And We Liked Them

Pillow talk at the Trantham household

2011-01-26T11:04:00.003-05:00

Scene: Last night

Me: I would get a fire-breathing unicorn.
J: No. You can only have real animals. So, either a unicorn or a fire-breathing horse.
Me: But what if I had both and mated them?
J: No. Do you know what that makes?
Me: A fire-breathing unicorn?
J: A mule.
Me: ???
J: Do you know what happens when two unicorns mate?
Me: ???
J: Erik Estrada.

(Hi! I got married and got a dog - things have been busy.)

Fairest of the foul

2010-04-17T16:50:00.000-05:00

Look who caught a foul ball! Last season he caught a tshirt from Wool
- E - Bull's hot dog gun, but this year it's the real deal. And done
with a beer in one hand! My future husband is the best.

News!

2010-04-06T22:11:00.007-05:00

Is this terribly tacky, with the Facebook? I couldn't decide and it's time for bed. Regardless, we are ridiculously excited.

Foulest of the Fowl, Part 2

2010-04-05T15:10:00.005-05:00

Two weekends ago, Jeremy and I took a mini-vacation to the Outer Banks. The hotel lobby housed a fancy-looking bird named Sabrina, and a sign near her cage indicated that she loved people but that she would bite. I walked over to her to say hi and she lifted up one leg and leaned toward me. Wondering if she wanted to walk out onto my arm, I held out my arm and she hopped on. Jeremy snapped some pictures while she walked up and down my arm. After he had documented my bird encounter, he headed toward the local brochure display and left me alone with Sabrina.

She started nibbling on my knuckles, which was kind of cute and tickled a little. I then made a fist so that she wouldn't have any skin to latch on to. She was not pleased with this development and promptly leaned over the side of my hand and bit the side of my first finger. Clamped is probably a better word, because she kept holding on, no matter how much I moved my hand or tried to pull away. I got her to walk from my arm back onto her cage, but she was still attached to my hand. I was too shocked to call for Jeremy to come help me (but I'm not sure what he would have done but laugh - can't say I blame him). After a few minutes, it became clear she had no intention of letting go - she kept licking the bit of finger she had trapped in her mouth - maybe I tasted good. I started pulling my hand away as hard as I could, and she gripped the bars of her cage with her claws and pulled in the opposite direction. You can imagine what happened next - let's just say there was some blood shed.

After I had cleaned up my hand and found Jeremy, we had to walk by her cage to get to the exit. As we walked by she started talking and lifted out her leg towards me. Nice try, bird, but I learned my lesson.

Foulest of the fowl - Part 1

2010-04-01T19:47:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, when I was on NC State's campus I noticed tents and farm equipment in the main quad. It was Agriculture Awareness Week, and student groups had brought farm animals and tractors to show off. They had sheep, goats, cows, baby ducks, pigs, and chickens. I was taking some pictures and got a little too close to this guy. He came up to the fence right after I took this picture and gave me a nip on the finger. I was shocked more than hurt and walked away laughing.
Part Two of my fowl encounters occured this past weekend and involved more hurt and less shock. I'll post the story and a picture of the perpetrator soon.

Blast from the past

2010-03-29T19:36:00.002-05:00

In class tonight the professor passed around an article written by a woman with a familiar-sounding name. I ran through all the ways I might know of her - had I read something of hers before? Is she affiliated with UNC?
It took me a while, but I finally figured it out. Her name? Karen Brewer

PSA

2010-03-18T23:01:00.001-05:00

Yes, I'm still around. I've got some posts in my head and I may try to
do some more posts from my phone since that's pretty easy. Anyway, as
a frequent user of Census data I couldn't pass up the opportunity to
say how happy I am to get to fill it out this year. I was kind of
hoping to get the long form but no such luck.

NaBloPoMo Day 12

2009-11-12T21:38:00.002-05:00

Hutchinson is a new cat at the shelter who came from a breeder turned hoarder. She had about 40 purebred American Shorthairs who have been coming through the shelter. Hutchinson has a defect in his jaw that doesn't allow him to completely close his mouth - hence the tongue that constantly hangs out. He's pretty funny - how could you ever frown with this guy around?

NaBloPoMo Day 11

2009-11-11T22:31:00.001-05:00

William is entirely displeased with his current living situation
downstairs. He can't wait until everything is put back together. Me
too, buddy.

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/faq/htm/willy.htm

NaBloPoMo Day 10

2009-11-10T22:13:00.002-05:00

Round-Up

Eating: Vegetable Soup. I had to break in my freshly cleaned (but still a mess) kitchen with a good, fall meal. I make vegetable soup in a two-part process - first I make a pot roast and then use the juices and meat in the soup. This batch had crushed tomatoes and tomato juice from canning camp this summer, corn from Kentucky, and limas from a local farm. It's always extra nice to be able to cook with local produce and ingredients you helped make.

Watching: Swoopo. I'm kind of fascinated by this online auction site. Jeremy got a phenomenal deal on a laptop and some of the sales are unbelievable. Watching some of the auctions is kind of like watching the weather channel - you get sucked in and can't help but watch.

Loving: The fact that Miss Doxie is back. She is hilarious and was much missed during the year that she disappeared. She has fantastic stories about her crazy dogs (I cannot tell you how often I think to myself "Gimme that ugly dog") and has recently acquired a crazy cat.

NaBloPoMo Day 9

2009-11-09T14:53:00.003-05:00

Lazy, lazy weekend. I spent a few hours on Friday cleaning the downstairs for the first time since it broke and it felt indescribably good to have clean countertops and to vacuum up all the splinters tracked through the house. There are still small splinters, carpet tacks, and general debris strewn around so the cats are still quarantined, but it's much more pleasant to be downstairs now. An adjuster is coming out in a little bit so hopefully things will get moving again soon. It's been three weeks since I got home to the never-ending mess - I just hope it doesn't last another.

A friend is having his kitchen remodeled so we were commiserating about having a mess in the house. We decided that who ever "wins" (gets a fully functional kitchen first) has to buy the loser a drink. Free beer is nice, but I'll take a comfortable downstairs any day.

Completely unrelated, here is a picture that has been cracking me up since I saw it. Dealing with the stress of the last few months has been infinitely easier with this guy around.

Severe Crankypants Alert

2009-11-08T15:58:00.002-05:00

Grrr.

I found this post, title and all, in my drafts folder. Not sure what had made me so cranky, but I think it's funny that I saved a post with a title and only one word. (Obviously I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for NaBloPoMo content.)

Recommended link:
Mimi Smartypants
I love that her posts and her writing style haven't changed in the five or so years I've been reading her. She writes interesting blurbs about her every day life and her random titles/post sign-offs can't be beat. I know I've linked to her at least once and I'm sure you'll find her more than once in my starred items in Google Reader (over to the left - I've still been keeping up with those).

NaBloPoMo Day 7

2009-11-07T21:54:00.000-05:00

Talking about a round-up post yesterday made me think I should do a recent one. Here we go!

Reading: Sadly not much. I started Jesse Ball's The Way Through Doors and absolutely love it but I haven't gotten around to finishing it. I didn't think I would be able to get into it because he has a strange writing style. I usually don't do well with non-traditional styles but his story-telling just sucked me in. For a quick read, I recommend Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry (Lauren, I think you would really like this). It's such a fascinating way to write a story and it's a book you can go back to and pick up at any point and read for a while.

Listening: I've been doing a lot of driving lately so I'm always looking for new podcasts. I love the Stuff You Should Know show and always pick up interesting tidbits of information. The Sound Opinions podcast can be really good if they have a good main topic. I have to credit the Sound Opinions guys for introducing me to my latest music obsession - An Horse. They were on the SXSW show back in the fall and their song "Horizons" was featured. Love it. I bought the whole album and have been listening to it in the car ever since.

Eating - the Whole Foods salad bar. Since I haven't been able to cook I've been picking up dinner on my way home after school. I love, love their salad bar but fear it will cause me to run up past my credit limit. It's called Whole Paycheck for a reason.

NaBloPoMo Day 6

2009-11-06T21:44:00.000-05:00

Recommended link for today:
ljc fyi
I may have mentioned ljc before but I just love her blog so much. She has fantastic crafty projects, has great pets who are regularly featured, and does canning. What else can you ask? I based my Round-Up posts on her left side-bar but she obviously does it much better.

My Inmate Penpal - NaBloPoMo Day 5

2009-11-05T15:00:00.000-05:00

I found this email in my draft folder - I can't remember if I've told this story here or not.

I got an email a while ago from my mom that reminded me of a story I had meant to tell here but had completely forgotten about. For slightly paranoid reasons that should become obvious, I didn't want to mention anything at the time, but moving has put some space there.

Last April (2007?) I got a large light blue envelope in the mail covered in one cent stamps with a return address of a federal prison. I tried to find it (the letter, not the prison) so I could show a picture but I think it got lost in the move. Inside was a copy of Games Magazine* with my address label and a two page letter. Turns out my copy got stuck to the inmate's copy and he had mailed it back to me. In the letter he wrote that I shouldn't worry because he hadn't kept my address (I think he added in a "haha" and smiley face for good measure) but that he hoped I would be nice enough to write him back. He told me all about his future job plans and went into some specifics about how I could find him after he was released. He was even so kind as to include his age/height/weight/ethnicity/hair color etc. He should be out on parole now, so if there are any ladies out there looking for love and adventure he's probably available.

(So the title of the post isn't entirely accurate - it just sounds better than "That One Time I Got a Letter from a Prisoner")

*I have been getting this magazine without paying a subscription for a good fifteen years. It has followed me from Indiana to Carrboro to Durham without any notification action on my part. I just hope that by writing about it I don't jinx it - it's nice to get but not worth the ridiculous subscription cost. (Update - it followed me to Durham but has since stopped. Booo.)

NaBloPoMo Day 4

2009-11-04T21:29:00.000-05:00

(Yes - it's technically day 2, but let's pretend I posted the first two days)

Link for today
The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Ree lives on a ranch in the middle of nowhere but manages to pull off dishes that aren't typical Kansas or Oklahoma fare. She takes absolutely beautiful pictures of the whole cooking process and is a realistic chef - she doesn't expect you to have super-fancy ingredients on hand or to spend hours on a single dish. The only downside is that she feeds a family of six plus various ranch hands (it's a real farm!) and it doesn't always work for me to make cinnamon rolls for 24.

Starting late

2009-11-03T20:57:00.002-05:00

So I completely forgot that November is NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month, where the goal is to post every day of the month. I tried it a few years ago (I could go through my archives and link to it but you all are smart people) in a rather pathetic attempt. I figure this is a good way to get into the habit of posting more often - we'll see how this goes.

