Cats, Planes and Gyros

This morning I took DS to the airport yet again, this time on his way to Athens, Greece. GREECE!!! On one hand, I hate that his job is constantly sending him places. On the other, his totally sweet and awesome mother is sending me along with him! That's right, on April 9th, yours truly will be on a place to Athens. I CAN NOT WAIT!! Having studied architectural history all through college, I'm so excited to be able to go to the Acropolis myself.

On the way to the airport, we passed a gas station with one of those small eateries inside. This one was called "Athens Gyros: The Original". DS felt it important to let Athens know that the original is on the north side of Madison. I'm sure they'll be surprised to hear it.

The cats are already raising a fuss over DS leaving. They each took turns laying on his suitcase in the hopes that he wouldn't be able to leave without it. As soon as I got back home after dropping him off, Winston destroyed a roll of toilet paper (one of his favorite "I'll show you" past times).

Just a few minutes ago he found a box full of peanuts (I keep the boxes I get in case I need them to ship things myself; recycle!). Within moments the box was tipped over, peanuts everywhere, and he was nestled inside. If I had known that all they wanted was a cardboard box and peanuts for a bed, I wouldn't has spent so much money on this one. Oh well.. Felix is currently fast asleep in the box, and it is kinda cute. Though I'm not looking forward to cleaning up those peanuts.

Winston - enjoying his freshly made bed.

Felix attacking a peanut while Winston decides whether to attack her.

Felix, mid meow. She really is a pretty cat, but she's so black and silky that the flash over compensates and makes her look funny...

In other news, we were once again tricked into thinking that Spring was on the way. For over a week we had temperatures around 40, and the majority of our almost 100 inches of seasonal snowfall had melted. Then came the first day of Spring, which brought like 12 more inches of snow. I guess that one week was enough to make people forget how to drive in it, because there were a lot of abandoned cars. The roads weren't even that bad! I mean, we drove almost a month straight on 3-4 inches of ice! Crazy northerners.

Update 3/23 9:43pm - It's snowing again....

Obsessed

Today, EA launched its "hype" site for the Sims 3. Last I heard, it's slated for a March of '09 release. Yeah, that's right. An entire year from now. But there have been articles talking about this came since 2006. This is a very long time to anticipate a video game. It's almost not fair.

Needless to say, I'm already drooling. Come on 2009!! (And damn you EA, for getting me excited a year early! Did you really need to do that? You knew I was going to buy it already. You've known since I bought my first expansion pack....)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

What Your Shamrock Says About You

You are charming, witty, and larger than life. At times, you can be a bit impatient and inflexible. You don't like to be distracted. You don't really consider yourself a lucky person. In your view, people create their own luck. You are stylish, in a classic sort of way. You are particular about how you like things.

The Shamrock Personality Test

Home Alone

DS left for New Orleans Tuesday morning to give some talks since he's a fancy pants doctor and all. I went to New Orleans once in high school with the family of one of my friends (well, really, all of my vacations have been with friends; my parents don't go places). So I've been home alone, and I've learned some things.

1. The house is much easier to keep clean with him gone. Not sure if that's because it got into the 40's this week (hello Spring!) which triggered the neat bug, or what.
2. My body has not concept of bedtime. He is my reminder that one must sleep. I'm quickly slipping back into my night owl ways, going to sleep around 2 am. Good thing he comes back tomorrow.
3. I'm way more motivated when he's not around. Weird. But I strongly believe that it's because when he's home, all I want to do is curl up next to him. Without him here, I've made tons of new jewelry, cleaned the kitchen, put away the Christmas stuff that stayed up this long due to never ending snow (seriously, did you expect me to extract that garland out from 4 inches of continuous snow??), and lots of other stuff.
4. I'm horrible about spending money. That's a definite positive to staying curled up next to him all night.. can't go to the bead store and spend a fortune.
5. The cats seemed to be more sedated. By which I mean Winston isn't doing his non-stop meowing, expecting DS to throw his mouse. Though he does try to wake me up at 6 am when he realizes his daddy isn't getting up to play with him. And he did accidentally puncture my wrist with his huge snaggle-tooth because he'd decided that watches do not belong on mommy's wrist.

