Category: LiveJournal

Family Heirlooms

In my last post, I’d mentioned a “new” corner cupboard that has come to reside in my house. I’d also talked about a set of glassware which has been part of my household for some while, but has only now gotten displayed. So I thought I’d take some photos to show.

The corner cupboard is from the Short side of the family while the dishes are from the Anderson side of the family. So I’m quite delighted that I get to pair to two. Mom (and dad) was over on Friday and she quite graciously organized the dishes in the cabinet to help display them better. (I’m rubbish at such things, but she’s got a real knack, as you’ll see in the photo.)

So, here we go:

The Corner Cupboard.
Here is a shot of the cupboard with the doors and drawers shut.

The Corner Cupboard
A shot of the cupboard with doors and drawers open. My 6 qt crock pot has found its home already.

Cupboard and Dishes
A shot of my lovely Depression Glassware inside the Corner Cupboard.

The Dining Room
A shot of my "dining" room with corner cupboard and curio cabinet.
Plus my fab IKEA table and chairs and my lovely Hunter ceiling fan.
Oh, and Linus.

So, thank you Aunt Alma for the dishes and Aunt Becky for the cupboard. I have (and have had in the past) some pretty cool aunts. 🙂

The End of Spring Break

Ah, this has been a wonderful Spring Break. I’m sad it’s over, but it’s been an excellent restorative.

Did most of what I wanted to do over the break. Gamed some, read some, cleaned some, shopped some, ate some.

Wednesday, I had dad around and he fixed my back door lock and we got the “family heirloom” back up to snuff. This was the corner cupboard which was most likely NOT built by my grandfather or great grandfather. Probably built in the 1920s by a cabinet maker, dad suspects, rather than a furniture maker. It’s made of walnut and had some water (and cat) damage from when it was at Granny’s house (later Aunt Becky’s house). Dad had brought around most of his solvents and much of his furniture restoring equipment, but it turned out alcohol and a little bit of Old English polish was enough to get it looking good. (And today I painted the inside of the cabinet to cover the odd paint job that was in it.)

So now I have a corner cabinet which is displaying another “family heirloom” – a set of Depression Glass that my great Aunt Alma left to me a few years back. It’s nice to finally have that out to be seen instead of stored in my kitchen cupboards. (The bottom half of the corner cabinet has more storage space, too, so I’ve got my crock pot there for now – with probably more items joining it.)

Thursday was a fun evening out with my folks and friends (formerly from work – now all retired with only me still working). We had half-priced appetizers and drinks at the bar, then moved to the dining area for supper. I had 2 dirty girl scout martinis (chocolate & mint – yum!), shrimp tempura (and a bit of dad’s pizza appetizer and one of mom’s shrimp coctails), and a lovely salad for supper. The Caroline is a nice place to eat out with friends.

I spent the night with the folks (hence 2 drinks instead of one), and the following morning mom and I went off to her water aerobics class at the Lincoln Center. It was nice to get into the pool again. Got to meet the ladies in her class and exercise a bit. We returned home for a shower, then moved onto a WeightWatchers meeting. When our workplace one ends, I’ll probably join this one. Lots of people there, which was good to see.

I went to Brukner Nature Center several times over Spring Break. I’m not sure I could have asked for nicer weather for Spring Break. Heck, today it got to the lower 70sF. (And today was one of the few days I couldn’t get out for a decent walk – go figure!)

I finished my Spring Break as I do many of my Sundays – doing laundry, baking bread, cleaning the kitchen. I also painted the interior of the corner cabinet, cleaned the Depression Glass, and after the paint was dry, put the dishes into the cabinet.

But now it’s bedtime, so I’m off to sleep. Tomorrow school begins anew, with only 8 weeks to go! (Good grief!) Summer will be here before we know it!

Happy Birthday, Judi….

…. April Fools!

Oh wait, it’s both! Today sees the birthday of a dear friend, judiang as well as being the day for all fools to come out from their gullible houses. (I was torn as to which icon to use for this post – my Age one or my Foolish one. You can see which I picked. Heh.)

I think I managed to not get fooled today. There was one that I thought “Oh, that’s unexpected!” and then I realized “Oh! Bet it’s an April Fool’s joke. Heh.”

Anyhoo, to any of you others who suffer from sharing your birthday with April Fool’s Day, you have my celebratory wishes and my condolences. And it’s a shame that you have to suffer the fools and yet not get a parade! (Having a parade on one’s birthday certainly helps soften the blow of getting older. Heh.)

Spring Break 2013!

Today is the first day of Spring Break for us this year. And we’re off until April 8, so yay for a week and a day off! I don’t have any travel plans for the week, which will be nice. As much as I love to travel, it’s nice to have some time spent at home, too.

