Sunday

Today we decided to just stay at home and enjoy the day. We did do some chores, but also just enjoyed not being at work. There was a wonderful rain storm.

Saturday: air show

The airshow today was mostly fun. It was hot, but we were able to sit in the shadow of an airplane for most of it which helped a ton. It was mostly antique aircraft, but an F16 came for a little bit to show of it's "exceptional maneuvering capability." There were also a bunch of acrobatics that were cool to watch too.

Thursday: well, tomorrow's a new day

Well, I've had better days, although really only a small percent of the day wasn't great. And one problem was fixed and the other has hopes of being fixed tomorrow. Well, only two major problems today. We won't mention the normal problems that happen in the course of a normal day lately. Those are considered challenges and I guess are what make the job fun. My goal is to get a project done by next Friday. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

But I digress. The most exciting thing of the day had to do with those two airshow tickets I mentioned. I thought someone was just trying to get rid of them and encourage aircraft love. But it turns out that the guy ended up saying they were for my hard work on the project and I got congrats from my boss and my boss' boss. The other good thing about the airshow is I'll have something to take a picture of again.

I'm raiding tonight. We'll see how well it goes. I've been significantly cutting back since my last WoW post.

Wednesday

Well, today has been a goodish day. Better than fine, not quite good yet. They've been that way for a bit now. My big project that I'm working on is now about 6x over schedule, but the end is finally in sight. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself once it's done. :)

We tried a new recipe tonight. Ben and I borrowed a cook book from Dee...cooking with four ingredients. Since there are only four ingreients the prep seems to be simple, which is what we are looking for. Anyway, it was a Coca-cola chicken. Not very cola-y, but still good. We put it with beans and cous-cous and it seems like a healthy meal even.

Tuesday

Hmm, what's new today? It is rather warm out...warmer than it has been in the house for a while. I kept thinking it was Wednesday. We hired someone to mow the lawn. We still can't mow all of the lawn because it is a bit to soggy. I wish I was better at reading and not falling asleep.

The small text says "Fearfully and wonderfully made." And it was for a retreat, sorry Han. :(

Monday: I forgot what I was going to write about

Well, at one point today I had something I was going to write about. It wasn't really that interesting, but it would have been more interesting than this post will be.

I've now sat here for a few minutes trying to figure it out and couldn't. We got some orange pop at the grocery store. They've stopped selling chicken enchilada helper which is our favorite. Gas is significantly cheaper in PA. Three more weeks of work before I'm planning on taking a day off. I'm tired. I'm wearing my "Beautiful Woman" shirt. It's a good thing that the grass will be mowed tomorrow because the weeds are getting a bit unruly again. Joe and Dee were using DVD shelves for their books...an idea I really like because the shelves were thinner and in smaller segments to prevent bowing. I'm not raiding tonight. :)

Sunday: gross

Well, the trip home was uneventful. We started to seal the granite in the bathroom, and Flurry is about to have a heart attack. We have kept her out of her favorite room all day.

While I was cleaning the kitty litter I noticed some grass had dropped out of the mower. It did this a bit before, so I didn't think much of it and started to clean it up. Well, I'm guessing we got some extra dirt up in the mower on the first mow and it was damp and there were maggots. Yuck. Not a lot yet, but enough that we removed the rest of the gunk from the mower like we should have earlier.

Saturday: PA

This weekend we went to visit Joe and Dee. It was either rainy or hot and humid so we didn't do a lot outside, but we still had lots of fun.

Ben, Joe, Dee, and Ben's trophy for winning mini-golf:


Ben being cute:

Thursday: stuff

Well, today was a nice day because I got to leave work earlier than normal due to the holiday. I also had a few extra minutes before the bus came to take me between buildings and so I got my blood pressure taken. It was in the normal range.

In the middle of the night last night I sort-of woke up and told Ben to get off my binder...I needed it. He grunted a little bit and I thought "oh no, I'm going to have to stay awake long enough to make him give it to me." So I told him I needed it again only to realize I was in the middle of a waking dream and that Ben didn't have my binder. Phew.

We went to see Wall-E tonight. I really enjoyed it. We went to the Owego theatre which I also really liked. The prices were reasonable ($4.25 for 7pm showing) and the building was old and quaint. The floors weren't quite flat and the seating wasn't tiered, but the atmosphere was great and the movie as just as good as from a newer theatre.

