Monday: epic dinochickens

Once upon a time there was a dinochicken named Tristan. Tristan had a very happy life, clucking with other dinochickens, and living his life at extreme temperatures.

But one day Tristan met Tyrek. Tristan went up to Tyrek, clucking away.

But Tyrek was not a very nice dinochicken. Upon seeing Tristan, Tyrek's dinosaur instincts kicked in and he started fiercely attacking.

"Never fear, the longnecks are here!" Some of Tristan's faithful dinochicken friends came to his rescue.

The three of them overcame Tyrek and made sure that he would never again give a bad name to dinochickens.

The End

Sunday: careless

"Look at the birds...[they are] careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds." Matthew 6:26, The Message.

Careless in the care of God. That is the phrase that stuck out to me. I read this on Tuesday and it has come back many times since then. That's how I want to be. It doesn't mean that I don't have cares and concerns, but that I know that they are being taken care of so that I don't have to worry about them. It brings a deeper meaning to the word 'trust'.

I think that one of my life goals is to completely embody this concept.

...It might take a while.

Saturday: reactions

Woah. I was looking at a few other random blogs and found these little reaction buttons on the bottom. So now, if you don't really feel like you have a comment, you can still cheer me on!!

We'll see if anyone uses them.

Friday: corporate training videos

Today I did some of my corporate training. I understand why we need to do it. But what really makes me mad is when we are asked vague questions during the training and then told that the answer is wrong. Here are my examples:

1. You have found a problem. What do you do next?

A. Gather more information

B. Take action.

2. You have found a problem. What do you do?

A. Tell your manager immediately.

B. Validate the facts and then tell the customer within a few days.

C. Nothing.

3. You have a harassment problem with the person in the cube next to you. What do you do first?

A. Talk to the person

B. Tell your manager

C. Tell HR

D. Nothing.

Answers.

1. The answer is A. I would like to point out that gathering information is taking action. I got it wrong twice. (the question was posed in two different locations.)

2. The answer is A. I think B is an additional correct answer.

3. The answer is B. When you click on A it says "You talk to the person and they are unresponsive. Try a better answer." This answer bothers me because talking to the person is what they did first! It isn't my fault that the person is unresponsive. The question didn't ask what I would do if the person ignores what I say.

Thursday: twitter

Tonight I visited Twitter.com for the first time. Ever. I'm part of the dark ages. But I wanted real-time updates on So You Think You Can Dance and it seemed like the best place to get it. It worked rather well. Alex is gone due to an injury, but it sounds like he'll be back next year.

We went to see IronMan 2 after work because it was rather hot out to be in the house. It was good. The middle was a little long, but I enjoyed the end. I was sad that the robot didn't play a larger role.

This afternoon I spent about 2 hours measuring the thickness of some panels. It was a riot, let me tell you. Oh, and then I wrapped the panels in foam. But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about Verniers. (It's a way to precisely measure something.) The first time I used a Vernier was in general physics lab. It's kind of cool - I like lining up the lines. But I think it takes way too long to read. Today I had to read 0.0 + .075 + .008 + .0001. Sure, I can do that math in my head but it takes just that split second longer. Oh, and I had to move the whole panel around to see the .0001, so that definitely took longer.

Wednesday: owie

So after bush whacking yesterday I found a scratch my finger. There also looked like there might have been something in the scratch. After Ben's sliver infection fiasco I did the obvious thing. I looked at it under a microscope.

The thing that looked like a sliver was just dirt in a line. Phew.

Tuesday: bushwacking

Our Bible Study helped out at the church today by removing a small jungle and painting the front awning. It was hot, but we finished in the right amount of time and it looks a lot better!

Before:

After:

Tuesday: hahaha

Monday: how I woke up

8:45:00 am: casually turn my head to see what time it is.

8:45:01am: OH NO! I NEED TO TRANSFER THE FILES BY 9AM OR WE'RE IN DEEP TROUBLE!!

8:45:02am: jump out of bed

8:45:03am: wonder where the files are

8:45:04am: wonder what exactly is going on

8:45:05am: try to remember if it was a dream

8:45:10am: figure it must have been from a dream - at least, it better be because otherwise the files won't be transferred and we'll be in deep trouble.

8:45:15am: decided to get up because I'm already out of bed and have a ton of adrenaline pumping through me.

Sunday: today

Today was a very nice day. I went to bed (rather late). I got up. I had a donut. And Spice Tea. Yum. We went to church. We made lots of plans after church. We went to Home Depot and bought oil. We went home. I sent a ton of email based on the plans that had been made. I ate lunch. I quilted and watched TV. I talked to Dad. I PvPed.