I'm so excited for October to be over. I've basically lived in my bedroom for the last half of the month due to the flooding. The cats are getting extremely bored trapped in a single room and I can't say I blame them. I haven't been grocery shopping in at least two weeks and the closest I've come to cooking is making coffee. My house has always been a refuge for me and the place where I can chill out and get away from all of the stress of work and school. This is why I haven't had a roommate since college and why I don't do well away from home for too long. My house is now even more stressful than the world outside and that's really taking a toll on me. I cannot wait to have everything back to normal and cook some meals and catch up on the DVR.

Whew - enough whining. Since you really don't want to hear me go on and on about the house all month I'm going to use these posts to recommend links. This also saves me the trouble of updating my links section on the left. Everyone wins!

Today's recommendation:
Young House Love
John and Sherry bought an older house in Richmond and document all of their adventures related to renovating their home and making it their own. They have a fantastic sense of design and I love seeing the little and big changes they make all over their house. I am always impressed by their ability to tackle big projects and to make you feel like you can do it too. Check out their backyard wedding - it's amazing that they pulled off such a fantastic celebration on a small budget.

Quiz

2009-10-26T20:36:00.001-05:00

Q: What do you do when your house is a wreck, your air conditioner is
broken, and you have a ridiculous amount of work due this week?

A: Buy a cute new (and very reasonably priced!) coat. Obviously.

Falling Apart

2009-10-26T12:45:00.003-05:00

This has been a really tough semester and I've been pretty consistently overwhelmed with school and work (paid and unpaid) related responsibilities. So it is natural that my house would have a major plumbing problem in the brief time between midterms and gearing up for the end of the semester. And now my air conditioner has frozen. The restoration people are coming back today to completely rip out the kitchen floor. I have put in numerous requests for the house elves to come fix everything but that hasn't worked so far. I keep telling myself that it could be worse. Everything is replaceable and insurance should cover it all. And I don't have shingles.

Back By Popular Demand

2009-10-06T20:47:00.002-05:00

Oh, hi! Did I once have a blog?

Blogging was really easy when I didn't have much going on. It was easy to write up lists or tell stories when every day was the same. I went to work, sat at my desk, and went home. Days were more or less the same and I had all kinds of energy for being creative with writing and doing projects around the house.

It's much harder now. Each day is different and I don't have the luxury of taking half an hour in the middle of the day to write up something witty. This has also been one of the most incredible years of my life, in so many ways. It's much harder to share those details. I'm going to try, though. I'm going to try to have fun with this and share the funny, silly things. Like the actual shotgun wedding my sister witnessed last weekend.

So what have I been up to? Let's review:
School - fantastic. I'm loving this semester of classes and am gradually narrowing in on a dissertation topic.
Boyfriend - what can I really say? He's one of the reasons this year has been so amazing.
House - love it. I was apprehensive about moving from my beloved Carrboro, but I love my new(ish) place.
Projects - sadly lacking. I made a skirt back in the spring, but I haven't done much since then.
Cooking - I got a grill in May and I've been using it all the time. Bobby Flay has a fantastic grill cookbook and his dill-orzo shrimp has been a staple.
Music - Going to see Andrew Bird tomorrow night! This will be the third time I've seen him and he belongs in that rare category of musicians I love to see live.

Let's try for weekly posts - we'll see how it goes.

So Much The Same, And So Much Better

2009-01-25T15:13:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I took the trip down I-85 to see my second favorite Wildcat team. The popularity of the basketball program has exploded since I last attended a game, and although I'd heard about the difference I didn't really understand until I saw it myself. The town bar was crowded before the sold out game, and it seemed like there were more people there in Davidson gear than there were in the student section at games five years ago. The bar was packed after the game, too. The wait for a table was nearly an hour and it took quite a while to get a drink. It was the kind of crowd you would expect to see on a homecoming weekend, not an average January weekend where the 'Cats played a so-so conference opponent.

Although the atmosphere was so different there were some things that were exactly the same. The cheerleaders nearly dropped someone, and their routines hadn't changed much. There were still seven year-olds racing to put on an oversized uniform and make a layup during a media timeout. The buses from The Pines were still parked outside promptly after the game to take home the senior citizens in their Davidson sweaters and knitted vests.

It's good to know that although the crowd was larger, the bleachers had backs, and press row was fuller, it was still Davidson.

Women and Wine!

2009-01-22T23:31:00.002-05:00

I posted a while back about a group of women that got together to hang out and drink once a month around a theme. By my calculations, 75% of the women in that group got pregnant over the last year. People got busy with babies and the group fell apart.

Tonight I hosted the first revival group of Women and Wine. I don't think there were any of the original women in attendance (maybe Amanda?) It was the first time I had really had people over since I moved and it went so well (in terms of people). I think everyone met someone new and we all got along wonderfully.

Since there was usually a theme, I had planned on researching quality boxed wine - I searched The Splendid Table recommendations and put my list together. It wasn't until I got to the wine store that I realized that the quality box wines are sold in units equivalent to 4 bottles. There was no way I was buying two whites and two reds for a total of 16 bottles. I ended up buying a red box and a white box - with some red and white bottles. I probably have the equivalent of 8 bottles left, along with hummus, crackers, popcorn, chocolate, and cookies. Excellent benefit to hosting! We haven't decided on a host for next month but I'm already excited to get together with everyone again.

Christmas - Southern Style

2008-12-29T21:26:00.002-05:00

My sister and I spent a lot of time in Florida before Christmas this year so our family was looking for things to do besides preparing for the next party or drinking all the red wine on the east coast. My parents had some free tickets to the Daytona Experience nearby so we went over to check it out. None of us are really Nascar fans, but it was still pretty fun. It was nearly deserted, so there were no crowds or lines for anything. One of the stops on the freezing cold tour was the Victory Lane area where you could get your picture taken as race winners. We hammed it up and whooped and hollered in our victory celebration - I would post the picture but I look like I'm in some pretty serious pain from the exertion of holding my arms up in victory. Also, there's a rumor that none of us had showered that day. (Hey, we were all on vacation...) We found out that my dad would never make it as a racecar driver while my sister and I would likely put ourselves and others in great mortal danger as soon as the engines started.

For our second redneck excursion we headed to the flea market. We have a Christmas tradition of doing a $5 gift exchange where we draw names and head to the nearest mall. To make it more interesting, we hit the flea market this year. I was a little worried about our ability to find gifts, seeing as how about three-quarters of the booths were closed, but there was no cause for concern. We all split up and headed in different directions. I found a huge portion of a warehouse set up with folding tables and cardboard boxes labeled from $1 up to $5. I'm pretty sure most of the merchandise fell off the back of a truck or was recalled for safety reasons and resold to flea market dealers. We all got funny, somewhat terrible gifts for each other and had fun exchanging them and explaining the reasoning behind our purchases once we got home.

We headed up to Kentucky after Christmas, making a stop in Georgia where my sister and I got schooled in Wii golf by our three year old cousin. Fortunately for us, we were able to prevail in bowling. This morning we celebrated my second consecutive birthday at the breakfast area of the Holiday Inn in my hometown. The afternoon may or may not have been spent reading a certain preteen vampire novel aloud to my sister as we drove back to Tennessee. All in all, an excellent holiday.

Round-up!

2008-12-20T01:26:00.000-05:00

Reading - What is the What - Dave Eggers. There's not a whole lot to say about this besides how incredible it is and how you should rush out and get it even if you can't stand Dave Eggers and how it will make you cry and get really angry and still not be able to put it down and then finally be exhausted have to put it down for a month but then not be able to pick it back up because you know it will first break your heart some more and then end and you won't be be able to read it any more so you keep putting off finishing the book. So, really, not a whole lot to say about it.

Watching - I know it is full of, as someone put it, "overly contrived eccentricity", but I am loving Pushing Daisies this season. I could take it or leave it last season but it just keeps getting better, which makes its cancellation even more sad. I totally want Olive's nun outfit. Also, I am completely in love with Dogtown on the National Geographic channel. Our shelter directors have spent their vacations working out at Best Friends and they say it is just as wonderful as it looks. I generally end up crying at the end of every episode. The injured dog is now healthy! The crazy dog is now under control! The vet solved the medical mystery and the dog can now live a happy life!

Drying - apples by the bag-full. I made some of the famous Clayton family dried apple stack cake for a party last week and I am preparing to make another one in Florida so I have been processing apples for a good week now. I've only sliced a finger open twice with the mandolin so I figure I'm doing pretty good.

Loving - the Christmas tree lot at a local Methodist church. I've bought my tree there for five(!) years now and I could not love these people more. There are always old men out in the cold ready to haul trees, operate chainsaws, and secure my tree in the trunk of my car. They are really just the kindest people and would make me inclined to go to church if I weren't already of the church-going sort.

Why I Love Carrboro: Part eleventy-thousand

2008-12-19T01:02:00.000-05:00

Overheard at the Carrboro thrift shop...
Employee working on shelving books, to other employee: "Where is the wall for Eastern Philosophy?"

Yikes!

2008-12-17T00:36:00.002-05:00

I hadn't realized that my last post had been in September. I have been working on a post about a guy in federal prison who sent me an unsolicited personal letter, complete with height/weight/race stats in case I was interested in a relationship once he was released but couldn't quite master the right amount of humor vs. trying not to make fun of this poor guy. I think I basically summed up the story in that sentence - bottom line, if you're looking for love in all the wrong places just let me know and I can hook you up with his CB call sign.

Anyway...this semester has been so busy and wonderful. It was definitely time for me to move on from my job and to make some new friends. Not that my existing friends weren't incredible and still some of my favorite people, but there were lots of new babies in the picture so going out to play trivia and drink beer got moved down a bit on the priority scale. Classes were exactly as I imagined, and I have been dutifully working to make myself indispensable as a research assistant. On the home front, we are down to an average of 2.5 canine teeth per feline and the ghost in the master bedroom continues to turn on the overhead light at 4 in the morning.

Ideally, I want to write lots of posts in the upcoming days and spread them out over the next month. I want to write about some of my favorite things around the house that make it feel like home (see: William the hippo, the family tree of rock and roll, and countless dusty old books that are interesting only to me), what Christmas is going to be like without my grandma around, how the mouse brain completely took over at the end of the semester, and the first Clayton family road trip in the US since 1999. Keep checking in and I promise I'll try not to disappear for an entire semester.

Round-up

2008-09-15T10:02:00.000-05:00

It's been a while, but here's what I'm up to...
Reading - The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen. I think I wrote about reading The Corrections a while ago and mentioning that it took me a while to get into it. This one had me from the very beginning and it's been hard to put down and go to bed each night. I'm obviously loving it and I'll let you know if that changes by the time I'm done.

