In other news, this is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time:
Sorry, Yoda, the Doctor has you there.
Me? Have a TV crush on David Tennant? I have no idea what you're talking about. Also, as my icon will remind you, the shiznit Yoda is.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Blizzard Aftermath and Daily LOL
We are recovering from the Blizzard Of 2011 quite well. Schools are open again, after being closed for two days in a row. Yes, even the high school who had not had a snow day in 33 years was closed for two days. We Chicagoans have shoveled out our parking spaces and staked our claims with lawn chairs...although, I live in the suburbs and have never actually seen a parking spot with a chair in it. Must be a city thing. There were cars stranded along Lakeshore Drive all night during the blizzard, but miraculously, none of the stranded people died. We still have quite a bit of snow, but this is Chicago and we are used to it. Yesterday was bitterly cold, which was probably why the schools were closed again, but things are getting back to normal.
In other news, this is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time:
Sorry, Yoda, the Doctor has you there.
Me? Have a TV crush on David Tennant? I have no idea what you're talking about. Also, as my icon will remind you, the shiznit Yoda is.
In other news, this is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time:
Sorry, Yoda, the Doctor has you there.
Me? Have a TV crush on David Tennant? I have no idea what you're talking about. Also, as my icon will remind you, the shiznit Yoda is.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Snow picture!
Sent from my mobile. Enjoy.
_____________________________________________________________
Here is my first attempt at a mobile phone post. I like my camera phone very much. Anyway, I took this picture early this morning form our basement window. That half-buried round thing? That's our picnic table. Going out to shovel with my brother now.
Edit: Well. So much for that picture. I'll attempt to re-post later.
Blizzard Of 2011!
I am keeping up with my "new things" resolution, but most of them are not very interesting..updates will happen when something big comes along. Case in point: Chicago is currently experiencing one of the biggest blizzards ever.
For the first time in my lifetime, our local high school is closed. They are notorious for remaining open; the last time they had a snow day was in 1967. My parents both grew up in the area, and remember the blizzard of '67 as one that completely crippled the city. My mom was a girl at the time, and remembers how excited she was because not only was she home from school, her mom was home from work. Then there was the blizzard of '79, which my parents remember because they were house-hunting at the time. They bought their first house (which we still live in today) without knowing whether the front porch was wooden or concrete. It was completely buried under all the snow. The last big snow I remember was the blizzard of '99. When we finally got dug out, one of my more adventurous friends came to school on his snowshoes. We made a snow fort in our backyard.
I have to say that I am enjoying myself very much. We are all home safe and sound, and have not lost power (yet). Plus, I am the kind of person who still wishes for a white Christmas every year. I love snow: sledding, snow angels, snow forts and snowmen, you name it. The last I heard, the official count was over 17 inches of snow, with two to five more expected before the snow stops this afternoon. None of us is planning on leaving the house today. To celebrate our snow day, Mom and I are making pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Jason is safe at home too. He decided to take his vacation this week, which turned out to be a very good decision. He was a little peeved about being snowed in during his vacation, but I pointed out it was better than dealing with the craziness at the grocery store where he works. He is planning on coming over here once the weather dies down.
I will have pictures in my next post!
For the first time in my lifetime, our local high school is closed. They are notorious for remaining open; the last time they had a snow day was in 1967. My parents both grew up in the area, and remember the blizzard of '67 as one that completely crippled the city. My mom was a girl at the time, and remembers how excited she was because not only was she home from school, her mom was home from work. Then there was the blizzard of '79, which my parents remember because they were house-hunting at the time. They bought their first house (which we still live in today) without knowing whether the front porch was wooden or concrete. It was completely buried under all the snow. The last big snow I remember was the blizzard of '99. When we finally got dug out, one of my more adventurous friends came to school on his snowshoes. We made a snow fort in our backyard.
I have to say that I am enjoying myself very much. We are all home safe and sound, and have not lost power (yet). Plus, I am the kind of person who still wishes for a white Christmas every year. I love snow: sledding, snow angels, snow forts and snowmen, you name it. The last I heard, the official count was over 17 inches of snow, with two to five more expected before the snow stops this afternoon. None of us is planning on leaving the house today. To celebrate our snow day, Mom and I are making pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Jason is safe at home too. He decided to take his vacation this week, which turned out to be a very good decision. He was a little peeved about being snowed in during his vacation, but I pointed out it was better than dealing with the craziness at the grocery store where he works. He is planning on coming over here once the weather dies down.
