Sunday: don't jump

Saturday: bags and decor

The inagural use of the home-made dice bag was today. Ben isn't back yet though, so I don't know if it really worked. I'd be surprised if it didn't.

Hanneke and I put up the Christmas decorations. I wanted to get them up this weekend, but will try to not actually turn the lights on again until after Thanksgiving. We'll see how that goes. We also reminisced late into the night, partly on how long ago high school was. It's weird that it's already been ten years. I also expect that if I met the people now, in a different context from high school, I'd get along with all of them rather well. It's an odd realization.

Friday: hi

It's Friday! I woke up this morning excited that tomorrow I didn't have to wake up to an alarm. I was also a little cold this morning because Flurry had brought the covers down just slightly so the tops of my shoulders were outside the blankets. I kept trying to get warm by snuggling with Ben, but it didn't work very well.

My new quilt is getting it's pieces cut quickly! I'm also doing some fixing on the old quilt at the same time, but that just isn't as much fun. I'm still doing a little bit every day though, and making progress.

Thursday: five question Friday

1. What Christmas song do you loathe?

I'm not sure. I looked through a few Christmas list songs and didn't really see any that just made me gag. But some of the cutesy-secular songs are pretty high up on the list.

2. Do you and your significant other cuddle at night or sleep on opposite sides of the bed?

It depends a lot on the temperature. When it is hot out we're on opposite sides of the bed. When it isn't hot out we usually cuddle.

3. Have you ever had surgery?

I've had a mole removed. And a colonoscopy which isn't really a surgery but is the closest thing that I've had.

4. When do you typically have your holiday shopping done?

The last few years we've been getting most of the stuff on-line. So we need to finish soon enough to ensure that the packages will get to the house in time (about two weeks before Christmas). We often end up sending the packages to my Dad's house directly to give us a few extra days lee-way.

5. How much sleep do you get a night?

I go to sleep between 11pm and midnight and get up at 7:19 (after the alarm has gone off once). So that's 7-8 hours. On the weekends I usually get more sleep and take a few naps, so I think that my body needs closer to 8-9 hours of sleep a day. Which is rather sad when you start doing the math of how much I sleep vs. how much I'm awake.

Wednesday: What are the perforated parts on hanging file tags for?

At work I keep prints in hanging file folders. I don't really like hanging file folders, mainly because of the tabs. It feels like so much work whenever you need to add a tab or change a tab. But that is really besides the point today. Today I'm curious as to way all hanging file folder tags have that perforated part. You know, the part that folds over but is too small to write on.

I've come up with a few ideas, but I think they're kind of dumb.

1) It is to help keep the tag in place by pushing outward against the plastic part. Most of the time though I think the plastic part is tight enough to keep a single layer held in place without any problems.

2) They are easier to push out of the plastic thing with a pen. But it ends up being so much effort to put a new one in the plastic part that you may as well take off the plastic part to get the paper part out.

3) They really aren't supposed to go in the plastic part, but should be removed completely. This still doesn't really answer my question as to why they are present in the first place.

So, I need your help! What are those little pieces for? Oh, and wikipedia (or google) don't have much about hanging file folders, let along what the extra tabs are for. I thought the internet knew everything!

Tuesday: Flurry's friend

I receive a care package from Dusty and Laura today. My favorite item in the box was a pair of cat socks that look like Flurry!

Monday: Trouble

Hanneke came over today! She was traveling through and our house happens to be about half way through her trip, which is rather convenient. We got into trouble and ended up in a jail cell with only bread and water, but we managed to bail ourselves out. We rewatched "IQ", one of my favorite movies, and played a game to finish out the night.

Sunday: friends

I love having friends. I did a lot with them this weekend, and it has reminded me how blessed I am to have such friends. I know that they will share my joys and cry with my sorrows and in between just have fun with me.

Then I reflected on ways God has blessed me, and it just blows me away:

*a refrigerator full of food

*amazing friends - both close by and far apart

*a great family

*a loving husband

Saturday: sewing

Tonight I got together with some friends to do some sewing. We got mediums levels of stuff accomplished, but it was a lot of fun to hang out.