Listening - Hypocrite alert! I wrote a while back that I don't really like live music and then shortly thereafter went to see Arcade Fire. This time I've got tickets to see Andrew Bird at Memorial Hall. In my defense, I have always said (to myself) that if I had the opportunity to see him again I would (documentation!) so I could hardly pass up the chance.

Buying - prints from Berkley Illustration. I have wanted some of these for the longest time so now that I have a new space to decorate I'm switching up a lot of my old artwork for new stuff. I ordered the cheetah, the doe, and the goat and I think they'll fit nicely in the half bath. I love the little descriptions of each print so I will probably print those out and label each one once they are hung. These are really just the poor student substitute for Catherine Ledner's prints. Words cannot explain how much I love those photos.

Canning

2008-09-13T09:45:00.004-05:00

I mentioned a while ago that my sister and I had visited my aunt to can tomatoes back in July. I've got some pictures of the three of us hard at work and will hopefully have some more later. This year was different from last year because my grandma wasn't there but we still had a great time and got a lot of work done. Our regular tomato place in Tennessee didn't have enough ripe tomatoes so we had to stop about a day earlier than we had planned and my aunt finished off the remaining tomatoes after they had time to ripen.

I've given away some of the spaghetti sauce and I took an appetizer of ripe tomato catsup and brie to a recent party but for the most part I've squirreled away the jars and saved them for myself. As the months go by, my shelf of full jars will empty and I'll accumulate more empty jars. Our family (and anyone else lucky enough to get sauce and juice every year) knows that you have to return your empty jars to get full ones next year. So as my supply runs low I'll be able to look at my empty jars and remember that we'll get to do this all over next year.

2008-08-21T19:51:00.002-05:00

There's been so much going on these few months! I drove 2400 miles over 10 days and eight states, left my job, moved, and started school again. So, let's talk about unimportant things that have no relation to what I've been up to.

In high school I loved the radio station out of the junior college across the border in Illinois, but it would disappear for months at a time for no good reason. I guess these were the times when students were studying for exams or out of town on break, but it was always a treat to turn to the station one day and hear the regularly lazy voices and commercials for taco places we would never visit.

In the past year, I've been listening more to the college radio station out of NC State. It's become a substitute for my much beloved and long gone high school station and I love the morning and evening rock programs. A few months ago I noticed a familiar sounding song but couldn't place it. A few songs later the DJ came on and rounded up the recent songs.

Flat Duo Jets

That brought back some memories. One of my best friends in middle school picked up the Flat Duo Jets cd In Stereo for another friend out of the bargain bin at a local record store because the band had a funny name and the cd looked really bad. Friendships changed, but the hilarity of the first track on the cd remained the same for all of us. We had no idea "Riot in Cell Block #9" was a song that had been recorded by legitimate artists (not that FDJ aren't legitimate!) and that it was a "real" song.

When I heard the announcer say that the song had been by Flat Duo Jets I laughed out loud. It had been so long since I had thought about screaming out the first line of "Riot" in my best friend's bedroom.

The NC State station plays Flat Duo Jets fairly regularly, but I never fail to laugh out loud. As seriously as some people and critics might take them, they will always remind me of laughing hysterically with friends.

Updates - Twitter Style

2008-08-14T22:56:00.002-05:00

I am so glad my dad painted the important pieces of furntiure - painting today shows I am not cut out for a career involving precision or staining substances

Facebook's Northwest Trail application is a sorry excuse for Oregon Trail. Am waiting for Amazon Trail version.

Did you hear last week's This American Life? Have been constantly repeating "Tivo pieces!"

I dropped the TV on my new router and then figured out a way to make it work - am electronic genius! (knocking on wood)

Have been without income for four working days - miss it already.

Harpoon Summer Beer is an excellent substitute for Sam Adams Summer Lager.

How to make me cry

2008-07-30T17:03:00.002-05:00

While I'm out of town, use the only copy of the key not in my possession to enter apartment and fix air conditioning. Leave project unfinished and turn off refrigerator at breaker box. Leave apartment and promptly lose key, making it impossible to finish ac repair or restore power to fridge.

I came home to an incredibly stinky kitchen at one a.m. today. I saved a few bottles of beer but had to toss everything else. (The bucket of lard is awaiting disposal - I would bet that it weathered the outage just fine but I'm not willing to risk it. Besides, lard buckets are pretty easy to come by at the Food Lion.) I could not be happier that tomorrow is moving day. Sorry, new tenant - you better invest in some baking soda.

In other news, the trip was fantastic. I have some pictures of cousin camp and tomato camp that I'll post later this week. I'm happy to report that I can still get up on waterskis after 10-15 years and didn't suffer any major wipeouts.

The Last Few Days

2008-07-21T22:50:00.002-05:00

Beach, Food, Nap, Beach, More Food, repeat.

I had a great drive down to Florida and the weather has been just beautiful with perfect ocean waves. We had the traditional shrimp feast tonight and tomorrow is a trip up to the best fried shrimp place on the coast.

Before I drove down here I stopped at the library to get some books on CD. I have been meaning to write a round-up of the ones I've listened to forever but never got around to it. For those who care (or more likely, for my future reference), here it is (I'm not doing links - you all are smart enough to find these for yourself):

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke: I loved this one. The reader had a fantastic British accent and the book seemed to fly by even though there were 26 CDs. There were some slow spots so I don't know if I would have gotten through the book as quickly, but the audio was great for drives between NC and Indiana a few years ago. I checked out a CD of short stories from the same author this trip but haven't gotten that into it yet.

Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland: I could not have loved this one more. I can't listen to audio books if the reader isn't invested in the story, but this is not at all the case with this one. Every time I see this one on the library shelf I want to pick it up again, and I think about it a lot. The actors/readers are so perfect for each section of the book and add so much to the listening experience - I know that sounds cheesy. Coupland's other books have been hit or miss (mainly miss) for me, but this will always be one of my favorite audio books.

Oh, The Glory Of It All - Sean Wilsey: An autobiography of a boy growing up with socialite San Francisco parents. Pretty interesting but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they were familiar with the city. I can imagine that it would have been much more enjoyable if you were able to relate to the location and the time period, but Wilsey was still pretty whiney through the last quarter (third? half?) of the book. Interestingly (for me), his mother founded an organization that sponsored visits between US children and children from the USSR. As soon as he started describing this group I recognized the group from a picture book we had while we were growing up. It was called Making Friends but I can't find it from a brief amazon search.

Son Of A Witch - Gregory Maguire: So, so bad. I loved Wicked but have been very disappointed by everything else he's written. To his credit, he read the book, but that's a technical redeeming quality that can't save a boring book.

The Areas of My Expertise - John Hodgman: This is the PC guy from the PC/Mac commercials and he has written a very Dwight Schrute-esque guide to his catalog of made-up knowledge. There have definitely been some laugh out loud moments but it's a bit much for seven straight hours. It looks like the last CD just contains a list of 700 hobo names so I have one fewer CD to go (unless you're looking for a hobo name, in which case I would gladly help you pick one out).

So! Much! Going! On!

2008-07-09T12:38:00.004-05:00

I've been working crazy hours as I try to get things wrapped up at work before my last day and haven't had time to update anything here. I'm in the process of moving, dealing with plumbing and drywall repairs, getting ready for a houseguest, showing my current apartment to prospective renters (grrr - not happy about this), buying furniture and major appliances, admiring a brand new baby (not mine, obviously), and tackling several upholstery projects.

Here are a few pictures of my latest furniture project. I got two chairs at the PTA thrift shop for $10 each and recovered the cushions with some remnant fabric from Ecko. I still need to paint/rehab the chair frames but they have moved from hideous into not-too-ugly. I've also recently picked up two sewing tables (one with a functioning machine!) and a fantastic gun cabinet. I love having an apartment filled with used and rehab pieces that each have a story and I'm really excited about fitting everything into my new place and making it somewhat cohesive.

Now with 100% less whining!

2008-06-10T13:51:00.002-05:00

I saw this on kottke yesterday and it completely made my day. I've only been to the La Paz airport, but I've spent some time in Santa Cruz. If the traffic in the two cities is comparable I'm surprised there haven't been any incidents of zebra roadkill.

La Paz, Bolivia's crossing guard zebras

AC Update

2008-06-09T10:23:00.002-05:00

Really, what's one more day when the forecast for tomorrow is a degree cooler at 97? It's been 8 days since I reported the problem, a week since they "lost" my appointment, and 6 days since they put in a temporary fix that didn't work. I'm okay and have offers to stay with friends, but the poor cats have been moping around in their fur coats. I just have to keep telling myself that I won't be in this apartment forever. I can't move soon enough.

Weekend: Pros and Cons

2008-06-09T09:08:00.002-05:00

Pro: Had a great visit with Dad and accomplished exactly what we had hoped to while he was here - details later.

Con: Air conditioning still not working. Now on Day 10 of Operation: Try Not To Die Of Heatstroke. I've called about it twice today and can't get an answer other than "we'll call you back."

Pro: Went to a great baby shower for Heather. Lots of fun.

Con: Rear-ended an Accord in Raleigh. Thankfully, no injuries or major damage. My car is fine but I left the impression of the screws from my front license plate in her bumper. I did the exact same thing four years ago and my insurance rates had just come down from that incident. Awesome.

Pro: Got fantastic deals on two armchairs, a sewing machine table, a desk chair, and fabric for recovering the armchair cushions. I'll post project pictures as I get started on these new projects.

Con: To top off a weekend that was both very bad and very good I managed to lock myself out of the house last night. Of course my neighbors with the spare key were out of town so I ended up going to the gym as planned and then decided my best option was to run out to Jeff and Heather's. I have no idea how long it took but I arrived drenched in sweat and bleeding from an encounter with a thorny vine on the side of the road. I was finally able to get in touch with my landlord but he wanted me to pay him to come by with a key. (His exact words were to "give him something for his time" so maybe I could have made a deal for the six-pack in my refrigerator.) Jeff drove me out to his house to get the key and I finally got back into the house six hours after locking myself out.

Con: I completely failed in my attempts to pick the lock on my front door (don't give me that look - I was desperate) so it looks like I'll never make it as a secret agent. Cat burglar is probably out as well.

Lessons Learned

2008-05-20T19:44:00.002-05:00

If you find yourself in possession of chocolate chip cookie dough made with lard instead of butter, resist the temptation to eat it raw. Seriously. Just put down the spatula.

If you can stand it, more Davidson

2008-05-19T22:08:00.002-05:00

So I'm a few months late with this. With all the Davidson hoopla this spring I missed this simple article that captures so much of what it is to be a Davidson Wildcat. Well done, JT.

Thrift Store Finds

2008-05-17T12:09:00.002-05:00

I've wanted a cake platter for a long time, so this diy project from Design*Sponge caught my eye. I found a great candlestick and a plain white plate at a local thrift shop - I haven't glued them together yet but that's the next step.