Flurry just found a spider. She's having fun playing with it before she plays with it a little too hard and kills it.

Tuesday: work

Well, work has its ups and downs as I'm sure it always will have, but I'm becoming much more comfortable there now. I'm getting to know the people and I'm starting to not be afraid to be myself. I'm starting to kind of know what I'm talking about and so am speaking up more. With that comes more laughter too. :)

Tuesday: Wow

Well, Ben and I just turned off automatic renewal for WoW. This is a big step for us as we've been playing the game for...3 years? We're not done with the game, but raiding is just getting too late for us and we don't want to pay for 6 months at a time anymore. There's more to the game than raiding the end-game dungeons, so we'll see if that keeps us hooked enough for awhile.

We'll see what changes when the expansion comes out. We'll also see if we follow in the footsteps of half the people that quit...and come back one week later.

Monday: more misc

Well, I'm waiting for a raid to start. Sometimes I wonder how much longer I'm going to play WoW. I think it depends on the book that I'm reading. If I stopped playing, I might go to the library more.

Today...was today. It went by really quickly. The person I'm subbing in for started her maternity leave. I had to change the order for one whole operation. I'm hoping that it stays like that. And it's only a four day week!

Saturday: misc

Good evening.

Still not a lot is new. Ben and I resealed the kitchen counter top today and that was surprisingly easy. We still need to do the bathroom, but that should be even easier.

I might ramble for a bit now. I'm playing WoW, but am doing a lot of just running around so there is time to type.

It really annoys me when a TV season ends up putting only one or two episodes on the last disc. We have to wait to get the disc, quickly watch them, and then have to send it back almost right away. Not cool.

Speaking of cool, our basement is still cool. It had cooled off for a bit and it was cold down here, but it has warmed up again so I'm glad we ended up moving the computers.

Ben and I are reading a good new sci-fi series. The problem is that we're currently reading the same book.

Thursday: today

Well, today was again fine. Not great, but fine. Actually, it was really busy. Too many meetings :(

One of these days I'll find some more real pictures to post...

Well, today went fine. Not great, but fine. Ben mowed again and the lawn looks a ton better...he chopped up a lot of weeds. At least, he chopped up the tall ones. We still have some small ones, but they are harder to see and as long as the lawn looks lawnish that's all that matters now.



from XKCD.com The tag goes as follows: "I bet my future kids will read this someday. TO FUTURE KIDS: how did you get internet in the cellar?"

Tuesday

..."on dere feetz"

Monday: not much new

Well, not much new happened today. I realize I haven't posted a picture lately either, but there haven't been many good picture taking opportunities. So...

hi.

Monday: Pep talk II

Today we all need to be like trees. Magestic, enduring, and huggable. Trees are able to bend in storms but still remain intact. Just like trees, we need to grow a little bit with each attempt that we make. We must strive to not become firewood. Tonight, trees will not be scared of the shadows..no! We make shadows. We will overcome the shadows.

Saturday: Strawberry festival

Today Ben and I went to the Owego Strawberry festival. It sadly didn't have many strawberries and did have a lot of people. It seemed to be more of a reason to have a bunch of craft vendors on the streets than to celebrate strawberries. But, we did have some strawberry shortcake and some chocolate-covered strawberries so not all was lost. Also, even though it was busy they did a good job with traffic control and shuttling people, so that was nice.

Friday: tools

Yesterday I learned about my new favorite tool...an automatic zip-tie puller-to-the-right-tension and smooth-cutter. It was amazing.

Ben is trying to fix his computer. It is frustrating, as normal. :( It doesn't help that I haven't unpacked some of the rarely used boxes yet.

Tuesday: one thing

Today I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. At one point I was convinced that I had lost a part. This meant looking stupid in front of a bunch of people, but not really anything else. I told God I needed one things to go right, and then wondered at myself because several things were going right...it was just that the things that were going wrong were going wrong. Anyway, it turns out that the things I thought I was missing hadn't even been received yet. This totally brightened my day and even helped today. I guess I got my one thing from God. :)

Monday: Work

I'm trying to teach myself that a stressful day doesn't equate to a bad day. I'm also trying to leave work at work for the night.

I'm going to be helping out on another project (MH-60) while someone takes maternity leave. I'm excited that I can talk about this one a bit more, but the program is much more stable so there might not be much to talk about.

