muse

Coolest. Dresses. Ever.

I am participating in another writing challenge right now, but it’s a much more doable 100 words a day. The 301 was incredibly difficult for me. One positive — this time, I’ve actually put together almost ten pages of  a real story. I still seem to have a phobia about actually switching scenes, but even a meandering scene is at least a start. I’m getting to know the protagonists and it’s generating food for thought around the central conflict.

Work continues to be crazy busy, and I am sooo tired. Next weekend I’m going on a writers retreat. I promised myself I’d have at least ten pages written by then, so I really should be typing over there and not over here…

Wow. Just…. Wow. We had an amazing trip. Hawai’i really is a paradise. I actually cried on the last morning because I wasn’t ready to leave. There’s something about the breeze that is so fresh. It always smells good. We did a mountain bike ride down from the Haleakala crater, and I kept being distracted by smells. Eucalyptus, jasmine, the earthy scents of the wooded areas. It was the kind of air spas pay ridiculous money to have.

The beaches on Maui are mostly little coves, and if you get away from the big hotels, you’ll be one of maybe five people on your own perfect sliver of sand. Snorkeling got us within about three feet of some beautiful sea turtles, who just chilled at the surface with us. I had never seen one before, and to get that close was magical.

I could write tons about what we did, and maybe I will. But what I really wanted to do was post photos! So here they are … sorta culled through, but I apologize that there are still so many.

Female readers of this blog already know from their own long-standing, bitter experience just how hard it is to find a swimsuit that works. Really works. Doesn’t move, doesn’t dip too low or ride too high, doesn’t give you a muffin-top or a muffin-bottom (you know what I mean). It doesn’t require expensive salon waxing jobs with exotic names. The perfect swimsuit is covering but still attractive. Trendy is probably too much to ask, but we keep the candle of bright hope burning that it might be possible. Somewhere, our swimsuit is waiting for us, crammed on a rack or visible from one angle only on the pages of a catalog. We will know it when we find it, and when we do, we will all be able to fearlessly frolic, at one with our inner beach bunny.

I’m happy to report I have found one such suit. So pardon me while I shamelessly revel and gloat. But I am super pleased! STV and I leave on our vacation in Maui next Wednesday. Now, I would count myself blessed just to get to go to Maui, even dressed in a burlap bag. Hawaii has been a dream of mine for several years now. I good, active tropical vacation where I get to surf and hike and scuba dive and such is one of the things I had promised myself I would do one last time before we start a family. Part of this, granted, is that I also want one last cavorting session where my abs look decent in a bikini. STV claims I will get them back eventually, but I don’t believe him. At least not in their present state, honed by years of belly dance and a very brutal but effective personal trainer. I wanted a new bikini for said cavorting, so I got the green string top and fuller-coverage bottom pictured here. And OMG, they’re awesome. I can put them on and forget about them. It’s heaven in paisley print. I’m tempted to buy the tank and the string bottom, too, to have the whole suite of options but 1) they won’t get here in time for the trip and 2) heaven has a not-insubstantial price tag… isn’t that always how it goes?

Next in Kat’s list of feel-good videos:

Yes, it’s a commercial, but it also falls in my goofy-grin category. And, it gives you context to appreciate the associated, appropriately random xkcd comic…

So I went to one of Austin’s better-known vegan joints for dinner tonight. Vegetarian cuisine excites me, when I think about it philosophically — vegetables are beautiful, and the eclectic combination of textures and colors and shapes on a plate together looks fresh and inviting to me. So why is it that “vegan food” at Asian restaurants is too often shapeless lumps of fried “chewy vegetable protein?” (Yes, the adjective was actually on the menu.) I don’t want vegetable protein in a runny generic brown sauce. I want vegetables in an identifiable form. I’d rather go the beans and lentils route, with tofu thrown in, which is as close to the veggie protein concept as I think i want to get.

To be fair, I didn’t TRY said dish. Just the appearance was a turn-off. Maybe I’ll be braver next time.

This video has brought a big goofy grin to my face that I’ve been wearing all day. And you know what? I love it.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

While I’ve had an account for a while over there, and I’ve yet to actually post anything, I’m finally on You Tube courtesy of one of my troupe-mates. Enjoy!

So my little hat refuses to come into being. I’ve been working hard at my first cabling project, a little hat in the “coronet” pattern from knitty. It looks straightforward, so I thought I would give it a shot.

Having ripped the band once and started over, I still believe it is straightforward. Or at least, that it should be. But I’m having wacky issues with the edge of my knitting. The cabling itself is no problem, but my “selvedges,” if you can even call them that are really loopy. I actually mean loopy in the literal sense — It looks like I’m getting an extra little loop or knot in there every time, which means that trying to fix an error by just chaining up the edge (which I learned how to do from this excellent tutorial by techknitting)results every time in something that looks like a slipped stitch at the base of the area I tried to correct. I’ll add photos, but for now I’m just venting.

I’m working the first and last stiches of every row — so knittng them one row, and purling them the next. I didn’t add any stitches or slip anything, because I’ve never done a pattern where I have to pick up stitches; and since the pattern calls for picking up a stich every three rows once the band is done, I was afraid that the slipped selvedge would throw me off when it came time to pick stuff up.

I’m willing to rip it out again, but not until I know what I’m doing wrong and how to fix it. So I’m off to Gauge tonight to buy needles for another project, and to beg and plead them to take a look.

WAH.

Again while trolling wine blogs, I found a great demonstration chez Dr. Vino of a furoshiki wine bottle carrier. What a fabulous idea! It’s so simple, pratical, and beautiful. I am never creative enough to think of that kind of thing on my own. Following the links, I took a peek at Japan’s Ministry of the Environment page on furoshiki foldings and usage. It struck me as a brilliant way to create workhorse carryalls, but also as a gorgeous way to wrap gifts. So I’m stashing it here for future inspiration. You can buy legit furoshiki online for about $10, but it seems like it would with any fabric or scarf of the right dimensions.

Neato!!