I also found this fantastic metal Beatrix Potter platter. It matches two pencil cases I've had forever so they're all on display now in my hutch. (Speaking of the hutch, that was the ultimate furniture rehab project. I really wish I had some before pictures.)

Finished Catalog

2008-05-17T12:02:00.002-05:00

Here's the final catalog post! I really couldn't be happier with how it turned out. So far, I've labeled all but 13 of the 60 drawers. If you know me at all, you will spot the one task I hadn't completed when I took the pictures. Obviously, I couldn't live with unordered drawers - they are now in alphabetical order.

Card Catalog in Progress

2008-05-17T11:52:00.005-05:00

Turns out I only had to sand the catalog and not strip it. Here are a few pictures of the refinishing in progress.

The existing stain on the drawers had worn unevenly so the stain I put on didn't create an consistent color. It ended up looking fine since the darker area is covered by the hardware and labels but it was frustrating to deal with. It also affected how the polyurethane covered the surface. In the end, it's not perfect but I am calling the imperfections "character" instead of "flaws".

Having all these drawers stacked in the middle of the living room served as motivation to get the work finished.

Brain Dump

2008-05-14T15:37:00.002-05:00

The card catalog is finished! I love it and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Of course I keep forgetting to upload the new pictures, but trust me - it's fantastic.

In lieu of photos, here are some links and items that have been occupying my brain lately.

Loving - John Adams. Seriously. I started watching the mini-series on HBO but decided to stop after the fifth episode and read the book first. For the past week or so I've developed a nightly ritual of popping kettle corn and reading for an hour before bed. From what I've read and watched, the show stays pretty faithful to the book with the exception of some timing details. Laura Linney and Stephen Dillane are so wonderfully perfect as Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson that I want to send cookies to the casting director. I can't recommend the book or the show enough.

Listening - To the Indie Soup Runner podcasts. Although the weather is getting nicer, it's still too pollen-y outside for me to move my runs outside. I don't really mind the treadmill, but these podcasts are perfect for relieving any gym-related boredom. All of the songs are high-tempo and work really well for timing your steps to the beat. Only downside - it's difficult to execute appropriate dance moves on the treadmill.

Links!
Science Tattoos
The nerd in me loves this. It's probably for the better that I'm not super-passionate about econ because I don't think a tattoo of supply and demand curves would look as good as the squid anatomy tattoo. via Boing Boing

Vintage Microwave
This fills in the hole left by The Week in Craig posts when The Black Table stopped publishing. The weeks where she covered the Free Stuff section of craigslist were always the best, and Vintage Microwave ably carries on the tradition of mocking people for what they try to get rid of. via Evany

Where was the Class of '03?

2008-05-05T11:02:00.003-05:00

Two weekends ago my parents were at Davidson for my dad's reunion so I decided to drive down for the afternoon and have lunch with them. We went to the official alumni event on campus and my dad had registered me ahead of time so I had a nametag with my name and graduation date like everyone else. All major reunions except the five year one are held in April so everyone there was celebrating 10, 15, 20, etc. years and I was the only one at five years. It became the joke of the day that I was the only one who had shown up for the five year reunion so dad made sure to take a class picture of me to document that I was there. I had a really nice time and got to hang out with her parents and other classmates of my dad.

Here we are by the thumbs-up wildcat.

New Project!

2008-05-02T11:09:00.004-05:00

I haven't had a good project (home-, not work-related) in a while so I'm really excited about my new piece of furniture, just waiting for sanding, stripping, and finishing:

I found it on craigslist in Charlotte and it just happened that my parents were in the area with a van so getting it home was relatively painless. It was pretty dusty, so I spent last Sunday vacuuming out the inside and rinsing off all the drawers (60!). The drawers are plastic with a wooden front, and I've since removed the drawer fronts and all the hardware. Due to the location of the screws holding the wood fronts to the drawers and the size of my screwdriver/drill I had to detach the fronts by hand - not fun.

This weekend is going to be spent sanding it and getting it ready for stripping. It's possible that I can just sand off the current finish rather than having to get chemical stripper involved but we'll see how that goes. After contemplating the sanding possibilities I gave in last night and bought a sander so I'm excited to get to use my new toy. I think it will look really nice when it's finished but there's a lot of work between now and then.

Here are some more pictures showing some of the stains/damage on top, the pull-out writing boards, and one fan of the new furniture. I'll keep you updated during the process!

It's Official

2008-04-23T12:24:00.002-05:00

So, it's been official for a while, but I haven't gotten around to saying anything about it here. As of August, my Kentucky-blue heart will have to change to a lighter shade of blue when I become a Tarheel.* I'm going back to school full time at the UNC School of Public Health.

I never thought it would take me this long to be back in school, but I really wouldn't change how things have worked out. It took me a long time to figure out what exactly I want to be doing and I couldn't be happier to be at UNC. I'm so excited I can hardly contain it - I'm ready to leave my job and start tomorrow. There's a lot to do between now and then, finishing up at work, possibly moving, vacation, canning camp, maybe math camp (nerd) but for now I just need to stay on task at work and pull together my immunization records. I know that within a year I'll be longing for my eight hour work days and wide open weekends but it's really a small price to pay for working towards something I'm really passionate about. I just have to keep that in mind during exams.

*Obviously, I'll never be a true Carolina fan, but I don't think they check true loyalties with your student ID at basketball games.

Just Ignore That Earlier Post

2008-04-23T12:07:00.002-05:00

So, there's this.

I'm making an exception to my no live music preference for three reasons. One, it's Arcade Fire. Two, it's free. Three, it's within walking distance of my house. Let me know if you're interested in playing hooky on Friday afternoon and we can hang out with the Carrboro hippies (and assorted Triangle Obama fans). I'm picking up my ticket this afternoon.

Sadly, there is a very real possibility that I'll be moving from Carrboro soon. It's a decision that makes financial sense but I'm really pretty bummed about it. It's not like I'll be moving across the country (or even state) but I've never lived in a place like Carrboro. There's such a sense of community and responsibility to the local community that anyone who's ever spent time in the area can feel. It's rather unfortunate that my dream home would go for about 800K - not exactly in my price range. Nevermind that it's not for sale. I'm not one to get hung up on details like that.

Economist Joke

2008-04-10T11:22:00.002-05:00

Jeff: So I heard on NPR about all of these guys who are developing markets for trading carbon credits -
Me: - out on the new frontier...
Jeff: Yeah, the Pareto frontier.

Things I Wish I Liked/Appreciated

2008-04-09T15:19:00.004-05:00

Camping*
Live music*
Fiction in The New Yorker
Movies (I'm getting better at this one!)
Cucumbers
Poetry
Knitting
Bullshot
Indian food

*A friend suggested going to Bonnaroo a few years back. Fantastic, I thought. Then I remembered I don't like camping or live music. I think Bonnarro would pretty much be my personal hell, what with the camping, music, and lack of cleanliness.

**I was writing this post and thinking of things that I like that maybe other people wish they liked. I don't know if anyone really aspires to like airports, but I bet I've got you beat there.

I'm practically famous!

2008-03-31T15:04:00.002-05:00

My mom and sister both directed me to this article. Not just because of the Davidson connection, but because I was one of the speakers at the seminar Thomas Sander mentions in the article! We took a break midway through the presentation and one student came back in telling everyone about the email. Everyone thought he was joking at first but then realized that would have been way too cruel. Obviously, no one wanted to stay for the second half of the talk. The offer was unfortunatly not extended to alumni guest-speakers.

Serendipity

2008-03-21T06:59:00.006-05:00

Yesterday morning I was driving home from a particularly hellish work trip to the eastern part of the state and passing the time by listening to a sports radio broadcast from the RBC Center in Raleigh. I was just outside Raleigh when the announcer mentioned that Davidson would be taking the court to practice in about 15 minutes and that practices were open to the public. The RBC Center is one of the few places in Raleigh I can find unassisted and my route home took me within spitting distance of the arena. I made it inside after they had started practice and stayed about half an hour, until it was UMBC's turn to practice. There were about 100 people watching but most just seemed to be hanging around until UNC practice started later in the day. Out of habit, I really wanted to start clapping or cheer when someone made a great play or pulled off a difficult shot, but ummmmmm, it's practice. Maybe not the best time to act like a crazed fan. I stopped by the box office when I left but I missed the last of the Friday tickets by a few hours. Nonetheless, it was a perfect way to end a tough trip. Check out the pictures, with a bonus video of my Davidson basketball boyfriend.

Projects, Old and New

2008-02-19T16:37:00.004-05:00

I was pretty busy with some sewing projects over the weekend and realized I haven't posted anything about other recent crafty things. Here are some details for those of you who are interested (mom). My camera isn't cooperating so some of these picture aren't great.

First, a fancy-schmancy cover/liner for a recycling bin. Note to self: when trying to disguise cardboard, do not choose a light brown suede fabric. This just looks like a picture of a plain cardboard box. Fancy.

In other trash-related projects, I made car trash bag based on this one. I have never sewn on oilcloth before so the sewing is pretty terrible because it kept slipping everywhere. This picture is taken at a flattering angle - it really doesn't look that good.

In the last of the recent projects, I altered a pair of mens shorts to fit. I have really wanted a pair of madras shorts for a while now but most of the womens ones are bermuda length and expensive. I got a cheap pair at Old Navy and just fixed the length and pockets. I had to cut off my head in the picture because I was still wearing my sweaty gym shirt. I'm a classy model like that.

Old Projects:
I found some great flannel fabric a while ago but it took me some time to get around to doing anything with it. Enter the grossly oversized but incredibly comfortable whale pants:

Side note on sea mammal pants: Gap used to have a style of pants called the Matinee pant. It took me forever to figure out why someone would wear pants named after a sea cow.

Finally, a close-up of some embroidery on a skirt I made. The image is from this Johnny Gruelle story that my mom used to read my sister and me. "A wishbone is an object of great importance in this world!"

And for those of you still scrolling through this, here is my sewing machine. I recently traded with my mom so I'm still getting used to it and am slightly intimidated by its fancy features.

Chicken

2008-02-13T11:52:00.002-05:00

In middle and high school our family would occasionally go watch a University of Evansville men's basketball game. During these years they won the Missouri Valley Conference championship a few times and got to dance so they were fun to watch and cheer for. The school ran a lot of promotions to get people excited about games and offered endless types of halftime entertainment shows. By far, the best promotion was one sponsored by a local fast food-type fried chicken place. If the Aces held the opposing team to under 50 points then everyone in attendance could redeem their ticket for a free chicken dinner the next day. This kept the crowd engaged in blow-outs and most likely caused some confusion and ill-will among visiting teams when fans continued to heckle losing teams after home team victory was nearly assured. "Getting chicken" is still a commonly used phrase in our family's lexicon.

