yarned medallions

i have a scarf pattern that strings together these beautiful crocheted medallions. each medallion is about 9" in diameter. i love that scarf, the medallions are so fun. but, it's a little warm now to wear that scarf. so, what's a girl to do?

well, to start with, i switched to a sock-weight yarn and the smallest hook i have in my arsenal. that gave me the medallion on the far left. then i cut down the number of stitches in the initial ring. that gave me the medallion in the middle. then i cut out the center ring altogether. that gave me the medallion on the far right. and that medallion, i do believe, will make the fabulous focal piece in a crocheted bracelet.

now i just need to figure out the side pieces and the fastener. one step at a time, right?

careful, it could unravel

sometimes things get a little crazy. and sometimes i find that very funny. thankfully, i'm usually able to stifle the giggles. :)

worth the drive

i know it's going to be a good day when it starts with a great sunrise out my car window.



and when the crunchcakes are as tasty as i remember, they can only be bested by the fabulous company of an amazing friend.



toss in a sunny drive home



and a bridge to take photos of - and life is good.

charging the ipod

i got me some drivin' to do tomorrow. yup. gonna need me some tunes.

cucumbers!

i believe these are the albino cucumbers, which burpee sent me as a free gift. that was nice of them, wasn't it? my other variety of cukes hasn't quite broken the surface, yet. the seedlings have the dirt pushed up into a mound, but they haven't made it through. i give 'em two days and they'll be out.

i'm getting a little tired of the incessant rain we've had recently, but the garden does seem to enjoy it.

good things, april 25

- bags of easter goodies from my mama, who i know always loves me.
- finding the yarn a friend is searching for.
- wendy's fries that are still hot when i get home.
- having friends good enough to miss so much it hurts.
- the pop-up reminder that my laptop's battery is getting low. :)
- surprise, un-requested days off that magically work out beautifully.
- mail!
- silly adam sandler movies.
- co-workers who make me laugh. a lot.
- squeaky shoes in a quiet store early in the morning.

feeling like burt

pirate dreams

this morning's dream was strange. i started in julie's house, and she was telling me how george had finished dying the streaks in jodie's hair. he was trying to convince her to go out that night, but she wasn't sure she was digging the new color. that conversation evolved into a conversation about her automated vacuum, where i told her about the episode of parks & rec where one of the guys turns his roomba into an automated ipod player named dj roomba.

after that, i was at a church reunion of sorts. except april was there. and she and i were talking about how we don't like going to things like this because there are so many people we don't know. and we couldn't figure out why one of the photographers from the newspaper was there (not taking photos, just as a guest).

so joanie suggested we play a game of spades, even though none of us really knew how to play. her hair was longer than i've ever seen - almost to her waist - and the bottom 6 inches or so were super curly. plus, she was wearing a very wonder-woman-esque head band. it was strange, but she was totally rocking the look.

and somewhere in the middle, jessica showed up carrying the exact same purse i recently switched to (in real life, not dream life). exact same - right down to the li'l pirate man decorating the front.

i should sleep in more often.

and now ...

spinach sprouts!

sideview

radish sprouts

that's right - radish sprouts!

wind farms

another safe drive back to indy, and my trip home is over too soon.

time well spent

i originally planned this trip home to attend some long-overdue legal proceedings. at the last minute, those proceedings were postponed (again), but i decided i didn't want to pass up the opportunity to come home. so i got to spend today enjoying the fabulous company of friends. we did some shopping and then monopolized a table at the restaurant, spending hours swapping stories and catching up. it was, in short, fabulous. i really do have a great group of friends.

candy!

layered caramels. super-soft caramels. sour neon gummi worms. a single dark chocolate haystack. and lots of chocolate-covered gummi bears.

yum.

heading home

after work this afternoon, i'm heading home for a couple of days. weather.com is predicting a good chance for continued rain while i'm gone, so my little seeds will be well taken care of. i'll be quite excited when i can snap pictures like this of lettuce grown in my garden.

damaged goods

saving 75% on a package of paper because it's already been opened in the store? not a bad deal. now to find a good use for it.

margarita madness

did you know that this month is margarita madness at chili's? i didn't either. but i did enjoy helping them celebrate.

i also enjoyed taking photos as marlana drove home. but that's not so surprising, right?

flower sprouts!

thanks to wikipedia, i now know that:
Liatris spicata, the dense blazing star or prairie gay feather, is an herbaceous perennial plant native throughout most of eastern North America. It is commonly grown in gardens for its showy purple flowers (pink or white in some cultivars). All spikes of purple flowers appear in July and August. Native to moist prairies and sedge meadows. It thrives in full sun in ordinary garden soil. Excellent for attracting birds and butterflies.

thanks to mom thinning some of her flowers last fall, and i know that several dozen of these purple spikes should be growing along the side of my garage this summer. so far, i count 18 sprouts.

i love flowers.

squeaky wheel

i was interrupted at work by a gal who wanted me to stop what i was doing and ring up her purchase. i obliged, setting aside what i was working on and opening up a register. i really needed to finish what i was doing, but customer first, right?

then she giggled.

and as she unloaded her cart, she prattled on about how she was learning to be the squeaky wheel at church and how she couldn't wait to tell her church group how well it had worked. she was positively giddy and so proud of herself.

now i'm not sure if during this exchange she realized that the other cashier was literally two minutes away from being able to help her (in fact, by the time i'd gotten what i was working on closed out and fired up the register, the other cashier had her guest out the door). or if she stopped to think that maybe i was in the middle of something and not just ignoring her. i doubt she did. i think she saw a chance to test her ability to be the squeaky wheel and get what she wanted. after all, that's what she's learning about at church.

i don't know what to do with that.

cookies!

