woke around 5:30, left the house just before 6am. the weather was a bit shit, very wet snow/sleet falling as i got through downtown chicago as fast as i could. the weather kept up pretty much until i crossed the kankakee river (flooded), at which point the sun was up, and out, and the roads were clear.
arrived at lincoln bindery at 8:45, dropped off the mistakes books, and headed over to the art & design building. two of jennifer's students (sam and brett) met me in the parking lot and we loaded the traveling press and my demo prints into a classroom, then went to krannert museum where a surprising number of students and faculty had gathered for my talk.
change of plans: i decided the whole thing would go better with my slide show, so i asked for a projector and screen. got those set up, people sat down on portable benches they got from the museum, and i started in. the talk went well, with lots of questions about the process and my business.
we moved to the class room for the demo, and probably 75 people came along. typical demo, went fine. it was a bit slow, since everyone wanted turns printing, but many folks stuck around all the way through. tim stevens and brian reedy (formerly of lonely trailer) were both there, as was ed weiskamp, who runs the screenprint shirt shop in champaign.
upstairs with jennifer, walter, ed, tim van laar, and a couple students for some lunch and conversation about who's-doing-what-now.
i took off at 2:45 or so and headed north, trying to beat rush hour traffic. did fine until i got near homewood, where a cop had pulled someone over, and traffic was stopped for miles. sped up again, then stopped from comiskey park up to montrose. took that opportunity to make a couple calls, touching base with xan and andrew in hawaii, making sure turin had finished tweaking my surly, and talking to justin in LA, who is coding our 'newer' new TBM.com.
stopped by the video store to get 'the last king of scotland' and '3:10 to yuma', went home to di and some fresh hot mushroom soup, and watched both movies right up to bedtime.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
the rest of thursday
as noted below, i woke at 3 and stayed up until 5:30, during which time i answered emails and worked on the patagonia shirts. then i went back to bed, and slept well until almost 8, when i got up slowly, and got a call from sara, who was waiting to be picked up at the train station, since i had forgotten what time we were supposed to meet. di made me lunch, and i ran out the door.
sara and i went to crafty beaver and got insulation for the front door, a bunch of trim, mortar, and some stuff for cleaning the floor of my office. we finished tiling the spray out booth, removed the toilet from the rear bathroom, tiled the wall behind the toilet, and di showed up to grout the bathroom while sara and i started installing trim. i arranged for the plumber to come on friday to finish his stuff. di left with seth, and i soon smashed my middle finger on my left hand well enough that blood flowed from under my finger nail. we called it a day, loaded the civic with the stuff for my demo in champaign tomorrow, and i drove sara to the train.
home, i got in the shower, and came downstairs to watch lost.
ocho the cat decided to dig into my imac keyboard again. i thought "what's that weird noise?" and saw ocho tearing into my keyboard. fucking dumbass. he ran off when i yelled at him, and i haven't seen him for an hour.
i'm going to burn the patagonia stuff onto some CDs and then go to bed. tomorrow i'll fedex the discs off to CA.
sara and i went to crafty beaver and got insulation for the front door, a bunch of trim, mortar, and some stuff for cleaning the floor of my office. we finished tiling the spray out booth, removed the toilet from the rear bathroom, tiled the wall behind the toilet, and di showed up to grout the bathroom while sara and i started installing trim. i arranged for the plumber to come on friday to finish his stuff. di left with seth, and i soon smashed my middle finger on my left hand well enough that blood flowed from under my finger nail. we called it a day, loaded the civic with the stuff for my demo in champaign tomorrow, and i drove sara to the train.
home, i got in the shower, and came downstairs to watch lost.
ocho the cat decided to dig into my imac keyboard again. i thought "what's that weird noise?" and saw ocho tearing into my keyboard. fucking dumbass. he ran off when i yelled at him, and i haven't seen him for an hour.
i'm going to burn the patagonia stuff onto some CDs and then go to bed. tomorrow i'll fedex the discs off to CA.
wed nes day
it's 4am thursday, i went to be before 8pm with a headache, now i can't sleep, worrying about the next two weeks. so much to do.