All this is to say that although we got our asses kicked last night, at least they're not enjoying chicken today in Nashville.

Click Here

2008-02-05T10:14:00.000-05:00

Links that have caught my attention recently. Most of them have been over on the starred items feature but some are new.

Bossy explains delegates. Relevant for today's voting, especially if you live in a state that has primaries before, say, May.

Mimi Smartypants wants to punch Paul McCartney in the face. This made me laugh out loud this morning.

Afraid of clusters of things? I was laughing at the comments until someone brought up the tree-man from the Discovery Channel or some such show. I can barely finish this sentence without darting under my desk and curling up in a ball, such is my physical reaction to the tree-man. Google at your own risk.

Bookplates. I have been mildly obsessed with cheap and cute bookplates for a while now and haven't found anything that meets both qualifications. The ones I made and posted about here a while ago are fine but incredibly time intensive. I have some ideas for new ones so I'll let you know how that goes.

Cooking Disaster

2008-02-04T16:23:00.000-05:00

I had a little cooking accident this weekend (no brownies were harmed!) that I have beautifully illustrated below. Bottom line: completely clear stovetop before turning on oven. Also, black beans catch fire easily.

Round-up!

2008-02-04T12:54:00.001-05:00

I haven't done this in a while - here's what I'm up to.

Listening - Just bought the newest Okkervil River cd on a whim after seeing in on someone's list of the best of 2007. I'm really loving it - it's a lot more upbeat than I was expecting and doesn't make you want to stick your head in the oven as much as Black Sheep Boy.

Reading - After a two year hiatus I picked up Spook again. I had gotten completely bogged down in the discussion of measuring and detecting souls so I ended up skipping to the end of that section and starting with the chapter on ectoplasm. Much more enjoyable this time around. I'm also working on Bridge of Sighs but it's pretty slow going now. I just haven't had a whole lot of time for reading lately.

Watching - I can't remember who recommended Cache to me but they must have only watched the first half of the movie. (spoiler ahead!) The concept is really intriguing and there is a perfectly creepy amount of suspense, especially when you're not sure if you're watching real-time action or a videotape. The end of the movie is a huge let-down, all the drama is created by a man with a 40 year old grudge against a six year old. Seriously? So disappointing.

Waiting

2008-01-28T14:58:00.000-05:00

I've had a case of Severe Crankypants lately and it's been like a case of high school senioritis with a heaping dose of apathy. I can't yet start making plans for grad school because I have another month before I hear back from schools. It's also hard to be enthusiastic about work when I know I won't be seeing any of my current projects to completion. I'm really ready to have a new direction to focus my energy - nervous energy with no outlet equals crankypants.

Changing the topic to good things! After a two month break from running I finally got new shoes and got back on the treadmill. Thank goodness for the fantastic people at Fleet Feet - it took me about a month and four returns to get the right pair of shoes and they never rolled their eyes (at least to my face). It was really encouraging to be able to pick up where I left off without losing much in the way of endurance. Good to know the hours spent on the elliptical reading Us Weekely weren't wasted. Also, can we talk about how much I love Body Pump? It's enough to get me to a 6:30 am class. Please try not to fall out of your chair in shock. I got your gun show right here, baby.

Cringe

2008-01-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

I've become friends with a group of women who meet once a month to hang out and drink wine (seriously the best kind of friends). There is usually a theme, where the host picks the type of wine that people bring, and the host provides snacky foods. This past month the woman hosting it decided to have a Cringe night and we all brought old journals and notes from middle and high school. I have not laughed that hard in the longest time. It's always so nice to be reminded that you were not the only neurotic high school freshman. I read parts of the letter to a boy that I referenced in my very first blog post - there were some parts where I couldn't read I was laughing so hard at my heartfelt agony.

Christmas Gifts, Reviewed

2008-01-17T11:33:00.000-05:00

Electric mattress pad - wow. I cannot adequately describe my love for this. I turn it on high while I brush my teeth and it is nice and toasty when I get into bed, eliminating the need for multiple pairs of socks, fleece pants, and bulky sweaters. I told my officemate how much I loved it and she said it sounded like "pigs in a blanket." Exactly.

Envirosax. I have the flora set and I bought my sister the amazonia set. While the website describes the environmental and waste-reducing benefits of bringing your own shopping bags to the grocery it fails to mention one of the main reasons these bags are so great - feelings of smugness and vast superiority over people using plastic bags at the grocery.

Garth Pig and the Ice Cream Lady. I loved this book growing up but we never owned it. I put it on my amazon wish list just to remind myself that I would like to have it someday but mom went ahead and got it for me this Christmas. It is as wonderful as I remember it. I have been known to whimper "Don't want a Whoosh" to myself when I don't get my way.

Oh, hi!

2008-01-16T11:19:00.000-05:00

So I have this blog...What can I say - things have been pretty busy since I last posted. From Thanksgiving through the first week of January I took 15 flights through 7 different airports (that's 23 total airport visits for those of you counting), including the always exciting Evansville Regional Airport. Anyway, I am here for the foreseeable future so posting should maybe be somewhat regular (note use of qualifiers). How about a story?

My house has a wooded area behind it that is large enough to attract the occasional deer but not so large that it filters the noise from the neighbors' 4-wheeler course. I generally dump my yard waste (failed potted plants, weeds, etc) at the edge and usually drag my Christmas tree a bit deeper in. Earlier this week I was getting ready for work and saw a woman in my backyard hauling my tree out of the woods. I moved to the kitchen window and looked for some type of municipal vehicle (maybe yard waste collectors were really going the extra mile?) but just saw another woman standing beside a pickup truck with a trailer labeled with the name of a landscaping/gardening business (that I had never heard of).

The first woman drags the tree around the house and the two of them toss it into the already full (with other Christmas trees) truck bed. Then she climbs into the bed to pack the tree down and ends up laying down on the pile of trees like she is going to take a nap. Woman number two stands beside the truck and they have a full conversation while woman number one continues to lie in the bed. Um, what? First off, my tree was not visible from the road. They must have been doing some serious scouting to find it and the other trees they had collected. Second, why do they need it? I'm guessing maybe for pine needles but I can't imagine they would be so expensive that it would be cheaper for two people to spend a morning searching backyards for used Christmas trees.

I kind of wanted to go out and accuse them of stealing my tree, but thought better of it when I remembered my own leaf stealing experiences. Growing up, my family had a garden and compost pile and the trees in our neighborhood didn't produce enough leaves to keep them covered/fed in the winter. Mom would drive the van through nearby neighborhoods on yard waste pick up days and we would haul bags of leaves into the back of the van. As a teenager this was incredibly embarrassing - what if I see someone I know! We're stealing people's leaves! I'm sure we only did this once or twice but I still remember being absolutely mortified.

By Popular Request

2007-12-19T13:05:00.000-05:00

My friend Ben left a comment on an earlier post asking me to talk about a series of commercials that have been running in the Raleigh area. I'm not going to look it up, but he said they are produced by the same people who do the Geico ads so it's a pretty big deal for a local dealership. They're all great but here are some of the best:

And the sexist badger:

Finally, here's a commercial that will probably haunt me until my dying day. This came on last year at a friend's Super Bowl party and we must have watched it five or six times, repeating it every time someone new walked into the room. I saw it just last week and was reminded of how much it grosses me out. Those last five seconds are just indescribably creepy.

Stress and Blood

2007-12-18T14:37:00.000-05:00

I've completed two of four grad school applications.* Everything came together pretty well except for my UNC transcript. I had ordered it express delivered to my house so I could scan it and upload it to my applications, and I started to get really stressed out (rapid heartbeat, inability to sleep, constantly clenched jaws) when applications were due in less than 18 hours and it hadn't shown up. I got the idea to look around the back of the house in case the FedEx guy had dropped off the envelope there - it wasn't there but I did find it completely hidden under the doormat, where it'd been for the past week. Way to go FedEx! Maybe next time you could just prop that envelope against the door or leave a corner peeking out from under the mat? Just a suggestion.

(Insert transition)

Last night I stabbed myself in the hand while working on a Christmas present. I'm talking "blood all over the kitchen floor and a makeshift bandage involving half a roll of scotch tape" stabbed myself. While it's no wooden pickle, the recipient better love and cherish this gift in an amount commensurate with my suffering.

*There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth if I have to do additional applications in the spring. This Christmas I just want Santa to put in a good word with admission committees.

Christmas!

2007-11-28T11:52:00.000-05:00

I know it's early but I start to get antsy when I see trees for sale by the side of the road. I spent the last three nights working on a cranberry wreath for my wonderful neighbor who takes care of the cats when I'm out of town. I'm really happy with the finished product. Ignore the photo quality - I left my memory card at work and only had my phone to take a picture.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T22:56:00.000-05:00

The Lilgrams hope you enjoyed your turkey.

FAIL!

2007-11-20T12:38:00.000-05:00

So, this month I've shown my true dedication to blogging. I've been busy, I swear! I've mentioned a lot that I get kind of stupid when I'm stressed out or tired - this morning I held my coffee mug at such an angle that I poured lukewarm coffee down my chest and didn't even notice until the coffee started pooling between my side and the couch cushion. Then when I was debating whether I could get by without changing shirts (I was just wearing a black undershirt) I poured coffee straight down my front while taking a sip. Obviously I need a break. Good thing I'm headed to Florida tomorrow!

Flying at the holidays stresses some people but I have a very zen-like approach to the whole experience. It is so rare that I can just sit and read without having anything else to do that I enjoy layovers and arriving early for flights. I think airports are one of the easiest places to entertain yourself - there's no better place for people watching. My family often plays a game in airports called "Mate for Life." You position yourself in a prime people watching area and say that the tenth man (or woman, as the case may be) to walk in front of you is your mate for life. Your mate for life could be a surly sixteen year old traveling with his family or an ancient woman in a wheelchair. There are endless variations: you can find your seat partner for the next flight, the person with whom you would to switch wardrobes, etc.

I'll report back with details if I have any fun airport experiences and I'll try to keep posting for the rest of the month. Word is there's going to be an apple stack cake in Florida that will merit its own post.

I will never be a superstar blogger

2007-11-13T08:32:00.001-05:00

Well, I made it 11 days. I've been pretty stressed out and don't have a lot going on other than work so I haven't had the energy to sit down and write something (as the last few posts show). I'm going on a field trip down to Davidson today to talk to some old professors so hopefully I'll have some pictures or some stories for tomorrow. Meanwhile, go read about Koko and look at some pictures of her with some kittens (I looked for just a second but didn't see any of All Ball).

Inspired by this.

