff, then decide to go not long after and sell their crap when they leave. Such was the case with Dee, who was selling her iPod. I wanted to get one for esposo, because, as a chef, he can really get "in the zone" when working, especially to music. Hers was only a tad more than the ones you can get in the U.S., and it came with "lots of music from the itunes store." Now, I didn't figure that being much of a selling point for me, because I have odd, er, eclectic tastes when it comes to music. I like punk rock, ska, swing, some "rock en espanol," bossanova, and a lot of music from the Middle East (especially anything in Arabic; I just love listening to the language even though I only understand one word: "habibi"), Asia, and Africa, and I do adore the cheese factor of anything Bollywood. I can't abide most country, "soft rock," dance music, or hip hop (though I do like a few hip-hop bands, Black Eyed Peas being one of them). I really didn't figure Dee would have much to offer on the iPod in the way of music.
When I got it home, I downloaded all of the music to my computer, added it to iTunes, and discovered that I had to "deauthorize" my computer to even listen to at least 60-70% of it. So all of those went right in the trash can. Of the remaining, I think I kept some disco from the 70s, a couple of 80s tunes, and some John Denver songs (why is it that "Country Roads" always makes me cry?). Dee had a lot of what I will call "high energy dance music" (think the crap you listen to while doing aerobics) that I just could not abide, so those all went. I think I ended up with 20 songs total. Oh well, one could always just download whatever one wants illegally using LimeWire or some other such p2p software. No great loss, believe me!
Come to think of it, though, I bet Dee would think my taste in music is just as crappy as I think hers is. Or perhaps not. I used to have a radio show on KAZU in Monterey, California that at least a few people listened to, and in fact of which I was quite proud...damn, I sure do miss those days sometimes!
Anyway, I made a CD of Dee's leftover music ("In Memoriam: Dee," I call it) that I could, in fact, stomach, and have threatened to make esposo listen to it in the car. He, in retaliation, has threatened divorce.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Coulda just flushed it down
A couple of weeks ago, I took $200 out of the bank (in the form of two $100 bills) to give to a friend who had been so kind to sell me her sofa, a desk, and a birthing tub (don't ask!). It was about all I could afford to give her, but I wanted to pay her something for offloading all of this stuff on me (great stuff, by the way), so I figured I could manage $200 for the moment. Then she went out of town with her family and I never got a chance to pay her.
Now, she called me this past weekend, and I called her up today, thinking I could stop by and give her the money. She has been gracious enough to say, "No, don't worry about it, pay me when you can," but I hate being that person who owes someone else money. Anyway, I take a look in my wallet and one of the $100 bills is missing. I am livid.
I had checked in my wallet a few days ago because I was restocking my vegan creamer and tea bags, and sure enough, the money was there. Then I went to the CRL party, and while I didn't check my wallet there, if someone had wanted to steal it out in public (and judging from the crowd, I seriously doubt anyone there would have done such a thing), they would have taken both $100s, right? I mean, why go in the wallet and just take one?
The other possible scenario, the one I find most disturbing and also most likely, is that the maid took it. This has not been the first time money has gone missing from my wallet since she's been working for us. The first time, a 5,000 colones note was gone, and although I was sure it had been in there before she got there, I was equally sure I might have miscalculated, and perhaps it wasn't in there in the first place. The next time it was 10,000 colones, and this time a $100 bill. I have heard that maids who rip you off will do that, take just one bill to make it seem as though you might be mistaken, you might question yourself. But who the hell doesn't miss a $100 bill? Not me! I miss it! That is a lot of groceries (at least a couple of weeks' worth for my family), several bags of dog and cat food, many tanks of gas for my car. That is money I worked hard to earn. I am not independently wealthy, and what irks me is that, if it was the maid who took it, she thinks I won't miss such a large amount of money. Not to mention the feeling of being violated when someone has been in your purse, digging around in your things looking for money to steal. It's not the first time I've been robbed, but every time it feels quite similar. I guess the amount of irritation is proportional to how much one has been violated. When our house was broken into in the middle of the afternoon while I was taking a shower (never live in Rohrmoser if you can help it!), I had nightmares about the men who came into my house for years. I am only now able to recall that I had a gun in my face without breaking into a cold sweat. So truthfully, taking $100 out of my purse was nothing compared to that experience.
At any rate, she will be fired by esposo when he gets home tonight. No more second chances. I've freaking had it.
Now, she called me this past weekend, and I called her up today, thinking I could stop by and give her the money. She has been gracious enough to say, "No, don't worry about it, pay me when you can," but I hate being that person who owes someone else money. Anyway, I take a look in my wallet and one of the $100 bills is missing. I am livid.
