Stolen from one of my cousin’s myspace page:
“Total absence of humor renders life impossible.” Colette
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” Albert Einstein
“Laughter is the closest distance between two people.” Victor Borge
PMS week + stressing about money = moody & tired. So I haven’t done much of anything this week. Though I did have dinner at Mana last night with my pirate. And Sunday I saw TC to pick up brownies and watched her play some Animal Crossing.
Drool-worthy stuff that inspired me to blog:
Color Spectrum Umbrella, Collapsible – Love the colors on this!
– Heart Necklace
Apple SlicerI finally got all my photos pretty much imported into iPhoto in addition to all the music I added to iTunes. So now I only have about 1/2 a gig left of free space. To make room for everything I’ve been going through and trashing a lot of old stuff. I didn’t want to keep these, but I didn’t want to trash them either. From some old email:
These are pretty cool. I need to go out and get some Alka Seltzer for sure.
TIPS FOR A LIFETIME
- Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips.
- Use a meat baster to “squeeze” your pancake batter onto the hot griddle – perfect shaped pancakes every time.
- To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
- To prevent egg shells from cracking, add a pinch of salt to the water before hard-boiling.
- Run your hands under cold water before pressing Rice Krispies treats in the pan-the marshmallow won’t stick to your fingers.
- To get the most juice out of fresh lemons, bring them to room temperature and roll them under your palm against the kitchen counter before squeezing.
- To easily remove burnt-on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stove-top – skillet will be much easier to clean.
- Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in tomato-based sauces – no more stains.
- When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead – no white mess on the outside of the cake.
- If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it’s still cooking, drop in a peeled potato – it absorbs the excess salt for an instant “fix me up”.
- Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator – it will keep for weeks.
- Brush beaten egg white over pie crust before baking to yield a beautiful glossy finish.
- Place a slice of apple in hardened brown sugar to soften it back up.
- When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn’s natural sweetness.
- To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water. If it sinks, it is fresh – if it rises to the surface, throw it away.
- Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.
- Don’t throw out all that leftover wine: Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.
- If you have a problem opening jars: Try using latex dishwashing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.
- Potatoes will take food stains off your fingers. Just slice and rub raw potato on the stains and rinse with water.
- To get rid of itch from mosquito bite: try applying soap on the area, instant relief.
- Ants, ants, ants everywhere … Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march – see for yourself.
- Use air-freshener to clean mirrors: It does a good job and better still, leaves a lovely smell to the shine.
- When you get a splinter, reach for the scotch tape before resorting to tweezers or a needle. Simply put the scotch tape over the splinter, then pull it off. Scotch tape removes most splinters painlessly and easily.
- NOW Look what you can do with Alka-Seltzer:
Clean a toilet – drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes, brush, and flush. The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous china.
Clean a vase – to remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets.
Polish jewelry – drop two Alka-Seltzer tablets into a glass of water and immerse the jewelry for two minutes.
Clean a thermos bottle – fill the bottle with water, drop in four Alka-Seltzer tablets, and let soak for an hour (or longer, if necessary).
Unclog a drain – clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka-Seltzer tablets down the drain followed by a cup of Heinz White Vinegar Wait a few minutes, then run the hot water.- If your VCR has a year setting on it, which most do, you will not be able to use the programmed recording feature after 12/31/99. Don’t throw it away. Instead, set it for the year 1972 as the days are the same as the year 2000. The manufacturers won’t tell you. They want you to buy a new Y2K VCR.
Prison vs. Work
In prison you spend the majority of your time in an 8′ X 10′ cell. At work you spend most of your time in a 6′ X 8′ cubicle.
In prison you get three meals a day. At work you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for that one.
In prison you get time off for good behavior. At work you get rewarded for good behavior with more work.
In prison a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you. At work you must carry around a security card and unlock and open all the doors yourself.
In prison you can watch TV and play games. At work you get fired for watching TV and playing games.
In prison they ball-and-chain you when you go somewhere. At work you are just ball-and-chained.
In prison they allow your family and friends to visit. At work you cannot even speak to your family and friends.
In prison all expenses are paid by taxpayers, with no work required. At work you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for the prisoners.
In prison you spend most of your life looking through bars from the inside wanting to get out. At work you spend most of your time wanting to get out and inside bars.
In prison you can join many programs which you can leave at any time. At work there are some programs you can never get out of.
In prison there are wardens who are often sadistic. At work we have managers.
Of a tamogatchi. I got it December 30 and started playing with it. By January 5th it had developed a body and looked like an alien. On the 8th it “got laid and spawned” as I told my pirate. Sadly, I think it gave birth too young and it and the baby died sometime during the night of the 9th and was found dead the morning of the 10th. I actually think it’s cuter dead… and makes a handy watch! No more beeping at me and annoying me anymore either!
Pretty:
Interesting and/or Weird:
Pink bunny eye pillow! But it has lavendar… yuck! (Oops! Found out I already have a similar one when I was unpacking more boxes!)
– Turtle toys!!!! Soooo cute! I want one of each color! Or maybe just blue…
I’m into leather cuffs too. There are two nice ones:
– Thin Leather Cuff: in black with blue thread.
– Perfect Leather Cuff: in black
Top Ten things I WANT:
Top Ten Things I want to DO:
I have a link to this blog under Darling Design Blogs, but this one is way cool:
Robots via Human Thought.
Plus… on Cute Overload I found this:
Kitty visits dog cafe video.
So this is way cool:
– Flying bed. Too bad it’s too pricey to get that instead of a loft bed/desk combo from IKEA.
I still need a new base station and they just came out with a new one:
http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/ “Print or access a shared hard drive — wirelessly.” is coolness.
Cool home tech at: http://www.smarthome.com/
I think I’ve linked this lamp before, but it’s just so pretty!
– DeLight.
I really liked this counter height Ashby dining table set I saw at a furniture store next to the place my pirate and I had lunch on Saturday. It was this set in black and came with leaves to expand it. This expanding counter height set and this normal height one are nice too. I’d love the black iron scroll with wood if I could find it in the birch color to match the rest of my stuff.
– 
http://farm.avocadolite.com/
But if you’re looking for patterns to learn how to make these kinds of animals, Google is your best bet. Just search using “amigurumi pattern” as keywords, you’ll see long list of pattern you can use.
Links to finish with later:
http://www.meomi.com/
http://www.meomi.com/calendar.html
http://www.pixelgirlshop.com/
http://www.octonauts.com/goodies.html
http://www.dreamessentials.com/a_mask_dream_pillow.aspx
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/09/index.html
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/08/index.html
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/07/index.html
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/06/index.html
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/mypics/12278/display/
Tanja works on some nature preserve with wolf packs. So that explains some of the images she has. They’re pretty awesome overall. And some I recognized as showing up on http://cuteoverload.com/.
Just grabbing bits from email about what I’ve been doing lately, I need to skim through and see what I have and haven’t blogged about from the holidays.
12-21:
I tried to go up to see dad for Thanksgiving but the weather was bad and I was afraid of getting stuck up there, so I’m planning to go in the spring.
From my Christmas email 12-24:
Hi Everyone!
I just wanted to wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year! I’m still going to attempt to send out cards a few days after Christmas (better late than never right?) but until then I wanted to share my little digital collage postcard I made.
My big news is that I’ve moved back to Davis and now get to commute on my bike to work! 
The cats and I are doing well. If you want to know more you can check out my blog at http://sweetpeastudio.biz/wordpress/ – you can even subscribe to get my posts as emails if you want! And it has links to my Flickr photos. So far I only have the cats and my nature stuff up, but I’ll be getting my family & friend photos online soon. I’ll be marking them as private though, so I’ll need your Yahoo or Flickr id to give you access.
And now time for some last minute cleaning and wrapping before I go home to see my mom!
12-28:
Oh, I’m going to color my hair. It was just funny that I was thinking it last time, and she mentioned it before I said anything, and now you’re getting yours done at the same time. I find coincidences amusing. I can’t remember what she said she wanted to do, but I usually let her run with her ideas and am always happy with the results. I just give vague suggestions for her to start from. She’s highly sensitive too, and just really sweet. I practically fall asleep when she’s doing my hair I get so relaxed.
1-4-07:
My pirate came by for lunch and I’m trying to fix a dang bug in stupid IE6 on the pc with our site. Joy! And my head still hurts. Sleep sounds good.
My head still hurts. And now I’m worrying that I should get checked for a brain anuerysm since it runs in the family. I need to call the advice nurse tonight. Bleh. Headaches that last 2 days = the suck.
I’ve been sleeping ok except for last night (since starting up
the new/old night meds). And last night was bad cause my head hurt.
