Nepal, social networks as graph theory, futon cover

I'm terribly jealous.

Some old friends of mine moved off to India, as I think I mentioned before. One of them is keeping a blog, and reading through her tales of her escapades and encounters in India and Nepal is making me long for my own carefree days of travel. I would give thousands of rupees to be in her shoes. (Admittedly, the exchange rate is in my favor, since there are currently about fifty rupees to the dollar.)

And yet I wouldn't. She's not just exploring, she's re-settling. So things that would normally be exciting and exotic--like not speaking the language--become a burden: she's going to have to learn Nepali and Tibetan in order to function at even the lowest levels. Finding someone to speak English with may be a challenge. That kind of thing. I don't envy her her re-settling, only the gloriously exotic land she finds herself in.

I must go traveling again soon. In another few months I should have enough points on my credit card to take me somewhere exotic, like India. Must go soon.

* * * * * * *

Just finished a course called Mastering the Integrated Program at Stanford's Advanced Project Management certification program. Most of the course was pretty boring and/or straightforward, but there was one session taught by a sociology professor that had me on the edge of my seat. He was talking about social power through centrality (connectedness) and had a slide up there that was just like the diagrams I was drawing when I was trying to model social connectedness at Liberate! back when I was figuring out how to do organizational change there. So it was a tremendous rush of intellectual satisfaction and excitement when I realized that yes, the attempts I made at modeling relationships using graph theory were going in the right direction after all! And, better yet, the prof was kind enough to point me at the seminal book in the field, Social Network Analysis by Wasserman and Faust. I ordered a copy from the Stanford bookstore and will be looking eagerly to its arrival. I do so few intellectually/mathematically interesting things these days that a new theory/mental model will be most welcome.

* * * * * * * *

I've found the fabric for my futon cover, I think. It's a dark burgundy duppioni, with dark burgundy silk strands woven against a very fine black synthetic (?) warp. Not super-heavy, but silk is remarkably strong and abrasion-resistant, so I'm hoping that will be enough. At worst, I suppose I can always make another one.

But I am really psyched about it--it's going to match the silk wall hangings perfectly, and look oh-so-classy with the dark cherry furniture. I had really wanted a black leather couch because of the style...but a silk futon is pretty cool too.

More later...it's late, I'm tired, I'm going to sleep.

Cinderella was a BEAR!....

Whoo-ee, what a day.

I came pretty close to bailing on the Cinderella Century--the weather report was predicting thundershowers, with a 60% chance of rain, and it poured overnight and well into the morning. I got myself out of bed at 5:30am, and loaded up the bike anyway, promising myself that if it was raining in Dublin when I got there, I'd turn around and go home.

I made it in to Dublin at 7:30am (registration started at 7), resplendent in Little Red Dress and pink cycling jersey. (I had thought about wearing the Little Red Dress without the cycling jersey, but decided it was too damn cold to be showing that much cleavage.) I got lots of comments and appreciative grins for the outfit--as soon as I get a photo of it, I'll post it in the blog.

Anyway, we got started well, with sixteen or seventeen flat, pleasant miles; the clouds had blown away and the sun was shining. I got into the first rest stop, guzzled down some pound cake, some Fig Newtons, a handful of raisins, and a banana (it's amazing how hungry you get while riding), and ran straight into my boss's boss. I'd loaned her a tutu for the occasion, and she was thrilled with it--said she'd gotten an unbelievable number of "Nice costume!" and "Wow! I should do something like that!" comments along the way. (She is now examining my tutu so she can make one for herself. I told you guys that tutus were the fashion wave of the future!) So she and I rode the rest of Cinderella together.

Coming out of the first rest stop, the sun began to falter, the wind picked up, and clouds started to arrive. We rolled our way up some minor hills, then straight into a killer crosswind that gusted in from the left--I thought I was going to be blown off the road!

To make matters worse, the rain began pelting down--hard enough that I wondered whether it was hail--and I had awful visions of staggering into the next rest stop soaked and hypothermic. But fortunately, the rain stopped after a mile or so, leaving only the vicious crosswind.

