Posts Tagged random

How many topics can I cram into one post?

July 30, 2009 at 9:30 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

Starting next Monday morning, I’m going to herding a passel of 5-yr-olds through four days of VBS/Music Camp. Yes, it’s entirely possible that this could be disastrous… Bobby laughs manically every time I mention it, which is doing nothing for my self-confidence. I’m looking forward to it though — it’s the first thing I’ve been asked to do for our new-to-us church, and I’m determined to give it a hearty try.

In other news, something’s gnawing on my tomatoes. It’s gotten to the point of me picking them green and letting them ripen on the kitchen window sill. I’ve been advised that I may have a stinkbug problem — can’t say that I’ve ever been told that before. Anybody know how to repel stinkbugs?

Now, about vampires. I’ve belatedly jumped on the vampire train. I wasn’t so much into the Twilight books — Bella’s character just got on my last nerve. But then I greatly enjoyed the movie (developed an adolescent crush on the little pretty boy that plays Edward Cullen), so decided to put “True Blood” at the top of our Netflix queue. It’s fabulous, ya’ll — funny, spooky, gory, and completely addictive. And the writers have nailed the South dead-on… bigotry, religion, drama, social tension, & sex all rolled up into one big fascinating ball. Sue and I have a date to finish Season 1 tonight — we have to close our blinds so our neighbors won’t judge us for watching smut :)

Next paragraph, home improvement. I love a freshly painted room… the more color, the better. From left to right: our master bedroom is smokey slate, hallways are chocolate, kitchen is gourd, dining room is antique blue, and living room is barley. (The blues look very similar here, but the slate is actually a good bit greener than the antique blue).

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But then there’s the master bathroom. I hate it. I hate the colors I chose (they’re not pictured… that’s how much I hate them). I hate the painted woodwork (which was white, and then I decided to paint it. Stupid idea.)  I hate the curtains I made. Blah. This has never happened to me before. And it would be the room that took the longest to paint, of course. It took a while for me to admit that I chose badly (kept thinking it would grow on me), and when I did, Bobby said “Yeah, I’ve hated it ever since you did it.” Um, ok, super. Thanks for telling me.

It’s directly off the master bedroom, so I feel like I need to blend…  keep leaning toward more blue, green, gray-type colors, but it just feels boring to have everything be in that color family. Also been playing with Behr’s ColorSmart tool, where you can choose a color, and Behr gives coordinating suggestions… haven’t found anything that appeals. Dunno. But I’m feeling antsy. Every time I go in there, I hate it a little more. My bathroom is NOT my happy place.

And one last tidbit. Since the Great Robbery of 2009, we decided to have a security system installed. You have the choice of having your system go through a land-line or cell phone, and we chose the land-line*. Bobby and I haven’t had a house phone since the Charlotte days, back in 2006. Feels all retro and old-school and stuff.

*YES, we know that nefarious beings could cut our phone line and have their way with us, but the paranoia has to stop somewhere, and we drew the line there. Please don’t tell me scary stories about rapists and murderers and home invasions, k?

And so to embrace our return to traditional phone service, I bought this baby off Ebay:

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Yes, folks, that is a vintage orange rotary phone. I laugh every single time I walk by it… the color, the dial, the shrill ring, the cord that strands you in the doorway with it’s 1.5-ft length… it’s great. Ha.

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good things

July 7, 2009 at 12:02 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , , , ,

I just had an explosion of good things in the last hour or so… ceeeel-e-brate good times, c’mon!! duh-duh-ta-duh-duh!!

  1. Just got the phone call that our house refinance is going through, and we close on Friday… YIPPEE! This refinance has been pending for months, and I was starting to think that it just might not happen. This is going to lower our mortgage payment by ~$500, which makes our current financial state so, SO much better going forward. Freakin’ YAY.
  2. Spending time with Richard this morning — he’s screamingly cheesy, and half his back-up dancers are overweight (aka “normal-looking”), and everyone is so flippin’ happy. Does a Sarah good.
  3. Keeping Maggie tonight… just got text confirmation from Jennifer. I haven’t laid eyes on Maggie in over two weeks, and haven’t actually spent time with her in almost three… the longest dry spell since she was born. Maggie is a beam of sunshine for me… so incredibly glad that I get to keep her tonight.
  4. The comments you gals have left about my quilt… THANKS. The “you could sell it” comments are too sweet — I don’t know if you’d say that if you could see all the crooked stitches, but your words really made my heart glow. So thank ya’ll!
  5. Using vintage bedsheets in my next quilt… holy lord, what an obvious and fabulous idea that someone else had! I’m heading to thrift stores in a sec to see if I can find some treasures.
  6. A completely random thing that made me laugh this morning, and so I share it with you…  inventive mail delivery at its finest:
    jul7

