Tuesday, August 30, 2005

House Keeping

Mood: good
Weather: night
Gas: $2.75

House keeping is referring to the blog not the pig sty I am living in (don't worry mom). I noticed that some moron company spammed my comments so I have added a new encryption thing. When a real person wants to post they have to type the random wavy word that appears - this will keep the fake automatic comments out. Blogger may have it's drawbacks but that is a nice feature they just added.

I have also added a gas price line to my top template. This gas price will be based the two gas stations I pass in the morning and is in no way scientific. Today they hiked the price but I heard that mid winter it is supposed to come down drastically again, one can only hope. I seriously dislike thinking about all the cool or nice things I could do with $40 rather then dump it in the car. SUV is in need of new tires, maybe some place will be having a labor day sale or something...

Ironic note - I spell check using blogger when I'm not at work and Blogger's spell check does not recognize; blogger, blog, or spammed

breakfast

Mood: full
Weather: sunny and 70s

yum yum yum - bacon egg and cheese breakfast sandwich! I eat oatmeal every day at work but our company has a great cafe that has good prices because it is subsidized by the company. I made a deal with myself that every time I finish a box of oatmeal I get a breakfast sandwich. Tomorrow - another 20 days of oats and water.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Another one bites the dust

Mood: exercised
Weather: fall like but warm enough to run in a tank top and show off my awesome arm muscles

Jingles has killed another mouse, I think this makes 10. Should we get her a cake? Mouse burial is no longer too big a deal - grocery bag burial for one immediately deposited in the outside trash. I and also being thrifty with the scooping, I now select a piece of junk mail to do the heavy lifting for me - most useful thing I've ever done with junk mail.

I just ran a bunch - JC made fun of the fact that there were cobwebbs on the eliptical machine but if it is still nice enough to run outside I'm going to!

I built shelves

Mood: Mondayish
Weather: sunny

Technically, the building part has been done since the end of July but I had to cut the adjustable shelves and all the face trim. I cut and nailed all day Sat and by 9pm I had done as much as I could do and I needed more wood. Sunday morning I got the last pieces of wood and bought stain - finished the cutting and nailing and did 90% of the stain. I got a really bad splinter staining so I didn't finish the last 4 floating shelves but the vast majority is stained. Today or tomorrow I'll start the arduous task of polyurethane the whole thing and maybe this weekend they can be put up! Sometime in the future they will get inset lighting and crown molding but that needs to wait until after they are up.

I have also started carefully re-reading the Order of the Phoenix, even a second time it is a great book and easy to loose a couple of hours reading.

This coming week I don't have any out of the ordinary plans but later in Sept I have a 2 day conference for work and at the end of the month I'll be in NY for a family party.

Wife of the Year

I want to date this post 8/26 because that's the real day that I won Wife of the Year

Yup, I claim the title. I don't cook much, I keep the house clean but not perfect, and I tend to do laundry when Lars runs out of socks HOWEVER my selfless act of 8/26 grants me the title...

This all started with gas prices: Gas here is now consistently over 2.30. Lars and I used to trade cars every other day to keep mileage lower on the SUV because I worked an hour away. I've worked at my new job for 9 months and we never changed our system because it kept the 'my car your car' situation moot. Well, based on gas, we decided I would drive the SUV every day and he would drive the Saturn - this decision was made last Monday. Thursday our power was out so we could not get into the garage and we parked in the driveway. Now here comes the good part; Thursday night it poured rain for hours and Lars had left the drivers side window open. Lars had an early meeting so he was leaving as I was brushing teeth, and he comes in all sad puppy face asking what to do when the seat is all wet.... Here is where I get the award for best wife - I told him to take the SUV, I would take the soaking wet car seat. So I sat on a towel and wore a raincoat and it wasn't so bad but I'm only in the car for 15min and his commute is 30 on a clear day. That is why I am now Wife of the Year (at least to Lars).

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

High Fructose corn syrup

Mood: good
Weather: cool and sunny

I'm blogging about food - be warned.

Two or three months ago Lars decided to cut out high fructose corn syrup based on something a nutritionist friend talked about. So soda was the first to go and I more or less joined in on the kick. Over the last few months we have checked a few items and purchased a few different brands but we never went hard core. Yesterday was our big grocery shopping for the month and I'm not joking, we actually read every label. The most surprising food item containing high fructose corn syrup - BREADCRUMBS!!! I knew about ketchup, I figured that salad dressing might cause an issue (only Newman's doesn't have it) but I never ever thought breadcrumbs would have it. The stuff is in just about everything but our house is now fairly high fructuous free~

Sunday, August 21, 2005

4 loads of laundry

Mood: good
Weather: 70's and no humidity

I have my 4th load of laundry in the dryer and hopefully it is the last. There is still a tote of stuff that went to Pennsic but didn't get worn more then a hour or so that I'm hoping I can get away with airing outside rather then washing. We are going out to the Village Inn for dinner so this will be sorta short.