last week commenced my cookie-sending test of the us postal service. now i think i've made it pretty clear on here before that i love the postal service. i really, really do. i think they're quick, efficient and provide an awesome service. i mean, they deliver mail to your house six days a week. i absolutely love it. and when i mailed zombie and ninja, i learned that first class mail from here to anywhere in indiana will make overnight. and that's just amazing.

so i mailed three boxes of cookies on tuesday. they were too heavy to mail first class, so i paid for priority mail. (my other option was parcel post, which didn't save me more enough money to outweigh the difference in time.) the in-state delivery, again, was overnight. fresh cookies - whee! the next-state delivery was either overnight or two-day. again, fresh cookies - whee! the box that went to west coast? unfortunately, that's a little harder to gauge. according to the usps estimates, it should have been two- to three-day delivery, which would have had them there before the weekend. but i got confirmation from the recipient that he got them on monday. ummm ... week-old cookies? not so whee. even if he did devour the entire box in one day without sharing.

i really doubt that was pokiness by the usps, though. my guess is he wasn't in the office to get them when they arrived. next time, i'll send them on a monday, priority mail, and pay for tracking/delivery confirmation. if, indeed, it's too slow for fresh cookies ... yikes. i may need to find another option. guaranteed overnight is expensive!

but for now, another gold star to the usps. well done, folks. well done.

i celebrated sunday's beautiful weather with a trip to lowes' garden center. 400 pounds of top soil mixed with some peat moss and my veggie boxes are ready for planting! it rained all morning today, so tomorrow i'm going to see if the soil settled and if i need to add more. then, i'm getting my radish seeds sown, and probably some spinach and cucumbers, too. i'm comfortable thinking we're past the risk of frost. and i'll keep my eye on the weather so i can cover them with plastic if need be.

yay for vegetables!

second breakfast

i had three very ripe bananas, but the recipe i found only called for one. it seemed like a small recipe, though. so i used all three bananas and doubled all the other ingredients. well, except for the dates ... i didn't have any of those. i did have some dried blueberries, though. i thought they'd complement the dried apricots, so i added some of those. all in all, not a bad baking experience for 4am. and a very tasty second breakfast after my 3-hour nap. :)

good day

i started my saturday with a drive to the airport and hugs with friends. sure, it was early, but it was worth it. i like airports and i like friends. so my enjoyment is pretty self-explanatory, right?

when i came home from work this evening, i had dinner and went to bed. yup, i was in bed by 6pm. i hung a blanket from my window blinds to help block out some of the sun. i think i may invest in a black-out shade for future use. anyway, i slept for about 7 hours. it felt great. and now it's 1:30am, and i've just baked a pizza for breakfast.

nope, not a thing to complain about. another good saturday is complete.

good things, april 8

- quick hours at the store.
- the sun making its late-afternoon debut.
- coming home to a quiet house and resting my feet.
- knowing i'll see friends at the airport in a few hours.

today when i left the house ...

i followed a fellow valpo alum.
i found ranunculus as bright as the sun.
i audibly commended doritos for their retro bagging of the original taco chips.

learning a new machine

my favorite part of this new laptop may be the built-in slot for my memory card.

the frosting debate

the contenders: buttercream frosting v. whipped cream frosting

buttercream frosting wins every time. even poorly made buttercream frosting is better than whipped cream frosting. it's thick and creamy, it covers your lips with that this-can't-be-good-for-me coating. if you're going have frosting, go for the real thing.

whipped cream frosting is for sissies.
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visit these pages for more on today's topic: april, erin, fred, marlana.

what's that saying about hindsight?

in retrospect, i should have taken some tylenol pm when i decided to get back out of bed because i couldn't sleep. instead, it's an hour later, and i'm still pretty much wide awake. well, i'm tired, but i know i won't fall asleep. that amounts to pretty much the same thing.

we're under a wind advisory. basically it sounds like the siding and roofing are being ripped off the house every time the wind gusts. it's ... interesting. not at all soothing like the sound of rain. not at all.

i have big plans for tomorrow - or, technically, today - with the complete understanding that a good chunk of those plans will probably not get accomplished until tuesday, instead. i like being off two days in a row.

i made it to the store tonight after work. i did not want to stop, but i picked up what i needed to do some baking. my goal is to test the post office with some boxes of cookies. i know the ones that are shipped to in-state addresses will make it overnight without paying any extra. i'm interested to see about the one going to a neighboring state and the one heading out to the west coast. i've heard people pack a slice of bread with the cookies to keep them moist. i may try that, too.

for now, i shall try sleep again. i'll just take a paper & pen with me so if i can't fall asleep, i can make a good to-do list for the morning. :)

three things i miss about my last job

1. my awesome co-workers. note: not every co-worker was awesome. but the awesome ones are very missable. i miss spending 8 hours a day in an office with some of my closest friends.

2. being able to wear jeans. yeah, it's not a big deal ... but past the awesome co-workers, there's not a lot of things left to choose from. :)

3. the freedom of setting my own hours. it was nice to not have to worry about calling in if i was going to be 30 minutes late or take a long lunch. having the freedom to work my 40 hours how i wanted to was very nice.

now, let's see. should i enter "3 things i DON'T miss about my last job" into the hat? ;)
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visit these pages for more on today's topic: april, erin, fred, marlana.

sleeping in

i slept for about 10 hours last night. it felt great.

dreams included the house being under seige during a rodeo-themed birthday party, seeing frank walking down the street hoping his fake mustache would successfully disguise him (it did not) and listening to dave talk about why he still showed up for work four months after he'd been laid off.

and i woke up with the Cheesy Blasters jingle in my head. thanks, Meat Cat!

what do you think your favorite animal says about you?

nothing. ring-tailed lemurs can't talk.
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visit these pages for more on today's topic: april, erin, fred, marlana.