Sunday, December 19, 2010

Chorale Cookies?

From The Chicka-blog
After a "shotgun choir rehearsal" we sang challenging Christmas choral music for a small group of family and friends, then shared some delicious cookies.

A good motto to stand by

Saturday
From The Chicka-blog

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Bike Light Experiment

Friday
From The Chicka-blog
This is what you get when you mix a dark bathroom, a 5 second shutter, a custom timer, and a bike light with a couple different settings.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Elwood - My guitar

From The Chicka-blog
I had been neglecting my 6-stringed friend lately (named after my late grandmother's maiden name) so I'm glad I was asked to start playing at Catalyst again. I'm trying to pick it up for 15 minutes a day so my calluses will come back...and focusing on making sure I can play bar chords without looking at my fret hand.

Someday I will be worthy of this instrument...

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

New Friend at the Office

From The Chicka-blog
I had no trace of any stink bugs in my office this year until today. This guy just started crawling up the wall from behind my desk...

Monday, December 13, 2010

A Sufjan Christmas


Thanks to a friend who gave me a reason to love Christmas music again. Banjos just make every song much more enjoyable to me.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Bus time!


I forgot how great it is to take the bus!

I got to read a chapter of my book and I felt more bad-ass bundled up outside than the Hummer guy who was driving past my stop, in the comfort of his toasty vehicle.

This makes me think: taking the bus actually makes me enjoy the idea of commuting much more than driving or even biking (!) does. Now I'm not knocking bicycle commuting because I'm actually a big proponent (just see how many posts I have on biking). My only issue with biking is the same thing that I love about it. Biking, like driving, puts you in control of your vehicle, which also makes you part of traffic. It's so easy to be part of the rush rather than separating yourself from it when you have to pay attention to what you're doing.

The unique thing about mass transit is that it let's you take a break. You can fully enjoy the ride without the stress that comes from commanding your vehicle. It's a mode that makes you dependent on someone else's abilities while you just simply receive the service. You also have more opportunity to learn patience and promptness...something that the immediacy of getting into a car or (less so for) hopping on a bike doesn't really do for me.

My thought is to replace driving with bussing as much as possible this winter... and replacing bussing with biking. That way I can view my car as a long-distance/special occasion sort of thing.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Won Pens Tickets!

So I was at a fundraiser for Children's Hospital last night. The admission was $10 and that got you food, 2 drinks and a chance to win Pens tickets. I gave a $20 and said keep the change, then found out that there were other raffles that I could have used that $10 on (and the money still goes to the same place). But there was something weird about asking for that money back so I could try to win stuff at a charity event, so I didn't bother and just enjoyed company and watching the Pens game.

Well, as I was coming out of the bathroom right near the end of the night, the people drawing the tickets for the prizes were saying "Tricia....Tricia.....?" And my friends were looking at me, but in my head I thought, uh, I didn't buy any raffle tickets, must be some other Tricia... But it was for the Pens tickets and they were just having a hard time with my last name! AHH! I don't usually have much luck winning things so needless to say, I was completely surprised and completely stoked. :)

Good seats too check it out: