Oh, my stars and garters!

Progress report

In these waning hours of 2010, let's see how I did on my new year's resolutions.

1. Write a rap song.

Nope, sure didn't. Although last week I came up with an idea for one. Probably it will be stupid. Nevertheless, I'm going to carry this one over to 2011.

2. Devise a system to keep my photo file folders organized for all time.

Nope again, although Angela and Kristy, a records manager and an archivist, respectively, both of whom seem to me freakishly organized, came over one night last winter to get me started and make suggestions for dating and folder hierarchy. I was well on my way to having a fully functional photo organization flow, then my beta copy of Lightroom 3 expired and I let everything go to shit again.

But! I got a copy for Christmas and bought a cool wifi memory card for my camera (thanks to Styro for the tip), so don't count me out just yet. I'm definitely going to carry this one over too.

So even though my resolutions this year were a big, fat failure, I am hopeful I can still get them done in the coming year. And, for good measure, I'll add my usual intention to just be better in general. Maybe this is the year it will take?

I hope everyone has a safe, fun, happy New Year's Eve; I sure plan to. I'll see you around in 2011.

Meta

Or at least not regress

Hey, I finally finished a more or less viable woodcut. 

For sure it doesn't look like something that took more than a week, but it did. What the hell, I figured out a couple of tricks and learned how and how often to sharpen the tools.

I should probably touch it up and clean up some of those lines, but I think I'd rather move on to the next thing, whatever that is.

(It's a polar bear, in case you couldn't tell.)

My sister and I put some lights and balls and ornaments on the tree, and it doesn't looks scary at all anymore. The dog is no longer shitting every hour and only bites us and tries to rip our pants like every other day lately. And it might be wishful thinking, but Sweetloaf seems a tiny bit more active and a little smarter with his blood all thinned out. Anyway, he is still alive.

So: progress! Infinitesimal progress! 

Lucky day

Today was a good day.

First of all, I discovered that I won this fantastic hat in Mary P.'s insane holiday giveaway extravaganza. Thanks, Mary P.!

Mary is holding contests and giveaways for all kinds of good stuff on her blog this month, and she's a talented milliner and fun read to boot, so I really recommend clicking on any or all of the links in the previous paragraph.

I plan to wear my crazy new hat in front of the tree we got today. And many other places as well. Parties, gatherings, Christmas morning Mass...

We didn't have time to break out the lights and ornaments, so the tree looks pretty forbidding for now, like it belongs in the middle of some frightening Teutonic yuletide observance instead of a corner of the living room in a 1960s split-level flip.

Eventually it will look more festive. It definitely smells festive, decorations or no. 

Oh, and today was also notable because I ate two al pastor tacos on what tasted suspiciously like handmade tortillas from a truck within walking distance of my house, and a damned tasty breakfast taco from a strip mall that is also within walking distance of my house. ("Walking distance" for me is about a mile one way; I don't mind long walks, but any farther takes all goddamn day and you are expending far too many calories for your delicious food, which is counterproductive.)

Trust me, these are pretty notable discoveries around these parts, especially the handmade tortillas.

After all that excitement, plus a long walk in the park, I drove to work, finished all my tasks early, and used the downtime to upload and tag a bunch of pictures of the dog, starting back from when she was a tiny puppy in the shelter.

So. If you have been just dying to look at 25 photos and two videos of a puppy, this is your lucky day too. Congratulations!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/marypattavina/5238439453/" title="Gaudy Xmas hat giveaway!!!! by Mary P. from Pretty Good Things, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/5238439453_65b84516eb.jpg" width="500" height="497" alt="Gaudy Xmas hat giveaway!!!!" /></a>

Scarf it up

Back in May, my friend Kristy gave me a scarf for my birthday.

(Hey, click on this picture to get its flickr page, or just click here for the giant version of the image, where you can see all the great Texas-y crap on there.)

Most specifically, the best scarf ever. Ever!

Holy shit!

If you have access to a scarf that is more exceptional, I cordially invite you to take a picture and send it to me, or post a link in the comments. Seriously, because sometimes I just like to have my mind blown, and an even better scarf than this would about do it.

Please, have some detail. West Texas makes me happy in any form, including scarf. I do not know if Balmorhea is the world's largest swimming pool, but I can say it is one of the finest. You should go there soon.

I didn't get around to wearing the best scarf ever until today because the weather is finally cool enough for wrapping excess material around my neck. Also, as of today I am working the four to midnight shift again, which means I have all afternoon to drink coffee and contemplate accessories.

The only problem with this scarf is that, while I think it looks very nice on, you can't truly tell how badass it is when it's folded up and knotted at the neck.

Maybe I should experiment more with the shawl look. That's not really my style, but if ever there was a scarf worth making an exception for, this one is it.