I will have pictures in my next post!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Resolution: Jan 18-20
For the first time, I am starting to wonder if I will be able to keep this up all year...
January 18: Spent most of my day with the kids I nanny for. It is harder to think of new things to do when stuck in one place...I put the youngest one down for his nap before his brother came home from preschool. Jason and I watched a special on PBS from their series "Pioneers of Television." This one was all about sci-fi, and they focused mainly on Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and Lost in Space. Really interesting, especially because I think Twilight Zone is one of the best television shows ever created. I find it amazing how relevant most of the episodes still are, even after 50 years. Both Serling and Gene Roddenberry (creator of Trek) decided to start writing sci-fi as a way to discuss issues that otherwise were considered taboo. There was a lot more substance in those shows than in most of the crap that passes for television these days.
January 19: As I wrote about yesterday, I bought myself a Lego set online! I have a feeling this could be the start of a new hobby. Now I have the urge to go through all of our Legos and organize them. We still have a giant bucket full of them. The question now is whether they should be organized by size or color. Size would probably be more useful, but it would also require more containers. No way I would organize by size AND color. My collection is not large enough to warrant that.
Yet.
January 20: Nannying again. Took the little guy to the library so his mom could get some sleep (she works at a hospital, and got stuck on the night shift). Ran into a group of college students there on a tour...and realized that they were from MY alma mater. Remembered the professors from when I took the same class. I fit right in with them, because I was wearing my college hoodie. Completely unexpected.
Then I had the kind of afternoon that reminded me why I love working with kids. While the little guy was napping, his brother showed off the cardboard-box castle he made at school. He decided it was just the right size for Lego people, so the Lego firemen ruled the kingdom with their pet dinosaur. Then I built a spaceship for the Lego aliens, and the kingdom was invaded by UFOs. It was great.
January 18: Spent most of my day with the kids I nanny for. It is harder to think of new things to do when stuck in one place...I put the youngest one down for his nap before his brother came home from preschool. Jason and I watched a special on PBS from their series "Pioneers of Television." This one was all about sci-fi, and they focused mainly on Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and Lost in Space. Really interesting, especially because I think Twilight Zone is one of the best television shows ever created. I find it amazing how relevant most of the episodes still are, even after 50 years. Both Serling and Gene Roddenberry (creator of Trek) decided to start writing sci-fi as a way to discuss issues that otherwise were considered taboo. There was a lot more substance in those shows than in most of the crap that passes for television these days.
January 19: As I wrote about yesterday, I bought myself a Lego set online! I have a feeling this could be the start of a new hobby. Now I have the urge to go through all of our Legos and organize them. We still have a giant bucket full of them. The question now is whether they should be organized by size or color. Size would probably be more useful, but it would also require more containers. No way I would organize by size AND color. My collection is not large enough to warrant that.
Yet.
January 20: Nannying again. Took the little guy to the library so his mom could get some sleep (she works at a hospital, and got stuck on the night shift). Ran into a group of college students there on a tour...and realized that they were from MY alma mater. Remembered the professors from when I took the same class. I fit right in with them, because I was wearing my college hoodie. Completely unexpected.
Then I had the kind of afternoon that reminded me why I love working with kids. While the little guy was napping, his brother showed off the cardboard-box castle he made at school. He decided it was just the right size for Lego people, so the Lego firemen ruled the kingdom with their pet dinosaur. Then I built a spaceship for the Lego aliens, and the kingdom was invaded by UFOs. It was great.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Lego mania
I love Legos; who doesn't? I read a Lego webcomic and visit Lego fan sites. I am certainly not alone in this regard. There is even a name for adult fans of Lego: AFOL. I think what draws me to Lego is that I love miniatures. I always have. I love seeing how someone can take something and shrink it down, preserving the detail.
