This morning, I was going to do yard work (not something I often do) which was trimming shrubs and mowing the lawn. I started out well, trimming the shrubs with my electric trimmer. Only nearly cut off my fingers once when I happened to wave to Leo who was sitting in a bedroom window and watching me. As I made my way around to the back of the house, I found one of my shrubs had been invaded with a weed-tree (it’s a tree of some sort, but I don’t want it there, so it must therefore be a weed). That required getting out my saw.

Heck, while I had my saw out, I thought, I should get rid of those weed-trees between my place and the neighbors (the neighbors who aren’t my parents, that is). So I sawed and sawed and moved branches out and sawed some more. Then I thought “that damn Lilac bush is in the way of my clothes line” and decided to start hacking away at it. From my neighbors who *are* my parents, I borrowed a really nice set of shears (great use of the lever in these shears) to cut the branches 1 1/2″ and less in diameter. But the really thick lilac branches were too thick for the shears and would take too long with the saw. “An ax!” I thought. So I went down into dad’s basement and found his ax. And for the first time in my life, I used an ax to cut wood. I felt so independent!

(In a phonecall with my sister, she was aghast to discover that I did this with only Leo around to dial 9-1-1 in case anything had happened to me. And as Leo was back inside the house at the time, even he would have been unable to help. The folks, BTW, are in Pennsylvania this weekend at a Connecting Families weekend.)

As I hinted at in the parenthetical thought above, Leo got to spend some time outside today. I put him on his leash and draped it through the hose and he spent half an hour or so sunning himself and investigating the steps. He eventually got himself loose and lay in the shade, so I figured he was ready to go back inside. He put up no fuss as I took him back inside and he spent most of the rest of the time watching me from the kitchen.

Anyway, by the time I’d hacked away about 1/3 of the lilac bush (but still not enough to get my clothes line through) I was exhausted and it was after 1pm. I picked up and returned all of the tools to their respective places – and damn, just remembered that I left the folks garage open. I’ll go close it after I finish this LJ. Then I took a bath, put on some clothes (shorts – woohoo! sandals – woohoo!) and went off for Chinese Buffet. I’ll clean up the branches and mow the lawn tomorrow, I guess.

After lunch was shopping and after shopping was home again. I made Bailey’s Irish Cream Ice Cream with my ice cream machine – thanks to elsaf for both the ice cream machine and the wonderful recipe. If you have an ice cream machine, give this recipe a try!

2 cups whipping cream
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream

Beat the eggs a bit before adding them to the rest to make sure they
break up completely.

Freeze in your ice cream machine.

Good stuff! I just had some (though still runny – it’ll be solid tomorrow.) Anyhoo, time to go and shut the ‘rents garage!

So I’ve been playing around with Component, the style I use for my LiveJournal, and I managed to create a “Random Sylv Picture” component. Click here to see my main LJ page and scroll down under the silly poem. Every time the screen is refreshed, you’ll see a new picture. There’s only 7 pictures there so far, but I’ll add more as I have time. To begin with, I’m just taking pictures from my Sylv Site, but I might add more later on.

I’d like to thank dianna_wills and s2component for doing the ground work that allowed me to get this component done. 🙂

Mmmmm, Sylv-y goodness! 🙂

Mmmmmm – after a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG day at work, it’s nice to sit back with your mates and drink an amaretto sour. We had parent/teacher conferences tonight, which meant we were at the school from 7:30am until 7:00pm. But since we worked a second day today, we have tomorrow off. I’m gonna sleep in, then go to a tech meeting. (What is it with me and going to meetings on my time off?????)

Anyhoo, after the long day, I went off to meet the usual lot at BW3’s. I ordered an amaretto sour (which I tasted when mom got it the last time she was there and decided I liked) and 4 boneless wings. Turns out on Thursdays they have their boneless wings for only 40 cents, so I spent $1.60 plus tax on my wings and Gary bought my drink, so it was a cheap evening for Treen. I liked the amaretto sour, though it took me a long time to drink it. (Just as well, I had to drive home yet.) I also drank water while eating and drinking. Made it home OK, too. 🙂

So, off to play more of Diablo II and then to bed.

Ah yes, I wanted to do gordon_r_d‘s music meme some time ago, but never got around to it. Thanks to peterjf, I’ve remembered now.

First single bought (by yourself, not bought for you)? Man, that’s a difficult one. Probably “Doctor Who”/”The Astronauts” which I got from a sci-fi mail order store when I was young-ish. Or it could have been “Hey Jude” by The Beatles. I was much more into LPs than 45s.