Then we turned into headwinds. It was blowing so hard that I was in my bottom gear, pedaling with all my might, and still only making 6 miles per hour! It was exhausting, brutal cycling, without even the lift of going downhill after all that "climbing".

We slowly cranked our way around the hills and up to Lemon Drop Hill, the biggest hill on Cinderella. Now, Lemon Drop isn't much of a hill--I've climbed far worse--but with the wind gusting into our faces, it proved much more challenging. At the top of the hill, I was staggering along, and gratefully took a lemon drop from the guy who was passing them out. That lemon drop was delicious! and kept me going for a good four or five miles afterwards.

After that it was more headwinds, more crosswinds, and more exhaustion. My lower back was getting painfully stiff, and my butt was painfully sore. (It is, alas, not one's butt that actually gets sore, but the considerably more tender bits that get compressed against the saddle. Ouch.) I stopped several times to stretch out my back and get out of the saddle for a moment.

Just when I was thinking about stopping for a lengthier break, the last checkpoint came up, and I staggered in and nearly fell over. I ate a bagel with peanut butter, a pile of orange quarters, half a banana, and two glasses of lemonade, and after about fifteen minutes, felt better enough to get back on the saddle and keep riding--only 16.9 miles to go!

Thankfully, the last 16 miles were smooth sailing--flat, sunny, no winds--we biked along a beautiful bike trail and through quiet suburbs, and made our way back to the park where we'd started. 65.49 miles, 5 hours and 11 minutes on the bike: Cinderella.

I'm pretty pleased with my performance overall in Cinderella--I did the entire ride and came in feeling like I could do a little more. No knee problems. The butt problem will probably be fixed when my new saddle arrives, which should be sometime this week. I'm more worried about the back, but will talk to my coach about it next time I see him.

But I have now done my first metric century since the knee injury! I'm psyched.

Making my own futon cover

Just a quick note to say that I've decided to make my own futon cover...have ordered swatches of several kinds of upholstery fabric, and will most likely be making/dyeing my own. I may actually make my futon cover out of silk--haven't decided yet. But after looking at pricing and looking at a bunch of futon covers that I didn't much like, making my own seems like a cool idea. I don't plan on getting fancy about it (like trying to put in a 96" zipper)--I'll use velcro on the edges to hold it together. Other than that, how complicated can it be? It's just a giant rectangular bag, when all's said and done.

I'm thinking of using duppioni silk for the futon cover, but will wait until the upholstery fabrics get here.

Cinderella Century on Saturday!

This Saturday, weather permitting, I'll be riding in the Cinderella Century--a women-only metric century (66 miles) put on by the Valley Spokesmen.

Cinderella started out as a way for the (mostly male) cycling club to get their wives and girlfriends interested in riding, but it's turned into a real celebration of women in cycling. It's not really a hard ride--only 66 miles and virtually completely flat--and it's open to women at all levels. A lot of people dress up for the ride, and I'll be no exception--I'm thinking of wearing the Little Red Dress I made for AIDS Lifecycle 3, test-riding it to see if it will be suitable for Red Dress Day on Day 5 of AIDS Lifecycle 5. I've already loaned a pair of tutus to my boss's boss, who will also be riding Cinderella.

I loved Cinderella the one time I rode it because it really did have women at all levels of ability, and on all sorts of bikes--some women who were walking their bikes up even small hills (but determined to finish anyway), some women who were clearly pumped-up racers. (I didn't see too many of those, since I started relatively late, but wow! they were impressive as they raced by me.) I'm of the slow-and-steady crowd myself, so I settle for simply being fabulous.

By the way, do you remember my friends who moved to India/Nepal? Well, one of them has started keeping a blog. I've bookmarked it myself; it makes fascinating reading.

Unpacking-wise, they're putting in the kitchen cabinets this week (dust everywhere, and freaked-out cats). Soon, soon I will be able to put my dishes away, and use the brand-new dishwasher...also, I am going shopping for shelving today. Still haven't managed to sell the couch, if it doesn't move within the next week or two I'll donate it down at the Salvation Army. I did manage to get rid of the terrariums, though.

