Reverb 10: 11 Things

December 11 11 Things


What are 11 things your life doesn't need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

My life doesn't need:

1. Clutter. I'm going to try not to buy things I don't need. This does not include new music, movies, or TV. This does include jewelry I don't ever get a chance to wear, extra clothes or shoes, even books about yarn that I realistically won't get a chance to use. I'm even not going to buy yarn unless I need it for a specific project. I have plenty.

2. Prejudice. I need to stop making snap judgements made from one small characteristic I see in someone, or from one little thing someone does. I don't do this often, though; mostly when I'm driving. Someone does something stupid and I assume they must be an idiot, when I do stupid things while driving just as often.

3. Food. I mean junk food. I need to fall in love with vegetables again.

4. Drama. I need to work on letting things go and on turning the other cheek. Some days I wake up and take everything personally, just because that's the mood I'm in because I'm nuts. Then I spend the whole day being mad at someone or something for no reason at all, and it totally ruins my day and stresses Scott out because he keeps thinking he did something to make me mad (you never do, Scott, you're an angel). The drama is all in my head!

5. Body fat. Gotta get rid of it!

I'm out. How about some things I do need in 2011?

1. More handmade socks. I'm working on a pair right now. I got the urge to make socks this weekend when I ran out of yarn for Mim's blanket, and when I went to grab my supplies, I had already made one sock! I had put it away and forgotten about it when I started Mim's blanket all those months ago!

2. A new floor for my kitchen. As much as I love walking around on carpet remnants...

3. I need to finish projects! This includes work on the house AND finishing as many yarny projects as I can. Eventually, I'd like to only have one or two going at any given moment. We'll see how that works out...

How will all these change my life? Well, if everything works out, my house will be cleaner, I will be happier (and have warmer feet), and I will be healthier. All good things!

Beans's Knees

Beans (Em) had knee surgery this past Friday, poor thing. Bad knees run in our family, and this was her fourth surgery. I just thought I would share something cute:

According to the surgeon, Em's final words before succumbing to anesthesia were "I am the queen of the universe..."

After she woke up she texted me:

Em: I'm out of surgery.
Me: You're the queen of the universe!
Em: Damn straight.

And then, the other day:

Me: Scott bought me Dexter for Christmas!
Em: THE MAN, RIGHT?
Me: I wish.

And, now since I've now posted three things within like half an hour, I'll leave you all alone and get some beauty sleep.

Reverb 10: Writing

December 2 Writing

What do you do each day that doesn't contribute to your writing - and can you eliminate it?

Well. I don't consider myself a serious writer. I mean, it would be wicked awesome to write a book someday or something...actually, it's something I've always wanted to do. But this blog? It's not supposed to  be professional. It's not even an obligation. So even if something weren't contributing to my writing, I wouldn't be concerned about it.

That being said, I must answer the prompt! So I suppose I have this habit of watching the same TV series over and over again...I suppose that could be stifling creativity as a result of inspiration from new material. In my own defense, however, I am knitting or crocheting while I watch the shows, so it's nicer for me to watch a show I've seen before so I can follow the story without looking at the screen as much. It turns out, I have to look while I crochet. I know there are people that can do it without looking, but I lack that particular skill.

I suppose I could try to work more time into my day to work on writing, but as I said, I'm not really serious about it. Don't get me wrong, I love blogging, but writing more just isn't on my list of goals.

There Are NO SEAMS, People!

Once upon a time we started remodeling our kitchen. In January. I think. Early this year, at any rate. Months and months later, I have an actual kitchen. Like, a real one, with working appliances and real countertops instead of plywood and everything except a floor...we'll get there.

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the (almost) final kitchen pictures:

First up, we have a detail that we didn't pressure ourselves to finish until we'd had a good, long rest. It turns out, putting in a whole kitchen worth of cabinets wears you out and then you want to spend the next few weekends vegging on the couch, crocheting a blanket while you watch BSG, even though your wonderful husband did most of the work. SO, we left the crown moulding until later, but it looks awesome and gorgeous, and calculating the correct angles at which to cut the pieces was a...well it sucked. There were expletives. But it looks awesome:

Next up is a picture of the right side of my new kitchen, with the countertops installed and things placed strategically around the kitchen (microwave, blender, etc.):

And the left side:

Brand new kitchen and I've already got a mess going on the counter. Fabulous.

One of the best parts of getting acrylic countertops is the fully integrated sink, a.k.a. NO SEAMS FOR GUNK TO BUILD UP IN. That means less cleaning, and we all know I'm not really into cleaning.

Another view of the left side, right after the countertops were installed, before the mess began:

And, one of my very favorite details:

Shiny new stainless steel faucet. It will eventually match our appliances.

They will all be stainless steel, and all the handles will match all the handles on the cabinets. This is very important. Because I'm nuts.

But first we need a floor.

All in good time.

So SAD, But My Cabinets Are Gorgeous

There are just a few completely unrelated things bouncing around in my head today that I'd like to share.

