prattlings of a prima donna

deevalish — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 04:34:16 GMT

Sometimes when I am reading or watching something wonderful, I inevitably start to switch out the main characters for other fandoms that I am obsessing over. It would be a good thing if I could manage to write fan fiction. What is it about certain characters that just stay with you and you want to experience their lives over and over again? In different genres, settings and even time periods.

deevalish — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:25:35 GMT

Happy New Year, y'all! Here's to a shiny 2012!!

deevalish — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:31:45 GMT

Turkey is in oven. Gravy is half way done. Yams and dressing are waiting for turkey to come out.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it in the US!

deevalish — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 06:05:59 GMT

I finally saw Deathly Hallows Pt. 2! So. Good. For all the stuff they had to cut out, it was really, really good. Now it's over. Like, everyone else, I'm a bit sad about it. I wasn't a kid when the books came out but I can't help but feel like I grew up with it. I don't have anything to add to all the many musings already out there. Okay, maybe that Alan Rickman is amazing. But that's not new. :)

A good friend of mine finally got a job in NYC. After 2 1/2 years of looking and interviewing, she's got one. We used to work together and always had an awesome work and real friendship. I actually told her that if she rose high enough to ever need an assistant or something like that, to consider me. I'm 95% sure I'd do it, too.

Today was the boy's last day in preschool. He starts kindergarten on the 15th. Wow. What happened there? He's going to the same elementary school that my siblings and I attended. It tests well and the competition to get in can be rough. It's actually not my first choice but I'm still happy about it. The first choice was a Chinese immersion school. That one is really tough to get into because it's a citywide enrollment versus a neighborhood enrollment. I guess I need to research some after-school Chinese language programs.

deevalish — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:21:50 GMT

Went to a train show today and look at what I bought. They're more for me than they are for the boy. I think I may have started something kind of expensive. Maybe I can get away with just getting the figures.

Haven't seen it yet. Maybe Friday.

deevalish — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 02:10:23 GMT

I am currently in lust over manual typewriters that type in cursive or script font. I have no idea why I am so smitten. It's not like I love typewriters, don't hate them either. I've spent at least a few hours in the past several days just looking at them and researching a little. I'm so close to emailing a couple of places to see if they have a particular model as there aren't any that I can locate on eBay. And I'm much too impatient to go through garage, estate sales, antique and vintage shops to look for it.

It rained quite a bit today. Totally strange for June in San Francisco. Still went to the farmers market though. :) I think the farmers and vendors all know me on sight by now.

Signed myself up for a Muay Thai kickboxing class at the rec center. At $4 a class for an hour and 11 sessions, it's a steal. I haven't taken a class in about a year. I missed it so much. Nice to put the gloves back on again.

deevalish — Sat, 07 May 2011 05:03:40 GMT

Fringe. Ack!!!! I can't spend a whole summer thinking about this! But it was damn good.

Didn't get picked for jury duty. It was boring and sort of interesting at the same time. I kept thinking about what I would say if I were to be called up to the box. But didn't have to say any of it.

deevalish — Thu, 05 May 2011 20:00:32 GMT

I'm onlinch break from jury duty right now. Boring but that's how it goes. Beautiful day out of course.

Haven't heard anything from agency but then those seem to take a while.

I have 30 more minutes and there's nothing to do around here, meaning there aren't any shops.

deevalish — Mon, 02 May 2011 03:12:46 GMT

What a gorgeous day! Mid 70's with a slight breeze.

I attempted to make roasted asparagus and it turned out lovely. A repeat for sure.

Currently, the news is reporting that Osama Bin Laden has been killed and his body is in US custody. That is incredible news. I don't know how that would change anything. For sure, it sends a message to those in cahoots with him. But wouldn't there be someone else who would step in? The next Big Bad? Or not-as-Big Bad?

I've watched all the footage of the Royal Wedding that I care to see and it looked just amazing. My favorite parts were the "private" moments. The chit chat that we could see but couldn't hear. All those very everyday (not very regal or proper) touches.

deevalish — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:37:40 GMT

Fringe. Is really, really amazing. And that thing at the end? Wow and whoa. Now I have to go and Google whether it's been for sure picked up for next season!

deevalish — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:25:05 GMT

I think it went rather well. Well, I think it went really well with 2 out of the 3 interviewers. The third one was hard to read. She made me the most nervous. Intense and very business like. A very good thing in her role. I was actually supposed to interview with the editor, whom they're hiring a producer for but he called in sick, so the last interviewer stepped in.

