Brakes

I think I need to get them fixed.

I Think I'm Grumpy

This week is finally over. Thank goodness it was short.

The bike jerseys I ordered came in the mail yesterday. I have a Palo Alto bike club jersey (I've never been to Palo Alto, I thought I would get as random as possible) and a long-sleeve jersey to wear when it gets cold.

I went for a bike ride the other day to Vienna to visit Aaron at work. On the ride out I met up with a bike-commuter who rides from Vienna to Bethesda every day. We had a good chat on the trail until it was time to part ways at Rte. 123 in Vienna.

I fell off my bike for the first time, too. It was bound to happen one day or another, so I'm glad it's out of my system. I don't quite know how I fell, the bike and I were both stopped at a light to cross a busy street and I just fell over-- Like the bike was telling itself, "I think it's a good time to fall over now"-- and promptly did, taking me with it. It was one of those falls where I knew it was happening, but I wasn't going to do anything about it. I didn't brace myself or anything, but now I can't lay on my left side as I have a bruise on my left hip. I laughed and just picked myself up. The folks stuck in the South-bound lane all kind of looked over with an, "Oh, she fell" look. Took one for Team Kate.

I need to get my bike tuned up I think. There's something up with my rear brake and front deraileur and the back wheel is starting to make a "clicking" sound, which is never good. I'll take it into Spokes this weekend. I also may drop in on one of their bicycle maintenance classes as well, as I probably need it.

I'm debating whether to go to my parents' house this weekend. Reasons for going home:
1. The laundry machine in my building is broken.
2. Dad's about to go on a month-long business trip
3. I left my Super Nintendo there
4. I hope Danny (or James) didn't break it
5. I left my laundry there from the last time I was home.

Reasons for sticking around Falls Church:
1. Gas is still $3.25/gal.

I may just bite the bullet and go home to see my dad.

Links.

Just got my rockin' freeculture.org tee-shirt in the mail yesterday.

In the process of placing a Creative Commons license on content in the site. And if you don't know what it is, you can go here (my IT 103 project) and find out.

Fall For The Book starts at George Mason University next week!

I need more books to read, so I ordered: Guns, Germs, and Steel (I don't know why I haven't read it yet). I still have to finish Seabuscuit (almost done, but I know how it ends!) and start Michael Chabon's Wonderboys, but it's good to know I have a ready reading list.

We're officially seeing Weezer and Foo Fighters at the Patriot Center on Columbus Day.

Aaron started his new job at Spokes, Etc. last week.

And I'm happy Theresa has her school stuff figured out!

Almost forgot

And Theresa and I saw The Constant Gardener last Friday. It was very good. Four and a half stars!

Nationals v. Marlins

Yesterday, Aaron and I went to see the Washington Nationals cream the Florida Marlins (5-2).

RFK Stadium


Nothing like beer and baseball


Monday's attendance: 32,150


And everyone took the metro.

After.

News from my girl friends is good. We're all pretty much devistated after watching the news. Most of my friends have graduated and moved away from New Orleans, but some are still in the area.

It's hard to see places on the news that seemed so familiar. Granted, it's harder for my friends as they all left Tulane with a degree than me (with 16 credit-hours and the need to prove myself), but it was our city and we spent our first "grown-up" year together.

So, I guess it'll be a while before grad school.

For New Orleans.

Episcopal Relief and Development

Catholic Charities

Because the Church pays the admin costs, 100% of your donation goes to its designated account.

Mimi and Pictures

Mimi, click HERE to get to my photos.

And everyone else, too.

New! (But not quite yet.)

Just got the domain katespace.net

Will have the new site up asap!

Featuring: Photos, Links, Cycling stuff, my recent works and publications, and exciting additions that will BLOW YOUR MIND!

But for now, Blogger will have to do.

'Yesterday's Post' or 'Stupid Blogger'

It feels so weird to settle in as an adult. An AAAAdult, as folks make fun of the way I talk, errr, speak.

I have a job, a place of my own, my own car for the first time in my entire life, I pay my bills (like I hadn't already, but bear with me), who would have thought I'd be on the ball like this?

Aaron is too. He got a call from SAIC today from one of their DC offices. Yay! Aaron!
Look at us, all grown up:

But we can still be goof-balls when we want to.

Exactly...

...what we need.

Things to do! (Or things we did.)

Between yesterday and today, the lost bird was a barrel of fun for Aaron, as you can see in these pics:



Its owner picked it up this evening.

We also went to Burke Lake today to enjoy the weather.



And this is a really cute pic of Aaron and his cat, Missy.

Jason, Birds, and Virgins

This weekend is my friend Jason's last in town for a while. He leaves for graduate school in Rochester, New York later this week.

Jason and Theresa!

Aaron has a new pet. Actually, the pigeon had been roaming around in his front yard and when we got home it was sleeping under my car. We brought it inside and called the number on its ankle band.

It's a cool pet, nonetheless.

And, if you haven't seen The 40 Year-Old Virgin yet, it's totally worth it. I don't think there was more than five minutes without laughter. I almost peed my pants at the end. Cos that's what I do, pee. It's cool, I promise.

Fixed. I hope.

Aaron and I went into my blogger account and removed all the spam comments. We (by we, I mean Aaron) added a word verifier to the comments page to keep spam-bots out. So, hopefully, from here on we won't have any problems.

And please keep things clean. My family reads this.

Artistic Expression, Kate Style.