All in all, I miss him, and am ready for him to come home. Even though he'll only be back for a week before taking off on another school excursion. But I need to find a way to hold onto this productivity while he's here. Maybe not quite so much, since I do want to see him from time to time. But a little would be nice.

Inspired by Patrick Henry

Having DVR, I don't always watch things as they air, so it's no surprise that I'm a few weeks behind on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I know, I know. It's a sappy show, and the preservationist in me has real issues with their demolish and start over philosophy. But it's not just about how cool of a new house they can build. The people they're helping are so inspirational.

The show has been spending the last few seasons hitting each of the 50 states, and a few weeks ago the Kentucky episode aired. The recipient was Patrick Henry and his family. Patrick Henry was born without eyes, and cannot straighten his arms or legs. He's spent his life in a wheel chair, but he's never let anything keep him down. In fact, I could easily say he's accomplished more in his 18 years than I have in my fully functional 26. He was playing piano at the age of 2, and has gone on to be in the University of Louisville's marching band playing the trumpet. He's simply amazing. He plays piano better than I could ever dream of playing, and he writes his own music. I just can't believe it.

To see him do the things he can do was amazing. But he also goes to the school I graduated from, and I could help but be touched by what he's brought to the school. And I have to admit that it was really nice to see my home state shown in such a wonderful light, without the slightest hint of the jokes and teasing I get (not necessarily meanly) from people who find out where I'm from. I'm proud to say this man and I come from the same place, and I can only hope that some of you caught that episode and could feel the inspiration and joy that he spreads to everyone he meets (and even those he doesn't).

My iMac Got Sick

Yesterday, I'm playing around online. Nothing dangerous or bug infested, just normal safe websites. Suddenly, Firefox dies. But not your normal everyday crash and is gone variety. Nope, it froze, and then took 30 minutes to completely crash out. And this is with me using force quit.

This didn't seem to have any affect on the rest of the computer, so I just opened Safari and went about my business. Then, about an hour later, Safari crashes. And then Mail crashes. Repeatedly.

So, I think it's time for a restart. Everything seems good with that. Oh wait. WRONG! It never finished restarting, it just looks like it did. The clock, airport, and other little fancy icons are missing. No programs will start, and the dock is gone. So I try restarting again. Now the computer won't even shut down.

Several forced shut downs later, and much time spent surfing the net for troubleshooting tips (from my laptop of course), I give up and try running the Leopard disc. No luck there either. It won't run, boot from, or even remotely act like it knows it's there.

So this evening I had my first "Genius Bar" experience. I have to say, they're pretty good. I didn't have to wait too long to be seen, (though you'll most likely need an appointment, which you can make online), and my guy worked very quickly. Not much on the explanations, but he did stop and tell me what he was doing when I bothered to ask. 45 minutes and several dual boots from unknown sources later, my baby was back!

And it's a good thing too! Do you have any idea how devastated I would be to lose over 2000 digital photos? Or the 50 Gb of music on there? Or even just the smaller things, like my website back up files? It looks like it's time for a back up hard drive!

The up side, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that he doesn't think it was a virus. And should it end up be a hardware failure, it is most likely related to the RAM or video card. So if he's right, and it poops out again, it doesn't look like my data loss risk is actually very high. Still though, I am sufficiently "scared straight". New back up system will be in place as soon as I can afford (which may be a little while...)

Let's Celebrate!

Yesterday I had my first "stranger" sale at my store!! I'm so excited! I've sold lots of things, sure, but to people I know. This may be a subtle difference to you, but to me, it means that my things are good enough to attract the interest of people with a complete lack of sentimental obligation or charity or any other emotion of the sort. That's not to say that I don't greatly appreciate those sentimental purchases. I wouldn't be doing this today if I hadn't been bolstered by that support for the last 3 or 4 years.