The second person, the executive director, seemed to be most impressed with the my art background. The first one was just nice all around. First person mentioned that if I could spare the time, perhaps they should bring me back in to interview with the editor. Of course, I agreed to it. *crosses fingers*

Made creamed spinach and Yorkshire pudding to go with the prime rib that D made tonight. The spinach was a tiny bit salty but overall very good and worth making again. Yorkshire pudding was a little too dense but tasty. I didn't know how much to pour into each muffin tin so that was part of the problem.

deevalish — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 23:42:45 GMT

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US! I have much to be thankful for and hope that the same holds true for my friends. If you're reading this, I'm thankful that you took the time out to see it as I realize I'm not terribly entertaining these days.

deevalish — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 06:36:27 GMT

It's September and I haven't posted until just now. As I've said before, work is keeping me super busy. I'm feeling a little more settled but there's always something new to learn. The new manager starts on Wednesday. Can't wait.

There are aspects to this new job that I very much like. And I'll be very honest here, my last job was something I loved doing but it didn't keep me very busy, especially towards the last 6 months. There is always something to do that needs to be done here.

So weekends mean all that much more to me now. Today I finally got to tackle the tree at the front of the house. It's not really our tree, public property and also it's not even really in front of our house. But the neighbors are tenants who don't care about anything outside their door. They don't even sweep up broken glass in front of their driveway. The land lord lives several hours away, too. So I pulled all the weeds out and left just the wild calla lilies there. But I may pull those out too. They get so tall and gangly that they fall over at the slightest. For now they stay. In addition to clearing away all the rubbish in the tree well, I added a bit more potting soil to even things out and then put medium bark over all that. Hopefully that will be enough of a clue to dog owners to pick up the poop. I hate to resort to a sign. Because really, you should always pick the crap up.

It looks 1000% better now. It doesn't look like a small abandoned lot anymore. I really did want to plant something there but I couldn't bring myself to think about digging in that dirt. *shudders* So that impulse will have to wait until I actually buy/build a planter for the front of the building. Though D is always paranoid about someone stealing it or anything that is placed outside. He thinks that someone will steal our doormat one day. I can't bring myself to be too concerned about that. I tend to think that karma will take care of thing s like that. Besides ain't nothing wrong with wanting to make your house and the street look better.

deevalish — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 02:24:47 GMT

Oof. First day boss is back at work. So. Very. Much. Work. It's so much stuff that it's a little hard to know where to begin. Add reports and numbers to run into the mix, too. Oof. I'm a little nervous about all of it. But they seem to really want me to succeed at this. That's always good. My multi-tasking skills are really being challenged.

I've decided to knit a couple of scarves for a local kitchen for their holiday gift drive. They're hoping to get about 2500 scarves. I'm hoping t make one, maybe two scarves.

deevalish — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:45:02 GMT

Had a low key birthday. Brunch at Park Chow. Yummy! After that we went over to see the Dahlia Show in GGP. I bought myself a Meyer lemon tree. I'll be planting it tomorrow at my mom's house.

The new job is coming along very well. It's a little weird because the person who hired me has been out since he interviewed me. He'll be back this coming Monday. So I haven't really seen him since my interview, the one that I thought didn't go very well.

My grasp of Excel formulas has gotten a little better. A lot of reporting and trending. What I like the most though is being able to resolve things. Make the "problem" shelf not look so scary, find out what happened to an order, how you fix "x" and who do you have to talk to.

Went to the Eat Real Festival in Oakland today. Some really good food was happening. Lines were long but they were moving at least.

deevalish — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:53:31 GMT

Super frustrating to not be able to find 6"x8" Crane sheet paper only. I have a lot of envelopes already, just need the sheet paper. The paper is a fantastic quality and unlike some brands, there is no wrong side, so when you use a calligraphy pen there's no (or not much) ink bleed. I see that Crane does have it on their site but I really want to support a local stationery.