I think I will have one final dump run (with a smaller group of boxes), and then I'll finally be done. I have a pile of clothes and books that need to be donated, too.

Home decorating dilemmas

Well, I've reached a bit of an impasse in my home decorating. I don't like the color of the futon cover, but can't decide what new color to make it. I really need to get a swatch, hold it up to my various treasures, and see what I think; but most online shops have only a limited range of swatches (nowhere near their complete line). So I think I've decided to decorate around the issue: I'm going to hang all my treasures and then figure out what color the futon should be.

I have discovered, to my distress, that some of my treasures simply clash. I finally found my stitched pieces--Teresa Wentzler's The Castle, Teresa Wentzler's Lily Maiden, and a pattern called Royal Rose whose author I can't remember. They're gorgeous, but two of them clash with my overall decor in the living room (so they may have to live in the bedroom or hallway). The beautiful blue tapestry I commissioned while in Laos doesn't match the living/dining room either, and may have to be banished to the front door niche, along with one of my Tibetan thangka (religious painting of the Buddha). The only things I have right now that definitely belong in particular places are the silk rug from India (over the futon), The Castle (which shows a dragon wrapped around a castle), which goes over the dresser, and two Lao silk tapestries, which hang on the living/dining room wall. What to do with the two other tapestries or the Tibetan thangkas or the lampshades I got in Vietnam...well...so much to figure out!

(I will definitely post photos once I get it all worked out.)

Rode 56 miles today...

...and it was a gorgeous day! Clear blue skies, warm but not hot, perfect to be bicycling out across the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin for a nice day's ride.

Five hours in the saddle in all (I'm a very slow rider), nice long day. I'm hoping my speed picks up--historically I've been much faster, I'm not sure why I'm slower this year. Two or three years ago I was averaging 13-14 miles per hour--this year it's more like 11. Maybe I'm just getting old...

Anyway, we went from Sports Basement in SF (in the Presidio) up across the Golden Gate Bridge, where the views are terrific but the traffic and winds are a bit scary. (Bicyclists have their own "lane", but traffic goes both ways and it can get pretty crowded.) We rode down a steep hill into Sausalito, leisurely made our way through Sausalito and then took a break at Mike's Bikes. From there we got on a bike path (egret soaring overhead), made our way through San Anselmo to Fairfax to Lagunitas and back. We had a big, long climb at White's Hill, and some wonderful smoothies in Fairfax. It was a gorgeous day.

The only downside: my butt hurts. The muscles are sore from pedaling uphill, and my sit-bones are sore from bumping around on the saddle. I'm thinking it's time for me to be replacing the saddle...I've put in probably about 5000 miles on it, and I can't think why else my butt would be hurting. At this stage of training things should have toughened up enough to be able to do a 50-odd mile ride without that much pain. So I've put in a bid on eBay for a replacement saddle.

I'm continuing to divest myself of stuff. I posted the black leather sofa (the one that wouldn't fit through the door) back onto Craigslist, and am giving away a 60- and 20-gallon terrarium. Posted them on Craigslist as giveaways at 7pm and had five responses in two hours! It's amazing how people react to that word, "free". Let's just hope I can find someone who will pay $200 for the sofa. (What I paid for it.)

Dumping stuff

I have now taken two pickup-truckloads of stuff to the dump, and will take a third one tomorrow. Most of it is stuff from in storage: extra T-shirts, logo caps from companies I used to work for, an old answering machine, books from college that I'm never going to touch again, and so on. Three boxes of books are going to the library. All in all, about two-thirds of the stuff I had in storage is going into the trash. And I feel SO good about it!

Back in my twenties I collected any and every tool I might possibly need. Since then I've learned that I don't actually *need* all that stuff--I can adapt, do things in two or three batches, actually wash some dishes halfway through a project, and limit myself to what can reasonably be done (instead of going to heroic efforts to get exactly what I want). So I've been tossing all the extra baggage, and paring down to what I'll actually use. Feels great!