When I was a kid I would spend hours working on creations and playing with them. Of course, about half of that time was spent digging through our giant box of Legos looking for just the right piece. I especially loved the minifigs. For a while I had all of the "people pieces" set aside. Mixed in with the "real" Lego pieces were some knockoff sets. Most of the time I preferred to use the genuine item, but one of the knockoffs came with these large, flat interlocking pieces. I built a cube from them and stored all of the minifigs inside. One time my friend and I invented Lego babies, which were basically a Lego head stuck on top of a brick. Completely out of proportion, but we didn't care.
Recently I have been thinking about Legos more and more. The family I nanny for has two older boys who received several Lego sets for Christmas (and a two-year-old who needs to be kept away from them!). I was helping the boys with their creations when I realized I should start collecting Lego sets myself. So this morning I bought one online. This is the one I bought:
It reminds me of the kind of thing I would try to build as a kid, but of course this one comes with special pieces to make it look more realistic. I love the little details: the basketball hoop, the lawn mower, the satellite on top...
I would love to buy more. This set caught my eye a couple years ago, when I read about it on a fan site:
The snowman! The jack-in-the-box! The Christmas tree! The price tag... $60. The sets I want all run around $50-$60. I think I will have to limit myself to one a month at the most. This one is even more expensive; it caught my eye when we were at the Lego store. There I was able to get a closer look at all of the details inside, including a revolving door and escalators!
WANT. NOW. But this one will have to wait; they want $150 for it. Yes, Legos are an expensive hobby. Then again, I would be hard-pressed to think of one that is not. Once you really get into something, there are people waiting to sell you stuff to improve your experience, whether it is a 2,000-piece Lego set, mahogany knitting needles, or a custom-drilled bowling ball.
When I was a kid I would spend hours working on creations and playing with them. Of course, about half of that time was spent digging through our giant box of Legos looking for just the right piece. I especially loved the minifigs. For a while I had all of the "people pieces" set aside. Mixed in with the "real" Lego pieces were some knockoff sets. Most of the time I preferred to use the genuine item, but one of the knockoffs came with these large, flat interlocking pieces. I built a cube from them and stored all of the minifigs inside. One time my friend and I invented Lego babies, which were basically a Lego head stuck on top of a brick. Completely out of proportion, but we didn't care.
Recently I have been thinking about Legos more and more. The family I nanny for has two older boys who received several Lego sets for Christmas (and a two-year-old who needs to be kept away from them!). I was helping the boys with their creations when I realized I should start collecting Lego sets myself. So this morning I bought one online. This is the one I bought:
It reminds me of the kind of thing I would try to build as a kid, but of course this one comes with special pieces to make it look more realistic. I love the little details: the basketball hoop, the lawn mower, the satellite on top...
I would love to buy more. This set caught my eye a couple years ago, when I read about it on a fan site:
The snowman! The jack-in-the-box! The Christmas tree! The price tag... $60. The sets I want all run around $50-$60. I think I will have to limit myself to one a month at the most. This one is even more expensive; it caught my eye when we were at the Lego store. There I was able to get a closer look at all of the details inside, including a revolving door and escalators!
WANT. NOW. But this one will have to wait; they want $150 for it. Yes, Legos are an expensive hobby. Then again, I would be hard-pressed to think of one that is not. Once you really get into something, there are people waiting to sell you stuff to improve your experience, whether it is a 2,000-piece Lego set, mahogany knitting needles, or a custom-drilled bowling ball.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Resolution: Jan 13-17
Current music: Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." Good song.
January 13: Jason bought me a lightsaber for my birthday! He has quite a few in his collection, but this is my first one (and yes, my birthday was Sunday, but the box was delayed by the dark side of the Force). Not only does it light up, it has LEDs in the blade. This makes it look like the light actually starts at the base and goes up to the top (rather than, say, a flourescent light that turns on all at once). AND it has sound effects when you turn it on or wave it around. Jason's favorite feature is that it has a removable blade, so I can take it out and wear the base on a belt clip. Very cool.
January 14: Went to Wendy's for lunch. I hardly ever do fast food anymore, but I liked their mandarin chicken salad. Discovered they no longer have it, and decided to try a chicken sandwich instead. Also tried their re-vamped, "natural" French fries...which still do not taste like potato. Then I went to the library and got some books on searching for a job. This will be my first time utilizing outside help in my job search. I already have a job--in fact, I work at no less than three places--but all of them are part-time. This means that I could work as many as six days in a week (which has not happened yet) or as little as one and a half (which did happen, last week). I like all of the places I work for, but would also like to have something more consistent.