Pennsic is hard to put into words but it is more then a vacation, it is living differently for a week. We got there 11pm on Sat, driving all day, and went out to a party. That was actually one of the few parties we went to all week. Next day we set up and did all the usual first day visiting. We ate with my parents camp all week so it was cool to have good food and visit family 3 times a day.

Monday - Friday there were battles every day starting at 11. Very easy for me because I could get up, dressed, walk to breakfast and be back by the time people were going to the field. For the first few days Lars was fighting on the opposite side as the majority of the household so I did a lot of walking back and forth to give him water and take care of the other guys too. We kept hoping that Northshield would declare for the East because they were super outnumbered and the king previously said he would fight for the East if they were outnumbered but that didn't happen. I suppose after so many years of being on the loosing side he wanted to win and with numbers 4 to 1 in your favor he had a good shot at it. I don't begrudge him the victory and I won't count on stuff until I see it happening. I don't really care much at all because Lars had fun fighting.

There were two knighting of note. *for the non SCA people who read, knighting is the highest recognition of fighting in the SCA. You have to be a superior fighter and generally good and courteous person. All the current knights discuss and vote on who they want to elevate to knighthood so different kingdoms end up with different standards because they are voted on by different groups etc. Lars, by the way, is a knight and worked very hard to get it and works hard to remain an example and teaches anyone who wants to learn. Anyway, one guy from Bloodguard was knighted - he is a super cool fun guy and it was awesome to see it done. I helped set up the vigil and felt fairly involved so that was cool too. The other knight is from Northshield. He is a cool fun guy too but I really can't judge his fighting because I don't fight. The ceremony for each guy was done by the respective kingdoms and the similarities and differences were interesting to note. Today, in reading my E-mail from the week, someone took a really low shot at the new Northshield knight, publicly saying he cheated on his wife. In my opinion, his personal life is his and who he sleeps with is between the relevant parties. I hope it doesn't taint the Order or the kingdom.

Lars managed to find a poker tournment one night and came in second so we made some money at Pennsic. I stayed in camp chatting 2 nights out of 7 - but I think there were less huge parties this year. 1 night we walked around the merchant area for midnight madness but we didn't actually buy anything, just ran into bunches of people we know and talked. There were 2 ladies nights, the first was fairly dull because there wasn't a lot going on and we were disorganized starting out. The second ladies night was hosted by Mistress Izzy and she always puts on a great party and it was the last night so pennsic ended on a high note. Lars and the other guys joined us both nights about 11 - some of the ladies didn't like it but I did since I have more fun with him around, I suppose someday I may get tired of him ;)

So that is my pennsic in a nutshell. Since I've been home I showered twice, shaved my legs in the luxury of hot good pressure soft water (Pennsic water may be hot but it is very hard, like little iron spikes hitting you and I get a reaction from it every year). I gave myself a manicure, peticure and facial so I look pretty, rested, and tan for work. Now it is time to put food in the belly....

Saturday, August 20, 2005

I am Home

Mood: sleepy
Weather: I have new love for my AC

Title says it all. It took 15 hours to get home but the trip was reasonable with only minor adventures. Pennsic was fun, hot, and full of people I haven't seen in ages. More tomorrow, I'll have tons of time between loads of laundry.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

2 days to Pennsic

Mood: packed (is that a mood?)
Weather: 80's and rained a tiny bit

Today was one of those productive days that I felt like I goofed off alot. At work today I ended up in conversations all over the place but they all yielded good work knowledge or contacts. I took pictures of a work friend for her profile but that only took about 5 min and we got 12 awesome pictures for her to choose from. Then I actually just got into a ton of projects and since I want to finish as much as possible before I go on vacation I got industrious. After work Lars and I took the test ATV two seater for an hour of test time. I didn't actually get paid to ride an ATV but the riding was free and fun. We almost tipped over at least once and we found all sorts of fun places to ride. The hour or so outside gave us a bunch of energy to power through the packing of the car. Lars even voluntarily cleaned the kitchen including unloading, and reloading the dishwasher! Today was a good day overall.

I probably will not be posting for a week since I'll be camping in Pa but hopefully pictures will follow my return. The current plan is to finish the roof packing tomorrow and take it easy and leave crack of dawn on Sat. If we are lucky we will be there by 9pm.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Count down to Pennsic - 4 days...

