Boston, MA - March 9th

It is FAR too cold for Vespa riding.

Jess, you were right. Thanks for being a good sport and not punching me in the back much.

We'll try again in May.

Things have been quiet over here at nerdle lately, but I have been blogging regularly in a couple other places:

• unraveled - I post about Ravelry.com related stuff a few times a month
• code monkey island - a newish blog where I dump my computery thoughts. Hopefully of interest to the geeky crowd.

..and I'll continue to write here. I'll will be nice to keep the work and technical stuff on those other blogs.

Jess and I just finished packing, labeling, and shipping the 3200 Ravelry T-Shirts that we sold in Sept. and Oct. Oh my god. We are never doing that again.

(Don't ask about Cafe Press - 1. I'm an ornery bastard, 2. we preferred to support a small printing business, 3. we were particular about our merchandise and 4. they charge a lot) Next time I'll look into the Shopify + Shipwire combo.

We've been working on Ravelry full time since June-ish and many folks from the press have asked us what our biggest challenges, obstacles, mistakes etc were. We didn't have a good answer until now. Seriously, this shirt thing was ridiculous.

Oh - and for Bostonites - here is a little something that I learned. Did you know that there is a 24 hour post office at South Station? They even let us back up to the loading dock on the rare nights that we arrived before 8 PM.

New Hampshire is not having a good day.

This photo of my grandparent's home was taken this morning. My grandparents are safe and dry but the first floor of their house did not fare so well. Grampy's workshop is downstairs and I was very saddened to hear that the last few antique radios from his once grand collection are now underwater. Sigh. Damn you, nature.

1. Does anybody know of a good/cheap scooter or motorcycle mechanic in the Boston area? I have a Vespa ET2 that needs a little attention. My engine is sounding less zoom-zoom and more putt-putt these days.
2. It's almost springtime here in New England, which means that it is time for me to be working in the yard. I'd like to turn the patchy mossy lawn that is behind my house into a real backyard and I want to do it quickly. I have no idea where to begin but I have a plan anyway. I figure that I can rototill the whole thing and slap down some sod which may or may not actually survive. Does anybody have experience with greenery? Am I asking for a headache?
3. I've been so busy with my Secret Project that I haven't had the time to dig for new music. What are you guys listening to lately? Send me album names and last.fm usernames!
4. Does anyone know of any sites where I can get cool stickers? I don't see anything new and interesting at places that I've used in the past (Interpunk, Diesel Sweeties and Dark Horse). I've fucked up my Macbook's palm rest and I want to cover it up....

A slightly belated announcement: I got a new job! I start in a week and a half.

My new company is a 6 person shop in Harvard Square that develops and runs a consumer website. (I don't know how else to explain it - I'm usually vague about work stuff on my blog for no particular reason) I'm really excited - I think that it'll be fun and interesting and I'm looking forward to working with a tiny group again.

Also, I just finished the beta release of a baby Ruby on Rails real estate project that I was working on at home. Tomorrow, I'll get rolling on a knitting community idea that Jess and I had a year ago. Busy busy busy.

Bob doesn't like being ignored while I tap out code.

Wow. This summer was busier than most. And hotter. I don't really mind seeing it go.

Today, Jess, Bob and I took a trip into the city on the Vespa. It was a beautiful outside and we managed to make our way around Boston without any help. The map in my brain is a fuzzy bunch of disconnected streets and squares so Jess did most of the directing. We ended up having a nice lunch at the waterfront on Sel De La Terre's patio and then scootering over to Boston Common to exercise our furball. I really love this goofy scooter - it's so cool to be able to go anywhere I want in the city and just park it. It's nice to be out in the air and navigating traffic, construction, sudden street signs, and double parked cars is almost fun.

September has always been my favorite month of the year. I'm looking forward to the fall.

My September resolutions:

• Get one more house project done (hopefully the kitchen remodeling)
• Read something other than comics. 2 books would be a good start.
• Pick out some recipes and cook more dinners.

I just got back from my Mom's "Mimosa Madness" slash almost-birthday in New Hampshire. (Thanks for being the sober driver, Jess!) My head is so slurry whirly right now, but I had a few thoughts that I wanted to get down. First, Portsmouth NH is damn cool. It was nice to hang out on the waterfront and drink beer in a totally relaxed atmosphere. Also, my little sister is a pain in the ass but she is also pretty cool. My mom was so surprised and cheered up when she returned to her car (after the waterfront bar thing) to find that it was all painted with "I'm the Birthday girl!" and shit like that. Good fucking idea Ri, she loved it.

I have to give Jess exra kisses tomorrow - she got up early to go to New Hampshire, got stung on the ass by a yellowjacket, and then had to drive my drunk face home. You're the best, Jess ;) bagh - my head hurts from squinting at this post with one eye,. aaaaar. I'm going to climb in to bed now.

PS - the fresh two inch slash on my forehead might look kinda badass but it's actually just the damage from a collision with a refrigerator.

PS again - That "travel agent" dude that showed up at the bar and tried to to get people to buy tickets to hugh Hefner's mansion? I have *no* idea what he was talking about.

Hooray! We are in completely moved in to our new place - mostly due to a hyper freak-out moving day on Sunday (thanks family!) and Jess' very hard work over the last week. Huge thanks to Maya (who spent *many* days helping), Kyle, Erica, and Maurene for being painters - we got so much done is a short period of time.

phew. It's all very exciting but I don't have any energy left today....