Tag: amy

31 Days – 31 Books (day 10)

Day10 – Book from your favourite author

You’ve probably guessed that Roald Dahl is my favorite author (I think I mentioned it outright earlier). So I’ll mention James and the Giant Peach as a book from my favorite author. It’s not my favorite (that one is also already mentioned), but it’s a wonderful story (like so many others of his). When my sister was having some… troubling times due to… a couple of women who sort of resembled Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, I tried to help cheer her up by reading from James and the Giant Peach. It was a wonderfully cathartic thing for both of us. 🙂

The illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert from the book are probably my favorite of all of Dahl’s books. Simply beautiful. I enjoy Quentin Blake and associate his art with Dahl, but the original artwork for James, Charlie 1 & 2, and Fantastic Mr. Fox are the Right and Proper illustrations for those books. Accept no substitute, even if it is Blake!

The rest of the 31 days:

Day1 – Book you are reading right now
Day2 – The book you want to read next
Day3 – Your favourite Book
Day4 – Book you hate
Day5 – A Book you can read again and again
Day6 – A book you can only read once (no matter you love or hate it)
Day7 – Book that reminds you of someone
Day8 – Book that reminds you on a certain place
Day9 – The first book you ever read
Day11 – Book you once loved and now hate
Day12 – Book that a friend recommended
Day13 – Book that makes you laugh
Day14 – Book from your childhood
Day15 – 4. book from the left on your shelf
Day16 – 9. book from the right on your shelf
Day17 – Close your eyes and get any book from your shelf
Day18 – Book with the most beautiful cover
Day19 – Book, that you ever wanted to read
Day20 – Book that you read at school
Day21 – most stupid book you read at school
Day22 – Book on your shelf with the most pages
Day23 – Book on your shelf with the least pages
Day24 – Book where nobody would expect you read/loved it
Day25 – A book where the main character is almost like you
Day26 – Book you would read to your children
Day27 – A book where the main character is your idol
Day28 – Thanks God this book was made into a movie
Day29 – Darn, why did they make this book into a movie?
Day30 – First erotic book you ever read
Day31 – Book series you are collecting

31 Days – 31 Books (day 8)

First, a Happy Birthday to my sister, who turns 37 today! She now has a year in which she can quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: “I’m 37, I’m not old!” Yay!

Now, onto the meme:

Day8 – Book that reminds you on a certain place

The first one that I think of is Dancing the Code, a Past Doctor Adventure by Virgin publishing. Just thinking of the book makes me think of B-WISER camp. And just thinking of B-WISER camp makes me remember that book. Heh.

Many other books make me think of my library – I often sit in my comfy chair reading books (with cat or cats on lap). Much of the Harry Potter series was read in this manner (though book 6 was also read at judiang‘s place). Christopher Moore’s Lamb makes me think of Chicago as well since I bought it (and several others) there when Narns Ignoble was doing a Buy 3 get 4 or some such deal. Loved the cover and the premise, so bought it knowing nothing else about it. Loved the book. Oh, and in a stark contrast, reading about the cold Swedish weather in the Millennium trilogy makes me remember the cruise that mom, Judi, elsaf and I went on since I started the trilogy while on that cruise. Yeah, places implant themselves in my books, and my books in places.

The rest of the 31 days:

Day1 – Book you are reading right now
Day2 – The book you want to read next
Day3 – Your favourite Book
Day4 – Book you hate
Day5 – A Book you can read again and again
Day6 – A book you can only read once (no matter you love or hate it)
Day7 – Book that reminds you of someone
Day9 – The first book you ever read
Day10 – Book from your favourite author
Day11 – Book you once loved and now hate
Day12 – Book that a friend recommended
Day13 – Book that makes you laugh
Day14 – Book from your childhood
Day15 – 4. book from the left on your shelf
Day16 – 9. book from the right on your shelf
Day17 – Close your eyes and get any book from your shelf
Day18 – Book with the most beautiful cover
Day19 – Book, that you ever wanted to read
Day20 – Book that you read at school
Day21 – most stupid book you read at school
Day22 – Book on your shelf with the most pages
Day23 – Book on your shelf with the least pages
Day24 – Book where nobody would expect you read/loved it
Day25 – A book where the main character is almost like you
Day26 – Book you would read to your children
Day27 – A book where the main character is your idol
Day28 – Thanks God this book was made into a movie
Day29 – Darn, why did they make this book into a movie?
Day30 – First erotic book you ever read
Day31 – Book series you are collecting

Almost missed sending this out today since we went out tonight to watch a double header (7 innings each) at the Dayton Dragons – only to experience the first game going to 16 innings before the Dragons lost. We opted to head home rather than watch game 2. Heh.