Let me tell you something about me: daylight savings time totally effs me up. As soon as we made the time change and it was suddenly dark outside at freaking SIX...my body went OH NO NO SUNLIGHT LET'S CRY FOREVER. Seriously. I've got a few personal things on my mind that are just weighing on me terribly, and when I went to the gym and instead of feeling skinny and empowered and beautiful like I usually do, I went home and when I took my clothes off to take a shower and I saw myself in the mirror and I just...lost it.

I feel like I've been busting my ass trying to lose weight and it just doesn't happen. I know I could definitely do better. I could go to the gym more often (although I've been doing three times a week or more consistently) (because I'm a total ROCK STAR). And I know I could be eating better. Confession: I've been eating french fries lately. I don't think this is a problem in and of itself, because I'm not eating them often at all. But, all things considered, I could be doing better to eat healthier. So even though I'm a lot better off that I was a few years ago, I still feel like a total failure. After doing the hCG diet and losing so much weight so quickly, it is KILLING me to lose one pound a week (or some weeks not lose any) (ok, most weeks not lose any). I want a quick fix. I want to wake up one day and just magically be a size 8. Or a 10. Whatever. I just want to feel better about myself than I do now, and I feel like that's always going to be connected to the number on the scale. I'm just...stuck.

I'm sure I'll feel better later, but for now that's what's going on in my nutty head.

So anyway, back to yesterday after my shower. I got dressed and called Mim with only the intent of complaining about the size of my derriere, but what really happened was everything that I had been putting to the back of my mind for the last few weeks just came flooding out and before I knew it I was bawling and just freaking out about everything at once and my poor mother, who is a saint, talked me down. We talked about some really important stuff and I just have to say that she's the best friend a girl could ever have. She lets me say whatever I need to and she never gets offended or judgemental or anything like that, just like I can talk to Kwiddens and have her be totally awesome. I have some really awesome people in my life, I really do.

So, here's the plan:
Keep exercising.
Keep taking happy pills.
Bust out my SAD light. It's this amazing nifty light that mimics sunlight, and you shine it on yourself in the morning for a little while every day and it helps with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) (it's awesome that it's called that, because oh look, it makes you sad).

Blargh. I hate being crazy. Moving on.

Scott has been working very very hard, coding like no nerd has coded before, for a few months, building a new system at work. He recently finished it, and everyone in the entire company, and all the customers, and all the members of the board have had nothing but praise for the system, and I am SO proud of him. He works so hard, and I'm so glad he's getting some recognition for that. He's smart AND handy! Also, he gets more PTO than I do and he has to use it up by the end of the year, so he has every Friday for the rest of the year off, plus extra days around Christmas and Thanksgiving. Jerk (he totally deserves it though).

Last weekend we installed our new cabinets, and they look AMAZING! Amazing as in, I walk up the stairs and go WHOA IS THAT REALLY MY KITCHEN?? I've been intending to post about it, on here and on Facebook, but the SAD has got me feeling unmotivated to do ANYTHING except work on Mim's blanket. And watch Battlestar Galactica. Again. Really, the idea of sitting down and blogging has seemed totally boring to me (yet, here I am...blogging). So I will post about it, I promise, I just don't know when.

The countertop dude is coming over tomorrow while Scott is at home (not at work...jerk) to take measurements, and then the following Friday we'll have countertops installed and we will have a FULLY FUNCTIONAL KITCHEN. Like, appliances plugged in and water turned on and everything. You have no idea how excited I am about this.

I think once the countertops are in I'm going to go through all my dishes and such and decide what to keep and what to donate and organize everything exactly where I want it, and put the silverware in the SILVERWARE DRAWER...I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but we didn't have a freaking silverware drawer before but now we do and it's the most awesomely epic thing EVER.

Then I plan on busting out the crock pot and learning to cook a bit. I'll actually have space to do it!

Now look. It's 7:30 and I'm so sleepy...stupid Daylight Savings Time. I wonder how long it's going to take me to adjust this time...and then I'll get to do it again in the spring. Oh, joy.

Potions Class Would ROCK

So, it's no secret that I'm not much of a cook. I can make basic things, like pasta and sandwiches and almost anything pre-packaged that you just have to microwave, or throw in the oven, or throw in a skillet and simmer over medium-high heat for 7-9 minutes, or until cooked thoroughly (I make Bird's Eye Garlic Chicken enough to have it memorized, oh yes). I have, however, messed up these sorts of things. And I can't for the life of me boil a freaking egg.

You'd think that because cooking is following recipes and chemistry is following recipes (sometimes) that I would be totally awesomely awesome at cooking, but for whatever reason, I'm not (although I'm convinced that in Harry Potter's world, I would be AMAZING with Potions).

So here, I give you some of the reasons I don't cook.

Enjoy.

1. I don't enjoy doing dishes. Something about food residue sitting on dishes, getting gummy in the soapy water...blergh. It gets slimy on my fingers. Shoot me now.

