Gimme Gimme

where'd you go?

2007-02-21T00:35:00.000-08:00

oh i got over it. but now i'm back. ok?

Pee Wee's big adventure

2006-05-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

last night the yellow bike project had a bicycle drive in showing of pee wee's big adventure. i knew the whole story line of the movie, but i didn't remember any of it really, i mean, i didnt really remember the movie, just the story. i saw it soooo long ago. it was sooo amazing. we had taken a blanket and lots of beer and were there with our friends. and i laughed so much and so hard. i really loved it.

then afterwards we went to a party that had two kegs, but the people who threw that party said it was a "progressive" party and we were to leave after a while. maury toted the keg on his bike trailer to the next party. that means that we lost one of our pillows and our blanket. two of the pillows showed up at the next party, but then i never saw the rest of it. but still, it's ok. the pillows had dinosaurs on them and the blanket was really pretty colors, but i got it all at the setttlement home sale and it was really cheap and the blanket had been out in many rains.

it was a really good night for bike riding and drinking lots of beer. i love my bike.

Burnet, DURNNIT!!!

2006-05-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

yesterday we took our students on a train ride from cedar park to burnet on an old timey train. it was so cute and old and rickety. the weather was really beautiful and the windows were all open on the train. we had told the students to not extend any body parts out of the windows, but sitting in a window seat, with your arm on the sill, it's really hard to contain yourself. i want to extend my whole entity out the window. and not in a suicide type of way.

when we got to Burnet someone was there making lunch for us and the kids playing on a playground for a while. i got a train conductors cap that my students took a picture of me wearing. also, we saw a shoot out at the jail. it was all really sweet.

Heaven's to LaBetsy!!

2006-05-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

the other day maury brought over his coworker, marie to look at the chicks. she had seen Boo II Bantam, but when she was still referred to as LaBetsy, but she hadn't met new LaBetsy. So she came over and i opened the hutch gate and i climbed in, it's like a triangle shape. the chicks were going crazy and fluttering all about and one at a time, each ran out beside me.

now, it's my own fault, because my last two chicks, who grew up to become roosters, i raised them inside the hall closet until about 2 months. in this time, i changed their papers and went in to feed and water them often. i would also sit in the closet and hold them and pet them. now these new chicks, they don't really get that sort of attention from me. everytime i open the hutch gate they go to the back of the pen and i can't reach them, so mostly i leave them alone. they are too small to run around the yard, so i don't really get the contact with them that i want. what i'm saying is that they are not following me to the pond and exclaiming "mama!".

so they both got out, and we are chasing them all around and they can fit through the fence and go into my neighbors yard. so then we're in the neighbors yard trying to chase them back out and we catch new LaBetsy. well, Boo II Bantam is still very small. like the size of a furry tangerine. she manages to run into our garage. our garage is old and the wood is rotten and there are openings all around it that the cat uses to go in there. i'm not sure if other animals live in there. we don't have access to the garage, it's not attached to our house and it houses our landlords belongings. and it's locked.

so then we're trying to coax the little chick out by scattering food all along the various openings, hoping she'll reconsider. mostly we were scared that she would get stuck in there, being that we are completely unaware of the contents of the garage and how it is all placed.

so maury, being the little macguyver that he is, fashions a butterfly type net, out of a sweater bag (the kind you put your sweater in to wash, so it doesn't get snagged), one of those emobroidery loop things that holds your fabric taut, a broom stick and zip ties. that's not how we caught the little sucker, but it was still very impressive. so anyway, we finallly got the chick out of the garage by shoving a big piece of bamboo through an opening opposite of where we could see she was, scaring her out. then of course she got freaked out and ran into the neighbors yard again. this time we opened the chicken hutch gate, held new LaBetsy who got loose a second time, and chased the little chick who went running straight back in to her home. victory.

then we drank root beer floats to celebrate a job well done.

the past few days

2006-05-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

my friend helene visited from virginia over the weekend and we had so much fun and laughed about so many things, that i just don't know where to begin. so i almost feel like i can't.

but we were walking to a mexican restaurant on saturday night to drink margaritas and i found this little jewel laying in the grass by the sidewalk on the way there. some luck huh? it's kinda broken, but i dont care, i think it's really awesome.

also, i got these things from the thrift stores and consignment shops last week. also, some other things, but these are good to show. a shadow box with scary bugs in it. i dont really like bugs too much, but they look cool behind glass. they also had another one with butterflies in it, i opted for the uglier one.

also, this big thing of patterns for quilting and needlepoint and candlewicking. all kinds of really good looking patterns. and the lady knocked $2.00 off of the price because she was having some kind of wierd war with the other cashier and possibly her boss? i don't know. but her discount to me seemed spiteful to someone else.

i'm eating vegan queso, it's so good. and good for dogs too. dee dee is trying to get to the lid, but i give her the whole container when i'm done. it's so tasty!

i buried a bird in my backyard. maybe the cat killed it, i'm not sure.

