well, it’s a long weekend (at least for me, i decided to take today off from work so that i could upgrade my computer to tiger) and it was well spent. on saturday, the spiders were all in brooklyn (minus joy and amanda) to swap yarn at kaitlyn’s stitchy sticky summer yarn swap. kaitlyn doesn’t live that far from me so i walked over there with a large bag of yarn and some wine. the day was bright and beautiful but not too hot. perfect for some outdoor fun in the shade. sandra, lisa, katie, sarah, abby, and valentina were among the girls that i already knew. there were some new faces as well that i have already forgotten the names to (help!) kaitlyn has just updated me with thos names.. the lovely girls who showed up at the party were sarah and mary.

we had fun putting yarn on joey.

we documented the stash.

we showed off our new yarn!

we fondled all the yarn.

see the gallery for more photos! all that yarn completely went to my head! lisa and i left around 6:30PM and met up with KP at barnes & noble so that we could get the newest vogueknitting and interweave knits magazines. the rest of the weekend i spent hanging with KP because he’s back in milwaukee now working. i finished up the second sock!!

and started a new one skein wonder…

this is possibly THE most luscious yarn i have ever knit with (and that’s not a stretch of the imagination because i haven’t been knitting for long!) so smooth. it’s like buttah’. i’ll be updating backpack once it’s back up from maintenance with my crafty status. in the meantime, enjoy the gallery.

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i’m so very happy that london got the olympics! i was pushing for paris since the french really do grand events in grand style but london is just as good… or should i say, anything but new york! we’re not ready as much as bloomberg would have us feel. now i’m just wondering how long it’ll be before the city removes all of the olympic paraphrenalia from the streets.

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… to come and see project playwright: the show at the abingdon theatre! the show is really excellent so i’m urging you all to come out and show your support for the local arts. playtimes that are left include: tonight (friday) 8PM, tomorrow (saturday) 3PM & 8PM, and sunday 3PM. it’s $15 well spent! and if you do show up, be sure to metion that you heard about the show here on gleek.net. i’d like to meet some of my readers!

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things around here have been running on overdrive since, well, since last year it seems, but this past week has been especially busy. saturday evening, i was in astoria for a surprise birthday get-together. sunday, my husband and i were in NJ celebrating memorial day and my grandfather’s 88th birthday (happy bday again grandpa!) and monday, we had our friends lee and jackie over along with their friend kristen and their three little girls (from age 5 to 8 months). tuesday, i was especially exhausted after work and just went straight home after the gym to watch some firefly. but yesterday, i was out about with some new friends!

kat, of pinkurocks fame, is in town this week and staying with friends in queens. she, kay (of mason dixon knitting fame), and i met up in rockefeller before heading down to downtown yarns where i fondled basically every skein of yarn in the shop. this is a great shop although it’s small and has a small selection of karabella yarn (my favorite). i love the shop’s dog, frankie, and the wide variety of rowan yarns. it’s a great find for knitters in NYC.

we then walked over to SOHO where kay left us to go home and relieve her babysitter. kat, her hubby darin, and i headed down crosby to a gallery where teva durham was having a book launch party for her new book, loop-d-loop. i love it! i was looking at all of the patterns last night and i hope that i can get around to making one of the short row sweaters this fall. really gorgeous. at the book launch party, i met up with some nyc knitbloggers who i previously didn’t know. i’m terrible with names but amongst the women i did meet were sassy stitchess and dynamite knits. i’m hoping that by running through their blogs over the next few days i’ll run into some of the other women that i met last night!

we all left the book party around 7:30 and went to antique garage for dinner where we proceeded to talk a little shop and get acquainted. the night became a blur after that. i remember looking at sassy’s newest project and riding the train home with the girls. i was so tired when i got in yet i forced myself to stay up and get the pictures downloaded from my camera so that i could post them today. you should take a look! other albums have been updated as well (and there’s this genart album in there that has no pictures.. sorry, i ran out of time this morning and really had to book it to get into work. will upload them and write about it tonight!)

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you have not heard much from me here lately because i have been working hard to get a benefit together for the next play that my production company is producing! it’s a lot of work but i’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end. so if you have $5 and some time to spare on sunday, come by under the volcano for some entertainment and drinks.

see this PDF for more information.

