Tag: amy & rachel

A housewarming gift only I could think of…

When I last left off about my visit to Amy & Rachel’s, we had just received the Jakeeno’s Pizza we’d ordered. We ordered a regular pizza with Italian sausage and also ordered one of their specialty pizzas – the Spinach Special. I gave Amy a bit more money so we could also get their artichoke dip. The pizza was tasty and the artichoke dip wasn’t as cheesy as we were expecting, but it was all good. We watched Willow while we munched (and drank – mmm mmm tasty amaretto sour). Then we decided to call mom & dad for a little bit. We started Tron as well, but Amy finally crashed so we went to bed. (Well, I worked on college stuff then turned in.)

On Monday, I worked on Amy’s laptop looking to see how best to speed it up. But it was cleared out pretty nicely, so I decided to start looking at RAM prices for their laptop (a Dell Inspiron 5160). Although I found some good prices online, I got to thinking that, if I could find a local store I could install the RAM for the girls. I asked Rachel if she thought a gift of 2GB of RAM for their laptop would be an appropriate housewarming gift. She thought so (especially coming from me) and told Amy, who also approved. I found a Micro Center which said they had the RAM in stock and it had a rebate attached (which I still need to send in). Rachel figured out how to get there, so we decided to go there, get some lunch, then get me to the airport. Sounded like a plan.

I researched how to install the RAM on the laptop and it looked pretty straightforward. Amy found a Phillips screwdriver that fit the screw in the back, so we packed the laptop up with the screwdriver in tow. I packed all of my stuff up (conveniently forgetting my jacket – whoops!) and the three of us headed down to Micro Center. Despite it being a Columbus, OH company, I’ve never been to one. Ah, I must go to one again. The salesman who helped us found two 1 GB sticks of the RAM and they confirmed the price for me and the existence of the rebate. And while in the checkout I saw they had a 16GB flash drive for $40, so I put that on my tab as well.

Amy & Rachel decided that Patrick’s would be ideal for lunch. It’s a French Patisserie which was on the way to the airport. I ordered a fruit tart (my favorite thing from any patisserie) and a ham & cheese croissant. Yummy! I installed the RAM once we were seated and the laptop started up without a hitch. Hopefully things are going a little faster for the girls now when they’re on it.

Rachel then drove us to the airport and dropped me off at the terminal. I hugged ’em both tight and thanked them once again for letting me stay. I’d had a blast visiting. Check in went smoothly and I was soon sitting and reading up on nanotechnology (from PDF files I’d saved to my laptop while at the girls’) in order to write my essay which was due by midnight that night.

During my Milwaukee layover, I wrote most of the essay. And when I finally got home, I looked after the kitties (they’d done well during my absence but they seemed to miss me), had supper (McDonald’s from the drive home), and then read through my essay, made some changes and finished it, then turned it in. Yay! Best of all? I got the highest grade so far on an essay for the semester with that one. Heh. 95%.

When I got to school the next day I found out that the sub had not destroyed my classroom, always a good sign. The week was a busy one with an egg drop contest in the middle. And yesterday the Fisher’s had several of my coworkers (and former coworkers) around for steaks. I brought two funny cakes (recipe from justspies) which I’d baked in the morning (very tasty – thanks justspies!) There were so many desserts that one was unmolested, so I brought it home and have it in the fridge hoping it’ll last until mom & dad get home Wednesday.

Today is laundry day. I’ve cleaned the kitchen and will soon need to bake brownies for a Information Fair & Social we’re having at the school tomorrow. I also have another essay to write (due tomorrow by midnight) and some stuff to read for college. So a busy day for Trina! We have only a four-day week this week (with kids) and the first quarter ends Thursday. Friday is a teacher work day to get grades and stuff done. So it’ll be a busy week! Will be nice to catch my breath next weekend (which I’m hoping I get to do).

