Office Painting

Mosquito and I painted my new office. I knew I wanted to paint my office purple, but I was having a hard time deciding on the exact shade of purple I wanted. Then I realized that a gallon of paint was like $20! And I wasn't completely convinced that one gallon would do it.

So, I went around to some of the Home Depots, starting last night with the one near my work, looking at their "Oops" paint selection. You know, the colors they got wrong for someone else's color selection and so sell for super cheap ($5/gallon $1/quart.) I didn't find any at the place last night and we had stuff to do, so we couldn't go around looking.

This morning I went to the one near my house and didn't find a very good selection either. Then I decided to try a Home Depot that is in Bellevue, which is on my way from home to work. I would also see if Lowe's sold their mistake paint for cheap too. But, lo and behold, I found a gallon in a pretty shade of dark red and a quart in a horrible shade of bright blue that I thought would mix together well and figured for $6 it was worth a shot.


They mixed together for the prettiest shade of purple. I'm not sure if the photos will do it justice. Plus, the completed ones are done at night, so the color won't look quite right anyway.


At one point a guy came in to do some floor cleaning. We were just starting and I only had some edging done on one wall. He said he liked the color.

A co-worker came in when we were just starting the 2nd coat. He really liked the color. He said it was the exact color from my fantasy PSP picture. I don't think it's quite that color, but it's equally as pretty.

Pants for Mosquito

Mosquito needs some new pants. I'm not sure what that man does, but he normally goes through them like crazy. From the description it seems like these BDU Pants would be more durable than the ones we've been buying lately. They seem like nice pants for a decent price. And I think they are the kind of pants he would probably like. I may buy a pair and see if he likes them.

Dresses

Look how cute these dresses are at Coldwater Creek. I want, but I'll wait to see if I can get them on a super clearance sale later.

Dotted ruffle-front dress
Was $139.00
Now $69.99


Floral V-neck dress
Was $119.00
Now $59.99


Dotted ruched dress
Was $119.00
Now $54.99

Recipe to try

Here are a couple of recipes I copied from the Pioneer Organics website that I'd like to try soon.  There was another one in the newsletter I got with last week's delivery, but I can't remember what it was, just that I thought it sounded good enough to try when I saw it.  I'll have to find that newsletter when I get home and see if it's also up on their website and copy it here.

Braised Radishes

Radishes are most commonly consumed raw, however, we think you’ll love this cooked radish recipe adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.

Servings: 4 Time: 25 minutes

20 radishes, red or multicolored 1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 shallot, minced finely 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme Salt and freshly ground black pepper Water

Trim the leaves from the radishes. Scrub the radishes. If the leaves are tender and in good condition, wash them and set aside. Leave smaller radishes whole, and half or quarter larger ones. Melt 2 to 3 teaspoons butter in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Add the shallot and thyme and cook for 1 minute. Add the radishes, a little salt and pepper and water, just to cover. Cover and simmer until the radishes are tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the leaves, if using, and cook until wilted and tender, about 1 minute more. Remove the radishes (and leaves) to a serving dish. Boil the liquid in the pan until slightly reduced. Add 1 or 2 more teaspoons of butter to create a sauce. Pour over radishes and serve. Note You may substitute 1 tablespoon chopped onion for shallot. You may also substitute any fresh herb for the thyme.

Sautéed Cherry Tomatoes with Basil

Servings: 2
Time: 10 minutes

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved unless very small
2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons capers
2 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
4 to 5 leaves of fresh basil, sliced thinly

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Mix the tomatoes and honey in a medium bowl and add them to the hot oil along with the capers. Cook for 1 minute tossing frequently. Stir in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat, garnish with the fresh basil. Season with sea salt and pepper, to taste.

Let the sun shine in!

I just found out that I will be moving offices.  I'm not moving far, just across the hall.  But the important thing is that my office will now have a window!  Someone left who had an awesome office and so people are moving up the chain and I'm the windowless person highest on the seniority list, so I get the office that my boss will be vacating tomorrow.

