Category: LiveJournal

Memorial Day Weekend 2007

Well, it wasn’t as planned in advance as some of our other weekends at the Lake, and I completely forgot about setting up a card playing night for judiang (but with Granny passed on & mom off being a Bad Gurl with Amy & Rachel, that only leaves 3 card players), but the Weekend at the Lake is here. Yay!

I didn’t wind up getting on the road to the Lake on time as I’d hoped, and when I was 15 minutes away, I got a call from Judi telling me they were “kicking me off.” (At least, I think that’s what she said.) Apparently, there were bugs eating at them and elsaf had to use the ladies. They headed off to the local Grocery while I finished my trek to the Lake.

Eventually, we were all in the cottage and ready for a nice relaxing evening by the fire. But the rain had another idea. A real frog strangler of a storm came through and we began to discuss the evening plans. Well, Elsa and I discussed the plans while Judi got all confused thinking each idea was the finalized plan.

The finalized plan? Go out to eat at El Sombrero and then go see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I was going to order online tix when Judi decided maybe she didn’t want to see it tonight. So then I stopped ordering. Then she decided maybe we should see it tonight. So we hopped in the car and then I remembered – oh yeah, pre-ordering tix. The girls sat in the car while I bought the tickets online. (Let’s hear it for online movie tickets!)

As we headed south down I-75, we found out that it hadn’t been raining in Miami County. And when we got to the new El Sombrero location, we found out they didn’t have as much seating as they once had. After waiting 15 minutes with no one looking like they were planning on vacating their tables anytime soon, we decided to hop down the strip mall to W.G. Grinders for sandwiches. (Yes, Amy, there is now a W.G. Grinders in Piqua!) Ah, a good change in plans.

W.G. Grinders, a regional chain, serves hot sandwiches and deli sides. I ordered the “white pizza” which is an open sandwich with artichoke hearts, Italian dressing, and several types of cheese melted on top. I also got the broccoli salad as a side, and it was very nice. Judi got ham&turkey, Elsa got a turkey Reuben (AKA a Rachel). Supper was good, fast, and required no tip. We got to the theater at 8pm, half an hour before the flick.

The movie, as I suspected, was sold out, so pre-ordering = good idea. (Let’s hear it again for online movie tickets!) Judi got in line to order popcorn & pop, and I suggested she up the size on the popcorn. (If someone in my party gets popcorn for a movie, I wind up eating some too.) I ordered a Coke for myself, so I know I won’t be sleeping tonight!

We found seats on the right side of the theater (it was already mostly full) and still had 20 minutes to go before the previews. The commercials they showed were very quiet and the movie wasn’t that much louder IMO. Still I heard most of the dialog. Judi wasn’t so lucky, but in the car afterward, we got her sorted out.

So what did I think? Fun movie! Wonderfully convoluted plot that actually stands up to scrutiny afterward. And stick around for after the credits if you can. 🙂

When we got back to the cabin, we all hopped on our laptops and then Elsa cut slices of her pineapple upside down cake. Yum! I made Judi a margarita (the first I’ve ever made and I guess it wasn’t that good), too. (Blech, margarita AND pineapple upside down cake!) So now we’re vegging out for the remainder of the evening. Yay for vacation!

Finished Bookshelves

I promised pictures of my finished bookshelves, and here they are. I’m still in the process of putting books on the shelves (though my Doctor Who books are on their shelves now), and will post the final photos when I get that done. Yay for books! Yay for kitties who love people who love books!



Books in Waiting
Books in Waiting

My books, patiently waiting for my bookshelves to be built.
Mapped Out Shelves 1
Mapped Out Shelves 1

Blue masking tape helped me to map out where I wanted my shelves. This set actually was flipped when built – the X marked where I wanted to put the sound system.

Completed Shelves 1
Completed Shelves 1

The first set of shelves is done!
Completed Shelves 2
Completed Shelves 2

And the second set – woohoo!
Completed Shelves 3
Completed Shelves 3

Two more sets are done…
Completed Shelves 4
Completed Shelves 4

And the final set of shelves – with room for kitty potty & all…
Linus & Lucy Explore the New Shelves
Linus & Lucy Explore the New Shelves

As soon as the dust settled, Linus (top) and Lucy (bottom) had to check out their new bookshelves.


Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy (nearly belated) Mother’s Day to all you mom’s (or wannabes) on my flist! I got my mom a t-shirt which says “Ask me about my grandcats” and has a couple of paw prints on it. I also got her a gift certificate to a wine store in Troy. We also (her, dad and I) went to see a few homes in Troy just for grins (the last day of a Home Builder’s Association home show). Tomorrow, I hope to post some pictures of my new Floor to Ceiling bookshelves built by my dad (with help from me & mom). Yay!

In other news, Happy Birthday felicityk!

JSoR – the Art & Steve Show

Tonight the folks and I are, once again, at the Hilton in Fort Wayne. And once again, we are here for a Jesus Seminar on the Road. The two Scholars who are lecturing during this JSoR are Art Dewey and Steve Patterson, neither of whom I’d met before tonight. They used tonight’s session to introduce the audience to the Jesus Seminar and associated seminars. Although most of the information I’d heard before, the evening was informative and, more importantly, entertaining.

The hotel is just a few blocks from the UCC church where the JSoR is being held, so we decided to walk. The last time we stayed at the Hilton, it was November, cold, and windy. This time it’s May, warm, and breezy. So we had a pleasant walk to King Gyros for (funnily enough) gyros and fries (and I had Pepsi for beverage – 2 glasses full! Guess I won’t be sleeping tonight!) Good and messy, just the way I like my gyros!

We then walked to the church, which is near Trinity Lutheran Church (and English Lutheran at that, whatever that means). And turns out is home to the secondary parking lot of the Lutheran Church. I wonder if that means more UCC folk walk or if the congregation of the Lutheran Church is just so much bigger.

Anyhoo, we had half an hour to kill before the evening session started, so we wandered around the church some and one of the volunteers led mom and I into the “Pretty Room” which is a nice room in the church for meditation, reading, counseling, whatever. It was a nice place to wait for a JSoR to begin as well.

I bought a book from Polebridge Press (the Jesus Seminar’s publishing company) called Profiles of Jesus. It’s a look at 14 different scholars views of who Jesus might have been. Sounds like an interesting read.

Anyhoo, after the session, we walked back to the hotel (another very pleasant walk) and met the two Fellows in the bar. Neither of them had supper, so they ate (and Steve let me have his fries) and we all drank and had a very fun evening chatting about odds & ends. I like dad’s little Internet friends!

Tomorrow we have 4 one-hour workshops with the two Fellows, so we’ll have to get up at a decent hour. Ah well, should be worth it. And I hope the kitties are having a fun evening tonight!

Cinco De Free Comic Book Day!

The first Saturday in May is, apparently, Free Comic Book Day. And today is also Cinco de Mayo. So let the celebrations ensue!

I had quite a few things on my running list o’ stuff, so planned my route in advance. (I hate to drive somewhere for one thing, so I keep a list going of what I need/want and when it gets full or I know I really need to get out of the house, I grab the running list and hit everything that needs hitting.)

  1. Post Office: a Saturday tradition. A Monday through Friday tradition, now that I mention it…

  2. AAA: I needed some passport photos and my local post office (which doesn’t do ’em) recommended AAA or the Troy Post Office. I figured I’d get a deal at AAA – and they were only $8. The photos do focus on my chins rather well, however…

  3. Bookery Fantasy: Yay for Free Comic Book Day. They gave us each a small Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer poster as we entered the store. Inside, there was a line of folks waiting for their free books & stuff. I stood in line and got a sack full of free comics, 4 of which we picked out ourselves. Wound up with a total of 15 free comics and 1 Batman Hero Clix figurine. Cool. Got my DWM and Astonishing X-Men and headed on to the next place on my list.

  4. Jeet India: Indian Fud! ’nuff said.

  5. Hot Fuzz: I’ve been a fan of Simon Pegg since the TV series Spaced was on, so of course I saw Shaun of the Dead and really enjoyed it (and I don’t go for zombie flicks normally). So I had to see Hot Fuzz. I’d’ve gone out the first weekend it was out, but the weather was so nice, I couldn’t sit in a film all that time. But today was nice and rainy, a great day for shopping & a movie. And the movie? Most entertaining. A wonderful blend of humor and cartoon violence. But Bill Bailey with short hair is a crime and let’s hope that never happens again!

