hands.

she's always wanted a robot tattoo.

since this, ramona has been dragging. but now she's got new moxy. (see below.)

sha-ZZAM!

my life just got way better

i had no idea this place existed. FINALLY, a one-stop shop for all my inter-galactic needs. thanks i. !

dear spider living in the corner above my bed,

today you were lucky.

(you live to fight another day. )

but you better bring your A-game tomorrow.

thank you.

-kiddo.

will someone please explain to me how this happens?

hard to see from the picture, but the orange one is liquid, while the others are frozen. ???

one strip of ice pops. laying in the freezer. how does the orange one evade freezing? I can't be the only one that this happens to...

today

"Today is a good day to flex the muscles of the weary--

a miracle is a miracle even when it's ordinary;

we will walk on the water even though it seems scary,

if someone will show us the way"

-cloud cult

I am so excited for this and this today....

Have stellar weekend!

^j and j! hahah!

it's one of the best words

dear gramma,

i have been dilligently looking for a desk, as you instructed...but all i had found so far were overpriced not very beautiful things. :(

until wednesday, blessed day.

then suddenly, there i was, home from work, standing on my sidewalk, somehow defying the law of the harvest with yet another (yes, it's happened a lot) piece of (not very beautiful but) FREE furniture staring me in the face, basically begging to be in my life.

it sort of repeats the minimalist low white shelving around the other two walls in my room, but i need ideas for some simple treatments i could do on it (did I mention it was completely free?)... I'm thinking of maybe something similar to what I painted on the inside of my door?:

....creative geniuses, any ideas?

sometimes, i don't pay good attention

sometimes i buy tube tops on sale and wear them as skirts.

because sometimes, when i bought them, i thought they WERE skirts.

we should have a garden

but then i learned this: apparently all the fruit trees in state parks and public city parks are public property. and i may or may not have a new source of apples and plums. muhahahha.
*please don't steal all my apples now that i have given you this grand idea. thank you.

in which she learns an important lesson about water storage

so last weekend was the seafair pow wow. this was (sadly) the first pow wow i've been to up in seattle. it didn't seem like there were tons of dancers, but there sure were lots of people there.

Some highlights include:

FANCY DANCERS :) -->

I finally learned where Discovery Park is at.

The sunshine.

This kid, who was dancing with some much older competitors, and definitely keeping up. -->

jingles! -->

lowlights:

fry bread line too long:*( (and believe you me, i would wait a LONG time for fry bread)

and this unfortunate happening--one afternoon that i went was super hot. i forgot to bring a drink, and i forgot to bring extra cash. my car--parked about a mile from the grounds. i remember lukewarm 2 L of sunkist in my car. spirits brighten. i remember a juice bottle of water stored in my trunk for emergencies. spirits brighten further. i time my exit so as not to miss boy's teen fancy dance. i trek the mile or so to the car, take a swig of sunkist, and grab the bottle of water in a rush to catch a shuttle that has stopped in the parking lot nearby. back at the pow wow. enjoying the dancing. enjoying the sun. wait, too much sun. enjoying the water. enjoying more dancing. reach for the water. uh oh. something's in the water. something not previously noted. something that didn't come from me drinking it. something that was there the whole time i was drinking it.

there is a spore of moldiness (presumably--no, not presumably. OBVIOUSLY, from the juice bottle not being thoroughly cleaned out) floating in the water like a little black warning label.

UGH.

if you look close, you can see the little dirtbag on the LH side, near the top of the water level. gross.

weekend.

last weekend: road trip to utah.

one car. five people. so many, many, hours.

it turned out pretty good though.

i got to hang out with this old friend, who is just great (we even somehow knew to wear matching shirts):

i also bought a real dress:

i got to eat cafe rio. which is what i miss most about utah, other than my sister and the mountains.

and we went to s's wedding and reception, which was tear-jerkingly beautiful. yessssss.

also, i feel like a siamese triplet who was surgically removed when i got out of the car for the last time. so, soooo much togetherness on that trip. it was good.

feet. [30 deg, 3.0' N 31 deg 15.9' E]

--trash city, egypt--

this beautiful dirt continued: Muqattam and the zabbaleen

I am finally posting some stories from egypt. Disclaimer: there are lots of words in this post.

the southeast district of the Cairo at the base of the Muqattam hills is home to the Coptic Christians ('Coptic' basically refers to the egyptian Christians--their theology generally follows the Orthodox Christian persuasion... ), known as zabbaleen. i wanted to visit there because (1) it's called 'trash city ' (and it looks like it) because the people there collect, sort, and recycle the city's trash (because of the zabbaleen, Cairo has had one of the highest recycling rates of any city in the world--pew pew! take that seattle) and it sounded like a scene from Baraka, and because (2) there is a huge system of Christian churches there that are carved into the side of the mountains that sounded pretty dope.