January 15: My mom printed out a bunch of recipes she found online, and asked everyone to pick one that they would like to try. Saturday was my pick; we all tried French chicken stew. It was delicious.
January 16: Spent the day with Jason, who was off of work. Even though we have been together for more than 7 months, it seems as though we are always doing something new...Jason's pick of the new recipes was ginger chicken soup. Also a hit with everyone who tried it.
January 17: Dinner was my brother Johnny's pick: chicken and leek casserole. I had never tried leeks before. The flavor reminded me of a combination between onion and cabbage. Not a big fan of cabbage; not too sure if I like leeks.
Wow. I just realized how many of my firsts are food-related. I can justify this by admitting that, at the age of twenty-three, I am still a picky eater. It is a bit embarrassing, and it can get me into trouble when we go out to eat or when I am invited to someone else's house for dinner. I guess this is an area where I have a lot of room for growth. Who knows, maybe by the end of the year I will be eating head cheese. Or haggis. But don't count on it.
January 13: Jason bought me a lightsaber for my birthday! He has quite a few in his collection, but this is my first one (and yes, my birthday was Sunday, but the box was delayed by the dark side of the Force). Not only does it light up, it has LEDs in the blade. This makes it look like the light actually starts at the base and goes up to the top (rather than, say, a flourescent light that turns on all at once). AND it has sound effects when you turn it on or wave it around. Jason's favorite feature is that it has a removable blade, so I can take it out and wear the base on a belt clip. Very cool.
January 14: Went to Wendy's for lunch. I hardly ever do fast food anymore, but I liked their mandarin chicken salad. Discovered they no longer have it, and decided to try a chicken sandwich instead. Also tried their re-vamped, "natural" French fries...which still do not taste like potato. Then I went to the library and got some books on searching for a job. This will be my first time utilizing outside help in my job search. I already have a job--in fact, I work at no less than three places--but all of them are part-time. This means that I could work as many as six days in a week (which has not happened yet) or as little as one and a half (which did happen, last week). I like all of the places I work for, but would also like to have something more consistent.
January 15: My mom printed out a bunch of recipes she found online, and asked everyone to pick one that they would like to try. Saturday was my pick; we all tried French chicken stew. It was delicious.
January 16: Spent the day with Jason, who was off of work. Even though we have been together for more than 7 months, it seems as though we are always doing something new...Jason's pick of the new recipes was ginger chicken soup. Also a hit with everyone who tried it.
January 17: Dinner was my brother Johnny's pick: chicken and leek casserole. I had never tried leeks before. The flavor reminded me of a combination between onion and cabbage. Not a big fan of cabbage; not too sure if I like leeks.
Wow. I just realized how many of my firsts are food-related. I can justify this by admitting that, at the age of twenty-three, I am still a picky eater. It is a bit embarrassing, and it can get me into trouble when we go out to eat or when I am invited to someone else's house for dinner. I guess this is an area where I have a lot of room for growth. Who knows, maybe by the end of the year I will be eating head cheese. Or haggis. But don't count on it.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Resolution: Jan 10-12
January 10: I made dinner on Monday night...my first time cooking without a recipe! Nothing too complicated, just chicken and pasta. When I am making something in the kitchen, it is usually baking, which you really need a recipe for. The combination of sugar and flour and leavener needs to be just right, or the texture is all wrong. But pasta is easy to do without a recipe (boil water, add pasta, cook until done, add seasonings and/or sauce) and I knew how to cook chicken from making Chicken Helper. Heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil, season the chicken, cook it for about 6 minutes on each side...I had to cook it a little longer because the chicken breasts were pretty thick. But it was good. Jason and Johnny agreed; we ate all the chicken up.
January 11: Jason and I were both off of work, which has not happened on a weekday in a very long time. We spent the whole day together. Our original plan was to go out somewhere, but it was snowing pretty hard all day, so we went out for brunch and then came home and had a snow fight. I say "snow fight" because it was too powdery for snowballs, so we ended up just throwing handfuls of snow at each other. It was hilarious. I'd never done that before.
