Oh Hello, January!

This week I had the good fortune to stumble upon a gold mine of a stringed instrument shop in San Mateo.  The owner (Dan) runs the store out of his beautiful, hundred year old home.  My fiddle and I paid a visit on Tuesday and had the loveliest time.  Dan got everything polished up and sounding great, and in the meantime I got to play with his awesome dogs and talk local symphonies (which I have excitedly agreed to join after spring semester), blue-grass music festivals, and philosophy.  Today I went back to pick up some new dark rosin and at the end of our conversation, he and his wife recommended, "The Parrots of Telegraph Hill."  Must watch this weekend.

We're in love.

Three weeks left before spring semester! Time to get as much "fun" reading done as possible.  At the moment, I'm halfway through Jillian Lauren's, "Some Girls: My Life in a Harem" which is an easy read of a memoir.  I'm also determined to read David Ebershoff's "The Nineteenth Wife" in this time frame.  Mostly, I wish I hadn't wasted a 4 hour flight trying to slog my way through "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."  This book bored me to death, and with great irritation I jumped ship around page 430.

Epic Christmas Gift. Spoiled rotten. SO happy.

I can't stop reading this sestina by Steve Davenport, which does so many amazing things I'd really, really love to do.  Lots of fun workshoppy ideas swirling around...  Perhaps I'm more ready to dive back into school than I thought.

Finally, I'm surely making my way through a whopper of a crafting project, inspired by Attic 24, pictured below.  My pattern features a darker color scheme, and when everything's said and done this will cover a queen sized bed.  Really, it's for wrapping oneself up to read in an Ikea chair in a drafty San Francisco studio apartment (though I'm sure it will be given away to someone lovely rather than kept, when finished.)

Lucy's Amazing Ripple Afghan.

Any takers on Mark Zuckerberg's latest plan to create an army?

Feeling scattered in many directions is always January's gift to me.  There are so many things I want to be doing, and there are huge numbers of things I want to accomplish in 2011.  Here's to making it all happen and having a ton of fun on the way!