new swapatorium post, speigel online, happy bday s!

hey there, cupcake! my new post is up at swapatorium. this month it's chicken buffet molds.



i'm remembering the smell and it makes me want to puke.

in other web news, want to read something about game cakes in german? then check out this nice little write up that konrad lischka included me in on spiegel online! i eeped when he contacted me since i used to read der spiegel in my german language class in college. thanks again, konrad!

in rl news, padre and my step mom couldn't make it across the cascades yesterday so they've yet to arrive in seattle. they should be here this morning. i need to drink some pepto.

also, it's s's bday! happy bday s! i made her some cupcakes with hershey's hugs inside.



they also have icing made from hugs. i kinda' threw this recipe together-- 6 hugs, a stick of butter (8 tbs), 3 cups of powdered/confec sugar and maybe 2 tbs of milk. it's not bad, really.



and that's my last two days to date. i need to get some coffee to go with my pepto. it feels like a red eye kinda' day.

invite, soda, cat

hello! first things first. i have an invite for you wonderful readers. answer these upcoming questions quietly or to yourself. i'll wait patiently until you're finished.



will you be in seattle, wa on friday, july 27th, 2007? want to join us at the next retro food party for swapatorium?

be a part of the grossness at the rendezvous in belltown (2322 2nd Ave) at 8 pm! sorry, only 21 and up. please email me at rakkadeer [at] gmail [dot] com by july 7th to rsvp or for more information! hope to see you there!

in addition to working out the kinks for the party, i took the "7up challenge" that i received via ups the other day.



not surprisingly, i knew which soda was which even when handed unmarked glasses that leff had prepared in the kitchen. (and i still prefer diet sprite but i never drink it because, um, no caffeine. what's the point?)

yes, i'm still cleaning. padre and my step mom are currently in montana and are scheduled to arrive in seattle tomorrow at some point. of course, i don't know exactly when, so i'll be a freakin' basket case the whole day. hopefully, i won't show up at his hotel room drunk.

haha! i'm kidding!

hahah! i'm *so* not!

*ahem* isn't fujiko cute?



see you friday!

i'm going semi-weekly

hello, readers!

what with too many small things happening in rl, i need to free up some time. so i'll be turning this blog into a mon-wed-fri thing.

unfortunately, for the first monday of mwf posting i have nothing to write about. unless you count my not knowing that bernard from "black books" was in "shaun of the dead".

friday was a food day

you kinda realize that your day's been oddly food filled when you start your day by iming this:



and then end the day taking a photo of b's text about poutine.



let me tell you kids, the swapatorium parties have outgrown my apartment. we're taking it out on the town next month. i might post details so you can join us in feting retro food grossness if you'd like, who knows. anyway, here are a few random shots from last night.

m and s brought jello!



n baked a coffee cake from a recipe that she found on retro housewife! (i wish that photo wasn't so blurry but whatcha' gonna do? sigh...)



c and b brought me back some smarties from their trip to canadaland!!!



i have to admit to squealing like a little girl when b gave me these. i love smarties. and canadaland. (mainly for the smarties. *wink!*)

k, time to edit video. as usual, i'll let you know when the new swappy article is posted. (should be next week.)

prep, blur, serpent and the rainblow

i was whipping up my new swapatorium monstrosity (like, literally. i was making whipped cream.) when i noticed that the ingredients, before being frankenfuckedwith, weren't really that terrible looking. see?



the end result you'll have to wait about a week for. i can tell you this: it's not very attractive. and it will involve slightly dyed daisies.



slightly dyed because i forgot that i needed them until yesterday and it takes a couple of days for capillary action to do its thing. ah, science. it's cool but sometimes time consuming.

here's the brief view of the sound that i had yesterday.



blurry, of course.

i also watched "the serpent and the rainbow" and i finally understand why padre forbid my viewing of it when i was younger; he has a healthy respect for film and didn't want me to waste my time on the cinema equivalent of dog excrement. for this, i am grateful.

cake and cat

wow. an actual post when i said i'd write one. what a nice surprise.

i've been up to a lot since i last left you, p patch. i made a cake for the hollow earth radio people. (cake details here, if you're interested.)



they're having a show/bbq this saturday. i won't be going since every single thing in town is happening this weekend. that's always the case.

speaking of p patches, the interbay garden is doing a pick your own lavender next month. i mention this not only because it's cool, but also so i can say...

continuing with p patches, that's peel's new nickname. as in "here's the p patch all pimped out by the pillows."



ah, alliteration. you gots to loves it.

i know that i said earlier in this dispatch that i've been busy. it's very true. the thing is, i don't feel like writing about my extended absence. it's not as if i did anything earth shattering anyway.

earth hollowing, yes. earth shattering, no.

so on that note, i'll leave you to your own devices until tomorrow.

i lied.

i'll be back tomorrow.

i'm on a short sabbatical...