2. The logical thing to do would be to use the dishwasher, right? Well, Utah has hard water. The hardest water I've ever encountered. And the dishwasher is really really good at coating all of our dishes with a crust of minerals. Yum. I mean, they're still clean. We eat off of them. It's just...well, we don't need to take extra mineral supplements is all I'm saying. After the kitchen cabinets and countertops are done, we're going to invest in a water softener. Expect a post about how happy that makes me.

3. I have plenty of time. I go to work for 8 hours, the gym for an hour, add in an hour for travel time and showering and such, and 8-9 hours for sleep, and VOILA! I have 5-6 hours each weekday for NOTHING. And even more on weekends! However, I just can't see spending much time making food in the crappy half-kitchen while there's so much YARN to be dealt with (and my new complete BSG series to watch...). So spending ten minutes making sandwiches? Absolutely.

4. Half-kitchen. HALF-KITCHEN. There's almost no counter space. All of our dishes are crammed in and stacked as tight as they will go into our little baby cabinets (they're going to be gone soon, WOO). All it takes is like one dirty bowl and spoon and then I'm out of counter space and there's nowhere to work any more and it's really frustrating, even when I'm just making sandwiches! Our new kitchen layout adds like eight more feet of countertops! Joy!

5. Since there are only two of us (well, three for now, if you count Jon), we don't need to make such large portions as recipes call for. If I did cook, there would always be tons of leftovers. WAIT. Then I might not have to cook the next day. Ok, maybe this isn't such a bad thing... But when I bake things, the baked things get eaten. Quickly. And in large quantities. And then my hips get bigger. I don't need that.

6. Lastly, my Scott is happy to cook, so why should I bother? Ha, just kidding Scottie!

Vacationy Things

So these past few weeks have been quite busy! On Wednesday the 8th I picked Li up at the airport. I left for work the next morning and didn't see her before I left. She and Scott hung out all day on Thursday (Scott was able to get more days off than I did) and when I got home we talked and made dinner and watched videos on YouTube. It was just really relaxing and fun. Friday she was picked up by a friend, and she spent the next several days with friends in Provo, and then with her sister in Plymouth.

The following Friday, the 17th, I had taken the day off work so I got up in the morning, went to the gym (and got a great workout in!) and then went to pick Li up in Plymouth. Scott suggested we go to Maddox for lunch, so he came along with me. Lunch was SO TASTY. We almost never go there, since it's such a long drive, but it was on the way home from Li's sister's house. I had forgotten how good their rolls were! I ate WAY too much, but we only go there every couple of years so it's totally ok, right?

When we all got home from that Li and I hunkered down on the couch with munchies and watched movies for the rest of the night. Saturday morning I brought Li along with me to the gym, then we showered and headed down to Salt Lake for the State Fair. We went first thing in the morning, so there weren't too many people, and we didn't have to wait in line for anything until we were about to leave. It was pretty hot, but there were shady spots where we could sit down so it wasn't too bad. We had put on sunscreen, but both of us forgot our chests, so now I have this weird sunburn with my purse strap across it.

I was really excited about fair food. A fair is like the one chance I get all year to eat cotton candy and funnel cake (although we didn't end up getting either of those; we settled on fresh mini-donuts with sugar, a slushie, gyros (the best I've ever had, I think), and fudge). We rode rides, too, which was very fun! I forgot how much fun it is to act like a kid. I also forgot how nauseating some of those rides were...my stomach could handle more than Li's, though, so when Li wanted a rest I would go ride one she didn't want to ride (she doesn't like up and down ones where she feels like she's falling). After we had been there about four hours I was definitely done. I was tired, hot, sick, and thirsty. We headed on home and got frozen custard from Nielsen's on the way, and when we got home it was JAMMIE TIME! and we sacked out on the couch for the rest of the night, watching more movies and some Bones.

Sunday morning Li wanted to go to church, and I didn't want her to have to go alone, so I went along. We went to the building that's only a few blocks from us. Since I'm a heathen, I had no idea what time church was supposed to start, but everywhere I've lived there has been a meeting at 9:00, so I figured that was a safe assumption. Well, there was a meeting at 9:00, but it was a Tongan ward...oops. We figured we were already there, so we stayed. The service was half in English, half in Tongan, which, it turns out, is a very pretty, melodic sort of language. There was a translator, so we weren't totally in the dark, but it felt a little awkward all the same.

We came home, changed back into pajamas, and set up a LAN. For the rest of the day the three of us played Warcraft 3 (nerdy!), since it's sort of a tradition that we play every time Li visits.

Monday we slept in, then watched more Bones while we waited for it to be time for our SPA APPOINTMENTS, OH YES. We went to a spa I had never been to before, but will definitely visit again, because for only $65 we got our hands, feet, backs, arms, and faces massaged and exfoliated and steamed...we were soft like buttah. We smelled good, too! After that we went to Zupas for lunch, where we had the most awesome salads and sandwiches, and we even split a brownie, but it wasn't as tasty as it looked. When we got home we decided that we should watch Pride And Prejudice (the BBC version), so we started that, and we were only half watching it while we talked about boys and such. Around 7:00 the three of us decided we were hungry, so we went to Olive Garden for dinner, and then when we got home we finished our movie and then went to bed.

