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.

Monday: 5 question Friday

1. Do you have an iPhone, and if so what apps are your favorites?

I have an iPhone by proxy. My favorite app is "Map" because it is sort of like a GPS and comes in very handy when we're unexpectedly lost. FloodIt and the fast Risk game Ben has are next.

2. Where do you go to relax?

A couch or the bed with my book.

3. What makes you cringe at the thought of touching?

Maggots in water.

4. If you could have any celebrity show up on your doorstep who would it be and why? Nathan Fillion. I've just liked everything he's been in, so obviously he'd be cool in real life too.

5. What do you think is your best physical feature?

My eyes.

Sunday: shirt and lunch

So Friday night I checked the mail before on our way to dinner. Woah...I package from my dad! I wasn't expecting anything, but it was a random shirt! How fun.

Then for lunch Ben made grilled cheese using some smoked gouda with bacon. It was delicious.

Friday: a night with the Parrs

Tonight we decided to eat at Our Country Hearts (which none of us had eaten at before) and then play some mini-golf.

Ben stole the camera and started taking pictures of random things.

I told him he had to take pictures of friends, so he took a picture of his Coke (the picture actually turned out pretty cool I think.)

He managed to take a few more before I stole it back from him.

Then we played mini-golf.

Lastly, we watched UP. It was a much sadder movie than I had anticipated. I don't want Ben to die!! But, I did love Kevin. I thought it was funny how she tried to imitate the objects around her.

Thursday: dandylions

So today I thought we'd talk about dandylions. Really, I think they're rather beautiful. Sure, they are annoying when you're trying to keep them out of your yard, but everywhere else I like them. They're just the perfect color yellow to be super cheery.

Then after the beautiful yellow flowers come these wonderful poofs. As we were driving this weekend we saw field upon field of poofs...it looked like so much fun to play in.

I'll admit though that dandelion stems are ugly.

Wednesday: unproductive

The unproductiveness started when I tried to fix a wire twister at work. To put it in perspective, I think trying to fix wire twisters are worse than WIPs. Trying being the key word. I was hoping that they could just sit on the "fix this" desk forever, but alas, it didn't work.

Then I was cutting pieces for my quilt and Flurry decided she wanted to lay on my piece of fabric. She even hissed at me. After trying to get her to move twice and being unsuccessful I gave up.

Tuesday: cereal-luck

The luck of the day was a cereal-luck. Everyone brought some cereal to share along with their own milk and bowl. And probably spoons too. It was fun to see everyone eating out of a bowl and enjoying all sorts of cereal. Luke seemed to be in seventh heaven. Cereal-luck must have been a huge draw because we had seventeen people come tonight. Woah - I think that's the most we've ever had. Too bad it was raining so we had to be inside. We played some games and hung out...a very fun night.

However, I'm tired now. It just hit me about an hour ago.

Monday: colors

Today I had 100 circles with 11 various colors in them. Unfortunately, four circles were wrong...I had an extra blue and one less brown and an extra green and one less gray. Since I just had a bunch of tiny, hand scribbled notes on a wire chart for the colors it took me about 30 minutes to find out where my mistakes were because I couldn't read my own writing. :(

This is Flurry taking a nap a few weeks ago. I think it's really cute when she covers her eyes with her paw.

Sunday: Loos and visits

Dad got quoted in an MSNBC article. :)

Flurry got to go visit Dusty and Laura. While she didn't really appreciate the ride over, she did seem to enjoy their bathroom.

Saturday: happy 6th anniversary!

Today is our 6th anniversary! I have a wonderful husband...I'm so blessed to be with him. He's funny and thoughtful and compassionate. It's been a great 6 years together.

Friday: around

We had a very relaxing day today. The weather was much warmer than we expected, which was pleasant. We spent a lot of time reading.

We went on a little hike by a stream.


And we went to a winery and meadery. We've never done wine tasting before and it was interesting. Not something I need to do very often, but we did come away with two of our favorite meads and a few new ones to share.

Thursday: no work!

I got home at 3am today and poor Ben had to warm me up. I hadn't taken a coat and by the time I got home I was a large ice cube. I didn't make him warm up my toes though.

Around 9am Flurry decided she wanted to go under the covers with me and so she started tapping me on the shoulder. So I let her under but woke up enough to get up shortly. I went downstairs around 10 and ended up taking a nap. :) It's been a long, long time since I was up that late, but it was totally worth it.

