Happy hanukkah!

i dyed yarn

my first efforts
Originally uploaded by lornababy

so i tried dyeing yarn for the first time this weekend. i did these with kool-aid. amazing that you can get such pretty colors with kool-aid, huh? more pictures in the yarn dyeing set at my flickr page.

Happy thanksgiving!

This was our dinner...

do i still exist? day 5

on friday afternoon, i attempted to log in to facebook only to find that my account had been disabled. i was given no warning. all traces of me were apparently immediately deleted from the site. i am told that i have disappeared from all my friends' lists, all comments made by me are gone, etc. friday morning, i was there. friday afternoon, it's as if i no longer existed. how stalin-esque.

i was rather unceremoniously informed that i have been de-facebooked. when attempting to log in, all i got was this message:

Account Disabled. Your account has been disabled. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.

that's it. the faq page informed me that i have, apparently, violated facebook's statement of rights & responsibilities. there is no specific information as to what i specifically did to do that. i was given the option of filing an "appeal" by sending an email to facebook. i sent the email on friday afternoon. i think it's reasonable to expect them to tell me the reason why i've been de-facebooked.

it's day 5 and still no response.

So damn lucky

Yeah

#27

DMB, Wednesday Sep 9 2009, Greek Theatre

there is no such thing as a bad dmb show, but they seemed a little flat last nite. maybe it's to do with dave's problems with his voice. he honestly didn't sound too bad, just had some troubles with the higher notes, which is not unusual towards the end of the summer anyway. i think the album was a little ambitious with his range and overestimated dave's ability to consistently reproduce that range night after night on the tour. it also seemed like boyd wasn't feeling too well, he kept his hoodie up the whole night and seemed a little low energy.

i really miss 'roi. jeff coffin is a great sax player, but it sounds like he's been imposing a little more of his personality to the songs and his playing style is a little too punchy and bombastic for some of the stuff that 'roi used to play. 'roi had such a soft, soulful touch.

this was the pot smokingist crowd i've ever seen (smelled) at a dmb show...and that's saying something. seriously, it was like being in the inside of a bong. we were way far back in section b (about dead center, though) and the crowd is definitely different back there. lots of people coming in and out of their seats and talking the whole damned time. very distracting.

Don’t Drink the Water * - always know it's going to be a good show when they start with this
Stay Or Leave * - first time i've seen this with the full band. it's a heartbreaking song but i love it.
Seven * - dave struggled on the high parts, but it was still great. i love this song
You Might Die Trying * - always happy to hear this one, as it has some personal meaning for me
Shake Me Like a Monkey * - great energy. sounds a little flat compared to the album version, which is really super produced
Lying In the Hands of God *+ -oh. my. god. sublime. the song with just the guys was great on its own and then nestor torres' flute jam (that sounds weird to say) took this into a whole other realm.
Why I Am * - loved it. great energy. happy to celebrate 'roi.
Crush * - the crowd loves singing this one. the sax-guitar battle was fairly intense.
Funny The Way It Is * - can i admit i don't really love this song?
Squirm * - downright rad. great song. great lyrics. great intensity from dave. don't think this will be a fan favorite, judging from all the chatting that was going on around me.
Where Are You Going * - to get another beer.
Alligator Pie * - love this song about new orleans.
Dancing Nancies * - what can i say about nancies? always love it - after hearing this song live for the first time, i knew i was hooked, so it's very nostalgic.
So Damn Lucky * - i don't love the album version of this, but it's great live. have a feeling they throw more of dave's solo stuff in for timmy.
You and Me * - a sweet song. you could hear all the girls (including me) go "awww" at the opening notes. i think this could be big whiskey's crash.
Grey Street * - always love this and it was great.
Jimi Thing * - always a great way to end a set. disappointed dave didn't let the crowd sing the first verse by ourselves.

__________________

Baby Blue ~ - dave by himself. when i saw the little guitar, i knew he was going to play it. it is such a sad song, i usually skip it on the album, but amazing to see him sing it live. he flubbed the lyrics at the beginning, but that's why we love him.
The Maker * - probably the best version of this song i've heard from them yet.
Tripping Billies * - was really glad to hear this since i had been humming the opening lines all day. always a great way to end a show.


Show Notes:
* Jeff Coffin
+ Nestor Torres
~ Dave Solo

so, #28 tonite. here's hopin' for best of what's around, two step and/or #41! love you guys no matter what!

it's dave-mas!

dmb
Originally uploaded by lornababy

dmb week starts in about 9 hours. can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!

friday night dinner

Mmmmmmm

surprise!