O.G. LaBetsy

2006-05-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

the chicken formerly referred to as LaBetsy, but currently known as Boo II Bantam is so small. the new LaBetsy is a normal sized chick. Old LaBetsy is on the left and new LaBetsy is on the right. i was thinking if the new LaBetsy turns out to be a boy, i'm going to call him LeBobby.

i miss having the chickens run around the yard. when i open the hutch gate, new and old LaBetsy run to the back end and i have to get inside the hutch to retrieve them. it sucks being that there is just lots of poop everywhere. i want to have lots of contact with them so they know me as their mother and follow me around the yard and down to the pond. and maybe every now and again when they are frightened i might hear "Mama!" in a cute little baby chick voice.

but sike. there is no pond, however, there is a little creek that the dogs sometime get into on the tail end of our epic walks. they are totally the most popular and most seen dogs in the neighborhood. they get out a lot. and they meet all kinds of people. and are constantly told how cute they are.

sometimes people call kerby shaggy. and also sometimes people say he needs a haircut. old people mostly. also, this is probably a common occurence, but when dee dee and kerby see a cat, and each house in our neighborhood has at least two on the porch, and some up to seven, but they go crazy, like running in place because i hold the leash and i am more powerful then them. and just choking themselves to death trying to get to these cats. but they live with a cat and they cuddle with her and they rub their noses against hers. and maybe that's all they want to do with these neighboring cats, but i'm not so sure.

new chick

2006-05-09T16:18:00.000-07:00

today i got a new chick. it's outside with LeBetsy. i don't know if it's a he or a she and i dont have a name for it.

also, i haven't smoked a cigarette since i finished my pack on sunday. !!!!!
i feel pretty good.

so a few months back i watched braveheart for the first time. i got really into the armor and tried to fashion a knit head piece for myself. of course i had no pattern, so i just wung it. winged it? i didn't write down what i did on one side and i did the two sides separately, needless to say, they didn't match up perfectly. then, i accidently stitched them together right side out. i like it anyhow, so i didnt redo it. but i think that's why it's got the pointy top. but i like how it came out. it's so hot here. i'll have to move to a colder location so i can wear it.

also, i wrote this many hours ago, but i couldnt get my pictures to load. in the meantime, i contemplated changing LaBetsy's name to Butu Bantam, because we joked about naming a rottweiller Boo II Bantan, like Buju Bantan, after Boo the dog, who is also a rottweiler. then my roomate cathy was talking about a booted bantam, and how cute they are with hairy legs. all i know about LaBetsy is that she's a mini hen. well does that mean she's a bantam? i don't know. also, she has hair on her feet, so is she booted? so if i call her Butu Bantam, then i'll call the new chick LaBetsy.

Also, i started to feel super nauseous and i think it might have been the patch. once i was on the patch and my doctor told me that 21 mg which was the doseage i was taking was too strong for me. but that's what i got again. and i kinda felt the same way i do when i smoke too many cigarettes. so i took the patch off.

also, i think because i was so "productive" last weekend, i overdid the whole blog thing and now i can't do anymore. also, my room is a mess. that always bums me out.

Haywire

2006-05-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

Things got screwy on my computer, and it was caling itself something different. you know how you name your hardrive? well it was changed to like CSR-B4 or something. i got scared abotu the site meter that i had put on my blog and i deleted it, or i think i did, because there wasn't a delete option. but i went in to the site and removed this site, then i re-did my templates. i got scared that the code i used was enabling spyware or whatever. i just read something abotu that on myspace so it got me paranoid.

but i went fishing this weekend, and it rained like crazy, and we only actually got to fish the first night. i caught two little catfish and one shad. i was afraid to touch the catfish, so the guys i was with had to remove them from the hooks. actually, both had swallowed the hooks pretty deep and we just had to cut the line. i hope i don't accidently catch any catfish when i'm alone.

im sleepy and need some coffee. i put on a nicotine patch last night. so i'm doing that now. smoking is stupid.

i finished my knit "armor" and i'll take pictures later.

here I am

2006-05-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

its pretty up here. we are in the town of ding dong, in the county of bell. I already kind of feel crappy. somehow they didn't get my registration and the guy made like it was a big deal that I didn't bring my angling notebook. then he asked if I was certified. yes of course I am, jerk. I'm not going to let this get me down. we're going fishing now. peace.