Ben and I are at a B&B tonight. We have a little one room cabin and it is currently raining out and you can hear it and its wonderful pitter-patter. We had a nice meal and are just enjoying relaxing and talking. We also watched the end of Air Force One and now are watching the beginning. Several questions have been answered so far (such as how they can shoot bullets inside a plane and not worry about a pressure loss).

Wednesday: puzzle night

Today I couldn't wait for work to be done. Not only am I not working Thursday or Friday, it was puzzle night! Jess, Heidi, and I got together for tacos and to put together a puzzle.

We did a 1000 piece puzzle of a rain forest in 7.5 hours. It turned out to have a lot of green and the waterfall was pretty hard, which ate up a lot of time. Around midnight things were looking pretty good...we had a lot of pieces still to go, but there weren't many big holes. It took another 2.5 hours, but VICTORY!

It was a great night with two wonderful friends doing a great activity - one that's easy to talk over but doesn't require talking.

Monday: pictures and plots

My brother was in a bike race a bit ago and sent some pictures. He's in third place here!!

Marcelo wrote a computer program for my dice question...

mode: 4 (the same!)

median: 6

max: 94

Only two more days of work this week!! I'm super excited.

Saturday: probability

So I have six dice. How many throws will it take to get a 1-2-3-4-5-6? Any die can be any number. The first roll all six dice are rolled and for subsequent rolls only the "double numbers" are rolled.

For example, the first roll ends up with a 1-1-4-5-6-6. Two dice are rerolled, getting 1-3-4-5-5-6. One die is rerolled, getting 1-1-3-4-5-6. One die is rerolled, getting 1-2-3-4-5-6, for a total of four throws.

I tried figuring out how I would do this mathematically, but couldn't figure it out. So I did it the empirical way:

median: 7.5

mode: 4

total repetitions: 184

Friday: meals

Today I had some great meals with friends. Jess and Hugh came over for lunch. It was nice. It's wonderful to have such a great friend. Dusty, Laura, and I went out for Mexican tonight. It was fun...even when Dusty stole the best part of Laura's cheese quesadilla.

Thursday: Office 2007

Today I feel as though I have several things to write about. Luckily for you, I choose the most light-hearted one. The rest seem to be on-going thoughts, so you might get them at a later time.

I was going to be away from my computer for a while today, so I took the plunge and installed Office 2007. (Huh, I just realized it's now 2010...that's a while). (Note that they were going to force us to install Office 2007 next week, so it really isn't that much of a plunge.) I mainly was using power point and outlook. Outlook was pretty similar, so not a big deal there. Power point...well, I like how they preview colors when you're changing colors, and I like how the dumb clipboard is gone (HIP-HIP-HOORAY!!), and how you can change objects while they were still grouped. However, I was having some serious problems with the slide master when slides were being imported from Office 2003. I also could not copy and paste a set of grouped items. I tended to get one of the items along with some extra stuff that just showed up. I had to ungroup them to have them copy.

Here's what I'm still waiting for Windows to put in...keyboard shortcuts to copy/paste two items and a way to undo something two "do-s" ago while keeping the last thing that was done.

Tuesday: Frolf

Today we had a sandwich-luck following by some team Frisbee golf. It was a great night. The sandwich-luck worked well, although we were almost short on cheese and had a lot of tomatoes. Ah, but that's part of the fun of potlucks, right? Sometimes you end up with a lot of one thing and not enough of something important.

Then we played team Frisbee golf, which tends to work pretty well because it evens out the good and not-so-good throwers. I think I would have had a blast as a photographer, because we were having so much fun...faces when the Frisbee rolls under four rows of picnic benches, Rebekah arching over a creek to get a Frisbee, Clay showing his son the "carnivorous" plants, Luke hanging like a monkey, and the confusion as to why there is confusion about which gate we were aiming for. Ah, fun times with great friends.

Monday: Trauma

I got the WoW weapon I've been wanting for awhile. It's name is Trauma...it is the fire work looking thing circled in yellow.

I know it's called Trauma, but it is really an anti-trauma weapon. It just did 10% of my healing on a fight, which is a huge amount.