So let me say thank you to all you wonderful people who have supported me thus far. Do a little dance, where ever you are, and celebrate with me! :)

Ice Storm

A while back, we had an ice storm, followed by snow. I love the look of trees covered in ice. Sparkly!

Moon Watching

Most of you probably heard talk of the lunar eclipse that happened last night. DS and I stayed up to watch it, and I even convinced him to drive me into farmland so I could get better pictures without the light pollution of civilization. I didn't have a telescope, but it would seem that a 10x optical zoom on a digital camera wasn't half bad. In fact, zooming in on Saturn shows what I imagine are rings, though it's hard to tell.

The image below is zoomed out, and the light has been tampered with to find the stars not quite bright enough to be seen in the photo above. There was only one star missing from the constellation Leo! (at least, in my photo; you could see it otherwise, but my camera couldn't quite catch it)

How cool is that? I was so fascinated, and even Winston and Felix spent quite a bit of time staring out the window (they're copy cats).

*The smudge of white to the left of the moon is a reflection caught in my double-paned windows.

To Do: Finish Table - Check!

I finally finished the mosaic I was working on for the top of our coffee table. This table was a hand me down (several times over I believe). At one time it had a glass top, but it was broken before DS became the owner. It wasn't the nicest table in the world, so it made a good experimental surface for trying out a new art form.

Never having done mosaics before, but knowing something about general tiling, I headed to the hardware store for tile adhesive. The grout I picked up at the craft store because it came in small amounts and different colors. The tiles were bought from the seller cocomo on Etsy, who finds really sweet ceramics and cuts them up for tiles.

Lesson #1: Unless you're doing a small project, do not do all of the tile adhesive work first. Despite needing a week of drying time before grouting, it will lose its ability to hold tile much faster.

Lesson #2: You should probably do this on days you can open a window. That stuff stinks, and is a great headache causer.

Lesson #3: If you're going for a cohesive look, you should probably plan it out ahead of time. And make sure you have enough tiles in the colors you like.

Lesson #4: Grout is dusty. Also, it looks a lot better if you let it sit for a while before doing the wet sponge part. A "float" helps too.

Lesson #5: Despite all of the other lessons, chances are you're still going to end up with something much cooler than your original ugly table.

I tried to do a series of little scenes rather than try to plan out one big one. See if you can figure them out. (Don't worry if you can't, DS couldn't really tell what they were without explanation either.)

Close up Left

Close up - Middle

Close up - Right

Anyone have some grout?

So the table isn't finished, but not for lack of trying. It took a lot more grout than I anticipated, and I've run out. DS tried to get more for me the last time he was running errands, but the store was out too. So, now I have a half grouted table top. Hopefully they'll more in stock this weekend.

It rained slush all day yesterday, and I was able to see actual road again for the first time in a long time. (I don't know if you've been keeping count, but I'm pretty certain I haven't seen actual ground since Thanksgiving.) Of course, now we're in the middle of a winter storm warning expected to dump 6-10 inches of snow by tomorrow morning. So bye-bye roads again. It's a good thing Wisconsin drivers know how to drive in snow, or we'd all be screwed.

But yeah, I think the 10-day forecast has snow from now until next Monday. Probably not straight snow, but snow that many days in a row none the less. I'm pretty excited about it. There is talk among my friends of going snow tubing this weekend! I hope it pans out. (Come on Cathy, ask for a snow tubing party for your birthday!!)

Blizzard!!

