I recently found out that if you pledge to your public radio during a smaller local show it makes a big impression on the station managers. They’ll, you know, keep the show around. So if you are in the bay area and if you are going to pledge to KALW I encourage you to do it durning the Invisible Ink pledge show. From the newsletter:

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2. PLEDGE DRIVE! I know you’ve been saving up. On
September 28th at 2pm, we will be airing our pledge
drive edition of Invisible Ink. The show will feature
a shortened version of the “Peops” story and a new
story from “Zine Yearbook” #7. Soft Skull has been
kind enough to provide us with both of the books. That
means, if you pledge, you can get one or both of these
fine publications AND support your favorite local
public radio station. Also, there are still supercool
Invisible Ink t-shirts.

And that’s not all! Two kind KALW volunteers and
Invisible Ink fans (Risa and Sam) will donate $25 for
every new member who pledges to Invisible Ink. That
means, if you’ve never been a member of KALW, and
pledge AT ANY LEVEL, Risa and Sam will give an extra
$25 to the station. There’s never been a better time
to join the fold.

For those of you not familiar with pledge drives, KALW
keeps the money. That’s a good thing. They rule, and
their success keeps me on the air. Rest assured,
Invisible Ink receives no cash from the pledge drive.
I will not be compromised by your financial support.
I, your humble servant, will remain very, very poor.
That is my promise to you.

3. FISH OUT OF WATER! Kevin Smokler and I will be
hosting a 2-3 hour pledge drive special on October 3rd
at 9pm. We will be talking to Bay Area literary
superstars such as Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The
Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; Wendy Shaenin of A
Clean Well Lighted Place for Books; Julie Orringer,
author of How to Breathe Underwater; and Ethan
Watters, SF Grotto co-founder and author of Urban
Tribes. This is my first major foray into live radio
hosting. I’m practicing by trying to use adjectives
other than “fucking.”

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[a bunch of small posts I’ve been meaning to get to]

The Halloween issue of Martha Stewart Living this year has recipes for cocktails using Black Vodka, which is the coolest stuff. I must have it.

trip report: Impress Rubber Stamps

I completely forgot that there are Impress shops up here until I needed to find a certain type of hole punch (which is meant to punch holes to insert small eyelets, but is perfect for creating marking points when you are drafting sewing patterns). I went to to the one in University Village (a mall which I have dubbed “New Palo Alto”). The shop itself was great! It was set up like a boutique, as opposed to a generic craft shop, and everywhere there were examples of cute little projects. I was drawn to the mini shopping bags and cards in mini paper bags (this is not quite it, but gives you the idea).

I do not like vacuuming, I despise hauling that big clunky thing around. But I don’t mind using a cordless mini vac to grab the stuff which has accumulated in the corners (we have wood floors in the new place, thank goodness). So now that I’m thinking about getting a little vacuum it seems that I find reviews and recommendations for the Shark everywhere. Anyone have a Shark? Is it as wonderful as I hope?

My attempts at cooking usually end in a tragic mess, however I’ve been having luck with recipes from Everyday Food. (I’m thrilled to be able to make dinner and eat it.) And I found that in a pinch if you substitute beer (in my case Flying Dog Pale Ale) for the white wine in the recipe for Sauteed Chicken In Mustard-Cream Sauce (Issue 3) it’s just as yummy.

I splurged and bought a chair like this from Ikea to use as my desk chair (it’s meant to go in the dining room). I love it, I never could get used to those task chairs which roll around and make me feel unstable. The seat is all cushy and I can sit cross legged when I’m cold.

We’re headed into week four still without internet at home (huge thanks to Speakeasy for making that bit of life so very unpleasant!) — when it does arrive I’ll answer all of my email. Promise.

The anniversary issue of Knitty is up! and I have a very very easy (promise) poncho pattern in it. When I took that picture it was 90 degrees outside and I had the camera propped up on a book on the ground, I’d set the timer and run over and pose. I would have to take the poncho off for breaks. It was so hot. But now I’m here in Seattle and Autumn is settling in and I am so very happy, I may even get to wear my poncho.

This question is for anybody living in Seattle: What’s with all the teryiaki?

This question is for everybody else: Where can I get sheer white cotton fabric for curtains? I thought it would be easy to find something but none of the fabric shops are carrying anything even close. Perhaps I’m just looking during the wrong season? Should I go to one of those interior design/upholstry type places instead? I’m stumped.

I have hit a milestone, we are actually framing and hanging our posters. Wall art at last! So far this consists entirely of Bonny Doon posters. We have some typography posters but are too darn cheap to buy frames large enough.

Did you know that when you buy curtain panels from Ikea they come with a strip of the equivalent of stitch witchery so that you can hem them without actually having to sew? I think it’s pretty smart of them.

Yesterday I saw a very cute hipster boy wearing thin, knee high argyle socks as fingerless gloves. I think he just cut some holes – a big one for fingers, smaller for thumb – in the toe and slipped them on.

We’re almost moved in, and it feels great. Some wonderful small changes: can walk to grocery store, drugstore, shops, coffee, pub and a mom and pop hardware store; don’t have to save quarters for laundry!; being forgetful and living in a place with stairs makes my legs ache after going up and down again and again; cannot wait to break out some wood for the fireplace; having my own studio room; being able to jump up and down and not disturb downstairs neighbors because there are none! There are no upstairs ones either!

We don’t have internet yet (any day now, come on internet) however there is a tea shop around the corner with wifi which offers monkey-picked tea. I kid you not, the menu says “monkey-picked”. This is quite the place for people watching, I have seen old socialists talking loudly in the back, a couple breaking up, a new memeber of a writer’s group having a little melodramatic episode, and lots of energetic liberals talking shit about W.

I got to do the contact paper thing one one of my windows, that is so much fun. For the record, I had a really hard time scraping the matte gel medium off the windows of my old place, especially since I was pressed for time.

We came through the move with only one broken desk (a super cheap one from Ikea, but it was my sewing desk and therefore missed) and a lost tiny Swiss army knife. I kept a pink one on my keychain and didn’t realize how much I used it until not having it, especially when looking for something to cut the tape on boxes. It is particularily missed since I actually bought it in Switzerland… well okay, it was the duty-free shop in an airport in Switzerland and it was bought while I was on a long lay over so I never actually left the airport, but still. I miss it.

Otherwise I’m just tired from unpacking and finding stuff I don’t want any longer. We’ve set up a corner of the place just to put the stuff to sort through and get rid of later. I’m going to have to force myself to spend a few minutes there every day, eventually it’ll all be gone.