Maurice Sendak's Nutshell Library

This little box set is one of my prized posessions. As you can tell, each of these books has been read many times. Maurice Sendak's illustrations are wonderful, and the tales are captivating. 

In 1975, Carol King put these stories to music on the Really Rosie album. As a kid, I fell in love with the musical and written versions. Yeah, I pretty much know the words by heart.

My favorite is Pierre. "Read his story, my friend, for you'll find / At the end that a suitable / Moral lies there."

A Night At The Garden

Last night we went to see the Celtics at the Garden with some friends.

It was a pretty bad day, weather-wise. As we were leaving our apartment, we opened the door to a downpour. We went back in so I could get my umbrella and The Schwarz could get a rain coat. This time we made it out the door, but I took one step and almost fell because it was so icy. We started to walk, but ended up just sliding down the driveway. We eventually made it to the train (without falling!), but it took us about 25 minutes to walk, slip, and skate the 2 blocks to our stop. Oh, and since it was raining, we had to navigate through ankle-deep puddles as well. We were drenched and I felt like I had about 2 cups of water in each shoe when we finally got on the train. 

When we arrived at the Garden the Celtics were losing, but that didn't last long. They went on to win 119-100 in their 9th straight victory. Eddie House was the star of the night; he got 8 out of 9 3 pointers. It was pretty cool.

A JumboTron camera guy spent a lot of time in our section, and the stupid drunk behind me spilled his beer all over my head (and my neck, shoulder, arm, and leg) trying to get on camera. After that, I was wet from head to toe. Good grief. As my hair dried, it got all stiff. And my face and neck were sticky. My scarf stinks. Yuck. Oh well, it happens. 

Calendar Girl

Today I received something very special in the mail. This calendar is a gift from one of my very best friends, Kristen! She created it using snapfish, and it's completely personalized. Each month has different photos and she even put pictures of important people on the dates of their birthdays. Cool, huh? It's actually my holiday gift, but it took a long time to get to her (she's in Japan), and then it took more time to get to me. I don't care if it's late or on time, because it's wonderful and fun. I took a picture of March because: 

1. there's a photo of The Schwarz and me at Kristen's wedding 
2. because you can see 3 dates with photos (her wedding anniversary, her husband's birthday, and my birthday)
3. the background is orange - my favorite color!

I think it says something about me that both of my best friends gave me calendars for Christmas/Hanukah. A few weeks ago I posted about the one Sara gave me. Truth be told, I also got one from my mom, because she gives me a Marilyn Monroe calendar every year and it's always one of my favorite gifts. 

Psst. I also have a 4th calendar that I printed using a Word template. Then there's the page-a-day calendar The Schwarz got for Christmas. And I have a one page 2008 Berkshire Books calendar still hanging in the kitchen simply because it's so beautiful. Plus I use Google calendar. So how many is that? 7? At this point, is it an obsession or a collection? 

My Journal

I started keeping a personal journal at UMass, because it was a requirement for my college writing class. Once I got into the habit, it wasn't so hard to write on a daily basis. In fact, I sometimes found myself writing many times a day. My second semester freshman year wasn't easy, and my journal became a very important part of my life. 

Lately (by lately, I mean the past year and a half!), I've been really bad about updating my journal. I tend to pick a day and do a massive update, but I don't write much; I glue in business cards from restuarants, cards people send to me, stickers, news articles, and little things I've collected since the last update. It's sort of like a scrapbook I guess. 

I think I stopped writing because I was just complaining about work (ugh) all of the time, instead of documenting what was happening in my life. Maybe now I'll start up again. We'll see. Even if I don't write frequently, I still use my journal to keep track of the things I do. 

Think We Can Swim Across?

Today I decided to play around with Aperture Priority mode on my camera. After explaining how to adjust the aperture to little miss spy's Dad, I thought that I should experiment with it myself. Little miss spy's Mom gave me these knights in shining armor, because I worked with arms and armor at The Wallace Collection during my semester abroad. Using my extensive knowledge of staging (I got an "A" in Theater 100 at UMass), I've created a dynamic scene of two soldiers arguing, while their comrades look on. By changing the aperture, I threw the background out of focus, isolated the arguing pair, and thus heightened the already immense tension of the scene.

The soldiers, of course, would be a lot more intimidating if they were bigger than a bottle cap.

Two Gifts: One Picture

For my birthday little miss spy gave me this nice reading lamp.  I didn't have one before, but from now on I will be able to read with an appropriate level of light.  I'm currently reading Lincoln On Leadership, which is a quick read and a Christmas present from my mom.

Crate & Barrel Water Bottle

I have been coveting these water bottles since I saw them in the Crate & Barrel catalog about 3 weeks ago. They're glass, but they look like all those plastic one-time-use bottles. So, they're the perfect size, and I can use them again and again. Cute, huh?

Happy Birthday To You

Summer 2005 (one of my favorite photos)

Winter 2007

23 January 2009

Gift for The Schwarz & the card I made for him

Today is The Schwarz's birthday! He's 26. We're going out with a few friends tonight to celebrate.  

I spent this morning making that card for him. And now I'm busy cleaning so he can come home to a super clean apartment. Since I couldn't splurge on a gift this year (unemployed, remember?), I figure a soothing atmosphere is still pretty good. So I'm dusting and sorting through the piles of paper that tend to build up during the week. 

Project

I have an awful headache, and aspirin isn't helping. Even so, I'm working on a project. I've be focusing (and snacking on and off) all afternoon. It's slow going; I have now idea what I'm doing. If it turns out well, I'll post the results. 

Hearts In Snow

When my dad got a new screen door at work, my mom took the old one apart. She used a piece of it to make this beautiful little fence that is now in the garden. You don't really see screen doors like that anymore. I guess they've gone out of style. 

It looks pretty in the snow, doesn't it?