Zoot Suit Riot

Sorry I haven’t continued the wedding posts. But I’ll leave a teaser image for when I do get back to it. (I want to have a nice entry (or set of entries) on the wonderful weekend, dagnabbit!)

Amy & I bust a move!
Amy & I bust a move!
This is a photo of my sister and I dancing at Deanna & Tony’s wedding. Amy’s the purty one with the nifty shoes, I’m the one wearing plaid. 🙂

(BTW, hope y’all had a nice Pi Day! To celebrate, I had coconut cream pie – yum!)

As Summer Fades Away

The end of my summer vacation was quite boisterous.

It all started when my friend Erik (my best friend in elementary) called to say he had time to come and visit. This was Monday, the 15th. This was significant since Erik has been living in the Czech Republic for many years now. He and his daughter, plus his sister (who currently lives in Paris) and her son stopped in for a few hours. The kids loved the toys in my house (actually, so did Erik and his sis, heh). Alas, the time I got to spend with them was brief, but it was lovely to see them again and to meet their kids. They’ve both since returned to their respective countries and spouses.

Then last Thursday (wow, a week ago now?) was our first day of work – a day to work in our rooms. I’d actually been going in and working an hour or two (or more) each day for the previous two weeks, so this was more like an extended day like that. Friday were meetings in the morning followed by more work time. But then I was ready to head off to meet up with my folks and then we went to the airport to pick up my sister!

Yup, my little sis managed to get away briefly for a visit last weekend. We had a lovely time. Friday night was dinner at Club 55. Saturday morning we went to the farmer’s markets, then most of the rest of the day was spent preparing for our party that night.

Saturday evening, the folks along with friends of ours, hosted a party at their club house. Dad invited “the usual lot” who often went to O’Brian’s to see Rick Fannin perform. Since O’Brian’s went out of business, however, we’d not been seeing him much. So Dad and Moe hired Rick to come and play at the Club House. In addition to “the usual lot” the folks invited folks from their gated community. Amy was the bartender and we had plenty of beer, wine, and margarita mix. Rick was, as usual, wonderful and the villagers really enjoyed him – as much as “the usual lot.” 🙂

Sunday was a bit more relaxed and we wound up watching the third Millennium movie (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) by the evening. (At least, I think that was Sunday.) I had to work again Monday, but returned to the folks’ for another evening with Amy (and the folks). We played cards that night with one of mom’s best friends. It was great getting to play pinocle.

Tuesday was the first day of school, which was a good one. Big classes this year, which is pretty wonderful. (Physics is full – that’s pretty nifty!) Since it was the first day of school, Tradition says we must go out to Frisch’s for supper. Amy was excited to be joining us for this tradition. 🙂 I stayed up late both Monday and Tuesday to get my quota of Amy. Heh.

Wednesday I drove to school so that I could bug out as soon as teachers were allowed and head to Troy. Then we piled into the car and took Amy back to the airport. *sniff* We embarrassed her mightily as she went through security and she waved to us before zipping off to her gate. She got home safe und sound and is hopefully having a lovely time with her girlfriend and their cat, Curtis. 🙂

So now I’m relaxing in my library with soft music playing and Lucy sleeping on top of the comfy chair. Dunno where Linus is now, but we spent some quality scritching time after work while I vegged at my PC. Overall, a wonderful end to the summer and a great start to the school year. Yay!

New Laptop! (AKA, Trina has no will power)

Before I turn all geeky, however, I want to thank folks again for helping out with Relay for Life. I haven’t heard yet from our team leader on how much we raised overall, but I do know that our Miss Relay contestant (who, sadly, came in second) single-handedly raised $420 in one hour. He was dressed as Marilyn MANroe. (Last year he was Daisy Dude and took first place.) The first place Miss Relay wasn’t nearly as cute, but he was part of Team Honda. Car builders have deeper pockets than lab workers, I suspect. 🙂

So, what’s all this about a new laptop, you ask? Well, if you’ve been following via Twitter, you know the bulk of it. Basically, it goes like this.

A month or two ago I was looking hard at laptops to replace my poor ol’ Averatec laptop. I had a series of specs, including dual core and under $500. But nothing came close. So I decided it wasn’t the time.

