Darleen

went out thrift shopping two days ago- summer is drawing to an end and I felt the need to go back to school shopping.

I went a little crazy and ended up buying five sweaters and four button down shirts and one blanket. (for the impressive price of $9.50) I fell in love with the cool floral pattern on one dress, and being inspired by New Dress A Day, decided to throw it into my (rather tall) pile of purchases.

so, here it is in all of its pre altering glory. complete with some monstrously large shoulder pads. (I have such good tastes in clothing.)
I took a pair of scissors to the dress and went wild. First went the protective football gear attached to the shoulders, then the lace from the neckline, then seven inches from the bottom, then half the sleeves, then the other half of the sleeves when I decided to go the sleeveless route. I took a scoop out of the back, removing the top button, and making it ever so slightly more possible to breathe. altered the front neckline as well and sewed my first button hole. (write it in the baby book- this is a big accomplishment.)

and, ta-da! no more of that three quarter length sleeve nonsense or six inches below the kneecap skirt shenanigans. just a new dress to spend the last few days of summer lounging about in.

While I was pinning up the arm holes, my home phone started ringing and somebody started asking for Darleen- a wrong number, but a good name. I wouldn't be a very good crazy person if I didn't try to name this project with clever alliteration. so, I give you the Darleen dress. (I'm just so clever!) started as a prairie dress, ended like a prairie mess. can't deny or pretend like I don't love it.

winning and losing

you win some and you lose some.

won:
a delicious lemon pie
14 new (used) books for $3.50
a new running companion (and somebody to watch a very potter sequel with)
an ebay auction for series 1-4 of Doctor Who + the complete specials
a delicious milkshake made from the remains of failed meringue batter


lost:
battle with a garden hose
$5 in my pocket in New York
3 egg whites in an attempt to make meringue
15 minutes spent listening to an irritated man trying to buy an old copy of Les Mis

on the topic of winning and losing, I suppose I should mention that I also lost my evening to ants. in my pantry. which was unnerving and more creepy crawly than I would have liked. but, like my dad said, it could have always been worse. The ants could have been spiders. or crickets. or roaches. or tiny raptors.

while my dad and I tend to agree on a lot of things, I disagree with his opinions on having a raptor infestation in our pantry. I've always wanted a pet that could fit into my pencil case. I'd name it Nellie. we would have been the best of friends.

Missed Connections

dear frankie valli-
you told me that you were geeking out over my mighty morphing power rangers t-shirt. I don't know if I thanked you for making my day, so here it goes: thanks. also, you were really rather wonderful and I can't remember if I told you that, but I sincerely hope I did.
-girl with the power rangers t-shirt

on the subject of Doctor Who

well, we weren't really on the subject, but I just finished a mini-marathon with myself and felt inclined to talk about it.

(it's sunday night in the middle of summer vacation, and I have nothing to do besides sit in front of my computer and watch five hours of doctor who. let's make a deal: you don't judge me for doing this (I'm certainly not embarrassed) and I don't judge you for reading this blog.)

a marathon of last five episodes of the first series (the empty child, the doctor dances, boom town, bad wolf, the parting of ways) was tonight. I'm onto classic who from here on out.

My parents judge me (I think) for my love of the show, and I don't blame them because the first time that they saw Doctor Who had been in pieces of Love & Monsters.

Me trying to explain Doctor Who to my parents: "well, you see, Mom, this here is Moaning Myrtle, and she's been absorbed by this monster, but really that's okay because The Doctor comes and he saved her and then she got turned into a paving stone."

I could talk about Doctor Who for excessively long amounts of time, but I think that I'll refrain from doing that (now) and leave you with this: watch it. really really watch it. I don't think that you can really go wrong with watching it. (unless, of course, Fear Her or Love & Monsters is your first episode.) start anytime, anywhere. Series Five is beautiful. Really is. Series Three was my first series, and a good series that it was. Having just finished Series One, I can tell you that it was really rather good for a beginning, and having also watched Series Two and Four I'm pleased to inform you that they're both winners. You don't really need to begin at the beginning, just begin.

After you've done that, come back and talk to me. I'm always up for a rousing discussion about the cool factor of a good bow-tie.

found

inside an old nancy drew book.

rather precious, innit?


"created for
the children's book council, inc.
by
Hardie Gramatry"


anyways, the Nancy Drew books have been living in a cardboard box on a shelf in my basement for a couple of years, and I thought that it was time for them to come back to my bookshelf. (I went through a Nancy Drew craze in the fifth (give or take a little) grade. they were packed up and put downstairs a couple of years after that to make room on my shelves, but now I've seen the errors of my ways.)

the books are the originals, and belonged to my mom and her sisters. A large number of them have bookplates in them that my aunt (the oldest of the sisters) wrote her name on.

not really sure when this bookmark was printed, and because my memory is like a pasta strainer, so I don't know if this bookmark was mine or if it belonged to one of my cousins or to one of my aunts.

dancing in the rain.

two days of solid rain are following my last post. no big deal or anything, but apparently I'm Storm from x men in disguise. I guess I'm okay with this.

I'll be figuring out what else I can do with my newly discovered superpowers, but feel free to leave a comment or shine a giant flashlight into the sky or something if you have a cat stuck in a tree or a baby in a burning building. or a baby cat in a burning tree. It's all in a days work for a superhero like me.

ps suggestions for a superhero name?

melting on the sidewalk.

oh dear it is too hot to be living in a house without air conditioning. what do I do what do I do?

I'm surviving but only just barely and I don't know if I can keep at it.

seriously, who decided that it could be this hot? I'd like to find out so that I could write them a politely worded but nonetheless opinionated letter. if you find out before I do, here's a draft of the one that I'm writing. Please feel free to send it for me.

Dear ___________,

I am sending you this letter as it has recently come to my attention that you are the reason for this horrendous heat. Please refrain from doing this, as my feet are melting into the sidewalk which (rather unsurprisingly) is an acutely painful experience. Your recent rise in temperature has likely brought more business to the frozen dessert industry, and although strawberry lemonade water ice is delicious, I cannot afford to continue to spend such an inordinate percentage of my income on frozen water and flavoring.

Please stop. I cannot take this anymore. I have no containers in my house that hold enough water and I don't like moving back and forth between my couch and freezer to get more ice/stick my head into the frozen peas. It's too hot.

Regrettably without love,
Pi