Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Another Survey

Ok, I totally swiped this from Chris' cousin's blog, but everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE surveys. Here we go:

1. Where is your cell phone? In my purse which is sitting on the steps to go up when I go to bed in a few.
2. Your significant other? In the "computer room" on the computer.
3. Your hair? messy!
4. Your mother? Sleeping
5. Your father? See #4
6. Your favorite thing? YARN! (if we're talking non-breathing "things")
7. Your dream last night? I don't remember one from last night.
8. Your favorite drink? Sugar free Kool-aid
9. Your dream/goal? I'd love to make money from my crochet pieces someday.
10. The room you’re in? kitchen
11. Your hobby? duh! Crochet! (I also like to read)
12. Your fear? Sewers on the street; the kind that are totally open. Seriously, I'm irrationally afraid of them.
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? I'd like to be looking at schools for our future child (no, not pg yet, but hoping for a child soon!)
14. What you’re not? dumb
15. Muffins? any fruit, and I especially love the kinds with the crumble topping
16. One of your wish list items? iPhone
17. Where you grew up? Munhall, PA; just southeast of Pittsburgh
18. The last thing you did? finished making ANOTHER crochet dishcloth
19. What are you wearing? t-shirt and shorts
20. Favorite gadget? Tivo Remote :)
21. Your pets? In order of age: Franco (bird, 9), Mrka Usi (dog, 8), Al Udied (dog, 6) and "Rocket" Bauer (dog, 3)
22. Your computer? is always on!
23. Your mood? happy
24. Missing someone? family/friends in PA/WA
25. Your car? Honda Accord
26. Something you’re not wearing? a bra
27. Favorite store? TJ Maxx
28. Like someone? CA :)
29. Your favorite color? purple
30. When is the last time you laughed? tonight! we watched Wipeout for the first time
31. Last time you cried? I don't remember...

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

48 oz steak + two side dishes + dessert = "meat sweats"

Happy birthday, baby! We celebrated Chris' birthday with a second annual trip to Shula's at the Walt Disney World Dolphin. Chris tackled and won against an intimidating opponent, the 48 oz steak! Grand prize for eating one to the bone is bragging rights and membership in Shula's 48 oz club! His name should be posted there soon. :) When we got back to our hotel room, I had to hear about the "meat sweats" for about an hour until he fell asleep, a belly full of meat and another successful birthday :)

Delivery of "the beast"




YUM!




Mission Accomplished!


Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Violets

Ok, so technically these aren't in my "garden", but they're still my plants :)

These little buggers are violets that I bought probably about 2 years or so ago. I put them on the windowsil of our kitchen where they bloomed within a week of me planting them in my own pots, and hadn't bloomed since... until this summer. Look at these guys! They are really small plants, maybe 3" pots, but the blooms on these two guys are crazy! There are easily more blooms on the plants than there are leaves!







I have a bunch of new violet plants from my friend S that are just starting to bloom. I plan on taking pictures of each of them as they open up because there aren't two that are the same kind of violet. I'm really looking forward to seeing them all in full bloom!

More on GKTW

(aka Give Kids the World)

So, a friend of mine from a crochet group here in Orlando, S, has a plant obsession that is worse than mine. Well, I guess she has a good reason because she's a horticulture major at UF. She also works for a local company that does testing on organic soil, vertilizer and pest control. This is the girl that gave me all the violets... Anyway, she had a whole bunch of plants that they were testing organic soil and whatnot on, and their testing was finished. She had probably about 50-60 dish gardens that she needed to get rid of and contacted me about donating them to GKTW.

Chris and I headed up to her office to pick up the plants in the truck. We filled the 8' bed (with the bed extender out, taking advantage of the tailgate) with about 30 or so plants. These dish gardens were beautiful, don't you think? They were about 4 gal planters with the plants standing about 3' tall!





GKTW was VERY appreciative of the donation. Thanks again, S!

Great photos and whatnot

I haven't written in a while. I wish I could say that I had some great reason, but in truth, I'm just lazy.

We got a new camera on the 4th of July. We got another Canon Elph (since we loved our last one), the Power Shot SD870 IS. It is pretty cool. My favorite feature is that it has a face recognition feature where it will detect a human face, and follow that as the subject, blurring out the background.

Anyway, since we had the new toy on the 4th of July, Chris wanted to try it out at Epcot while we were there. I became tired of all the photos he was taking, can you tell?





Then, just plain silly...




Then, I just wanted to ruin all of the pictures...




...until Chris yelled at me and told me to behave so we could get ONE nice picture. This was the best we could do ;) What else do you expect after walking in the park all afternoon in JULY in ORLANDO??


The Last Summer of You and Me

...was HORRIBLE, IMHO. It is written by Ann Brashares. You may recognize that author's name as the woman who wrote The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series of teen novels. This was her first "attempt" (air quotes intentional) at writing an "adult" (again, air quotes intentional) novel.





Why didn't I like the book? Hmm... Well, the basic story is that there is this pair of early twentysomething sisters who summer with their parents on an island off New York City. The older sister's best friend on the island is this guy Paul, who secretly has a crush on the younger sister, who, ironically, has a crush on him back. But, it takes over 100 pages for the two to tell each other that they like each other. So juvenile. The thing that I felt was funny was that occasionally Brashares throws in a big word that I would have to look up in the dictionary for the definition, or have a character drop an "f-bomb" as if to say "oh yeah, I'm writing an adult novel".

Let's put it this way, when the highlighted reviews on the back of the book come from Cosmo and Entertainment Weekly magazines, you HAVE to know that you're not in for much substance.

All that said, I admit it. I voted for this book for our book club to read. So, if you read this blog, B, know that I don't blame you for the choice! ;)

Next up, Jane Eyre. I've started the book, but have realized that this is a challenging read. I'm not able to read this one while in bed. I have to be downstairs, under my Ott light, feet planted on the floor, sitting upright with a steady stream of caffiene going directly into my veins. The book is interesting, but challenging. This is one of those that I didn't have to read in high school, but have always wanted to try and tackle. I have to say, I feel really smart having it sit on my coffee table, if nothing else! :)

My bedtime book is back to being Wicked. Still odd, but is getting better. More on that to come when I finish it!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Ding! Ding! Round 2!

So, the coughing hasn't gotten any better and I needed my "rescue" inhaler about 3 times today at work. After dinner it was off to the Centra Care facility. I thought that after about 10 days, maybe I should get an x-ray (which isn't available at the Walgreens clinic). The good news is that I do NOT have pneumonia. The bad news is that I still have bronchitis. Since the first round of antibiotics didn't seem to kick it outta me, Chris is now filling the two prescriptions I got for another (stronger) antibiotic along with a cough medication. Ugh. Figures, feeling sick before the holiday weekend. Phooey.