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March 29, 2004
Ripped off from LiveJournal: Where
Ripped off from LiveJournal:
Where were you when?
1. When John F. Kennedy was shot (22/11/1963)
Not born.
2. When Mt. St. Helens blew (18/5/1980)
I was in elementary school. I remember talking about it with my dad.
3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (28/1/1986)
I was sitting in the floor at my neighbor Mike's house, playing a game, where we'd gone to visit on a snow day. The TV was on, and I heard the countdown announced. I looked up at the last moment, and saw it arc into the air and explode.
4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (7/10/1989)
Watching the game in my brother's room, with my dad.
5. When the Berlin Wall fell (7/11/1989)
I don't remember.
6. When the Gulf War began (16/1/1991)
I don't remember.
7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco (17/6/1994)
I was at my grandmother's house in Illinois; we we sat in the living room and watched.
8. When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed (19/4/1995)
I was driving to my job at Murray State, and heard it on the radio. No one there had heard yet.
9. When Princess Di was killed (31/8/1997)
I was in Dallas, visiting John.
10. When Bush was first announced President (7/11/2000)
At Marie's house.
11. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (28/2/2001)
There was an earthquake in Nisqually, WA?
12. When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center (11/9/2001)
I was at home, visiting, sitting in front of the computer in my pajamas, when I heard my dad come through the front door and stride through the house. "A plane's hit the World Trade Center," he said, going to the television. We sat on the bed in my parents' bedroom and watched. The second plane hit. The stunned announcer said he couldn't believe the horrible coincidence. "It's not one," Dad said. 'It's terrorism."
13. When Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas. (1/2/2003)
My brother was visiting.
Posted by Kristin at 9:16 PM
March 25, 2004
HEADLINE: RABID HARRY POTTER FANS
HEADLINE: RABID HARRY POTTER FANS BREAK KRISTIN'S WEBSITE; POPULAR NEWS SITE
The new Harry Potter trailer is posted at www.the-leaky-cauldron.org, and all the visitors caused the site to go 250% over bandwidth for the month.
And all of my images live on Leaky's server.
Posted by Kristin at 1:30 PM
March 22, 2004
I am so cool that
I am so cool that sometimes I even amaze myself.
Posted by Kristin at 7:54 PM
March 21, 2004
My finished French Market Bag,
My finished French Market Bag, from the Knitty.com Knitalong:
Notes:
It ended up much floppier than I expected, considering the photographs of other finished bags, but I decided not to re-felt - the sides, which I knitted to not-quite-ten inches, shrank to abour 6", and I don't really want it smaller than that, as right now it's the perfect size for a covered dish or to take to the grocery. The fabric has a nice, dense texture with very little stitch definition (it actually seems more apparent in the photo - I wonder why?). While I was a little disappointed initially that it didn't end up stiffer, considering it's my very first non long-rectangular-piece-of-material knitting project, I'm happy with it, although if I were to try again, I'd go for either a double strand stitch or a thicker yarn.
Posted by Kristin at 3:20 PM
Went to Lush, was handed
Went to Lush, was handed a 25% coupon at the door, went a bit mad - bought Hard (works great), this shampoo that has irish stout in it, Dream Cream, and this soap, which smells so good I may carry a bar around with me in my handbag just to sniff.
All birthday gift to self.
Posted by Kristin at 7:14 AM
March 20, 2004
Oh, two posts in one
Oh, two posts in one morning, but I love these -
Mary GrandPre artwork:
Ron, Hermione, and Harry in the Three Broomsticks
Happy Birthday to Harry
Christmas at Hogwarts
Posted by Kristin at 8:29 AM
Ten hours and 903 kilometers
Ten hours and 903 kilometers after leaving Daly Waters we arrived, dry and dusty, in Alice Springs, a grid of ruler-straight streets set alike an enormous helipad on a plain beside the golden slopes of the MacDonnell Ranges. Because it is so bang in the middle of nowhere, Alice Springs ought to seem a miracle - an actual town with department stores and schools and streets with names - and for a long time it was a sort of antipodean Timbuktu, a place tantalizing in its inaccessibility. In 1954, Alice's only regular connection on to the outside world was a weekly train from Adelaide. Its arrival on Saturday evening was the biggest event in the life of the town. It brought mail, newspapers, new pictures for the cinema, long-awaited spare parts, and whatever else couldn't be acquired locally. Nearly the whole town turned out to see who got off and what was unloaded.
In those days Alice had a population of 4000 and hardly any visitors. Today it's a thriving little city with a population of 25,000 and it is full of visitors - 350,000 of them a year - which is of course the whole problem. These days you can jet in from Adelaide in two hours, from Melbourne and Sydney in less than three. You can have a latte and buy some opals and then climb on a tour bus and travel down the highway to Ayers Rock. The town has not only become accessible, it's become a destination. It's so full of motels, conference centers, campgrounds, and desert resorts that you can't pretend even for a moment that you have achieved something exceptional by getting yourself there. It's crazy really. A community that was once famous for being remote now attracts thousands of visitors who now come to see how remote it no longer is.
