a list about moving and stuff

1. you find yourself clinging to the oddest of things. i keep trying to pack shelves to take with us to the new place. in case you were wondering if i've lost my mind, we are moving, but putting 90% of what we own in storage. we get 5% each to take with us. i keep wanting to take shelves of all things (and blankets). i have a couple of little shelves that i use to hold keys or my glasses next to the bed etc. they give me an odd sense of comfort, i guess. to always have a place for my keys and glasses? as for the blankets. i know not. it just seems practical to always have a blanket, i guess. i do sound kind of insane, never mind.

2. it is oddly exhilarating to only have the absolute basics to work with on a daily basis. as in plates, silverware, glasses, etc. i've been striving for a vacation home feeling (a la Scaling Down) for several years but my strange compulsion for eccentric items that border on practical prevented such a reality. except for now, i guess.

3. nothing has brought me more comfort these days more than my container garden. that, and the mr. of course. he's pretty amazing at the comforting thing. lucked out there. but, trying to figure out how to transport 10 pots of varying sizes on a rather long road trip and keeping them alive. i was considering rigging interior vehicular window boxes, but dangit my little plants are doing so great, i fear they are getting too big. it's not a bad problem to have, i just need to do some brainstorming.

4. when asked what movies he would like to take with him with our 90% storage plan, the mr. simply said: none. i, on the other hand, took Practical Magic, the entire 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls, both seasons of Flight of the Conchords, and wavered on taking The Blues Brothers as well, seeing as it's one of my all-time favourite movies, but it's on Netflix Instant (i think) so i stored it. what does that say about me, i wonder? two of the four are comforting, female-bonding movies based around a really awesome cozy house. the other two are male-centric music-based comedies. strange, no?

5. the mr. and i have been a tad sentimental about leaving our very first official home together. we named it the nest and have enjoyed our first 10 months of living together here. here, in our haunted little duplex, with our slightly silly bachelor neighbour who kept us up a few nights playing rock band and creating an indoor mini-golf course in his living room. the little patch of moss and shady trees behind our house that i spent many a morning with the buddy and moonlit night enjoying the atmosphere. the gargantuan squirrels who've grown fat on our trashy neighbour's mcdonald's litter. they are so big when they run on the roof, they sound like a goblin or a small child running freakishly fast. our neighbourhood busybody (we call her mrs. kravitz) who will suck you into terrifying never-ending conversations about the nere-do-well tenants of the neighbourhood (whether they haven't lived there in 9 or 10 years doesn't really concern her). i will miss having a window in the bathroom and my epic baths with a water-warped book and early morning light. hmmm. our little home. i'm excited for the new chapter in our lives (hopefully new jobs), but i will miss this little place. indeed.

more to come, friends.

cheers!

~lu

this week

heavens! my computer still won't post anything, i can't even comment on people's blogs! it's so frustrating and i have no idea what the deal is. once again i've hijacked the mr.'s computer so i can't catch up a little. it's been so long since i've been able to write anything, i've forgotten everything i wanted to share. but this is basically what is going on this week:

the house is in utter disarray, but we only have two major pieces of furniture to move before it's just boxes and miscellany. the problem? a very small storage unit. hopefully it will all fit!

i had planned on writing much more about what's going on, but that's really it. it's just boxes and packing and packing boxes and packing tape and finding more things to pack.

i think that's the most the word "pack" has been used in a sentence ever.

more to come, i swear. i'll hijack the computer again when the mr. is sleeping or something.

adieu for now!

~lu

mando madness

on the top of the list for the cutest thing i've seen all week. mando picker.

cheers y'all!

~lu

tom

i was at this very show. watching just this minute or so of footage sent me straight back to how magical that show was. tom puts on a show, lemme tell you; and if i could have any musical wish tonight, it would be that i could attend another concert of his tomorrow.

cheers, kiddos. more packing to do!

~lu

body flex

i'm terribly frightened by this woman, but terribly fascinated by her at the same time. so much so that i made the mistake of watching more of her videos (including a few tooty parodies) and got sucked into a strange world of chemically-damaged hair, skin-tight leotards, and extremely unflattering facial exercises.

enjoy, friends.

cheers!

