How unusual for me to be so quiet. To be honest, I just haven't had anything interesting to tell you the past couple of days.
Ho hum... got my laptop, Lucille, fixed. She may crash again, though. I was warned. I guess I should go and buy an external hard drive and back everything up on a regular basis.
No sewing happening, even though A Tisket a Tasket is actually on the sewing machine right now. Straight lines... maybe not my thing.
Work is work. Marking, teaching. Nothing exciting there.
Oh... I have booked the apartment in Paris. It's within walking distance to Notre Dame Cathedral.
I can't wait to re-acquaint myself with Paris. This time I will not have to snap pictures from inside a moving bus. We will be walking everywhere... or taking the Métro. Like real Parisiennes.
Say a little prayer to the computer gods; my laptop, Lucille, is under the weather today. I hope she won't require surgery and/or a lengthy hospital stay.
We've had just over two good years together and I am totally, thoroughly dependent on her. One would think a computer would last more than two years... I haven't even finished paying for her yet. Sigh.
Mr. P and I went to the market this morning. We bought bread and tomatoes and cucumbers and salsa and potatoes and some very good, very greasy Korean food for lunch.
On our way out, there was a lady was selling daffodils.
At two bucks a pop, they were an expensive little symbol of Spring. I could have bought an entire bunch of them at the grocery store for about $4.00. But they brighten up the front hall.
Tonight: dinner and a show. Not much sewing going on today. A bit of marking, a bit of ATC-making, a lot of frustration. Maybe I should pack it in and take a dog for a walk...
I used to teach English. I'm glad I don't anymore, not because I don't love literature; I do. I'm also a grammar freak. But the essays... oh those essays to mark. I mark plenty of essays as a Social Studies/History teacher, but somehow they're different.
My department head sent me this email the other day. It gave me a laugh, and it made me think of Isabelle, so I hope she reads this:
Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country.
Here are last year's winners...
Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. Instead of 7:30.
Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. Traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m., at a speed of 35 mph.
They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law, Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
C'est drôle, n'est-ce pas?
Another beautiful day here, with temperatures reaching 9 degrees celsius. That's about 48 degrees fahrenheit. Lovely for March. I even washed my car today; I had to because I could barely see out the windows. All the thawing and mud this week has made a real mess. But I'm not complaining. I love the sunshine!
When I got home from work this afternoon, I baked a batch of oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies for the OnlyChild to take to rehearsal tomorrow. She's a stage manager for the school play; she used to be on-stage, but then she gave it up. Too bad - she was a very good actress. I'm glad she's renewed her interest in theatre and is enjoying her 'job'.
I also did my housecleaning for the weekend (well, the downstairs anyway). I opened windows and let the air and sun in. I have a bit of marking to do, and lots of sewing, I hope. The weather is supposed to continue like this for a few more days - then snow on Monday. Ugh.
But I'm not fooled. Spring never comes to stay this early.
Nope, I'm not putting away my coat and boots... not yet.
Nothing much happening here at Chez Rachel. Some marking, lots of eating (I'll be gaining back that 15 lbs if I'm not careful), and I finally pin-basted my Tisket a Tasket quilt. I haven't done anything with the Checkerboard top yet because I still need backing fabric.
Italian lesson tonight. Dance tomorrow night. Lazy every other night.
I have been watching too many episodes of Weeds online lately while marking and sewing - and the theme song is that old folk favourite, "Little Boxes".
Anyway... something must have stuck in my subconscious because I made my own little boxes. It's a good thing I came up with some idea to use all these:
I'm a little addicted to this cheese.
So, this is what we're going to do with these little boxes:
Step One - Measure the diameter of the box and add 3/8" all around (this will be the diameter plus the side that needs to be covered).
Step Two - Cut two circles from scrapbook or wrapping paper. Luckily for me, my Creative Memories circle cutter set had one the perfect size, so that was easy!
Step Three - Apply glue (Mod Podge works well) to the bottom of one of the pieces. I used a flat paintbrush to do this.
Step Four - Set the gluey bottom right in the middle of one of the wrong sides of the paper circles. Then use a pair of scissors to cut slits in the paper from the edge to the box about 3/8" apart all the way around. I know this is a terrible picture, but I hope you get the idea.
Step Five - Using that same flat paintbrush and more glue, press down all the little paper tabs, overlapping as you go. Lots of glue will seal them.
Step Six - Brush glue all over the paper and set aside to dry. Repeat with the other side of the box.
When you're done, you should have a cute little box that can be used for gift cards, jewelry, or other small gifts.
You can also glue ribbon around the edge if you don't like the white strip showing (just be careful not to glue the two halves of the box together!) like on this one that I made for Kaye when she won my giveaway last month.
If you've got any cheese boxes just lying around, why not give this a try. Let me know how it turns out.
I try to revisit my "word of the year" every once in a while. My word for 2010 was "Focus", something that is very hard for me to do most of the time. There seems to be too much going on for me to give my full, undivided attention to any one thing for any length of time.
But today I focused.
Yesterday and today were Teachers' Convention days. I went to sessions yesterday and met friends for lunch. I went to sessions this morning, then skipped lunch and went to the Art Gallery for the afternoon. There was a free tour for teachers, but we were also encouraged to stay after and enjoy the gallery, which I did.
It's a brand new building that just opened on January 31, and it's caused somewhat of a controversy in this city.
I love it! I thought it was a bit strange looking when I saw the architect's proposals before construction began, but my visit today made me a convert.
I freely admit that I'm a wannabe, a dilettante. I know a little about art - I took some art history courses in university and I have a degree in Medieval and Renaissance history, which included the study of quite a bit of (mostly religious) art - but I'm no expert.
I sat in that dark room for half an hour, listening. I felt what I was feeling and though what I was thinking and focused on just being there.
It was amazing.
I will go back. I might even buy a membership - unlimited visits for a year. (The OnlyChild has one.)
And when I was done at the Art Gallery, I went shopping. I spent a store credit I had been hanging onto for months and used it for two cute spring tops. And then I went next door to another store where all sale items were another 50% off and I bought two tops and a pair of dress pants for $18.36.
How cute is that? The polka dots. The yellow. Those buttons and ric-rac. And that postcard for inspiration. (That in itself was enough to make me jump at this.)
The challenge is, using the items above (except the postcard), to create a 30"-40" square quilt. I get to design my own using any method I like, but it must be inspired by Paris and it must use the items in the kit.
Quilts finished and posted by April 15 will be entered in a contest.
I think I'll make this for my friend, Sandi, who is also my travel partner. Her birthday is April 22 - wouldn't this make a nice gift?