I needed a hobby, but today, sitting at my desk, in my spacious but barren cube, I realize that "Colouring by Numbers with Pencil Crayons" never turn out the way they look on the picture. I saw the landscape, full of English wildlife (as the company that told me that I could "create this masterpiece with (above stated) coloured pencils" is based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England) and there are no species of mammal native solely to North America (like the raccoon).

There's a red fox, a quail, badger, red squirrel, an owl, a mouse (which may rightly be a rat due to its tail's prehensile nature), and birds, birds, birds collaged together to make quite a nice medley of wild species. I only need a toad to complete the casting call for A Wind in the Willows. And yet I look at the "main illustration on [the] sleeve," used, as the instructions said, "as [my] guide." And I'm disappointed in my efforts as an artist.

The shading and depth of my version of "Country Life" doesn't quite match that of the "guide." I coloured (for purposes of this post, I will use the English spelling, as I was trying to complete an English-produced piece of art) by number: my 8's matched my 8's, 3's went in to fill 3's. But maybe I was mistaken in the way I shaded the areas labeled (I'll use algebra to explain) x/y-- where x and y are two different colours. My balance did not match that of the guide. I assume x is applied first and y second, but somehow my pencil pressure did not match the colour shown in the guide. The next section I applied y first and x second, but the density of the colours which I applied with such dedication and what I thought was skill ended up looking like smashed cantaloupe on a bed of green olives. And this was supposed to be my regal fox, surrounded by his minions (that I have now imagined him to eat in a Wild America-esque fashion).

Except the badger, of course, because he's badass.

I read and re-read the section on "Density of Colour," trying to figure out why I can't "attain different shades of colour by applying greater or less pressure with [my] coloured pencils." Or how I can't "lighten a dark colour with the use of [my] soft kneadable eraser."

And then I realize that I'm not an artist. I never have been. Sure, I appreciate art in all of its forms: I take photographs, I played the piano, I visit museums. I visit museums. I don't actively draw or sketch-- although I doodle a hell of a lot (notice almost always straight lines).

I give you tenth grade:

I wanted to give my friend James a graduation gift. I got it in my head that a painting (by me, of course) would be the coolest high school graduation gift ever and he would hang it in his dorm room and it would be the palate for which he based his desk accessory and bed-sheet colours. A brash mix of a water-colour ocean and beach and a tempra lighthouse on a cliff complete with tufts of beach flowers and wild grasses and stepping stones matted and wrapped and given to James the last day I saw him.

An 8 x 10 piece of shit.

My name is Katherine L. Ray, I'm 22 years old and I cannot draw, paint, colour, shade, or bullshit art. Even by numbers.

Cheer Up.

via Aaron.

Last Friday

Last Friday I had a great evening with my dad. He came over to the apartment after he got off work and we installed my new(ish) kitchen table. Afterwards we went to Ireland's Four Provinces for a great dinner- I swear it was better than all those B&B and country inn dinners we had with Dad's old company.

Pictures that include the new table are found on my Flickr account.

Links

Our beloved professor, Scott Berg, on The Happy Booker as a guest blogger: "If I Only had an 8-Track"

The Happy Booker is run by Mason Alum Wendi Kaufman. She writes free-lance for The Washington Post and other publications. She visited the class I had with Chris Thaiss.

If you haven't already, check out today's McSweeney's. My favorite round of dispatches are available here. I'm working on my own; stay tuned.

My "told you so" moment. Yes, portions of The Outsiders, Francis Ford Copolla's adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel, were filmed in my hometown of Owasso, Oklahoma. The football stadium is still there and used by the middle school and ninth grade football and soccer teams.

Interesting paper/article/editorial on the state of NASA and the space program. Care of Kottke.

And, if you don't quite know where you stand politically, this may help.

Tyson's and DC

Today was fun and eventful. My oldest brother, Phillip, spent Satuday night over at my place. We were supposed to wake up early and go for a bike ride, but we kinda slept in. We went to Tyson's instead because his iPod mini wasn't working. The folks at the Apple Store fixed it and we were on our way. I needed some casual shirts for work (and play) so we went to H&M and to the GAP where I bought some jeans. I knew I was losing weight, but I didn't know that I actually lost so much that I was back to my normal size! I'm back to a size 8 (comfortably, no sucking in!). We bumped into Jason and Theresa while we were at the GAP, they were shopping around for a hostess gift, but got a tad side-tracked.

While we were heading back to the car, BR called me and invited me to see The Edukators with he and Travis. They got to my place at the same time I got back from the mall. I actually think that they followed me home (they were on rte. 7, too). We picked up the West Falls Church Metro and saw the movie at the E Street Cinema on 12th Street. It was a good film, German, which I don't know very much of, but good none the less. I recommend checking it out when it comes out on DVD.

We walked around the National Mall the rest of the evening. We walked up Capitol Hill and around the National Museum of the American Indian (which I haven't been to, but would love to go! Hint! Hint!









It was a hot and hazy afternoon, but that's typical of Washington in August.

We picked up the Metro at Capitol South and stopped at Wendy's for some supper when we got back. I just wanted a chicken sandwich and my salad, but when it came to drinking my HiC, Mr. Mohamed (the owner/manager, for that is what his name-tag said) didn't put the top on all the way. It looked like I had peed my pants. Granted, peeing your pants is cool-- but not when it's HiC and at the Wendy's. Glad everyone got a kick out of it.

Kate is Back!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement: After struggling for the most part of a year, I find that I once again fit into single-digit blue jeans.

I'm back to my hot hot hot size 8. I totally rock.

Yay for eating right and cycling!