Tuesday morning I drove Li to the airport, after which I went to Nyah's three-month doctor appointment with Kwiddens and Isaac. Poor Nyah had to get shots, and she was NOT happy about it. We all went to lunch, and then at that point I was really starting to feel sick, so I headed home and napped.

So that was my mini-vacation with Li. It was really fun, and so nice to see her, and now the next time I see her will probably be next summer, when I'll fly out to Boston for a change.

Other, semi-related or un-related things:

Taking three days off work is apparently a really really bad idea, since I came back to utter chaos and a giant pile of samples. I'm not even close to caught up. It doesn't help that we had people cleaning in the lab today, so we didn't have use of the hood until around noon (usually I start working in there around 9:00...so you can see how far behind I was). I'm sure I'll get a lot more done tomorrow, and I'll probably be completely caught up.

I've been slowly getting sick over the past week or so. Whatever it was, it hit Scott and Jon much harder than it hit me, thank goodness. I think it's just a mild flu, but I really lucked out, since all I have is a very sore throat, a stuffy/runny nose, and body aches. I can deal with that and still go to work.

Buster desperately needs a bath, but I'm too lazy, so I'm thinking about just spending the $35 to have it professionally done.

I found a really good deal on a heart rate monitor watch. It has a calorie counter thing in it, too. I'm really excited to try it out, but I'm going to have to wait until I don't feel like I got hit by a bus to go back to the gym.

I finally got a new purse last week while Li and I were shopping. It's from New York and Company, and it was on clearance for only $10. I win. It looks like a slightly more fashionable Indiana Jones bag. It smells lovely. I love the smell of new leather.

I think now is a good time to go collapse into a hot bath, then drag myself to bed early. I hope I can beat this bug, and soon. I want my voice back.

Just Some Thoughts On A Friday

I got a haircut the other day, and the stylist gave me the longest, most relaxing scalp massage ever. I double tipped her.

I hate nearly all reality TV. But I LOVE Pawn Stars. Chumlee's freaking hilarious.

My neck has been all weird for the last few days. I think I slept on it wrong and now it hurts to move around. Then, my lower back started hurting. I think my nerves are pinched. It's getting better though.

I read Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh. Oh wait, I didn't read it, I devoured it in two days. It made me want to be a mathematician.

We have all these yellow patches on our lawn. We've watered it enough, as there are lush green patches as well. So we had the lawn guys come over and they took a look, and we have grubs. $40 got us some insecticide, and now we're supposed to water lots and lots until the lawn grows back. I hope it works. We usually have the best-kept lawn on our street.

I had my company's summer party today. Scott met me there after we were both done with work early for the day. There was tasty food, and we got to just sit and relax and get paid for it. It did get boring after a while, though. I don't actually know and talk to very many people in my company at all: the lab people I see every day, and the couple people I bring paperwork to in the mornings, and that's it. So I sat by the people I know and we were getting bored...and then they started drawing for prizes! And guess who won a home theater system? Yes, that's right. Surround sound speakers and a new DVD player. I win. We have them hooked up now and we're watching Aliens. Subwoofer. Oh yes. Buster's not sure what to make of it, though.

Scott turned 26 this past Tuesday. Em's birthday was the same day, so last weekend we all met up for dinner. It's so rare that Kwiddens, Isaac, Nyah, Em, Jorg, Mim, Scott and I ALL get together. We're all so busy and we have schedules that don't mesh very well, plus we all live at least an hour away from each other. Then, yesterday, Kwiddens and Isaac had some things to take care of at Hill AFB, so she stopped by and I got to hold the baby. I can't believe how big she's getting. She can almost hold herself up!

I want...ice cream.

And that's about it.

Nothing Special Today

1. Today is a Diet Mountain Dew sort of day. So was yesterday. I had to fight to convince myself that I didn't need to call in so I could sleep all day.

2. I've been exercising every day. It's infinitely easier when the basement is clean (Thank you, Scott) and I have Gilmore Girls playing on the TV in front of me. I won't say anything else or I might jinx it.

3. I'm almost done with Mim's blanket. It's just a small blanket, like a throw, and I want to keep making more of it so I gave the pattern to Mim so she could expand it for me. Appparently there are mathematical patterns in it, and those sorts of things make her very happy.

4. Remember a while ago when I snapped at my boss? I think he's still acting a little cold towards me. I might be imagining it, though.

5. I bought bananas, intending to eat one every day, but I didn't, so they're getting quite squishy, so I see some banana bread in the future.

6. I've been doing very well with my food goals. I did have my first french fry craving in like six months the other day, and it was weird, and it went away quickly so I'm not concerned.

7. Kwiddens's due date was yesterday and she still hasn't popped. She doesn't want this pregnancy to go any longer. Neither do I!

8. When someone hurts someone in my family I get all protective and it takes every ounce of restraint I have not to call whoever hurt my family and tell them exactly what I think of them. Even if it's another member of my family.

9. After I exercised this afternoon I got in the shower, and when I was getting out I slipped, broke the towel rack, got rug burn on my chin and bent my neck at a horrible angle. My head and neck and chin still hurt and I feel a little dizzy...but that might be because I didn't eat for several hours.