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the new york times has an article focusing on the japan society’s “little boy” exhibit curated by takashi murakami of LV bag fame. my favorite sentence of the article:

“These days the ‘Ultraman’ panoply of rudimentary effects seems like a delirious compendium of postmodernist camera strategies.”

um. yeah. i think that ms. smith should give up her dependence on the thesaurus. that’s possibly one of the silliest sentences i have ever read.

see the exhibit if you’re in town. it’s the pinnacle of otaku and the japan society building is pretty gorgeous itself. i love that place.. as well i should. i’m there at least once a week these days.

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i’m feeling much better today and i think that it has something to do with the weather around this joint. last night, i spent a delicious evening with danielle at teany (which i call teany’s for some reason) where we ate welsh rarebits and peanut butter bomb cake which is absolutely TO DIE FOR. in fact, i’m hesitant to even mention it here for fear that you will all descend on this little hideaway and eat it all yourself.

i love that stretch of LES around essex street. it’s just almost chinatown but not as smelly. there are so many new hot spots there that you could walk around for hours and entertain yourself just by peeking in the windows. last night, i walked back to the F train without needing to wear my coat and it just felt so natural to have the soft, warm air on my skin. god, i have waited for this kind of weather for months! anyway, danielle and i were joined by caitriona later on in the evening who expressed the need to get into a “new skirt” after seeing all the other women on the street in THEIR new skirts. she’s a riot, that one. new skirts for everyone! i was just happy that at the end of the night i made it home before the torrential downpour. ah, spring, you tease us.

i’ve almost finished the messenger bag i have been working on that i’ve titled “ode to vegetables” being that i’m a vegetarian and all that (also because there are vegetables on the fabric lining. bet you can’t wait to see it!) i put together the lining last night and it looks great! i’m happy with my seams and pockets and tonight i have to press it and then stitch the rest of the bag together then put away all the sewing stuff before my hubby returns from beautiful and scenic cincinnati. pictures to come this weekend! i promise! i’ll also start up a mobile camera gallery and finally download all the pictures i’ve been taking on my new phone. stay tuned.

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st. patty’s day is the one day i wish i could stay at home every year. if you’ve never lived in new york during march, then you’re not familiar with the parades of puke, drunken men and women stumbling along during your lunch hour, or riding the subway home while someone breathes jim bean all over you. i’m a good part irish and i think that this whole drink-till-your-falling-over tradition is a little out of hand and gives us irish a bad name. it falls right inline with a joke i hear often enough: why did god create beer? so that the irish wouldn’t rule the world.

uh, huh… and being that my office space looks down over grace plaza i’m treated to a marching band at 10.30am. ah, memories of high school. band geeks.

i just figured out how to send photos from my phone to my email account!

UPDATE: just got a shot of the large crowd that gathered outside to chant “BEER! BEER! BEER!” and roll around on the ground like dogs.

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i got on the train and there were no seats which only happens to me 40% of the time so i stood in the center aisle with the other passengers and stared at the advertisements. NOTE: it’s winter and quite cold outside. this year, i decided that it was more important to be warm than fashionable (i’m forever in the minority on this issue as is apparent from the women strutting the streets in this town) so i bought a black, long, super warm coat from lands end. it’s not ugly but not stylie either. it is a bit large though and evidently it makes me look pregnant.. or it did to the young lady who offered me her seat this morning. no joke. she looked at me all concerned and said, “do you need to sit down?” and i thought, damn i must look tired! but she was eyeing my midsection (bulked up due to the coat and scarf) and i’m sure i had this horrified look on my face two moments later when i incredulously blurted out, “no! why?” she just shook her head to indicate she was sorry and went back to reading. how incredibly depressing! all i wanted was to be warm this winter and instead i look pregnant! and all women know that no one wants to look pregnant unless they ARE really pregnant. ugh.

why do women wait till they are on the train to apply their makeup? personal grooming in public is inherently LC (that’s “low class” people!) and ranks up there with those who cut their nails in public. gross. i watched a woman put on three coats of mascara on the F train this morning. i couldn’t help but imagine the train stopping short and the mascara wand jabbing her in the eyeball. that’d teach her.

