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I always have such high hopes for my weekends. I figure, “this will be the weekend that I pull out my jewelry supplies and make something fantastic”, or “I know I am finally going to make that adorable wristlet purse”, or “Gee, I promised I would knit a dinosaur for a friends son, so hey, I can bang that out this weekend” and so on. At the end of the weekend the time I finally get the laundry put away, the apartment is in a place where I don’t want to scream because every where I look is a pile of stuff and maybe I get in a drink with friends or some soccer. I think that I need better time management skills…

While in Pittsburgh I was able to get my hands on chocolate dipped peppermint altoids. I don’t know why I haven’t seen them in NY yet, but I haven’t. I am totally addicted. I want to like plain altoids, but they are a bit too curiously strong for me. I carry one or two in my purse for emergency breath situations, but usually end up biting off a little chunk because the whole thing is a little too much. The chocolate is the perfect compliment, although we already knew chocolate and mint are a winning combination. They have been great staving off the 3:00 snack craving. I just ate the last one I have so I guess I am now going to have to go on a hunt for them in NY.

Spring is here! You can see it everywhere. I love when the trees have flowers on them. At the moment they are just tiny little buds, not quite open. Soon they will be in full bloom and then shower petals upon us.

M & I went back to Pittsburgh this past weekend for Spring Carnival at Carnegie Mellon. It is great because we get to see friends, talk about the old days and watch buggy races. What is buggy you ask? Well sit down and let me tell you. Where to begin…

The buggy races started in 1920 as a chariot type race with one person who would push the buggy up the hills and jump in to drive. Basically, this guy did it all. In 1953 when the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity came out with a buggy that had a student lying down designs shifted. Today buggies are only a little larger than the people who drive them, are made out of the lightest material people can get their hands on and are manned by teams that can have upwards of 20 people. The main jobs are drivers, mechanics and pushers. The competition is split into two divisions: men’s, in which the men push the buggies, and women’s, in which the women push.

Since I used to be a driver, that is where I will start. Drivers are usually the tiniest women that can be found on campus, although at almost 5′-2″ I was an exception to that rule. After donning spandex (I swear it was all just an excuse for men to see small women in tight clothing) in order to fit into the buggy the driver get in face first less than two inches above the ground. At top speed, the fastest of these buggies will go about 45 mph.

The other half is in the design and mechanics of the buggies. Keeping the buggy in perfect running order is the obsession of the mechanics. This is a huge commitment that takes up all free time and if they aren’t careful, class time as well. Many a mechanic has been invited to go on Dean’s vacation because of buggy, and while that sounds nice, it is really just the University telling you to take a semester off and get your priorities straight.

Lastly are the people who make the buggies fly, the pushers. There is no power to the buggies other than the students who run behind them, pushing them up the hills on the course. There are 5 pushers in all: hill 1 and 2, then the buggy freerolls for a while until it is picked up by hills 3, 4 and 5.

The team that I was a part of was called Spirit. Back in my day Spirit was a top contender. We set the women’s record in ’92 and then again in ’95 (although it has since been broken) and we still hold the men’s record of 2:06:02 from 1988.

As you may know, I can’t sew a straight line. Very sad. This makes hemming pants a nightmare that I avoid like the plague. Until now! Last night I hemmed, not one, but two pair of jeans in a way that took about the time it would have taken me to throw up my hands in disgust the old way. The best part is this way I was able to preserve the original hem. Now not only are my jeans the right length, but I don’t have a lame dark hem (sorry Mom, it is lame.) It is such a forgiving way to sew that even I could get it right. Try it, I promise you will never hem jeans any other way.

Oh my goodness, a poor “little” baleen whale apparently lost its way with all the storms at sea and ended up in the Gowanus Canal. He has been given the nickname Sludgie. My favorite quote so far is from a 6 year old Park Slope girl “He might be all sludgy and gloppy but he’s going to wash off in the ocean.” Sludgie, if you are reading this, please get yourself to safety!

Thursday M & I are on our way to Pittsburgh for our 10 year college reunion. Where did the time go? I keep hearing Jeremy Piven yelling “10 YEARS!” over and over to John Cusack in the movie “Gross Pointe Blank”. Unbelievable.

Yesterday was a rainy windy mess and M & I didn’t leave the apartment. We contemplated going to a movie at one point, but after hearing the rain pouring down decided we were nice and dry and warm and that was good. Since we were homebound I decided it was time to set up my mac mini. I did a migration from my old computer so the mac side was all in order, which left the PC side. After some partitioning and restarting I installed Vista. I feel like a traitor saying this, but I kinda like it. They have gadgets on the side bar (I know, a widgets rip off) and one which is particularly neat is a little window that cycles through photos. I haven’t pointed it to my own yet, but even their stock images going by is cool. I found a magic 8 ball as well. I was able to set up my library account to download audiobooks, which is the whole reason I was interested in having access to a PC in the first place. I am almost to the point where I can download ebooks to my phone. It will be nice to not have to carry a book but still be able to get some reading done on the train.

I have been on the hunt for a new bag for a while now. I need something to carry my library books as well as the other normal purse type stuff. I found this super cute felt tote yesterday that I fell in love with. I mean we all know how I feel about felt and there are just enough pockets, including a secret outside pocket that I discovered today, to hold the important things. It turns out it is made by a japanese company and is called a rootote. I found them on the internet and did a little searching around despite the fact that the page is almost completely in japanese and found that the bag retails on their site for about $8… I can tell you that the chic Park Slope store which had these totes was not selling them for $8… At least I feel like the price I paid was still worth it. To be honest, if they were $8, I probably would now have 5 or 6 new bags instead of just one. Maybe I will have to take a trip to Japan now to see what other goodies I can get for $8. 🙂

This morning on my normal subway ride to work, the doors opened at Delancey Street and all of a sudden a flock of chirping Chinese school children somehow crammed onto the already crowded car. I couldn’t see them from my seat, but they sounded as if they were about 5 years old with their cute little kid voices all chattering away at once. As the subway pulled out there was a collective “whoooooaaaa” and then giggles. The women in charge would ask for quiet, although that lasted only until the train started to slow and there was another collective “whoooooaaaa”. I had to get off a few stops later, but for a brief while I felt as if I were on a roller coaster with happy bubbly voices carrying me along.