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Birdie quilts, babies, & birthdays

July 6, 2009 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , , ,

UPDATE:
 In this post a few days ago, I mentioned that Tiffiney had gone into preterm labor at almost 25 wks. Sadie Mae was born on Saturday, July 4th, at 1lb 8oz, and 12.25in long.  I’ve been stalking facebook obsessively… based on status updates & comments, it appears that all is well with both mother and daughter, although obviously Sadie Mae will be spending a while in the NICU.  The suddenness of change, of things going awry or “different than planned,” is just so… shocking.  One day, everything’s fine. The next, everything’s upside down. I know I don’t have to explain that to ya’ll, of all people.  I miss the days of childhood, when I planned to execute my life like a checklist… grow up, get married, have a baby, and live happily ever after. Was so simple without the worry of what-if.

THE WEEKEND:
So since Saturday morning, when I woke up mid-meltdown, I’ve just been staying out of my head. On Saturday, we cooked & cleaned & did yard work for Saturday night’s birthday cookout.

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And Sunday, we skipped church* and had a quiet day. Bobby worked on a website redesign, and I worked on my birdie quilt. I don’t have complete confidence in how the fabrics compliment each other, but I just dove in and started cutting… figure that this is my first quilt, so I’m allowed to screw it up. My sewing skills are sub-par — couldn’t sew a straight line if my life depended on it, and sewing around curves? Um yeah, it’s laughable. But whatever. It’s addictive and rather therapeutic… nothing else matters except the repetition, and focusing on the grains of the fabrics, and measurements, and sewing straight-ish seams.

*More on this later.

PROJECT BIRDIE QUILT:
Just a few notes about the process, what’s gone well & what hasn’t with Project Birdie Quilt:quilt grid

  • In my opinion: Making a chart is a good thing. I drew a grid (kinda like the one to the right), and made notes in each square. This helped keep my squares in order, plan the position of the birdies, etc.
  • Cutting the squares: First, I cut 9 squares of fabric measuring 20″x20″. Learned the hard way that you have to measure from the selvage edge (the outside edge of the fabric), NOT from the cut edge. The little fabric-cutter ladies don’t always cut in straight lines, so using the crooked edge to measure is pretty much a bad idea.
  • Added an extra row: Once I laid all 9 of my fabric squares on the floor, I decided to add another row of squares for a total of 12. This will make a full-size quilt, instead of a throw-size quilt.
  • Fusible web novice: I’ve never used fusible web before, but it’s super-easy. Traced 12 circles using the template in the kit. Apparently the fusible web makes fabric stiff, which would make the quilt less snuggly, so I cut the middle of the circles out, leaving only ~.5in. of web *inside* the traced circle.
  • The great stitching decision: Ah, sewing the circles on. Sewing and me don’t jive. I thought I should do a zigzag stitch, which I’ve never attempted before. Practiced and practiced to no avail. Googled and discovered I needed a little gem called an “applique foot” for my sewing machine — it’s clear so you can see what you’re stitching. So I sat and debated, and finally decided to just scratch the zigzag idea this time around, and go with the plain ole’ straight stitch. After much indecision, finally just sewed the circles on.
  • & the birdies were born: Traced, cut, appliqued, and sewed birdies. I used a neutral khaki-colored thread throughout, but it looked horrible on the dark brown birds… highlighted how uneven and messy my sewing truly is. So I picked the stitching out of the brown birds and redid it with chocolate brown thread.
  • Putting it all together: I’m now in the process of putting the quilt-top together. The recommended sewing order is horizontal, then vertical. Sew block #1 to block #2, then block #2 to block #3. This completes the first row. Repeat for rows 2, 3, and 4.Once all horizontal rows are sewn together, go vertical. Sew row 1 to row 2, row 2 to row 3, and so on until quilt-top is completed.