it’s also unacceptable to subject fellow travellers to your hideous singing voice and, yes, we CAN hear you singing while wearing your headphones. put a SOCK in it!

two things to follow up on. salon’s mac/windows debate really heated up and they had to publish more letters to keep the tide stemmed. i really enjoyed sasha gelbart’s letter on page 2. clear and concise.. and yes, macs and pcs are apples and oranges. i know that.. i’m just partial to apples, as it were. also, the awful antics of the new york DJs that made fun of the tsunami victims came to blows yesterday and the radio station has issued an apology, fired the DJs, and donated money to the tsunami aid groups. hopefully this will stop anyone from doing anything so similarly stupid.

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KP and i are stuck at home due to blizzarding conditions here in NYC. i can’t believe how much it has snowed today! we had to cancel our birthday dinner plans with 12 friends due to the nor’easter dump. i forgot that my camera has a feature to take video so i got this shot of our corner [even the dead have to get around] just to give you an idea of what it was like earlier (and.. so you know, it’s worse now!) no doubt, if i were watching network TV news right now they’d be calling this “the blizzard of ‘05!!” like it was the best news they’ve had in years. i’m sticking with watching KP play GTA:SA.

i’m going to start a new crochet project (the last one turned out way too big because i forgot to change the gague down for worsted yarn.. oh well, these are the mistakes newbies make) because in two weeks i’ll be doing lots of knitting.. my friend k10 and i are taking a knitting for pleasure class at FIT! i can’t wait. i have been meaning to start a knitting project for a while but couldn’t decide what to make because i’m new at this and can’t even do proper increases or decreases! i’m hoping that the class will give me a chance to see what other knitters do and maybe i can pick an easy pattern from knitty to accomplish in the class. anyway, it’ll be fun and i’m looking forward to it. next week, also, starts a brand new semester of japanese class! woo hoo!

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last night, KP and i trucked it on up to lincoln center to see the ballet. i love lincoln center. it’s an oasis of culture in an otherwise desolate upper west side. the center campus is inspiring in its immensity and architecture. i particularly love avery fisher hall where KP and i saw the philharmonic in december. the new york city ballet performances are held at the new york state theater which is across the courtyard from avery fisher hall. i had never been to the new york state theater and was impressed with the size of it but not with the decor. it looks as though some 70s nuveau artEEst was inspired by the red velvet ropes outside studio 54. regardless of how tacky i found it, it’s worth going to see for the sheer enjoyment of ridicule. anyway, the ballet (which is why i was there in the first place) was amazing. we saw goldberg variations and tschaikovsky suite no. 3. the goldberg variations part of the performance (90 minutes long!) had the entire music accompaniment of one man on a piano and he was extraordinary! such dexterity.. and the dancers too for that matter. the choreography was varied. at any one point, there would be one, two, or twenty dancers on stage, and the piano accompaniment, at times, was soft enough that you could hear the squeak of their shoes on the stage. it was beautiful and the dancers made it all seem so easy… that they could float and fly or had to be tied to the ground to keep them from drifting away. i also loved the choice of costumes. for the men, they wore different solid color unitards and the women all had simple color schemes as well. it brought your attention more to their dancing than their frilly tutus. even though i was very tired and dealing with a stye in my eye i enjoyed the night immensely.

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well, the bad news is that KP and i are laid up at home with nasty colds. i caught it on wednesday morning and then passed it on to my dear husband later that day. looks like we will be spending new year’s eve at home with a box of tissues and grand theft auto: san andreas. as i type this, KP is running some pimping missions and making lots of dough in the process. i think it’s safe to say that gta should be watched in minimum amounts before bedtime. all last night, i drove around san andreas in my dreams and i don’t even play the game! i just backseat drive while KP handles the controls. anyway, it’s a great game. very funny and more advanced than vice city was. i’m extremely impressed. if you hadn’t noticed already, i updated the galleries this week. later, i’ll post a picture of the ipod cozy that i crocheted up on tuesday. have a happy and safe new year! see you all in 2005.

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