Now I just need to find the perfect shade of purple to go in there.  I'll be planning on painting it this weekend.  And I will never, ever move offices again.  It's in a great location and it has a window and it will be a color of my own choosing.  Maybe even with some pink polka dots!!!

Toxic Garbage Island

I've heard about the floating garbage island in the middle of the ocean.  I decided to find some info about it and I ran across Toxic Garbage Island, a 12 part series on vbs.tv.  I haven't watched them all yet, but when I get the time I will.  Each part is only a few minutes long, so it's not like an epic event to watch them all, but I am at work and actually have stuff I need to be doing. 

Pimp my PSP

How cool would it be to pimp out my PSP like this?



That will be only $199 plus whatever the cost of actually shipping them my PSP would be.

They have some really great colors to choose from. Go see what else ColorWare can pimp out. The above photo is from their design studio, so it's a generated image based on the way I would pick my colors, but they have some photos of some things they actually painted. Like this sexy iphone:



That is so hot.

Weird foot vibrations.

I've been having a vibration in my left foot since Dec. 2006. My primary doctor had moved out of state within the previous year and I hadn't gotten around to finding a new one yet.

I went to a random doctor within the first week of the symptoms and she said it was probably stress. I was getting married in a couple weeks, so I was happy to believe that. She gave me some anti-inflammatory and sent me on my way. She did no tests, not even to establish a baseline for a new patient.

I went on to get married and went to on my honeymoon, etc. I saw another doctor on March 19 2007 who told me it was only a symptom of being too fat. But this one at least ordered the blood work after I insisted. I was happy to see that my glucose levels were fine, so this wasn't some sign of diabetes. I've been fat most of my life, so I do have some knowledge of what being fat feels like and this is not normal for my past *mumble mumble* years of experience. She was so mean to me that I actually cried, so I didn't go back to her.

Finally on July 9, 2007 I found a doctor who referred me to a neurologist. I went to the neurologist on July 24. He did a bunch of tests, MRIs, blood tests and all kinds of other things.

One test he did was an electromyography (EMG), in which he sticks a needle into a muscle to test the electrical signals in my muscle at rest and while contracting. The machine was broadcasting some staticy sounds that he said was my muscle at work. He did 5 muscles in my leg. It wasn't too painful. In fact, one of them I couldn't feel at all and if he hadn't told me he was inserting the needle, I wouldn't have even known. The one he saved for last was the most uncomfortable and was the muscle in the arch of my foot. As soon as he put the needle in, we could hear a pretty pronounced tictictictictic and the buzzing in my foot felt stronger to me, though it may have been due to the feeling suddenly having a soundtrack to go with it. He mentioned that the sound was not normal and checked the same muscle in the other foot to verify. There was no extraneous sound with that one.

Well, it made me feel better to know it wasn't all in my head. He did several more tests after that to find out the cause, and so far I don't have an answer. I have an appointment in June to go see him again.

A year and a half straight of buzzy footness. I don't notice it as much anymore. I guess I've gotten used to it. But I still would really like to know what the cause it.

The Belt

My childhood wasn't the easiest. We had a roof over our head and food on the table, so I had it better than some. But saying my mother resented her kids would be an understatement. One of her favorite phrases was "I wish you were never born." This was usually punctuated with the dull, twapping sound of "The Belt" smacking skin. The Belt wasn't a belt at all. It was an old razor strap that was about a half an inch thick and 2 feet long with a tapered bit on one end that made it easier to hold on to. The leather was old and cracked, but still strong enough to hurt like heck when it struck.

When we were getting formally punished for something, The Belt would be used upon our bare bottoms. When my mother was in one of her blind rages it would flail wildly, looking for purchase upon anything nearby. During those times all we could do was roll up into as tight of a ball as possible and wait for it to be over.

We never knew what would set her off. We constantly tiptoed around so to not incur the Wrath of Mom.