The deadline is almost over (just one more day!), we have an official blizzard tonight (more to do with wind than accumulation), and I'm staying on top of my chores! I feel PRODUCTIVE!! It's awesome :)

Pictures will come later, but here's what I've been up to lately:
1. Watching Season 2 of Buffy with DS
2. Designing a tile mosaic design for the top of our coffee table
3. Playing Rock Band (heck yeah I'm an awesome drummer!!)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have go watch 50 mph winds whip snow around while I eat ice cream. When I woke up this morning, it was 40 and raining. It's currently 2, with a wind chill of -19. Our low is -9 with a wind chill of -30. Anyone want to visit?

Anyone need a zoo planner?

I've taken a break from Mass Effect to re-take up a game I've had for some time: Zoo Tycoon 2. Except now, I've gone expansion pack crazy!!

Need someone to tranquilize some dinosaurs? Call me! Need someone to train marine life and design marine shows? Call me! Need someone to fulfill the ever-growing needs and wants of your zoo guests? Call me!

In case you're confused, I'm basically saying that I'm an expert zoo designer, planner, and maintainer! And I greatly enjoy it, so you'd almost be doing me a favor by giving me that much work!

So yeah, that's what I'm doing now. That and still chugging along towards my deadline. And recovering from hosting a viewing of the Packers' game on Sunday. Packers fans are scary.

And on the exhaustion front, my therapist has recommended getting full spectrum light bulbs, getting more vitamin D, magnesium, and fatty three omega acids, and moving around in some capacity for 18 minutes 3 days a week (apparently, that's really all you need for mood and energy benefits). These recommendations came after being told that I don't see the sun at all in the winter, because my office has no windows and it's dark when I go home. Apparently my brain has forgotten how to function during the "day". So go ahead and try those things out if you're finding yourself exhausted as well!

My brain hurts

At my work, we have deadlines for development and QA that revolve around release schedules. There is currently one approaching at the end of the month. Every time I think I'm doing well, and getting my stuff tested, more things show up in my queue... it's making my brain hurt. And I'm tired. I haven't even been checking my e-mail with any regularity, or reading my online comics. Also, if anyone knows how to make Winston shut up, that would be great. He's taken to meowing constantly, and if we don't spend every second doting on him, he does something he's not supposed on purpose to get attention. DS is threatening to throw him off the balcony, something he usually says in jest...

Other than that though, things are good. Building zoos, reading The Subtle Knife, bringing down my Brain Age. And sleeping... Is it my allergies? I don't know, but I'm tired.

Be Forewarned

Just because you got a new HDTV and have become obsessed with your new Mass Effect game does not mean you can neglect your household chores... Litter box stink will not be your only punishment. Cats retaliate in much harsher ways when angry. I'm just saying.. remember to get off your ass every one in a while, or plan on doing extra laundry...

(Sorry Winston)

Personal DNA

Enjoy Nature at Your Own Risk

DS introduced me to this today:

http://www.nelsonrocks.org/disclaimer.html

It's an actual, serious disclaimer from a sort of adventure park made mostly of rocks.  Real ones.  Like mountains.

Anyway, go read.  Laugh some while you question why you've ever left your house.

Celebrate in Style!

DS and I decided to treat ourselves with my Christmas bonus and his graduation monies.  One of the things we bought was a new board game.  Felix enjoys tossing the die.

Whenever we buy something that comes with plastic, you can be sure that Winston will be there to help you out with it.

Our brand new TV came with LOTS of plastic.  (I bet you can imagine how we spent our vacation!)

It has become our New Year's tradition to go to our friend Dave's house.  I wore my brand new dress that my mom bought me!

(I thought this picture was totally awesome, then I totally Fellenz being creepy in the doorway.  He's like a photo stalker!)

One thing that was different this year was the appearance of KT1, who is usually still home for Christmas at this time.  Nobody can make a party fun like KT1.  

(She looked way better in the other picture of us, but this one was so much more festive I couldn't resist.)

Well, tonight DS and I finally got around to going Christmas light looking.  What?  Don't look at me like that.  There were mitigating circumstances.  Like impenetrable fog for a week, and DS falling asleep when the sun set.  