Flurry was also enjoying sewing this morning. She likes a few different things, such as pawing the bobbins and trying to eat the thread.

Friday: puzzle night

Puzzle night tonight! It was by far the fastest puzzle we've ever put together. It was 750 pieces, but the three of us still finished it in about two hours. So we just played a few games and talked and had dessert to fill up the remainder of the evening.

Thursday: a house dream

Ben and I, living in the house I grew up in, noticed a water stain on the first floor ceiling. Oh bother. That's never a good sign. After a while we go upstairs to look for the problem. We still don't see it, so we check the attic.

Wow! Our attic is huge! And it is kind of shaped like a swimming pool; after going through the trap door we walked down an incline. The floor is nicely finished with wood planks. Interesting. We start exploring this part of the house that we didn't realize that we had.

Our attic leads into what appears to be a small town. People have taken up residence in our rooms that we didn't know we had. It was surprising. Pleasantly surprising.

We finally make it outside, and discover the cause of the leak. The whole roof is about to collapse. It is run-down and in terrible shape. How did we not notice that before?

Wednesday: oatmeal

I had oatmeal for lunch today. I also put some cranberries in it. And I put it in a mug, which works much better than a bowl because it is more compact.

The main reason I had oatmeal is that we don't have lunch meat in the house and I didn't feel like peanut butter. It is also very easy to put together in the morning.

Phew. Aren't you glad you know that about my day now? I guess it was kind of a slow day for interesting things to happen. Someone else fixed the WIPs though, so that was awesome.

Tuesday: Operations and hospitals

This evening for small group we went to Target and packed some boxes for Operation Christmas Child. It was fun. Our girl got some pens, colored pencils, paper, jewelery, a purse, socks, a hat, some gloves, and some candy. The boy got some matchbox cars, legos, a baseball, and candy. They also both got some hygiene items. It's always fun seeing what deals you can find (that are still small enough to fit in the box.)

Then I found out another friend is in the hospital from a car accident. :( She's not sure how bad it is yet, but she's been texting me a little bit so that's good.

Monday: the beginning of the week

Oh, I'm tired tonight. Sometimes I feel like I'm always tired. I'm not - but sometimes it just feels that way.

The days went pretty well today...and rather quickly which is always a plus.

Night.

Sunday: circles on squares

I bought my new fabric today. I still have some other things I need to finish first though.

This is the pattern. I doubt I'll be doing the stars though...I'm thinking either nothing or another little square instead.
Here's the fabric. While I love picking out fabric, Sunday near Christmas is the wrong time to be doing it.

Saturday: hello

Today was rather low key. I continued to work on getting the chore list finished, but with a three day weekend instead of a two day weekend it is much easier. I also did quite a bit of reading and made some future quilting decisions.

I also washed the first quilt I made. I was a little nervous about it because the workmanship isn't great. Also, I used a red pen to trace out the blocks in the beginning and didn't cut off all the red (although I tried), so I was a little afraid that it would stain through. Luckily though, at first glance it seems ok. It still needs some touch-up in a few places where the blocks are coming apart, but that happened before the washer.

Friday: outnumbered

Announcer: Amanda is telling Ben about her day.

Amanda: I sat down to eat my egg scramble for lunch and Flurry was being really funny! She kept sniffing the air like there was something really good smelling. After a while I found her up on the counter...

Announcer: There is a strict no-counter rule for Flurry. It's the only one that really gets enforced.

Amanda: ...and she didn't leap down when I stood up like she normally does. It was like she was searching for something. I wondered; could it be the mushrooms? I grabbed Flurry from the counter and a mushroom and she loved it!

Ben: gross

Announcer: Ben really hates mushrooms.

Amanda: Well, now we can have mushrooms on our pizza because it is two to one.

Ben: No, Flurry doesn't eat pizza so it doesn't count.

Amanda: That's just a technicality.