  6. Andy’s Garden: The cheerleaders were selling discounted flats from Andy’s Garden again this year, so I bought two certificates from them. On the way back from the Fairborn area, I stopped at Andy’s to pick up two flats of Vinca. Last year I had picked up two flats of assorted annuals and discovered that the one type which survived my benign neglect were the Vinca. Here’s hoping they can survive another year with me!

  7. Other Shopping: Finished my excursion at a few shops in Troy to finish up my running list. One thing I decided to get was a George Foreman personal grill. Earlier this week I was frying a chicken boobie and was getting oil spattered everywhere. I got to thinking, a personal grill should help prevent lots of spattering and assist in cooking my ChickNSteaks and Ranch Steaks from Market Day. Tonight won’t be the night to try it out, however – I’m still stuffed from lunch.

My timing worked out just fine today. My main concern was getting to the movie in time, which I did. There were 15 minutes worth of previews, of which I was interested in one movie. (Another Simon Pegg movie, actually.)

So, today has been a good day. 🙂

Garage Sale Day – 2007

Last year for the town Garage Sale Day, we actually had a garage sale at mom & dad’s place. This year, I thought I would be at a meeting over the lunch hour, so I didn’t get stuff ready for selling. Only to discover earlier this week that the meeting was canceled. (It was our pre-planning meeting for B-WISER, but with only 11 girls signed up so far, there’s a chance we may cancel the camp this year. Eep!)

However, nothing was stopping me from going around to other people’s garage sales. When I headed off to the post office this morning, I checked out some of the garage sales around. And I stopped at my cousin’s house to talk with Aunt Becky, Deanna, and Taylor. I then moved onto the gas station to buy a two bottles of cream soda and get some cash. When I got back home, I wrote a check for a bill I’d forgotten about and retraced my steps. (The weather was beautiful, so walking around town was quite a pleasure today).

This time, on the way home, I got in line at the Texas Tenderloin caravan which set up just for the town garage sale day. (I’d seen the caravan on my walk home yesterday and decided then that I’d have a Texas Tenderloin sammich for lunch on Saturday.) The line was pretty long, but, as I said before, the weather was wonderful. In front of me was a young girl I’ve seen around who will most likely be a future student of mine some day. A bit before her were two sisters talking, one of whom is a current student and the other a former student. Was kind of neat to see the timeline there in the lunch line. Heh.

I ordered a sammich and fries and walked home. And thought about how nice it would be to have local restaurants within walking distance of home. (Well, other than the one pizza joint in town.) Lunch was yummy. Linus wanted some, but I assured him that tenderloins (well, the breaded & fried type like I was eating) are not good food for kitties. And not good food for humans either, but there ya go.

Later on, I decided to go on a bike ride. It’s my first time out for the season, so of course the tires were a little flat. However, the Free Air at the gas station wasn’t working. So I popped around to the folks’ to see if dad would fill my tires with his air compressor. And my timing was perfect. Mom was home from work and ready to go garage saling. So I went along with them.

Dad bought a balance at the first sale (their neighbors, so he walked ’em home after buying). Mom bought puzzles at the second. And then we were back at my cousin’s where Becky & co. were still selling. Mom bought a puzzle and a puzzle mat there (Becky said we didn’t have to pay, but dad got rid of some quarters to pay for ’em – heh). While they were pondering just what someone could do with a quarter these days, I suggested to Becky that she should save up her garage sale revenue and take her favorite niece out for Chinese Buffet. And that inspired our evening adventure at the Chinese Buffet.

Whenever I upgrade my computer, I always give the old one to my Aunt Becky. I will admit, the last upgrade, I decided to try building a linux box out of my old machine so that I could play with it, but I just never used it as I’d wanted to. So after nearly 2 years after my last upgrade, Becky finally got her upgrade. She promised to take me out for Chinese Buffet in thanks for the computer – and who am I to turn down Chinese food?

So with my subtle hint, plans were made to have Chinese buffet for supper. Becky picked the folks and I up, Deana took the girls (Taylor & Sydney), and my other cousin Bill and his wife Connie and their youngest, Braden, met us at the Piqua China Garden Buffet. We had a pleasant evening having Chinese food and chatting. And the little ones were pretty well behaved. Afterwards, Deanna took the girls to their mom (the garage sale was at their dad’s place) before she herself headed home to south Dayton. Becky dropped the parentals and I off. And Bill & co. returned to their place.