At any rate, tonight we went.  We found more than we have in past years, now that we live in a slightly different part of town.  As it turns out though, the only thing we found worthy of getting out of the car to photograph had less to do with lights and more to do with sheer awesomeness.

Yeah, that's right.  That's an IGLOO!  I probably couldn't fit inside comfortably, but children could.  We were in total awe.  (hmm.. awe.. awesome.. yes, those words go together perfectly here, and not just in the middle school "cool" sort of way... sometimes I find words fascinating long after I should have realized their true meanings...)

I made 8 different kinds of cookies yesterday.  EIGHT!  If you want some cookies, come on over, because I have plenty.  Sometimes I get carried away.  Maybe I still am, because the only reason I stopped was because I ran out of vanilla and butter.  It's hard to make cookies without those two things.  But I still want to try making cashew brittle, and it's just wrong to make cookies without including chocolate chips.  There's also a batch of dough in the fridge that just needs to be rolled out so I can put jelly in them, fold them, and bake them.  Yum!  Being on vacation rocks.

The only other thing happening is this:  My Brother's Birthday!!  Happy Birthday Brother!!

Merry Christmas!!

Santa brought Winston and Felix an array of goodies!  Look at all of those new toys!

Felix is very fond of their new cat bed.

Winston was interested at first, but quickly went back to his old standby.

Look at him go!  Can you see the little pink and white mouse he's after?

This is his favorite game, and he is taking full advantage of DS being home this week.

As for DS and I, we used our Christmas money to get a new HDTV!  It's not here yet, but we're trying very hard to be patient.  We also got each other some books and video games.  We thought it was pretty funny that we both got each other such similar things.

Now, I'm going to make a BUNCH of Christmas cookies, because I love doing that, and DS is going to make me a roast chicken!  We're loving our first Christmas at home, and we hope you're having a wonderful time wherever you are too!

Merry Christmas!

5 Days 'til Christmas

Work is stressful at the moment, as I have a deadline on Jan 4th, but am about to be off for 11 days straight... which really means I'll just be working from home during my vacation some. Feeling responsible can really suck sometimes.

At any rate, between that and the following things, I've been both busy, somewhat stressed, and scarce. Here's a rundown.

DS was forced into attending graduation by his mother and I.

It was by far the best graduation I've ever attended: short, painless, and the guest speaker was even pretty funny.

Of course, I then had to make DS pose, which he refuses to do with any sincerity. But I'm okay with it, because this picture cracks me up.

Once the rest of his family left, we took his mom to the zoo.
Seals are pretty darn funny when they're flopping around on dry ground.

Of course, the main reason I wanted to take her is that the polar bears become hilarious once it starts snowing. This guy just flops around on his belly looking so content, and then he'll slide down the rocks on his back. Totally worth going just for that alone.

She was also excited to see actual icicles on people's houses.

She asked me to design an ornament for her with her dogs Jake and Willard in it. I was pretty proud of the results, so I'm showing it off.
And finally, I fulfilled a long-standing dream of mine and designed a 3d Sleep Goblin. You know you want one!! And if not, I do, which means I have to make another, cause this was a gift.

12 Days 'til Christmas

My friend Luke has a window office on the third floor at work (that's as high as it goes).  We think he might be on his way to have the world's largest icicle hanging from the roof above him.  It goes well down into the second floor level.  The girl in the office below him looks out at the bottom.  

I have to wonder about the quality of our drainage system, because the entire campus is covered in stuff like this...  Not that I'm complaining, it looks really cool.  Of course, they also have to close the courtyard from time to time because they start falling and it's quite possible something of this size would kill you.

I finally got DS to let me buy a bunch of Christmas candy.  I love this stuff!!  Also, it looks really cool as a desktop wallpaper.  I won't be offended if you download it ;)

13 Days 'til Christmas

The mystery has been solved!  It was indeed ordered from a person and not a store.  Thanks sister of DS!!