10. I've been very busy this week at work and I LOVE it!

Ten Things

So I just have a few things to post today, with no apparent theme.

Scott is almost finished sanding, bondo-ing, and priming the 'Stang so soon he will be able to paint it. He doesn't think it's going fast enough, but I think we should take our time and get it done very well the first time. We're looking to sell this thing for quite a chunk of cash, so it needs to be as authentic and carefully done as possible.

I hate tailgaters. When someone is that close behind me, the evil part of me wants to just SLAM on my brakes and pretend there was a deer in the road or something, because more often than not the car behind me is much MUCH more expensive than mine. Ha. But then there's that whole whiplash thing...

Diet Mountain Dew isn't very good when it's flat and warm.

I really really want to know who the final Cylon is, but I promised Scott I wouldn't go online to find out before we finish watching the series. It's just about killing me.

One of my friends' husband is a structural engineer and was kind enough to come over the day before yesterday and take a look at our sub floor and support beams in the basement. It turns out that if we replace one beam with steel and add one more on the longer side of the basement, we might not have to replace the entire sub floor before we can put the wood down.

Mim called me yesterday and asked me a chemistry question (I love when she does that!). Someone had told her that aspartame decomposes to make formaldehyde in your stomach and poisons you so you shouldn't drink diet soda with aspartame in it. Number one, there is no known one step acid to aldehyde reduction. Number two, if you did want to make it into an aldehyde, you would have to eat some lithium aluminum hydride tetrabutyl oxide or else some palladium and quinoline, and if you had eaten these formaldehyde in your stomach would be the LAST thing you should worry about. So there's your chemistry lesson for today: aspartame will not turn into formaldehyde in your stomach. The end.

I have been walking on the treadmill on my lunch breaks at work and sometimes again when I get home. I just pop in some Scrubs or Stargate or Gilmore Girls or whatever and walk while I watch and it makes it go so much faster. I feel like I have more energy and I don't feel so bad about having a cookie for lunch yesterday.

I wish I were a size 8. Or a 6. Whatever.

Kwiddens asked me to knit her special socks to wear to the hospital when she goes into labor. They will be purple. Also, I am stalling weaving the ends into her baby's blanket by starting a new lace scarf.

I'm in love with my new phone, but I miss waking up to Hedwig's Theme as my alarm. I will have to download a new tone.

The Whole Family

So this weekend I went down to Mim's house to hang, and Kwiddens drove down there as well. I had a lot of fun, since it's been a while since I've been with the whole family.

Friday I got off work at 1:00, which was further proof that I'm INVINCIBLE SUPERCHEMIST because I completed my work and a large chunk of my coworker's (he had the day off to hang with his family). I went to the mall and bought my new phone (Samsung Rogue, LOVE IT) and get its screen in protective film. This took a long time for whatever reason, and by 4:30 I was on the road. I got into Orem at about 6:00 and got a table for Mim and myself, and Mim got there and we ate tasty food and talked about lots and lots of things, which we haven't been able to do in a while, so it was really awesome. Right after we paid, Kwiddens called and said she had made it into town, so we all went to Cold Stone and got ice cream, and Mim thought it was gross. Because she's crazy. I have to admit, though, that the ice cream there has a different texture, and that was what she didn't like about it. Oh well. So I headed down to the house, and they had some errands to run, and came later, and we stayed up late talking and joking and just having fun.


Saturday I woke up and took a long relaxing shower and then Mim and I went to the Math Lab at UVU to tutor some of her students and she let me write the test for one of her classes. Once I finished, she looked it over and as she was reading it she got this evil grin on her face...yes, I made it tricksy. Kwiddens was supposed to meet with us, but she got stuck in traffic for like two hours because of traffic for the Festival of Colors at the Hari Krishna temple near Spanish Fork. So eventually she got through it and we met in Provo and ate at Los Hermanos, which was a little disappointing and the service was SO SLOW, but they had absolutely amazing strawberry lemonade so it was ok. This past week I've been feeling sick every time I eat, so I just went back to Mim's while they went to the mall. Once we were all home we all went and hung out in Mim's bathroom while we did each other's hair (her bathroom is huge so it's super awesome).


So my panels that were bright red last time had faded so they're fuchsia now.
Ignore the messy hair, I had just washed it and you know I can't be bothered to dry it.


Anyway, so after that it was pretty late and I drove home and went to sleep.


Today I pretty much slept all day...I felt like I had been drugged I was so tired. Anyway, now I'm watching Stargate and trying to decide whether I should work on Kwiddens's baby blanket. I'm feeling particularly lazy today (as demonstrated by sleeping all day).

