It's Scary Here

DS went to Pittsburgh Sunday morning for APS, which is, from what I can gather, a big conference for super nerds. Maybe even bow tie wearing nerds... I don't know. I've never been. All I know for sure is that there's like 10k people there, and the talks are only 15 minutes each. I don't even know how you could say anything useful about science in 15 minutes that you'd fly across the country to say. But he did, and he's gone. He'll be home tomorrow night.

But I digress. The point is, it's scary here. And not because he's gone. He left me in Madison all the time and I survived just fine. SB though... I don't know man. This place is like spider heaven. Also known as SG hell.

As an example, today along I killed 8 spiders. I'm not kidding you. 7 of them were in the two windows in our living room. 1 was in the shower. The most disturbing thing was that one was in the shower.

You see, the spiders appeared about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I had been living here, fearing tarantulas (because apparently those are in the hills), but feeling pretty okay about my actual apartment, for like what? 2 months? The BAM! The first week I found 3 in 2 days. This was kind of the worst week, because I wasn't ready for it. That, and one of them was found as it dropped out of the pajama pants I was putting on. Yeah, that's right. I put on my pajamas, and a spider dropped out of the leg. I screamed. DS was asleep. He cursed me as he stumbled into the bathroom, where I was perched on the toilet seat, and he even called me Jaime (his sister) in his stupor.

The day I found two on the screen door right after bumping into it with my back to open it (cause I was doing laundry, so my hands were full), I decided that was enough. I went to Home Depot and got some of that whole house spray that is supposed to keep bugs out for a whole year. The heavy duty toxic stuff. Since it is toxic, I started with the half of the house I could close off from the cats fairly easily. This included the bathroom. I soaked all the windows, and everything around the windows. Even the screens. I also followed the directions and covered all floor edges out to a few inches. Until today, I had not seen a single spider in that half of the house (though I did find 6 while using the spray).

Now there's one in the bathroom??!!?? A whole year my ass. It hasn't even been 2 weeks!

Also, this morning as I was walking to my car, a spider was running in my direction from across the garage. All I saw was black and a hint of red before I jumped in the car and slammed the door and prayed he wasn't tagging along. I'm trying really, really hard not to think about the fact that I was nearly run down by a black widow.... I might spray the garage tomorrow for good measure.

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*For those of you that know me, you know I have pretty bad arachnophobia. Like, bad. Like, I have nightmares about spiders and kick DS so hard while sleeping that he wakes up and finds me crying in my sleep. I know it's irrational, and I can't help it. One time I tried to think about ways I could get over my fear, and I got so afraid that doing so would make me feel okay about coming in contact with spiders that I couldn't sleep for a few days. One nice thing about being here is that Sam is on the same page as me on this topic. We both know that a spider will attack you if it sees you. And that if you don't kill it and immediately get it out of the house, it could come back to life and come after you when you least expect it. Seriously.

So, with that in mind, notice that I said I killed 8 spiders today. I did that! And yeah, DS might laugh as I get out my little can of Raid and jump backwards in fear at each spray because if I'm not careful, the spider will use the spray to crawl to me, I'm at least doing the killing now. There are parts of the apartment I can't go back to at the moment, because I'm afraid of spider carcasses as well (see above for resurrected spider revenge)... I'm not able to actually get rid of them. Just spray them from a distance and watch in utter fear with goosebumps all over my body to make sure they stop moving. Then run.

Baby steps people.

Weaving 101

I'm soooo excited!! As mentioned before, on Saturday I bought a loom. It's not a huge thing (you have to work up to that kind of commitment!). It's a 20" Knitters Loom by Ashford, a type of rigid heddle. Except it's only kinda rigid, because it can fold in half for easy transport. I'm in love. It's made almost entirely out of wood, and it feels so nice in my hands.

It came with complete instructions, beginning to end, for how to make a scarf. So I did. I'm very impressed with myself.

Weaving is so mesmerizing. It's like an itch that no amount of scratching will make go away. I hope it stays that way, because I had so much fun making that scarf. I just love pushing the shuttle back and forth, beating the threads... it's awesome. Besides, if I get goodat this, I'm going to sell all kinds of things! Placemats, coasters, small rugs. You name it! I'm taking pre-orders :)

Solvang

Today DS and I took a drive up to Solvang, a small town settled in 1911 by the nice people from Denmark.
As you can see, it's adorable.

We happened to show up in the middle of a huge cycling race. Parking was atrocious, and driving scary because you were always about to hit someone trying sooo hard to pedal uphill without dying. (I know that feeling! I always feel like that when I ride my bike :P)

But once the car was parked, it was awesome. And once the race ended, the little town quieted down some and we enjoyed walking by the shops. Especially the candy shops and bakeries. Yum!

We had lunch at the Red Viking, were we each had a real Danish dish. DS had Danish sausage, and I had Danish meatballs. It was okay. I was most surprised by the red cabbage, which I actually liked. It was kind of sweet. I think there was beet juice in it... but I have no idea.

I had actually learned of this place while researching looms after reading this blog post. There's an Ashford distributor in Solvang, and walking into that store was like walking into a crafter's heaven. I've never seen so much fluffy wool in rainbows of colors in one place in my life. You weren't supposed to touch it, but I couldn't help myself.

