Friday, April 13, 2012

Monday, April 2, 2012

healthy snax

I tried having a healthy snack (carrots and hummus) during my 3pm snack time craving. Instead of clearing the urge for cookies, it just made me hungrier! Hmmmm...

Monday, March 19, 2012

The Blossoms of Our Labor


Remodeling the master bedroom, bathroom, and office are our priority projects for this year, so naturally, we spend the weekend outside! After a week of rain, we were in much need for some outdoor time. A worked on the rainwater catchment system, putting together some very impressive plumbing. We acknowledged that all of his time playing with Legos as a kid, has prepared him for these moments of putting together fittings from the big wall of parts at Home Depot.


I tackled the front yard planter box. I removed all of the weeds, rocks, and may, unfortunately, have damaged a few underground critters in the process. A's help was crucial with some of the big strong ivy roots. We picked out some flowers and a dogwood tree! Thank goodness for A's strength in digging a hole deep enough for the tree. That ground gets tough down there. I planted primrose and tulips on either side of the about to blossom dogwood and re-organized the rocky border. Plopped some mulch over the top, and it looks like a well groomed patch of yard!

Someone wrote that gardens are a luxury, not a necessity. I'm very proud of our hard work to bring this luxury to the front of our house. We are looking forward to the spring blossoms!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Rain, rain, much needed rain

I'm very happy for the much needed rainstorm this week. The snow pack will help us alleviate drought conditions. The wet wild lands will help us reduce wild fires. Thank you, Mother Nature for the rain storm. I just have one question.

Why start a weeklong storm right after I was both of my cars? I could've left them parked outside and let you do the work this week.

Even from inside the super insulated freezer, I can hear the Thin Mints calling me. So desperately wanting to be eaten.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Real Life Angry Birds

I'm dressed in green, but I'm not an egg-stealing pig. I guarantee it. However, I must've confused a little yellow birdy this afternoon. Someone hit the "zoom" for him and he crashed right into my window and hit the ground hard. If he were animated there would've been stars circling his head. As it was, he apparently did not have the powers that the yellow Angry Birds have, for he did not penetrate the glass. He left a few feathers on the window and sat on the ground twitching for a while.

We didn't interfere, but rather watched from inside and cheered him on as he tested out his legs and twitched. It was a sad sight, but I'm happy to report that the little birdy was up and bouncing around within a few minutes. We put some fresh bird seed out to fuel him up.

Let's hope that more birdies don't get confused between video game powers and real life.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Apologies, Wiggles, and Seals

Apologies
Please accept my apologies. I blog in my head, but you can't hear it. I'll try to be better about using one of my many internet connected devices to post the ever-entertaining thoughts that appear between my ears. Warning: some are quite random and you may wish to avoid trying too hard to link the thought to a rational context.

Wiggles
Our house wiggled yesterday morning and woke us up. We are thankful it was a wiggle and nothing compared to the tornados in the mid-west. People in the news called it a jolt, but I heard a loud boom and then felt the bed wiggle.

Seals
A's brother, also with an intial A, has encouraged us to Run for the Seals. If you'd like to support the swimming wiggly creatures, they would much appreciate your donation to The Marine Mammal Center. You can support our participation in the Run for the Seals event by looking up our names at this link:
http://tmmc.marinemammalcenter.org/site/TR/Events/General?pg=pfind&fr_id=1050

Doesn't every seal pup deserve a fish milkshake?



Monday, January 2, 2012

Off to a Good Start

Following some fairly wild New Year's Eve festivities, A road-tripped with his brother down to the Rose Bowl game. They were at the stadium today to watch the Ducks win their second Rose Bowl (last win was in 1917). Go Ducks! I looked for them in the crowd on TV, but it appears that all Ducks fans look alike and I could not spot them.

I had a most glorious quiet day at home catching up on things and getting organized (mostly work related) for the New Year. I finally watched the movie Bridesmaids, and even exercised. I'm feeling rested and energized for a great 2012. Perhaps I should take down the Christmas ornaments so we can put the dead tree out. Maybe next weekend. (oh wait, is that a little bit of new year procrastination, already?)

Cheers to 2012!
Let's get this party started.

P.S. We met the deadline of finishing all of the homemade Christmas treats before the New Year. That way, the Christmas calories don't count!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Settlers of Catan


One of the things I love most about the holiday season is having time to play board games. It feels great to sit around a table of family and friends in a warm cozy house, perhaps even by the Christmas tree. This year, Santa's elf (aka my Sis) put the game Settlers of Catan under the tree. A and I used to play this game with our pals in Boston and are having a lot of fun with it again. It's been great taking time over New Year's weekend to play Settlers of Catan.   It might be that it replaces Risk as the game of choice in this household. We'll just have to see.

Of course, we didn't completely ignore the modern world this weekend. We did have some Wii fun too.

Here's my take on Settlers of Catan.
 It's a strategy game that everyone can play. The rules are not complicated. You spend your time gathering and bartering for five resources: sheep, wood, brick, grain, and rock. The goal is to build roads, settlements, and cities working your way to ten victory points to win. There are dice involved which means most of your fate rests on luck. But, you have to be ware of the robber.
He's pretty good at keeping you from your resources.

Happy New Year! May the time for board games be plentiful in 2012.