Thanks A Million

I am thankful for:

• Diet Mountain Dew
• Cinnamon bears
• New equipment at work
• An awesome husband
• A great job
• Del Taco
• Not having french fry cravings (but the taco cravings are still quite intense)
• Buster
• My mattress heater
• Tax returns (even though the date we're supposed to get ours keeps getting pushed back...)
• Hand sanitizer
• Kleenex
• Yarn
• The internet and e-mail
• Good books
• Music
• Battlestar Galactica
• Being able to get done at work in six hours since it took me SO LONG to drive to work today (a 3000 gallon diesel tanker got smashed up on I-15 this morning and it took them ALL DAY to clean it up!)

Shrimpies Are Tasty

So tonight we went for dinner at Red Lobster. This is one of a series of birthday dinners with various members of my family (after birthday week is over I will tell everything I got and ate, etc.).

We walked in and sat down for a few minutes while they got us a table. While we were sitting there, another man across from us PUT HIS FEET ON THE TABLE. IN A RESTAURANT. Ugh.

Then, we were seated in one of those little alcoves that are really echoey. We were also seated to two different tables with SCREAMING BABIES.

Pet peeve: If your child is too young to behave and be quiet at a nice restaurant, LEAVE THE LITTLE BUGGER HOME WITH A FREAKING BABYSITTER.

So I asked to be moved (I actually can't believe I had the guts to do that!). Apparently if you ask for something early on the manager will make sure to come take special care of you and make sure you get everything you want. Awesome.

So once we were seated in a quieter place and got our food it was wonderful and relaxing and I had three kinds of shrimp.

I had been having a really bad day because I missed some meds TWICE last week and my body is still trying to balance itself again, so even though everything at work went perfectly smoothly and I had a great day, I just got home after work and felt...well, I couldn't really figure out how I felt. I felt sad, but content, but tired, but restless. I felt like I was craving something, but it wasn't food or sleep or something to do...I wanted to get out of the house and do something but at the same time I just wanted to veg in front of the TV (I'm loving Stargate all over again). I hate when I feel like this because I feel like no matter what I do I will still feel unsettled.

So, when Scott got home we decided to go out and run a bunch of errands before getting dinner and once we were out and about and getting things done I felt a bit better, and at dinner I had a daquiri so I felt a little more relaxed and hopefully tonight I will sleep better and tomorrow maybe my brain chemicals will decide to behave. Maybe.

Either way, WHO PUTS THEIR FEET ON THE TABLE AT A RESTAURANT?

It was a grown man, for crying out loud.

Gross.

The Man They Call Jayne!

Have you seen the series Firefly?


If not, you're missing out.


Either way, in the series, one of the characters, Jayne Cobb, gets a package from his mother with a hideous hat in it. But, it's from Mom, so he wears it anyway. And he looks like an idiot.


Well, this hat struck a chord with legions of science fiction fans, and a lot of those fans are knitters, and so a pattern was born.


Enter: The Jayne Hat


I love my Scott SO MUCH that I spent TWO HOURS learning how to make a pom pom.

And I've never knitted a hat before, and it actually LOOKS LIKE A HAT.


I call this one a win.

Did and Will Do?

Ok, so everyone and their mom is doing a New Year's post, so I might as well jump on in. Four days late. Oops.

So, here are some highlights of this past year:

1 Year at my job

Bought a 1968 Mustang

Had carpal tunnel surgery

Bought A HOUSE

Got 2 new instruments at work

Read all the Harry Potters (again)

Knitted my first sweater

Kwiddens got married

Had to go to court

Drank WAY too much egg nog

Learned to knit socks

Learned to knit mittens

Had our first yard sale

Pierced my ear

Vacationed in Vegas

Got a new baby pink laptop

Got a concealed carry permit and bought a gun of my very own

Buster got a tragic haircut

Had Li over for a week

And here are some things I hope to accomplish or experience this coming year (these are not resolutions, mind you, just some ideas):

Get the rest of the way down to my ideal weight

Wear makeup to work more often (try to look like a girl for once)

Renovate the kitchen

Continue to build my movie/music/TV show collection (I'm thinking about buying Dexter...)

Put more money in savings

Pay off our car

Get a new cell phone

Spoil my new little (NIECE OR NEPHEW) that's coming out of Kwiddens in June (I know the sex but it's a secret for now) (I already started the baby blanket and it is going to be GORGEOUS and expensive...silk bamboo fiber, oh yes)

Keep knitting and crocheting and everything else I love to do

Build up my hand-knit sock arsenal

Get more sun

Work more on the Mustang (although Scott will be doing this more than I will)

There's more, I'm sure, I'm just having a little brain freeze and can't think of any more.

So Happy New Year to everyone. Hope this one's better than the last!

P.S. I wrote 2009 like ten times today in my lab book and kept having to correct it. Oops.

Shower and Socks!

So we are so close to closing on the house! I'm really excited, and also very sad that I will see our bank account a LOT smaller than it is right now.

Oh well.

For my first act as homeowner, I decided to take out that stupid, ugly shower door and put in a rod instead. I hate the thing. It has so many crevices that it takes way longer to clean it, and stuff gets stuck in the cracks and you have to use a toothbrush to get it all the way clean, and I am WAY too lazy for that, so it HAD to go.

Now, technically we don't own the home for another week or two, but I couldn't wait and the house is as good as ours so Friday we decided to get it done. Here it is before:

Stupid ugly thing.