...until around wednesday. see you soon.

ballard--are you surprised?

after doing the hair thing (i went darker with the dye this time.) and picking up tickets for s's play, leff and i bussed across salmon bay.



what did we do in ballard? well, the library of course. we're both doing the adult summer reading program again. one more book and i get my "literary latte" card.

we also went to the locks. the chinook are starting to swim through.

hey preteen that was on the argosy lock tour? yeah, you, the adorable one with the duck bill that made duck calls? you're awesome!! (and, no, i'm not being sarcastic.)

anyway, here are photos from the day. i particularly like the biking viking.

bookish

friday was nothing but me finishing the historian and reading most of last things.



as such, i'm sure you understand that i have not a damn thing to write about today.

sam, seattle metro

last night leff and i visited sam again thanks to the wonderful janet (that's only her de.licio.us page.) of edible book festival fame. (thanks again, janet! we had a wonderful time!)

the only differences since our last visit are as follows:
uno) the nara has been taken down from the superflat exhibit.
dos) we took the guided tour. (fantastic fun!)
tres) it wasn't incredibly crowded.

in other edible book news, guess whose entries got a photo in this month's seattle metropolitan!



it's on page 43!



yes! leff and i both! hooray! leff for his wonderfully understated and elegant salt entry and me for my monster at the end of this book cupcakes.



how cool!

nada

i got nothing for you today, kiddo. all i did last night was watch "to catch a thief" and laugh at leff because he was taking stupid photos of peel with his laptop. photos like this one



had me in hysterics for about 15 minutes. i am *so* easily amused.

here, read some really corny elephant jokes to pass the time. i particularly like the answer to "what has 6 legs, 3 ears, 4 tusks, and 2 trunks?". but, you know, me...easily amused...

we are mr. and ms. seattle 1991, finished shelves

so i had this dream. leff decided that we should live as kurt cobain and courtney love in the forests outside of seattle. we dye our hair blonde, he finds a "corporate rock still sucks" shirt and we're all set to live off the land.

leff builds us a lean-to while singing that leadbelly song and all i can do is totter around on my heels applying red, red lipstick.

soon we're written about as if we were mythical beasties a la bigfoot. people start showing up with cameras and video equipment. we decide that life might be better in the city.

so we head back to seattle. we enter a club for provisions (i needs me booze as courtney or otherwise.) and everyone screams "kurt!!!" and hugs leff. he's carried to the middle of the floor on waves of adoration. i, meanwhile, hang back and hear someone sneer "oh, it's her.". and then i wake up.

anyway, here are our finished shelves. (they're a modified version of the shelf project in the readymade book.)



i think they look pretty good, if i say so myself.

cupcakes and my new phone

i'll spare you the boring details of monday and skip right to the cupcakes. i made two different kinds for the lovely volunteers at 826 seattle. here are the lemon cupcakes with a raspberry jam center and cream cheese icing.



yep, there's really jam in the center.



and green tea cupcakes with cream cheese icing.



i tried to make tiny won ton origami cranes for the top but i ran out of time and patience. so candy sakura blossoms and a slice of almond it is.

two more shots





and we'll move on to my new toy. yes, that's right. after two years with my wonderful old phone, i've switched to a razr. i don't know if i'll regret it or not.



i already feel like i'm cheating on my sharp tm 150 whose only problem was a failing battery life. but this is my fault for anthropomorphizing it. which is silly.

time for me to close up shop here and get working on the new shelves. "new shelves?" says you. ah, you'll just have to wait until tomorrow.

shelving, bento

want to know what we're doing with our drawers from re-store? here's a sneak peak.



i'll be painting the back/bottom of the drawer today.

yesterday i also made leff a bento.



aw, how cute! maybe next time i'll make him an egg pikachu.

k, i have cupcakes to make for 826 volunteers. bye!