gone fishin'

2006-05-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

i'm on my way to parrie haynes ranch to become an area chief for texas parks and wildlife. I'm wearing my new yellow mumu thing. the training doesn't start until tomorrow and I kind of felt like I shouldn't wear it. I helped teach a fishing class recently and I justh felt like the men in the class were acting arrogant and condescending. so probably wearing a short little number is not going to help me gain any respect. but screw those people. I brought long shorts for the rest of the weekend. I hate arrogant people. oh we just drove by this crazy dos eqqus school bus. wish I could take a picture but I might lose this bomb ass post. I'm writing from my phone. I love technology.

bless-ed

2006-05-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

sometimes when i find something at the thrift store that i really love, immediatly i think "no one must have seen this yet" as if it's such a highly prized item, when in actuality, it's probably only prized by me. but that's who i'm generally shopping for, so it works. this is the yellow doo-dadddyy deedee deedlee she-bang bang i mentioned in my last post. it's actaully BRIGHT yellow, i think it's a great shade of yellow. i really like yellow. and there is crochet trim and pin tucks going diagonally to make X's. i think it's really lovely.

and this is the other bonnet i made. i'm in love with bonnets, but when i put it on my head i feel like i'm wearing a conestoga wagon. my head is really big. also, this one didn't come out as nice along the bottom edge, i don't think i finished it straight. oh well. the orange material is from a dress i got at the thrift store long ago. i still wear the belt from it sometime, which will match my bonnet perfectly. but what should i wear it with? i kind of like it with this yellow thingy. but i kinda feel like an overgrown baby dressed like that. i hate that look. i mean, except on earlier courney love, of course.

heateee heat heat heat

2006-05-04T00:53:00.000-07:00

it's so hot in my house, sweat is literally dripping off my face. no exxageration. this morning i did some sewing, butt naked. it's just so hot. i was even sweating while i was naked. but really, there is something about that i like. in fact, i'm not complaining at all, just letting you know that its hot. something about it feels really nice.

so it's funny because earlier i was on my way out to some show. and i just had to write a blog before i went, really hurriedly, i wrote one. but it's like, who am i catering to? i know three people who are reading this. but, at the same time, it's really just nice to voice your thoughts, and not even deep thoughts, but just random thoughts, for whoever stumbles upon them.

i'm still totally infatuated with the internet.

when i took the two chicks that later turned out to be roosters, this other woman at my office took all the rest of the chicks to her dads farm. i asked her if they turned out to be roosters, could she take them to him and she agreed. so in that last few weeks i keep meaning to ask her, but she's been out post surgery.

so today i saw her and was talking to her. we talked abotu the roosters and i told her that i had to get rid of them and that's when she dropped the H-bomb. NONE of the chicks at her dads hosue turned out to be roosters. they were all HENS!!!

can you believe that? some luck.

also, i bought some nice stuff at the thrift store. i got this yellow nightshirt/minidress/shirtdress/shirt at the thrift store tonight. it's real sweet. and it has no stains and no tears or anything. befor ei left tonight i thought "i'm going to spill something on this"

well i'm sitting out side with roomie #2 and i get up to go to the bathroom. i was stuck to some bolt in the seat. part of the crocheted part of the dress is looped around some bolt. so i enlist my roomies help and i ask him to not rip it. but ooops, accidently he did. i'll never forgive him as long as we both shall live.

end of the year party

2006-05-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

i teach two classes on wednesday, 4-h animal science and 4-h fun club. it was the last day so we had parties in each class, did the cha cha slide, hula hooped, and ate pizza and drank fruit punch. i hadn't eaten all day and i ate 8 slices of pizza and so much fruit punch i wanted to barf. here are some pics of my students.

juan, i like him a lot. i want to be his mentor next year. i'm going to check into it.

jesse, he gave me the chick. he asked if i was going to teach again next year and when i told him i wasn't, he was like "awwww, next year i'm going to have a cell phone and it's going to be a camera phone and i want to take your picture". i love him. i told him i would come for lunch.

oh, the kids "knew" we were having pizza because they expected it. but i kept insisting we were going to eat eggs of all different animals, including, but not limited to fish, ostrich, blue jays, quail, and chickens.

this is sierra. sierra gets my jokes. she covers her face and laughs at me, in the most endearing way. i love her.

i just noticed that i "loved" everyone except juan who i "liked a lot". i love him too.

also, i made another bonnet. it's so cute. i gave the mother's day one to my roomie cathy. she's a gardner for work. and in life too.

also, i put a package together for a certain best pen pal. no names mentioned.

oh, and i got some really awesome stuff at the thrift store tonight. i'm wearing this yellow shirt thing. i love it. with bike shorts. i wear bike shorts a lot now.