wednesday morning i woke and shaved with a razor (as opposed to shears) for the first time since mid-december. i picked sara up at the noyes street station, and we went to my folks' house to finish boxing up the subscriptions. 28 prints, a booklet, and a letter, split into three tubes, packed together in a box. 50 boxes, each 10 x 10 x 36 inches long. glad that's done, though there's some concern about exactly how to ship them. that's jack's job to figure out.
sara and i took seth and hurried down to TBM, as the snow really started falling hard, and arrived at noon, to meet marty perez, who was coming to pick up some trade prints for the work tables he gave me a couple months back. we had a brief visit, and he took off.
sara and i spent the afternoon sorting and assembling this year's 'mistakes' books, which i will deliver to lincoln bindery on friday when i'm in champaign.
we made a final shopping list for a last run to crafty beaver before we call in for inspections, then took off with seth. i had to dig the car out, it had about 8 inches of new snow on it. dropped sara at the skokie swift, then made my way home.
di had tortellini (with prosciutto) and beans and mushrooms ready when i got home, after i shoveled the walk. we watched a crazy episode of blue planet, then both fell asleep on the futon. i got up, dragged us to bed, and fell asleep by 8.
wednesday morning i woke and shaved with a razor (as opposed to shears) for the first time since mid-december. i picked sara up at the noyes street station, and we went to my folks' house to finish boxing up the subscriptions. 28 prints, a booklet, and a letter, split into three tubes, packed together in a box. 50 boxes, each 10 x 10 x 36 inches long. glad that's done, though there's some concern about exactly how to ship them. that's jack's job to figure out.
sara and i took seth and hurried down to TBM, as the snow really started falling hard, and arrived at noon, to meet marty perez, who was coming to pick up some trade prints for the work tables he gave me a couple months back. we had a brief visit, and he took off.
sara and i spent the afternoon sorting and assembling this year's 'mistakes' books, which i will deliver to lincoln bindery on friday when i'm in champaign.
we made a final shopping list for a last run to crafty beaver before we call in for inspections, then took off with seth. i had to dig the car out, it had about 8 inches of new snow on it. dropped sara at the skokie swift, then made my way home.
di had tortellini (with prosciutto) and beans and mushrooms ready when i got home, after i shoveled the walk. we watched a crazy episode of blue planet, then both fell asleep on the futon. i got up, dragged us to bed, and fell asleep by 8.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
tuesday
woke at 6, showered, drew a thing of some cats looking at stuff, to be used for today's print demo at the MCA. di made me lunch, i got stuff organized, and was out the door at 8:30. picked up sara at the train, we went to kinkos to make films, then to the shop to pick up some posters and packing material, then drove to my folks' house to work on the '07 subs with my dad. upon arrival, i realized we had forgotten the "animals & objects..." prints at TBM, so turned around and frustratingly went back.
once we got moving, we did well, packing the third tube for all 50 spots, and boxing about a quarter of the subs for shipping.
sara and i left at 2pm, returning to TBM to cut paper, choose inks, and get the rest of the supplies for the demo.
drove to screwball to reclaim my demo screens, wait for them to dry (while i cut films) and then coat, dry, and re-burn the screens. with wet screens, we set out for the MCA at 5:10pm.
arrived no problem, rain started falling in earnest, should turn to snow for the 12 inches we are forecast.
print demo went fine, sort of lightly awkward, about 20 people there. the prints actually turned out surprisingly well.
i can't find my camera.
upon loading the car, i smacked my forehead on the latch of the hatchback. di says i actually cut my head. drove sara home, dropped my friend oscar (who showed up at the demo) off at his place, and went home. still no snow. power is out south of our house.
answering emails, going to bed.
once we got moving, we did well, packing the third tube for all 50 spots, and boxing about a quarter of the subs for shipping.
sara and i left at 2pm, returning to TBM to cut paper, choose inks, and get the rest of the supplies for the demo.
drove to screwball to reclaim my demo screens, wait for them to dry (while i cut films) and then coat, dry, and re-burn the screens. with wet screens, we set out for the MCA at 5:10pm.
arrived no problem, rain started falling in earnest, should turn to snow for the 12 inches we are forecast.
print demo went fine, sort of lightly awkward, about 20 people there. the prints actually turned out surprisingly well.
i can't find my camera.
upon loading the car, i smacked my forehead on the latch of the hatchback. di says i actually cut my head. drove sara home, dropped my friend oscar (who showed up at the demo) off at his place, and went home. still no snow. power is out south of our house.
answering emails, going to bed.
end of monday
kept the fire going (literally, not a figure of speech) and worked on patagonia revisions into the night.
okay.
okay.
