In our last soccer game of the season I scored a goal. Now this isn’t the first goal of my post high school soccer career, but I think it was definitely the best so far. Let me set the stage for you. The team we were playing was in a division or two above us, so we figured this game would be a tough one at best. Their goalie is about 8 feet tall with an arm span to match. He is definitely one of the top goalies in the entire league. I play right wing and my job is to be forward and near the goal most of the time. So there I was up near the goal. M gets the ball and crosses it in front of the goal. I see my chance, I set myself up and half volley a shot into the upper left corner. Apparently a half volley is when your leg comes out 45 degrees when kicking the ball, who knew? I was ecstatic. It just felt good. I am hoping this season will have more of those type of shots.

This weekend our soccer team went out for Korean BBQ (which means there are grills on the table to cook your own dinner) and karaoke. M&I were kind of dragging when the evening began but all in all we had a great time. M doesn’t sing. Not even after a few drinks. I don’t need too much encouragement to get up there, but I have to say this time I did a not too great job at choosing songs. For instance I choose Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin… it starts out so soft and sweet. I forgot that it really is a difficult song. I don’t think I completely embarrassed myself, but M suggested that next time I pick a song by a worse singer. I have to agree. I do not have the pipes to be the Queen of Soul.

I generally check in with M before I head out to make sure I look ok. Generally I get,” You look fine” which means there is no TP on my shoe or any major wardrobe malfunction. Today though, I got a “You look nice. You don’t usually…” I filled in,”wear skirts?” Yup. Today I am wearing a skirt. It is funny, but thinking about it I really don’t wear skirts or dresses much anymore. Maybe once a month. The really funny part is there was an entire year of my life where I didn’t wear pants. I didn’t even own pants. On the weekends, I just wore casual skirts. Anyway, today’s skirt is really wonderful. I have had it for a while but this is the first time I am wearing it. It is really full with a lace trim attached slip. I feel so good I might start wearing skirts more often. Although I think that means I am going to have to get better shoes…

At least once a day my laptop starts whirring and making a noise that makes me think it is about to take off.

Phew, where does the time go! I feel like some days I have a ton to talk about, but no time to sit and post.
I am trying to spend one night a week unplugged so that I can work on non computer projects without the distraction of the web or TV. I’ll be honest, although this should be week three, I have yet to actually do it. I have a lot of ideas kicking around, all of them helping deplete my craft stash. I am also working on getting pictures of these projects up on my blog. I hope to have something to show soon.

Sometimes I have ideas for blog posts when I am not in front of a computer. Usually by the time I get back to one, I have lost the excitement about that particular topic. Well I have found a way to blog on the go! I can type up my post in my iPod Touch and when I can connect to the internet, I send an email to my blog. The post then gets cued up as a draft so that I can refine and add photos if necessary. Maybe this will help me keep up a little better with the blog.

As I mentioned, M&I are talking about building our own home. We have scoped out a plan for a small house with the possibility of future additions. We have agreed that although we will be building a fairly basic house we are going to try to make it interesting with our material choices. I am a designer who works for an architecture firm and reads a lot of blogs. This means I have a lot of ideas rumbling around about what materials are good and how I can use ordinary materials in a different way. I taking cues from The Rural Studio and old school Gehry. One material I have had my eye on for a while is 3Form. They have a lot of really interesting panels with great things embedded in them. I think the hardest part would be choosing which one I want to use!

As I have been researching prefab housing I have realized a few things. As far as location I am probably on the wrong side of the world but at the very least the wrong side of the country to get my hands on any really cool designs for less than my first born child. It seems that Australia and New Zealand have figured out prefab is the way to go. Europe seems to be holding their own as well as far as ease of availability and interesting design choices. The US is lagging… especially here on the east coast. It seems that everything I look at has huge shipping costs and doesn’t having something shipped negate any “green” good I might be doing? When I finally think I am on to something, it turns out the hidden costs can make that enticing bottom line price swell up by a factor of 10 in some cases. I am starting to feel like a double wide is the only thing really in my prices range… ok ok, things aren’t that bleak. I could also plunk down a Cape (yawn) for a reasonable price. M&I are seriously considering building our own house. I mean like with our own two hands (and I am hoping a few helping hands here and there.) I was reading this blog and figured if he could do it, so could we… Have I lost my mind? Quite possibly.

This is a picture of a plant at work. I swear a few weeks ago it was nothing more than a few sticks with a single leaf. I have watched in awe as more leaves sprouted, then white pods which finally produced red flowers! Just amazing. If someone out there knows what this plant is, I would would love to know.