It's amazing to me how much of the stuff I thought I needed isn't actually necessary or useful to my life now. Three years of not having seen something really lets you get the emotional distance to toss it out--thank goodness.

This week I am very, very, very thankful to have a pickup truck, to haul stuff around. Esmeralda, you're the best!

(Esmeralda is my truck's name. She's a 1997 white Ford Ranger, and I positively adore her.)

More furniture

Was up until 1am last night getting furniture...a queen-sized futon in a mahogany frame and a cherry bookcase. I'm quite proud of getting the cherry bookcase--ten other people wanted it, but I was the one who acted fastest, and I got it! It's particleboard, but it's got a nice cherry veneer on it, and it goes very well in the living-room.

The queen-size futon was a pain to move in--we had to take apart the frame to get it through the door--but we got it in eventually. I think it's a little too big for the room, but after all the fuss and bother of getting it through the door--well, it's staying. It currently has a green futon cover, but that has got to go. I have been thinking about what to replace it with.

I now have virtually all the furniture for my living room/dining room, and am pretty happy with the end result. I've started taking out my treasures from SE Asia and figuring out which of them work harmoniously together and which do not...I am going to hang the gorgeous silk rug from India up over the futon, and will hang the silver-and-pastel tapestry I bought in Laos on the wall, along with the intricate, naturally-dyed purple-and-silver runner from Laos. The overall result should be gorgeous--dark cherry floor, dark cherry furniture (traditional/formal looking), a variety of natural colors in the wall hangings. I think I'm going to make the futon solid beige/cream in a nice upholstery fabric (possibly a subtle brocade)--I want the eye to be drawn to the treasures and not the futon, so keep it understated. I'm really enjoying home decorating.

The bedroom, on the other hand, is full of fairly cheap furniture from IKEA. Someday I'll get around to upgrading it, but it's definitely a "working room" and not a display one.

Exhausted today (didn't get enough sleep last night), but still need to make it to the gym to train. (All this training and unpacking stuff is a real pain.) Tomorrow I'm doing a 2 hour ride, Sunday I'll do a 52-mile ride, which should take a little over 4 hours. Next weekend is the Cinderella Century! a 66-mile (100km) ride with lots of fabulous costumes. I plan to wear an off-the-shoulder, very low- and high-cut Little Red Dress over my cycling shorts--good way to find out whether the outfit will work for ALC.

Work-wise, I'm finally getting my teeth into the meat of corporate politics. I hate to admit it, but I love the stuff--it's interesting to see how the chessboard is laid out and figure out the right ways of getting what you want to get done done. It's kind of fun pushing for organizational change.

This unpacking thing is rapidly getting old.

It's not so much the endless unpacking and sifting through personal belongings, it's being unable to find ANYTHING! without a lot of fuss and bother. I missed a workout today because the bike was squealing and I couldn't find the blasted chain lube. I finally gave up searching and spent another hour and a half unpacking, and lo and behold, it turned up in a box I'd already searched! So tomorrow morning I'm going to tackle the workout again. Late is better than nothing, I suppose, although I'd been looking forward to a day off.

Bought a futon and ottoman to replace the leather couch (which is still taking up space in the garage). It's a nice futon, dark mahogany frame and quality mattress. Okay, the mattress is a rather nasty shade of green. (We all have our little flaws.) Fortunately, futon covers are cheap and readily available, so as soon as I decide what color it really wants to be, it's off to the futon shop to buy a new cover. I'll have to think about it.

Of course, then the coffee table may not go with the new futon (I bought it to go with the black leather couch), but...there's always Craigslist. I paid $30 for the coffee and end tables, and am sure I can sell it again for more than that, so not too worried.

The new dresser also (theoretically) arrives tomorrow, though I haven't heard from the place yet, which is not the best of signs. I'm hoping we can pick both of them up at once. Then I need a few shelving units, possibly one bookshelf, and that's IT.