Gracious Hostesses

Amy & Rachel have been wonderful hostesses. And excellent slave drivers. 🙂

Friday night, their friend Melissa joined us (it was her 33rd birthday) and Rachel drove us to the Craftsman Restaurant. This restaurant focuses on using only local ingredients and then making superb dishes with them. A&R and I had surfed their site looking through their menu (and looking terms up on Google and Wikipedia) and had pretty much decided what we wanted. We met seven other people at the restaurant for our birthday gathering.

I decided to start with an amaretto sour and ordered the pork rillettes with crostini, mustard, and pickles as an appetizer, which I shared with A&R and anyone else interested in trying it. It was very yummy! For my entree, I had picked the confit of rabbit leg with creamy polenta and a sauté of greens garnished with a honey gastrique. It was heavenly. And Amy wanted to marry it. The sautéed greens were kale and very yummy. I tasted Amy’s order too, braised beef short ribs with spaghetti squash and braised root vegetable. Also yummy and with the best spaghetti squash I’d had. (Amy suspected it was simply seasoned with salt and pepper.) For dessert, I ordered the chocolate boca negra (which came with creme fresh, which I had to scrape off. Blech.) I also had a bite of one of Rachel’s cinnamon beignets.

We were at the restaurant for two and a half hours, enjoying the food and the company. I think Melissa had a very nice birthday indeed. I know I enjoyed her birthday! Heh.

Just as we were heading home, Melissa realized she couldn’t find her phone. So Rachel pulled over, Amy called the phone – no ringtone in the car. So Rachel drove back to the restaurant. Melissa checked inside all the while Amy dialed and redialed the number. Then Melissa walked down the sidewalk toward where we’d parked earlier in the evening. Sure enough, when we got to where the car had been, there was her cell phone ringing away on the sidewalk. Crisis averted.

We returned to the house and got ready for bed. I worked a bit on coursework and finally went to sleep on the futon in their “den” on the second floor.

The next morning, I got up when Amy & Rachel were getting ready for Rachel to get to work. (Amy had to drive her there). Meanwhile, I decided to get online to check the weather in order to know what to wear. Unfortunately, the USI modem (really an antenna, receiver, amplifier, router) wasn’t working. I tried rebooting it a couple of times, but still no go. I found a weather channel on Amy’s TV and saw it was going to be a nice day, so picked out my long-sleeve t-shirt instead of one of my sweat shirts.

After my shower, Amy was back so I told her about the tech troubles. She agreed that I should call tech support, so I did. After awhile on hold, I talked with a really nice tech who listened to what I’d told him and didn’t have me do all the stuff I’d already done. During some of the tests that I ran on the modem, we had time to chat, so I mentioned it was Amy’s new house we were in. He said he had just bought a new house as well – just a month ago. When he needed to talk to Amy to schedule a time for a tech geek to come by, he congratulated her on her new home. Best of all, he was able to schedule a tech guy to come on Sunday between 4 and 8pm. Hooray!

Amy and I then headed off to Trotters Cafe again, this time for breakfast. I ordered the cornmeal pancake that’s one of their specialties and a link of sausage, plus milk to drink. Amy ordered their special scramble which had kale and shrooms and thyme. Breakfast was good – I thought the cornmeal pancake was an interesting flavor and even more fun texture. And they have real maple syrup too. I still had milk left after breafast, so I went back to the counter and picked out one of their chocolate mint cookies. Yummy! Rachel finally got her breakfast break and joined us as Amy had a third cup of coffee and I had a bit more water. But eventually we had to stop procrastinating and head off to A&R’s old apartment. Amy and I had some cleanin’ to do.

Nearly everything was out of the apartment, but it hadn’t been cleaned yet. I packed up the router and DSL modem and then began vacuuming the floors. After Amy finished cleaning the bathroom, I mopped the floor of it. Then I took several recyclables out to the various tubs and threw some trash away. After two hours of working, Amy took me out to lunch to Brit’s Pub. It was a pleasant day and the walk there was very nice.

At Brit’s, I ordered the fish & chips while Amy ordered a fish sandwich and cole slaw. I shared some of my chips with her (they were very tasty but also very plentiful). We had water to drink. I enjoy having beer batter fish and unfortunately there aren’t many places where I live that have it. So yay Brit’s Pub!

