self portrait, avec cat

From Spike

too nice to stay inside today!

I swear, the Internet had some kind of personal vendetta against me this weekend. It wouldn't let me send pictures anywhere! no printing, no emailing, no blogging. grrr.

It took me a while, but I finally put up pics from a few weekends ago.

Sept. 23, 2006

Sep 23, 2006 - 7 Photos

(click on the photo to check them out!)

Dinner with Tucker

The fun part...

and the not so fun part.

Finding Things

On my weekly (but lately not-so-weekly lol) walk with my friends Erin and Tucker I picked up this lost to-do list. I guess I have it pretty easy compared to this guy - I think the hardest thing on my list right now is #4. Clean litter box!

I spent some time cleaning out the closet in my spare bedroom today. I'm kind of a packrat, but today I tossed a bunch of things I really don't need anymore. The stuff is still in my garage, so if anyone's interested in a stack of New Kids on the Block pictures ripped out of magazines and once taped to my bedroom wall let me know before Tuesday's trash pick up.

I did find a few interesting things though. Remeber when cds came in cardboard packaging? I stilll have the package from the REM album Automatic for the People. I remember it perfectly - Camille gave it to me for my 16th birthday and I unwrapped it on the bus on the way home from school. This was in December of 1992.

I also found a bunch of papers I had written in school (Mr. Keller gave me an A- on my essay comparing and contrasting two differant fiction genres!), a whole years' worth of The Pony Express, Stillwater high school's student newspaper, the essay my brother wrote for his 9th grade confirmation class (I have no idea why I have that!), and, best of all, grade school yearbooks.

I thought this was cute - here Dan has signed his name by his photo. This photo was probably taken in the fall of 1985, he was 7 years old. Note the missing teeth, the perfect currsive "D", and the not so perfect... well, check it out:

And if you think it's mean of me to post someone else's old yearbook photo, here's mine, too. I would have been 8 in this picture. A semi-related fun fact: The kid whose photo is next to mine on the page just started his first year as an elementary school principal!

The Lunch of Champions...

Kraft EasyMac and S'Mores Poptarts... mmm...

Or maybe it's just the lunch of people who raided their desk drawers looking for anything edible. like me. lol

Phone cozy

I always thought these bags were kind of goofy looking but the other day I realized I needed somewhere to put my phone besides my pockets. I just didn't have room in my pockets for all my stuff. So here it is - a phone cozy bag.

Knit & Crochet stuff

Jul 24, 2006 - 5 Photos

It's just a tiny bag with a strap. It can be hooked around a belt or the strap of the bag I carry to work every day. No more shoving in pockets or digging around in the bottom of my bag hoping to find the phone before it stops ringing!

No pattern, just made it up as I went. I used some clearance Joann Sensations yarn called Smania in the Dark Multi colorway. It's actually darker colors than the picture shows.

Sam!

My first nephew arrived this morning!

Samuel Francis

8/30/06, 5:15 AM

7 lbs 10 ozs, 20.5 inches

Click on the picture to see more!

Sam

Aug 30, 2006 - 10 Photos

Peaches and fangs! Rawr!

These peaches tasted fantastic

and looked really pretty too!

I got a new cell phone.

Spike's getting calls already...

Fangs! I never get to see these!

He's not that tough though - he's yawning.

I'm almost done with this sweater!

I'm just excited.

Crazy Elvis movie - Harum Scarum.

It was awful. Even I didn't watch it.

Baby booties

Prince Charming

Feathered friends

(Ok, they're entertainment for Spike!)

Changes

You guys may have noticed some changes here - I switched to the new Blogger Beta. (Question: why is it "Blogger Beta" but "Picasa Web Albums Test"?) I think I was in one of the first - if not the first - groups of people invited to switch. I think Google's realized I'm one of those people who will jump on anything they send out right away. lol

Anyway - They finally let us add labels (or tags) on posts. Those are the words lists under each post. I added a list of them on the sidebar so you can find things. So if you're looking for the stuff I posted about my July 4th visit with my cousins, click on the Family link. It will only show you posts about my family. Try it and leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

Behind the scenes they've made it a little easier to customize your blog template without knowing any html. I have no problem playing with the html, but I'm lazy. I have to admit I like the drag and drop/fill in the blanks things. And they made the spell check just like the one gmail uses! I've been hoping they'd do that!!!

A couple of things I don't like:

• No three column templates! I want to have a three column template!
• They won't let me edit the html. There are a few things I want to clean up or change in the template and I can't. Also, if I could edit the html I could get that three column template I want. (I have one all ready to go. I just never got around to publishing it. and now I can't.) They do say that they'll let us edit the html soon though.
• I think in the old version of this blog that if you clicked on the Spike and I title in the top left corner of the page it would take you back to spikeandi.blogspot.com. There's no way that I can see now to get back to the "home" blog page. This is really annoying if you click on one of the label/tag links and then want to go back. And I haven't found a way to make that title a link since I can't use html.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think. Especially let me know if anything is confusing or hard to use! (I am a Technical Communication Specialist, you know - I should be able to design a user-friendly blog. (I just got a new job title at work. I love it. It makes me feel important. ;) ))

Fetch!

