We're moving at the end of the month, so what better time to pare down and get rid of some (almost-literal) wardrobe baggage?

I've made a flickr set for the virtual garage sale. All items are OBO. We do have cats but no smoking inside, for those with allergies. I can arrange to meet anywhere in downtown Toronto reasonably near to TTC, plus I'll be at Last Temptation in Kensington on Monday the 14th from about 8pm-9pm, if you let me know ahead of time that you are coming and what you want me to bring.

First replies get first dibs. This info will get put on the Toronto lj community on Sunday morning as well (plus L.A.M.B. skirt is listed elsewhere already). I'll try to keep the info as updated as possible as to what has sold already, but I might not always be near a computer.

Feel free to pass this post/info along to interested friends, as well. Best email address to contact me at is: dyslexia -at- gmail -dot- com

More items may be added as the days go on. I'll post here when there's new stuff to see!

Okay, onto the flickr sale set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizadys/sets/72157606107895538/

All pics and item descriptions are there.

Since I so rarely check in here, I need to do a purge so that when I do try to pop in and check in on people, there's not *so* much to read that it's all just impossible and I end up reading nothing.

So, no offense meant to those who're being dropped. If ya really want back in, just drop me a message (dyslexia at gmail) and I'll put ya back on.

"The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time." -- Willem de Kooning

This is so true.

Technical difficulties have kept me from being able to post my TAD stuff for the past week. I hope to have this resolved soon, though....

Okay, must shower now and get into work clothes to get Mel moved!

For Thing-A-Day for Feb. 1, I made cute armwarmers from socks that were too tight.



( step-by-step of what I did, with pics, after the cut )

Reply in comments here and I'll:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - a song, a color, a photo, a word, etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

Okay, you don't really have to do #7, only if you really want to.

From WWII through now, the story of wars, told in food:

"Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first." - Robert Downey Jr.

I can do a vertical step-through with my hoop. It's not consistently clean and so far it's uni-directional (so no continuous loop step-through yet, but I've only spent about 15 minutes on it so far), but there ya go. I also got way better at shoulder hooping after watching a video explaining the four-point concept of how your body moves the hoop in that position. (I'll post a link to it once I find it again.)

So, add that to the beam-me-up (messy, but there--just needs practice), isolations in both directions (again, messy), chest stall, and the atomic/orbital/whatever off-body thing where it turns as it goes around (everyone calls that something different), in addition to a lot of other off-body stuff that I have no name for, let's just say I am exploring the space more, it's not been a bad week for me with the ol' hoop.

New goals are to work on a better start from a ground position (not a kick from flat, something else....), work on shoulder duck-outs and -ins, cleaning up the stuff I learned this week (including working up to the continuous step-through), one-handed step-through, and then barrel rolls. That oughtta give me *plenty* to focus on for now....

... well, the first thing I'd do would be go to Dick's for cheeseburgers and then to Georgetown for a beer (oh wait, first would be Skylark for brunch since it's Sunday, then the other stuff later), but after that, I'd make reservations for this:

The Breaking ~ A Subterranean Cabaret of Love, Loss, & Lament ~

The Can Can presents The Breaking: a spectacular evening of dance, live music and theater, featuring The Can Can’s Castaways: Rainbow, Jonny Boy, Doppleganger, Fuschia FoXXX, Bennihana & Faggedy Randy!

All original compositions and live music by The Bad Things.
Direction and Libretto by Armitage Shanks of Circus Contraption
Based on a concept and story by Christoph Snell,
Dance choreography by Rainbow Fletcher.

Gala Grand Opening January 26th at 10:30pm followed by a live
performance by The Bad Things! Reserve your space NOW!!! This performance is 21 and over!

After that THE BREAKING Shows EVERY Saturday night @ 8pm
and Sunday night @ 7pm until February 23rd.

Tickets are $15/$20 VIP. Reservations strongly recommended.
For reservations and other ticket information call Can Can: (206) 652-0832

[Edited later in the day -- one more abandoned and four more marked in-progress.]

Been a while since updating the status of the 101 in 1001 list. Slowly chipped away at a few items over the past few months, but got really busy during the holidays.

So far I've gotten nine items completely done:

13. Go see a play [saw: "Source of Gravity"]
14. Go to Art Gallery of Ontario
30. Go to an outdoor film screening [saw: "Blade Runner" in Y-D Square]
36. Get cats sent to Canada [there is unfinished business related to this, but they are here]
46. Get and eat a box of ten sour cream glazed Timbits from Tim Horton's [Ew. Glad this one is done.]
49. Post this list to journal
73. Make up bed every day for at least one month straight
91. Write my thank-you notes and get them sent on time at least one Xmas
101. Go to Niagara Falls

And two have been abandoned:

10. Finish armwarmers started EONS ago [I am reusing the yarn for something else. I just don't even want these anymore.]
74. Had to do with a tree branch and origami and I'm not into it anymore.

These are in-progress (and others I have plans for, but have yet to start):

1. Read at least 11 books from my reading list [completed 1/11]
2. Complete min. equiv. of one craft project per month before end of 101/1001 project [completed 11/33]
33. Complete my Canadian PR application
37. Get personal loan paid off
42. Cook one recipe from each of the cookbooks I own or acquire [completed 2]
59. Private item #1
63. At least once per season, take a walk on my own and take pictures (also, post them), for a whole year [did summer, I have pics from fall that have yet to be posted due to laptop failure and I am gonna take winter pics next week]
72. Quit smoking (for good! or at least from quit date--11/18/2007--thru 4/16/2010) [won't be able to claim this one as done until the end date, but that's okay]
88. Have a party at my house [completed on: 11/1/07, I even cooked]
89. Send average of one piece of non-crucial mail per month to a friend or family member [completed 1/33]
98. Visit at least 5 city parks that I have never before visited [completed 2/5]
102. Floss every day for a month.