Saturday

I snuggled with Flurry for my nap this afternoon. I was rather surprised that she didn't leave.

It was the official good bye party for Dusty and Laura. Laura made a bunch of delicious food and we played RockBand. We played our favorites, including Maps and Move Along. We sang Yellow Submarine and Ben added bubbly water noises which I found hilarious. Overall, a very fun party! (And we tried to ignore the fact the they are leaving. It worked well for me because I interacted more with Dusty this week than most previous weeks.)

Friday: blog

Today we have our esteemed guest, Amanda, here to tell us some of her thoughts on blogging.

Interviewer Amanda (IA): So, Amanda, why did you choose to start a blog?

Responder Amanda (RA): Well, there are two main reasons. First was to share with friends and family what is going on in our life so that they know what's happening even if we aren't able to talk very often. The second is to help me remember all the little day to day things that I would otherwise forget - like a journal. Like this entry - it is a small enough event that I would probably forget it, but it was so much fun!

IA: What are your favorite and least favorite parts about blogging?

RA: Well, one of my least favorite things is that because anyone can read it, I don't write about all of the things going on in my life. But one of my favorite things is that anyone can read it. I love getting comments. (Hint, hint.)

IA: I notice that you post most days...why do you choose to do that?

RA: Well, one reason is that I always love having new posts to read from friends, so I figure other people feel the same way. Also, it keeps me in the habit of writing. Although I'm not sure that the "nothing interesting" posts are worth it. What do you think?

IA: I'm not sure either

RA: Well, that makes two of us.

IA: Actually, it only makes one of us.

Thursday: middle of the year

Happy Middle of the Year. It's flying by. It's feels like just a short time ago it was the beginning of the year and my day-by-day calendar was very full. Now it is amazingly half done. :)

As middle of the year days went, it was very nice. I got to eat lunch outside. I only had a few people in my office needing help. And...Grid started working!!

What is grid you ask? It's a mod to help see what's going on in the raid. Monday my grid looked like the one on the right. Now it looks like the one on the left. While I guess it might not mean much to you, but can much more easily see ALL the spells that I have on people.

Ben always laughs at me because my mods as a whole seem to have a mind of their own as to when they are going to work and when they aren't. I'm just glad this one is working again.

Wednesday: hazardous wastes

Ah, hazardous wastes. I know they aren't supposed to go in the trash and yet I never had enough gumption to actually bring them to the correct recycling location, so they just sit around the house. I know, sounds scary, doesn't it.

Luckily, Laura finally has a reason to get rid of her hazardous wastes, so we're going to trade some wastes and each bring them to their proper disposal area. At least, I think that is the plan. One place might take all of them. Yay for housecleaning!!

Besides that...nothing super interesting has happened in the past few days. Work has been really busy and has flown by, but nothing really interesting has happened. I watched So You Think You Can Dance and think it is pretty obvious who is leaving tomorrow...unless the judges feel the guy/girl ratio out be too out of whack. I also really enjoyed Alex's dance, and am having a hard time picking a favorite this season.

Monday: elephant

Hanneke and I suddenly enjoyed being African Elephants in high school, which brought forth a long love of elephants. Therefore, thanks to Brian for finding this gem...

Sunday: hiding

Ah, some more pictures of Flurry. Ben played drums in church this morning, so the morning was pretty busy but we took it easy the rest of the day. We had several chores that we needed to finish and I had a long nap to take. :)

Saturday: Flurry take 3

For some reason my camera ended up in my pocket today while I was doing chores, so Flurry got a several pictures taken of her.

She doesn't get to go in the garage very often, but once in a while I find her on top of the car. This is the first time I had a camera.

Oh, the classic sink pose.

Friday: the last Friday

Today was probably our last Friday night with both Dusty and Laura (although we will see them again next Saturday.) It's been a long standing tradition that we go out to dinner and do something on Friday night. It has lasted about six years and two states.

We started the night by going to the Dugout. Last time the four of us where here, a few months after we had all moved here, we come here and had terrible service and terrible food. It was much better this time, although the waitress forgot to bring refills. Then she said she forgot to add the extra toppings to the check. But then she forgot that she didn't forget, and the toppings really were on the check.

Ben and Dusty doing something cool with the iphone. It took a lot of pictures to get a good one of both of them smiling.

Laura cleaning up after we made apple crisp.

I've decided not to be too sad (yet), as Laura is still around and we'll get to see Dusty a few more times in the next month. I think it'll be a lot tougher on Ben because he normally sees Dusty every day at work. :(

Thursday: the best moving-help day ever

After work we went over to Luke and Rebekah's to help them pack. (Side note: since we were over that way and didn't have a lot of time we stopped and Joe's McDonalds and got to see him for a few minutes!)