Then for her birthday, Amy asks me to research a travel laptop for her and contribute (if I could/was willing) toward the purchase of said laptop. No problemo, I thought. So I did some searching and when I was doing Free Comic Book Day this Saturday, I stopped into Best Buy. And damn, there it was! The laptop I’d been looking for! 12″ screen or less? check! Dual core processor? check! Under $500? check!

But I didn’t buy it there. Instead, I got the specs and headed home to do some research. And discovered that Best Buy actually had a great price for it. I called Amy to let her know that this laptop would meet her specs and then some. She decided to check it out and wound up ordering it the next day from the website. Supposedly the price was going to go back up (and might have in store), but the online price was still $379.99. I kept sitting on it, but finally Monday I caved.

When I ordered it, it wasn’t going to come in until Friday at the earliest. But when I checked the tracking number today, it was OUT FOR DELIVERY! Woot! I basically ran to the door when the UPS guy showed up. (He faked me out & sped by the door originally. But must have u-turned and drove up to my door. Woo!)

So I charged it and have been installing software. Waiting until I hear from Amy before uninstalling shit. We can have an Uninstall Party over the phone. Heh. (Is there something wrong with me in that I downloaded Firefox before I downloaded the firewall/AV?)

Speaking of AV, I ran Comodo after installing and updating it. And it found two infected files! Brand new computer and it comes with viruses. They were both from a Wild Tangent game, which is one of the many reasons I NEVER install Wild Tangent willingly. (That program used to be a real PITA when I was the computer tech at school.)

Anyhoo, this laptop will become my WebDev machine. I’ll share my D drive on the main PC and install my Adobe WebDev Suite on here (after deactivating it on my main PC). Hopefully now it won’t dribble to a crawl when I’m running Skype, Dreamweaver, and Firefox at the same time like my poor Averatec did.

This has been a good March!

Happy First Day of Spring! May your daylight equal your night time today!

I tried to tell the seniors that after the holidays, time was gonna FLY. They didn’t believe me then, but I think they are beginning to. March is just zipping by. Though the days may seem normal (or even slow) you quickly realize how fast the months themselves are flying.

So here we are just past mid-March and things have been especially good to the Short household.

Last Thursday, as I reported here, I turned in my Thesis. (Thanks to all you well-wishers! Being done has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders!) My adviser has reviewed it and pronounced it “overall in good shape.” After this weekend, I’ll make the changes which he suggested and get a better discussion section (most of what I’d put in Discussion should have gone in the Findings, apparently).

On Monday, mom and dad closed on their old home. Yay, they sold it! And on Wednesday, they closed on their new house. And then on Thursday, Amy drove into town!

I’m currently at the parentals’ house with Amy. I took yesterday off work in order to hang with the family. (She’s worth getting a sub for.) We’ve been having mucho fun. 🙂

Thursday, I got off work, did a bit more cleaning in my house (litter box, for example), then headed to Troy. Amy’s car (well, really Rachel’s car) was parked outside the house. Yay! Amy & Jason were there (she picked up Jason in Chicago and they drove down together). We took a walk around the neighborhood, then had supper. And then spent the evening playing games – Rummikub and Banagrams. Amy and Jason kicked butt.

Friday morning, Jason headed up to Shelby County to visit with his folks (in my car) and we headed to my house so Amy could look over the stuff she’ll be taking back with her. She sorted through her stuffed toys and we got 2 bags of stuffed toys to give to Good Will (and added a box of similar toys from my closet). Then we headed to Kent’s Wood Fired Steaks for lunch.

I’d told the folks last weekend that we needed to celebrate our recent successes and I wanted to take us all out for dinner. And we decided to wait til Amy was with us. So yesterday’s lunch was my treat. We all ordered steaks and an alcoholic beverage and the meal, as always, was lovely. Amy asked if she could contribute the tip, which I agreed to.

We popped into Kohl’s for a bit of shopping – Amy got gym shoes, I got travel PJs, and mom bought some outfits for our upcoming cruise (oh yea, we organized one of those this week too…) Then we dropped the stuffed critters at Good Will and headed home.

Amy filmed some old family photos with mom describing the people in the photos. And we discovered mom’s great at remembering uncles’ names, but aunts who married into the family, not so much. (I was just glad mom & dad had few siblings and thus Amy and I don’t have as many relatives to remember as they did.) We also went on another walk and this time got a couple of movies to watch from a Red Box in the Kroger’s behind their house.