Monday, February 4, 2008
sheldon brown
i just got word that sheldon brown has died.
for cyclists, sheldon was sort of an encyclopedia of knowledge who maintained an extensive website with all sorts of useful and hard-to-find information.
for cyclists, sheldon was sort of an encyclopedia of knowledge who maintained an extensive website with all sorts of useful and hard-to-find information.
is this thing on?
diana thinks lots of people might be reading this blog.
i only told ten friends about it, and i think the only people who read it are: xan, hastie, ibarra, and di. [edit: i forgot about may]
if you want to leave a comment, feel free to do so.
i only told ten friends about it, and i think the only people who read it are: xan, hastie, ibarra, and di. [edit: i forgot about may]
if you want to leave a comment, feel free to do so.
"yes we can"
yes we can
xxxxxx xxxx and xxxxxxxx are playing a special obama benefit concert at the hideout on thursday, feb 28.
this is not public knowledge yet.
xxxxxx xxxx and xxxxxxxx are playing a special obama benefit concert at the hideout on thursday, feb 28.
this is not public knowledge yet.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
sunday
i keep meaning to write about other stuff than what happens in a simple day-to-day sense. i have a bunch of stories i'd like to tell, or at least learn to start telling. one thing i think about when i look out into our back yard:
our yard has an extensive dirt patch under two of the large trees, near the garage. aside from gardening, my main passion in the yard is splitting logs for the fire. second behind the logs is picking up broken glass from the dirt.
every time it rains, the ground spits out dozens on shards of old glass, from bottles broken over the last hundred years. i amble slowly through the back of the yard, watching for the glint of glass amongst the crumbles of turned-over dirt. i pick up every bit i see, in hopes that one day kids will run barefoot through the yard.
once, i found an unused .38 bullet.
i am very satisfied with my two handfulls of tiny green shards, and dump them into the garbage totes at the back of the yard. after the next rain, the ground brings forth another couple handfulls of glass, like some detoxifying crop which it is my job to slowly harvest.
every time it rains, the low patch of the walk through our yard floods just a little, and every time it rains i know that earthworms stick themselves out of holes in the earth to rub up against their neighbors. the vibration of my feet on the walk sends them wriggling back into their holes like the ends of spaghetti slurped into mouths. perhaps the worms bring out the glass that they've found in their spelunking, 8 inches under the grass.
- - -
today we overslept, and i woke to see that it had just passed 8am. i stood and reached for my pants, and the phone in my pocket rang. jason calling to see if we were still up for sledding with the boys. i said that we probably were, but that no one was up, and that we were going to metropolis for coffee first anyway. we'd talk later. (later didn't work out with boys' naptimes and minnesotans' departure times).
into josh's car, we drove to metropolis, where we squeezed five around a tiny table, adding a sixth when stephanie (of "...and tyler") showed up. good visit.
back into the car, we went to downtown evanston, where i realized how cold i was without a beard.
we stopped in a comix revolution, where i got two newer chris ware books, as well as ulysses, and di got perseopolis.
headed over to bookman's alley, where we found some other treasures, including a book on the voyage of the beagle, then home.
dan, letta and josh got ready to leave, and we saw them off. i did dishes while di laid down for a nap. i started working on the bike again,a nd spent the afternoon in the basement.
ate some panang curry chicken leftover from friday, then started in on answering emails. holy crap, i have a lot to do tomorrow.
our yard has an extensive dirt patch under two of the large trees, near the garage. aside from gardening, my main passion in the yard is splitting logs for the fire. second behind the logs is picking up broken glass from the dirt.
every time it rains, the ground spits out dozens on shards of old glass, from bottles broken over the last hundred years. i amble slowly through the back of the yard, watching for the glint of glass amongst the crumbles of turned-over dirt. i pick up every bit i see, in hopes that one day kids will run barefoot through the yard.