Another lazy sunday braekfast

Sunday sangria

lamb tongue

lamb tongue
Originally uploaded by lornababy

is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

lambies come out to play

after two days in a pen bonding with their mama, dakota and delaware got to come out for their first romp in the pasture today. mama amelia was hungry for some green food, so she got right to business grazing. the lambikins followed her closely and tried out their sproinging in all this newfound space.


sproing


sproing-oing-oing

afterwards, they went back in their pen for the night and they were all tuckered out, so they snuggled in for a nap. warning, you may die from the cute on this one...


delaware (l) and dakota (r)

i'm sleepy, too, so i think i'll call it a night. as always, many more new photos have been uploaded to the sheep camp set on my flickr page.

yarn!

from this...



to this...



those are the book ends here at the martha's vineyard fiber farm and there is a lot of hard work in between. we went to sell yarn at the west tisbury farmer's market today. i've added some new lamb pictures and some pictures of the farmer's market to my flickr sheep camp set.

lambs!

mama and her babies
Originally uploaded by lornababy

well, there are now two more sheep on the farm when i arrived! amelia the ewe had twin lambs this evening - dakota (l) and delaware (r). check out more of the photos on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lornababy/sets/72157620926913341/.

sheep

sheep
Originally uploaded by lornababy

more photos of boston and some initial sheep photos on my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lornababy/sets/72157620835984281/

and the adventure begins...

uploaded from the plane
Originally uploaded by lornababy

so, here i am on the plane. my flight has internet access, so i was able to upload this picture from my seat, update my facebook, send tweets and check up on my blogs. i think i'll stream a movie on my netflix next. and how cool is that? i love virgin america.

i've also been chatting with daven on im. he is chatting from the gmail app on his iphone while watching fireworks from outside the coliseum. i'm 30,000 feet above the ground in a flying contraption and, yet, somehow, i think i'm safer than he is right now. my flight took off at 9pm and it's a gorgeous clear night so i got to see quite a few fireworks over the l.a. area: some big, official displays and quite a few, not-so-legal backyard displays. the backyard displays looked like little strobe lights or flash bulbs all over the city. i can't imagine what it would look like if fireworks were legal in los angeles! quite a cool sight.

anyway, i'm finally off on my big sheep camp adventure. first stop is a day in boston, though. i arrive first thing in the morning and i figure i'll hit quincy market for some breakfast and then kick around town and see some of the sights. anyone with any tourist tips, send me a message please. then, around midday, i'm catching the train out to the suburbs to meet my blog friend jeff and his wife, steph, and baby, tom. this is my first blog meet up, so i'll admit to being a bit excited to meet someone i've become friends with online but have never actually spoken to. jeff is a cool monkay that also has a food blog (i should say "used to have," since he updates it less than we update ours), which is how we got to know each other. so, we're going to throw down a little bbq and then post it on our respective food blogs! after dinner, it's back on the train to downtown boston and a night in a kimpton hotel (a little splurge).

monday morning, i'm up early to catch a bus to woods hole, which is where the ferry to martha's vineyard leaves from. a 45 minute ferry trip and i'm on the island and hopefully being introduced to sheep right quick. i'll be spending a week with the good folks and animals at the martha's vineyard fiber farm. rumor has it the obamas are going to be vacationing on martha's vineyard in july, so here's hoping our trips will overlap and i can catch a glimpse of the first family. even if we're at opposite ends of the island, i think i'll be closer to obama than i was on inaguration day from my perch at the base of the washington monument!

that's it for now. as my dear aunt would say, stay tuna'd. i hope to be posting photos and updates frequently.

otter!

aquarium of the pacific otters
Originally uploaded by lornababy

aquarium of the pacific, long beach

i am so totally going to do this

dog fur sweaters

the maverick

the maverick
Originally uploaded by lornababy

happy

times are tight?

i was at one of my regular meetings downtown last week and when i got to my car in the parking lot i realized that i had forgotten to go to the atm. i had some cash in my wallet, but i didn't have the full $13 parking fee in bills. i didn't want to schlepp all the way back up to street level to find an atm, plus, i really needed to get back to the office quick-like. so, i ended up scrounging in my purse and car and found about $3.00 in coins to just make the parking fee. i pulled up to the attendant and greeted him - it's always the same guy, so we always chat a little. i then passed over the handful of change. he looked at me, and, i kid you not, said, "how's business?"