Advice nurse told me moderate headache + 24 hours = call doctor. So I called and made an appointment for 8:15 tonight at the urgent care.
1-5-07:
Headache is finally gone this morning. Dunno if it was the 600mg of Ibuprofen she told me to take or if it was just done (these headaches usually last 2-3 days for me anyway). And then she told me I needed to tell Dr. Clay about these headaches. So I will when they call with my lab results from my annual. And I went and bought a 1 liter bottle of water so I can be sure to drink at least that much every day. I think I’m ok with that though cause I’m already halfway through it. I’m at home right
now though cause I have a sore throat and feel bleh. I might come in later….
Ricola didn’t help, so I’m trying a hot drink now, and pondering
crawling back into bed.
My weekend plans are errands, eye doc, chores & video games.
I just don’t feel up to biking my butt to work in the cold ass wind with a sore throat. I still might make myself go in after lunch though. Take an hour nap and see how I feel. Plus, I don’t feel guilty staying home cause I know there is nothing important that needs to be done, and even if there was I could do it from here. Still po’d I can’t telecommute…. which reminds me, I need to see if I can do FMLA again this year just to be safe. And man would I love half days on Fridays…. or telecommute fridays! Do web crap and laundry!
I actually thought about calling Meow to drive me to work… but my hour nap turned into a 4 hour nap, followed immediately after shifting under the blankets to a 2 hour one… which only ended cause my pirate called. And I slept through whatever call is on my answering machine now.
I’ve been enjoying tea all day. Though I made sure to get some food. Slimfast, oatmeal, hot chocolate w/milk, bowl of dry cereal, celery… hmm, that’s not all that much. Oh well, sleep doesn’t require lots of calories.
My throat feels a lot better now (though not all better) and my headache was threatening to come back this morning. Sometimes I just need a nice day of quite alone time or I’ll end up getting really sick. I’d rather take one day off feeling bleh, than more than that feeling like hell.
1-8-07:
I’m feeling better, though still 45 minutes late today, but I’m in the recovery phase of being sick unless it turns into bronchitis.
Friday I slept all day, that night my pirate & I had dinner and played some of the FF games. Saturday we ran around doing some shopping errands – IKEA, Frys, Best Buy, Arden. Then Sunday he played Zelda to keep me company while I did chores. So mostly a nice relaxing weekend. Shopping was almost too much, but luckily we finished around the time I started getting a headache.
The headache Saturday was from all the noise/crowds. Once we got home I was fine. Makes me appreciate shopping online even more. The only thing that sucks is I’m so picky about how things feel there is still a lot of stuff I have to buy from stores. Like the headphones I got for my shuffle.
I actually don’t mind doing chores when I have company. I had to convince my pirate that him playing video games and just being there was actually a huge help to me even though it didn’t feel like it to him.
I think Meow is one of my few friends who really gets that. No one believes/understands when I try to tell them that “helping me with chores” means hanging out and talking at most with the occasional hand when I need a third one and sitting in the house doing whatever to entertain themselves at the least.
I got some more unpacking done though and finished the curtains to hide the furnace. I got some more shelves since I needed a curtain from IKEA too, but they only had one of the smaller shelves so I still need 5 more of those.
IKEA was bad, but at least I knew exactly what I wanted and where it was. Though I had to drag my pirate the whole time, he’s not very good at speed walking. Fry’s surprisingly wasn’t too bad.
I got the headphones that go over the ears and behind the head. Added bonus, I noticed my ears weren’t freezing on the ride in today. I can’t stand those in ear headphones, they always hurt.
I’m not sure why I like company for chores. Motivation or something. I don’t even need them in the same room the whole time or anything, just having someone around. Though having my shuffle to listen to while doing chores is a major help too. I used it for that the first time I used it.
The curtains are just hiding the ugly messed up furnace enclosure. There’s no pilot light or anything like that. I just can’t put a door in front of it cause it’s the air intake. I asked when the ac guy put it in if curtains would work to hide it and he said as long as they allowed air flow they’d be fine.
I want a bean bag in my office. I realized I could have one here safely – no kitties to ruin it. I grew up with one, they’re good for curling up in, kinda a papasan effect only on the ground. I have a bunch of those little smooshy pillows and I love mooshing them into shape to get comfy.
Shards & Shadows Light
Gin Twist Table Lamp
Tablestories Dishes
Snowflake Glow Light
Shaped Egg Friers
Fish and Flush Toilet Tank Aquarium