America Rocks My Socks

This year we decided to celebrate Independence Day at my house with a barbecue/movie night/fireworks display. $70 doesn't go very far when it's fireworks we're talking about:



But we ended up getting a few hours out of them all, even doing more than one at once.

Mim's bithday was on July 1, and we decided to add a little bit of birthday cheer to the festivities. I went to the store to get a cake, and they had some really cute ones, but they were all chocolate, and Mim doesn't eat chocolate, so we settled for a blank one and decorated it ourselves:

Obviously Mim did not turn 24, but we have this joke that we're twins separated by time (we're like the same person, I swear), so I'm 24, so she's 24. I think it was funny. Maybe you had to be there. Please note the frosting tower I made. It tasted excellent.

Here's a picture of all of us, sitting around with food and watching Ratatouille (LOVE that movie) and then Sahara. Also notice that Em's hair is very very blue and she has amazing shoes on.

Everyone got Nyah-holding time, including Jorg, who is NOT a baby person, so he felt really awkward holding her. But I did manage to get a picture of him holding her, and Scott holding Buster (he was not happy about this)( sometimes I wish he were a snuggly lap dog):

Anyway, after the movies Kwiddens and Isaac and Nyah had to go to Isaac's family's party, and at that point it was starting to get dark so we went outside and started the fireworking.

Jorg with a giant sparkler:

We found these really cool fireworks that you nail onto something and they spin around, so we nailed one to Scott's sawhorse (and totally burned it):

Em and Jorg lighting things on fire:

Anyway, we went until about 11:00 and then they all slept over because Mim wasn't feeling well and we didn't want her driving all the way back home.

Awesome party!

The Idiot Box

I have been feeling BLAH lately, so even though I have posting material (Buster pictures, Nyah pictures, and of course, July 4th stuff) I don't feel like it, so I will just show you something amusing.

This is the Idiot Box:

This box is on Mim's front porch. One day when they were coming home Em (I think) tripped over it and said "I hate that idiot box!" and forever after it was known as "The Idiot Box".

CORRECTION: Kwiddens has informed me that it was she who named it. Oops.

Ramble Ramble Ramble

Tuesday we came home and there were weird red spots on the carpet in the living room. It was pretty late so we didn't worry about it until the next day. It turns out, Buster threw up his (red) dog food all over, and then ate it, so all that was left were smelly red spots. Fabulous. So Wednesday Scott went and rented a RugDoctor, and we cleaned the spots the best we could, and even though it didn't get the stain out the nasty junk was out of the carpet so we were ok with it and we returned the cleaner and went to bed.

We got up in the morning and everything seemed fine, and we both headed off to work. When we got home and opened the door the stench was overwhelming...bleh. I think the RugDoctor just kinda spread around the nast instead of totally sucking it up, and to top it all off it didn't pull out enough of the water in the carpet, so it got mildewy and gross and smelly (so pleasant) while it was "drying"...so that was a complete waste of $30.

So today we called around and found a guy who could do the whole room and the stairs for $50, which is a pretty awesome deal, and he was able to come over an hour and a half after we called, which was also awesome. So, now our carpet is very very clean and smells NICE. He even got the traffic spots out.

Moral of the story?

RugDoctors suck. A lot. Don't bother.

Today I was reading some chemistry history (nerdy...) and I was talking to Scott about it and I was saying how if there's an afterlife with a heaven or maybe even a Chemist Heaven (and when I said that Scott about died from laughter...) the guys up there must be like, "I told you and you guys totally didn't believe me!" and they must feel so...vindicated. What a nice feeling. Good job, Avogadro.

I am getting better at playing Plants vs. Zombies. If you haven't played this game you MUST. It is SO MUCH FUN and SO CUTE and THE PLANTS HAVE FACES. I mean, come on. What other game lets you throw butter and popcorn kernels at a zombie to kill it?

Scott and I are now both on fatsecret.com. It's a daily food and exercise diary that keeps track of calories, portion sizes, and all the exercise you do. If you're dieting, it's definitely worth checking out. We're both in love with it. Scott's phone even has an app for it, so when he scans in a bar code on whatever food he's eating it automatically logs it in his food diary. Very cool.

Mim and I are going to go to a family reunion up in Sandpoint, ID later this month. We'll see how that turns out...either way we'll get a band saw out of the deal (more explanation later). The fam is also coming up to our house for July 4 for fooding, a movie, and fireworks (the little baby ones that are legal in this horrible state).

There were several other things I thought about today that I wanted to write about but I've completely forgotten them. I suppose that's what I get for not writing things down.