So Scott is amazing and super handy, so he did most of the work. Here he is unscrewing the frame:
It only took about an hour and a half, and when everything else was done he let me put caulk in the holes so I can honestly say I helped (a little).

After:
It makes the bathroom look so much bigger! And cleaner!

And here is the shower curtain, rod, and hangers we found:
They match the brown color on the walls very nicely. The only downside is that bathing Buster is much harder now because before the doors kept him from jumping out. Scott and I had to make it a joint effort, with one of us holding him in while the other scrubbed.

I have been on a roll finishing projects that I have been working on. I finished Em's arm warmers, then I started to finish Allene's pink socks, and I finished those yesterday morning. I washed them and then let them dry/block, which took FOREVER because the air here got cold and wet suddenly so they were finally dry this morning. Here they are on my feet:

They are just a tiny bit too small for me, which means they fit Allene perfectly since her feet are about a size smaller than mine. But they turned out soft and pink and cute and very comfortable so I call this a win.

Now I am back to working on my blue sweater. It's slow going, but I'm having a blast working on it. It's going to be so beautiful!

Last week Kwiddens and I decided that we were going to hang out on Saturday night and watch Zombie movies, but there was a little issue with my driver license and I can't drive until I get that straightened out (more on this another day) so she came up here instead and stayed the night. We watched Firefly and ate snacks and had a lot of fun talking and goofing off and I am so glad we are friends again. Breaking up with your family sucks. For a while there I thought we would never be able to move on and talk to each other again but I guess time plays a big role in healing.

Life is awesome like that.

I'm off to knit more!

Something Amusing and a Sock

Something Amusing:

So take a look at this picture:Apparently, if you are a man, you see PUPPY PAWS! If you're a woman, you say, "Scott, what did you do to make her so mad?"

You see, I look mad when I'm concentrating. So pretty much all the time that I'm yarning.

Scott tested this out at work and it's very amusing.

Anyway.

Something cute:
He puts his face on my toes whenever he wants attention. It's cute.

A sock:

I cast on a pair of socks for Allene yesterday. I got this far:

And then I realized I needed more stitches because they were going to be too small. I have this problem constantly, you'd think I would learn to make a swatch...oh well.

So last night I had gotten this far before I was tired and my hands started to hurt:
So I went to bed and after we did a garage sale for a million hours in zillion degree heat with gazillion babies touching our stuff (will post about this later) I had to chill out inside the house and so I worked more and got this much done:
I was SO proud of myself because this is really fast for me, guys. I am a SLOW sock knitter. I think the tiny needles hurt my hands more so I slow down.

But, I got a second wind because there was a Dirty Jobs marathon on and we LOVE that show (Mike Rowe is a total hottie. Even though he's older than my parents. But so is Shawn Connery, so who cares, right??) and so I worked while I watched and got the heel flap all the way done:
So tomorrow I will turn the heel and see how much of the foot I can get done. This will be FAST pair of socks. You can't see the color very well here because this was taken late at night in our poorly lit house with my sad little camera phone but when they're done I will take a picture with the REAL camera so you can see the REAL colors. They're much prettier.

And then I think I have enough of these colors to make myself a pair too because they're just so freaking cute. CUTE!

And Again...

The Andersen PierceFest of '09 continues.

Kwiddens got a Monroe done tonight.

The day was chronicled as follows:

On the way to our house her BF's XTerra got a flat tire. Sad day:

Then, Kwiddens was sad and mad:
Here she is, supremely mad at the tire:
The poor tire:
So sad.

Scott then got the spare tire out and replaced it for her:
I would have done it, since I know how to change a spare, but HOLY COW that tire is so huge in comparison to the ones on the Focus...yeah.

Watching on the DVD player in the car on the way to dinner:
We ate dinner before going to the shop because we had a moment of brilliance and realized eating might not be pleasant after the piercing was done.

At the shop (Lucky Bamboo in Layton, definitely recommend this place), filling out the paperwork:
In the chair, ready to go:
You can't see him, but the guy who pierced her, Brian, was a total hottie. There were some pictures in between of the actual piercing, but they are either gross or unflattering or both, so they aren't on here!

The finished product:
Notice the HOLY CRAP THIS HURTS look on her face and the paleness...the blood totally drained from her face and she looked sick for a minute, it was kinda sad. I think I might have passed out, but that's because I'm a pansy.

Then we went to the store and got solution to clean it with and some other stuff we needed.

This was Kwiddens's combined birthday and Christmas present. And it was fun.

Everything at work went OK until I tried to run cadmium. I HATE the piece of crap graphite furnace, I want to "accidentally" push it off the lab bench. They're trying to find an ICP-MS. They had found one for sale and were about to write out a check when they went and sold it out from under us to some Japanese dudes. Jerks. So now we're looking again.

In the meantime, I can run Cd on our other ICP. It's just annoying.

We have a company summer barbecue tomorrow afternoon, so we only have to work a half day. Awesome! Scott is coming so everyone will get to meet him.

