12 posts from April 2008

Bailey just got her first mp3 player.  I decided to try for one in that Pepsi Stuff promotion that's going on right now.  I had to save up 175 bottle caps, and thanks to a couple of coworkers, we made it there in record time.  It just came today.  Right now it's charging so she can't use it quite yet, but she's already chosen a CD to download.  I think - I think - I've figured out how to also get it on my iPod.  It takes a bit of doing, though.

Today I took public transportation to work. I've done this once before, about a year ago when my car died and Brian had already left for work.  That day I didn't really have a choice and I was just lucky that I was able to scrounge $1.25 or whatever it costs.  (I rarely have cash, and usually when I do it goes quickly into a pop machine.)

But here's the thing.  On Monday evening I had a meeting to go to and Brian asked me if I'd fill up the van on my way home.  Now usually the van is his commuter car (he carts the kids) and he takes care of filling it up when necessary.  My commuter car is a 1997 5-speed Geo Metro Sedan. Kind of dorky and definitely uncool, but it's paid for and cheap to own & operate.  It's also easy to park in our packed, perpendicular-parking lot.

When I fill up my car, I go to a gas station that gives me 15 cents off per gallon if I buy a car wash.  I get the cheapest one for $6 and still come out having paid more for the car wash than what I save on gas with an 8-gallon tank, but I like the convenience of the fill & wash all at one time.

So back to Monday night.  I'm used to about a $25 bill when filling up my car, and even that was starting to feel pretty steep.  When I filled up the van, I found myself staring straight into a $51.59 total. 

~~Sticker shock!!~~

I know that probably pales compared to what some of you are used to, but it was pretty scary for me!  I decided then & there to look into my employer's city bus pass program.

Because parking for both patients/visitors and employees is at a premium in downtown Rochester, one of the things that my employer has done is to allow employees who live in town to get free bus passes.  They also sell passes to people who live out of town at a reduced rate.  The goal is to help alleviate parking congestion downtown.  I know a lot of people who take the bus because they don't even have parking privileges downtown, because those are given out by seniority.  After 11 years, I do have parking, so I've never considered taking the bus.  Now I'm going to do it, at least some days, in order to alleviate our gasoline bill.  On days I take the bus, Brian will take my little car.  Hopefully this will make a difference.  We'll see; I told Brian that I'll only take the bus on days that aren't too cold, too windy, or raining.  So the rest of this week may be out already.

This morning went pretty well.  I was worried that I wouldn't make it to the bus stop in time, and as it turned out I had plenty of time.  Eventually I'll have it down to the exact minute that I need to leave the house.  This afternoon will present a different challenge.  Not only do I have to make sure I'm ready to leave work at the appropriate time (I can be a dawdler), but I have to take a different route home.  My neighbor/friend Matt, who rides the same bus, told me this morning where I need to be in order to take Route 2 home, which was nice.  The good/bad thing about Route 2 is that it's going to drop me off about 4 blocks from my house.  Today that will be awesome as it's supposed to be sunny and 75, and I don't anticipate having to carry anything heavy or bulky home.  I'm such a baby.  :)

So yes, now I feel more like an official member of the rat race.

I wasn't going to do this today (because if I do it every week I'll become predictable), but what the hey.  Here goes:

Today I loathe:

• Spending all day at work reading about FDA inspections.  I'm writing a mock inspection for our students to do as a learning tool.  Important stuff, but reading about the FDA all day sure makes me tired.
• That I slept horribly last night and as a result am quite tired today.
• That it's only Tuesday (see above bullet item).
• Being unmotivated to study for my coag final.
• Bad hair days.

Today I love:

• Red wine.
• The killer lasagna I have in the oven.  I can't wait to eat it!!
• That I fixed a door at work today.
• Long, painted fingernails, makeup, great shoes, jewelry, and other things that make me feel like a girl.
• The color scheme we've decided on for our bathroom.
• My kids.
• Spring - finally!  I'm even ok with those fabled April showers, as long as they're not snow showers.

That'll do it.  :)  Gotta go get my lasagna out of the oven.

I'm on a conference call........they can't see that I'm playing on Vox.......I'm typing very quietly................

:)

Today I'm liking:

• Sunshine and 62 degrees.  Finally!
• Fitting into jeans that used to be indecently tight.
• Feeling better than I did last Tuesday!  :)
• My new red patent shoes.  I've wanted a pair for a long time.  They're just cheapies for fun, and fun is what they are.  I wore them to work today and got several compliments.
• Speaking of work, I love lab teaching exercises that work the way they're supposed to.
• Green and red peppers.  They're so pretty and make a good afternoon snack.
• My new haircut.
• Being able to grocery (& other) shop with Brian while the kids are at Awana.  It's a pathetic excuse for date night but we'll take what we can get!  Besides, it beats the heck out of doing the shopping with the kids.
• This cool razor I got Brian for shaving his head.  He hasn't used it yet but I can't wait for him to try it!