Mood: good
Weather: raining

I can't believe that I have to spend an entire day getting there and getting back - that seriously cuts into vacation time. I will do my best to make the car trip to PA vacation-like but 14 hours in the car gets to be not so fun. Today my packing plans include cleaning the dining room in order to pile all things that need to get into the car there. I've made a list so hopefully I can just stick to it and gather from the 5 corners of the house (garage counts as its own corner) and not get sidetracked. Since packing everything 2 people need for a week isn't enough fun, we are taking our friend too and all his stuff. Since he reads I won't tease him too badly but when we were talking about what we can give up for space he volunteered to give up his bed/cot but he needed to bring a bag of books... JM - just pick 2 books! It will be fun no matter what.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Lets not talk about the race

Mood: sunburned
Weather: sunny

My title is not all true - Our team did well and it was a fun day overall. I was 1st for a while in my race but got bumped one too many times and ended up getting flagged. I really don't understand why I got a penalty, throughout the day we all decided that the flagger ref guy was either A. high or B. a highschool drop-out with very little skills. Probably both. Anyway, I ended up 7th but got compliments all around. Other people on the team did very well, we had 2 people get 1st places in their race and a second and a thrid place. In the end it really came down to luck, the guy who was so close to winning got a dud cart and it cost him 2 laps, he still ended 4th so he had skill - just not luck.

Race Day - wish me luck

Mood: early
Weather: sunny, can't yet comment on heat but I'm sure by the end of 10 hours out there I will

I'm heading to the track. I have in tow - cooler, water, coffee, 18 donuts, sunblock, camp chairs, hat, book. I really wish I could wear my super big Asian hat but I think alot of people would laugh. The set up of the race is arrive at 8:30 when we sign in and get to know what round we race in (200 people in the race)then we sit til its our turn. I believe that the top few times in each set move up but it could be based on place... They were not clear. Either way I expect to be out in or before round 2.

In other quick news (since I should be actually getting in the car) I made a tunic for Pennsic for my expecting sister and went out to a fancy restaurant with Lars and friends last night.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

I'm going to be a racer

Mood: ok
Weather: gray but hot

Wow, once I miss a few days I have too many things to talk about so I have to take a day to think about what to put in and what to leave out...

Lets start with the fact that last week I was chosen to be on the company go-kart team for a race this weekend. It was a 'random' drawing but I was the only female on the list of 40 people and I was one of the 10 chosen. I was of two minds about signing up in general since I have never seen a go-kart much less driven one so I'm having trouble picturing me racing one. I suppose the worst that could happen is I loose the race but I am still on the team and I get a t-shirt. So this week, starting today, the course is set up and I have 2 practice runs free. That leads me to the fact that I have crammed alot of activity into today;
1. got up early to get to work early because;
2. I have a dentist apt at 9:30
3. back to work and then home where I will hopefully cut out the canape for the bed for Pennsic
4. to dance class - remember, I'm in the hour and a half class now
5. home to pick up Lars (8 at night) to head over to the track to do my first ever go-kart driving
6. eat, sew, sleep
Friday I get to go to the dentist again for a cleaning, I specifically asked for a different hygienist because the last one, while telling me it was her first week out of school, chipped away at 'something funny here' and two days later I lost a filling. I got a classmate of hers but at this point they have a year experience and have learned the difference between tooth - plaque - and filling.

Loosing fillings is old hat to me now. I think almost all my teeth have been refilled, some more then once. I have to think at this point it must be me but I still think it is the associate dentist (out of school a week ironically) who did 5 fillings over 2 sessions and all 5 fell out within a few months and had to be refilled. I have a complex about going there - the senior dentist is very nice but why does he keep hiring morons? Lars goes to the same place and just got his cleaning Monday with the super good woman, but she is booked months in advance. You know what they call the Dentist last in their class??? Dr.... and they get hired by my Dentist.

Last weekend was pretty mild, did some shopping. I returned the umbrella that the tornado wind put on the roof. I got a full refund so yeah for Ikea. The official reason for return; 'tragic incident with wind' and she even put that in the computer, she was a cool customer service person. I got a bunch of little things and spent the rest of the weekend doing little projects. I super scrubbed the bathroom and kitchen, using the steamer and everything. I really should have been sewing but I'm doing well with garb. I should work on on upgrading the wardrobe but Pennsic is often dusty or muddy and hot unless its raining so I don't want to bring anything too great. What I have will have to do and I need to not over pack. yeah right...