Once home, I saved the latest Doctor Who (which was done downloading from before supper time) to CD and watched it. It’s fun to watch new Who on my big screen TV while chatting with folks on my laptop. Mmmmm, technology!

(Oh, and if you were wondering if I ever got to ride my bike, the answer is “yes.” After returning from the garage sales – we hit about half the town before returning – dad pumped my tires and I rode around town for awhile. Yay for bikes!)

Trina on the Greene

Since we have so much fun shopping around Christmastime, the lady staff decided to try a Spring Shopping Spree this year. The destination? The Greene, a new shopping complex (think inside-out mall) in south Dayton. The one drawback to a Spring Shopping Spree is that it takes place in the Spring. And as many teachers can tell you, Spring is a chaotic time for us. So how many of us lovely ladies were able to attend? Three…

Still, we met at Tammy’s house & MBA drove the three of us to the Greene. There are several clothing stores which I’ve seen at malls (Talbots, Victoria’s Secret) and some I’ve only seen catalogs for (Coldwater Creek, J. Jill). And as an added bonus, Books & Co. has a branch there. It’s a nice two-story affair. Thank goodness I didn’t find any books that I had to have. I’m still reading from the last two crops that I got. (A trip to Books & Co. during spring break had me buying several more books.) I did buy 2 little votive candles from Yankee Candle – vanilla cupcake. I liked the scent of those – very yummy.

For lunch we agreed to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. I’ve never been in one of those before. Quite an impressive array of cheesecakes! And geez, they give you enough food to feed a third world country. (And folks wonder why Americans are fat?) Tammy & I tried the Georgia Peach beverage, which was quite tasty and, since it’s a vodka based drink, I barely tasted the alcohol. I chose the lunch portion fish & chips and was treated to the best beer-battered fish I’ve had in ages. Not at all greasy and very tasty. And for dessert? Cheesecake! Since I knew they couldn’t compete with elsaf‘s cheesecake from a couple of weekends ago, I decided to get one of their specialty flavors. I went with vanilla bean cheesecake, which was very decadent. And very vanilla-y. Yum! I’m still full from lunch!

After we returned to Tammy’s place, she had to show me the Wii. Her son (who’s also a student of mine), Tammy and I played a round of bowling with the Wii. It was quite fun. And I even broke 100! (109 to be exact). Tammy stomped on us with 154, but her son held his own as well, such that I came in third. 🙂 Not sure it’s enough to convince me to get a console, but it was certainly interesting!

Once I got home, I tried to make a dent in the mess that my house has become. I’ve at least taken the trash out and cleaned up all the paper the kitties have strewn around the house. I’ve got a long ways to go, but it feels good to have at least done something for once. 🙂

Tomorrow, I’m taking the parental units out for lunch. Actually, we’re meeting at the Piqua Cassano’s, but I’m buying. (They’re at the Lake now, enjoying their anniversary weekend and beautiful weather.) It’s not the classiest anniversary present, but I know it’s something they’ll both enjoy. 🙂

I’m in!

I just received an e-mail from University at Buffalo – I have been accepted into their degree program! Woohoo! I should be getting a mail packet soon with the name of my adviser and all that jazz. Sweet. And I’m now printing out the FAFSA worksheet to see about applying for Federal Student Aid. Which I may or may not need.

Yay debt! 🙂

(In other good news, my amazon.co.uk order arrived today, so I will be watching Doctor Who: Survival tonight. Woot!)

PS: Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

The $7 post

I checked into the airport earlier today while still at judiang‘s. And right before we left, I checked flight info & all was good. So then I take the red line to Jackson and the blue line to O’Hare and when I arrive, I discover my flight has been cancelled. No matter, they had already booked me on the next flight to Columbus, which is at 6:35pm CDT. I decided to take advantage of O’Hare’s widely advertised wi-fi. It’s $6.95 for the day, so consider this my most expensive post on LJ. (I also e-mailed the folks & Judi while on this.)

Anyhoo, here’s hoping my luggage and I shall be reunited in Columbus! And I get to see my kitties tonight. Yay!