Sunday: shopping

After church today, Ben and I went shopping. This is actually a pretty normal event since they shopping stuff is about 25 min away from home but only about 5 min away from church. Anyway, stuff took a little longer than normal, and Ben and I hate shopping. It was annoying this time too.

But, we now have a lawn mower, food, and some more extension cords.

With the lawn mower, we were able to mow about half the lawn. The other half is still to squishy. (Too little grass, too much damp dirt). This is Ben mowing the lawn. I was trying to be sneaky so it is taken through a screen)

Saturday: a lovely day

Today was a lovely day. We did some chores, but I just had a really good time hanging out and doing stuff with Ben. The chores included some quick cleaning of the basement that resulted in a much better looking basement. I love cleaning that does that.

Friday: basement

Well, Ben wasn't feeling well today and we were thinking it might be the heat. It isn't super hot out, but it's been warm. And the computer room is even warmer. So, we moved the "office" to the basement. Not quite as pretty, but more windows if needed and naturally cooler.


Here is Flurry enjoying the fact we're downstairs now too. That fur coat is probably a pain sometimes.

Thursday: Try 2

Well, today wasn't great but it did go better than expected.

I had meetings from 9-3 today. It's a personal record. However, I was late to 4, skipped one, and made it on time to one. It was kind of crazy.

But the decision that made yesterday bad was reversed today. This helped my day go much better.

Thursday: awake

Well, Ben was right. I slept until my alarm went off. I was having a lot of dreams near the end so I think I even got enough sleep.

Here's hoping that today goes better than yesterday. I have some doubts though. :(

Wednesday: sleepy

After a hard day at work I'm sleepy. And Ben convinced me that it's ok to go to bed at 9. So I'm going to read a bit and I expect fall asleep quickly.

meals for hot days

We're looking for some good meals for hot days. ideally cold foods but microwavable foods would be ok too. Any ideas?

Monday: hotness

Well, today I got my haircut and joined facebook. I thought I should join since everyone else seems to. and it'll give me another way to waste my time while playing warcraft.

In other news, it is absurdly hot over here and I'm in an upstairs room with two computers. We're going to move the computers to the basement, but in the meantime I'm a ball-of-sweat.

The Weekend: Watkin's Glen

This weekend we went camping to Watkin's Glen with some friends from church. We of course picked the first hot weekend of the year, but we managed to stay mostly cool. Saturday we went on a hike in the gorge. I think I liked this one better than the one in Ithaca...there was more dripping water and we were able to walk closer to the river.


Here we are by a waterfall that we could walk under

Here is the campsite. You'll notice we have a piece of plastic over our tent. That is because we had a 5 minute rainstorm, but enough to show us that our rain fly leaked. Ben looked at me and said, "Did we ever water proof the rain fly?" I just gave him a strange look. So, now we need to add that to the list. :)

We also played a fun round of frisbee golf, ate some good food, played some games (the girls did a lot of winning) and just had a good time with our friends.

More photos.

Wednesday: landscaping overview

By popular demand: http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.hilldore/Landscaping

Tuesday: the weird, the gross, and the exciting

The weird: The dream I was having last night before I woke up...I was on a tour in the desert. But it had a ton of oases. Oasises? Anyway, the camels were really nice, kind of like ridable dogs. There was also a Burger King every 1-2 hours so we won't get dehydrated.

The gross: I saw my first ant in the house today. Yuck.

The exciting: Betsy got engaged!

Monday: more house projects

Today Dad and I did more house projects...we painted the office and fireplace and fixed the bathroom.
We took a walk around the loop and met some neighboors. I should probably get out more so I'm not meeting people 9 months after I move in.

Sunday: mini golf and finished room

Today we went to play mini golf . I enjoyed the course as it had a lot of cool sculptures.

We also finished the the room we were painting. (Re-hung the door, vacuumed, etc.)

Saturday: home improvements

Well, since Dad is here we did some home improvements today. We fixed the toilet (surprisingly easy), painted the trim, fixed the grill, and prepped some stuff for tomorrow. We also grilled now that the grill is working and ate outside...it was very nice.

Thursday: grass

Well, our lawn is actually starting to look like a lawn.

Wednesday: Dad's here

Dad's here tonight :). We had dinner and played a game and watched some TV.

Tuesday: picnic

Well, even though it was really warm yesterday, it was very cool today on the second grilling session of the week. This time it was with our Bible Study. So after eating and being cold everyone came to our house to play games. It was a lot of fun.