Thursday: great examples of exercise

Today there was a exercise room fair. There were all these feet up on the walls showing people where they were supposed to go. I was on my way to the exercise room and therefore following the feet when I noticed that the feet took the elevator instead of the stairs. Seriously??

Then once we got to the exercise room there was pie in front of it. While I know that people are more likely to come if there is free food, but it again seemed a little ridiculous that an exercise promotion was giving away unhealthy food.

Wednesday: 1000

1000.

It so often seems like a large number. 1000 minutes is 16 2/3 hours. $1000 is a lot of money if you're buying groceries. A 1000 piece puzzle takes several hours to put together. 1000 miles will put you about pretty far across the US.

But 1000 can also be rather small. 1000 seconds is only 16 2/3 minutes. $1000 is not a lot of money if you are buying a house in California. 1000 words is only about 2-3 pages.

Why this "obsession" with 1000? In a few months I'll have my 1000th blog post and I'm trying to think of something special. I haven't thought of anything "1000"ish because everything seemed too big or too small.

Do you have any ideas?

Tuesday: an almost quote

Here is a quote from today. (I changed it to make it more understandable without context.)

"This cable's paperwork says was built at a revision K a while ago. Therefore, we don't need to increase it's revision to H."

Hmm...someone was having alphabet troubles today. Or maybe I'm the only one that finds it funny.

Monday: at least they're free

Last Saturday I ran out of checks. Now usually I don't use many checks, averaging probably about four per month. But this particular Saturday I needed five checks. I paid the one bill and wrote one small check before realizing there were no more in the check book. Bother. It became a time to clean out my drawer as I threw away some empty check boxes along with some check boxes of accounts long closed. However, none of the current bank checks showed themselves.

Fine, I'll order more checks, if you insist. Last time I thought they were absurdly expensive for plain bank checks, but what can I do. Hey, two clicks on the bank website and they're ordered. Well, at least that was easy.

Fast forward 8 days. I log onto the bank website and happen to notice a little icon that says I have mail. After contemplating not clicking it - because let's face it, sometimes they send me notices that I don't care about - I click it thinking maybe it will tell me when my checks shipped.

The email told me my checks didn't ship because blah blah blah.

What?!? They didn't ship? And they didn't send me a little email reminder saying that I had a secure email from them? I find it absurd. While the remaining three checks can in fact wait 7-10 more business days, there are plenty of cases where this wouldn't be the case.

Sure, maybe if it was that important I would have checked to make sure they shipped earlier. Or remembered to order checks. But this meant I had to make a phone call...and I hate making phone calls.

But at least the checks that are coming are free. And they're blue.

Sunday: the day is saved

To begin with, Happy Halloween!

of pumpkin smiles!! Thanks to Nathan and Liz for the card. We didn't receive many trick-or-treaters, so we still have plenty of candy left. :)

Then I was at Sam's and found Coke with real sugar! How exciting!

Oh, Flurry wanted her picture taken too.

I found some tea for my spice tea! Phew. Wegman's comes through again and saves the day.

Saturday: today

Today was rather...normal. I had to go into work for the morning which kind of throws my whole day off. It'll be nice on Friday when I don't have to work, but annoying for today.

I also picked out who I am going to vote for. I still have one race that I'm not sure about.

Friday: highlights

Tonight a friend put highlights in my hair. The after pictures didn't turn out the best, so here's some intermediate ones instead. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday: a date!

Tonight Ben and I went on a date instead of exercising. Oh well, the date was a lot more fun. We went to dinner (Friendly's) and a movie (Red). The movie was really good...it was a funny action flick with a touch of romance.

Now it's off to bed for me! Bed time is one of my favorite times of the day.

Wednesday: that slippery lotion

So I've been planning this post for a while; I haven't written it because I've either forgotten about it or I had something interesting happen that day...

I found a lotion I really like! It was Purely Silk Velvet Body Cream by Bath and Body Works. I would put it on at night and my feet were still soft in the morning! While I still have a lot of other lotions to use, if you're going to get me lotion it should be this stuff. (Although a word of warning...it is also probably the most expensive lotion I've ever used. But I just inherited it, so it would be wasteful not to use it.)