Anyway, this was day two of packing up the truck for Luke and Rebekah, which worked really well for Ben and I...I think we only had to bring down two loads of stuff. Oh, Ben had to help with one desk, but that was the only heavy item. I swept and swiffered. Sandra did an amazing job cleaning the stove. And then we were done! Sweet. While I would have happily helped move more things, it was nice to have it be an easy day too.

Wednesday: yum

I had lunch with Jess today. Hugh managed to get his snacks out of a spill free container for the first time! It was wonderfully warm out too after spending the morning in a cold office. I sit in the draft when the a/c turns on, and it is rather annoying.

So You Think You Can Dance was on tonight. I'm not sure who is going to be in the bottom three - usually I have a guess about at least two, but this time I only have a maybe guess about one person.

Tuesday: Going away party

Today was Luke and Rebekah's going away party at small group. We'll be seeing them several more times before they actually leave, but not many. It's been good having them with us, and I wish them all the best in their new place down south.

The whole group showed up! Twenty people + one baby + one guest = 22 people!! Yay for friends!

Luke and Rebekah with their cake. We brought ice cream too, but it quickly melted. Not before we could eat some though!

Monday: visitors

Travis, Allison, and Scarlet came over for the night. We had pizza, played some games, and watched Scarlet be cute and Flurry be territorial.

Weekend: camping!

This weekend we went camping with our small group. It was a ton of fun, relaxing, and the weather was about perfect. We played some Frisbee, took a walk, visited a castle, and ate good food.

The group:

Ben and Amanda (the only good one of both of us, even if the angle is off)

Friends watching a sunset

The sunset

Ben playing Frisbee

Thursday: unislander

Today was better than the rest of the week. I got to try out a new piece of equipment which was interesting. I also fixed a piece of equipment all by myself. Sometimes I feel like I'm not very good at fixing things (mainly due to the WIPs and wire twisters), so it was nice to have something work.

We went out with Dusty and Laura for an early weekend meal. I made up a new word: unislander. Here it is used in a sentence (or two): "A bridge is not an unislander. A sand bar could be an unislander."

Wednesday: gum

I tried out a new gum recently. It's Wrigley's React.

I opened the package, and the gum wrappers were black. It was surprising because that's a color that I've never seen before on a gum wrapper. I opened it...the gum was black too! Weird. However, it was quite delicious and the taste lasted pretty long...I expect I'll be getting it again.

Tuesday: hello

Hi.

Still not much to write. Ben mowed the grass. Small group was fun. It is staying light out so long! Time for bed. Maybe something more interesting will happen tomorrow.

Smsnfs...or Amanda.

Monday

Yeah, I don't have much to say today. Work was work. Raiding is not going so well. My plan was to respond to emails during the down times but I haven't done much of that. I have worked on my crossword puzzle though.

Sunday: bulletin

We got a nice paragraph in the bulletin today.

Saturday: rummage sale

Today there was a rummage sale at church. We got donations from people in the church and then sold them as a fund raiser. It always surprises me what things are purchased with lots of excitement (a cat waterer that needs some TLC to start) and which things don't get sold (a coffee maker). There was also one item that we had no idea what it was for, although it kind of looked like a cooking utensil. It was sold too, so someone must have known.

A telephone??

Ben manning the tables.

Friday: a week of hexagons?

Here is the quilt block of the day from my calendar. It is part of a "hexagon sampler quilt". Ok, maybe not something that I would make but is an interesting use of hexagons.

Here is the next block of the hexagon sampler quilt. Yeah - I don't see any hexagons. To refresh everyone's memory, let's go to wikipedia.com: "In geometry, a hexagon is a polygon with six edges and six vertices." To me, these look like diamonds, even if there are six of them.

Here is today's hexagon block. It turns out this is a hexagram. (A hexagram is a six-pointed geometric star figure - wikipedia again). While not a hexagon, they can at least get a few points. Oh, I guess the one above is a hexagram too. It still reminds me more of diamonds.


As I was taking off today's picture to show on here, I noticed the weekend's....also not hexagons. Nor hexagrams. Hmm. It does have six lines coming out of the middle though. However, that doesn't count in my book.
I go back and find the original hexagon quilt. Only 1/2 of the blocks actually have hexagons. Perhaps it should be called a geometric sampler quilt. Oh well, at least I found the whole thing funny.

Thursday: Cars

I saw Dusty while driving today! This is a huge deal because I'm really, really bad at noticing friends (in other cars) while driving. I get teased about it often in fact. But this time I saw Dusty. So I gave him huge smile and wave and was proud of myself.