Sunday

The quilt is progressing

We opened up the extra bedroom so that I would remember to vacuum it, and Flurry then started hanging out in the room constantly. Here she is during one of the few times she joined us in the computer room though.

Saturday: productive

Today was a beautiful and productive day. I recycled some old (and big) computer parts, did some yard work, did some inside work, and took a nap. I had a picnic with friends and we played team Frisbee golf. My favorite hole by far was the bird house high up in the tree, but there were several fun holes. And it was lovely to just be outside for a while.

Friday: annoyed

Today I am annoyed. At least we got to have a picnic dinner with Dusty and Laura. The weather was beautiful.

Thursday: noticing

Lately I've noticed that I don't notice much while in the car. Dusty always teases me about not seeing his red truck when he's waving, but it's more than that. For example, I noticed a bright blue house the other day on a road that we travel on at least four times a week for the past three years. How did I not notice it before? I also seem to see new houses every day on my way to work, which I've now been doing for a year.

What have you noticed lately that has been around for a long time?

Wednesday: Flurry

RAWR

Tuesday: purses

I opened a tin of mints and they were in shapes of little purses! It was exciting.

Bible Study was good tonight, and afterwards we played Nutzee. We played with fewer people than normal and it really changed the dynamics. It was fun too.

Monday: nothing funny

I am sad to report that nothing funny has happened these last few days. (Although that sentence is almost funny in and of itself.) I've been having a hard time finding something to post (which might be kind of obvious) so today I was watching really hard for something. There wasn't. I'm tired of working and a lot of people around me are working more than I and so they're tired too.

Oh wait! There was one thing. We have an important audit tomorrow and therefore got an email that said the following: "Tomorrow is business casual (no sneakers/jeans). Scott will be working this effort, so please pick up his work as required. " Here's how I understood it at first: "Tomorrow is business casual (no sneakers/jeans). Scott will be working [on getting dressed], so please pick up his work." The funny part is that this kind of made sense...we're all rather out of it and so obviously need extra time to get dressed.

Sunday: books

Last night I realized I had started book 2 in a series before book 1. It was rather depressing because there was a lot of the beginning of book 2 that was rather confusing. So I stopped book 2 and started book 1.

I'm still a bit annoyed.

Saturday: going crazy?

The scene: Amanda's office. There are a ton of papers on her desk and an empty plastic water bottle.

*The water bottle tips over.

*Amanda thinks "grr."

*The water bottle tips over again.

*Amanda thinks "YOU DUMB WATER BOTTLE! I'LL THROW YOU AGAINST THE WALL IF YOU MISBEHAVE!"

*Amanda starts laughing out-loud as she realizes that she just yelled at the empty water bottle.

*Amanda decides she might be going crazy.

*Amanda moves the water bottle to a safer location and continues her work.

Friday: hmm

So I was writing my post (which I have again written twice) and found this in the middle.

"A plan of how to eat donuts for dinner and not get fat. It might mean invisable donuts. They don't taste as good though."

Let's just say I had no idea that was going to be written until it actually was. However, I did decide that since I need to work tomorrow (all day) I'm going to get myself a donut. The problem with Ben and I both working so much lately is that we have no groceries. No yogurt for breakfast, we just ran out of bread, no lunch meat, no sliced cheese, no fruit, no milk, and we're lacking several other things that are a bit more minor. On the happy side though, since I don't have yogurt for breakfast I don't feel as guilty picking up a donut for breakfast.

Thursday: sneaky

Third time's a charm...the first post I had written I decided not to post, and the second one was too confusing. So we'll go with Five Question Friday.

1. What was the first car you owned?

Well, I suppose it would be the blue Subaru, which I own through marriage. I've never picked out a car that I was going to pay for and drive.

2. What song are you embarrassed to know the lyrics to?

I can't think of one. But Ben is embarrassed that I know the Pirate song...

"I'm a pirate. A dirty rotten pirate. I put poison in my mother's shredded wheat. How neat. My chief delight is to start a fight and I bash little kids in the head, till they're dead."

3. Have you ever had stitches?

No, but I use a lot of bandaids

4. What was your first job?

I was a paper delivery person. Nathan and I split the route and Mom was nice enough to do the Saturday morning deliveries so that we could sleep in.

5. Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?

Well, when I was a small child it was apparently Big Bird. Now...that's a tough question. Probably the aliens.