16. learn how to water ski (30x30)

This was tweeked slightly. I missed the waterskiing window by a couple months, so decided that cross country skiing was a plausible substitution since it is still skiing on water; just frozen, flakey water. The same weekend that I went to Vermont with my Dad and Mart to go on the dog sled run, we also went cross country skiing. I didn't like it at first because I fell down. You don't go very fast, at all. There are no edges to the skis which means that turning is very difficult. I thought I would be very cold, because downhill skiing gets cold, so I put those hand warmers in my gloves. Half-way around the trails I had to take my gloves off completely, I was on fire! Once I changed mindsets and thought of cross country as an endurance sport and not a sprint sport, it was much easier.




Cross country also affords much more time to stop and appreciate the trees and the beautiful day.

2. go on a dog sled trek in vermont (30 x 30)

My dad took me up to Vermont for my birthday this year and we went on a dog-sled trek. The Husky Works Mushing Company is run by Laura and her husband, Jeremy. They really care for the dogs, took a about an hour to explain how they started and all about the dogs, where they came from, the temperment of huskies. It was like a rollercoaster going down the hills, watching the dogs just take off!

13. Finish quit #2 (31x31)

Jason's t-shirts were spilling out of his dresser and he had advertised for someone to organize his closet and his kitchen for $100, and he'd buy all the supplies. I looked at his shirts and offered to make them into a memory quilt if he wanted to pick up the tab for the materials. He picked out 17 shirts for me to sew together, threw them in a plastic bag and I brought them up to Delaware.

We emailed about the order:
1. NASA camp shirt, 2. convention shirt from Chicago with "benign anarchy" written like the heineken trademark, 3. another convention shirt, 4. Camp Chi shirt, 5. Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity rush shirt (I refused to put the catchphrase of "our brotherhood is tighter than your little sister" on the quilt), 6. NOAR camp shirt, 7. chef jacket from Stoney's because everyone should work in a restaurant at some point in their life, 8. Matisyahu shirt which reminded him of being a Sunday school teacher, 9. Referee shirt from WAKA league, 10. WAKA league area champions!, 11. birthday party at Mike Ditka's restaurant shirt, 12. LA convention shirt, 13. Mighty Might Bosstones tour shirt, 14. George Washington University School of Public Policy shirt, 15. Kickball competition between the schools of public administration from GWU, UMD, AU, and GU,16. Marine Corp Marathon shirt.

I sent him choices for the color of fabric for the border and the backing. Of course it took him four days to choose what he wanted. This was my big snow project, I hand-stitched the t-shirt squares during the snow storms. When I was done with the squares and was waiting for the fabric to arrive, I knit a dog sweater and started working on the knit quilt. The fabric arrived just in time for me to take it to Chris & Dar's house to use their sewing machine for the borders and back and edge.

Tonight I used buttons to tack the squares to the backing while watching Unforgiven (on the AFI top 100 list!) Tomorrow I will mail the quilt to Jason and he'll have to take it to the dry cleaners because he's allergic to the Clawdias of the world.

22. drink suggested amounts of water daily (30 x 30)

This daily effort should be easy, but instead it is easily forgotten. I have eliminated soda and all carbonated beverages from my diet. Really the only juice that I drink is orange juice and I try to only drink the fresh squeezed. For the most part I drink water, coffee (although have cut that out again due to the caffeine giving false energy and false metabolism), and milk in my cereal or oatmeal in the morning. I can tell when I'm dehydrated by how bad my breath stinks. sometimes I wonder if I can't smell my bad breath though, like a monkey can't smell it's funk in a cage as Mariah says.

21. meditate/yoga once a week (30x30)

There were probably some weeks in there where my purpose was not meditation but it effectively is meditating. Sitting still, watching thoughts move across the ceiling like clouds across the sky. My clouds normally flow right to left, not quite sure why.

My yoga practice has incorporated Iyengar, Astanga, and Vinyasa, and Bikram. Currently, my favorite is Astanga because I like the Prasarita series and because the Turtle pose is in there towards the end.

This picture was taken before sunrise on the shores of the small wonderful.

10. learn how to knit socks. Make a pair for godfather's wife with the yarn bought in Colorado. (30 x 30)

Why was making socks so intimidating? I have no idea. It might be the instructions on paper which use words to describe a three dimensional piece of work. a la Miles Davis "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"

After two or three independent tries, I asked for help. My buddy Jude taught me how to knit socks on one needle.


I screwed up though, left the instructions somewhere and rather than wait to find the sheet, decided to work two socks at once... Needles to say, it was too much for me. I frogged (which means to take it apart) the whole thing after a week's worth of work. In a retail therapy moment I tried to go to the knitting store in Newark, DE for some double pointed needles, but it was closed. I found the set I was looking for at home afterwards. oi.

The Big Book of Knitting was my first knitting book five years ago when I started. It has lots of klassy patterns, but most importantly it has easy to read instructions that aren't abbreviated. For example: "Continue working back and forth: In the first row, slip the last stitch on the second needle knitwise, knit the first stitch on the third needle, and pass the slipped stitch over. Turn the work. In the second row (WS [working side]), slip the first stitch purlwise, purl the following stitches, then pur the last stitch on the second needle together with the first stitch on the third needle. Turn the work. In the third row, slip the first stitch purlwise, slip the first stitch purlwise, work a single decrease over the last stitch on the needle and the first stitch on the third needle. Keep Repeating Rows 2 and 3 until all the stitches on the first and third needles have been used up. Put the remaining stitches onto 2 needles, at 5 stitches on the fourth and first needles."

I don't know exactly how to write that in knit-ese but it might look something like this:

Shape Heel:
1st row: P17, p2tog,P1, turn.
2nd row: K5, ssk, K1, turn.
3rd row: P6, p2tog, p1, turn.
4th row: K7, ssk,k1, turn.
Continue working in this manner, working 1 st more before dec in each row until there are 18 sts.
Next row: P18, break yarn.
Pick up and knit 18 sts along side edge of heel, knit 18 sts from needle, pick up and knit 18 sts along other side of heel. 54 sts.
Next row: Purl.

I don't know how to follow those instructions.









The key is turning the heel. All the rest is increasing and decreasing.






SOCKS FOR EVERYONE!

15. learn the russian marche by mozart (30 x 30)

this item is being abandoned, orphaned, left out to dry, jilted.

When I moved to the small wonderful, my nails grew to damaging lengths, hard like vulture talons. This also happened when I moved to LaLa so I think it may be a natural defense mechanism. When scared in a new place, my body prepares me for the fight part of the fight or flight reflex.

As a consequence, I have had to relearn typing because it is different with talons. it also means that if I were to play the piano there would be an unacceptable clicking noise. Mrs. Lewis, my piano teacher up until I was 12 years old, had nail clippers in the basket next to the metronome and would cut off anything offensive to her ears. For someone who rarely has long nails, this time is a gift and I cannot cut them. Instead of learning how to play the russian marche, I instead took a hun-gar kung-fu class and learned how to utilize these new talons:

the praying mantis


the dragon


the tiger


the owl


(i just made that one up)