I was a good kid. I always did well in school without trying. I listened to my elders and always did as I was told. Regardless I still usually managed to receive a beating at least once a month.

Seriously, WTF?

again?

Now the sun is out again. I wish the day would make up it's mind.

Crazy Weather

I'm at home today baking and preparing for our garage sale tomorrow. Tons of people from work have donated items that we'll be selling to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.

Anyway, it was raining earlier today and then it stopped and the sun actually came out for a while and I was planning to go outside and get some of the stuff pulled all out and so I could sort through everything. I was just finishing up a batch of brownies and cupcakes and then I turned off the oven and lo and behold the sun went away and IT IS HAILING. It's supposed to snow some this weekend in the higher elevation areas. This is completely insane! I just hope we get a good turnout tommorrow.

I got published!

I submitted a modified version of my previous post about Patapon to Associated Content and it got published.

It sounds much sexier than it actually is. You can submit lots of various blog entries to Blogsvertise. Sometimes they will pay you upfront for your content and other times they'll publish it and you can get paid on a per view basis.

I have some ideas for another article about Go-Go Amy's pinup girl class that I took. I'll be posting it here at the same time that I submit it to Blogsvertise.

3GB Communities

I just joined a new site today.  It's called 3GB Communities.  You can post photos and link to other people and post blog entries, so it seems to be similar to MySpace or Facebook.  I figured I'd check it out and see what it's like. 

So far I'm not sure.  I tried to post a blog entry and got an SQL error.  It seems to have a problem letting me use an apostrophe (') in my blog entry so I had to go in and edit the post to use the special HTML character ´ (´) everywhere I had used a contraction.  That was a pain in the butt.  Hopefully they'll change that soon.

They have some music uploading and sharing feature that I will be checking out soon when I have more time.  I looked at it a little and the graphics on the page were nice. 

The member count is currently at 452.  So join 3gb community www.3gb.biz and come find me, my username is darling.  We can get that member count up and explore this site together!

RC car + bottles = awesome

This is just so cool. I wonder how much time this took?

http://view.break.com/487616 - Watch more free videos

Seeds of Compassion.

The Dalai Lama is here in Seattle for a 5 day event called Seeds of Compassion. You can watch the events live if something is currently going on, or you can watch them on demand if there isn't something live streaming.

Punkin is going to one of the events on Monday with her school. Everything was sold out when I first found out about it. I'm happy they have the events being webcast so those of us who weren't able to go can still get to see.

Cute Cereal Box Notepad

Beckie over at Infarrantly Creative shows how to make a cereal box notepad.  It's super cute and easy.

I love notepads and paper. I have a bazillion laying around, so maybe I'll give this a try. I have a new cordless drill that I've never gotten to use yet.

Free money anyone?

Have you heard that Revolutioon Money Exhange is giving away free money? $25 for just signing up! I got my $25, referred Mosquito which gave me an additional $10 and him $25. Then he sent me $25 cash and I took all of that $60 and deposited it into my bank account. They didn't charge me a single penny for anything. I had to wait about 3 days for the bank deposit, but that's the same way it is for my Paypal personal account.

So, if you haven't, go ahead and sign up and take advantage of them giving away free money.

Wish List

I want this dress!

And these shoes to go with it.




And these shoes just because they are so darn cute!!

Pay Per Post

My blog just got approved for Pay Per Post! I found out about PPP from from Mommies With Cents, which is a blog I check occasionally to help find money saving ideas.

Anyway, I signed up for Pay Per Post as soon as I found out about it, but they have to approve your blog before you can start using the paid opportunities, so it took a little bit for my to get my approval. Until then you can put some requests up to have your posts reviewed and such, but I didn't do any of that.

After you get approval, you can go through a list of opportunities and choose the things you'd like to get paid to blog about. Each opportunity tells you upfront how much you'll get paid and the requirements for getting your payment. Some of them have some requirements for your blog's Google rank or "Tack Score" which represents how you performed on previous PPP posts. I figure I'll find some things I would talk about anyway or things that fit into my blog style pretty easily, so I may as well try to get a little money out of blogging my random thoughts.