Back at the apartment, we continued cleaning and were nearly done when Rachel joined us, having already worked the morning and bussed home. She thought it would be a good idea if she rode her bike home and maybe we could fit the other bike in the car. Amy and I were pretty sure we couldn’t fit it with all the stuff going in, but I offered to ride Amy’s bike home with Rachel leading the way. So we packed up Amy’s car and I followed Rachel home on Amy’s bike.

It was a 2 mile (or so) ride back to the house, and though I’m not in the greatest shape and probably should have put Amy’s sit down a smidgen, I managed the ride and didn’t feel sore at all today. There was only one time when Rachel got across an intersection while I got stopped, so she waited until I got a green light and we continued on home. It was a nice day to bike ride (though I’m glad I wore my jacket).

The girls napped some while I worked some more on my coursework. Amy told me what her password was to get on the metro wi-fi so I was able to read the class discussions. I got some stuff done for the classes and eventually the girls were ready for me to treat them to supper. I suggested they pick a place they either haven’t been to or they liked but don’t usually think to go to. They chose a Malaysian place they’d been to once before and really liked.

Peninsula Malaysian Cuisine is a nice restaurant. We started with golden crab meat balls and chicken satay with peanut sauce. Then we shared three entrees: mango tofu (tofu and mango in a sweet sauce), kari sayur (spicy mixed veggies), and the one the girls were most excited about, a Buddhist yam pot (“crisp fried taro nest filled with shrimp, chicken, mushrooms, snow peas, baby corn, & cashews”). Although I didn’t care much for the yam pot of the Buddhist yam pot, I enjoyed the pickings a lot. I also had a mango smoothie with black tapioca pearls. There was even some leftover kari sayur for the girls. And the whole meal for the three of us was only slightly more than my solo supper the night before. Heh.

We headed off to Ikea next so the girls could look at curtains and other items. Although we didn’t find what they wanted there, we had fun looking at all the cool stuff. I need to take a trip to the Hamilton Ikea with mom one of these days. We then headed to Target for some essentials (and it turns out curtains) and then to a liquor store for a few more essentials.

Once we were home, Amy attached rabbit ears (bought at Target) to their TV so we could get NBC good enough to walk Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. The hook up went smoothly and they now receive several channels quite well thanks to the antenna. (Only the ABC channel was worse after the hookup. Go figure.) Then we watched SNL and the girls finally headed off to bed.

I stayed up for another hour or so working more on college stuff. But then I, too, returned to the world of sleep.

This morning, I slept in a bit. Amy and I had bagels for breakfast, along with regular and strawberry creme cheese. Rachel was, once again, working at Trotters. I got a lot more work done on my college stuff after breakfast. Then Amy and I made potato & leek soup for lunch. With the bread that Rachel had brought home from work on Friday, it was a very tasty combo. We then spent the day working in the house getting the kitchen sorted out.

When Rachel returned, she also had some soup and declared it good. She also had some cookies from the restaurant – including the mint chocolate ones. Yay! While finishing mine up, the tech from USI arrived, so Amy and I went with him to the den to see things get fixed.

Jeremy was his name, and he started by trying to reset the old modem. It didn’t do anything once again, so he swapped it for a new one. He also tested the antenna and was getting 5 bars from it. Considering there are two nodes on either side of Amy’s street, that’s no surprise. Once he got their modem installed, he also put Amy’s router in place and got that set up for her home network. So now we can all geek at once in Amy’s house. Yay!

I’ve been working on this post for most of the afternoon with many distractions. But now I’m nearly done. Yay! We have ordered pizzas from Jakeeno’s Pizza, a pizzaria near here, and they’ll be delivering soon. Amy and Rachel are sorting out drawer items for the kitchen and I’m getting the occasional “we don’t need this anymore” things. Good thing I had plenty of room in my luggage.

This has been a fun visit. It’s always lovely to see Amy & Rachel and little Fruvous. And it’s especially nice to see their new home.