So I was searching on-line, trying to find a picture of the jar, only to find out that IT'S BEEN DISCONTINUED! Now I don't even have a hope of ever getting more.

Oh well, it's been that kind of week.

Tuesday: my day

I woke up this morning after having some dreams about coring carrots by hand and writing a letter to my Spanish teacher (in Spanish) as to why I didn't finish the homework assignment. (Note: coring carrots doesn't work very well.) (Note2: my excuse was that I was traveling the globe.)

I got my flu shot! I received a Hello Kitty! bandaid for my troubles.

We bought some dice. It is a one pound bag with an assortment of dice...you never know exactly what you're going to get.

Bible Study had a potluck. There was an assortment of delicious foods and my applesauce went over well.

I spent the rest of the night dealing with wrinkles. I was having a hard time getting them to unwrinkle, so I may have spent more time watching the TV than normal.

Monday

Today went faster than expected. I ate too much. There was a potluck at work and there's always so much good food. And the food came out around 9am. Oh well.

Flurry's still an active cat. We're not really sure what's gotten into her these last few weeks, but she seems to have more energy than normal. And she's running all over the place to prove it.

I'm writing a new program at work and am using a lot of functions. I'm rather proud of myself. :)

Sunday: woe to me

I ran out of tea for making spice tea and the local grocery store stopped carrying it. It is only my favorite drink of all time. I had hot chocolate this morning. It was not as good.

My hands smell funny.

A friend is in the hospital after having an their appendix removed. Everything seems to be going ok besides that though.

I hit myself in the face while playing racquetball. It doesn't hurt anymore though.

Besides the above, the day was fine. I had a delicious shake after racquetball. :)

Saturday: this and that

Flurry's been super helpful the last few days. Unfortuantly, it means she's always sitting on something I need to move.

I may also start calling donuts "homeomorphic toroidal polyhedrons".

We also did some winterizing today. It was actually pretty nice out. However, that meant the gnats were out too and that was rather annoying.

Friday: yay Friday

Phew, I made it through Friday. It felt like a rather long week even though I had Monday off. I'm not really sure why...everything was pretty normal.

I had lunch with Jess and that was fun as always. And I didn't have to go back to work, so that was great. Ben and I got takeout Chinese for supper. They always give us a ton of food which is awesome. They also have really good Tupperware stuff that they put the food in. We're slowly making a collection. Reduce Reuse Recycle!!

1. Did you have a pen pal when you were little (or now)? Where were/are they from?

Sort of. I was pen pals with some friends that I didn't see very often. They probably weren't more than 20 minutes away.

2. If you could do a different job for one day, what would it be?

Astronaut. Of course. It would have to be a day in space though...none of this Earth stuff.

3. Do you remember your biggest fear from when you were little?

That my parents would die. I guess one survives.

4. What do you think is a waste of time? Why?

There is this program at work that has a bunch of "red tape". I hear that it is significantly faster than the old system. But there are all these things to fill in that need to be filled in all the time. The same things over and over. Boring.

5. What is the oldest item you have in your closet?

My bridal veil. It was my mom's.

Wednesday: patience

Today was annoying. Nothing especially bad happened...it was actually a pretty normal day. I'm just in a mood I guess. I want to know what is going to happen in the future and (obviously) don't.

In other news, I caught up on some Glee episodes tonight. While I'm not a fan of Brittany's character, she does have some hilarious one-liners.

In other other news, I also was given a shirt at work. It has a scary looking patch and is one-size too big. But the patch could be a funny talking topic, so I still might wear it.

dreams

Well, here is the first post in my semi-secret blog that won't be put up for a while. As long as I can remember to push "save" instead of "publish."

I started taking prenatal vitamins a few days ago. I know, in the whole progression to have a child it is a rather minor step without much commitment. But since I've started them I feel like I've been remembering my dreams so much better. I also was able to take a lot of naps the last few days, so I guess we'll see if it is just a coincidence.