I'm now about 7/8 of the way unpacked, with the last remaining 1/8 being stuff I can't unpack until furniture arrives and/or the kitchen gets redone. It's tedious having all my plates, etc. stuck in boxes, but it'll be that way for the next month or so while they're redoing my cabinets. I've been told it will be worth the wait. :-)

Off to bed, perchance to dream of a 1-hour tempo workout in the morning. Trying to train while unpacking is insane.

Entered my spiral shawl in the Spindlicity contest!

Spindlicity is having a contest for spindle-spun shawls! I'm so excited! I'm entering my spiral shawl...I don't know if I'll win, but I figure I've got a pretty good crack at it anyway...and it ought to be one of the finalists...It'd be nice to win something for the spiral shawl, and a trip to SOAR would be fantastic fun.

Meanwhile, the house is finally habitable again--it took two hours last night, but I am FINALLY set up with DSL. I have internet connectivity. Yay!

The bad news is that I missed a workout while setting up DSL, so I will have to make it up today. It is dreadfully difficult maintaining a training schedule while working and trying to unpack into a new place...I'm hoping I can get something done over the weekend, in between my long rides.

Moved yesterday!

Packed up the whole kit and kaboodle (1 15-foot moving van worth!) of stuff and dragged it up to my new digs yesterday, with help from five friends. We couldn't get the sofa into the apartment, but otherwise all the furniture is there and set up exactly as I had wanted it...I found a coffee table and side table last week (for only $30 for the set--a real steal!) so those went in, and are waiting for a sofa small enough to fit through the door.

Exhausting day--I started moving stuff at 9am, and we didn't finish up until about 7pm. I didn't make it home until about 11pm, and couldn't sleep until about 2am. Then I got back up around 6am to start unpacking...which I have been doing all day. O boy, does my upper back hurt. And am I glad my coach didn't give me any workouts today...!

But I have found all the really crucial things--bedding, computer, a few plates, cups, and bowls--so the frenetic pace should hopefully slow somewhat tomorrow, when I come back to clear the last of my things out of the old place. I'm taking the day off from work to finish up the move.

I'm starting to research bicycle routes around my new digs--going to have to learn about it fast if I want to be able to train in the next few weeks. otherwise it's more time on a trainer, and right now I don't have a TV and DVD player, so 45 minutes on an exercise bike would be excruciatingly boring. Need to unpack more, and get that set up, before I'm really equipped to start training again.

So much to do...!

But the good news is that I've already unpacked about a dozen boxes, and have sorted out a bunch of stuff into "keep", "donate", and "junk". So far I've only been keeping about 1/3 of the stuff I had in storage...not too surprising considering I hadn't seen any of it in three years. But I am also uncovering lots of little treasures that I had forgotten about, so I'm pretty psyched.

The last of my furniture, a cherry wood dresser, arrives on Thursday--then I can really finish unpacking. Later, I'll mail-order my alternate sofa.

Tien

Found a couch...

Much to my astonishment, I finally found a black leather sofa that will fit through the hallway to my apartment! The hallway is only 29" wide and most sofas are 33-34" wide, but this sofa is shorter than usual, so it'll fit. I'm bringing it over to the apartment today (where it will stay in the garage for now, since they're still repainting the apartment). I'm psyched. Now I just need a coffee table, an end table, and a buffet, and I'll be all set. I particularly need the buffet because my snake has to live somewhere, and I'd rather not put her on the floor. We'll see what I can dig out...

Packing, meanwhile, has acquired a manic note since I'm still trying to train as well as move and work--so this morning I'm moving a couch, tonight I'm working out on the gym, and I somewhere on Thursday and Friday have to find two hours each day to be out riding, as well as packing! Fortunately my coach has better sense than to have me training during the weekend, but still, it's going to be tight from here on in.

Went out and had a lovely evening with Patrick and Christo on Monday--went shopping and they helped me buy art supplies (mostly for charcoal and pastels--that's what I'm starting with), then we had dinner and hung around talking for awhile. Should have been packing, but I don't regret it--I really like the both of them, looking forward to hanging out more.

Woo-ee, what a day.

