Saturday, June 21, 2008

my fridge contents

It got 3 out of 5 right.

What Your Fridge Says About You
You like to be surrounded by things you love. You aren't exactly greedy, but you can be materialistic at times.

You tend to be a fairly thrifty person. You splurge occasionally, but you're mostly a saver.

You are a very adventurous person. You love to try new things, and you get bored very easily.

You try to be responsible, but you don't always succeed. Your heart is in the right place though.

You are likely to be married - and very busy.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Rural living downer #1

Nobody delivers to here. Nobody has ever delivered to here and if they weren't delivering when gas was under $2 a gallon there is no way anyone is suddenly going to decide to deliver out here.

OK I take that back. The General Store did, briefly deliver out here & they did deliver everything in the store from pizza to milk to cat food to beer, but their mark up is outrageous and then they tack not only a $5 delivery fee but a mileage fee onto the order. We live 7.4 miles away, the deliver within 9 miles and charge by the mile.  Even Brad's truck gets better mileage than we would be paying the delivery guy. And the milk was $4.25 a gallon when it was $3.50 everywhere else.  A large pizza & a gallon of milk ended up costing almost $30, for which we could drive into town, get Papa John's to go and get milk from the Food Lion in the same plaza for less. Then they stopped doing it because of gas prices.

I'd like chinese food delivered, or pizza or subs or any damn thing really. I don't care that it won't be hot - nothing is ever hot when DH brings it home anyway. I just want to eat at a reasonable hour & if I could call someone they could have it here before DH gets home and we could eat before 6:45, which is the earliest he gets home if he has to stop & pick up food I've called in.

Mostly though I'd like groceries delivered. I find the whole idea of going online and ordering groceries & having them brought to my door fascinating. The same way I find most sci fi fascinating. It's another world. It's THE FUTURE and not one I'm ever going to be a part of. People bring groceries to your house! Bags of chicken, milk, yogurt & cheese. Who picks out the produce? What if you think it is overripe? Can you return it? How do you cash in the coupons? It gets complicated when I start to think about it. Groceries are a hands on affair to me, especially since I am trying to get away from using too many packaged foods.  I find the idea appealing, but as with so many appealing ideas, I don't know how I would deal with the reality.

Absorbed in books

I just blew through 13 of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books. I read 3,4,5 and 7 over the weekend and 8-13, plus the 2 novellas, between 11am Monday morning and 10pm Thursday evening - totally ignoring my children for 3 solid afternoons.  I have no idea what they were doing from 1pm to 6pm Mon, Wed & Thurs. Sometimes they came in the room with dinosaurs, occasionally I heard them in the playroom.  I did get them snacks, but apart from that I was in Stephanie's life, not my own.

Obviously they are light reads, 3 hard back books in one day is a bit much even for me. But it has been ages since I was so fully taken into a series, especially one that made me laugh so hard I wasn't able to see the words through the tears.  I think Jasper Fford's Thursday Next series was the last time I neglected my children in favor of books in any serious, solid reading time, way. I read all the time, but most of the time it is for 30 minute segments and I am aware of what the boys are doing &prepared to put my book down & interact. This week I really have no idea what went on in my house. everyone is alive, healthy and nothing has been damaged or broken, so I assume they did as usual - played with dinosaurs, pretended to be Indiana Jones, raced in Mario Kart, watched some Land Before Time & Thomas DVDs and given the mess in the playroom, spent a good deal of time with the Imaginext pirate ships.

I'm glad it went well because it will happen again. I love to read & sometimes I get lucky & find something that absorbs me so completely I am totally unaware of my own surroundings while I am reading it. Granted, a 15 book series was a bit much, even for me but I really needed that. I feel so much better now.

I have book 14 and the other novella on order from Amazon. They should be here Wednesday. I bought all the other books in a set on eBay today. There are books I don't mind checking out of the library and there are books I must own. For the sheer laugh out loud escapism of them, I must own the Stephanie Plum series.

Friday, June 13, 2008

48 hours to myself

I've been alone in the house for 48 hours.  The males went camping Wednesday morning & came back around dinner time today.

What did I do with all this time alone?

First I scrubbed the kitchen cabinets, counters & appliances thoroughly. The way things can only be cleaned if you are guaranteed not to be interrupted during the process.

Second I completed the last pages of my hybrid album & began to print them out.

Third I completed a layout for my new CT position. :)

Fourth I read all of Face Down Below the Banqueting House. Eh.. I've read nearly all the books in this series and while I liked the first 3-4, I'm not loving the more recent ones. Some of the recurring characters are getting a bit annoying.

Fifth I scrubbed, mopped and wiped down the kitchen floor. I have deep sympathy for 19th century scullery maids. My floor is natural slate with all the natural unevenness that comes with it. So while mopping is a useful stopgap, at least 2x a year I have to get down on my hands & knees with a bucket of soapy water (repeatedly dumped & replaced), a washcloth and a scrub brush and SCRUB the bejeezus out of the floor, taking care to wipe up the excess water with the washcloth or it will settle in the crevices & leave stains. Then once the scrubbing is done it has to have a rinse with a mop and then back down on the floor with a rag to wipe up the water. My knees and arms are killing me.

Sixth I went out for sushi with a friend.

Seventh I read Hot Six.  I'm really getting into this series, so much so that I broke my own rule of reading series in order and skipped from book 2 to book 6 because 3,4, and 5 are currently checked out.

Eighth I assembled this:

my first hybrid album.  I only had to reprint 2 pieces of it. And there is a smear on the A where it wasn't completely dry & some Mod Podge got on it.  But other than that it went smoothly.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Hybrid

I've posted before about how I like the different Maya Road albums and others that Sweet Shoppe sells. And how I don't get along with scissors so I can't use them.  Well, I've collected quite a number of premade album pages lately with Sweet Shoppe's FWP offers and I sort of feel I should at least try one.  The Bree did a set of templates for the layer book my last week guesting for her. So I decided to bite the bullet and try it. I ordered a star album and a layer book.

 

Meanwhile, for practice I decided to do a couple of Sweet Shoppe's hybrid card album challenges. It is a set called 52 Pickup, new card every week.  I figured it's 4 straight line cuts, how hard can it be?  oh my....

This is the first one I did

I had to print it out 3 times before I cut it properly.  Scissors...

This is the second one.

 

This time I used a penknife and a ruler on a cutting mat.  Slightly better results.  A bit a skew to the left where the ruler slid a bit, but not too bad.  I had DH pick me up a razor knife when he was out yesterday. We'll see how I do with it on the next one.

I've got the layer album mostly created. I found some Mod Podge at Wal Mart finally, so now it's a matter of ink. Will there be enough? I'm hoping to get it assembled by Friday. We'll see

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Nerd Score


I am nerdier than 85% of all people. Are you a nerd? Click here to find out!

Sunday, June 01, 2008

May Recap

This month I read 14 new books and re read 2 other books. 6 were non-fiction and 10 were fiction.

I created 13 layouts, participated in 20 challenges and earned 28 points at Sweet Shoppe - giving me a 40% discount in June.

I was a guest CT member for Bree Clarkson and was turned down for 2 other CTs.

I paid $2200 to get my car repaired.

We went to Day Out with Thomas and to Great Wolf Lodge.

I crocheted over half a dinosaur.

I set up the swimming pool.

The boys finished K4 and K3.

We watched all of Firefly through Netflix.