I'm practically famous!

My mom and sister both directed me to this article. Not just because of the Davidson connection, but because I was one of the speakers at the seminar Thomas Sander mentions in the article! We took a break midway through the presentation and one student came back in telling everyone about the email. Everyone thought he was joking at first but then realized that would have been way too cruel. Obviously, no one wanted to stay for the second half of the talk. The offer was unfortunatly not extended to alumni guest-speakers.

Serendipity

Yesterday morning I was driving home from a particularly hellish work trip to the eastern part of the state and passing the time by listening to a sports radio broadcast from the RBC Center in Raleigh. I was just outside Raleigh when the announcer mentioned that Davidson would be taking the court to practice in about 15 minutes and that practices were open to the public. The RBC Center is one of the few places in Raleigh I can find unassisted and my route home took me within spitting distance of the arena. I made it inside after they had started practice and stayed about half an hour, until it was UMBC's turn to practice. There were about 100 people watching but most just seemed to be hanging around until UNC practice started later in the day. Out of habit, I really wanted to start clapping or cheer when someone made a great play or pulled off a difficult shot, but ummmmmm, it's practice. Maybe not the best time to act like a crazed fan. I stopped by the box office when I left but I missed the last of the Friday tickets by a few hours. Nonetheless, it was a perfect way to end a tough trip. Check out the pictures, with a bonus video of my Davidson basketball boyfriend.

Projects, Old and New

I was pretty busy with some sewing projects over the weekend and realized I haven't posted anything about other recent crafty things. Here are some details for those of you who are interested (mom). My camera isn't cooperating so some of these picture aren't great.

First, a fancy-schmancy cover/liner for a recycling bin. Note to self: when trying to disguise cardboard, do not choose a light brown suede fabric. This just looks like a picture of a plain cardboard box. Fancy.


In other trash-related projects, I made car trash bag based on this one. I have never sewn on oilcloth before so the sewing is pretty terrible because it kept slipping everywhere. This picture is taken at a flattering angle - it really doesn't look that good.


In the last of the recent projects, I altered a pair of mens shorts to fit. I have really wanted a pair of madras shorts for a while now but most of the womens ones are bermuda length and expensive. I got a cheap pair at Old Navy and just fixed the length and pockets. I had to cut off my head in the picture because I was still wearing my sweaty gym shirt. I'm a classy model like that.


Old Projects:
I found some great flannel fabric a while ago but it took me some time to get around to doing anything with it. Enter the grossly oversized but incredibly comfortable whale pants:

Side note on sea mammal pants: Gap used to have a style of pants called the Matinee pant. It took me forever to figure out why someone would wear pants named after a sea cow.

Finally, a close-up of some embroidery on a skirt I made. The image is from this Johnny Gruelle story that my mom used to read my sister and me. "A wishbone is an object of great importance in this world!"


And for those of you still scrolling through this, here is my sewing machine. I recently traded with my mom so I'm still getting used to it and am slightly intimidated by its fancy features.

Chicken

In middle and high school our family would occasionally go watch a University of Evansville men's basketball game. During these years they won the Missouri Valley Conference championship a few times and got to dance so they were fun to watch and cheer for. The school ran a lot of promotions to get people excited about games and offered endless types of halftime entertainment shows. By far, the best promotion was one sponsored by a local fast food-type fried chicken place. If the Aces held the opposing team to under 50 points then everyone in attendance could redeem their ticket for a free chicken dinner the next day. This kept the crowd engaged in blow-outs and most likely caused some confusion and ill-will among visiting teams when fans continued to heckle losing teams after home team victory was nearly assured. "Getting chicken" is still a commonly used phrase in our family's lexicon.

All this is to say that although we got our asses kicked last night, at least they're not enjoying chicken today in Nashville.

Click Here

Links that have caught my attention recently. Most of them have been over on the starred items feature but some are new.

Bossy explains delegates. Relevant for today's voting, especially if you live in a state that has primaries before, say, May.

Mimi Smartypants wants to punch Paul McCartney in the face. This made me laugh out loud this morning.

Afraid of clusters of things? I was laughing at the comments until someone brought up the tree-man from the Discovery Channel or some such show. I can barely finish this sentence without darting under my desk and curling up in a ball, such is my physical reaction to the tree-man. Google at your own risk.

Bookplates. I have been mildly obsessed with cheap and cute bookplates for a while now and haven't found anything that meets both qualifications. The ones I made and posted about here a while ago are fine but incredibly time intensive. I have some ideas for new ones so I'll let you know how that goes.

Cooking Disaster

I had a little cooking accident this weekend (no brownies were harmed!) that I have beautifully illustrated below. Bottom line: completely clear stovetop before turning on oven. Also, black beans catch fire easily.

Round-up!

I haven't done this in a while - here's what I'm up to.

Listening - Just bought the newest Okkervil River cd on a whim after seeing in on someone's list of the best of 2007. I'm really loving it - it's a lot more upbeat than I was expecting and doesn't make you want to stick your head in the oven as much as Black Sheep Boy.

Reading - After a two year hiatus I picked up Spook again. I had gotten completely bogged down in the discussion of measuring and detecting souls so I ended up skipping to the end of that section and starting with the chapter on ectoplasm. Much more enjoyable this time around. I'm also working on Bridge of Sighs but it's pretty slow going now. I just haven't had a whole lot of time for reading lately.

Watching - I can't remember who recommended Cache to me but they must have only watched the first half of the movie. (spoiler ahead!) The concept is really intriguing and there is a perfectly creepy amount of suspense, especially when you're not sure if you're watching real-time action or a videotape. The end of the movie is a huge let-down, all the drama is created by a man with a 40 year old grudge against a six year old. Seriously? So disappointing.