electric sheep

i don't care if this is viral marketing or not, it's downright amazing to see what a bunch of shepherds in wales can do with some sheep, some leds, a camera and a lot of spare time.

is manny ramirez receiving bailout money?

so manny ramirez has re-signed to play with the dodgers. he is going to be paid 45 million dollars for two seasons. yes, beisbol has been berry berry gud to heem.

i'm sorry, but i think this is just one more symptom of what is wrong with this country. this country is teetering on the brink of a complete economic collapse, people are losing their jobs, their health insurance, their life savings, their homes and this chucklehead is going to be paid 45 million dollars to hit a fucking ball with a fucking stick?!? c'mon people. wtf? manny ramirez hit the ball 183 times in 2008. assuming he keeps hitting at the same rate (not bloody likely, he's getting a bit long in the tooth), that works out to about $122,950 every time he hits the ball. really? are you fucking kidding me? that's more money than most american families make in a year. why does anyone need to be paid that much money to do anything?!

i'd also like to point out the prominent advertising for aig behind rich-ass manny's grinning mug in the photo above. aig has received bailout money from the u.s. taxpayers, from our pockets to the tune of more than 100 billion fucking dollars over the past six months and they got tens of billions more from the government this week. and yet, somehow, miraculously, aig has enough money to sponsor the dodgers? i'm sure that a big corporate sponsorship like that don't come cheap. i mean, los doyers obviously have to raise 45 million to pay manny. recently, congress voted to attach some strings to the tarp funds (the bank bailout money) and passed a law that bascially prohibits employers that receive tarp funds from hiring foreign professional workers on h-1b visas. 12 of the banks that have received tarp funds filed for a combined total of 900 h-1b petitions in 2007 - that's less than one tenth of one percent of their workforce of 1.2 million people. talk about rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. how does this help the banks get out of trouble or start lending again so that the economy can get back on its feet? it doesn't. it's a bullshit concession to the restrictionists that has nothing to do with anything. congress, if you want to put some strings on how the recipients of corporate welfare spend their tarp money, why don't you prohibit them from spending millions of dollars on wasteful corporate sponsorships? how does that sound? huh? i'm personally offended that my tax dollars are essentially going to fund manny ramirez's $122,950 per hit salary.

My favorite building

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p.s.

is the p.s. dead in the era of computer editing? you used to use a p.s. when you wanted to add something to a handwritten or typed letter and didn't want to rewrite or retype the whole thing. now that we can easily edit our communications with word processing software, etc., does that mean the p.s. is effectively obsolete? or should we still use it for non sequitur or "by the way" type information that don't really fit in the body of the communication?

these are the things i think about. if these are the things you think about, too, you should check out the word nerds podcast.

More gorgeous parking lot view

Santa monica really is beautiful

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Best parking lot view ever

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inauguration pics

inauguration 2009 photos up on my flickr site: http://tinyurl.com/afzhws.

Standing at base of washington monument

Can see the capitol in the background. There's a jumbotron and speakers. All is good.
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Nice hat

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Having trouble sending tweets

Still walking around just got out of tunnell on the south side of the mall and hope to have better luck reaching the mall. Saw rick steves.
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Crowd at 7th and E

Layers

Top:

Long underwear top
Obama tshirt
Thick turtleneck sweater
Wool coat
Scarf
Fleece hat
Knitted hat with ear flaps
Knit gloves
Leather gloves

Bottom:
Tights
Long underwear bottoms
Flannel pajama bottoms
Jeans
Wool socks
Alpaca socks
Tennis shoes

I can't bend at the middle or put my arms down.

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Capitol

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Celebrating

testing 1-2-3

i'm trying something out to make the liveblogging of the inauguration a little easier. as you can see, i've added a twitter status box at the top of the blog. i'll be sending tweets from the inauguration and you can read the ten most recent ones in the box. if you see a link to a website called twitpic, that's a link to a photo. you can also create a twitter account and follow my tweets from there. i think i'll be posting some of the better pictures as individual blog posts, which you can see in this section. of course, this may all change by tuesday, but this is the initial strategy. as my dear aunt would say, stay tuna'd...

inauguration hat

inauguration hat
Originally uploaded by lornababy

here's president- elect barack obama modeling the patriotic-yet-toasty inauguration hat that i knitted. he probably won't wear it to the inauguration, but daven will. i'll be making one for me, as well.

Happy new year

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