I also have nothing big planned for the break. I hope to read some, game some, walk some, shop some, clean some, and eat some. And already have done all of those today (bar the reading – which will be remedied soon enough, and the cleaning – which will be… well, there’s always Sunday). I headed off to see the folks for lunch today and we went to Lincoln Square. I had a BLT club and fries. The club was very yummy, the fries were simply OK. Then the folks and I walked to the grocery. (OK, so it wasn’t swanky shopping or anything, but it was shopping!)

Tomorrow we’re having Easter dinner at Aunt Becky’s with the promise of cards before dinner. I’m bringing the relish tray (AKA crudités) and a cheeseball (cream cheese & hot pepper jelly mixed together). I might bring brownies too if I wind up baking some tonight. Heh.

The weather was beautiful today. A few clouds, blue skies, high 40s/low 50s (ËšF), so I went for another walk after supper. Tomorrow should be equally lovely, so I hope to walk a bit before we’re off to Becky’s.

March has been a good month for me and the folks. Last weekend we had a lovely time exploring new businesses in Troy. We visited the new bulk food store in the downtown, then had lunch at Mojos, a new bar (where O’Brian’s used to be). After an unsuccessful venture to Kohl’s (not a new biz), we finished off at the new cupcake store (Brittney’s Cakes) that’s run by neighbors of my folks. The cupcakes are quite tasty!

In the last bit o’ news of the Treen, I’m still doing WeightWatchers and my weight is slowly going down. Mom’s just rejoined WW and when our workplace WW ends, I intend to join mom’s WW group. (Might go there next Friday since we won’t be meeting Tuesday!)

I hope you all are doing as well as I’ve been (and if you aren’t, *hugs* to you) and may the odds be ever in your favor! (Oh wait, where did that spring from?)

GIP

I only get to use this icon once a year, so here’s my post so that I can!

Hope those of you celebrating had a Happy St Patrick’s Day! Mum decided to try her hand at corned beef and cabbage and was quite successful. Very tasty meal. (I made brownies – from a Trader Joe’s mix.)

In other news, on Tuesday comes The Hobbit on blu-ray! Woohoo!

Crowd Sourcing – an interesting endeavor

I really love how the Internet is changing how things are done. One of the more interesting developments of late is actually all about development itself. Crowd sourcing or crowd funding, where folks put up a proposal online on what they’d do if you gave them money, has been around longer than Kickstarter or Indiegogo, but it’s those websites and others which have really helped spread the concept.

My first crowd-sourced adventure was an investment which didn’t pay off (but I knew it was a gamble and waved buh-bye to my money when I sent it in). It was for a movie that a young movie director had hoped to crowd fund and so he’d set up a website on his own and tried to get the funds. One of the things that Kickstarter and other crowd-sourcing websites do now is they don’t charge you if the goal isn’t met. This director had no system like that, and told us investors up front that it might all come to naught. So I went in eyes open and willing to try to see if the project would get funded. It didn’t, alas.

Once Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and other sites came long, however, it became much easier (I suspect) for people to crowd fund projects. I have now backed several successful projects and have received several of the items I’ve crowd funded already, with more to come. (I’m probably most looking forward to my 3Doodler – expect cheesy plastic 3D objects for Christmas from me, family!)

One of the projects I’m most proud to have sponsored is the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series by Feminist Frequency. You might have heard of this project as one which was funded for WAY over the requested amount. And Anita Sarkeesian has been able to expand on her project and invest in better equipment thanks to the increased funding.

Today, she released the first of her video series on Tropes vs Women in Video Games with the first part of Damsel in Distress. I was impressed with her research and the quality of the production and look forward to the rest of the series and the various perks I’ll get as a backer. I embed (under the cut) this first part for your edification.

The March 2013 Snowmaggedon!

As a kid, I thought Snow Days were the best. First, they were usually caused by snow, which I love. Next, that meant we didn’t have to go to school. Now, I loved going to school, but snow days were still wonderful. After all, you could do ANYTHING (well, nearly) you wanted – you didn’t have any prior plans other than school.

Well, as a teacher, I’m still the same. As much as I love going to school (or work, in this case), I still love Snow Days. (Now they’re called “Calamity Days” because fog, ice, and boiler issues have all caused school closures in addition to snow.) Today, thanks to 6+” being dumped upon us overnight, we had one. Whee!

Before the snow arrived last night (around 7pm), it had been raining and then icing. Which meant that there was stuff for the snow to stick to. And all of the trees (and, more frighteningly, the power lines) were laden with snow. Very pretty to look at. So today, before lunch, I took a walk through town (first shoveling my front walk, and finishing my outing by shoveling my back walk) and took pictures of the prettiest snow laden trees, etc.

Snow Laden View 2
This is a house near the school. In summer it is surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants. Today, it was the Snow Queen of the village.

Snow Laden View 1
Here is a second shot of the same area. You might be able to see the school behind it.

Snow Laden View 3
On the main street in town, I espied this little nook of snow-laden goodness. Sadly, I couldn’t find Mr Tumnus.

What the F…..ebruary?!?

