dining alone?

why yes. yes, I am… thankfully there is counter seating as well as table seating. that way you can dine along with the worker bees, watch all the preparation, listen to the clamber and feel like you’re not dining alone.

i went to esperza’s for dinner. pretty sure margaritas on a sunny day is what motivated me. and since i thought the MC61 might be able to join me, i didn’t stray to far from the casa.

frank. who was he the owner? the restaurant manager working this night shift? not sure. 

elvis fan? Yes! he was even nicely schooling one of the waitresses on his music and movies. i mentioned blue wawaii.. oh yes. he added viva las vegas with anne margaret, you should see that one too! the gentleman to my left said he just saw honeymoon in las vegas, although not an elvis movie it did have elvis impersonators. i’ll give him mild props for the tie in.

east coaster, yes! i overheard him mention a “yankees cap and jersey” at home to the other waiter. gasp! naturally, when frank was pouring some beers from the tap close by, I had to butt in.. “so a Yankees cap?, did I hear right?” oh the good ole days of sports. he wondered how can you be rivals, I mean doesn’t the other team have to win sometime?! funny, funny. mentioned there was just a game where a player was going for the ball, which was heading into the stands. Fans go for it, reach out. Player goes for it, stretching. Player gets washed with many beers. Player throws a sissy fit (and yeah I know it’s hissy fit) And fans get tossed. Wtf? That’s not baseball. Personally, I would have thrown more beer and peanuts.

yup a new yorker. father from nyc, mother from Brooklyn. asked which one i was red sox or yankees. oh northern connecticut, so that would be the sox. (somewhat true)

rangers. remember the days when you could bring in yer boot flash, smoke pot in the parking lot. probably do some coke in the bathroom. Afford beer; not pay twelve dollars for one. meet people in the hallways, the stairwells… the good ole days.  now it’s just a bunch of rich folks cramming the seats. He continued about hockey. Used to go with family.. then “that’s expensive” so he opted to get tickets one time, mind you for a regular game, regular seats and they were well into the thousands. Instead the obvious choice, go see the Trenton  devils? … $150 for three people, not per person.  he knew the whalers. gordie howe, his two sons that also played.  yup now their in the Carolinas…

He’s been here for a few years. lived in seattle for twelve. lived in london for a few. gone back to new York and lived there again. happy with portland. small city;  great neighborhoods … i point out the lovely condo building across the street when we gloss over change coming “yeah, but it’s empty!”…  i say just wait a few years. oh yeah then it’ll be 2012 and the worlds gonna end.

He’d been here for a few years…there was a masshole, a vermonter, no maniacs…of course, he’s just the new yorker. but now me a connecticuteur? connecticutite? In the ranks.. how nice to be included. Suddenly I didn’t feel like I was eating alone… why I had the east coast with me.  For the record MC61 is a masshole.

it was a nice little sojourn..

it's blog, blog. it's big it's heavy it's wood. it's blog. blog. it's better than bad. it's good!

 starting another piece. two actually. trying to figure the layout of one of them. looking at backgrounds. trimming the overlay image down. hmm does this even work? oy! next which part to start stitching... but getting side tracked. i have the most ridiculous song in my head. major lazer feat. nina sky, keep it goin' and it's not so much the whole song, it's the chorus..in case you don't know the... ."ive got the grooves in the truck about six chicks deep and you know cause we rolling to the streets at six". naturally i had to listen to it to get it out of my head. then "ooh what else do i want to listen to?"

 side tracking at its best. it's the computer it lures you in. i typically don't surf around too much. make my iTunes selection and the move back to the drafting table.. every now and then, there are a couple of blogs i have dinged on our computer and i check'em from time to time. 

surprise, what a metamorphosis! .. it's funny how when you know people from a certain time, a town, a group of friends, what have you, that sometimes that can be the context that you always think of them in. 

however, most people are multifaceted. i guess it just takes time to see all sides or takes time for people to show all their sides. i feel like i don't really show all my sides. i hold back. are people worth sharing things with? really?.. the blank stare... the long pause. ... or maybe i'm not comfortable doing that. 

yet?    

