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I thought I heard them say…

I heard today on MSNBC… “it was a very… kind of… strategic… um… strategy…”

I’m going to have to work on making my strategies more strategic.

Is there life out there…?

Yes!  In the form of baby geeses!

 

In spite of the best efforts, we have baby geeses at work!  Yes, “geese” is the plural of “goose,” but you may be unaware of the little known plural of “baby goose,” spelled “baby geeses.”  I haven’t seen many grown up geese around there lately, but we have babies!  They were hanging out under a tree earlier today, so I kept sneaking into the window-people’s cubicles to check them out.  When I went out to finally take a picture of them, they were wandering around.  The picture is from pretty far away – I didn’t want to make the grownups mad.  I actually think it’s funny (I know, they could ATTACK me!) when they get hissy, but I didn’t want the window people still in the office to see me and laugh at me.  Some of the babies are TINY!!  They are so cute.  I don’t know what it is about baby animals – they are all so cute I just want to take them home with me.  I’m sure the current pets would love that.  Tillie would herd them; Grover would either hide from them, show them his teeth, or snack on them (tastes like chicken, ha ha!), and Dog would look at them with disdain.  Or try to snack on them.  But her years of pampered domestic indoor living have probably destroyed her cat-like reflexes and instincts.  If it doesn’t taste like dry low-fat cat food or tuna (or spider plant, in certain special cases), she’s not interested. 

How cute would it be to have a tiny herd of baby geeses running around?!  (I know, until they grow up and start pooing everywhere.)  One of my friends has a Welsh Corgi that herds his toys.  If they are spread out around the house, he will gather them and make sure they are all together in the correct spot.  CUTE! 

These boots are made for walking…

… in snow.  Ah, springtime in the Rockies!

Today, we will be discussing the weather.  And, of course, ME!

Last week I made the executive decision that spring was here, and I would no longer be wearing tights and closed toe shoes with my dresses.  I would also be painting my toenails.  (I left my toenails unpainted all winter for probably the first time in at least 10 years… they seemed to need the break from being so high-maintenance.)  That executive decision worked out GREAT last week – it was so nice!

Today?  Snow, tights, and boots.  Fortunately, I am a big fan of my boots.  For a couple of years, I’d been looking for some nice tall boots to wear with skirts, but with a flat heel (stoopid arthritis).  I couldn’t find anything that I liked enough to justify spending the money on, so no boots for me.  I made myself feel better about not finding any by convincing myself I’d look all stumpy in them anyway.  Then when I was in Amsterdam in November, everywhere I looked, women were wearing these great tall boots!  And even the short round girls looked awesome in them!  (That sounds much cattier than I mean for it to sound… it was just astonishing how many awesome looking boots were strolling by while I was walking around in clunky loafers…)  So, I went back on the hunt for boots!  I still didn’t want to pay a ton of money for them though, cause I didn’t really think I’d get that much use out of them.  I found a pretty plain black pair, and a pair of brown riding boots, both at Chadwicks for some crazy low clearance price, and bought them!   I’m wearing the brown ones today.  I feel like such an equestrian.  (Except for the part where I don’t have a horse.)  A couple months after that, I found some super awesome (and super cheap, again!) biker looking boots at Target.  And ALL of them look awesome with skirts (I think…)!  I’ve been wearing boots all winter, and I’m thinking now that I might actually invest in a more quality pair next winter, now that I know I’ll get lots of use out of them.  We’ll see how my bank account is feeling about boots at that point.

I wanna talk about me…

I was reading an article the other day about blogging (in Toastmasters magazine, by Lin Grensing-Pophal), and how to get started, and how to have a good blog.  As it turns out, I’m a BAD blogger.

Under tips for bloggers?  Number 1 is “Write regularly.”  I think we can all agree I’ve been a miserable failure at that.  Although, it could be argued that every two months is “regularly.”

Another tip is “Remember that anyone can read it.”  I’m doing this pretty much right.  This is why I don’t (generally) talk about work or people who make me mad.  I don’t want to be one of those news stories, “Blogger gets fired for blogging about work”.  It would probably make me much more prolific though.  (Exactly what we all need, right?  Me to be MORE wordy?!)

Under getting started, I should be able to answer yes to the questions following questions:

  • Do you have something to say?  Well, yes!  Lots!!!
  • Does anyone care?  Um… only the people who have to… (and I LOVE you people!!)

I should also have a theme to the blog.  I suppose my theme is… ME!  This theme probably goes against the “Do not use your blog as a self-promotional or advertising tool.”  ME, ME, ME!  And my dogs, my intermittent craftiness, and other random stuff about ME.

Another guideline is to be conscientious about spelling and grammar.  I try to make sure I spell good (tee hee!), but as far as grammar, I think I try to write in a more “conversational” style.  When I write stuff at work or for formal communications, I pay much closer attention to grammar and structure – in large part because I’m SO critical when I get a “professional” email from someone – someone that should ABSOLUTELY know better – that looks like they didn’t complete the second grade.