Rant

2007-11-11T19:29:00.000-05:00

I want to publicly state my stance againse flavored deodorants. Asian Pear? Mystic Rain? All I want is some damn unscented deodorant and it's hiding behind baby powder and shower fresh. I'm just saying, maybe you should think about how that Asian Pear is going to smell at the end of the day.

Day 10

2007-11-10T20:06:00.000-05:00

Every holiday has its own list of required readings and viewings. Some people say it's not Halloween unless they watch the Charlie Brown special. It's definitely not Christmas for me without my dad's reading of The Night Before Christmas. The link below is one of my personal Thanksgiving readings - The Black Table's turducken instructions. I've never made or even had turducken but this article makes me want to get into the kitchen with a carving knife, stuffing, and a baseball bat. It's a little long but totally worth it.

The Road to Turducken

Video tapes in my dresser I can't get rid of

2007-11-09T12:30:00.000-05:00

Episodes of My So Called Life, including the Halloween one and the one where Angela thinks Jordan has written a song about her but it's really about his car. Heh.
Several MST3K movies, including Attack of the Killer Shrews and the rodeo short.
News clips of the foreign exchange student who lived with us in middle school.
Episodes of 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation, with meticulously documented contents.
A copy of Super Troopers that mysteriously appeared in our senior apartment in college. It has no label, no commercials, and nothing else on the tape. No one ever claimed responsibility.
The CMT Crossroads episode with Elton John and Ryan Adams.
Fifth grade research project presentations, featuring everyone in my fifth grade class.

Bonus cassette tapes!

An exercise mix made in high school (probably heavy on the Blink182)
Out of Order with Jed the Fish from the mid 1990s. Man, I loved that show.

Day 8

2007-11-08T15:51:00.000-05:00

Weekly Round-Up!
Reading: The Corrections. I started this several years ago and couldn't get past the first thirty pages. At the insistence of friends I started again and like it much better this time around. Please shoot me if I end up like any of the characters in this book.

Stressing out: Turns out grad school apps are due in December, not March like I thought (I have no idea where that came from but it's been stuck in my head). Umm, maybe it's time to find some references and order some transcripts? I'm on it as soon as the panic attacks stop.

Loving: David Anders on Heroes. Now that we're back in the present (ancient Japan=bad idea) I can't wait to see how his character is involved in everything. He can do no wrong in my book. Also loving - the Arrested Development episodes with Charlize Theron. I've been rewatching these lately and they just never cease to be funny. I saw a car a while ago with a British flag-patterned bumper sticker with the text "Mr. F" - I seriously wanted to give the driver a cookie.

Not discussing: Yeah. Gardner-Webb.

Signs It's Fall

2007-11-07T15:44:00.000-05:00

Morning coffee has been replaced with tea
Tights and skirts all week long
Evening reading has been relocated from bed to bathtub
Fleece pants and extra comforter have been pulled out of storage
Soup ingredients make up majority of grocery list

One other thing:

Coury and Porter? I really need to see a televised game to believe this.

Trying to be optimistic

2007-11-06T11:52:00.000-05:00

My dad sent this article earlier this week. Ummm? No. I really don't think you should be able to play for Kentucky if you average 2 points as a senior in high school. Sure, we always need a Preston LeMaster or Steve Masiello to cheer for at the end of the game but they played and scored in high school. I guess I'm just getting nervous before the start of the season. I'm tired of getting disappointed early on and ending the season completely frustrated. At least my other Wildcats are looking good - a chance to break the top 25?

Day 5

2007-11-05T15:29:00.000-05:00

One of the nice things about my job is that I can work from home occasionally. I've lately been working from the kitchen table on Mondays - what better way to ease back in to the work week? I generally get a lot done on the days I stay home but I have to deal with needy cats who must be in contact with my body at all times or risk death from lack of snuggling. Seriously, is it really that comfortable to be half hanging off the table, half falling off my lap?

Anyway, the work I've been doing on Mondays involves two computers at once so I feel like some overachieving stock trader as I type on one laptop and monitor a process on the other. (I don't know what a day as an overachieving stock trader would entail but I'm guessing it involves multiple computers and does not involve sitting at your kitchen table in your pajamas.) The working in pajamas perk is one I regret not taking full advantage of in the last four years.

Pretty Things

2007-11-04T17:47:00.000-05:00

Heather and I went to the Handmade Market in Raleigh yesterday and I was able to overcome temptation and walk away empty handed. The level of quality is incredibly high at this biannual event and last spring I got a couple of great prints. I found a lot of inspiration for new projects. There were three artists in particular who I loved.
Bags - Mint Workshop
Prints and paintings - Alena Hennessy
Paintings and jewelery - Mikel Robinson

Cheese, anyone?

2007-11-03T15:02:00.000-05:00

Raclette party tonight!

NaBloPoMo - Day 2

2007-11-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

Dooce had a piece this morning about Halloween with her daughter and there was one paragraph that I knew my parents would identify with:
"So we zipped up her chicken costume and headed out, and immediately she started asking if we were headed to Grandmommy’s house, because why else would we be this excited? Do you even know what they’ve got at Grandmommy’s house? FREEDOM, THAT’S WHAT. She can do whatever the hell she wants to at that place, and if we head over there now maybe there’d be enough time to bathe in a tub of chocolate syrup."

That pretty much describes my Kentucky grandma's house perfectly. Until the 5th grade we lived a few minutes from my grandma so my sister and I spent a lot of time over there. We could watch tv shows and movies that were forbidden at our house, eat peppermint until we were sick to our stomachs, and take all the food out of the pantry to play "grocery" on the back porch. We loved to go through Grandma and Aunt Jane's closets and try on clothes and shoes before lining all the shoes up on the back porch and having a shoe sale. She'd give us money to walk down to the Gulf station with our cousins and buy Fun Dip and Pixie Stix.

People often ask if I miss living in the Midwest or wish my parents hadn't moved to Florida. The answer is a resounding "no" - I have no attachment to the town where I went to high school and Florida is a much nicer place to visit than Indiana. I just wish it were closer to Kentucky.

New Feature

2007-11-01T10:56:00.000-05:00

I just added a little box to the left that shows links to other blog or website pieces that I've recently starred in Google Reader. I check my reader obsessively and always star items that make me laugh, have comments I want to come back and read, or give me ideas for new crafty projects, etc. I know some people don't read many blogs or spend much time messing around online because they don't know where to start - consider these links my "recommended" list. I'm going to update my actual links list later this month but I just wanted to explain the new box.

ETA: I also took down the Flickr badge since I haven't updated my pictures lately. I put in a new link to the photo page down in the links section if you ever want to check it out.

Grad school anxiety much?

2007-11-01T09:37:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a complicated dream that boiled down to this: As part of a project work order I was forced to quit my job and work instead as a freelancer. This meant I was no longer eligible to receive the money in my 401k since I quit six months before the five year mark.*

Each year as school application deadlines pass I tell myself that I will be one year closer to that five year mark if I keep working rather than going back to school. This year is it - that excuse isn't going to work anymore and it's well known around the office that I'll be leaving in August. I have less than two months to get my act together. Doing nothing is not an option.

*I think part of this dream was brought on by reading the part in The Corrections where Alfred quits his job before retirement age and receives much grief from his family. I'm liking the book this time through (I quit after 50 pages a few years ago) but the parents make me really panicky and stressed out.

This picture is for you, Lauren

2007-10-29T11:09:00.000-05:00

I was in Chicago for Allan's wedding this weekend and I'm still slowly recovering from the madness. I'm hoping to get some more pictures later because I didn't really take any - I was too busy achieving Level Five. The wedding was on Friday so we went to an Ohio State alumni bar on Saturday night to watch the game against Penn State. A lot of people were in costume and there was a girl in a Girl Scout uniform (Junior, not Brownie) that I was totally coveting. There were the usual slutty cops/schoolgirls/cheerleaders, etc., a really frightening man-baby, lots of Dicks in Boxes, and a couple penguins (I couldn't stop laughing at the penguin flippers). My favorite costume, though, was spotted at Navy Pier during the day. I couldn't get a great picture, but the costume was definitely better than anything at the Natural History Museum exhibit on mythical creatures (I wrote about it somewhere before but don't have the energy to look for the link). I would totally buy this for Lauren if they made it in adult sizes.

Posting has been light lately, but don't worry. I'm saving up for NaBloPoMo!

It would be kind of funny if it didn't suck so much

2007-10-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

I decide I'm going to leave work early today and get a run in before it gets too dark or cool. I change clothes, shut down my computer, and gather my assorted belongings to head out the door. At the office front door I start looking for my keys. Not in my purse, gym bag, or computer case. Definitely locked in the backseat of my car. Shit.

I come back to my office and turn the computer back on to kill some time until Jeff can drive me home. The headline at Yahoo? Tips to Deter Car Theft. I'm guessing "Do not leave keys in car" is right up there at the top of the list.

Irrational Fears

2007-10-12T13:27:00.000-05:00

1. Intentionally driving off a bridge. I'm okay on overpasses but long bridges over water kind of freak me out because I'm afraid I'll drive off the side just to see what it's like. This has gotten worse over the past couple years because I don't drive over water as much as I used to. Similarly...
2. Opening an airplane emergency exit. I really can't sit in an exit row because I get kind of anxious and jittery looking at the door the whole flight. There's just this tiny temptation to pull the handle that doesn't go away.
3. Turning on the dryer with a cat inside. I seriously have to check and make sure I know where the cats are before I start a load of clothes in the dryer. I've also been known to stop the dryer after a few seconds just to make sure.
4. Lockjaw.

Editors are always worth the extra cost

2007-10-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

I totally got the Spellcheck gene from my dad.
ETA: And now "decide on" doesn't sound right. Maybe "choose"?

Losing My Mind

2007-10-05T11:51:00.000-05:00

So I've been running a lot lately and I don't know if it's just me or if this is common but intense exercise makes me incredibly stupid. It's like I only have so much brainpower and when I'm spending it on limb coordination there's not a whole lot left to use for other purposes. This morning I spent the whole drive to work behind someone going 55 on I-40 because it never crossed my mind to change lanes. It's like mouse brain that never stops. Also, because there isn't a whole lot of thinking going on my brain tends to latch onto a word or phrase and repeat it endlessly. I was in the shower this morning and I kept thinking "IDK my BFF Rose" - now it's "kthxbai". I've become a walking lolcat.

Let's do a round-up, shall we?
Reading - I finally finished Nicholas and Alexandra. I've also finished Train Go Sorry and The Little Friend. Train Go Sorry was fascinating if a little out of date. I can't even imagine how the internet and related technologies have changed the deaf community in the 15 years since the book was written. The Little Friend was wonderful but ultimately disappointing. I have a love/hate relationship with Donna Tartt after this book and The Secret History, and I really can't figure out how I feel about her books. I read The Secret History five years ago and I still couldn't tell you whether I liked it or not.
As part of Operation: Read The Books You Own I'm not buying anything new until I've made a sizeable dent in the books I already have. I'm partially through an MFK Fisher one now and I think I'll tackle some Dickens after that.