Wednesday: back to work

Ah, it was the first day back to work. It turned out to be slightly stressful due to this SUPER HOT DROP EVERYTHING problem that I could only work on a little bit at a time. But it was dealt with in the end. The rest of the day was busy and I ended up working on something that I didn't think was "due" for a while but is really "due" next week. It's pretty small so I don't foresee a problem.

Then I watched "So you think you can dance." While going to houses was an interesting touch, it was also rather boring. One of the guys I liked didn't get in.

It was cold today. But also rainy. I love the rain and we really needed it.

Tuesday: home and pictures

Well, we got home to Binghamton without mishap. But then the check engine light turned on. Bother. Car issues have become a problem since I work in a different location than Ben now. So we decided to get an appointment at the car place while we were driving past. It ended up being minor, but by that time we really just wanted to go home, not sit in a waiting room for an hour.

But on a happier note, here are some pictures from the weekend!

Dad and Pat on a boat ride

Another short boat ride

Ben trapped in the car.

Dad and I being Harbor Masters.

Dad's birthday! He's opening his presents wrapped in towels.

Saturday: family

Today Dad and Pat came up to join us for the weekend. Although it was pretty cold, it was sunny and when we went on a boat ride it got pretty warm. Overall it was a nice and relaxing day with good food and fun times with family.

I have some pictures but no easy way of uploading them, so you'll have to wait until I get home.

Friday: donut day

Good evening! We made it to Michigan safely and on time. Yay. Since it is donut day we also got some donuts...there were only seven left and the store that we went to so we bought them all. :). They were delicious. Three cheers for donuts.

I'm writing this on an iPad which is kind of fun. I just found out that I can actually type pretty quickly on it, although I hope the formatting comes out ok. I am enjoying typing on it so I want to keep typing. It is a little annoying because the special characters need to go to a "different" keyboard, but as long as Im just typing letters it is almost Ike a normal keyboard without the tactile confirmation that you pushed a button. The auto spell correct also works really well so that is helpful.

Wednesday: random

I'm not really sure what to write about today, so I'm going to go with five random pictures. We'll hope they're interesting ones and not things like houses we didn't buy.

Nathan's wedding had a photo booth. I really like this picture.

Here's Dad playing the Wii! He got hooked on it enough that they got their own.

This is the house where I grew up. It appears as though we're having a garage sale.

This is my 2nd grade class picture. The the second on the left in the front row (with crimped hair)!

Oh, we did end up with a house that we didn't buy.

Ok, so I ended up cheating a bit. My first five random pictures included three class pictures (preK, 2nd, and 3rd grades) which I thought was a bit much and rather boring. So the top two pictures were on the second try.

Tuesday: campfire

Tonight we had a campfire at Luke's. It turned out to be a really nice night because it wasn't as hot as it was yesterday. Here's (some) of the Bible Study - we finally got a group picture taken.

Looking at Luke's garden

Jenn asked if we were Dutch and I proceeded to tell everyone about Dutch Dance. Here I am in my costume with my partner.

And here we are doing the Windmills.

Sunday: baking

Ah, it's been a pretty relaxing day today. We went to church, I took a nap, read, worked on the quilt, cleaned (just a bit), and baked. Ben baked with me - he made the pb cookies and I made the bran muffins. I find it interesting how our baking styles differ. I tend to put in about the right amount and Ben puts in exactly the right amount. I don't completely pack the brown sugar but add a bit extra to make up for it, while Ben packs it to get it correct. Both styles seem to work, although I guess mine has a higher chance of being not as consistent.

I'm still not sure exactly how Mom made the bran muffins. They seemed close to how I remember them this time, but still not as dark or as big. Mine still taste like I expect, but it always makes me wonder what the difference is. I even add more bran than the recipe calls for, so either she was adding twice as much bran or there was something else sneaky. Or I have a faulty memory.

Saturday: why I love Flurry

1. She's cute

2. She's soft

3. She's funny

4. She's an awesome bug hunter.

Yay for bug hunters.

The quilt is progressing:

Friday: books and games

I added a new gadget to the blog (it's down under all the blog list and such)...what I'm reading. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully it will help me keep track of what I've read better.

Clay, Jess, and Hugh came over for pizza and games tonight. Below is Hugh's first time playing Rockband. We also played Cities and Knights Catan which I haven't played in a long time. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday: email

Tonight I was at home and emailed my work account a reminder to email someone tomorrow. (I only have their email addresses at work.) One of those little things that need to be done and I keep forgetting.

Two seconds later I turned to my work computer and saw the email.