So my guesstimate is that it's snowed roughly every 3 days since Thanksgiving.  I'd say we have at least a foot of snow, and it hasn't been above freezing in a few weeks now.  This is why I love living here!  It's like the prettiest Christmas card you ever saw, with all the evergreen trees covered in snow.  Especially when people put lights on the outdoor trees.  AWESOME!

I'm pretty much in heaven here.  Which I could say the same for DS.... He's lamenting his inability to climb outdoors in this weather.  He really needs new hobbies.

15 Days 'til Christmas

Holy Crap!

Apparently I have a [not so] secret admirer of some sort.  I received a package today from someone in Minnesota.  No note, no card, just a return address and a last name on the envelope.  At first I was sure that DS had ordered me something for Christmas using some account that had it ship directly to me.  Feeling as if I had spoiled a Christmas surprise, I took him the envelope in shame.  But no!  It was not from him!

That means it was from someone else.  Either someone in MN (which seems highly unlikely unless you just haven't really made yourself know, since the only person that I actually know in MN lives in Minneapolis), or someone from anywhere else that used the Amazon's "buy from other people" option.

Who is it?!  I want to thank you!!  

19 Days 'til Christmas

Dude.  I am a horrible wife....  Somehow I forgot to announce that DS gave his defense on Monday, and is now officially Dr. DS!!  (Maybe not so horrible, I did go watch it, and carry all that food he bought and no one ate up 3 flights of stairs.)

Sometime ago, maybe this summer, I bought him a shirt from Dinosaur Comics.  My only caveat was that he had to wear it under his suit during his defense.  He did :)

I present to you:

Professor Science!!

This image and Dinosaur Comics are copyright Ryan North.  

Go read it, it's totally awesome.

This is an old picture, but you get the idea.

21 Days 'til Christmas

More snow was dumped on us yesterday, and I believe more is on the way throughout the week.  Man I love living here!  This year, our families are coming to us, and I have a feeling they won't be so happy.  They all come from much warmer climates...  Don't you just love the way the snow clings to the greenery?  All the fir and pine trees around here look AWESOME!

In store news, the ornaments are now officially posted there*.  So if you don't know my e-mail address but would still like one, you can go there.  It uses PayPal.  I'm also working on some festive earrings.  Nothing overly Christmas-y, but I think they'll be great for holiday parties (and maybe all parties)!

*Click on the SG photo!

23 Days 'til Christmas

They're here!!  Send me an e-mail if you'd like one this year!

Also, in case you don't know, I do take special requests for ornaments.  So if you want something special for a gift or yourself, just let me know.

Wonderful Things

1. Several of my work friends have a tradition of "trashing" a co-worker's office on their birthday. Plans are made in secret, and all work is done after the co-worker has left so they'll be surprised the morning of their birthday. This week was Jim's birthday, and he came in to 3 feet of balloons. Check out that static*! 286 balloons are good for that.

2. I have a large marker board in my office. When it's not full of ideas for work projects, people draw on it. This image started with the sailboat, then came the guy falling off and a shark eating his leg. A few days later, a turtle was eating a shark, and then a whale was eating the turtle. Then Jonah appeared, and then an alien "fishing" for the whale. What I love most is that I never asked any of these people to add to the drawing, it just happened. Often when I wasn't in the room.

3. It's snowing. Hard. And the winter storm warning doesn't even start for several more hours. I love winter!!

4. We put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving as usual while we watched Christmas Vacation. This year I bought extra plug timers so I don't have to turn on or off any of my lights. They're on when I get home from work, and go off some time after I fall asleep. Aside from the fact that we can't keep Winston from chewing on the tree (that crazy cat likes to chew on plastic.. makes me almost wish we'd gotten a real tree), I'd say our new apartment is a decorating success! Also, Winston would like to start the countdown to Christmas!


* Image may require enlarging to see static effects.