Saturday, March 22, 2003

 

Huzzah for Renegade Rose! Our first-ever gig was quite successful -- everybody looked great in the newly-sewn kit (I finished mine in the pub before the gig, after sewing patches all the way there on the MAX), the weather was nice enough to dance outside -- we even brought out a rainbow with our first dance! The audience loved the dancing, and they even put some actual money into the urinal that our Greenman hobby Roger was carrying around for a donation tin (don't ask). All in all, it ran pretty smoothly and I was very proud of everybody, especially our brand-new-to-morris dancers Beverly and Linda. Huzzah to everybody!
# posted by Lacey 6:54 PM

 

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEMARA!!! Congratulations on finally making it to 21! (You've waited 21 years for this, it had better be good.... )
# posted by Lacey 10:29 AM

 

What's black and white and red all over? Renegade Rose kit! :P Hugo and I were up until almost 2:00 this morning sewing baldricks and armbands and knickers, oh my. I still have some hand-sewing to do this morning, attaching patches to the baldrics (and I really wish I had a thimble!), but I can do that on the MAX if I don't get it done before I have to leave. Hugo's over there already, getting ready for the Bridgetown dancing slot at 11:30, so I'm just going to take the bus and the MAX out there to meet people at 2:00 to get ready and practice for the RR slot. A nice long train ride, so I should have time to finish the sewing I have left (crossing fingers here). And if not, well, I'm bringing a box of safety pins. :) By the way, my new sewing machine works fabulously! I even remembered how to do the stretch stitch that the woman in the sewing shop showed me, so I sewed my elastic armbands and they still stretch! I was proud of myself for that one. :P

Anyway, gotta go get to work!
# posted by Lacey 10:26 AM

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

 

HOORAY!!!! Exams are over! And I never have to take another math class as long as I live! (If I've passed this one, that is....)

And now I have a lovely relaxing week with nothing to do!

......... Yeah, right. But no homework, at least. :)

Thanks for all the well-wishes from everybody; they were definitely appreciated. I definitely did better on the physics exam than the diff eq, but as Hugo said, that's no surprise. And I'm glad that one was first, because I felt better going into the second one... five minutes later. Ugh to back-to-back finals. But they're over! That's the theme for the evening. :)

Now it's time to unpack my brand-new sewing machine and make some armbands and baldricks and knee-britches for Saturday's gig!
# posted by Lacey 7:53 PM

Monday, March 17, 2003

 

It's another "Guess what I bought today!" day. So guess what I bought! Well, actually, it was a partial trade, partial purchase. As I might have mentioned before, my poor little Singer sewing machine has not been in good shape -- well, okay, it's been completely broken since before Christmas. Well, Hugo was kind enough to take it into the shop for me last week, where they arrived at a not-very-pleasant conclusion as to servicing needed and the cost thereof. So I went in today to check it out and hear the full story and consider my options. Turned out that the best option was actually to get a new sewing machine altogether, so I did! It's a Pfaff, so I'll have to adapt to a different make, but it won't be so bad, because I used Pfaffs quite frequently when I worked in the costume shop at Stanford last year. They showed me how to use it, gave me the whole thing with a carrying case, some bobbins, a few spools of thread, and several leather needles (since I told them I'd be sewing on leather), and gave it to me for half price plus the trade of my old kaput Singer. I feel bad about giving up that old sewing machine, because I've always been fond of it, but at this point it wouldn't have been worth it to fix it, and now I have a new machine with all sorts of warranties that should last me a good long while. Yay! And just in time to frantically sew some kit items for Saturday's gig! :}

I'm off to pick up Renegade Rose patches from Lev downtown, then get the ribbons and baldrics from Marti. I told everybody that I'd be here tonight so they could come by and pick theirs up so they can work on them, because otherwise we wouldn't get them handed out until Thursday night, which is a bit close to the gig for my comfort. So off I go to catch a bus!
# posted by Lacey 1:08 PM

Sunday, March 16, 2003

 

Guess what I bought today -- plane tickets! Hooray! I'm flying down for Big Dance! Of course, that's not until May, but it's still exciting. Yay! And I finally signed up for the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan thing, so I get miles every time I do practically anything -- including about 1500 for the combination of signing up and reserving tickets for the first time as a member. :)

Lots of stuph has happened since last time I blogged, which was yonks ago, I know. I had my last lectures in both of my classes last week, and now I have to study for the finals -- both on Wednesday, Physics from 2-4, Diff Eq from 4-6. Ugh. I hate back-to-back exams. At least they're only 2 hours, though, instead of the 3 that I'm used to at Stanford. Small comfort. :{ Hugo is down in San Jose from now until after my finals are over, though, so I have two and a half days of slightly less distraction in which to study.

Work has been rather insanely busy lately. We're working on a bunch of new label styles that have to have everything ready to go up on the website before the ads about them come out in another week and a half. Aren't deadlines wonderful? And there was a little article on our company on dailycandy.com (apparently very big in NY), which generated an enormous number of orders, so business is going to be booming next week on top of working on new styles. Fun. Oh, yeah, and there is no longer a women's toilet on our floor at work. I came in one day last week and Diana told me, "By the way, we don't have a toilet today." I thought she just meant it was out of order again (it does that a lot) but, no, apparently she meant exactly what she said, because they'd taken the whole thing out to do something or other with it. They put a sign up telling us to use other bathrooms on other floors. But Diana got clever and made a little sign that says "Woman CAUTION In Here" (like the (Automatic CAUTION Door signs) -- so now we just use the men's bathroom and stick that on the door. Their bathroom is nicer anyway -- it has two toilets (and a urinal, of course, but the women's only has one toilet), is painted, has pretty handle-taps and even a fake flower in a vase on the counter -- not fair! :}

Yesterday was Hugo's birthday (Happy Belated Birthday!). He was out for part of the afternoon, then came home and asked if I wanted to go out with him, because he'd finally found something to trade in his electric classical guitar and amp for. I, of course, said yes, and so I went with him to pick up his birthday present to himself -- a gorgeous and wonderfully loud acoustic mandolin. It's really nice. He also got a three-instrument stand for various guitars and mandolins, so we can shove the cases under the futon and get them out of the way. Yay for new musical toys! We went to dinner at The Chart House, a fancy-schmancy restaurant on the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the Portland city lights. The food was lovely (I forget how much I like spinach! :P) and it was a gorgeous evening so the view was lovely (it's been raining here for the last several days, so that part was a bit iffy. Rather than drive, we took a couple of buses and walked up the hill to the restaurant, which was very pleasant. We laughed at the valet parking and were very proud of ourselves for getting there so nicely on public transportation.

Speaking of public transportation, my wonderful friend Phil has just secured me extremely cheap public transportation for the next six months. He, like Hugo, works at IBM, and they have special transportation deals for their employees. The way public transit works here in Portland is a system of buses, light-rail trains, and streetcars collectively called "Tri Met." So a transit pass works for any of the three, and transfers work from one to the other as well. Regular monthly Tri Met passes cost $56, or $45 for student-subsidized passes. But Phil picked up the pass allocated to him by IBM and gave it to me because he doesn't use public transportation. It's a little sticker that goes on the back of my i.d. card, good through August. And how much did it cost? $26! Thank you, Phil!

Oh, and just in case I don't blog tomorrow, here's wishing a very happy 21st birthday to Jonathan! And good luck to all the Stanford folk who are taking finals this week. It's almost Spring break!
# posted by Lacey 10:23 PM