Earth Hour - Part 2

This is what we did for Earth Hour: Candle light scrabble game for two!

Earth Hour

Tonight from 8-9pm, Earth Hour is taking place in many cities across the globe. Do it!

you can also go to http://www.earthhour.org/ but it might be too busy....

Happy Easter

Lots of good things going on here! First, and foremost, Steve and I are officially engaged as of March 7th. Here is the ring he picked out for me with the help of some very tasteful women in his life (Thanks ladies!!!). It is a yellow sapphire. I never thought I would have a ring this beautiful! I'm in love with it.... and of course I'm in love with Steve, too. :)


We have not set a specific date yet, but we are hoping the wedding will be sometime around July 2009 and will take place in Chicago. For the moment we are just enjoying our time being engaged.

Last weekend we celebrated the engagement, my birthday (today), and Easter with my family at our apartment. We had ham, keilbasa, and homemade coconut cake!

My friend Dawn told me about a very interesting way to dye eggs with printed silk! Sounds weird but it was very fun. You can learn the steps of the process by going to Martha Stewart's website. Here are some of the silk ties we picked up at Salvation Army.

The recipe said to boil them in a glass or enamel pot but we couldn't find one so we just used my big teflon coated pot and it worked fine. We thought it was strange that we were supposed to boil the eggs for 20 minutes, or longer if you were going to eat them.... we just did 20 mins. Steve has eaten a few of them and he hasn't been poisoned yet... so I think they're fine.

Aren't they interesting?

Other big news: We finally have a "real" bed.... you'd think after being out of college for five years is too long to still be sleeping on a futon, but for a long time we couldn't afford it and then it took so long to find one that we really liked. Originally Steve didn't like this one... but then he gave in! And here it is: my yellow princess bed. I love it.

And don't think I haven't been knitting because I HAVE indeed.... knitting posts to come later.. hopefully this weekend.

16th century freakshow

Some images I've been retouching at work. These are woodcuts by Ulisse Aldrovandi, a naturalist and philosopher in renaissance Bologna, who was regarded by later scientists (such as Linnaeus, of all people!) as the father of natural history studies. So are these images accounts from some sort of interaction with these individuals, or is this the work of science fiction? I found them to be quite interesting.

The ugly hairy monster

A small boy lacking fingers


A man from the land of cinnamon (Ceylon/Indonesia?)


Two legged dragon (believed captured in countryside near Bologna in 1572.)


An Ethiopian boy and a hairy woman (Since when are either of these types of people considered deviants?????)


The 40-year-old father with his 20-year-old son, both completely covered in hair


A youth lacking thighbones, legs, and feet