I’m heading back out to the fabric store tomorrow to buy batting (the fuzzy stuff that goes inside a quilt), and backing (the fabric for the reverse side).

jul6 001

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reliving the glory years

June 28, 2009 at 11:44 am · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

Bobby, Sue & I, along with assorted friends, went to see a Guns N’ Roses tribute band last night. Cuz’ we’re cool like that. I still knew (mostly) all the words to “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Patience,” and “Used to Love Her.”  And Bobby has been causing house palpitations this morning with a blasting GNR tribute of his own.

Check out the faux Axl Rose and Slash (who was sporting the signature hat, but lost it during the throes of guitar-playing)… good times, ya’ll!

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Fabulous Friday…. harumph.

June 19, 2009 at 10:39 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

no-parkingThe sign pictured here was not present at today’s events. If it had been, today’s events would not have occurred. Just saying.

It began so well. I drove to Greenville to have lunch with friends. For 3.5 hrs, we were that table — you know, the one with shrieking bursts of unruly laughter, with lots of people all talking at once and yelling stories from one end of the table to the other. It was great fun for us… maybe not so much for the people around us.

Fun, that is, until I stepped back outside into the 98-degree Carolina heat and discovered that my car was gone. G.O.N.E. I just stood there and stared at my empty parking space, forlornly holding my take-out box. Called Bobby, and told him that I thought our car had been towed.* Calmly, because Bobby’s good like that, he told me to track down the car, and he would come pick me up.

*Edit: Why did I get towed? Excellent question… it was one that I asked myself several times during this episode. Answer — Because I didn’t pay before I parked. I thought I could pay after, as I was leaving the lot. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Of course, the signs didn’t make this crucial detail clear, but whatever. Grrrrrr.

So off I go with my take-out box, trekking around the perimeter of the very large parking lot. South Carolina in June is like the 10th circle of hell. Rivulets of sweat are running down my legs, my back, my stomach. Dis. Gusting. Even my elbows are sweating. Supposedly, southern girls “glisten” (you know, because sweating just isn’t ladylike). Yeah, I passed “glisten” and headed straight to “drenched” in 2 minutes flat.  Finally find the parking lot info up next to the street with the phone number to the towing company. Call it, and the guy is just plain mean, which seems like overkill to me. Dude, you took my f-ing car and left me wandering around a 148-degree parking lot. Spare me the attitude. Ass-munch.

Then Bobby calls and tells me that he still hasn’t left the office to pick me up because his car won’t start. Seriously?!?  He calls his mom, who happens to be working at the local hospital ER, and she offers to come rescue me. She picks me up off the curb, and off we go to the towing company. Deeper and deeper into the sketchy part of town, until the road is one lane and there are grungy, barefoot children and women wearing bathrobes sitting on the sofas in their front yards staring at us as we drive by. MIL mentions that this neighborhood is where most of her ER patients live…

Pull into the tow yard, where we’re greeted by a toothless old man who — SURPRISE!! — is a frequent flier at MIL’s ER. He grins a big, gummy grin and proudly says “I’m not drinking nearly as much anymore.” He smells like he might have been sneaking a nip right before we pulled up. We knock on the door of a tiny metal building with hot pink air-brushing on the side, and a young guy opens it, releasing a blinding cloud of cigarette smoke. Flapping his arms to clear the air, he invites us in. Because MIL knows toothless man, young guy gives us a discount on the towing bill — instead of $80, he only charges me $75.  Yeah, overwhelming generosity there, buddy.

Annnnd he doesn’t take debit cards. This is a cash-only establishment, which means that my measly $22 just ain’t gonna cut it. So my kind and patient MIL pays the $75 bill. Then she walks me to my car, asks me if I have enough gas to get home (one would think that I could take care of this sort of basic function, but based on the last hour, I guess she had good reason for being doubtful), and tells me to lock my doors and follow her back to the main road.

Good times, people. Good times.

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8×8… here we go!