I had checked in my wallet a few days ago because I was restocking my vegan creamer and tea bags, and sure enough, the money was there. Then I went to the CRL party, and while I didn't check my wallet there, if someone had wanted to steal it out in public (and judging from the crowd, I seriously doubt anyone there would have done such a thing), they would have taken both $100s, right? I mean, why go in the wallet and just take one?
The other possible scenario, the one I find most disturbing and also most likely, is that the maid took it. This has not been the first time money has gone missing from my wallet since she's been working for us. The first time, a 5,000 colones note was gone, and although I was sure it had been in there before she got there, I was equally sure I might have miscalculated, and perhaps it wasn't in there in the first place. The next time it was 10,000 colones, and this time a $100 bill. I have heard that maids who rip you off will do that, take just one bill to make it seem as though you might be mistaken, you might question yourself. But who the hell doesn't miss a $100 bill? Not me! I miss it! That is a lot of groceries (at least a couple of weeks' worth for my family), several bags of dog and cat food, many tanks of gas for my car. That is money I worked hard to earn. I am not independently wealthy, and what irks me is that, if it was the maid who took it, she thinks I won't miss such a large amount of money. Not to mention the feeling of being violated when someone has been in your purse, digging around in your things looking for money to steal. It's not the first time I've been robbed, but every time it feels quite similar. I guess the amount of irritation is proportional to how much one has been violated. When our house was broken into in the middle of the afternoon while I was taking a shower (never live in Rohrmoser if you can help it!), I had nightmares about the men who came into my house for years. I am only now able to recall that I had a gun in my face without breaking into a cold sweat. So truthfully, taking $100 out of my purse was nothing compared to that experience.
At any rate, she will be fired by esposo when he gets home tonight. No more second chances. I've freaking had it.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Love is in the Air
If you thought the cockroach was huge, how about this baby?
I guess this is one of the problems with living in the dry forest: bugs, and plenty of them! We get lots of geckos (I like those, actually), other spiders, giant cockroaches, several species of ants, centipedes, scorpions, and these crazy hairy black caterpillars that seem to pass through the house once a year, though this is the first tarantula I've seen. Esposo tells me they are not really dangerous (just big and hairy and yucky, OKAY!), yet he won't pick it up to take it outside. Two-and-a-half-year-old son is first to alert us to the tarantula, saying "Stider, look Mommy, a stider!"
Um, yeah, that's one big stider all right! Esposo thinks he will get a mug (a MUG! can you believe it? the thing was too big to even fit in a mug!) to get it outside, but I sort of think a dustpan and broom will work better. Rather large and hairy tarantula, however, has other ideas, and rears up on its back legs, waving its fangs and front legs threateningly at esposo. Just lovely.
I remember to grab the camera before said tarantula is out of our lives for good (hopefully!), and really, it is so big that it gets redeye from the flash! Later, esposo chides me, saying, "Oh gee honey, you should have set the anti-redeye on the camera." Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about right at that moment!
Finally esposo manages to get it out of the house and dump it unceremoniously over the side wall. I hear, however, that tarantulas only come out of their hidey-holes to look for mates and eat, and if it was in the house, it's probably looking for a mate. Does this mean tarantula love is in the air and I can expect the pitter-patter of baby tarantula feet someday soon?
Don't fire 'till you see the whites of their eyes, boys!
I guess this is one of the problems with living in the dry forest: bugs, and plenty of them! We get lots of geckos (I like those, actually), other spiders, giant cockroaches, several species of ants, centipedes, scorpions, and these crazy hairy black caterpillars that seem to pass through the house once a year, though this is the first tarantula I've seen. Esposo tells me they are not really dangerous (just big and hairy and yucky, OKAY!), yet he won't pick it up to take it outside. Two-and-a-half-year-old son is first to alert us to the tarantula, saying "Stider, look Mommy, a stider!"
Um, yeah, that's one big stider all right! Esposo thinks he will get a mug (a MUG! can you believe it? the thing was too big to even fit in a mug!) to get it outside, but I sort of think a dustpan and broom will work better. Rather large and hairy tarantula, however, has other ideas, and rears up on its back legs, waving its fangs and front legs threateningly at esposo. Just lovely.
I remember to grab the camera before said tarantula is out of our lives for good (hopefully!), and really, it is so big that it gets redeye from the flash! Later, esposo chides me, saying, "Oh gee honey, you should have set the anti-redeye on the camera." Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking about right at that moment!
Finally esposo manages to get it out of the house and dump it unceremoniously over the side wall. I hear, however, that tarantulas only come out of their hidey-holes to look for mates and eat, and if it was in the house, it's probably looking for a mate. Does this mean tarantula love is in the air and I can expect the pitter-patter of baby tarantula feet someday soon?
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