yummers
i just found this recipe and had to blog about it so i don't forget. i think it will work out well in a bento... now i just have to find my mini-muffin tin.
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August 30, 2007
August 28, 2007
shocking!!1
kurt's friend brendan and mom's george came over this evening to run wire in the basement. all was successful. we got the broken outlet in the first floor bedroom to work, and put the room on a 20 amp circuit all by itself, and brendan's going to put one in outside so we have electricity when it's time to build a deck.
i have to admit, it's been kinda hard to get into the home-owner's groove... things i want to do and won't have time for. but we have less than 3 weeks to get our sh*t together and get the house presentable for a party.
grandma and john are coming over this weekend (they're in town for another festivity), and i'd like to, at least, get it comfortable. john's a big guy, and i'm not even sure he (or grandma) is going to want to trek upstairs... so i'm taking friday off in order to get the house up to some sort of standard that doesn't look like we just moved in... impossible expectations, i'm aware.
i just have to remember to take before pictures so i can enjoy my accomplishments. :)
analities
before we started packing for the move, i used to keep track of my debits and credits almost daily. i had an excel spreadsheet all formatted to look like a check register, and i'd add and subtract as needed... keeping very close tabs for no reason.
well, we started packing, and moving, and it became difficult to hold on to card receipts and atm visits simply for the sake of doing it... so i stopped. cold turkey. no more wondering why my records are $0.13 off, or a hundred (in my favor). i just check my account online every once in a while, and i have plenty in a savings account to juggle around, if necessary.
speaking of which, i just took $150 out to buy a 3-cup rice cooker and some more bento accessories. :x
August 27, 2007
ahoy-hoy!
kurt bought a bike trailer last weekend, so we took it to woodman's yesterday and loaded it up with our canvas bags full of good food. we were like a coupla regular hippies.
we stopped at a friends house, briefly, on the way back and i was given five different kinds of basil and some cilantro (he's a horticulturist by both trade and hobby). i didn't even know there were five different kinds of basil. one is cinnamon flavored!!1
anywho, i think it took less time to bike from the new house than to drive from the old one.
August 26, 2007
get along little doggie
today, she made it all day without going in the house. and, she seems to have found her place with jones. at least as much as two days of learning can find a dog.
this week will be another test, since i won't be home all day. she is having a little trouble sharing me with jones, though... every time he comes over to get pet, she gets in the middle of us.
here's them being very good doggies:
neighbor etiquette
so we finally met the lady next door who's got the corner lot. her name is irma. she was out mowing and stopped to say hi... and made reference to some bush next to our driveway that is creeping only inches over onto her property. she asked if we wanted her son-in-law to chop it down when he comes in the fall. i said we hadn't thought about it much yet. it just seemed kinda weird, but i said we could talk about it when he shows up.
also, alan offered the lawn chairs on his front porch if we ever needed them. i thought that was very nice.
August 25, 2007
i think we forgot
what it was like to have a one-year-old puppy. nora is doing okay. she had a hard time sleeping in the bed last night, as she's used to a crate.. so we're going to borrow one from mom and george to see if she likes that better. she seemed to be scared of the ceiling fan.
we've had a couple accidents.. mostly pee. wherever she wants. it's a little frustrating, but she's in a new place, and with new people.
we went to the dog park this morning, and she runs like a rabbit! for no reason! around and around.
we'll probably go back this afternoon. she loved splashing in all the puddles and rolling around in them. :/
August 24, 2007
uh oh!
we just got Nora. omg she's so sweet.
its official
it's been over 8 months since i've knitted. i'm not even sure if the big rubbermaid filled with yarn is in the basement or upstairs. i think my needles are downstairs, too, in a sewing box.
wtf?
i have a lapghan that's about 5 inches long sitting on the needles. i hope it's not getting deformed, or worse, falling off the cable that it's on.
when it gets colder, i hope i'll be content sitting in front of the tv using up some of my stash.
August 23, 2007
ok
i'll probably say this a couple hundred times in the next two years, but i'm "getting" this whole homeownership thing. it makes sense... in a strange way.
yea, we have the shitty electrical, and the toilet that doesn't flush slow enough, but we also have laundry in the basement and i can traipse around loudly without concern for people downstairs. i actually think, "wait, no one's down there." when i walk into the kitchen.
good deal, i say.
August 22, 2007
so
i kinda played hooky today. not because of something i had to do, but because i really didn't want to be at work.
i've had a case of the ennui for a little while.
i didn't tell you guys... we're meeting a puppers this friday. nora needs a home, and we're gunna see if she likes this one.
kurt's on the "one dog" side of the fence right now. i'm hoping he'll drool with excitement once we meet her. jonser surely needs a buddy that has four legs!
August 20, 2007
weird
it was strange seeing my childhood street on the news last night with my park's bridge almost covered...
flood in oregon. it's been over 5 years since mom and george had to move because of a flood. they had guys come from the prison to help fill sand bags. i think i gave them all a cigarette.
August 19, 2007
wet
can you tell i found my camera? so, the rain has caused starkweather creek to get mighty big. it's up over its banks and into the neighbor's backyards. click the pic to view more water.
edit: 2:00pm, barb and alan just got home and weren't alarmed in the least. apparently this happens at least once a year.
mom and george are in oregon filling sand bags for the houses on our old street. apparently it's flooded up to burr oak ave.