~lu

finally another update!

for some bizarre reason, my blogspot will not publish my posts from my laptop right now, so i have sneaked on to the mister's mac (because they NEVER FAIL) and am doing a quick update. here's what's up this week!

1. the mister is on his way to mississippi for a day trip to get some things out of the storage unit and pay off his car loan (thankfully the mr. miati sold the other day).

2. i spent the past three hours walking around tallahassee nurseries and walking home (it's not that far, but it was a really good walk...i needed it). the weather is so beautiful and i wandered around examining triton maple, juncus (little twisty spiral grass of some sort), herbs herbs herbs (i procured sweet marjoram and provence lavender for my herb garden project), succulents (i am oddly fascinated by them), yarrow, begonias, geraniums, blueberry bushes, and bromeliads.

3. little buddy has been having a heck of a time with being an itchy boy. poor little critter. florida from april-september just does not agree with him. he's getting a bath today and lots of TLC from mama.

4. i've been in a major movie-watching mood. we recently finished youth in revolt and one of my favourites, eagle vs. shark (a wonderfully quirky and beautifully filmed new zealand romantic comedy...if you can call it that). i've written about it before, but i had to watch it again (and again and again) this week. youth in revolt was great too. michael cera's turn as a french, chain-smoking anarchist of sorts was terribly entertaining. i could watch an entire film of just that minor character, francois dillinger.

5. right now i'm trying to contrive a mobile container garden for our road trip. this is going to be an interesting experiment indeed. a fantastic challenge for a novice gardener.

that is all for now, really. we have a lot more packing to do. i'm going to try to get a bit done while the mister is en route. but it's such a gorgeous day...i just want to take a nap in the cool green grass instead! there has to be some middle ground somewhere.

hope you enjoyed that gorgeous full moon last night, friends. it's peaceful blue tractor beam was illuminated the whole neighbourhood last night. lovely!

adieu for now,

lu

pointy boots

the cultural anthropologist in me is rather fascinated by this trend. it's a blend of utter modern excessiveness and ancient showmanship. try to make it through the whole thing. i bet lady gag will be wearing this in a matter of weeks. at least, i hope so.

cheers!

~lu

new!

good morning, friends! it's a fantastically stormy day outside. my favourite kind of weather. thunder and constant rain. delight! i woke up so happy to hear the tapping of it on the rooftop. here's the newest list for the catch-up:

1. i went to see my chosen twin (aka super wonderful, amazing friend of mine) in a theatre production of Curtains. he was great! i laughed and as per usual got chills every time a perfect harmony was hit. what a fabulous experience!

2. one thing i love about me and the mister...we own a tremendous amount of books. and even though i asked him to get rid of some at the yard sale (which he did, and i got rid of my own as well), we still have 5-6 boxes ranging in size from little for paperbacks and huge for hardbacks of them being packed away. it's a really nice disease to have, especially on a rainy day like today.

3. it seems like it rained a lot more when i was a kid. does it seem that way to you? it's been a sadly dry year here.

4. 16 days until we no longer live at the nest. it makes me a little sad and sentimental. our nest is so cozy and happy. it's our escape from the world. i am going to miss our first house together. but, i'm really excited about our summer and how we will make that place our sanctuary too.

5. i have had an ungodly craving for vegetarian raviolis lately. why? i know not. but i cannot get enough! too bad for that craving too, because i'm cooking everything out of our pantry and refrigerator. nathan had to eat a 10-egg omelet the other day before the eggs went bad. heh.

6. the mister got so excited about packing up the house the other night that he packed up our bath mat. i find that so unbelievably funny.

7. enjoy your saturdays, friends. enjoy the rain, if you are getting it. it makes the plants and trees so happy!

adieu,

lu

here's what's up:from 5/11/11-5/13/11

i wrote an earlier post (four actually). the first didn't post for some reason, the second...well, mid-text it decided to disappear. as you can tell, neither me nor my computer are 100% with it today. but here's the update list for today:

1. we made it back safely from mississippi late in the day tuesday. we had a great time but my bed never felt quite as cozy as it did last night after 5 hours on the road.

2. the mister and i both woke up under the weather from the trip on wednesday. bummer!