Back at home, we watched Inglourious Basterds, which was a bizarre but entertaining (albeit icky at times) movie. Then we started Duplicity, but as people started to pass out due to exhaustion (or, rather, fall asleep), we decided to stop the movie and continue in the morning (or as it will turn out, afternoon, probably).

Today we’re off to Piqua for a little more shopping, then tonight we’ve invited mom’s brothers around for supper. Looks like neither may make it, but my cousin Patty ought to be able to. Tomorrow will be another game day with Aunt Becky and Deanna coming to play games, with Jason returning as well.

We know how to have fun in this family!

Short Update

My thesis proposal was approved by my advisor and he only had a few corrections for me to make. Woohoo!

My sister arrived today!

My folks are moving this Saturday to their new house (hence Amy arriving today).

I’m taking tomorrow afternoon and all day Friday off to help with the move.

I’m working on a Soooper Seeekrit Project for mom & dad in honor of their move (though I’m a bit behind). I’ll describe it more later (after I’ve given it to ’em – mom reads this journal, you know…)

We had supper at Indian’s Pizza (the local pizza joint which is owned by my coworker) with mom’s brothers & their spouses and my cousin Patty. Fun night out for all!

Should be a fun (albeit busy) weekend!

Visit from Amy

Amy arrived Thursday evening for a weekend with us. Rachel was off at a retreat with her organization (Lutheran Volunteer Services) so she wasn’t able to come too. Thursday evening was also our second night of Parent/Teacher Conferences, so I didn’t get home until after 6:30pm. Amy called shortly after to say she was next door and supper was ready. Yay! Time to spend with Amy!

Unfortunately, we had school on Friday (despite the holiday), so I worked. Mom worked too, though I understand she was kidnapped during her lunch time and forced to eat good Japanese food and shop at Kohl’s by her husband and youngest daughter. Lucky lady! Still, I got home, went off to my final dental appointment regarding my wisdom teeth (I’m free!), and returned to spend more time with the ‘rents & sissy.

We went out to meet up with my coworkers at El Sombrero. Mom & Amy had margaritas & I had amaretto sours. And we all ordered yummy Mexican food and chatted with my current co-workers, many of whom were also Amy’s former teachers (and mine). After supper, dad (designated driver) drove us back so we could play cards at Granny’s.

Deanna (cousin) was home in order to see Amy and so she & Becky (aunt) & Granny, mom, Amy & I all played Shanghai Rum until after 11pm. And I won! (Surprised, judiang?) Amy did well despite not being as addicted to cards as the rest of us (well, not Shanghai Rum at any rate). She was, after all, playing for Rachel too. 🙂

Today we crammed as much quality Amy-time as we could in the day. Dad made us all Egg McMikey Sammiches (family thing, I might explain someday) and we girls headed off to Curves to be good girls. It was the first time I’d been since August. Whoops! Bad Trina! Still, we had fun – it’s always fun with friends.

We returned to home to pick up dad and have him drive us to Tipp City for their Christmas Walk day. Which turned out to be too many people in too cramped a place to look in shops that had many breakables. So after checking out the nice Hotel Gallery Shops, we returned to the car and headed down south to Far Hills Shopping Center.

Lunch was at WG Grinders, a Columbus-based chain that Amy remembered from her Columbus days. It was tasty and dad paid – yay! We then went into Far Hills Shopping Center and shopped. Books & Co. was the first stop and I got a book on Linux (silly girl – buying books doesn’t let me learn it. READING books does.) We looked around at the other shops too, but the main intent was to shop at Trader Joe’s.

We like Trader Joe’s. And Amy doesn’t have one near her city, so we took that as an excuse to return. We shopped for awhile and I spent $68.68 on all sorts of food things. We all got stuff. And then we returned home.

Amy, dad, and I visited Granny again for a little while, and then returned home for supper. Leftovers from El Sombrero, wine, cheese, and California rolls from Trader Joe’s were supper. I opened my Granello and everyone agreed it was sweet. And everyone else switched to the Gamba, a Zinfindel that dad & mom really like (and is bloody expensive – for a family that buys 2 Buck Chuck.) We ate and talked and drank and talked and ate and it was a fun time had by all. I love having Amy around. And it’ll be even better at the holidays when we get Amy *and* Rachel!

So tomorrow Amy flies back at 7am, so we’re all getting up bloody early to take her to the airport. (I missed her arrival, but damned if I’ll miss her departure!) I think our plan after that is to come home, nap, and later go to a concert at the New Madison UU Church. Sounds like a plan! 🙂