Mother's Day Bonnet

2006-05-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

My mom does a lot of gardening, so I thought a bonnet was a good gift for her. plus it's easy and cute! and i have no money!THANKS JANELLE!!!

I really like this fabric a lot, but my mom does not like thrift store things and all my fabrics are from thrift stores. most of it, at least. so this has some stains on it and i kind of think i should send her the other one, but i made this extra light for being outdoors.

Also, it's hard taking pictures of yourself from the side.

flower pot head

2006-05-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

Janelle sent me an envelope with this pattern. i can not follow a pattern, or directions for that matter, to save my life. my mother is a seamstress. she has industrial sewing machines in the house. i've grown up around sewing and i do it as haphazardly as everything else. so. janelle sent me this pattern and i tried very hard to follow it. i have a very large head and i didn't increase the size or anything, but i think i made it big. i like it though. it's like a flower pot on my head. it's the same fabric i used to make my bed spread. tomorrow at work i'm going to reduce the size of the pattern so that deedle can have a matching bonnet. i didn't sew the ribbon on it. i also didn't stitch the bottom shut like i was supposed, but i used some of that fancy fusible webbing stuff, you know, for those of us who can't hem worth a dime. that's me. any way. i'm so proud of myself. and i'll be so happy when deedee and i can match.

i think blogging is making me productive because i really haven't made anything except my worn again outfit in a long time. i think the last i made something was for ezra's b-day back in december. well i was knitting some armor, but i stopped, but i should start again.

some time i'll talk about stuff i really really want to make.

Bike Flag

2006-05-02T17:21:00.000-07:00

My roomie got a bicycle trailer so he can go camping and go to the laundromat and stuff. there is going to be a bicycle drive-in on May 20 at the yellow bike warehouse and we are going to use the trailer to take a cooler with us. Pee Wee's Big Adventure is playing. I made him a flag for his bike, i put iron-on's of DeeDee, Kerby, and Sketch on it. All the domesticated type animals in our house.

on the up and up

2006-05-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

so, i went to get an iced coffee and a taco on my way to work. while i was there i got a call from my coworker who i team teach with, she said "i'm going home sick today so you are going to have to teach alone at brooke." you don't understand how awful these kids are. i teach at two different schools and i have a totally different rapport with the two schools. the kids at brooke are so mean and ungrateful and just unwilling to cooperate. they are too cool for everything. so when she told me that she was going home, i was like "i'm not coming in, i'm not teaching those kids alone" then i was like "you're kidding right?" and i kept asking her. then she told me the truth that class had been cancelled. woooo hoooo!!! so here i am at home, with the doggies and with my blog.

my old trusty blog.

also, i bought cigarettes while i was out and i sat on the front porch to finish my cigarette before i came in and i heard a woman's voice from down the street yelling "you think you're going to f*** with me? you f******* b****. you think you're going to f******** hurt me again? f***** b*******" and on and on. and pounding, like possibly kicking the door. then i heard a guys voice, but not yelling, then the girls voice was gone, he must've invited her inside. she must have been real hurt to be yelling like that, and also to put herself in such a vulnerable position. but when you're hurt real bad sometimes pride and stuff isn't considered because you feel so low anyway. i've been there before. never yelling like that, but just acting pathetic.

not anymore.

so. i'll try to do my best with things that i was posting earlier.

first off, i mentioned my sweetheart dee dee. on sunday, december 4 2005 i went to the town lake animal shelter. i looked at all the dogs. there were blue pit bulls, so beautiful, a rich grey coat and bright blue eyes. there were so many dogs that needed homes, but how can one chooose? so i left and my roomate and were going to eat iranian food. then i saw this little black doggie running across a busy street. so i pulled a U-eee and got out of the car. i crouched down real low and extended my hand and she, too crouched low and slowly made her way to me. she had hangy nipples and was just real sweet. so i put her in the back of the car and i drove around for a long time looking for someone who appeared to have lost a dog. i asked some people if they recognized her. no one did.

so the next day we walked her around hoping that she would lead us to her home. she is definitely at least part beagle, so her nose should be working in that fashion, but she didn't really lead us anywhere. i filed a report with the main animal shelter and i posted in the lost and found on craigslist and i put up fliers. but no one responded.

so now i've had her fixed and all her shots and microchipped and she's mine.

she is wearing her party collar that i got for her because she was sad after i got her fixed. we had people over for brunch on sunday and she's worn it ever since.