The streets in the town at the base of the mountains mostly look like this (these are all bags of trash waiting to be sorted and recycled):










As you wind up towards the mountains, you can see the churches and biblical reliefs carved into the rock walls. The largest of the churches is huuuuuge:

Three crosses stand on the hill in front:


Reliefs of Jesus adorn the rock walls above and across the rock walls where the churches are carved out:


The ten commandments in Arabic:

i met a robed man (typical garb, even in Christian areas) in front of the largest of the churches who didn't seem to have an occupation other than wandering around with his large print arabic bible. maybe he was a plainclothes preacher trying to teach the good word. anyways, i asked him to tell me about the 'miracle of the mountain,' which has to do with the Muqattam hills and seems to motivate the Coptics to take pilgrimmages there...

His eyes light up when i ask. "Ahhhh! Dee Meeraicul!"

(he begins) Over a thousand years ago, the Pope governing the Christians living around Muqattam is challenged to prove their God, or face the obliteration of their religion at the hands of the Muslims in power. In answer to fasting and praying by the believers, God chooses to use a humble tanner and his faith fulfill Mat 17:20 in the flesh--(the man lovingly turns the pages of his Bible and then reads the arabic script out loud in broken english) '...If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove...' (i finish saying the verse with him. as he continues the story, he gets more and more excited.) The earth shakes and the very mountain that we stand on lifts into the air. The Muslims see underneath the mountain to the other side (he cuts his hands through thin air, as if feeling the voided space under the base of the mountain) and leave the Christians in peace. They are so moved by the miracle, they even help in building the churches.

Then bible guy tells me something very profound.

Three words are dee same in every language, he says.

"Hallejulah! "

"Hallejulah!" I echo.

"Amen!"

"Amen!" I cry, this time copying his outstretched hands.

"COCA-COLA!!!!!" (his laughter booms)

*Standing there halfway across the world, talking to this man, I suddenly feel like I am on one of those old-everyone-getting-along-give-you-warm-fuzzies Coke commercials. It's funny, I think, that the two things that me, american kid, and egyptian large print arabic bible man have most obviously in common are our belief in Jesus Christ as Savior, and familiarity with Coca Cola.
I'm not sure if that's a point for Christianity or commercialism. But they're points of commonality, nonetheless.*

"COCA-COLA!!" I shout.

it's true.

happy fourth. or, the revolution holds many lessons.

let's just all take a few minutes today and think about how thankful we are to be basically free.
but let it be a lesson to us all, that we are still never free of consequences. thanks for the lesson, K. hahahah.

hands.

well it's about time i know who i came from

Sick day, UGH. In the last week, I got turned down for giving blood (low iron--never happened to me before), experienced heartburn for the first time (I thought I might be having a heart attack for a good hour before W told me what it was), I got food poisoning, and now I am taking a sick day for actually being sick. (!borrrring) These bones is getting old.
I started this masterpiece a while ago but didn't make it very far until bedrest today (thanks gramma for the pedigree charts!). This is the maternal side of my family tree, presented here on my split pea bedroom wall.
For most lines it goes back to my fourth great-grandparents, many of whom have very cool names (like george washington and samuel jackson, for instance). When I get dad's side up, there will be a veritable bow tie of family togetherness in my little cave of a room. It's a small start, but here's to Elijah.

this beautiful dirt: in case you forgot the essentials.

you can't get shampoo or soap in hotel rooms in Cairo, but don't worry. you can get a basket of over-the-counter Rogaine.
fancy.

eyes.