Today I'm not liking:

• Being obsessed with my weight.
• Not losing pounds this week.  I think I know the reason why I'm not losing but I'm not sure how to solve it in a healthy way.
• Having my coag final looming over my head.  I need to force myself to buckle down & study.
• Nothing else, really.  Today was a good day!

Let the remodeling begin.

Remember last spring (some of you might anyway) when I chronicled the building of our new laundry/mud room?  That was Phase 1.  I think we can officially say that Phase 2 is underway.  If you follow the above link and look at the first picture, you can barely make out the trim that surrounds the door into the main floor bathroom.  Currently, it's a 1/2 bath.  You can actually go through the bathroom into what's now an empty room (with the walls and floor partially missing now), the room formerly known as the laundry/storage room.  Eventually, the wall between the two rooms will come down and we will gut it all and build a 3/4 bath.  I say "we" - hah!  I'm just the designer.  I'll also be the painter when the time comes, and the stainer of woodwork. 

Does anyone have any ideas of how to keep sheetrock dust from taking over the house, namely my kitchen?

Oh, here's another question.  Would it be absolutely over the top if I was able to talk Brian into letting me get a small flat-screen TV to put on the wall in there?  I use that bathroom to get ready for work, and there's a TV in the adjacent kitchen that's tuned to Fox & Friends 7 mornings a week.  So I can always hear it; I just can't see it.  Plus the TV in the kitchen is distracting to the kids, because apparently it's impossible for them to watch TV and eat their breakfast at the same time.  Not to mention that when your son starts singing "Viva Viagra!" it might mean he's watching too much Fox News Channel.

We have the flooring (we bought enough travertine last year to use for both rooms - got a fantastic deal at Home Depot), the faucet, towel bars, sink accessories, and even towels (found a great deal yesterday).  My color scheme is going to be cabinetry in a darker/cherry finish (to match the rest of the house), natural travertine tile on the floor, and a coordinating tile on the shower walls (I think it's ceramic but it's got a nice look to it).  I have a Silestone picked out that we're going to order for the sinktop - it looks a lot like the travertine on the floors.  I think the walls will be a cream-dust-taupe color, something that coordnates with the cabinetry when we get it.  I got brown towels (I debated burgundy but eventually decided on a monochromatic look).  All of my fixtures and the trash can/soap dispenser-type stuff are bronze.  Even my shower door will be finished in antique bronze.  I'm going to have to special-order it, but for once I'm being insistent that I get what I want.  Usually Brian wants to do the prefab, bottom-of-the-line stuff, but if we're going to be in this house forever and eventually sell it, I don't want the main floor bathroom to look cheap.

New stuff is always fun.  Now I just have to live through the nightmare of getting there.  At least we have a deadline - August, when a bunch of girlfriends are coming to spend the weekend here.  I'm not sure yet just how many there will be in my house, but it's going to be more than one shower can accommodate, I'm sure!  And it'll be nice for us too.  Although my girlfriends are awesome, they're not the only reason we're remodeling....sorry guys.)  :)

It just dawned on me how I changed my banner to say something positive, only for my most recent blog post to be a big ol' crab fest.

I am that moody.

Things I'm hating today:

• When things don't go as planned.
• When things don't go well because I planned badly.
• Being a girl.
• The fact that it's April and its supposed to snow tonight.
• That my weight is up - hopefully only temporarily.
• Not being able to communicate with people.
• A scanner that doesn't work, when it worked fine yesterday!. >:-(

Things I like today:

• Nuts with lots of salt.
• That I can have really dark chocolate on SBD.....I found 70% cacao with toasted coconut today!
• That the pilot light in my gas fireplace still works.
• My navy fleece jacket...I wear the thing everywhere.  It's warm & comfy. 
• That I figured out how to get the musty smell out of my towels (apparently this is a well-documented hazard of having a front-loader)

So today the bad outweighs the good.  It's been a cruddy day.

 

It's not often that I actually do something worth writing about on a weekend, so when I do it's definitely getting a blog entry. 

We had a nice family weekend.  On Friday I took a half day since it was the last day of Spring Break for Brian and the kids.  We went up to the Twin Cities for the afternoon.  We'd debated museums and zoos, but in the end decided to save those endeavors for warmer weather and to take the kids to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America instead.  Plus, that's what they chose. 

It's about 50 miles from here to the southern edge of the Cities, and about halfway lies a town named Cannon Falls.  Since this was a day meant for fun, we decided to stop at the Cannon River Winery, located in a renovated downtown building.  We got to taste three wines each, and ended up buying two.  They also let us wander around their tasting room/dining room/winemaking area.