once, i found an unused .38 bullet.
i am very satisfied with my two handfulls of tiny green shards, and dump them into the garbage totes at the back of the yard. after the next rain, the ground brings forth another couple handfulls of glass, like some detoxifying crop which it is my job to slowly harvest.
every time it rains, the low patch of the walk through our yard floods just a little, and every time it rains i know that earthworms stick themselves out of holes in the earth to rub up against their neighbors. the vibration of my feet on the walk sends them wriggling back into their holes like the ends of spaghetti slurped into mouths. perhaps the worms bring out the glass that they've found in their spelunking, 8 inches under the grass.
- - -
today we overslept, and i woke to see that it had just passed 8am. i stood and reached for my pants, and the phone in my pocket rang. jason calling to see if we were still up for sledding with the boys. i said that we probably were, but that no one was up, and that we were going to metropolis for coffee first anyway. we'd talk later. (later didn't work out with boys' naptimes and minnesotans' departure times).
into josh's car, we drove to metropolis, where we squeezed five around a tiny table, adding a sixth when stephanie (of "...and tyler") showed up. good visit.
back into the car, we went to downtown evanston, where i realized how cold i was without a beard.
we stopped in a comix revolution, where i got two newer chris ware books, as well as ulysses, and di got perseopolis.
headed over to bookman's alley, where we found some other treasures, including a book on the voyage of the beagle, then home.
dan, letta and josh got ready to leave, and we saw them off. i did dishes while di laid down for a nap. i started working on the bike again,a nd spent the afternoon in the basement.
ate some panang curry chicken leftover from friday, then started in on answering emails. holy crap, i have a lot to do tomorrow.
saturday, with guests
okwe at 7, got up, started a fire and put on some music. the folks drifted down from waking up, and we made some food: pancakes, turkey bacon, apple-gouda chicken sausages, fritatas, coffee, etc.
spent the morning lounging at home. around noonish, i took dan, josh and letta to TBM, then across main street to the lake, then up sheridan to the lighthouse beach, where we walked to the frozen lake michigan, where i fell through the ice, into (thankfully) six inches of water, cutting my hands in the ice trying to stand up again. ach.
we walked back across the beach and into the evanston art center, where my old acquaintance corey postiglione was having a 35-year retrospective, of which i am happy to say i liked the very oldest and the very newest work the most.
home again, i washed up, and we five went into the city, to logan square, to lula cafe for the afternoon version of brunch. whatever comes between lunch and dinner. my sandwich was awesome. ginger beer. mmm. i poked my head into boulevard bikes to pick up some handlebar tape for the surly i'm building. green and pink.
headed north again, stopping at jewel to pick up a bit more drink. mat and sue called to say that they were too sick for a visit, which really bummed me and diana out.
at home, we had about a dozen people come by for the evening, to pet seth and sit in front of the fire. nice mix. at one point, i stepped upstairs and quickly shaved off my beard, then came back down.
folks left at 11, we were in bed at midnight, with the house clean.
spent the morning lounging at home. around noonish, i took dan, josh and letta to TBM, then across main street to the lake, then up sheridan to the lighthouse beach, where we walked to the frozen lake michigan, where i fell through the ice, into (thankfully) six inches of water, cutting my hands in the ice trying to stand up again. ach.
we walked back across the beach and into the evanston art center, where my old acquaintance corey postiglione was having a 35-year retrospective, of which i am happy to say i liked the very oldest and the very newest work the most.
home again, i washed up, and we five went into the city, to logan square, to lula cafe for the afternoon version of brunch. whatever comes between lunch and dinner. my sandwich was awesome. ginger beer. mmm. i poked my head into boulevard bikes to pick up some handlebar tape for the surly i'm building. green and pink.
headed north again, stopping at jewel to pick up a bit more drink. mat and sue called to say that they were too sick for a visit, which really bummed me and diana out.
at home, we had about a dozen people come by for the evening, to pet seth and sit in front of the fire. nice mix. at one point, i stepped upstairs and quickly shaved off my beard, then came back down.
folks left at 11, we were in bed at midnight, with the house clean.
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