BONZAI, grizzly!

i made this for R.

and i plan on making more.

the winners

my top light shade of 2009: the O!

this is how it works:

there is an aroma in the silicon (lemongrass for the yellow ones) of the shade so that it lets of aromatic pleasantries for your nose when the light bulb heats up.

my top shoes:

if you can find a place i can buy these i will give you anything in my room.

and the top dress of 2009:

i love this dress. i would get married in it. i would sleep in it and eat in it and dance in it and make projects in it too.
good job, Kate Towers. Your dressmaking skills keep me awake at night. Someday i will be a dress-making fashion forward fiend like you.

DOES ANYONE WANT A COPY OF

??? c'mon all you granola heads. speak up.

imagination: discontinued.

It's 1975, and this man is about to show you the future. (courtesy of http://www.squareamerica.com/)

don't worry! my lost phone has been located!

it was in the refrigerator at work, right where i left it (doi)!

about once a year, i clean my glasses. then for the next 2 hours i say to myself, 'why don’t i do that more often?' 'my windshield wipers really DO work!' 'is there really that much dirt on my floor?' then i find a quarter, or something else menial distracts me, and i forget until the next year.

....segue into foggy lens dream sequence pictures from my newest camera on its first camping trip (from our midnight hike to cedar lake in february):

this couldn't have been a dream cause i have proof:

and not so foggy lens:
good friends bring robot snackies:

i was just trying to demonstrate how mittens are different from gloves in my hot winter camping gear (if REI gets a hold of this they'll probably want to make me a catalog superstar): humans conquering snow:
can't wait for summer.

happy sabboath from vittronia and cecile

how not to win friends & influence people (but still come out on top)

Even in situations where it's not socially appro-po (i.e. church, business meetings, your friend's gramma's house), yelling

"BOOOOORRRRRRR-ING!"

in the middle of ANY conversation will instantly give you the upper hand. Try it; I think you'll agree.

'surreptitiously inside a speeding car.'

feet.

Just to clarify, i am not as boring as my blog makes me seem. From recent feedback, apparently my blog is enjoyably anonymous, but too impersonal. i guess i'm supposed to include more nitty gritty. Since the only three people who read this blog are the ones giving the feedback, i figure i better pay attention. Here are a couple of pieces of personal information about me based on questions asked:
-i wear at least 4 coats of mascara every day. my latest favorite is 'the colossal volum' by maybelline. when makeup companies use the spelling 'volum' or make plays on the word volume like 'voluminous', i am about 60% more likely to try their mascara products. i am an excellent mascara consumer. i might be able to keep that part of the economy going, singlehandedly. don't judge me.
-my favorite part of last week was the night before my birthday, when my friends took me out for sushi and salsa dancing. This is the most respectable looking picture i've ever seen of us. we don't have any idea how to salsa dance, but i'm pretty sure we are all on our way to being pros now. other highlights from my birthday were hanging out with r and his perfect gift, and an amazing race par-tay with k and c...and delicious cake. i also got a dope video from s, and my parent's birthday card, which made me laugh for the next three days...
-i just got back from switzerland for the second time this year. it is more important to me to be able to travel than to be able to, say, eat, and this year has been excellent for traveling. both of the switzerland trips were for business. the first time in march was cool because a friend and i took some extra time and got to see a bit more of the country. and the matterhorn (postcards from trip #1). this last trip was shorter and i had to squeeze in what i could between meetings. (another tip i got for the blog is more pictures, so here are pics from my last trip switzerland.)

i walk along the lake and am excited to see tulips on lake zurich at sunset...

i think, this bike makes a nice picture...

then i get closer, and i realize that this weird taxidermie-d bird on the back makes an even nicer picture... (?)

this is the coolest little store ever--it sells theatre costume/makeup/hair accessories. more on my finds there later...

it takes precious little to make me want to run through fields singing. this is my sound of music moment...

i walk through downtown zurich wednesday evening, and take this picture from near the main station (this is the same night there is a construction collapse on a tunnel-digging machine near the station. eek.)

this guy gives me a look as i pick up my camera from the ground (the picture was taken with the self timer) and i am overjoyed when i check the pic and see that he had made direct eye contact with the camera.

more downtown zurich, up the lake from my hotel.

the countryside outside of fällanden.
there. next time i will go for more personal info and more pics in fewer words. how's that?