Any extra money I earn on my blog will go to help fund Punkin's education. We have a 529 plan that I put money in occasionally, so my Pay Per Post earnings will go straight into there. It'll be perfect!

Awareness Test

I've been sent this a few times in the last couple weeks and even the 3rd time watching, it still catches me.

Legend of Zelda, the movie

I missed some great April Fool's jokes yesterday.

More Video of Lifelike Robotic Dog

More Video of Lifelike Robotic Dog - Watch more free videos

mad foldins

I'm busy at work today, so here's something to play with. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/28/arts/20080330_FOLD_IN_FEATURE.html

Apron Swap

I found some details about an apron swap over on Tip Junkie. It sounds like fun. I would like to participate, but I'll have to see if I can find the time to make a pretty apron by the May 5th signup deadline. I'd hate to sign up and then flake out on actually making something.

feels good to be noticed

I was in Ross yesterday looking for cheap good quality towels (which I didn't find in the correct colors) so I could make the hooded towels that I want to make for my 2 nephews and my upcoming niece. While I was there, I figured I'd look around for other stuff. I found a 4 dresses to try on and I was holding on to them and wandering around looking for other interesting things. I happened to wander into the shoe section.

Now, I hate to sound like a typical woman, but shoes make me feel like a kid in a candy store. I wasn't always like this. I think somewhere around 30 the shoe switch was turned on in my brain and now I obsess about shoes -- trying trying them on, buying them (if I can find a good deal,) collecting them, keeping them in their original boxes so they'll stay new and shiny when I'm not wearing them.

I happened to be wearing a dress and stockings because I actually shaved my legs Sunday and since it's such a rare occurrence this time of year, I figured I should get as much mileage out of it at possible. So, I was already setup to make trying on shoes super easy. I saw some gray snakeskin peeptoe pumps and although they weren't all that cute really, just sitting there on the shelf, they were the least ugly of the selection, so I figured I'd try them on. I had some trouble because at Ross they bind the shoes together in such a way to make them impossible to try on both at the same time. So, I put the right one on and I looked down at my bright red toenails peeping out and the way they made my legs look super long and I thought they actually looked pretty cute. So, I switched feet to make sure the other one fit. Then I stood there looking and trying to decide if they were worth $15 or not (ultimately I decided not.)

At this point a guy walked over and said something to me. I can't remember exactly what he said but it involved some form of the phrases "look nice," "trying on shoes" and "from far away." He was a really cute, well groomed guy and for whatever reason I thought he was gay and offering up his opinion realizing I was pondering the purchase. I actually considered discussing the pros and cons of the shoes with him. He walked away a bit and then walked around to the other end of the aisle I was on and again said something about how he came all the way into women's shoes to tell me how good I looked. Then he asked me my name and maybe even asked me to do something with him -- it's all kind of a blur. At this point it suddenly occurred to me that he was actually hitting on me.

Now, before you comment and tell me how incredibly daft I am, let me remind you that I used to be REALLY heavy. Guys just don't randomly hit on 300 pound women very often and especially not the really cute guys. So, I was in a completely foreign situation. I managed to get my name out, but then I immediately followed it by "and I'm married," and kind of waved my hand underneath the 4 dresses I was still holding, which were covering up the fact that I was wearing a wedding ring. At this point I was blushing so hard that I knew I must have been a lovely shade of crimson. I kind of fanned myself with my free right hand and I said "oh, now I'm blushing" and he said "you sure made me blush" and then I smiled at him and walked on and he called out for me to have a nice day and I said thanks, you too.

I felt so awesome the entire rest of the day. I kept going on about it to Mosquito, who I'm sure was just so happy to hear all about the REALLY CUTE guy who hit on his wife. And now he'll get to read about it in even more detail in my blog.