3. chinese food is an awesome remedy for just about everything (see #2).

4. awesome post by Not That Kind of Girl, a delightfully intelligent blog, i have grown to love. read it, appreciate it, do something about it.

5. i not only finished #10/29 of my reading list but am now happily ensconced (a phrase i happily overuse) in #11/29. that's a 34% success rate thus far (at least in my book-reading project).

6. the official house-packing began wednesday night. we have been skulking around outside grocery stores for two weeks now grabbing any cardboard boxes we can find.

7. i have also, ahem, been shredding all unnecessary papers and using them as packing filler until we get the boxes back out of storage, then i'm using all the shreds to make my paper! i feel a little clever, and A LOT dorky for doing this.

8. the rug work is on hiatus for a week or so. there is still so much work to do on it, but my fabric scraps, admittedly have taken over the living room and have been driving me bonkers. i'm finding them everywhere! even in a glass of water one night. sheesh.

9. i want to try this. has anyone used clip-in bangs before? i told the mister about this idea and he looked at me like i was completely insane. but i want to try it. the jessica simpson ones in particular.

10. i swiped mr.'s computer this morning because for some bizarre reason, my laptop won't post blogspot entries. yeah, i know. strange.

stay tuned friends. i'm going to get to the bottom of this.

cheers,

lu

early morning update

okay, so the last book i read was so good, i finished it after four days. (two of meh reading a little here and there, and two days of "i can't put this down!"). so book 9 of 29 is done. i am actually quite on schedule and moving on to #10! i may not have any books left to read over the summer!

~lu

yatta

and because this is one of the silliest things i've ever seen, i must share. if you can, make it through the whole thing. i just think it's a test of strength and commitment to childish laughter that i feel many may be needing these days.

adieu,

lu

ha ha mandolin banditos

as most of you know, i'm obsessed with npr. for all the obvious reasons, of course, but also because of the "song of the day" feature. i have found more of my favourite singer/songwriters, rediscovered a few i had let slip through the cracks, and been exposed to music i may not have noticed otherwise.

now, i may be a snob about band names. i accept that i am, rather; but this band ha ha tonka, has something interesting nonetheless, and i am enjoying getting to know their music. i hope that you do too.

cheers!

~lu

tres de mayo

1. i know i said i would post pictures of the book i made this weekend, but i didn't. weird, long, fun weekend. i will eventually.

2. 28 days until the exodus and i need boxes and bubblewrap.

3. i dreamed last night that i was analyzing an ancient indian text (fiction i think) that was orange and pink and covered in mirrors and spangles...and written in my mother's handwriting. the first line read Hahahahahaha, and i wrote in my analyzation that upon first reflection, it was an optimistic text. hmm.

4. poor buddy has fleas. poor husband is allergic to flea bites. here comes the summer, once again. sheesh.

5. i don't think the rag rug will be finished until i turn 30. that's okay though.

6. i now have in my possession books 9-15 of my 29 books. i think that will last me through the summer. i hope so!

7. i received the shampoo bar i ordered, and my scrubbies. both of which (oddly) smell amazing. i expected the shampoo bar to smell wonderful (rosemary), but the handmade face scrubbies? incredible and soft and smelling very nice!

8. i keep looking around the house imagining what i want to take with me on this move (mr. n and i are getting a rubbermaid bin each of stuff to bring with us this summer). it really makes you think about what you can and cannot live without. it also brings to mind a certain reflection after the storms in tuscaloosa, the tsunami in japan, and all of the flash tragedies of the spring thus far: what would you save (if you had to or could) in an emergency?

9. fish sticks are not healthy food. why have i been craving them at least twice a week for the past month? why??!! before that craving, i hadn't had fish sticks in close to 7 years!

10. tomorrow will mark that one year ago, mr. n came to tallahassee to meet me in person for the first time. i took him to a really delicious indian restaurant in town. i remember he stared at me a lot during dinner; and i was feeling a little self-conscious because he has these piercing blue eyes. little blue laser beams shooting across the table at me. he was bashful and ordered every thing i ordered, almost exactly. it was the best date i had ever been on and it only took me four weeks after that before i realized i couldn't live without him another day. aw!

cheers!

adieu for now,

lu