Sad but true - I'm a fan of Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman.
and cheetos.

For those of you not in the know, Fetch! is a reality show
for pre-teens hosted by a cartoon dog. It's awesome.
(Well, it's a lot better than watching reruns of Sex in the City.)

Also, it's my blog. I can post all the pictures of food and my cat that I want.
You, on the other hand, don't have to come here and read it.

Spike types. and has cute paws.

An Idea!

I have had a really cool idea. A really, really cool idea.

Well, I like it anyway. lol

but I'm not sharing it. Yet.

:D

I'm so excited about my idea... lol

croquet!

I wonder how much longer they'll let me pose them? ;)

Peach pie!

Sweet potato fries!


I don't know why, but I've been kind of obsessed with food these last two weeks. It's practically all I think about. This is just not right. At the stoplight tonight I watched the guy in the car behind me eat a Big Mac. He carefully took it out of the box, had a couple big bites, set the sandwich down and then licked a few fingers. It was really, really wierd - I suddenly wanted nothing more than to be sitting in a dumpy red Geo Metro licking special sauce off some guy's thumb.

I don't even like condiments!

I do like to watch people in my rearview mirror though - I do it all the time.

Breakfast

Are you ready for the $.67 breakfast?

Get out the Egg & Muffin Toaster...


Start with the toasted wheat English muffin...

... add peanut butter...

... add cooked egg...

... add cheddar cheese slice...

... top with other half of muffin!

Enjoy!

Ikea meatballs and lots of Spike

Meatballs, gravy, french fries and lignonberry drink.

I went to Ikea with my mom and some friends of ours.

I think they thought I was a bit nutty when I pulled out

the camera. I think my mom's used to it though. :)

10 meatballs + gravy = approximately 13 ww points.

This is how we spend Saturday morning...

... and Saturday afternoon!

I just had one of those moments where you realize something you should have figured out long ago. I'm going to Ikea on Wednesday and I'll probably be eating the meatballs. I've always wondered if there was a way to figure out the WW points value of the meatballs and gravy - although I probably really don't want to know. :) I just realized how I can figure it out! THEY SELL FROZEN PACKAGES OF THEIR MEATBALLS. Duh - the frozen packages of meatballs must have nutritional information on them. It will take me two seconds to do the math.

I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing though. So far I've lost weight every week I've eaten at Ikea. But if I find out that my plate of meatballs and fries (hold the lingonberries!) has enough calories to keep a small country fat and happy for a week... well, I can no longer tell my body that Ikea meatballs are completely calorie free. (They are, of course, calorie free right now. If I don't know how many calories are in them, I can assume they don't contain any calories, right? I mean, I have no evidence to prove my assumption is wrong...)

Pictures of drawers like I promised! :)

I'm actually in a good mood today despite the fact that I have absolutely no money.

Good things:

• it's Friday!
• I have fancy new drawers in my cupboards! My dad made them for me and they're beautiful - the corners are perfect. My parents came over last night and installed them. I played with them while I waited for my coffee to finish this morning (pull a shelf out, move the toaster to the other side of the shelf, push shelf back in, stand there and look at it for a minute, pull it out, move toaster back to original position, put drawer back in. And then I had to think about it for while. Toaster positioning is very important.) Pictures to come later tonight!
• I was told unofficially that the paperwork for my raise has been completed up in HR. I've made the trip all the way down to the other end of the building to check my mailbox three times today just to look for the official letter detailing when it goes into effect. This is a big deal - we're talking about a raise of $3 an hour! I have so many plans for this money it's not even funny.
• I finally came up with an idea for an awesome gift for someone. (actually, it will work for a bunch of someones if the first one turns out well!) I just have to either create or heavily modify a pattern and get started. I have to say, I like knitting and crocheting much better now that I understand how to modify existing patterns and come up with my own. I think the planning is the most fun part of the whole process! I'm going to complete another gift for someone else this weekend and so far I'm really pleased with how it looks. It's always so nice when things turn out better than you expected! (yes, everyone's getting knit birthday presents this year. See line 1 of this post re: no money.)
• Tomorrow's Saturday, so I get to sleep in with a fluffy butt on my face (the butt belongs to Spike, and it's much pleasenter than it sounds. (is that even a word? hmmm... )). After we get up, we'll spend the rest of the morning watching cartoons, drinking an obscene amount of coffee (with lots of milk and sugar!), reading stupid crap online and snuggling. Spike is particularly snuggly on weekend mornings between 9 AM and noon. I like to think it's because he really appreciates snuggling with me, but he probably gets all snuggly by himself under the bed every day between 9 and noon without me anyway.