 

 

 

 

 

After that stop, we proceeded along US 52 to St. Paul, from whence we commenced travel on Interstate 494 to St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb.  Our next stop was a place we've been wanting to visit for quite some time, not only for the cheap wine but also because we thought they would have some fun, SBD-friendly items:

 

We found some fun trail mixes and whole grain pastas, not to mention some chip/snack options for those days when you just need something.  I was disappointed that most of their sauces and salad dressings contained a lot of sugar.  I thought for a store that seems to stress "natural" and "organic" and "healthy" items there would be less sugar.  Oh well.  It was fun anyway.

So from Trader Joe's it was back down to Bloomington: next stop Ikea!  Such a fun store.  You can get a lot of stuff there for cheap.  I've only bought little things like towels and gadgets there.  I haven't bought furniture there - most of it is too contemporary for my taste, but I always like to look.

I got that cast iron skillet for 8 bucks!  And a set of 6 little wine glasses for 3 bucks.  We wanted some smaller ones for diet (read: portion control) issues.  Joey could've gone to the kids' area.........

.....but decided to stay with the rest of us.

Overall, they were very patient because they knew that after Ikea would be the rides!

Nickelodeon Universe is an indoor amusement park that's located smack in the middle of the Mall of America.  Once upon a time it was known as Camp Snoopy and had a cute Peanuts-woodsy-camp feeling to it.  Now it's true Nick.

 

 

 

 

The kids had to choose their rides carefully because we are mean parents and refused to spend unlimited amounts of money on overpriced rides.  They chose the Farily Odd Coaster first.

 

 

Then they were on to their next ride.

 

 

After that it was time for supper.  The kids wanted to go to the Rainforest Cafe, but when we got there and saw the line of people waiting for a table, we quickly decided to implement Plan 2.  Only we didn't know what Plan 2 was.  We had passed a little walk-up fast food place that boasted of healthy food so we went there.  Brian and I were able to get something that was fairly SBD-friendly, and even the kids found something they could/would eat.  After that Brian took the kids back to Nick Universe for one more ride while I went up to the third floor to check out my favorite store, Nordstrom Rack.  This is Nordstrom's outlet store and it is wonderful!  Normally I can find at least 5 great pair of shoes when I go there (unfortunately I don't buy 5 great pair) but this time despite 6 aisles of size 10 shoes there wasn't really anything that really struck me.  I did, however, find two awesome skirts and a sweater, all for 60% off the lowest marked price (who needs rides when you can get bargains like that!).  Before I was done there, Brian and the kids showed up.  The kids were exhausted and more than ready to go home.  I paid my bill and we hit the road.  It was a fun day.

On Saturday we were out and about running errands.  We decided that since we were in the winery-visiting mode, we would take in a local one that just opened this year.  It really felt like a start-up place.  The guy's tasting room was in his garage.  It had been fixed up and was quite clean so it wasn't gross or anything, just not what you'd usually expect.  I wonder if he'll build a "real" tasting room after he becomes a little more established.  His wines were good, though.  We bought a white grape wine (Edelweiss, a hardy grape hybridized for wine and the ability to survive northern climates) and a rhubarb wine.  He showed us his vats and told us one or two things about the winemaking process that we didn't know - something we might be able to try at home.

Today was a really thought-provoking church service.  Tonight we were supposed to have our small group Bible study.  There are four couples and right now we're watching a DVD series called The Truth Project.  One couple said this morning that they wouldn't be able to make it, then another couple decided later in the afternoon that they wouldn't make it either.  They just got home from vacation so I'm sure were exhausted.  So that left us and the couple that was hosting it tonight.  Their kids are about the same ages as ours so they told us to bring the kids and we'd watch the DVD anyway.  When we got there, one of the kids opened the case....and the DVD was gone!  It must have still been at one of the other couples' houses.  So we just hung out and had dessert while the kids played.  It was a nice time.

And now, it's bedtime!  Good night.

"The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire." -- Pamela Hansford Johnson
Show us a self-taken picture of the sunset.
Submitted by Connie.

My general rule of thumb is that if you can't decide between two things, choose both!

This was taken off the coast of the Big Island in 2004.  It was our last night there, and we had bought tickets to one of those touristy luaus, where they serve you poi and a pig that's been cooking in the sand all day.  It was fun, and the Mai Tais and Blue Hawaiians were good.

This picture was taken in 2005 at Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island in Washington.  We'd gone to Seattle to visit some friends and they took us there one day.  I remember sitting with them at a picnic table eating smoked salmon with crackers while the kids played in a freshwater lake (probably 200 yards from the saltwater ocean).  The sunset was so gorgeous we had to hike up to the bridge so that we could get some pictures.

I can't even count the number of times that I've seen a sunset or a sunrise and wished I had a camera.  I'd be showing you a whole library of photos in that case.