What Is It About Our House?

So today the FTIR guy came. The REAL one. From Perkin-Elmer. Dude worked on the instrument for three solid hours and came up empty-handed. This whole thing is way past annoying now. Of course the service technicians always come when it is most INconvenient. We had 20 samples today plus I had outside testing and monthly water testing, and I had to retest ALL of the mercury samples, so I was pretty busy, and I have such a small instrument room that I had to dance around FTIR Dude to get my work done. Annoying.

Moving on.

I exercised today! I am so incredibly out of shape. This is pathetic, but my goal was to do just 20 minutes on the treadmill. BUT, I didn't feel like dying so I went 35 MINUTES WOW. And I pushed myself too. Now, I just need to do this every day and get into shape really fast so I look awesome in my bikini when we go to Vegas next month.

Yes, Vegas. We're planning to go Pioneer Day weekend. Mim and Scott and I will drive down Thursday after work and stay until Sunday morning. We're going to hit up all the free stuff (there's actually quite a lot to do if you're cheap) and soak up the sun. I'm really excited. I've been on road trips before, but I've never actually planned a vacation and gone on it. We didn't even really go on a honeymoon (I think what we did was better: spend a whole week shopping and eating out and seeing movies and doing fun stuff while we got our house organized. No planning involved! And no money spent! Except on the vacuum cleaner. Definitely spent $500.00 on that one) so this will be really cool for me. I don't really like being away from home, where everything is familiar and I have all my stuff around me, but I think I can deal for a few days. Our friend is going to house-sit (and puppy-sit) and Mim is going to board Gir and have someone check in on the bunnies and snakes, and then we're not going to worry about anything or anyone else for THREE WHOLE DAYS!

Em and Jorg will be going to Cedar Point (somewhere in Ohio?) to ride roller coasters with Dad so Mim would be all alone and bored if we didn't do something together. How sad would that be?

So. Our house.

This is the second time someone has tried to break into our house. Seriously, what's the deal?!

Now, don't get me wrong, we have a lot of valuables, but I'm sure all the other houses do too...and it's been ours twice.

I got home and let Buster outside, but I didn't go out myself. I exercised, showered, and wound a ball of yarn before Scott got home. When he got home, he let Buster out again and went with him to play. Now, yesterday he had gone around and put screens back on windows. But today when he went into the backyard one of the screens had been pulled off and another was almost off. It couldn't have been wind or anything because they are designed to be hard to pull off. Now luckily we lock all our windows and Buster was probably barking like crazy (we don't know, it happened while we were at work). There were perfect fingerprints, but the policeman who came thought it was most likely stupid kids getting into mischief. He was a really nice guy. We talked about the neighborhood and he had some really good suggestions aboout home security so over the next few days we will be looking into buying a gun safe and making a security system (seriously, Scott can make anything with electronics. Genius.) that we can monitor from our computer and program to send us a text message if the alarm is triggered. COOL.

We also decided to do an entire home inventory, with the make, model, and serial numbers of all our electronics and guns, plus lists of all the furniture and how much it's worth, a list of all our movies and CDs, etc. Then we will store the list not only on our computers but on our online server and we will have that in case things are stolen or the house burns down or something and we need to make a police report or insurance claim.

We're grownups!

I finished the second season of Bones that Scott got me. I love the TV on DVD idea. Genius. Of course that means I have seen every episode of Stargate EVER like, five times. I'm not nerdy or anything. Nope, not me.

OH YEAH I ALMOST FORGOT. I freaking finished the socks! It only took me months...there were just so many stitches, and they were so tiny, and it got boring in the middle just going around and around and around...yeah. But they're done. And Mim is getting them this weekend at her birthday celebration. Here they are on my feet:They are still a little stiff because I haven't washed them yet, but they feel like a hug, but for your feet. Seriously, if you have never worn hand-knit socks you are missing out.

Scott has been building a remote-control lawn mower (coolest project ever, there will definitely be a post about it when it's done) and so he has been practicing welding. He welded me this message:I am so loved.

Now here's what Scott does at work: OctoStacker.
My husband is so sexy.

Booooooooooones

I am addicted to Bones. I like crime investigation shows to begin with, but add in a quirky group of forensic scientists and I'm there. So HAPPY ME Scott bought me the first season. It hasn't come in the mail yet, but soon I will spend days in front of the TV indulging myself. Saturday there was a House marathon on, and I watched almost that entire thing too.

I had pasta yesterday. It was heaven. Then I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich today. Heaven again. I like normal food. Woo hoo!

Our swamp cooler broke this weekend. It made a burning smell. We didn't know what was making the burning smell though so we spent like half an hour going around the house sniffing all the electronics to try to figure out what it was. Anyway, we figured out it was the swamp cooler. Our landlord wanted us to use a specific company to fix it, but they couldn't come out until today so the whole weekend we were sticky and hot. BOO. But it's fixed now and we didn't have to pay for it, so LIFE IS GOOD.

Today was definitely a Monday at work. Things weren't behaving. I am so tired of having broken instruments to work with. At least there were only 8 samples.