First album bought? Now why couldn’t it ask “First CD bought” cuz I remember that! 😉 How about John Denver and the Muppets Christmas Album? Or an album by the Monkees. I bought so many albums when I was younger. The first CD I bought was The Rutles – got it long before we had a CD player (it didn’t come out as an LP record).

Last single bought? MP3: “Pressure” by Billy Joel. CD: “Before” by The Pet Shop Boys.

Last album bought? MP3: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. CD: Audio by Blue Man Group. LP: The Pirate Movie (a recent score on eBay – still looking for Grimms third album, Sleeper, however, so I still have one last LP to locate).

First band seen live? Heart (my sister was the fan – I went to two of their concerts with her).

Last band seen live? Stomp (though I nearly fell asleep in places, thanks to having just flown into London that morning).

Best live band? Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Worst live band? The opener for the first Heart concert that Amy and I went to. I don’t remember who they were, but they were too loud and the music was unmemorable.

Five favourite genres? Dance, novelty, anarchy, rock/pop, Celtic.

Genre you hate? Not terribly fond of Country & Western.

Last song sung along to? “Jesus Christ, Superstar.” (Well, it *was* Easter!)

Best remix? Dunno.

Worst remix? Dunno.

Best cover version? “New York Mining Disaster” by Chumbawamba. (It’s a cover of a Bee Gees tune.)

Worst cover version? Dunno.

First music related crush? Julie Andrews, of course! 🙂

Current music related crush? I’ve seen Sylvester McCoy in a musical, does that count? 😉

Collaboration you’d like to hear? Chumbawamba & the Pet Shop Boys.

Best band from your home country? The Monkees. (Heh!)

Most embarrassing item in your music collection? Indian Rope Trick, a Beatle bootleg album that I got simply for “The Pirate Song” by George Harrison. Thankfully, I’ve got an MP3 of it that’s in far better shape than the version on the album.

Strangest thing in your music collection? Monty Python’s Matching Tie and Handkerchief which is a 3-sided album.

Five songs to take the world on to –
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin
“The Theatre” by The Pet Shop Boys
“Homophobia” by Chumbawamba
“Cleanin’ Out My Closet” by Eminem
“Games Without Frontiers” by Peter Gabriel

And speaking of music, I discovered another group that I’m going to have to give more airtime to. Leftfield seems like my kind of music.

Not World History or US History or anything interesting like that… Instead, it’s a blast into Trina’s past. I’ll set the stage. The date is April 13, 1985. Trina is 14 years old and in 8th grade. (8th grade? Was I ever that young?) For some reason, she decided on March 8 of that year to start a journal. It’s written on narrow ruled paper in a wire-bound notebook that’s long since lost the cover (but which I recall was blue and had a lot of stickers on it – I still love stickers).

Went to grandma’s again today. I am thinking about tomorrow, we’re going to sing at church. Fortunately we’re only singing “Good News” but it isn’t doing well anyway. This isn’t a very interesting Saturday.

Wow – profound! OK, I have a few questions for my past self. Um, which Grandma? Anderson or Short? Which church? There are 5 in town and I’ve been to all of ’em at one point. Heck, if she’d’ve stated it was the Brethren church, that wouldn’t have been very helpful either – there are 3 of ’em. Which choir? I’m assuming the junior high choir, but I think I might have been in the UCC choir at the time too. Or were we still at Troy First United Methodist? Ah, the joys of being a Preacher’s Kid.

I’ll look around for some context. Ah – next entry indicates that it was the junior high choir. Awww, the 14th was more interesting. Apparently Trina saw The Dark Crystal that day. Oh wow, and the 14th of April in 1985 begins my big crush on Eric Idle which has lasted ever since. (This is long before that upstart, Sylvester McCoy, came into my life.)

Looking at the previous entry, I discover that it was Grandma Anderson’s house. My cousin Eric (who at the time lived in Illinois) was there. (Along with his mom and step-dad, no doubt. But when you’re a kid, it’s the kids that are more interesting than the adults. Usually. Actually, quite a few of my friends at that time were older folks.)

Well, I might do this again sometime. Somewhere in my various journals is an entry where I figure out that I have a crush on Sylvester McCoy. I ought to find that and post it. 🙂

(if “That” means “Nerd”…)

(gacked from dreethal)

Not sure I’m ready for my own little kids, but it’s fun to visit family with their little ones. Had a couple of “too damn cute” moments this evening in dealing with the 4 year old (Sydney) and the 7 year old (Taylor) – both girls. Sydney wanted to show me and Granny her cheer, which she’d learned from Taylor, but she couldn’t spell yet. So she’d say “Gimme an N!” then “Gimme a Y” then “Gimme a C” and she had no idea what it spelled. “New York City!” I shouted. (She was trying to spell King.)

