Best of Boise

Off to Boise tomorrow for work. In the evening
I plan to do a little city shopping thanks to this
article from the Best of Boise edition of the
Boise Weekly. I'm especially looking forward to
going back to Lux Lounge which has a great vintage
collection.

Two More Days

Two days left in the old job. I start the new
one on November first. I will be in the same
office, but on a different "team" and in a
different position. I am moving from a paralegal
position to an investigator position and will be
working under a different attorney.

The attorney I work with now let me do occasional
investigator work but now I'll be able to do that
full time. I'm really looking forward to it.

I head down to Boise on Thursday for client visits.
Yippee!

New Job and a Photo

I recently got a new job so you'll have to excuse
the sporadic posting while I 1) finish up at the
old job and 2) get started at the new. Details will
follow but one nice thing about my new job is the
more frequent travel. Here's a place I'll have to
visit (This photo was snitched from Arbitrary and
Capricious. Isn't it lovely!):

Barbie Girls

Only a very short period of my childhood was spent
on Barbies. I quickly moved on to trolls,
spirographs and other more mature pursuits. But
when I stumbled upon a huge Barbie collection on
eBay I felt a pang of nostalgia. This woman kept
everything in beautiful condition. She even has
shoes and purses and other accessories.
















And you can tell they are from the sixties by the
heavy eye liner look on most of the Barbies. There
are nine days left to this auction and I’m curious
what it will end up going for.

Astrological Influences?

It's been an eventful week. I had some really
really bad news. And then today, some unexpected
good news, though with a slight negative twist.

Weeks like this make me wonder about astrology.
For example - they say Jupiter is the planet of
good luck and that the 10th house repersents one's
career. Could Jupiter have moved into my 10th
house?

I'd delve into this more but my daughter just
found Last of the Mohicans on tv and I've got
my priorities: Uncas !

Just My Imagination

I got an email from my imagination today. Here’s what she
had to say:

"This is your imagination. I know work, school, and general
craziness have been keeping us apart lately. But there's
something we need to do together this November.

It's called National Novel Writing Month. For it, we'll bash
out a 50,000-word novel, from scratch, in 30 days. You and
me. Writing a book. Together. I need you to sign us up.
Because I don't have any arms.

http://www.NaNoWriMo.org

Love,

Your imagination"

Of course I signed up. I can't remember the last time
I got an email from my imagination . . .

What's Different About Idaho

I’ve been asked a few times by Californians how the
people of Idaho are different than them. I’ve found
two major differences.

First, Idaho natives don’t have the same skills at walking
in groups of other people. In the grocery store for example,
people don’t know how to walk without being in someone
else’s way. I think this is because Idaho has a small
population and thus people here don’t have the experience
of getting through moderate crowds from a young age. (I
couldn't find a photo of people bumping into each other
but the image below sums up Idahoan's body space issues
pretty well)












Based on the Standard Model of the interactions of
fundamental particles, Collision II shows a time-lapse
view of two particles colliding.


Second, Idaho natives don’t care about fresh food. I thought
about this for the 238th time today after eating a piece of
very stale banana nut bread purchased from Bucer’s Coffeehouse.
It isn’t just Bucer’s. I’ve gotten stale food at almost every
coffee shop and grocery store in Moscow. Once I got a sandwich
for lunch at Wheatberries. One girl grabbed a bag containing 1/4
of a loaf of bread, frowned at it, then smelled it. She called
a co-worker over and had her smell the bread too. They still
weren’t sure about the bread so they called over a third
co-worker to help their investigation. At this point I jumped
up and told them I’d changed my mind about what type of bread
I wanted on my sandwich. When I did get my sandwich the lettuce
was wilted and turning brown and the bag of stale tasting potato
chips was actually 5 weeks past its “use by” date.

Grocery stores here are just as bad but this post is making me
nauseous AND homesick so I think I’ll stop now that you know
how Idahoans are different than Californians.

Twinkling

I’ve become slightly obssessed with vintage
yarns with metallic thread in them. Below are
two I purchased from eBay.



































I also purchased some metallic silver yarn
that I thought I could spin into another yarn
to make my own metallic yarn mixture. Not
that I’ve ever spun yarn before So I’m
doing some research. Have found this
Knitting information site to be helpful
but still have a lot to figure out.

I also came across a beautiful yarn store
called Dublin Bay. I went to their front page
but am afraid to enter because I think I may
be forced to spend lots of money there.








.

Giving via Kiva

I made my second loan through Kiva this week
(made it before I knew I would have
to pay $200 to the vet!). This time I loaned
to a woman from Azerbaijan:
















“Agila is a 40-year old divorcee with one child.
She lives with her family in Gardili village in the
Salyan region of Azerbaijan. Seven years ago she
started her own business and she now needs a
loan of $725 to to improve the harvest of her
orchard.”

I’m thinking of making a loan each month. It’s
$20 and you get to see who you are helping and
you get updates.

Foggy, Foggy Dew

We're headed up to Coeur d'Alene this morning
and instead of fall views - we've got the first
foggy days of the year.















Damn. I'm taking my camera in hopes it clears
up once we get closer to our destination. There
is actually a chance of snow today.

I Owe my Mittens to Christopher Columbus

I took a vacation day tomorrow which gives me a
four day weekend and a huge appreciation for
Christopher Columbus!

My daughter also has a four day weekend so we
are headed up to Couer d’Alene tomorrow for our
annual fall trek to Target to buy gloves and
mittens and hats.

I knit all our scarves myself, and I make a lot
of our hats, but I have never tried to knit
mittens or gloves. They seem daunting. I did
find some beautiful mittens online at
Baabaazuzu but at $46.00 a pair
I think we’ll happily settle for Target mittens.
We’ll get mittens + a pretty fall road trip for
the same price as two pairs of mittens from
Baabaazuzu , though I might buy a pair of their
mittens for a Christmas present.

First Stew of Fall

First stew of fall! I made stew this weekend!
I love stew! Started it Saturday morning -
ate it for dinner Saturday night - reheated
Sunday (second say stew is the best) - and
then divided what was left in two. One half
for the freezer - the other half to use tonight
for a sort of thicker mexicanized stew with
tortillas. For the third night we add chilis
(or chili pepper flakes) and a little tomato
paste, thicken it up with flour and serve with
corn tortillas. I love that i can get four
meals out of one day of cooking.

I bought a new pot for this stew - a $50 pot
which I justified by the thought of all the
soup I am going to make this fall
and winter after the book below arrives:

Flower Power

I am knitting my daughter a yellow scarf for
Christmas. Yellow is her favorite color. But
it is looking a little bland so I need a way
to liven it up and I think I found the
perfect thing at lisaghove’s etsy shop.

Aren’t these pretty?


















I have a feeling they are easy to make. Anyone know how?