It's been a long week

What have I been doing for the last week? Stuffing my face (with turkey and sushi), rollerskating, hiding from the world and having minor crises. All in a week's work.

Last Monday a few of us went out for my friend Shauna's birthday and had a sushi/assorted fried Japanese food feast at the sushi place on Gladstone. The waiter corrected me when I ordered an Ichiban. When I said Ichiban, he looked at me with raised eyebrows and asked, 'Kirin?' I looked side to side uncertainly and said, 'Yes, Ichiban'. Maybe he just thought I was saying I'd like one and was not specifying which one I'd like (the waiter was in no way Japanese). There was also saki in a box on a plate that was very good.

Thanksgiving was good and alcohol soaked. For a while tensions ran high,

but the cranberry sauce came out beautifully


On Saturday night I went rollerskating and seriously fucked up my knee.
I now have gorgeous blue, green and purple blotches around my kneecap.


I also met another Gwen

yeah, all Gwens are pretty damn rockin'.
There was a lot of dancing going on in the parking lot outside the skating rink - then Cori had a White Snake moment

The story of our hike last weekend

Last saturday I went for a hike out by Germantown Road (which is different than the road to Germantown, I learned).


Shauna and I frollicked in the autumnal forest, making crowns of dying leaves and poking at dead slugs (I think it was dead, maybe it was just petrified that two giants with leaves in their hair were poking at it)


We thought about dressing up in historically accurate costumes and confusing people who came along the road.


I unecessarily explored river beds.


We found dime sized mushrooms


Then I got startled by something

and fled


Shauna stoically kept her bearings

until she saw something dumbfounding

and she hid behind a leaf


We finally got out of the woods and tried to go eat at a stupid vegan pirate restaurant


they were closed

The End

P.S. The Moral: I learned there are lots of fire hydrants in Portland's hiking areas


my moment of understanding with the hydrant

ariel's book

i made this for my roommate for her birthday









funny how it's not as well made as my first hardback - but it is prettier

grandma's, squirrels and chickens

last night i went to 'grandma's', this underground bar on holgate that looks like the bowels of a log cabin. it's got extensive woodcarving (including a full nativity) and fireplaces that they refuse to light. there's a restaurant upstairs that looks like it would serve a good plate of biscuits and hash-browns (and of course more woodcarving).

the best part about the place was the girl-drink drunks. they were these beefy trucker types sitting at the bar, telling each other what cheap dates they were and buying each other pina coladas and daiquiris. if that wasn't awesome enough there was karaoke, which ranged from two scenester chicks covering 'you gotta fight for your right to party' to a man belting out a traditional song of mexico.


today the squirrels and the chickens (my neighbors' feral chickens, i should mention) have escalated their hostilities to full on shit talking. this means the trees around my house are full of angry squirrel and chicken noises - i'm assuming they're talking shit. as far as i'm concerned the chickens have no right being in the trees and the squirrels are fully justified in throwing their nuts trying to make the chickens get out. hmmm, i think some people could learn from the parable of the squirrel and the chicken: don't invade and occupy a place, then get upset when nuts start getting thrown at your head.

obvious and gratuitous squirrel photo

my first hardback

This is the first book i've sewn on tapes

Innards






Outards



i made my own paste paper


more to come . . .

contraptions i covet

there are things in this world that are not about survival or bettering yourself - but purely about how kick ass they are. although some contraptions are useful and do happen to serve some practical purpose, i like the idea of the contraption as something that isn't essential to everyday life but that if it isn't around things just aren't as fun.

First, the pumpkin canon

compressed air and a squash, or 'mommy, what happens to all the orphan pumpkins after halloween?'

Second, the laptype

nobody's sure if it really works, but i could care less as long as laptops look like this in the future

oh, the excitement

i friggin love all the science fiction science and fantasy science - stuff that reeks of a geeky childhood spent reading too many books, inside, away from the real world. and yet i could think of some pretty handy uses for something like, say, an invisibility cloak.

they've made the harry potter cloak of invisivibility, kinda.
my dreams of becoming a real wizard are that much closer to being realized.

halloween

pictures taken early in the evening, you can tell because my hair is still pretty tame - by 3am it was out of control

the rest of the halloween pre-party pictures are here (yeah, only of the pre-party. when i left the house i was too drunk to remember my camera.): http://www.flickr.com/photos/19058162@N00/

actually on halloween we tarted our house up as a pirate ship


then shauna, annalisa and cori came over to watch a couple classics: 'Carnival of Souls' and 'Dracula, Satanic Rites'. we stuffed ourselves with pirate booty and candy stolen from children.

so, i have a blog

yeah, i've given in - and mainly because i want a way to chronicle my bookbinding. plus, i've also come out as a proud member of the ranks of zombie crafters overrunning the nation. so, i want a place to document my creations as i maybe work up to making a viable business out of bookbinding/odd furniture making/knick-knack and memorabilia plastination. might never happen, but i have delusions and am prepared to follow them just like the camel with the saggy knees who followed all those gold, sparkly dancing camels. just like that.