Watching - Dexter and the fourth season of 24. I can't even describe how much I love Dexter, especially Michael C. Hall. He is so incredible as Dexter and I have a hard time believing he's the same guy who played David Fisher on Six Feet Under. I'm also super excited for the return of Friday Night Lights tonight. I've finally given up on Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy and I'm having a fight with Prison Break but we all know I can't give up on Scofield/Burrows brothers. LINCOLN AM NOT THE DUMB! ...And my brain has latched on to a new phrase.

I was going to write about some crafty projects and weekend plans but I think I've emabarassed myself enough for one day. See the post below and go vote for Pam!

Vote!

2007-09-27T11:50:00.001-05:00

I've been volunteering at a no-kill cat shelter in north Raleigh for more than three years, starting with cleaning shifts and recently taking on responsibility as an adoption counselor. The shelter, Safe Haven for Cats, does some amazing work in the area and I'm really proud to be a part of it. We are primarily a rescue organization for stray and abandoned cats but we have been putting a lot of effort into expanding our low-cost spay/neuter clinic. I look forward to my Thursday night cleaning shifts because there's really nothing better than snuggling up to a kitten at the end of a crappy or stressful day. My Winnie came from Safe Haven (you can read about her on page 7 of this newsletter) and I'm still amazed by all the effort, money, and love they put into saving her.

Anyway, this is all to say that our founder, Pam Miller, has been nominated for the Animal Planet "Cat Hero of the Year" award. The grand prize is $10,000 for the shelter, which would be unbelievable. This shelter is her life and she is always there checking on the cats, working with our vet to distribute medicines, helping community members trap feral cats to bring to our spay/neuter clinic, and planning the next fundraising event. You can vote for her here - you don't have to enter an email or any other info - just click!

The blind kitties thank you!

You Can't Go Wrong With $2 Bets

2007-09-21T11:53:00.000-05:00

I heard a song by Au Revoir Simone on the radio on the way to work yesterday that has become one of my favorite songs ever and I've been singing it in my head pretty much constantly the past two days. The first few lines of "Night Majestic":
We want to celebrate
and there's a place that we go
where the horses are for show
and they race for prize at the end of the line
and it impresses us.

For several years our family would celebrate my grandma's birthday at Ellis Park in Kentucky (but not across the river!). My parents would always give my sister and me $20 to spend on horses but we were too young to place our own bets so my parents, aunts, uncles, or cousins would have to buy our $2 tickets (always to show - maybe place if we were feeling lucky) for us. We'd fill the time between races with trips to the buffet, walks down to the track, and intense sessions scouring the listings for the next race. I think I made out ahead one year but technically I guess I was always ahead since I never spent my own money. I don't think I would really enjoy off-track betting but you can't beat an afternoon at the track.

And a kind of poor-quality video of "Night Majestic"...

2007-09-19T11:08:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day since last winter I'm wearing what I call my organ playing shoes. (Side note: woah) My church growing up used to have lots of middle school lock-ins and my friends and I would always go up in the choir loft and play with the organist's shoes. My friend Melissa was the only one with feet small enough to fit in the shoes and she would perform tap dances for the rest of us. This has become all I can think about whenever I look at these shoes.

I Think I Missed Something

2007-09-13T11:34:00.000-05:00

My grandmother recently mailed me a card in this envelope:

Since when did a kitty cat drawing become acceptable USPS tender?

Friday Wrap-Up

2007-09-07T11:19:00.000-05:00

Reading - I left Nicholas and Alexandra imprisoned at Tsarskoe Selo and took The Virgin Suicides to the beach. The narrator and the relationship of the narrator to the main characters bothered me up until the end but it was worth reading. (But nowhere near as good as Middlesex.)

Watching - The Style channel (network?) has been showing the first three seasons of The Biggest Loser and I'm totally hooked. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's really inspiring to watch these people work their asses off (literally!) to reach goals they always thought were unachievable. I totally want a trainer like Jillian to come yell at me on the treadmill.

Winning - trivia! The Non-Profiteers cruised to victory on Wednesday, taking home free pizza, appetizer, several hours of free pool, and Guinness pint glasses. It's no PBR t-shirt but it'll do.

Missing - the beach. Our Labor Day weekend beach trip was so much fun. The weather great and we spent our non-beach time cooking and eating great meals, playing horseballs on the front lawn, and cheering the Golden Bears to victory. I have a few good pictures I'll try to post at some point.

Avoiding - studying for the GRE. How annoying is it that my perfectly good GRE scores from 2002 expire this fall? (Answer: super)

Oh, Carrboro

2007-08-30T17:21:00.001-05:00

Sunday morning, across from Weaver St.

Weekly Round-up

2007-08-29T18:48:00.000-05:00

Reading - still plodding through Nicholas and Alexandra. They have been arrested but aren't really in any danger (yet). I'm liking the book but it's incredibly slow going for me.

Watching - William Wegman's Fay's 12 Days of Christmas. I recorded this on HBO the other day - I have no idea why it was on in August. It completely cracks me up. I've always been slightly creeped out by the "dogs doing people things" concept but it's so funny in this video because they can't keep the dogs from doing dog-things, like trying to eat the cookie dough or licking inappropriate things. It's in the same style as the video below, with the same great narrator.

Getting ready - for the beach! We're leaving for the beach on Friday for the long weekend. The house is technically half a mile from the beach (it's "ocean-smell" rather than "ocean-view") but the weather should be beautiful. So excited!

Making - new recipes from my new Weight Watchers cookbook. Everything I've made has been delicious and not at all like "diet food" - leftover flank steak for dinner tonight.

Misusing - quotation marks.

100 Things - Part 3 (or 4?)

2007-08-25T00:31:00.000-05:00

12. I have two pieces of jewelry I've worn every day for the past nine years (counting earrings as one). I bought some earrings on a trip to the mall in the fifth grade and I started wearing them in my second hole (pierced my junior year in high school by my best friend Jessica) after it cleared up from the inevitable infection (sexy, I know). The other piece of jewelry is my toe ring. It's on the second toe of my right foot and it's been there for at least twelve years.

13. I've had "real" surgery once - when I had my tonsils out at age 4 (maybe 5 - my mom knows for sure). The only things I really remember are throwing up in a laundry basket once I got home, watching The Wizard of Oz, and getting a bunch of balloons in a creepy clown holder sent from people who worked with my dad.

14. My "fake" surgery was when I got my wisdom teeth taken out. I call it a fake surgery because I remember nothing of it but I wasn't ever in a hospital or operating room. I had to go to a specialist because of the position of my teeth but that didn't prevent him from burning the shit out of my lip. Apparently, he rested the surgical drill against my lip during the procedure - I woke up looking like someone had put a cigar out on my lip. Thank goodness my mom was there - she was able to make the CVS run for Oxy-Contin and Neosporin while I passed out on the couch. A later infection made the whole experience super fun.

15. I got hooked on Alias while I was recovering from my wisdom teeth surgery. I watched the first two seasons straight through in a couple days - I was either sleeping or watching Alias. My mom was staying with me and would come downstairs in the morning and ask me what had happened on Alias while she was sleeping (did I mention I couldn't sleep for a few days? That was fun.). If you watched it, you know that the whole show ended in a strange season. I couldn't resist getting the Vaughn Comeback Tour t-shirt (I'll try and post a picture here.)

16. My most embarrassing moment as a kid was probably my first day of the fifth grade. (Honestly, barfing on the school secretary's shoes in the second grade wasn't all that embarrassing in the end.) Our family had moved about fifty miles north from Kentucky to Indiana and I still had a very southern accent. Since I was a new student, my teacher asked me to stand up and introduce myself on the first day. She asked me the name of me elementary school in Kentucky. I went to Pride Elementary and I said so. She couldn't understand me so I had to repeat it: "Prohd". She then asked me to spell it: "Pay - are - aye - day - a." People never stopped asking me to "talk Kentuckian".

17. Besides my lip scar, I have one other major scar - on my knee. I cut it on a air vent on the school bus in the second grade. It needed seven stitches and still looks pretty sweet.

Weekly Round-up

2007-08-22T11:43:00.000-05:00

I'm going to try to make this a regular feature but I'm obviously not the greatest with the follow-through (see 100 Things...).

Reading - Just finished The Accidental Tourist and now I'm in the middle of Nicholas and Alexandra. We're in the middle of WWI and the shit's about to hit the fan in Russia. Things do not look good for the Romanovs.

Watching - the third season of 24. I'm watching this through Blockbuster Online so it can take a while to get the next disc. Episodes 13-16 should be delivered today and I'll probably watch them straight through this weekend. Also: Meerkat Manor. You absolutely have to watch this show.

Loving - my new haircut. I have a good before picture so I'll take an after one and post them. I got about 6-8 inches cut off and it's much darker. This was way overdue.

Linking - Here are a couple links that have made me laugh out loud lately. (Allan, the Oregon Trail one is for you.)
Watch out for typhoid!
The story of Erin's rental house and the best noted Flickr photo.

Making - a measuring spoon hook rack. I got sick of never being able to find the right size measuring spoon so I made a little place for them all to live. I was looking more for a plain piece of wood to mount the hooks on, but the letter was the best option at Michael's. I just painted it and drilled holes - perfect!

Dreading - my air conditioner has been leaking water the past two weeks. The AC guy just came by and said I may need a whole new unit. That should be fun.

Maybe I Could Be on the Next Season of Heroes

2007-08-15T09:23:00.000-05:00

When I pulled into the parking lot at work this morning there was a fire hydrant near the building pumping water at full force. It continued while I found a parking space, gathered all my stuff together, and started walking to my building. (I really wanted to go over and stick my hand in it to see how hard the water was coming out but I resisted the temptation - just barely.) Right after I walked by it stopped pumping out water. Then, when I'm about twenty feet from the front door of the building, the fire alarm starts going off inside. I obviously have some new-found power over fire control/notification devices - I just need to figure out how to use it. By this time next week I'll surely be able to make fire extinguishers fly through the air and knock enemies unconscious.

Deal With It

2007-08-09T12:20:00.000-05:00

I know the pictures in the next two posts are messed up but I don't have time to fix it and I wanted to get these posts up this week. (ETA: Fixed!)

In other news, our weekly bar trivia may be a complete sham. Manufactured scores, incorrect answers, and no post-trivia accountability? Definitely a little shady.

Canning Camp

2007-08-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

(The picture above will take you to the complete set of pictures from canning camp, but I've posted a few below.)