Oh, and yay, the pizza’s just arrived!

Minneapolis, not Appleton

Unless you’re hard of hearing, you probably don’t see any problem having one gate serving flights to both Appleton and Minneapolis which are 10 minutes apart from each other. But I found it a bit on the confusing side of things today. Thankfully, I got on the correct plane in Milwaukee (after flying there from Dayton this morning) and Amy picked me up outside of the baggage claim.

She drove us first to the post office to pick up the modem & antenna for their new ISP (they’re using USI Wireless with their metro wi-fi) so that I could hook it up later. Then we went to Trotters Cafe where Rachel works (and was working) to have a late lunch. We ordered the two specials (Mexican casserole and a turkey on wheat sourdough sandwich) to share. Amy and I chatted and ate and had a really nice afternoon. Then, with 10 minutes or so left of Rachel’s workday, we returned to the counter to order dessert. I ordered the Chocolate Torture (a dense chocolate cake with creme anglaise drizzled over it) and Amy got a chocolate chip peanut butter cookie. When we reseated ourselves, Frannie Franken, Al Franken’s wife, stopped over to talk us into voting for Al Franken for US Senate. Amy’s first comment to her was “Don’t talk to her” pointing at me “she’s from Ohio.” But Frannie addressed both of us just the same. She was very friendly. Rachel eventually joined us just as we were finishing our desserts.

Amy drove us home to their NEW HOUSE. They have a garage and everything! They gave me the tour of the house, with Fruvous leading the way. He even gave me a bat on the ankle so that I knew I was at Amy & Rachel’s place. Such a friendly cat.

After the tour, Rachel took a nap and I set up Amy’s new modem. I posted two answers to one of my college discussion boards which I’d answered during my hour layover in Milwaukee. Heh. And now I’m writing this.

We’re in the process now of getting ready to go to the Craftsman Restaurant for Melissa’s birthday (she’s a friend of Amy & Rachel’s). We’re all plenty hungry and looking forward to trying the place out.

A Busy September 30th

Today, for the Shorts, was a busy day. I shall begin with the least exciting and move up.

  • I just got back from presenting the school website at our school board meeting. People there said I did a good job on the presentation – I haven’t a clue, myself. 🙂 I’ve been working on the website, in earnest, for a year now. I’ve very proud of it – it’s standards compliant and handicapped accessible. The new teacher web pages which we can do through FirstClass (our e-mail program) are also standards compliant, which thrills me. And the teachers are making really nice pages. (I showed mine (boring) and 3 other teacher’s pages (not boring) to the board.)

  • Mom and Dad flew out to California today for a month in Santa Rosa. They volunteer for the Westar Institute from time to time – this time for a month. The fall meeting will be in a few week’s time and mom & dad help out with the preparation there and in a few other areas. And they also get to enjoy the fabulous restaurants in the area. I think the only complaint they have is that the condo they stay in doesn’t have a comfy chair. (We should dispatch the Spanish Inquisition, perhaps?)

  • And the most important thing to happen today to the Short family… My little sister bought a house! Yay! Today, she and Rachel closed on their house purchase. They now own a mortgage! And a house to go with it! I’m really excited for them. And I’ll be flying out mid-October to help them with unpacking, cleaning the old joint, setting up electronics, and just about anything else they want me to do. Amy thinks there might even still be some autumn foliage for me to gawp at then. Yay!

Speaking of autumn, it appears to have arrived today. Yay! My two walnut trees in the back have some distinctly yellow leaves. We have a nice blustery wind bringing us some cooler weather, too. Autumn is my favorite season, so it’s nice to see it start up in earnest.

Anyhoo, I’m sleepy and going to head off to read a bit before bed. Busy days make me tired. 🙂

Busy Times over the Holidays

I’ll begin by stating ditto what Judi said.

judiang has been picking on me because I haven’t been posting enough about the holidays. The fact of the matter is that I’m too zonked by the end of the day to post much of anything. I’ve been a busy little beaver since Dec 21st, the last day of school.

