I finished the super-secret-project. It was a regular Christmas miracle and can now be unveiled. It's a quilt for my brother and his wife. It's their (late) wedding gift. Technically it's not a quilt because I tied it instead of quiting it together. But I don't have a long arm machine and I really doubt my machine and I could've quilted this successfully. 

(please excuse my apartment.)

And today I finished a quilt for my friends new baby.





The brown is flannel (so soft!) pieced very carefully from an almost-too-small remnant. Easily the most challenging part of this quilt (besides actually finishing it.) The green is one of my favorite small print fabrics of all time.

crayon rolls!

I made stuff for some of the kids I like for Solstice. 

The Mountain Goats!

Last year, after hearing that the lead singer and guitarist for the Mountain Goats had cancer and that as a result they were going to end their touring habit and settle down, I pretty much gave up all hope of ever seeing them live. Somehow, that didn't didn't last for them, and they're touring again. Perhaps the cancer is in remission, or it was all lies to begin with. I have no idea. Nevertheless, last night Sean and I saw The Mountain Goats at the Wonder Ballroom here in Portland. We have this thing where we'll buy tickets a week or two in advance and then on the actual night of the show (mostly if it's a week-night) we say to each other "sooo... how bad do you wanna go?"... Implying that we'd rather sleep/play video games/read/watch a movie/do nothing than actually take the effort to go and "stay out late" (like 11 or 12 pm. we're so old and lazy.) So, although both of us sort of wanted to, neither of us caved last night. Thank goodness. The show was great. The singer (maybe others too -- I have no idea) grew up in Portland, so it was a "very special evening with the Mountain Goats." They played several songs which they introduced saying "please please don't tell your friends that we played this tonight. Lie and tell them we played something else that we always play because we'll never play this anywhere else." They still didn't cover "The Sign", but I didn't have much hope that they would. When they played "No Children" it was exactly like every other communal time listening to that song - a huge loud sing-along where you are as drunk as you want to be regardless of how much (if any) alcohol you've imbibed. John, the singer, didn't even use the microphone for 90% of the song. So good. So wonderful. John also continually said "I am SO GLAD I'm here. This is SO good!" and informed everyone that his 6th grade teacher who encouraged him so much to be who he is today etc etc. was there. That's a good crowd and a good vibe. I liked it. It was the kind of show you could go to and have a good time at even if you didn't know jack squat about any of their music. 

I bet it was skin cancer or something. That doesn't really count anyway. ;)

Attempt

Sean and I have started exploring Ghost Towns in the Pacific Northwest (um, or just Oregon.) It's a fantasic activity. I think Ghost Towns are fascinating. I really want to take a few extra days and drive into California and see some old gold and oil digging towns. Some of them still have some people living in them, which I think is wack and awesome at the same time. I mean... Living in a Ghost Town? What do you do? Can you get the internet there? (Or, is the Internet everywhere?) A couple weeks ago we went to two towns. One called Antelope and the other Shaniko. They were both out in sort of central/eastern/northern? Oregon. It was a long drive. We did a loop and ended up in Government Camp (it's at the base of Mt. Hood) where we stopped for "dinner" in some gross pub.

Last week Daddy visited Sean and I for a while. We had a great time. I didn't take many pictures of that time, but Sean has several... Including some good shots of Dad smoking a hooka! hehehe

Anyhow... Here are some snap shots.

This is Mount Saint Helens from the side of the road. It looks all wack because I'm seeing it from a totally different side than I normally do.

This is a wind farm. It was really much prettier in real life.

GHOST PICNIC!



When Daddy visited me, we went downtown one day. We sat in the square and watched a guy do Ice Sculptures.

When Daddy was here he got to play a lot of music with his friend Sam. One morning they played at a Cafe in Northeast Portland. (Sam is on the left, Dad is on the right.)