This morning I was out on my bike at 8am, trying to beat the predicted rainstorm. It was chilly, gusty, and cloudy--icky weather, but fortunately it didn't rain until after I got back. (Life has some small blessings.) I did a two-hour ride, which was tough--especially after a four-hour, 48-mile ride yesterday. So I did almost 70 miles this weekend! Not bad, but definitely need to keep at it. 35 miles a day for two days isn't bad, but it's nothing like the 85 miles a day for 7 days that we'll be doing on the Ride.

The worst part about training is having to be out on the road whether you feel like it or not. This morning I really didn't feel like going out--a nice quiet day curled up with a book would have been more my cup of tea--but if I want to be ready for the ride, I have to train consistently. That sometimes means getting up at some ungodly hour, putting on your arm warmers, leg warmers, windbreaker vest, windbreaker jacket on top of the windbreaker vest, etc., and going out into the cold and possibly rainy weather. Ick.

Anyway, after a two-hour ride, I came back and went out with a friend to go look at furniture. We went hopping through four or five used-furniture stores, much of which was disappointing (either poor-quality or overpriced, sometimes both). But then, in the Los Altos Home Consignment store, I found a BEAUTIFUL dark cherry-finish table, solid wood, with six armchairs AND a dining-room hutch, at an affordable price! so I grabbed it. Then it was a couple hours of loading furniture in the rain, driving it up to San Francisco, and then unloading it in the rain. But the dining set is mine, mine, all MINE! and that part of my problem is solved. I'm ecstatic.

Then we went back to another used-furniture shop and bought a black leather loveseat for my friend, and dragged that back to his lair....

...so between the four hours of riding yesterday, two hours of riding today, and all the furniture-moving, I'm exhausted. My shoulders are like steel cables, too--I'm going to take a hot bath and maybe try massaging them with a tennis ball.

Tomorrow I am (hopefully) going off on a small art-supply shopping spree with two guys I've been dating. Both of them are artists (among many other things) and they're going to help me get started in learning how to draw/paint...we may wind up doing modeling sessions for each other, which sounds like it would be really cool. I love having people draw, photograph, etc. me, and would love to have live models to draw/paint. (I'd actually love to draw/paint Patrick and Christo, but I have no delusions about my ability at the moment--if I can get something that looks like a human being (let alone a pair of very sexy guys), I'll be happy.)

Not that I'll have time for drawing/painting this week (I'm going to be fully occupied in moving), but maybe after I get the apartment in shape...I like Patrick and Christo a lot, it would be fun to spend time with them.

Signed the lease!

I signed the lease yesterday and am now happily nesting. Move-in day is March 11, but I have a lot to do between now and then...not least of which is finding furniture! I saved some furniture when I put things into storage, so I have a bed, a wardrobe, and a couple of bookshelves, but I need a dining-room table, chairs, sofa, worktable, etc. --LOTS of "etc.". And I don't have a whole lot of money, but I do want something nice...so this weekend I am sifting through secondhand furniture stores and Craigslist. (When I'm not out riding.)

So far I've spent an hour or two just standing in the apartment mentally rearranging furniture...the desk goes in the bedroom, and if I turn the futon this way it should leave just enough room for the dressers and snake cage there, and...The one thing I'm sure of is that I want the living room to look nice--I acquired a bunch of beautiful things in my travels and I want to display them on the walls. Two gorgeous handwoven tapestries from Laos, several Tibetan thangka (finely drawn paintings of the Buddha) signed by the Dalai Lama, a 900-knot-per-square-inch silk carpet that is just gorgeous...plus, of course, some of my own work. So I want the living room to be nice.

The garage will be a workroom, and I'm still figuring out exactly how that happens. A worktable, of course, and a rack for storage. A TV (so I can watch DVDs while cycling on the bike + trainer), and a bookshelf. But maybe also a loom? A friend has offered to loan me hers, but I'm not quite sure where I'm going to put it. But I'll definitely try.

Off to bed--I have to put in 1.25 hours of cycling tomorrow morning as part of my training regimen, and I'm going off to a movie tomorrow night, so I'd best get to sleep.