The food poisoning or whatever it was helped to keep me from overeating throughout the early festivities. Indeed, my first day to eat normally was Thursday the 27th.

Here’s a run down of my holiday thus far:

  • Friday Dec 21: Last day of work until 2008!

  • Saturday Dec 22: Amy & Rachel arrive in the evening (I spend most of the day cleaning the house.)

  • Sunday Dec 23: We do some shopping and see The Golden Compass. (Only Rachel and I have read the book thus far)

  • Monday Dec 24: Christmas Eve! I spent some time working on Amy’s laptop trying to get it to run at the speed it should. I backed up their files onto my PC so they could at least wipe the laptop if needed (but it might not need it now). Amy & I fixed haystacks (taco salads) for folks for supper and we watched Ocean’s 13 and had supper. The girls spent Christmas Eve night with me.

  • Tuesday Dec 25: Christmas! After a difficult night of little sleep, the girls and I headed next door to mom & dad’s for Christmas. We first opened our stockings, then had breakfast (I might have those two reversed) and then spent 2 hours opening presents. It was lots of fun! After some resting in the afternoon, we went to dad’s sister’s house for Christmas with the rest of the Shorts. It was fun to see the little kids enjoying their many presents. 🙂

  • Wednesday Dec 26: It was mom’s time to play hostess. She made Grandma Anderson’s noodles, mashed potatoes, ham (from MarketDay), sweet potatoes, asparagus, and other stuff for dinner. Amy made garlic green beans. I baked some Bob Evans rolls (and due to a miscount, had to pick up some more rolls from Bob Evans) and made a cheeseball (one of two – the other went to the Short’s the night before). And then we waited for mom’s brothers and their families. As was expected, they were late. Heh. But folks showed, ate, chatted, hugged, etc. It was a very fun day. And we all collapsed when they left.

  • Thursday Dec 27: Our last day with the girls. We spent it playing cards and chatting and eating leftovers. Then I drove everyone to the airport (since they had Wine Time right before it was time to go) and we said buh-bye to the girls and wished them a safe flight.

  • Friday Dec 28: No rest for the wicked – Judi and elsaf were to arrive. Although Elsa got off late, she still made it before I had to leave to pick up Judi. Indeed, as the ditto above states, she didn’t arrive in Ohio until after 10pm (she was supposed to arrive at 1pm) AND we had to drive to Columbus to get her. If we’d known her luggage (with presents) wasn’t flying with her, we might have just said “Nah…” 😉

  • Saturday Dec 29: A very full day indeed. Elsa made us French toast & sausage, we went to the airport for Judi’s luggage (yay, presents!), we headed to Fairborn for the Bookery and used bookstore (made $3 on some used books I had brought along) and Indian Fud. I had originally planned to take them to the Air Force Museum, but we decided to shop instead. Mall time then time at Bed Bath & Beyond and finally Sweeney Todd. After the movie, I drove us to Clifton Mill for the beautiful Christmas lights. Then back to Troy for a late supper at Ruby Tuesday (we were the last ones there). Back home, we watched the Doctor Who Xmas special and then opened presents. Whew!

  • Sunday Dec 30: Today. I’m exhausted after thinking about yesterday. Today we had French Toast and sausage again. Elsa and I then went to Kohl’s where Elsa bought me some nice flannel sheets for my birthday. Then on to Meijer for some more groceries we needed. Finally back home where Elsa cooked up a nice lunch of pineapple chicken rice. Then we put in a new door handle for the den door – thanks to some advice and tools from dad, we were successful with only a little bit of scuffing of the door (that’s visible – just barely). Elsa also made us a lovely supper of beer cheese soup and crepe suzettes – yummy! I took some photos of the burning crepes which I hope to post later. We watched Shrek 3 during lunch and Bend it Like Beckham after supper. We also watched A Wish for Wings that Worked (that Judi gave me for Xmas), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (do I really have to say which version?) and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. And now I’m zonked.