In the afternoon, I learned how to jump-start a car. Fortunately, I was in the car providing the jump. My dad's car broke down in the parking lot a few blocks from our house, so Jason and I drove over to help him out. It took a few tries, but we got it working.
Jason and I watched Ninja in the Claw of the CIA. I had never seen a ninja movie before, and after that one I am not sure I would ever want to again. It was incomprehensible, plot-wise, not to mention that it was hard to go longer than a minute without someone attacking someone else. The main ninja (named John Liu, played by...John Liu) had a girlfriend. She was killed by a harpoon to the chest. In the very next scene, he has a completely different girlfriend who was never mentioned before. We kind of gave up on trying to follow the plot after that. Jason says that one was about on par with the other ninja movies he has.
January 12: I have been working on knitting myself a pair of "convertible" mittens--the kind that have a mitten top that you can flip off, with fingerless gloves underneath. Here is a pair in plain grey:
I need to take some pictures of mine. I have wanted for years to make mittens that match my favorite hat (which was handmade from fleece many years ago by a friend) so last week I went to the yarn shop and found yarn in the exact colors in the hat. I have been working on them off and on since I got the yarn, but yesterday I got to the fingers. I know I said I would not count knitting projects as something new, but this is my first pair of gloves. It is also my first time adding color work to a pattern for plain gloves, and I am working the mitten top without a pattern. I have a pattern for gloves, so I just changed the finger measurements so they end at about the first knuckle. I read some other convertible mitten patterns to get an idea for the general principle of how to create the top. I have been trying them on frequently to make sure they fit, so I am confident they will come out the way I want.
I can feel myself becoming a little more adventurous; before I made this resolution I probably would have stuck to something familiar. Time to make dinner? Open up a box of Chicken Helper. Need a mitten pattern? Search for someone else's. Now I am branching out to try things on my own.
January 11: Jason and I were both off of work, which has not happened on a weekday in a very long time. We spent the whole day together. Our original plan was to go out somewhere, but it was snowing pretty hard all day, so we went out for brunch and then came home and had a snow fight. I say "snow fight" because it was too powdery for snowballs, so we ended up just throwing handfuls of snow at each other. It was hilarious. I'd never done that before.
In the afternoon, I learned how to jump-start a car. Fortunately, I was in the car providing the jump. My dad's car broke down in the parking lot a few blocks from our house, so Jason and I drove over to help him out. It took a few tries, but we got it working.
Jason and I watched Ninja in the Claw of the CIA. I had never seen a ninja movie before, and after that one I am not sure I would ever want to again. It was incomprehensible, plot-wise, not to mention that it was hard to go longer than a minute without someone attacking someone else. The main ninja (named John Liu, played by...John Liu) had a girlfriend. She was killed by a harpoon to the chest. In the very next scene, he has a completely different girlfriend who was never mentioned before. We kind of gave up on trying to follow the plot after that. Jason says that one was about on par with the other ninja movies he has.
January 12: I have been working on knitting myself a pair of "convertible" mittens--the kind that have a mitten top that you can flip off, with fingerless gloves underneath. Here is a pair in plain grey:
I need to take some pictures of mine. I have wanted for years to make mittens that match my favorite hat (which was handmade from fleece many years ago by a friend) so last week I went to the yarn shop and found yarn in the exact colors in the hat. I have been working on them off and on since I got the yarn, but yesterday I got to the fingers. I know I said I would not count knitting projects as something new, but this is my first pair of gloves. It is also my first time adding color work to a pattern for plain gloves, and I am working the mitten top without a pattern. I have a pattern for gloves, so I just changed the finger measurements so they end at about the first knuckle. I read some other convertible mitten patterns to get an idea for the general principle of how to create the top. I have been trying them on frequently to make sure they fit, so I am confident they will come out the way I want.
I can feel myself becoming a little more adventurous; before I made this resolution I probably would have stuck to something familiar. Time to make dinner? Open up a box of Chicken Helper. Need a mitten pattern? Search for someone else's. Now I am branching out to try things on my own.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)