also, in regards to brunch, when we were sitting on the back deck on sunday, emma, the five year old next door came up to the fence and asked what we were doing. i told her we were having brunch. she said "what's a brunch" and i said "it's a cross between breakfast and lunch, it's less of a meal, and more of an experience" her father took her hand and escorted her away from the fence. emma is awesome. she just turned five but she's really smart and can hold a conversation. i'm so into that.

then i went on to talking about LaBetsy. My student Jesse, who is one of my top favorites, he skipped out on class last week for a doctor's appointment, but as i was leaving, he was there with his mom, and they had brought me a mini baby hen from his granddad's farm. i couldnt think of a name, so Emma chose LaBetsy, french for The Betsy. ha. her mom told me that she has a friend named Labette. that's a pretty cool name, i don't know if it's spelled like that. so this is LaBetsy.

later in my blog, i talked about some of my favorite things. in fact the title of the post was "brown paper packages tied up with string"

i have a shelf that has cool things on it, a cow skull i have on loan from my roomate in exchange for an armadillo pillow, a 13 inch taxidermied alligator head, a light up globe that gives off really nice light, and some animal figurines. there is a shaggy dog figurine at the goodwill across the street that i want, it's pretty big, well in comparison to the ones that i have, but it's $5. and well, it's just not worth it.

also, i really enjoy portraits of people. and photographs of people too. my father thinks that this is "sick". but i have a photo album that spans one families life for like forty years. there are birthday parties, weddings, graduations, family vacations. it's so cool. i have a few portraits that i have found at thrift stores. i just got one this weekend that i am not terribly keen on the frame, and my friends kept joking me about my aryan son. but still, i like it. i also really love bubble glass frames. the one painting that's in the round frame, i dont really think it's a portrait, but it would be cool if it is. there is a gargoyle in the background too.

blogging disaster

2006-05-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

i just had my first blogging disaster, losing all my writing in the preview phase. dangit. you know, it's hard to rewrite stuff because i dont think it has the same sentiment, losing a bit of it's sincerity.

so now that i'm obsessed with blogging, the animals are suffering, i must stop for now and go walk the puppies for i must leave for work shortly.

and i'm so bummed about this i might just go buy a pack of cigarettes for my ailing chest. or maybe i won't. sike. double sike.

my parents

2006-05-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

they are such funny people. my mom is always trying to make me feel bad that i moved half way across the country. she called me last night and told me that my dad was dying. and that he was refusing to go to the doctor. i spoke with him, he said "hellllllllllllllllllllllo?", he sounded fine, i was like "maman said you were dying" and he said "well we are all dying" and he laughed. then he started coughing like crazy and i told him to drink some whiskey, but he hasn't been drinking for a while. maybe that's his problem. he also said he was going to the doctor this week. i love my dad. dying parents are not a funny subject.

i love my mom too.

this is them on my last trip home, my mom staged this picture "let's look like we are arm wrestling" only her english is kind of broken and i can't remember the honest words she did say. "arm wrestling are we" sike, it's not that bad. "we be wrestle" "arm wrestling bokhoneem" that's with a little farsi thrown in the mix.

Neweeee to Youeeeee

2006-05-02T08:32:00.001-07:00

I decided to have a blog because my friend Janelle has one. and she'll probably be the only one who reads mine. But i don't even know how to post a link. to her. i'll learn. all in due time.

i don't know what i'm going to blog about exactly, probably about my day, about my job search, about the things that i own that i love.

i'm sitting on my back porch with my dog, dee dee, a cup of coffee, and my cigarettes. which will hopefully not be a continued part of my blogs. i've been waking with a pain in my chest recently and it's because i smoke so many stupid cigarettes. but the truth is that i like to smoke. all good things must come to an end. but i do this every morning, get up at 8:30, 9:00, 9:30 ish, sit out back with the animals and do email and stuff.

then i walk the dogs, then at some point i make it to my office where i walk around enough that no one can question what i'm really doing. i'm an americorps volunteer. i teach the children. this is my last week of teaching so i've been trying to get a job. i'm so bad at getting a job. but i don't even have really high standards. i just like to do things that sound funny. the kids i teach raised goats in class, then we showed them at livestock shows.

i am really thankful that i got to experience this in my first year living in texas. i love farm culture.

i had two roosters but i had to get rid of them. their names were Betty and Frida. Then Eddie and Frito.

Now I have a mini baby hen that my five year old neighbor named LaBetsy. Some time this week i'm going to get some more chicks, maybe even today. also i really want a goat. a giraffe and a miniature horse. alas, i don't have that much land. but one day.

there is a little mini rat terrier that i know needs a home that i want. his name is Chuy but i think if i take him i'm going to name him Mr. Jo Bangles. well my roomate said i could only have him if i named him that.