The End of Summer

Although Summer isn’t over in the Northern Hemisphere until mid September, for all intent & purposes in the US, it ends this coming Monday, our Labor Day. For me, Summer ended two Wednesdays ago when school began. But that hasn’t stopped me from having some End of Summer Fun this weekend.

Amy (my sister) and Rachel (her partner) arrived in Ohio on Thursday morning. I didn’t get to see them until I got home from work, but when I did, I gave ’em both big hugs. I hadn’t seen ’em since January. We took a nice walk in town and just outside of town heading down to the river. And for old times’ sake, we played a game of Pooh Sticks. Amy won, or so she claims. 😉 We agreed that it’s a lot harder to play Pooh Sticks on the “new” bridge than it was on the old one. It’s so hard to see over the edge.

We popped in to Indians Pizza on the way home and Rachel decided that maybe some ice cream before pizza was in order. None of us had our money with us, so we agreed to get ice cream cones on the walk home with the pizzas when we went to pick them up. We returned home to wait for Becky & Deanna’s arrival.

The goal was to play cards & eat pizza. But after our long walk, the girls and I were hungry for pizza already. With some discussion, we came up with what to order. A large deluxe, a large sausage pizza, half with green olives, and a small BLT pizza. Yes, you read that right – Bacon Lettuce & Tomato pizza. I’d heard rave reviews from it at lunch, so I wanted to try it. Others were willing to try it as well.

When the pizzas were ready, the girls and I walked back to Indians Pizza, this time with money. Rachel also ordered a Buckeye Classic ice cream cone and I got a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone. The Buckeye Classic is peanut butter ice cream with little candy buckeyes and chocolate swirls. Of course, since we had ice cream cones in hand, that left Amy to carry the pizzas…

The pizzas were a hit, even the BLT pizza, which is basically a bacon & cheese pizza that, after baking, gets some mayo squeezed onto it, then is topped with lettuce and tomato. After we had our fill, dad retired to his little nest and we ladies sat around the kitchen table for playing Shanghai Rum. Amy sat out of the playing of the game, but she kept score and stayed in the conversation. Although we ran out of time before finishing all of the rounds, we had a lovely time. Mom won with me coming second. Becky, for a change, lost.

Friday was another work day for me, but as soon as I was able to leave, I did. There was a box of food on my kitchen table and a note on my counter. I was to take the food on the table plus some bags of perishables from the fridge and head for the lake with clothes enough for 3 days. This I did and I got to the lake around 5pm.

Mom’s brother Doug and his family were supposed to be joining us for supper, and they made it eventually. Dad grilled burgers & dogs and Aunt Charlene brought “wheels” (which was one of Grandma Anderson’s big family recipes – basically wheel-shaped macaroni with a milk & butter sauce). The wheels were good, as was the rest of the food. My cousin Gregg and his wife arrived even later, but we were glad they could make it. Amy hadn’t met his wife yet and Rachel hadn’t met either.

We spent the evening chatting & laughing and eventually we all gathered around the fire for more chatting, laughing, and singing. It was a very pleasant evening.

The main reasons the girls are in the area was that their friend was getting married and having a bit reception/party for friends. So Saturday was the day Amy & Rachel headed to Cincinnati for the wedding reception. They were picked up by another pair of friends who were coming down from Toledo. (They originated, like A&R, from the Twin Cities, but also like A&R, were visiting family while in Ohio.)

Once they were on their way, the folks and I headed off to the Piqua Heritage Festival. The past few years I’ve missed out on the festival because I’ve either been up in Detroit with judiang and elsaf or hanging out with A&R at home. So it was nice to get back to the festival. Although the crafts and recreations are neat, I mostly go for the food. I had a peach smoothie, crawfish etouffe, Moose Tracks ice cream, and a lemon shake up. I also bought a loaf of sour dough bread and some kettle corn popcorn for munching on at the Lake.

After a short hop at home to pick up a few essentials, we returned to the Lake where we’ve been relaxing ever since. The girls will be returning around 3pm and we’ve agreed we’ll let them grill supper. I wonder if they’re amenable to that… 😉 Belay that – they have just arrived! Woohoot!