So, yeah, not much completed yet given how long ago this started. So, time to ramp up on gettings things done again. I plant o knock off quite a few during February. They'll also be items for Thing-A-Day. I love multipurpose accomplishments!

So, on the advice of "lj user="sculpin">, I registered for Thing-a-Day. Now to make a list of things to do. Which is now an item on my general to-do list: "Make list of things for Thing-A-Day". I am starting to wonder if I have too many lists....

I also created and (kinda) started posting in my brand-spankin'-new off-lj food blog: Tartan Shopping Trolley. The name comes from Scary-Go-Round on January 9th. (Clicky the linky and go see. Yes, now.)

Ames' mockery of Ryan over his granny cart touched my very soul. Well, not really, but I do have one and I know a lot of under-40-somethings think I must be mental for dragging it around with me at my age. But, ya know, it has saved me from needing a chriopractor, so they can all bite me. I took the name as part of my low-key, low-effort "effort" to reclaim the granny cart in the name of the if-not-cool-then-at-least-not-horridly-uncool crowd.

Or, maybe I'm just deluding myself and I'm horridly uncool. I can live with that, too.

Either way, the name rolls off the tongue pleasantly and now I'm committed, so no turning back!

I have a nefarious plan brewing in my pointy little head. I am calling it my "HHFP"; it's code. Oooooo, mysterious! Only about two of you will know what that means and this is for the best for now....

I have a few months to explore the issue before committing to anything, though.

In other news, I went to Women's Health Matters this weekend and I totally wanna try Nia now. Met a few local instructors there and they did a demo. (We were there demo'ing hooping as a fitness thing and not just for ravers, hippies, and Burners.) Looks interesting; must find out more....

I think I am gonna start a separate food blog (well, food, cooking, food shopping, edibles gardening, you get the idea...) off of lj. Yes, I said off of lj. (Scandalous, I know...I suppose maybe I ought to have more site loyalty or something, but I just don't.) Probably on blogger, as I have an account there already and I know a few people who use it. I know what name I want, but not sayin' until I start to use it. One hint: the name comes from Scary Go Round. A prize for anyone who can guess the name before I post about it.

Oh, oh, I finally started the Anthropologie-inspired capelet, in a bulky burnt orange wool. I fear this yarn is going to shed fibre anytime I try to wear it. Just means I have until after winter to finish it, so I won't have to wear my magical lint-attracting coat with it. And that's really okay by me.

And, I made bread (and failed to get pics this time; next one I will). I have been meaning to bake some bread for-freaking-ever, and I finally did. It turned out divine! I shall likely repeat the experience this coming week. Also, I wanna give the Clementine Clafoutis a shot, from the NYT. Yummmmmm....

What else? Oh, I might go to a hooping retreat in June. I very much wanna go and I think it ought to be do-able, as we'll be road tripping down with a few people, couchsurfing while there and the retreat itself ought not cost too much (was $100 last year, but I expect it to go up a little bit this year). I'm almost really excited about it, except I don't let myself get excited about this kind of thing until I know for sure that it is gonna happen. So, hopefully I'll be very excited about it very soon. And then I won't shut up about it for months, not until it happens and likely for a little while after, too. So, yeah, enjoy this relative calm.

Okay, that's it; must succumb to sleep now....

...you should go to this site and watch the short (20 minutes) film on the current consumer goods production-thru-destruction cycle by Annie Leonard (a Seattlite, yay!). It's all very plain-English and a bit of an overview of basics for those familiar with the concepts already, but enjoyable--despite being a tad depressing--and definitely worth watching. There are far worse ways to spend 20 minutes....

It can be found here: http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The site itself is well-executed, too, which is nice.

Oh, and Happy New Year, everyone!

One for the Table is a project partly fueled by the writer's strike. A number of contributors are striking writers. The result is that there's some pretty good reading there. Hopefully it'll maintain quality once the strike is over.

I will be very glad to be farther away from Thanksgiving. Pretty much all of my usual favporite food blogs have been full of nothing but the same and similar tips over and over for turkey, turkey leftovers, carving turkey, etc. I am really sick of turkey -- and we had chicken this year!

Oh, I made lemon pound cake -- more or less (okay, less). I got a leetle ahead of myself on a couple of substitutions and was pressed for time so I got a tad lazy with mixing, so they turned out tasty but less than ideal on texture and rise. Oh well, live and learn!

Fun Internet Diversion (a.k.a. Time-Wasting Fodder): 50 Things Not To Say At the Holiday Dinner Table

-- crampy
--- having to miss last night's festivities due to crampy
--- having to miss tonight's festivities due to crampy
++ gonna bake more cookies very soon (like, in about an hour)
+++ muscle relaxers plus wine
++ nearing completion of the Camo Rockstar Scarf (all garter st--easy enough to work on while looped on pills and vino)
- house needs major cleaning
+ have plenty of time over next couple of days to give house major cleaning!

What else? Hrm, well, I need more sweaters, I have decided. Big, comfy ones that I can layer. I am in lurve with my hot water bottle, too. I think I am gonna knit it a cozy.

Also, the Mexican tin mirror painting project is nearly done. I can't wait to have it on the wall in the kitchen and not on the floor in the living room!

Part of major house cleaning is hanging shit up that needs hanging. Better go get my hammer back soon, huh? And the disco ball! We needs the disco ball. I have A Plan for it.... *muahahahaha*

In reaction to more re-fucking-cockulous email:

Ginger Chili Shrimp. Recipe here:

http://www.hookedonheat.com/2007/02/14/conquering-demons/

Mine turned out a bit different than hers, but still amazing!

More pics after the cut...