           

                                                

konichiwa!

a few days ago i was ready to post something about the weather and the dreaded funk running through pdx...  i mean it was just 58 degress... i had to run up to seattle on sunday. quick day trip. drop off a car. while i was stuck on the bridge between OR and WA, there was no pretty breathtaking view of Mt Hood. instead just this ... i mean that's pretty depressing for june 20th!! but here we are, a day after the official first day of summer and nothing but sun! vitamin d all over the gosh darn place...who doesn't that make happy.














on another note,  after taking a few days off from sewing i'm back to it. busted out quite a bit the other  morning, the other evening, this afternoon. actually, just about finished. 
....although, the more i have a card in my house, staring at me, the more i will constantly find shapes and shadows to stitch!

 i like the way this progressed. i think the second image has a weird aquatic feel to it? not sure why, maybe it's that tiny sliver of greenish thread to the far right bottom corner.
 also, after this card has been mailed and received i promise to post the final version because looking at random stitch shots can be confusing where, how they all come together.
                               






























in other news.. this is another piece i've been working on. naturally, the pilderwasser's bday has passed. so it's late... i'm not worried about that. mail is mail is mail. speaking of mail. if you ever want to receive stitched goodies or images of stitched goodies i suggest making sure i have an address...

well i found a little...

i was able to find a better pic of the gladiator card i made for dirty and pink... still need to process the macro film. i should have grabbed it this am as i was out for a bank run. i forgot. apparently i was preoccupied. caught up in nothing... distracted by the weather perhaps?!

i was very excited, i got my dirty and pink beer cozy and t-shirt last night from MMF. i will have to take some glamour shots and share with you all... you will be jealous. as usual the design is awesome! 

enough of this quick work break...

caroline laughs and it's raining all day. she loves to be one of the girls...

pretty in pink. isn't she? ahh it's that time of year again. dirty and pink no 5 occurred yesterday, june 5th. dirty and pink is one of the most impressive lady races around. taking place in boise and brainchild of the original team no hyphen! for more read up here.. http://dirtyandpinkalleycat.blogspot.com/   

i was feeling fortunate to donate to the prize table. having known about this race for the past 4 years and actually being in boise last year for it, i knew i wanted to participate somehow again this year. i got an idea to do a toilet seat. but a pink one, of course! i mean what other color could it be?  i wanted it to be PINK and girlie... i got the pink part down for sure. as the theme this year was idaho, i got more ideas. 

i tried to keep it simple because i've found with resin, simple is better. 

sometimes it's weird to spend time working on a project and then just hand it off. typically i like to see where or who items will end up with. in addition, to the toilet seat i decided to make 5 cards. they all had a different vintage cycling poster image. at the time i gave them to megan, she was still trying to figure out how to use them. would they all go to one person. would they go to five different people. would it be on the prize table for anyone to pick or specifically designated for something...like the toilet seat is historically the 'dfl' prize, meaning dead f*cking last. you did the race, but you just didn't have enough points to place high up however, you should be rewarded for your efforts. you don't get dfl if you drink in the bar all day! anywho, i digress, i look forward to hearing how they were distributed. now don'tcha wanna see those cards..

here are all five together. they aren't finished here. 
overall this series of images was a lot of fun to work on and probably will be a favorite for a long time. though it's hard to say, which specific one i like best. they each have something special to them. 

this gladiator shot is not the best, it's a little out of focus. for some reason this one and the liberator card i only took detail shots with my macro lens i.e. the bellows, which is attached to my old pentax k1000. those will be updated later. 

what's next? are there other projects? i also completed a birthday card for my long time gal pal, kbomb. in all the time i've been sewing cards for friends, i hadn't made one for her. this was intended to be for her 40th however, it never made it on time. rather than mail it late, i saved it for this this year.. either way she was very happy to receive it and that made me happy.

also, i've got a birthday card in the works for this guy http://pilderwasser.com/cgi-bin/blog.     if you know him give him good wishes on the 12th. in the meantime, that's a taste of what he's got coming... and me, i'm done with this post. frustrated by how things layout and sick of trying to fix it. oy...back to sewing!

i need a hero...where's the street-wise hercules, to fight the rising odds?

...he's gotta be strong. and he's gotta be fast. and he's gotta be fresh from the flight....what can i say, footloose was on t.v. monday evening! the mc61 and i were just sacked out.  beat from the west side invite mayhem or rollin' shit show as it was known around our house..  honestly, i rather enjoyed it all and wouldn't have traded that lil' circus for anything.  anywho, the end of the west side meant the completion of one, or two, my projects. the dfl toilet seats. 

one for the main race and one for the coffee cat. so here they are in their glory. we got a pic of the main race winner. however, i don't know who it was... the coffee cat went to vancouver cory. we hope to get a pic of him receiving it soon...

 

this is the one for the coffee cat..

the seat says "way to work that shit!!"

this just in... i've received a pick of cory...although it's not quite the best, one still can see he's pretty excited about the seat. wahooo!