This has been a very pleasant End of the Summer. Let’s hope The Start of Autumn is just as pleasant!

Bridge Contest 2007

As of Wednesday, school is back in session. I had a lovely time with my family and friend’s this holiday season. Indeed, the folks, Amy, Rachel and I spent Tuesday out shopping. We started with lunch at Sakai, the new Japanese place in Troy. Sushi for all (and some chicken cutlet for dad too). We tried many different types of sushi and rolls and enjoyed it. I love California roll, especially with crab salad, but I also love ebi sushi (steamed shrimp) and various tuna rolls and sushis. We discovered that the yellow tail roll that I got didn’t taste as good as the other items on the table, but I think that was the only real loser of the bunch.

Shopping started at Kohl’s and moved onto to the bookstore in Troy. I spent some of my birthday money there (for Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett and American Gods by Neil Gaiman) and also bought everyone coffee or tea at the coffee shop which is in the bookstore. I had a caramel steamer and it was very yummy. We finished up there and then moved onto the Piqua mall. I returned the leather jacket which I’d received for Christmas but which didn’t fit. Despite checking every store in the mall that might carry one, we just couldn’t find a nice replacement for that jacket. Perhaps mom and I will find one another day out. Still, I was able to complete my birthday purchase by getting The Beatles Love.

When we returned home, we had Wine Time which wound up sating us all for supper too. Alas, I had to work the next day and miss out one some quality A&R time, but I gotta be making the money to buy food for my kitties! So Wednesday morning, I got up bright and early for work.

The full week before Christmas break, my seniors were building bridges using only toothpicks and glue. (They also had Monday & Tuesday of our last half week to finish up.) Yesterday, we tested them. The bridges had to span a 30cm opening and at least hold the bucket. And all of them did that. Then the students were to add up to 15kg (~33 lbs) of mass into the bucket. Normally bridges break before the full 15kg is added, but this year we did have one bridge that held the maximum! Indeed, the girls who built this bridge wound up with the highest efficiency (mass held divided by mass of bridge). It held 550+ times its own mass! Pretty impressive!

I had dad drop off my camera because I’d forgotten to bring it that morning, so I managed to get a few photos in. And since my camera can do video, I tried to video some of the bridges breaking. Alas, my timing was off and I usually ran out of video time mere seconds before the bridge actually broke. (My camera does videos in 15 second segments – and doesn’t record sound.) However, I managed to capture the last two bridges that we tested as they broke. And I have uploaded one of them to YouTube for your enjoyment!

This bridge managed to hold quite a bit before it broke. Off hand, I can’t remember how much, but I believe it was around 7 kg. I was quite pleased with all of the bridge performances. And it was interesting to see the different techniques students had to add their masses to the bucket. As one student said “I think I used more physics to place the masses than I did in building the bridge!”

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, after welcoming in the new year, eventually judiang and I got off to bed. I shut the kitties in with me to allow Judi to get some sleep, but that meant that Linus (I swear, someone must have let him drink something caffeinated!) ran around in my room keeping me & Lucy up rather than keeping Judi up. He settled down sometime after 2:30am and we all fell asleep.

Around 6:30am, I let the kitties out in case they wanted breakfast or to do their business. Linus bugged Judi a little, but then he returned to me and we all fell asleep again. I got up sometime after 9am and made my way next door on the rumor that there would be cinnamon rolls there. The rumor was right!

As folks slowly made their way into M&D’s kitchen, we put HDTV on to watch the making of Rose Parade special and then the parade itself. I peeled potatoes for mashed taters while I watched. I wasn’t worried about missing too much of the parade since my computer was supposedly recording it. But an investigation around noon showed that my computer had just recently rebooted. Crap! So I’ve no idea how much of the parade that I have. I’ll make a DVD for watching later.