My Finger Hurts

So for the fourth we didn't do anything special. I was planning on going down to my Mim's house but she had to work almost nonstop the whole weekend so I would have been bored. So, I stayed home and was bored. Go figure.

We ventured out of the house to get snacks at the corner gas station and we decided to buy a few fireworks while we were at it. We shot them off just a little while ago at the end of our driveway. We had Buster tied up out front with us and he was really confused at all the fuss. I burned my finger. I'm such a sissy.

I finished half of Em's birthday present. I was trying to get more done but the hand cramps are getting worse, so I can only do a little at a time whithout excruciating pain and seizing up completely so I can't move my hand. I really need to go see a doc about it but I'm afraid that there will be surgeryness and I don't want to take the time off work. I'm not a workaholic or anything, but you know I don't like messing up my routine.

Scott got some mosquito bites tonight and they swelled up into GIANT bumps on his arms. I got off with no bites at all. I win.

Broken, Not Broken: Make Up Your Mind!

So our friend didn't end up moving in with us. I don't know how she's doing it! Breaking up with someone is hard enough, but when you continue to live with him while looking for a new place you are just nuts. But she seems to be holding up okay, at least for now. Hopefully she will find a place soon and she can have some closure and move on with her life.

This week was pretty easy. Everything worked pretty well (except FTIR , more on that in a second) until Thursday. The day I had off. OF COURSE. Because when I leave, things get a mind of their own. Arsenic wasn't working, and I talked my boss through everything I could think of over the phone, and it still wasn't working, so he gave up and left it for me to finish this morning. But when I got in this morning, and braced myself for a fight to the death, it just started up without any tweaking and cheerfully worked perfectly. HAUNTED. Drew (toothpastefordinner.com) summed it up perfectly:Anyway, the FTIR has been down for a week now. I don't use it every day, so it isn't as critical. The maintenance dude was supposed to come on Monday. So we waited...and waited...he didn't call or anything. Next day: We waited, and waited...Nope. Wednesday: "I'm definitely coming in today!" Not a chance. Thursday (while I'm not there): "Here I am!"

So he took a look at it and a fan had seized up completely, making everything overheat! No wonder it wasn't working. So he got the part today and came in to replace it. He took the whole thing apart and replaced the fan and it was a good thing he turned it on to make sure it was working because then something else was wrong! So I have about a zillion and a half people asking me every day, "When will my FTIR project get done??" And AGAIN I have to say "Sorry, I promise it is not my fault it is broken! Really, I swear!"

So there must be a virus. That only affects MY instruments, not anyone else's...yeah.

So Mim's birthday is July 1, so the weekend before that we are planning something awesome. But she reads this so I can't reveal details until after. But it will be way fun! Then, we always do the planning to celebrate the 4th of July. Last year we went camping, but little did we know that we were on private land, NOT public like we thought, and we all got in trouble and the dude almost called the cops and we were like OH NO WE ARE SO SORRY PLEASE NO COPS WE DIDN'T KNOW!

So, this year, we need to plan something else. We are thinking of just keeping it simple this year, just inviting everyone to our house. We will have a huge barbecue, and we will have movies and fireworks (the pitiful little ones that are legal in Utah, BOO), and if The Farm is open the guys will all go play paintball up there. But mostly it will just be hanging out and doing whatever we think will be fun. One thing we liked about doing camping is that we were right next to the perfect field for paintball, and had a perfect place to shoot. There will be no shooting at our house, because 1. THERE IS NO AMMO ANYWHERE and 2. I don't want to get arrested. Nope.

Panda Express has Asparagus Chicken now. SO TASTY.

Bones came in the mail finally, so yesterday while the dudes were working on our air conditioning, I watched Bones and I love that show.

Now, the reason people were working on our air conditioning is because we didn't have any. We just had a swamp cooler. Now, when we moved into this house, we signed a rent-to-own agreement, so part of our rent each month goes toward equity, and then in October, we get to take out a loan and fully purchase the house. We're making small improvements now, just little tiny things that make it nicer in here, but Scott negotiated with our landlord to split the cost of installing new AC. So, since Chet was paying half, we opted for the really nice AC and also replaced the old furnace with one of the new super-efficient ones, and it only cost us $2200.00. And that will raise the value of the house much more than that, so good investment! This owning a house thing is going to be fun. However, the idea of being in debt that far HURTS. I have been fortunate to always have enough work to cover my expenses so the most I was ever in debt was about $1500.00, until we bought our car, and since we paid mostly cash for it, we only had to take out a small loan to cover the rest so really we are barely in debt at all. So BIG debt...a little scary. I mean, it's like I'm an adult or something...