A Question of Neuroticism

As my aunt chases people around the kitchen with a dust buster in one hand, [looks at me] "I'm NOT your most neurotic aunt."

Well, I'd have to say that's debatable. At least a tie for first.

Vintage bowl in action

This bowl is upside down because I just used it to make a dressing for the broccoli salad. My aunt acquired this lovely vintage bowl from her mother-in-law. I just love the simple design and the construction of the bowl. There's something dreamy about a mix of vintage and contemporary in the kitchen.

Painterly

Isn't this landscape super sweet? Apparently, some other ladies thought so too. From this angle, there were two ladies with their easels and canvases trying to capture this lovely scene. One with oils and the other with pastels. I wish I had gotten a picture of them and their artwork because beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. Their pieces turned out very different from one another but both seemed to encompass the stillness and life here.

I believe this was a park in Los Gatos and this was on top of the mini-dam.

Mission Minis

Aren't these just the cutest little cupcakes? They may have gotten a little smushed on the way over from SF though. Yummy, bite-sized goodness. I think every meal should involve some teeny cupcakes.

"I was a good student"

Overheard today at work-

LC [re: the music on the radio]: They always play old songs! Like from when I was in high school! At the dances.
KN: Is that good? Did you like high school?
LC: I don't know, it was all right.
KN: Did you have a boyfriend?
LC: No, I was a good student.

Ergo,

Boyfriend = Bad student?

Craft: Cutout Card

Some crafty nerd love for an awesome TA that I had in an organic chemistry lab.


They're little test tubes with a letter floating at the bottom of some suspiciously psychedelic looking liquid.

Required materials:
-X-acto knife
-cardstock
-markers
-glue stick
-patience

I just cut out the bottom portions of the test tubes and pasted a colorful bit of paper on the backside to show through. I cut the card so that the letters were attached to the card itself, but I think they could be easily glued if so inclined.

I think I'll be using the same idea for a birthday card very soon...

It's a Kaleidoscope! Or is it?

I love how these photos turned out. Bet you can't guess what they're really of?

Flashback to Elementary School Years

Every kid who went through the public school system in California remembers doing the mission projects in fourth grade. Hello styrofoam and toothpick renditions of famous pieces of California's history. However, I don't think anyone actually remembers much about the missions other than they had something to do with Native Americans and Christianity.

In a fit of nostalgia (adventure? spontaneity?), I visited San Diego's mission, the Mission San Diego de Alcala. Interestingly, it was the only mission to have been rebuilt due to a past fire. It was rather smaller than I remember the other missions being, but still very mission-y. I probably should have taken a guided tour because just reading the signs wasn't all that informative.


All in all, still a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Gee-I'm-a-Tree! (Get it? Geometry?)

[I have no idea how this has to do with geometry, I just really, really, really wanted to use a lame tree joke.]

My green raincoat is awesome. I have just recently worn it due to this crazy week of San Diego rain. Lots of compliments too, although mostly from guys, and they go on to add that their favorite color is green, so I'm not entirely sure that it's all that fashionable. But it keeps me dry [excepting the fact that it has no hood]. The other thing is that:

It attracts bugs.

I might venture a guess as to the fact that it is literally the color of spring that bugs think I am an awesomely large leaf. Do bugs have night vision? I was literally attacked vampire-style at the bus stop the other night. Night: meaning nearly pitch black outside and those awful sodium yellow lights that make everything look monochromatic. This huge praying mantis came out of nowhere and landed on my neck, which I, at first, thought it was my earbud wire brushing against my neck, but very quickly realized it was of the live type. I am not afraid of bugs, but I definitely had a minor panic attack just then. Boy sitting next to me at the bus stop gave me the strangest look, realized why I had screamed, got a newspaper and scooped it into the bushes, thus saving it from a squishy fate. I would not have stepped on it, but the bus stop gets crowded at night as people leave campus for home, and somebody would have eventually stepped on it since it made no obvious efforts to move after I flung it off my neck. Such is the life with a leaf colored coat.