Last Saturday I went to the Renegade Craft Fair and it was awesome. So many creative people in one place! There were a handful of yarn people too. Some really gorgeous colors but I'm the type of person who needs to have a project in mind before I can buy yarn. The overall theme of every booth was having buttons or magnets for sale. Nearly everyone had some. It was insane. And I very nearly bought some. But resisted mightily. I walked away with a succulents terranium, a tee shirt for the boy, and a super cute little zippered pouch for my iPod.

The terranium was really inexpensive compared to what I had seen around. Plus, I wanted to have something as a reference fort when I create my own (i have a collection of small succulents going). The zippered case is made out of a cute hedgehog print from a Japanese fabric company. The gal who created the bags had so many shapes to choose from.

While I was in the general area I also swung by the Barney's warehouse sale. I wasn't expecting to find anything as I don't mix too well with miles of sale racks. I like a bargain as well as anybody else, I just can't paw through all that stuff. Even if it's well organized, just don't have the patience to touch everything. The shoe racks are easier to deal with because all you have to do is eyeball everything. There were some cute shoes but not in my size.

deevalish — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:55:39 GMT

Christmas shopping on QVC and HSN. It's kind of fascinating to watch. Part car wreck, part "Shiny! Must have!!" Good thing I have a pretty good handle on spending. Shush, you!

Watching True Blood s3 and I'm really falling into Team Eric. Hard. What is it with blond vampires? I also think that there's more chemistry between Eric and Sookie than Sookie and Bill. But it doesn't mean I want them together. Okay, maybe a little bit. I just like Eric and any little bit of his history that comes out in the episodes make me pay real close attention. And sometimes his clothing choices are pretty funny. The track suit and flip flops?

Also, super funny moment, I loved Sookie's interpretation of how Bill says her name, "soo-KAY!" That made me laugh really loudly.

deevalish — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:30:58 GMT

How is it even possible that July is almost over? Sheesh.

I've been enjoying making ice pops with the Zoku Ice Pop maker from Williams Sonoma. Super easy. Once you've frozen the base, you can go from juice to ice pops in 7 minutes. My favorite so far is strawberry watermelon, strawberry lemonade and then pink grapefruit. It's really nice to be able to control the ingredients too. I'm going to try chocolate pudding next.

Just started watching season 3 of True Blood. I'm starting to feel the need to mainline this show. I'm really liking Eric Northman. A lot.

I'm making the judgment call of not going to the gym this week. Need to do as much work as possible. The deadline for a lot of this is Monday. It's really nice to be able to go to the gym but that whole thing takes a little over an hour (for just 30 minutes of cardio!). Which I'm not really restricted to an hour lunch but that never looks good. I figure when the big deadline is over I can go back to the gym.

I think I'll swing by the stylist tomorrow for a bang trim.

deevalish — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:17:07 GMT

Last Friday we all took a drive to the State Fair. It was over 100 degrees there. Whoo. The boy enjoyed himself quite a bit. We met up with a friend and their 3 y.o. The two boys get along really well. Too bad they'll be moving to NYC at the end of the month. But it sounds like they're thinking of doing this for about a couple of years. So we may see them back. Hopefully we'll be able to visit at least once in the next year or so.

Still temping. It's going alright.

I'm stuck a little in my attempt to lose a little weight. Really I want to be a little more fit. The weight isn't the main issue. I want to be stronger. But can't seem to find the right balance to achieve this with. Can't yet afford a trainer, as I always do really well with trainers. I'll just have to reference the library books.

The cider vineagar yellow jacket trap is not particularly working. Got a couple of yellow jackets but that's about it. I may have to switch to a fish or meat bait but only on weekends when I can check on it regularly.

On the knitting needles there are 3 projects although I technically have 6 to finish. Currently knitting a baby blanket, a cardigan for the boy, and a cabled scarf. The other 3 items to finish are a hat (I only need to make up a braided cord for it), a small vest (weave in ends and maybe block) and a cardigan for me. The last item needs to be blocked, stitched together and then needs button bands and ribbing.

deevalish — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:50:10 GMT

Randoms:

Met with recruiter today. She was very nice. It was a "getting to know you" deal. Asked a lot of very good questions and had a couple of pointers for resume.