My other dreams are bigger. There's still some unknowns with work and where we will be in a few months. Usually I try to forget about it, but the last few days it's been harder. My dreams include staying around here and having a kid, but I also have to remember that those might not be God's dreams for me. It is rather annoying sometimes.

Tuesday: sleep

Dad went home today. :( He took the early flight out, so I was at work by 5:30am. However, I got to leave early also, so I was able to take a wonderful nap.

Monday: park and bagels

This morning Dad and I fixed the shower drain. It went rather easily, which was awesome. All we had to do was add some caulk.

Then we went to Hickories Park and walked around a bit. It was cool, but nice. I hadn't realized how large that park actually is. Normally I stop near the front entrance.

We came home and made chain linked bagels. Dad's (on the left) turned out better than mine.

However, they are rather hard to toast like that. :) Mine ended up in a bunch of little pieces.

Sunday: Dad

Today was a pretty normal Sunday, besides the fact that Dad was around. Ben played drums and I helped in the nursery. Then we went to play racquetball. They let all of us in as one family, which I was pumped about. Dad beat me in racquetball, but I did have to make him work for it. :)

We went out to lunch, I look a nap, we played some games...etc.

The small leak that I had seen once in the basement was back, so Dad took a quick look at that too. :) It was good timing. The pipe is actually pretty short once he pulled the insulation out, so everyone is happy that it isn't from the upstairs shower.

Friday: things

Today we did some misc. things. We made a lot of apple stuff (apple crisp and applesauce). Dad really seemed to enjoy the apple corer peeler. :). We also fixed a light in a closet...the wire in the outlet before the light switch had pulled out and so wasn't providing electricity anymore. It took us longer than expected to find the problem. We also played some games and just hung out.

Friday: Dad's here!

Dad made the flight over safely. Yay!

Wednesday: questions

1. What do you listen to while driving?

Usually I listen to NPR. They often have interesting things on. While the station in Champaign had too many crop reports, this station has a lot of classic music. If that is on I'll often just turn the radio off.

2. What is your least favorite thing about Fall?

Well, I couldn't really think of anything...but one of the things that I don't like much is Halloween. I don't mind the trick-or-treating, but I find it annoying that I feel like I either need to pass out candy or hide.

3.

What is the one thing that you reach for the most in a day (excluding phones and computers)?

A pen. I make little notes to myself at work. Sometimes it is a "to-do" item, sometimes a number I need to remember.

4. Would you ever own a minivan?

I'd rather not. I understand that my feelings on this may change, but not yet.

5. Do you wash new clothes before wearing them?

Well, if it's convenient I do. I always wash Ben's clothes though.

Monday: Twilight

I borrowed the Twilight series from Ashley on Saturday. I'm glad she made me take all four books because I'm currently half way through the second. They are so hard to put down. They read rather quickly though too.

I can completely understand why teenage girls (and even women) have gone nuts over the series. Edward seems like such a great guy. I don't quite understand Bella's obsession with becoming a vampire though. I guess I understand that she doesn't ever what to leave him or grow old, but the thought of being pretty much immortal would be enough to make me choose to not become a vampire. The thought of having to wake up and get out of bed every day without ceasing is not a pleasant thought.

In other news, Ben and I both have sore backs from racquetball. I made applesauce tonight and my apple corer-peeler-cutter made the whole process go much, much faster.

Sunday: r-ball

Ben and I went to play racquetball today. It was one of our staples while we were dating during college, but we only played a few times in Illinois (mainly because the courts were under construction for two of the years) and we haven't played here yet. As part of our twice-a-week workout, we finally found some courts and went.

It was so much fun. It took us a while to figure out what we were doing again, but by the end we were getting some good off-the-wall hits. Ben sustained some minor injuries (from himself) and we both think we'll be sore in the morning. We are debating about spending the money to get a gym membership and trying to go on a weekly basis.

Saturday: roofs and ladders

Well, today was supposed to be a very busy day: roofing in the morning, apple picking in the afternoon, and games at night.