Mom had invited her brothers and their families for New Year’s Day lunch (pork and kraut, an Anderson family tradition). But before folks were to arrive, I had to feed Judi and then drive her off to the airport. In fact, we had just finished lunch (first lunch for me) as Aunt Madeline and Uncle Bob arrived. We said our hullos and good byes and I took Judi off to Dayton International. Seeing as she’s currently on IRC, I think she got home OK. 🙂

I returned home and it was still just Madeline and Bob. They were starting on desert, so I started on second lunch. It was just as good as first lunch was. Pork, kraut, mashed taters, and biscuits. Yum!

We decided to teach Madeline how to play Apples to Apples while Bob went upstairs to watch football (or was it sleep through football?) It turns out Madeline has a gift for Apples to Apples. She quickly made her way to the lead. I eventually caught up with her, but she won out in the end. It was during the last couple of rounds that Uncle Doug showed up. Then his wife, Aunt Charlene, and daughter Patty arrived as well. They had 2 of Charlene’s grand-nieces with her. They were fascinated by Apples to Apples and we promised to play it with them after awhile.

Despite mom having a nice new dining room table that could seat 10+ folks, people congregated in the kitchen. It was rather funny. But eventually we congregated in the dining room to play Apples to Apples again. Mom and Madeline decided not to join in, but Patty, Halie (the younger niece), and Uncles Bob & Doug agreed to join in. Some of the funniest table-talk took place in this game. But Halie (with a little help from her sister Sarah and from Rachel) quietly took the lead and eventually got the win. Meanwhile, I only got 1 card in this game. Alas!

The family headed out a little after 6pm and then Amy began making my birthday cake. She had the inspired idea of making cupcakes because they would cool faster and then people could decide whether or not to put icing on and how they wanted to decorate.

After the evening news, we put mom’s new copy of Ice Age 2 on and watched that. With a break first for folks to get supper. And then a break near the end for Rachel & Amy to bring in my birthday cupcakes. They had iced 5 of ’em and put “T” “R” “I” “N” and “A” on them. Then put sparkling candles on ’em for decoration. Despite the best efforts of the three of us, the candles refused to go out until we were nearly passed out from trying. It was quite a hoot. I had the “I” (cuz “I” was having a birthday today) while Rachel took the “R” and Amy took the “A.” Dad had a blank one and mom decided to wait.

After the movie was done, we had ice cream and (for some of us) cupcakes again. We watched Two and a Half Men (which mom and dad watch regularly). And when it was over, I opened my presents.

elsaf got me Volume 3 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection – yay! Wile E Coyote & catapults! Plus lots of other great cartoons! Judi got me the CD version of Monty Python: The Final Rip Off, which I am currently listening to. Thank you ladies! M&D got me some cash which I might get to spend tomorrow during our shopping spree. And A&R got me The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus Megaset. Yay! Plenty of Python and silliness to last me for some time!

So, now I’m 36. Hmmm… So far doesn’t feel any different from 35. 🙂

Happy New Year!

Well, judiang and I are resting up from our successful New Year’s Eve party. OK, so it was just us, my folks, and Amy & Rachel. But it was great fun. OK, so I forgot some things like, say, ice and, say, pop for folks other than me. But I had the ham cooked and was working on the mini-piggies-in-a-blanket when folks arrived. No matter, the folks brought lots of booze with ’em and their own drinks master: Amy.

We had supper and started mom’s (new) DVD of Trading Places. Once we finished eating, we sat and watched the movie to its end. When I started up Serenity, we ladies played Apples to Apples (which A&R gave to mom for Christmas) while dad tried to listen to the movie (unsuccessfully, from what I understand). I was in the lead for awhile, getting 5 cards. But then Rachel sped past me to the win.

Euchre was our next game of choice, but the movie ended and we had 5 minutes to go til midnight. So ABC came on and we Rocked our way to the New Year.

MERRY NEW YEAR!
(Beef Jerky Time!)

We finished the game of Euchre with Judi and I beating mom & Amy. (They say they let us win cuz it was now my birthday. Heh.) Folks then drifted off home and Judi and I cleaned up the place. The dishwasher is now going, Judi’s over in the chair on her laptop and I’m here on the sofa on mine.

2006 is dead and gone. Long live 2007! May it be a good year for everyone on my flist!