So I bought a loom! And then DS and I took the short drive back to Santa Barbara, where I spent the rest of the day playing with it. Isn't a beautiful drive? I can't wait to go back! DS promised :)

last one today, i promise!

holy cow, three posts in one day!! (did they come out as three posts? the interwebs acts funny when you're on pacific time. the world resets at 9pm...)

anyway, did you know my husband has a blog? no? i don't blame you. i forget it exists for roughly 6 months at a time. which is a good amount of time, because you're usually gaurenteed at least a little something to read if you wait that long.

anyhow, he's been updating a little more regularly here recently, and most of it is not a duplication of mine (really, it's surprising any of it is, because we sort of orbit the same thing, but don't share an orbit... though they cross sometimes. but really, i'm not going to blog about watching the daily show.)

my point: check it out. especially if you're related to him, because i know some of you read my blog to make up for his lack of communication.

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ps - zemanta recommend the following wikipedia links be activated: "orbit" and "holy cow". okay fine, i'll do it.

pps - it also recommended the following tags: "programming", "corba", "component frameworks", "object request brokers", "humor", "recreation". none of those apply!! (especially the humor - ooh snap! heheheheh. okay, it's obviously past my bedtime.)

don't be jealous*

Forecast for Santa Barbara, CA (93111)

10-Day Forecast

NEW: Larger Radar Maps & No Ads

			High / Low (°F)	Precip. %
Tonight Mar 05		Mostly Clear	40°	10 %
Fri Mar 06		Sunny	64°/40°	0 %
Sat Mar 07		Sunny	65°/41°	0 %
Sun Mar 08		Sunny	68°/42°	0 %
Mon Mar 09		Sunny	67°/40°	0 %
Tue Mar 10		Sunny	67°/41°	0 %
Wed Mar 11		Sunny	68°/42°	0 %
Thu Mar 12		Sunny	69°/44°	0 %
Fri Mar 13		Sunny	70°/44°	0 %
Sat Mar 14		Sunny	69°/44°	0 %

*or do, whatever. you could always come visit. assuming i like you. i guess even if i don't, but in that case, just visit the area, and not me.

wha?

Ship Method: FedEx
Status: IN TRANSIT
Shipment Date: Mar 02, 2009
Destination: Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Estimated Arrival: Apr 07, 2009

Date	Time	Location Service Area	Checkpoint Details
Mar 05, 2009	08:06:00 PM	BLOOMINGTON CA US	ARRIVAL SCAN
Mar 03, 2009	08:08:22 AM	LEWISBERRY PA US	DEPARTURE SCAN
Mar 02, 2009	01:45:00 PM	LEWISBERRY PA US	ARRIVAL SCAN
Mar 02, 2009	11:04:00 AM	LEWISBERRY PA US	SHIPMENT RECEIVED BY CARRIER
Mar 02, 2009	07:35:00 AM	---	SHIPMENT HAS LEFT SELLER FACILITY AND IS IN TRANSIT

just some stuff floating in my head

1. I was lying in bed last night, trying to get my brain to shut up so I could sleep (this happens frequently, and is probably why DS often finds me with the Nintendo DS [whoa, confusing!] on in the bed when he wakes up in the morning.. Pogo's Word Whomp occupies my brain just enough to shut it up, but not enough to keep it awake. It's like almost-instant sleep aid!). It occurred to me that I think about things in the format of blog posts a lot. In fact, the thoughts last night about thinking in blog format were also in blog format. Maybe this is why I always feel like I'm blogging way more than I actually am....

2. I've been doing some research and joining a few more crafty websites in the hopes of building a broader customer base. Europe, here I come!! Well, not physically... you know what I mean.

3. Battlestar Galactica is soon coming to an end, and I'm sad about it. I feel myself wanting to resort to this habit I have of not reading the last book in a series in the hopes that my brain will continue to think the world the series created still exists. Because for some reason, actually finishing it makes it fade and seem less real. Also, it doesn't seem like they could wrap up the whole show in only three more episodes, even if one of those is three hours long.

4. DS and I have made some new friends, which is always exciting. Last night they invited us to attend the Banff Mountain Film Festival with them, which was just amazing. DS had been once before in the past, but it was my first time. Unfortunately, we only had tickets for the first night, but at least now we both know we'll want to attend the whole thing next year!

5. I'm reading The Kite Runner, and it has a disturbing way of making me forget to put it down and go to sleep.... I guess that means it's a good book, but I should probably make time to read it when I'm not in bed. I'm also reading War and Peace, which doesn't have the same effect. Though in its defense, I'm only on like page 12 or something.

6. I'm working on jewelry right now that will be sold in a real live store! It's very exciting, and I'm really hoping that it goes over well with customers. I'm slowly getting 'stranger' customers on Etsy, which is very satisfying, but I have this feeling that I could do very well in a setting where people can see and touch the jewelry before buying it. I get a lot of nice comments on the quality of my work.

Image via Wikipedia

7. I was so excited to get the BBC when we moved out here so I could watch the new season of Doctor Who, and the stupid channel isn't showing it. From the looks of the channel guide here lately, BBC America is really like the Gordon what's-his-face channel. Bleh.

8. I've been trying out Zemanta, which is like a browser plug-in that finds photos and links and tags for your blog posts as your typing. All hyperlink courtesy of them. It's okay so far.

9. I LOVE Google Reader. I can't get DS to use it, which is a shame. It's just amazing. The only fault I have with it is that I want to subscribe to so many things, and then I get online after not checking it for a day and suddenly I have 400 posts to read... It has been difficult to make myself just click "mark all as read" and move on. Doesn't mesh with my "100%er" personality. But I really don't want to spend my every waking moment reading those things. Of course, part of what makes Google Reader so sweet is that your friends can share things, and so even if I can't read all of Super Punch one day, for example, there's a good chance anything worth reading is shared by someone else. My favorite part is reading the stuff shared by Kimberlina. In fact, she probably gets tired of the massive amount of e-mail I'm sending her to comment on all the stuff I love that she shares... I wish I could just comment on her shares without re-sharing them!