Canning Camp with Grandma was a complete success this year. Patricia and I drove up from Tennessee and stopped to load up the car with more tomatoes than we could possibly use during the time we were at Grandma's. After one and a half days of work, we left with 102 jars (a total of 33 gallons) of tomato juice, diced tomatoes, salsa, spaghetti sauce, and ripe tomato catsup. There was a lot more prep work than I was expecting - all of the recipes except the tomato juice called for skinned, de-seeded, and diced tomatoes. Additionally, the salsa and sauce needed lots and lots of diced veggies.

All we had to do for the juice was to put cored tomatoes (skins and all) through the sauce grinder and add salt. We canned a few quarts of juice that were left over from other recipes but the majority of the juice was produced with the grinder.

By the end of the first day we had 20 jars of juice and had prepped the ingredients for two batches of salsa. We worked all day on the second day and spent the morning of the third day splitting up the jars and packing up.

This is the part where I would brag about how good everything tastes and about how my pantry is stocked with jars to last until next year. Unfortunately, everything is in Tennessee and we're trying to figure a way to get it to North Carolina without paying an arm and a leg. I may have to give in and have Patricia pack it up and ship it because I can only go so long using the precious jars of juice and sauce I saved from last year.

Vacation

2007-08-07T15:34:00.000-05:00

I got back from my extended vacation late Friday night to an air conditioner on the fritz, an empty fridge, and two needy cats. It almost made me want to turn around and go back to the airport. Since then, I've had some time to settle back in and upload pictures from the trip. I'll do a separate entry for the canning pictures, so here are the Florida ones.

One of the best parts of a trip to Florida is a boiled shrimp dinner with fresh caught shrimp. The plated item to the right of the shrimp is grilled peach halves - really good.

After dinner we started talking about Beatrix Potter while Dad cleaned the kitchen and the books eventually came out. Here's M'ma reading Two Bad Mice:

No trip is complete without dinner at O'Steen's in St. Augustine. I had a running feud in college with a random guy about the best place for fried shrimp in St. Augustine. We were both so completely convinced of the superiority of our favorite restaurant that we stuck to our convictions even after we learned the two restaurants had the same cook and identical fried shrimp recipes.

On our last night in Florida we took a twilight kayak trip through the mangroves in the Indian River Lagoon. The sun set with about twenty minutes left in the trip and the full moon was incredible. We paddled by a bird nesting island and my dad got some great shots of some baby pelicans.

Obviously the trip was way too short and my tan is beginning to fade. It's a lot hotter here than it is there so I've been longing for the beach breezes since I left.

Messed Up

2007-07-31T14:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Patricia and I flew into Memphis and spent the afternoon cleaning her house so she could move out today. We finished around 4 and decided we deserved to spend the evening in an air-conditioned movie theater after spending the day scrubbing down a house with no central air. Since we seem to be the only two people we know who haven't seen Knocked Up (this includes our parents) we headed out to the edge of town to the only theater showing it. We were pretty early but found a bar where we could grab a drink before the show.

The movie started at 7:15 and we got our tickets and walked into the theater right on time. The theater was empty, with all lights on and no ac. Another couple showed up a few minutes later and we decided to let the staff know the movie wasn't playing. They had no idea what was going on, but after a few false starts the lights went down, the air cooled off, and the previews started. The projected image was about 4 feet taller than the screen but we could live with it.

Everything was going fine until the earthquake scene. Right as the earthquake hit, the image split and nothing on the screen made sense. At first we thought it was some kind of intentional effect but when it didn't correct itself Patricia went to talk to the staff again. They couldn't/wouldn't rewind it so we missed about five minutes. When they corrected the projection the image stretched four feet above the screen and about six feet below. Everyone's mouths were at the bottom of the screen but the movie finished without additional problems.

It could have been worse, though. About fifteen minutes from the end of the movie a couple walked in loaded down with drinks and popcorn. They looked confused but sat down and started watching. We later figured out they had arrived for the late showing but caught the end of the early one because of the delays we had. At least it wasn't The Usual Suspects or another movie with a surprise ending.

Off to Kentucky tomorrow where the internet is only a dream that exists in a far-away land. I have some good Florida pictures (mainly of shrimp feasts and shrimp eating establishments) but I'll upload those later. We're off to the pool now !

Friday Randomness

2007-07-20T13:39:00.001-05:00

I saw a license plate on the way to work this morning: UVOTED4W. Um, not really, so don't blame me/tell me I have no right to complain. Thanks.

The Tour of the South 2007 (tm) begins Monday. I'll be gone on a 12 day trip that involves 5 flights, 5 airports, one 8 hour round trip drive, night kayaking, turtle watching, shrimp feasts, and 6 bushels of tomatoes. That's right - canning camp is officially a go. Patricia and I have to pick up Ripley tomatoes on our way from Memphis to Kentucky - by the end of three days we will have all the tomato juice, salsa, ketchup, and spaghetti sauce our hearts desire. I'm not sure when I'll get to enjoy the results since flying with tomato juice=terrorism but my Mason jars will one day make it to NC.

I'll take some pictures of the beach and grandma's kitchen (not to be confused with Grandma's Kitchen, RIP) and shrimp deliciousness. I've got lots of packing, cleaning, cat wrangling, and drinking to do before I leave but I'll be in touch in Florida, provided I can crack my parent's Alcatraz-level wireless security.

In the Last 10 Days...

2007-07-16T15:07:00.000-05:00

1. Lauren and Ian's wedding, with related dinners, parties, shower, rehearsal (outside at 3:30 in 95+ degree heat), beautifying, dancing, and be-hatted tea party. It was so much fun to spend time with the two of them and the wedding itself was perfect and beautiful. Here's hoping the photographer can airbrush out all the in-ceremony sweating.

2. A 36 hour trip to DC the day after the wedding. It is understandable, then, that I tried to check in for a flight on the wrong airline (and even in the wrong terminal). I didn't bring any reading or entertainment material, which made for long flights and an extremely boring night at the hotel. I also didn't bring any clothes with pockets or a purse so my attempt at a taking a walk was short-lived - wandering unfamiliar streets (empty except for me and homeless men) with wallet and phone in hand didn't seem like the best idea.

3. An embarrassing showing (despite a tied for 4th finish) at trivia on Wednesday. Good thing we didn't make and bring the heavyweight wrestling champ-inspired beer bottle top bejeweled belt.

4. A weekend visit from my sister that included a trip to Sunset, lounging at the pool, breakfast of pancakes and country ham, the new Harry Potter movie (which we watched from the second row - my eyes and neck are still recovering), and card games with Jeff and Heather.

10 Years of Summer - 2000

2007-07-03T14:20:00.001-05:00

Sometime during the spring of my freshman year of college I decided it would be a great idea to work far away from home over the summer. (This is said with a degree of sarcasm. I was going through a heart-broken/angry-at-the-world/depressed stage common to college freshmen after the sparkle of college and independent living has worn away. Spending the summer away from everyone I knew seemed to be the obvious solution.) I applied to work at several national parks and Yellowstone was the only one that ever replied to my application. I don't think I had any kind of interview or that they ever told me what I would be doing before I sent in my acceptance.

There are so many stories I could tell about that summer so I'll just give you the highlights:

As I've mentioned here before, my job was serving meals in the cafeteria at Canyon. This was the most terrible job I've ever had. It was hot and exhausting but had one redeeming feature: we could take home any food left at the end of the night. The food we served in the cafeteria was much better than anything served in the employee cafeteria so people would line up after the shift to fix themselves a plate of food for dinner. The people in upper management caught wind of this and banned the practice completely, forcing us to throw out massive amounts of lasagna, roast beef, and fried chicken every night. The rumored penalty for consuming food left over at the end of the shift was dismissal but no one really believed it. As the summer went on, the American college students working at the park would quit or get fired, resulting in a labor shortage. The park staff had anticipated this and began hiring young people from the Czech Republic to fill in the gaps. One of these new employees didn't know the rules about saving food and was busted taking home a plate of food shortly after he started work. He barely spoke English and had no idea what was going on, but he was nevertheless fired and put back on a plane to the Czech Republic less than a month after he arrived. Poor guy.
My first boss was arrested for drug possession (and maybe intent to sell?) about two weeks into the summer. That was kind of awesome.
My roommate got hit in the face with a softball about three weeks into the summer and had to go home. There was a mix-up in the housing office and no one ever noticed that I had a room to myself. Late in the summer there was such a shortage of employee housing that some employees had to stay in guest cabins and people would get new roommates within an hour of the departure of their old roommate but I kept my mouth shut. I really think having that room to myself kept me sane over the summer.
One night towards the end of the summer I was driving up to Butte with some friends to pick up someone's car that had broken down on a previous trip. We had some fireworks so after it got dark we drove onto some back roads and found a secluded place to light them. A couple misfired directly into the nearby cow pasture and set the dry grass on fire, much to the distress of the cows. We stared with open mouths until a few guys jumped the fences and stomped out the fires, then raced to the cars and got back to the main road as fast as possible. Good times.
I drove down to Durango for a family wedding at the end of the summer. I had about three days to make the trip so I made lots of stops along the way. Somewhere in Utah near Arches National Park I saw a ski lift by the side of the road and a sign advertising "Great Views!" I bought a ticket and rode to the top where the lift operator advised me to take a walk around the cliffs, assuring me the path was well marked. Obviously, it was not. I got completely lost and spent more than an hour wandering around cliffs, looking for footprints and anything that looked like a path. Did I mention it was 110 degrees? And that I had no water? And that I was wearing a skirt and flip-flops? It ended up being one of the most stressful experiences of my life - but at least I got some good pictures!

I went back to my first summer post and added some pictures. Marvel at how cute and skinny I was in high school.

Week in Review

2007-06-29T10:34:00.001-05:00

I had a great time with my parents last weekend. I'll post some pictures from our trip to the tiger preserve as soon as they send them to me. This week has been pretty crazy since they left. Evidence:

1. I flew to DC for a 24-hour trip on Monday afternoon. I was composing a post in my head about how I really don't mind flying and have pretty good luck with regards to delays, cancellations, and screaming children, but I decided that the only surefire way to end up in a seat next to a sweaty fat man was to brag about my luck to the internet before my return flight. Summary: I really like to fly and I consider myself to be a master of the security check-in.

2. Wednesday night trivia! The Non-Profiteers redeemed ourselves after our extremely poor showing earlier this month by coming in first. With only three people! We each took home a Duck Rabbit pint glass and a PBR shirt. Kudos to Jeff for pulling the location of Brenner Pass out of his ass.

3. One of my fabulous aunts (not to imply any of my aunts are non-fabulous) was in town last night. I got to spend time with her and meet some of her friends who were also in town.

Plans for the weekend include a Durham Bulls game and a play at Carolina if I can get my act together. Next week is filled with wedding related parties and madness.