I might have to break out one of the old beers I keep in the fridge to celebrate my good mood tonight. These are very special beers, by the way. For one thing, the expiration date on them is in 1997. I've been saving them for someone really stupid, really brave or really desperate for beer. That may just be me tonight!

It's been so long I don't even know what to say. :)

I've added a bunch of pictures to my web albums:

• pics of Stephanie's family 7/17/06
• pics from the baby shower for Sara 7/23/06
• and a folder for pics of my knit and crocheted stuff (only one thing in there now, but there'll be more in the future I'm sure!)

I finally saw the window washers this morning! I've been waiting to catch them as they're doing the windows on my floor. They are awfully brave - they sit on small wooden seats with no visible safety harness 8 floors up in the air! (they must have a harness but I sure couldn't spot one! and I was too embarrassed to go stand right up by the window and get a closer look.)

I've been so busy this week it's been crazy. But it's been really fun! I've seen so many small children I've lost count! And I KEEP FORGETTING MY CAMERA!!! I know I missed some really cute shots, too. I did take pics of Thor and Tait at my parents' house - pics are in my web album.

I've been taking some cold medicine today and it's made me kind of goofy. I'm in a really weird mood because of it (sound familiar anyone? ;) I bought the cold medicine at Wal-Mart yesterday and it was the first time I had to have my ID checked to buy it. This stuff is making me feel a little off - almost drunk! - and really tired, so I am considering going back to buy a different type of cold medicine. But I'm afraid the police are going to come raid my house looking for a meth lab if I go on record as buying two packages of cold medicine in two days.

I saw the pirate movie! It was a lot of fun. I have an even bigger crush on Captain Jack now, if that's possible. :)

Trevor told me I'd be a "cutie-patootie - a fancy cutie-patootie" if I had some flowered pants from GapKids. I'll have to stop by and pick up some. Maybe I could wear them to work.

I guess I'm not the only one who likes Sven the weather guy. There's a whole "Svenomenon" even! (Thanks Erin for sending me that!) So now I have to ask - Mom, have you been sending Sven certain fan emails? lol

I think I may well be in love with the Pirate Captain. He has a fabulous silky beard, likes ham, is really good at mini golf and has a sneer reminiscent of Elvis. Plus he gets things wrong all the time and doesn't really care. He is the Pirate Captain, after all. I'm reading The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists / The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab. Both books are bound together as one and it's a great deal at $9.95! It is a completely ridiculous book. It was making me laugh all through lunch! I was afraid my co-workers were going to notice and think I was weird. (but then again, I think they always think I'm a bit weird!)

I definitely have a crush on the author of The Pirates! - Gideon Defoe. He writes completely silly books about pirates. He obviously likes ham. He has a degree in anthropology and archaeology. He likes to include interesting and informative footnotes. I like all those things too. And the little author bio says "His mother does not regard writing stupid books about pirates as any kind of an occupation for an adult." I'm pretty sure my mother feels the same way.

I've added more pictures to my photo album thing, but they're just pictures of clouds and sunsets. I like to take them, that's all. :) I added some links to my photos in the sidebar, too, if anyone is wondering where they are. Or if you just need a Spike fix.

I love the subject lines of spam email. I used to just delete everything in there without looking at them, but then I realized how fun they can be to read.

Today's favorite: Dear client. Surely you only dream of it

I didn't open the email to discover what exactly I'm surely dreaming of, but I'm pretty sure they're trying to sell me stuff I don't need for body parts I don't have. you know.

(FYI - I get spam in my usfamily.net account but I've never gotten a spam email in my gmail account!)

I have been dreaming of birds lately. For a while I was seeing birds everywhere. Big birds too, not just the small chirpy things that come to my feeder to entertain Spike - herons, eagles, hawks, even Mallard ducks on my lawn once. Then they all moved to my dreams. Every night features a different bird. I should find a dream dictionary and see what they mean. They just seem kinda symbolic.

I just ordered a bunch of printed photos on the Walmart website. I don't really like going to Walmart, but I love being able to do the one-hour online photo printing. Can anyone recommend a cheap place where I can print photos? They don't need to be one-hour, but I want to be able to:

1. send them in online
2. pick them up in a store the same day
3. pay less than 20 cents per print.

I dropped film off at a small photo printing place near my house a couple years ago. When I got my prints they were inside two envelopes - I think they took my film to Sam's Club for one hour developing and then just dropped the Sam's Club envelope inside their own envelope. I was kind of annoyed - the Sam's Club envelope had a price printed on it and everything. I could have taken my pictures there myself and paid less!

July 4th 2006

Saw my cousins this afternoon - Larissa and Steff were here from out of town and Dewey was there too! It's always fun to see them becuase they are the cousins that I was closest to when I was young. Check out today's pictures in my web album.

This is such a typical picture of Steff and me. I don't know why
it's a typical picture of us, it just is.


This might just be my favorite picture of the whole batch.
It's just cute.


Caleb's feet. Just becuase I can. ;)