Unfortunately, we didn't end up roofing. The people that we were going to help decided that it was too high and too steep for their comfort. While I'm glad they put our safety first, I'm also sad that we weren't able to help them. I climbed up the ladder for a picture. It was pretty bouncy. I was ok climbing it when I had both hands, but if I had to carry something up there at the same time it would have been rather scary.

So we went apple picking in the morning instead. We picked a lot of apples because I want to make applesauce again. Last years batch lasted until about last month...almost perfect. We also got some donuts (yum) and our yearly squash.

We went a year ago when Hugh was a tiny baby and so he got a tiny apple. He is a year older now and much more active!

Friday: stars and coffee

I made peanut butter cookies today. I make the one below especially for Ben. Can you guess what it's supposed to be? (Hint...it is kind of like star gazing when you wonder how four stars can make a crab.)

And for all you guests out there that brave coming to our house even though we don't have a coffee maker, do we have a surprise for you!

To make the deal even sweeter, we even got coffee filters. To make the deal a bit more bitter though, I'll be getting some coffee on Sunday.

My problem and my not problem

My problem is that my computer keyboard stopped working today. Hmm. And somehow we don't have a spare that works. However, it's amazing how much you can do with just a mouse.

My not problem is that I'm done with work for the week. Yay! Today was rather slow, so that makes it even better. On top of all that, my Dad is coming next weekend so my next two weeks are also short! Woot-woot!

Flurry seems to be having a great time with all the fabric scattered on the floor. I think she's just getting it ready for her cousin

Wednesday: transporters

So Ben and I were talking the other day about how the Nobel prize winner in physics is the first person to receive both a Nobel prize and an ig-Nobel prize. That is rather amazing.

But what would be even more amazing would be to win both for the same work. I decided that teleportation is the thing that is going to do this. So wrote the outline of that paper (first draft):

Title: Bringing your food to you: a look at a way to eat without leaving the lab

I. Introduction

A. The problem with having to eat

i. Lack of productivity

ii. Long lines

iii. Schedule issues

B. How people currently solve this issue

i. bring food from home (cold)

ii. beg a friend to bring some

iii. order in (expensive)

C. A new way to eat

i. Teleportation from where the food is sent directly to the lab

II. Methods

A. Set-up

i. Teleporter in a kitchen (shows a grad student wearing a chef's hat)

ii. Teleporter in the lab (show a box with a sign "food allowed in this area")

B. Procedure

i. Chef would cook a taste and delicious meal that isn't so delicious after a few minutes

(eggs in the shape of a smiley face)

ii. Chef puts on Teleporter and hits "send"

iii. Grad student eats food while smiling and working.

iv. Grad student sends back food containers

C. The technical stuff

III. Results

A. Happy grad students!

i. Compare hungry grad student performance to non-hungry grad student performance

ii. Clean labs

B. Compare amount of work completed

IV. Discussion

Hmmm...figure out something to go here.

IV. Conclusions

A. Feed your grad students

B. Teleportation is cool

This person will win the Nobel for discovering how to teleport large items and the ig-Nobel for figuring out how to use massive amounts of energy to move smiley faces across the hall.

Tuesday: a semi-random video

I know that I usually don't post YouTube videos up here (besides those of Flurry), but a friend made this one and I think it's hilarious. So I thought I'd share it. :)

Monday: Work smarter, not harder!

Today Ben and I went to the gym at our work. We always talk about how we need to exercise more, so on Friday we finally made a plan...we're going to exercise in the gym (or at the tennis courts) twice a week. We're also going to try and get some racquetball in once in a while, but it is rather far away.

On our way home though we figured out how to easily get twice the exercise! Work smarter, not harder!! We will just set our coordinate system origin at the other person and bike in opposite directions:

Right? That'll make us more in shape! We'll be going faster and covering more distance.

Please?

Sunday: Flurry

It's been a while since I've had a picture of Flurry. We've taken a few videos this past week, so here we are. I know Flurry videos aren't always exciting, but I do love our cat.

Saturday: maize maze

Today I went to the corn maze with the women's group from church. It was so easy to get lost! But we made it all the way through.