A little bit later, Taylor asked me how to spell “Zyland.” “Why do you want to know that?” “So I can tell Sydney how to spell it.” “But what’s ‘zyland’?” “You know, like King Zyland.” I had to laugh. There’s an amusement park in our state called King’s Island. I explained to Taylor what an island was and that it probably belonged to somebody named King. We decided that King’s Island was a small island, but I assured her that the United Kingdom was a much bigger island. “Oh yes, I’ve been to the United Kingdom” Taylor assured me. “You have?” “Yeah, I like Disney.” Another explanation was in order…

I escaped for a bit to talk with adults for awhile, but then Sydney called me out saying “I wanna show you some of the crazy things that I do.” At least she’s honest! 🙂

Anyway, they were fun to watch and talk with, but they wore me out. And Sydney kept giving me bits of candy from her basket, and who am I to turn away Reese Cups and Kit-Kats? Despite my being tired, I don’t think I’ll be sleeping well tonight! 🙂

I thought that, since I’ll be doing the “Low-pressure environments” tests on Peeps this week for Chemistry, I should link to one of the greatest science sites out there. Peep Research is a classic. Formerly blown up Peeps are (a) smaller than the original, (b) chewier than the original, and (c) just as tasty as the original. 🙂

Turns out neither of Becky’s boys (and their families) were at the noon gathering at Granny’s. They’ll all be at the supper one, maybe. 😉 So it was fun just having lunch with “the adults and Trina” as Aunt Becky said. I did end up getting things for the little ones. I ransacked my Easter box in the closet and found stuffed toys for the little ones and Brandi and from my toy box, I got a cool science gooey toy for Chris. Deanna gets $20 for me (which she can use on alcohol if she wants, being as how she’s legal now).

I’ve been cleaning off my desk today and making CDs for folks and stuff. Will probably be heading back to Granny’s for Easter Part II. 🙂

Hope everyone’s been having a good day! And Happy Birthday to dreethal!

I found this cute mood theme from enthymeme while looking through lj_art. The URL for the whole theme (and instructions) are here. I think this theme should tide me over until I make my own. (Haven’t decided if I’ll do a Leo theme or Sylv theme…)

I had a nice lazy day today. I had originally planned to drive to Detroit to meet some fellow Tomorrow People fans, but as the gathering was smaller than we originally thought it might be and wasn’t probably going to last a long while, I figured it might be best to wait until another time (when I’m in Detroit for other reasons). I’m sure those who did gather had a good time. At least I hope they did. 🙂

So, instead of driving to Detroit, I went to the Lake with dad. Mom and dad have a cottage on Lake Loramie that’s in a nice quiet section of the lake. Dad was doing some electrical work on the new three season room, so I spent the morning finally paying my bills and balancing my checkbook. That took long enough that when I was done, it was lunch time. So we went to McDonald’s and I had a nice 600 Calorie Big Mac (the calories have gone up since I first used that as an example on converting between calories and Calories – food Calories are 1000 calories) and a 450 Calorie medium fries. The thing that got me most was the amount of sodium in them. Grief. Still, I do enjoy a Big Mac every so often. 🙂

After lunch, we returned to the Lake and I spent some time on my laptop working on the Metadot Portal that I’m trying to set up for the school website. It’s gonna be awhile before I can get things the way I want them to be, but I’m learning more and more about it. (I’d just prefer if someone came and simply told me what I needed to do…)

Eventually, dad was done with the electrical work and I was ready to go home. I then spent the rest of the day being lazy and watching The Curse of Fenric director’s cut edition on my Home Theatre System. Mmmmm, stereophonic Sylv! There were some nice bits that reverbed around the room. When I eventually get my basement turned into my entertainment complex, this will be a must see – sitting in the dark with the image projected on a big screen with surround sound. Mmmmmmm.

Leo has been lazy today too. He loves having open windows and spends a lot of time in front of them. I went to get a brownie earlier this evening and saw him laying in his hammock (that I’d given him for Christmas this past year) and just had to take a picture. So here’s my lazy kitty:

Tomorrow is Easter and the family will be gathering (in shifts, apparently) at Granny’s. I intend to be there for both lunch and supper, just so I can see everyone. Didn’t get anything for the little ones, alas. I pondered buying some Silly Putty for them all, but that required going out again today. Nah, too busy being lazy. (And I wasted 2 hours playing Diablo II.) Haven’t even bought Deanna a birthday present. Ah well, she’s old enough now to not need birthday presents. 😉