June 5, 2009 at 4:59 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

I’ve been tagged… thanks, Rebekah!!  These things are great to clear your head for a few minutes…

8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:

  1. Bobby getting home this evening
  2. Getting my hair cut… it’s only been 8 months
  3. Upcoming lunch with former coworkers… miss them!
  4. Finishing the remodeling of our courtyard
  5. Bobby & I having some sort of long-term financial stability
  6. Making real friends (not just acquaintance friends) at our new church
  7. Having a healthy pregnancy
  8. Having a little one call me “Mommy”

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY:

  1. Took a pregnancy test — NEGATIVE, of course
  2. Did laundry. Lots of laundry.
  3. Drank coffee out of my new, giant SC palmetto & moon mug
  4. Made up a tuna casserole for dinner that actually didn’t taste that bad
  5. Babysat my Maggie-Love for a few hours
  6. Watched the same Wiggles show FOUR times, and Sesame Street twice (If Maggie wants the Wiggles, we’re gonna watch the Wiggles, damn it!)
  7. Wrote a ranting blog post
  8. Fell asleep with the tv on

8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO:

  1. Hop into a time machine and undo my mother’s death
  2. Hop into a time machine and undo our two pregnancy losses
  3. Not be afraid if/when I get pregnant again
  4. Take a really hot shower with magic soap and wash about 40lbs off
  5. Invent water that tastes just like Corona with lime
  6. Get paid for blogging
  7. Figure out what the hell’s wrong with my bell pepper plants
  8. An honest documentary on the church I was raised in

8 SHOWS I WATCH:

  1. Survivor
  2. American Idol
  3. Criminal Minds
  4. Lie to Me
  5. America’s Next Top Model
  6. Without a Trace
  7. Law & Order: SVU
  8. Cold Case Files

**Wow, it’s kinda embarrassing how quickly I just came up with 8 brain-rotters….

8 FAVORITE FOODS:

  1. Greek salad with lots of feta & kalamata olives
  2. Tuna steak (rare)
  3. Chili’s chips & salsa
  4. Beer — Corona, Blue Moon, Dos Equis and Stella Artois are my favorites
  5. Tomato sandwiches
  6. Spaghetti with lots of mushrooms
  7. Artichokes
  8. Blackberries

8 PLACES I’VE TRAVELED:

  1. Miami, FL
  2. Bluefield, VA
  3. Washington, DC
  4. Monterey, CA
  5. Phoenix, AZ
  6. Des Moines, IA
  7. Tulsa, OK
  8. Caribbean cruise, including Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Haiti, & Mexico

8 PLACES I’D LIKE TO TRAVEL:

  1. All 50 states
  2. United Kingdom
  3. France
  4. Italy
  5. Greece
  6. Ireland
  7. Hungary
  8. Scotland

8 PEOPLE I TAGGED:

  1. Bri at Miraculously My Own
  2. Melba at Dreams Really Do Come True!
  3. Mandi at The Mind of Mandi
  4. Jamie at Cookie Crums
  5. Dawn at Sprinkle on the Sugar
  6. Marlena at Life is Good
  7. Whitney at The Evolution of Me
  8. Sue at Windows & Things (in an attempt to prod her into writing something, anything)

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If my neighbor is Jesus, I’m screwed.

May 12, 2009 at 6:35 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

First of all, let’s all give Susanna a WOOHOO for her first semester GPA of 3.74! WOOHOO!! Keep in mind that this is the kid who couldn’t keep her shit together with rubber bands and crazy glue by the time she was medically discharged from Clemson… yes, one could say that she’s come back with a vengeance. Yay for Sue!

Now, about the subject line. Although I’m now an official goer of church and have rejoined the heavenly herd, I’m somewhat fuzzy about the specifics of various Bible verses, parables, and the like. There’s one particular one, I think, where Jesus says that whoever does nice things for his people, it’s just like you did nice things for him. Which logically would mean that the adverse is true — if you do something hateful to his people, you do something hateful to him.