The sweater that I was making for my 7 m.o. nephew is turning out to fit the boy who is 4 y.o. Oops. I had planned on making this bigger because everyone on Ravelry mentioned that the pattern ran pretty small or tight. That's just a little too big. But. But I think I'll make this for the boy. Work out all the kinks and then make the smaller ones.

I selected a trench coat today. I don't have one. I'm on the fence about it. Price was very good though. May still return it.

The upside to this data entry gig is that my typing is improving a bit. A little.

Just saw the new Old Spice commercial. The planning of that one makes the little producer in my head go "Uh. Yeah. That's gonna take some doing." Still brilliant though.

I think I may too many knitting projects planned now. And today I just asked a good friend what they would hypothetically want made for them if they had a choice. Grey. Cables. Scarf. Wide. Long. I'm excited about that one too. I predict a lot of projects being started and worked on simultaneously.

deevalish — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 03:50:10 GMT

This is just my way of keeping track of what I've read so far from the library since I joined about 2 months ago. What's not on this list, and it just might make it on here, are all the knitting books.

Mr. Darcy's Diary, a novel
None But You (Frederick Wentworth Captain Book 1)
For You Alone (Frederick Wentworth Captain Book 2)
An Assembly Such as This, a novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman
Duty and Desire, a novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman
These Three Remain, a novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman
Impulse & Initiative
The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy
Mr. Dacy's Obsession
What Would Mr. Darcy Do?
Mr. Darcy The Last Man in the World
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Pride and Prejudice, Dawn of the Dreadfuls
Pride and Prejudice, Dreadfully Ever After
Mr Darcy and the Secret of Becoming a Gentleman

Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw
Cook's Tour
Farm City
The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventuresi n the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City
Nasty Bits
Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
Momofuku
will grayson, will grayson
Ready for Dessert
Blood, Bones and Butter
Into the Vietnamese Kitchen

More Last Minute Knitted Gifts
60 Quick Knits
The Knitters Almanac
The Opinionated Knitter
Scarf Style
Cables Untangled
Natural Knits for Babies

deevalish — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:44:47 GMT

Nope, didn't get it. *sigh*

deevalish — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:20:05 GMT

Started temp job today. It's a much bigger project than I imagined and it seems it will be weeks longer than mentioned. I'm not too jazzed about that. Also there are almost no guidelines. The person I'm reporting to doesn't really know all that much about what this process should be. She only knows what the outcome will be. So I have to just make stuff up and they rearrange or correct it. Really, this is what they're paying me to do. Which is making me feel uneasy or unbalanced. I like to have some instructions that are a bit clearer than murky, thanks. THey don't have to spell it out just a little more direction.

On the upside, today I got an email from my friend's work. The HR person was wanted to know what my salary requirements were. I came up with an amount and bingo, she's going to have a someone set up a time for an interview next week. I'm not even going to contemplate what I'm going to do about the temp gig if this place hires me. One thing at a time. But boy, do I want to be hired by them.

deevalish — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:23:36 GMT

Had a nice last several days despite my anxiety over being jobless.

After the gym on Friday morning, I went over to where the Top Chef tour was set up. It was entertaining. Not something that would be very interesting to anyone who is not a fan.

Saturday morning, the boy and I hopped on a bus and headed to the Farmers Market. It was also the hottest day so far. Reached about 83, I believe. Nice to be able to dress for warm weather like that. I wore my grey straw hat for the first time. It was really nice to have. The boy was behaving very well so I let him run about the water fountain that was there. He also got to choose which bus line to take back home. I think he really enjoyed to whole excursion.

Sunday we headed out to the Giants County Fair which it really wasn't but you know, it was something to do. Spent 2 hours there and the weather was still very good. Ferris wheel, merry go round, little train ride and tiny little kids roller coaster. They had an animal petting area that also had a zonkey. Zebra + donkey. The boy was agog over that.

deevalish — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:10:36 GMT

Hmmm. Received a call from Unemployment looking to verify last day worked and where and such. I think that my payments are going to be lower now. By how much remains to be seen. According to the caller I'll get paperwork in 7-10 days. More pressure to find a job. Which, really, I can't help that not many places are choosing to even call me. I can't believe it's taken this long. I guess I should give up the chase and look to retail jobs that I can do with my eyes closed. Not sure I'll be able to even find anything with benefits.