errands, dracula bites back

no photos today, chickadees. frankly, i didn't think you'd want to see what

* picking up a silver dodge neon rental
* recycling our huge, old monitor at staples
* filling up an entire bin at goodwill full of donations
* scrounging through re-store for drawers and channel letters (thanks for the hook-up, re-store guys!!)
* clothes shopping (ungh!!)
* getting so lost at target that i couldn't find the fucking fluorescent lightbulbs
* stopping by a local hardware store for paint and such

looked like. although i need to make a note to self that five corners recycles old fluorescents for 80 cents each.

so yeah, i had a really busy day. i'm glad that we don't own a car because traffic in this city is annoying. esp since we forgot about the udub graduation ceremony until we were on the interstate stuck in the thick of gridlock.

anyway, back to the retelling of the dracula legend in the historian for me.

donation and women with buckets

yes, i am writing this pretty damn early. that's because tomorrow is full of errands. so many, in fact, that leff and i have rented a car for the day. otherwise, we wouldn't be able to get all of this stuff



to goodwill. (well, not all of it. the monitor is going to staples to eventually be recycled.)

i found my tiny collection of "women with buckets" while i was sorting through all of the above crap. i say "collection" when i really mean "two".



i'm on the lookout for more. if you happen to find any tiny women carrying buckets, i'll trade you a shiny new quarter. or maybe some mint flavored dental floss.

right, time to get back to "children of the corn" which does live up to its name in that there are children and they are indeed corny.

cranes and books

last night i made 42 more cranes. since pip wanted to see what they looked like all together, here's a group photo of all 142 plus one cat.



i'm out of origami paper now. looks like there's a trip to daiso in my future.

in exciting book news, north light books is making a schmancy plush you book! how cool is that?!



(original here)

i can't wait for the new show this fall!

cds and convalescence

uh-huh, i'm still stuck at home. splinting helps but, whatever. i'm tired of limping.

i'm not sure if it's entirely the toe's fault or not, but most days have been following this progression lately.



maybe things will be better once the sun comes out and it's not hoodie weather in june. *grumbling*

here's some good stuff though! i got cds from both al and crystl!



both are, wait for it, awesome!! (i have a photo on the back of al's cd. hooray!)

time to get back to after dark and the mound of blankets required to stay warm in june. (seriously, wtf is up with that?!)

buzzcut, framed sucking, my cat is a pair of shoes

this morning i feel all buzzy, er, i mean, fuzzy in the head.



i couldn't fall asleep until 7 am. do you know how much that sucks?

still, yesterday wasn't all no sleep and readingreadingreading while propping up my broken toe. uh-uh. i also framed one of my old tshirts.



and fujiko thought she was a pair of shoes.



can i go back to sleep now?

broken toes and stuffed animals

i've got nothing new to say this morning. you know that i've been obsessively cleaning and organizing. maybe you didn't know that i'd gotten to the stuffed animal section.

i tried to amuse myself between sneezes by taking creepy photos of them. here's the best one.



besides a photo of a leering bugs bunny, the only other thing that i got out of yesterday was a broken little toe. i'm beginning to feel like the breaking my toe is cyclical, you know, like the swallows at capistrano or spring breakers flocking to cancún. although, now that i think about it, those are bad examples since my little toe doesn't migrate. it also doesn't drink. my little toe is straight edge.

since it's pathetically overcast outside and i don't feel like hobbling around town, i guess it's reading and sketching for me today.

parks, boats, etc

someone took the song title "please visit your national parks" just a little too literally yesterday. oh, and they also applied it on the local level instead of the national level.

leff and i went on a park sprenzy yesterday. first to david rogers.



then, since it's on the way home from trader joes, we walked past kerry park.



erm, that's not kerry park but i'm sure you've guessed that.

while we were walking home, a called wanting to get some lunch. we were going to eat at gasworks after picking up some food from pcc but we took the wrong street and ended up crossing the damn freemont bridge again. instead of dealing with traffic, we decided to just eat in solu. (but not before seeing this knitta.)



look! a dragon boat!



for some reason, i thought that the center for wooden boats had already started their sunday boat rides, so we hoofed it to their docks. sadly, it doesn't start until the end of the month. but we still got to hang out with some tiny boats.



the rest of the day wasn't too exciting since it involved reorganization of our storage space. which means that the apt is a total wreck at the moment. ungh. hopefully, i'll be working on restoring our living quarters to nonsqualor state today.