August 18, 2007
not too shabby
this is the result of my first attempt at making sushi. since i suck at rice, my batch yielded roughly half the rice it should have cuz i always end up burning the bottom and then the top stays all wet. :/
anyhoo, it turned out okay. below are cucumber and spicy tuna rolls. the tuna was cooked and mixed with sriracha and mayo, so it's not real spicy tuna. i'd still rather get it delivered. which i haven't done in like 3 weeks.
finally
i got the office sorta set up. i'm actually surprised my computer worked without a hitch. i also found my phone charger finally.
so, i was able to take some pics of the painted rooms upstairs and down.
where i sleep:
spare room upstairs:
livingroom:
diningroom:
we had an unsuccessful visit from an audio specialist. seems our walls are pretty hefty. he drilled into two inches of plaster and still didn't break through to run a wire up from the basement. kurt's a little frustrated now... his car has also been not starting, so he's been kinda defeated today. :(
August 17, 2007
so
i mowed the lawn today. for the first time in 14 years.
there's something neat about that.
uh...
the number 23 is lame.
do not waste your time.
jim carrey cannot play a tortured, sex-crazed soul. can not.
August 16, 2007
rem
i keep having very specific stress dreams. ones which involve either an onslaught of ridiculous projects at work (like, smell-a-vision websites) or the basement flooding at home.
August 14, 2007
literally
i'm about to crawl out of my skin. i don't think i can stay here til 5.
August 12, 2007
progress report
at work, they would say, "where did we net out?" and i'd chuckle.
i'd say we put a 20% dent in the main floor. not a real one, silly. we got the livingroom situated, and most of the dining room. i also assembled a kitchen counter thing, and put up a 5-foot-wide mini-blind. remind me to tell you how much i hate mini-blinds.
which means, i get to work on my "office" this week/next weekend. i'm loathe to set up my computer on a weeknight because i know it will end up taking more than four hours.. so to start a project like that when i get home, but not before walking the dog, and eating dinner, it would keep me up well past 11. and that's if things were to go well.
we made another trip to menards today to get a shelf for the basement. and a foot-wipey rug for the front door, and a level, and some other stuff that added up to a pretty penny. it's like a week's worth of eating out each time we go there! zomg.
with our target housewarming a little over a month away, i'm feeling more comfortable and i still think it's realistic. i think.
surprise!
another outlet stopped working yesterday. we were making juice.. and had a lot of fruit peeled and cut up, when it decided to quit. we thought the juicer had taken a dump, so i'm happy to report that was not the case.
i still can't find my phone charger and my phone keeps beeping at me.
August 10, 2007
neat
a buddhist monk just walked past our house.
August 9, 2007
bleh
i've been fairly "ho-hum" lately. i think it's because of the oppressive weather.
but it's probably also because the last 6 weekends have been spent packing, painting, unpacking, moving, cleaning, fixing, running up and down the stairs, yelling "turn off breaker 13!", checking the outlet, dripping sweat into the plaster mess on the floor, and still not knowing where my q-tips are. and it feels like this'll be the weekend-way for a while. so, my mind has been trained to look forward to friday, but it's confused cuz friday's are no fun.
August 5, 2007
a little downtrodden
with patience and help from george, we managed to identify the electrical problem. the wires are old. like, older-than-time old. the fabric and the black stuff covering the wire is disintegrating, creating faulty connections and blowing circuits... and some moron* decided to put half the house on one breaker.
yup.
however, it's actually been kind of fun trying to figure stuff out. it's like a big, sparky puzzle. i was only half kidding when i said to mom or someone that i should go to matc to be an electrician.
realtor ben came over to help and got us going in a good direction. we replaced two of the crappy wires and have power upstairs again. heh.
it's funny the perspective change that comes with home buying. everyone will try their best to describe this change to you, but it doesn't sink in until you can't find your phone charger, or your q-tips, but you have power in the livingroom. somehow, it is a great feeling to come home to a place that is yours. all yours. well, the bank owns it, but no one considers that fact until the 1st of the month. :)
*sorry, moron, if you read this; but really. wtf were you thinking? 9 outlets and 3 ceiling lights on one breaker? jesus.
well
we got one more phone line working... and discovered our electrical problem. seems no one knew there were live wires hanging out in the insulation. :/
so, now i'm waiting for kurt to decide to wake up so we can start wrestling with that problem.
August 2, 2007
the simpsons
the simpsons movie has been out for a week; but when their site launched, they began to offer an avatar-creator. so you can simpsonize yourself.
below are kurt and i. colin helped with creating my avatar cuz i wasn't able to come up with anything that seemed to be a likeness of me.
(p.s., mom, these were not drawn... the caricatures were chosen from a group of attributes)
August 1, 2007
success!
i finally have my own internets. again, i'm thanking whomever that i bought this laptop. otherwise, it might be two more weeks before i got my desktop together.
unfortunately, the only phone jack that works is upstairs in the bedroom. so, installing a couple more is another thing on the to-do list.
an aside; i met the last neighbor tonight. mike. he told me that he's our snow plower. he's at the end and the city usually dumps all the snow at the foot of his driveway, so he tops them by plowing first. i'd think he could offer a suggestion to put the snow on the other side of the street, but i'm sure he's tried that angle.