Barack-o-lanterns

The key words for tonight's activities: pumpkins (Safeway prole-kins vs Whole Foods bourge-kins), knives, and festive booze. I'm going to try to make this pumpkin, the stencil for which was made by a duo who, coincidentally, designed a shirt I own. The shirt has narwhals on it.

There's also going to be some Tyra in there, and hopefully a youknowwhat for the Phillies!

Werthless?

Last night I had some Yuengling and watched the Phillies flail, then fail. When Jayson Werth got picked off at first base (after having made an error in right field), I made my first sports pun...I won't say ever, but in a long time! See blog entry title for joke. Other important name commentary included talking about Evan Longoria every time he batted. I also recounted the story of how I broke a bat playing softball in Silver Spring in summer 2006.

I am putting the bar back where it was before game 1.

[NB I don't actually think he's worthless, but he does have some awful landing strip facial hair.]

Satorialist

I was totally the American version of this little girl...

Haha funny

Two stories that amused me recently:

Make DC Weird by Designing, Buying a T-shirt (WCP City Desk blog)
An English Country Stylist, Unrepentant (NYT)

Favorite excerpts:

1. From Jule, former colleague:

[O]ther cities with weird campaigns, they are more committed to their towns’ weirdness. "They have street performers," she offers as an example.

"So what we need are mimes?," I ask. "Yes," she says. 'Mimes."

"And maybe those people who look like they’re made out of gold, but they’re really not.'

"Yes," she says, "or maybe pewter. Anything metallic."

2) from NYT:

a. Keith Irvine turned 80 last week and threw himself a garage sale to celebrate. "A very elegant garage sale," he said dryly, raising silvery eyebrows.

b. Mr. Irvine can be balky. In the 1980s, he said he suffered a midlife crisis, which he expressed by building an addition to his early 19th-century farmhouse. The addition included a very grand ballroom, and did not include any input from his wife.

"It was very irritating," she said in a phone interview last week. Mrs. Irvine, who has written 13 books on architecture and decorative arts, took her revenge by threatening to have an image of the new wing engraved on expensive stationery emblazoned with the words "Keith’s Erection."

(Smar)Tripping Up

When SmarTrip came out and then began expanding, I didn't pay much attention to it. I kept not paying much attention it even when I moved out of metro-less Georgetown. And I still don't have one! Which has been due to a) laziness b) using bus/metro to get rid of my coins and c) my desire and decision, as of spring, to find a new city. But now unless I move before January, WMATA, I think you have got me! They are eliminating paper transfers, which would pretty much make taking the bus twice as expensive since I use them round trip. According to the press release, "Only passengers who pay with SmarTrip will continue to be able to transfer from one bus to another for free and transfer from Metrorail to bus for the discounted 35¢ fare."

It also sort of makes me feel like a jerk because of this bit:

Eliminating paper transfers will save Metro about $350,000 a year for the cost of paper and printing, plus expenses associated with the repair and maintenance of the old transfer machines in stations. It also is expected to minimize fraud and abuse of paper transfers by individuals who sell or give away their transfers to other riders, and reduce assaults on bus operators by riders who have disputes with operators about transfers.

To my credit, I've reused a lot of these slips in crafts (woven lightswitch covers--maybe I should tell DCist?), but having a SmarTrip card is really just logical at this point.

Burst my bubble

Somewhat impractical but amusing calendar idea for 2009:

Phanaticism

The fact that the Phillies are playing in the World Series this year is just sort of crazy to me. It was made crazier by reading this other fact: "The age of the team combined with its history of adversity has earned them the distinction of having lost the most games of any team in the history of major league Baseball."

The last time the Phillies played in the World Series was over a decade ago (and when I knew the whole lineup), and their only victory was in 1980 (and when my parents went to see it). I have a T-shirt from then that declares them world champs, and while I am really just happy they've got to this point, I can't help but hope it's lucky. The other, silly, off-topic thing I just realized is that both teams names are guys's names, so that MLB heds like "Rays Earn Date with Phils" make me think of a guys in suits or uniforms on a double date eating at a candlelit table. Because while I enjoy baseball, experience has taught me not to take it too seriously.

The things we did and didn't buy

I finally got myself this Prince-worthy umbrella:

I want these shoes:

Mysterious illegality

On the bus to work this morning, I noticed the woman next to me had a beige water bottle with the word "illegal" printed on it. The idea of a beverage sloganing against something illicit piqued my interest, but it was awkward trying to read the rest of what was on there because the bottle was in the woman's lap. All I caught was "shouldbeillegal.com" and something about Facebook. The possibilities are endless!

I found one site thisshouldbeillegal.com that's about the DCRA, but if that were the right one I dunno why they'd take the time to mention Facebook. Urls such as "facebookstalkingshouldbeillegal.com" give an error message. Googling "should be illegal" + Facebook just turns up abortion stuff and one "Internet Explorer Version 6 Should be Illegal." My best guess is it's something about privacy, but maybe it's something better like "having 500 friends."

Zzzzzz (p.s. i miss my cat)

Despite my constant state of drowsiness, I actually don't take that many naps. But I realized that some of my favorite Flickr photos are of wee ones -- babies and kittehs -- napping. Look! Cat is almost bigger than human (credit SouleMama) :

Crafty

This past Sunday was Crafty Bastards, and despite the time crunch (only three weeks to prepare) I managed to have a lot of things ready and to sell a good number of them. Wooot. I had a lot of helpers (4!). I think the thing that made me most able to enjoy the day was having better prepared my display. Mom and I even bought some flowers, and I really liked the easel and canvas display I had for some hanger/organizers I made with wood from PA. I also spent more time on packaging, although that was only really for the notebooks.

This year, given the fact that I had been on the "waiting list" for over a month, I thought a lot more about the confidence factor that selling something handmade requires. I realized my CB application was flawed (as KW pointed out, didn't showcase my more unique stuff) and that they were trying to get new sellers, but being almost rejected was something of a blow. I had never gotten that kind of negative reaction to the things I make, and it was hard not to take it personally. In the same way, I felt much more inclined to really hawk my wares when I was confident that my setup looked good. And how goodgoodgood it feels to have people peer over your table and say how clever or cool they think something is. I'm just happy it worked out, and, for many reasons, I have tons of respect for people who do this full time.