Um, what the heck happened to February. Usually this is the longest month for me and it drags like a dragging thing. But it has zipped by (Flowed by, perhaps, to maintain the alliteration) and ends tonight. Sheesh.

I blame the few sunny days that we had this month. Normally Feb is gray and bleak and rainy and icy. But we had several sunny days and even some snow. Today we had a 2-hour delay, which was wonderful since it was Parent/Teacher conferences which means we’re there until 7pm (or later for some teachers). I even got to meet two of my students’ mums tonight.

As you can see, I didn’t post at all in February, until today. Mom even e-mailed me wondering if I was going to let an entire month go by uncommented upon in this journal. I had decided on my walk home tonight that I would finally post. And here goes!

I’d like to promise that I’ll be more vocal during March, but I dunno if I will. I guess we’ll find out on the 31st!

The 1200

I don’t pay much attention to what number of post my (now admittedly very rare) LJ posts are, but I just happened to notice I had 1199 entries under my belt before I started this one up. So, yay for number 1200!

So, what have been up to since I turned 42? Well, Amy got home safe und sound. School’s been pretty normal (though the cold & flu season is going on). I finally got caught up in grading. (The catapult research papers were a bit long in the tooth when I finally graded them.)

Yesterday, we had a sunny & almost warm day – nearly 50F. Dad grilled us New York strip steaks and they were so tender and very tasty. I was able to take half of mine home & tonight sliced up 1/4 of the leftovers to put on my salad. Yummy.

Also yesterday, I did my semi-regular trip down to the Bookery for my Doctor Who magazines. When I went to Jeet India afterwards (as I always do on said trips), the place was GONE. Just an empty space in the strip mall. Very sad. So I decided to get fast food Thai at Tik’s Thai Express. Good pad thai, tasty crab rangoon, and only so-so satay. Had the leftover pad thai for lunch today. (The good news? When I checked at home, it turns out they’ve merely moved locations. Will get to Jeet next time I’m down there!)

Decided to give the 2D version of The Hobbit a try today (before it leaves the theaters). Was surprised to see other folks in the theater. Still a very fun movie, though I think I prefer the high frame rate. Wish they’d do 2D at HFR.

This week is supposed to get bloody cold. Tuesday to get no higher than 11F. (My sister says MN is to have a high that’s -2F tomorrow. Brrrrr!) Wonder if we’ll have a delay on Tuesday with the very low wind chill temp. (It’s happened before.)

At any rate, those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, keep warm & drive safe in the snow/ice. Those of you south of the equator, keep cool! (Dern that climate change!)

Welcome 2013!

Nearly a week into the new year and I’m finally posting. I blame my sinus infection. When I wasn’t hanging out with the folks and Amy (or working), I was getting sleep to fight my sinus infection.

But I’m feeling almost normal (or as normal as I can be) and have a bit of time this morning to type up a post about the end of 2012 and start of 2013.

Amy arrived late on Friday evening and it was lovely to have her home again. We did Christmas morning on Saturday, then. First stockings, full of fun, small kitchen gadgets, then breakfast. Dad grilled us Egg McMikey’s and served ’em on the English Muffin Toasting Bread that I had baked for just that occassion.

We opened lots of presents and, once again, won at Christmas. Mom and I even zipped off to the Co-op in the middle in order to pick up a few supplies (and then to Kroger to pick up one more Christmas pressie). I got lots of nifty stuff, including a mini-cannon (which actually fires), bread baking supplies, nice clothes (most of which fit), and an HO train car, just like Christmasses when I was a kid. Lovely nostalgia. 🙂

Sunday was mom’s day to shine. She decided to make a true Anderson dinner. Her brothers and my cousins were invited around for dinner and she made fried chicken and noodles like Grandma. Amy and I helped with other things, like banana salad and rolls. I decided NOT to make Grandma’s tapioca, because the last time I’d made it, everyone tasted it and said “Gee, this tastes just like Grandma’s tapioca. I never did like her tapioca!” Heh.

Monday was New Years Eve and we had a relaxing day which finished off with us having snacks and watching Trading Places and The Amazing Spider-Man before the ball dropped. I fired my cannon during the countdown (almost timing it perfectly).

New Years Day was even more relaxing. Mom made us baked oatmeal for breakfast. I got to watch my parade (thank you Pasadena!). I finished reading The Casual Vacancy. We had pork and kraut for lunch. I opened birthday presents. Money to buy Neil Innes, new box-set and a Mah Jongg tile set in handy carrying case. Sadly, I then had to go home that evening because I worked the next day.

I felt bad for my students. Even though I felt fine, by this point in my sinus infection, I had practically lost my voice. I felt like a cough drop addict on Thursday. But on Friday, during physics, my ear canal finally drained and I could hear again. And today I feel even better.

So a nice, quiet start to the New Year. That works for me! I hope others have had a great start and that 2013 turns out to be the Best Year Ever!