Maybe someday I’ll be more professional, and start up my own “professional” website and blog.  For now, this is it, in all of my self-centeredness, self-deprecation, and focus on… yep, myself!  🙂

That’s why the lady is a tramp…

We recently (finally!!) got a DVR at home.  Yippee!!  AND… it’s HD!  So, in theory, we get to watch high def TV on our high def TV that has been in the living room for oh, 2 or 3 years now…  AND… I get to record all my geek girl shows like Good Eats and Jeopardy, and watch them whenever I want!  OK, that’s not entirely true… I get to watch them when I have control of the clicker, which isn’t exactly all that often. 

So, Tina gets the HD-DVR home from Comcast’s office, gets it all hooked up, and we start enjoying all this new high technology.  Except – most of the HD channels don’t work!  They are acting like we didn’t actually subscribe to HD.  After 3 phone calls with Comcast to get it resolved, they sent a service guy out today.  I’m not usually the one who deals with service people, but everyone was golfing today, so I was home to observe Dog’s (the cat) behavior. 

And now, the point of the story… (yea, I’m not so much a short story kind of girl…)  My cat is a tramp!  Apparently she’s like this with any male service person, or really any other male stranger that comes in the house.  She’s normally not too social with anyone – she wants to be in the same room and keep an eye on everyone, but she’d just as soon none of us get too close, thank you very much.  (Most of the time anyway… every so often she’s actually quite sweet and friendly.)  Anyway… as soon as this guy walked in, she was all over him.  Sniffing him, rubbing up on his legs, following him around, hollering at me when I tried to grab her or shoo her away from him… She was IN LOVE.  Or something like that.  Charming, really…

She’s also developed a taste for tuna, at age 13.  She’s always refused to touch anything but her own dry cat food (and a brief phase of sometimes stealing dry dog food).  She won’t eat treats, she won’t eat canned food, nothing.  Until the last month or so – whenever Tina’s making a tuna sandwich, Dog is out there begging, demanding a little snack.  She LOVES tuna fish now.  Not that unusual for a kitty, but to have not even tried it until age 13??  Weirdo.  However… apparently she’s not all that smart.  It’s not just the smell of the tuna that makes her all nutty – it’s the sound of the can opener.  I might mention that this is NOT an electric can opener… just a plain old fashioned hand can opener.  OK, not that old fashioned – it’s that fancy safety kind that doesn’t leave sharp edges – but it doesn’t make any noise.  So now, opening a can of tomatoes or chicken broth elicits the same reaction.  Except that she won’t sample the contents of those cans, even when offered. 

I can see clearly now…

OK, I stole that idea from a Claritin commercial.  I think it was Claritin, anyway.

Have you guys tried this Chloraseptic Allergen Block stuff?  It is MAGIC!  They claim science, but I’m voting for magic.  They say it’s “a positively charged gel which can block negatively charged airborne allergens on contact.”  That sounds nutty.  But it works!!  I have minor nasal allergies, pretty much year round.  But it’s like this stuff just stops all of that in its tracks!  I’d seen it in the store and thought, “Right.  I’m going to rub a little lotion on my nose and it’s going to keep me from sneezing all day.  Uh-huh.  Sure.”  Plus, it was almost $15 for this tiny tiny tiny tube full of stuff – and not fun stuff, like a nice lip stain or fancy mascara.  So I did what any self-respecting geek girl would do, and I Googled it.  Now, it could have been some big top secret viral marketing campaign, but all the folks out there on the internets that tried it swore that it worked.  AND IT DOES!  LIKE MAGIC!  And even cooler than my little magic coin trick that I got for free from the dollar store.

Tomorrow, I will be making some necklaces!!  After that, I might actually take some pictures of the fruits of my latest crafty binge, which will give me something more exciting (I hope!) to talk about than arthritis & allergy drugs.  (Oh my gosh, could I BE any less interesting???!!!)

All that’s left is a band of gold…

Silver, actually, but I had to keep within my self-imposed theme, and couldn’t think of a silver ring song.

 

See how hard I’m working?  I should have painted my nails or something before I took pics.  I haven’t actually been wearing these all on one hand, but I couldn’t figure out a way to hold my camera in my teeth and snap a pic of both hands at the same time.  Figure it was easier to move rings than set up a tripod and set a timer.

Tina and I have been taking a beginning silver-smithing class for 3 weeks now (2 weeks to go!).  We’d seen this guy, Chad Parker at a craft fair last year, and thought about how cool it would be to take a class and learn how to make cool silver stuff, but figured we’d wait til we both had more time (HA!).  Then Tina was talking to one of her friends about their crafty projects, and her friend mentioned making silver jewelry, and taking lessons, and putting together a class.  Turns out it was the same guy. 

The first week, we put together some fairly simple silver bands (seen on the pointer and middle fingers).  They are kind of easier than you would think, but kind of way harder.  I’m NOT good at soldering yet!  But, we do get to play with blow-torches, which is cool! 

The second week, we made some wire pendants with stones!  It was pretty cool.  Pics and descriptions will come another day – I need to make some necklaces to go with the pendants.