Well if my neighbor is Jesus or one of his reps…. yeah, I’m so in trouble. I DETEST my neighbors. They’re “those” people — the ones that make the old adage “give an inch, take a mile” come to mind.  When they first moved in right before Thanksgiving, I took them a pumpkin pie. Figured that would be a nice “welcome to the neighborhood,” and that going forward, we would wave politely and occasionally chat over the white picket fence. Wrongo. Over the last six months, they’ve become a regular, unwelcome fixture on our front porch. They ask “You done with your newspaper?” If I say no, they come back the next day and say “You done now?”  They’ve borrowed our cell phones on a regular basis (which, maybe I’m a freak, but I clean my phone obsessively after it’s been pressed against an unfamiliar ear and breathed into by unfamiliar breath). They’ve borrowed eggs, cups of sugar, milk, and aspirin. And my all-time favorite, money. Now I have a really hard time saying no to random people who approach me and ask me for money… 9 times out of 10, I give them several dollars, and have even been guilty of apologetically asking “Is that enough?” But when it’s your neighbor asking for money, that pushes an uncomfortable situation into a whole new hemisphere of awkward. You basically CAN’T say no. And then I get really pissy because I feel backed into a corner and I’m not freakin’ working right now, and we don’t HAVE money to donate to them. F-ing A.

And there’s a kitchen stove and not one, but TWO grocery store shopping carts in their once-immaculate backyard, which is now choked over with weeds and sadly neglected flower beds.

So the owner of the house told Bobby today that he’s started the eviction process, and I’m hatefully, gleefully happy. I can’t WAIT for them to move. The house is going to be put on the market, but I’m plotting to go over and work in the backyard flower gardens before it sells. The little old lady who lived there before would without a doubt weep into her irises if she were alive to see the state of her beloved flowers. I feel guilty about getting such joy out of someone else’s misfortune — but not guilty enough to hope that they stay.

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Guess where we’re going?

May 5, 2009 at 8:14 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

VACATION!!!  Woohoo!!! We’re blowing this joint for one whole week. Yippee!!

I know, I know, we just went to Asheville for two nights…. but it just didn’t do it. I had freakin’ wretched dreams, Bobby had to work, and, well, it just didn’t *feel* like vacation. Ya know?

So in 2 weeks and 4 days, we’re heading to the beach. Bobby’s family used to have a little shack that was right. on. the. beach. So much on the beach, in fact, that it washed away a few months ago. We miss that little “shabby shack” — it really was the perfect beach vacation. And I think, when we were looking for a new vacation spot, we were sorta looking for a replacement… still on the beach, but not in danger of waking up in the middle of the Atlantic.  So we’re going to Harbor Island (I keep wanting to call it Harper’s Island… god, I hope not. Getting hacked up would most DEFINITELY not feel like vacation).

Check it out. Here’s the view from the porch:

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Walk down the boardwalk, across the dunes, and there it is….. THE BEACH!!  A huge, quiet, uncrowded beach. Aaaaaahhhh. Seven days. Absolutely, positively cannot wait. Just me, Bobby, the beach, and a few smutty romance novels. Fabulous.

beach

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Merry Christmas, the sh*tter’s full

April 24, 2009 at 4:34 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

$150 later, the Roto-Rooter man has solved the drainage problem…. wow, that was a level of disgustingness that I’ve rarely (if ever) witnessed. I still haven’t cleaned the tubs & shower — working my way up to it. Am thinking a couple of beers and a pair of rubber gloves might be necessary. He told me that Bobby and I need to use thinner toilet tissue… apparently, Char.min and our pipes don’t geehaw.*

According to their computer system, it was the 6th time the Rooter has come to this address. The pipes are as old as the house (approx 1920’s) and they clog at least once every 1-2 yrs. Replacing the pipes would be the obvious solution, but then we’d have to dig up our pretty azalea bushes along the front and that would just be sad.

* I do believe that “geehaw” may be a southernism. Urban Dictionary (which is highly entertaining, and if you’ve never checked it out, you should. Bobby can (and has) giggled for hours.) defines “geehaw” as “not getting along with someone or something at all.”

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sh*t shower

April 24, 2009 at 1:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged

Literally. Heard a bubbling sound from the bathroom and walked into a shitstorm. Sewage coming up through the shower and the tub drains. Called the sewer/water company and left messages for several different people in hopes that someone will come save me before I float away.

Wait. I can hear the gurgling sound again…. there’s more coming up. Acccck!!

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