Nearly all guidebooks and travel articles indulge the gentle conceit that Alice retains some irreproducible outback charm - some away-from-it-all quality that you must come here to see - but in fact it is Anywhere, Australia. Actually, it is Anywhere, Planet Earth. On our way into town we passed strip malls, car dealerships, McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets, banks, and gas stations. Only a scattering of Aborigines strolling among the dried bed of the Todd River gave any hint of exoticism. We took rooms in a motor inn on the edge of the modest downtown. My room had a balcony where I could watch the setting sun flood the desert floor and burnish the golden slopes of the MacDonnell Ranges beyond - or at least I could if I looked past the more immediate sprawl of a Kmart plaza across the road. In the 2 million or more square miles that is the Australian outback, I don't suppose there is a more unfortunate juxtaposition.
Allan was evidently held by a similar thought, for a half hour later when we met out front he was staring at the same scene. "I can't believe we've just driven a thousand miles to find a Kmart," he said. He looked at me. "You Yanks have a lot to answer for, you know."
I started to protest, in a sputtering sort of way, but what could I say? He was right. We do. We have created a philosophy of retailing that is totally without aesthetics and totally irresistible. And now we box these places up and ship them to the far corners of the world. Visually, almost every arrestingly regrettable thing in Alice Springs was a product of American enterprise, from people who couldn't know that they had helped to drain the distinctiveness from an outback town and doubtless wouldn't see it that way anyway. Nor come to that, I daresay, would most of the shoppers of Alice Springs, who were no doubt delighted to get lots of free parking and a crack at Martha Stewart towels and shower curtains. What a sad and curious age we live in.
Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country
Posted by Kristin at 8:18 AM
March 18, 2004
Tomorrow I turn the age
Tomorrow I turn the age from which all future queries of how old I am will be met with a smile but no answer.
A year ago tonight, I thought about the things I needed to accomplish in the coming year. I didn't manage most of them - some for reasons unforeseeable, and some for reasons I've known for too long.
This year, I want the following:
To be kinder to myself
To spend more time with the people I care about
To go places I've never been
And if I could write a little about it all, and take a few pictures, I'd enjoy that.
Here's to a good year.
Posted by Kristin at 11:03 PM
March 15, 2004
The Umbrella Project. Very cool.
The Umbrella Project. Very cool.
Posted by Kristin at 4:54 PM
March 14, 2004
My trip to London page
My trip to London page is back up for now - I reduced the size of each image, so if it looks terrible on your monitor, please email and let me know. I'll get the other photos back up soon. I'm also looking into a way to identify each photo, as well as Creative Commons. Not that I expect hoards of people to stampede my site to demand my photos, but it's probably a good thing to do.
Posted by Kristin at 9:20 PM
March 7, 2004
It may not be finished,
It may not be finished, but I'm done with it - here's my writeup on my trip to London.
EDIT: Or there it's not. I killed the bandwidth transfer rate. Photos will be back shortly!
Posted by Kristin at 2:25 PM
Last month, Kathy and I
Last month, Kathy and I went to Tea on the Tiber, which is a new tea room in Ellicott City, MD. We've wanted to return ever since, but the tea room has been 'discovered', and the last time I called, I was told they were booked every Saturday for the next month.
Marie, Monique and I decided to spend yesterday in E.C. (Kathy had to go do family stuff :( and couldn't join us), and at Monique's suggestion, I called early and left my cel number, asking to be considered if they had a cancellation. Ten minutes later they called, and we got in.
When we sat down, our server asked "Who's Kristin?", and when I waved my hand, she said she'd talked to me regarding the reservations. We had tea (delicious), and when she returned with our check, she asked what we had thought. I said it was really good, although I'd missed the cheese wedges I'd had at tea during my first visit, which I'd enjoyed so much my friend and I had left favorable reviews on a website tearoom review called 'Catteacorner'. Her eyes widened.
"You're that Kristin!? I'll be right back!"
She disappared, and returned seconds later with a man I think is the owner. Apparently, they'd found the website and had been so thrilled to see our reviews that they've committed them to lifelong memory. They thanked me, and asked if I had any other suggestions or advice, so we chatted for a bit, and then he said that if I had any other suggestions to please email them ("Yes, email - don't leave them as reviews," he laughed). Then our server took our check.
"I feel special just knowing you," Marie said. I told her she should, and we left to go roam around.
And Kathy, since you couldn't come, I had a cup of Purple Mountains Majesty at the coffee house on Main Street. I even bought some; I'm having a cup of it right now.
Posted by Kristin at 8:28 AM
March 6, 2004
Whether you like movies like
Whether you like movies like this, only you can say. But if you do not have some secret place in your soul that still responds even a little to brave cowboys, beautiful princesses and noble horses, then you are way too grown up and need to cut back on cable news. And please ignore any tiresome scolds who complain that the movie is not really based on fact. Duh.
The Chicago Suntimes review of Hidalgo, or why I think Roger Ebert ROX. And I'm not even particularly interested in the movie.
Posted by Kristin at 8:40 PM
March 1, 2004
Calling all knitters (I think
Calling all knitters (I think that would be Jennie), there's a new knitting website that looks good -
MagKnits
Things I want to try:
Poppies
Java Jacket
Shawl Thingie
Handbag
After my wrist stops hurting from the last time I knit, though.
Posted by Kristin at 1:40 PM