Last night, we made more rings.  The one on my ring finger has a rose quartz stone.  Just like most of my projects, I’d planned for this to look different than it ended up, but I’m still pretty happy!  As long as no one looks close, it looks pretty cool.  Close up, you can see all my flaws – but we’ll just call them “design elements”!  I’m still bad at soldering.  I’ve melted more than my fair share of silver wire trying to figure this stuff out.  But I haven’t set fire to anything (or anyone) yet, so I figure I’m doing okay.

I want a new drug…

Whoa!  2 days in a row of posts, and 2 days in a row of song lyrics as a title.  I’m a rock star.  Maybe I should keep that up.  It could be like my theme or something.  Until I run out of lyrics.  Or start posting only once every 2 months again.

Today I got my first shipment of my new drug.  After trying several less expensive and less painful meds for my rheumatoid arthritis, I started using Humira last year.  It worked GREAT to start with, but has lost it’s effectiveness over time.  The injections are also super painful.  I’d started out using these automatic pens – just push a little button, hold it down, and you’re done!  What they don’t mention is how much it freaking hurts!!  So I switched to prefilled syringes – still painful, but nowhere near as bad, and I had actual control over it.  So now, I’ll be starting on Enbrel.  Pretty much the same process (hopefully less painful), but my insurance has changed their processes, and now I get it shipped straight to me instead of picking it up.  The cool thing is that with my first shipment today, I got one of those cool sharps containers like you see at the doctor’s office.  I feel like I’m a big bio-hazard now.  But with a cool toy.  Since it’s perishable, I’ll get lots of styrofoam coolers and reusable ice packs too.  Neat, huh?!  (Hey, I’m a “look on the bright side” kind of gal.  Dorky, I know.)

Off to silver-smithing class now!  I might actually post about it tomorrow.  Woooo!

Hello again

So, I’ve been waiting to write until I had some pictures of stuff to share, but I keep waiting to take pictures until I make one more necklace, or finish one more project, blah blah blah.  Instead of waiting on all that, I figure I’ll just write.  Possibly every day.  About the random excitement that surrounds me every day.  Enjoy!

In one recent event, my super smart Australian Cattle Dog Tillie is actually good for something now, other than piling toys on my dad’s lap and warming up my feet.  She has learned to fetch the newspaper!  Tina actually trained her to do it, using some tips from Dewey Smith, one of my facebook (and high school) friends.  His dog can fetch the paper too!  The problem with this, though, is that Tillie seems to be scared of the rain, and of the plastic bags they put the paper in when it rains.  She’s very happy to go get it when it’s nice out, but not when it’s rainy and the people don’t want to go outside.  So, she’s still working on her usefulness.  Grover, on the other hand, is perfectly happy to go out and run around in the rain, but doesn’t fetch the paper – he does need to make sure that all his neighbor dogs know that the stop sign is HIS territory.  Goofy kids.

We Made a Quilt!!!

Today, Syd’s Sewing Circle (consisting entirely of Syd and Tina) completed their first quilt project without adult supervision (consisting of Syd’s talented mom)! 

 

We made an “I Spy” quilt this week while I was off work (another week of cost-saving shutdowns for AE).  It’s about 5′ by 5′, and we made it with some fabrics from my stash, and some fat quarters and quarter-yard cuts of cute things we found at Joann.  There is also a square (in the lower left corner of this picture) where Tina put together little poems like they have in the wonderful “I Spy” books – we printed them out on that super cool ink-jet paper, and sewed it in just like any other fabric square!  Fun!!  The backing is flannel, and I did a kind of “self-binding” with a few extra inches of the backing.  This went against the “rules” in all of the books, but when I was looking at the quilts I have around my house, I found one where Aunt Kathy had done the same thing.  I figured if she could do it, it must be ok, right?  Oh, and Mom?  Your handstitching on the binding on my bear paw quilt – unbelievable!!  I’ve never done any stitching that looks SO PRETTY! 

I’m pretty sure most of my quilting went againt the rules too… but hopefully no one will notice.  The piecing was fun, but ended up being a bit of an adventure (as far as quilting adventures go…).  We pieced it on two different machines – my super awesome Janome, with a special 1/4″ quilting foot, and Tina’s mom’s Singer Featherweight from the 40’s, with what I thought would work as a 1/4″ foot.  Our 1/4″ measurements ended up different, so we had to do some improvising in putting together all of the squares!  I did also get to use another cool foot and feature on the Janome – I used the whole dual-feel thing when I quilted it.  So cool!!! 

I learned a valuable lesson, as to why people like those curved safety pins or basting guns or spray adhesive for putting the whole thing together.  We used straight pins, and I have a ridiculous number of holes in my fingers now.  (Okay, one of them was from stabbing myself with a seam ripper.  At least I didn’t get any rotary cutter slices in my hands this time.  No one ever accused me of being coordinated.)

 Oops.  Just realized that it’s totally not square… it folds into a sort of trapezoid shape. 

A million thanks to Mom for getting us started on this game (We are having fun!  Maybe someday we’ll achieve even half of her expertise!), and for doing the math for me when I called her from the fabric store.  Apparently I’ve forgotten all of the geometry and math I ever learned… (except for “trapezoid”). 

More pictures (they all look pretty much the same!) are at http://sydnieann.shutterfly.com/