November 25
[Taken November 24 2006 | Leaves | Centerville, OH]
Bad usability from Home Depot! This is an actual quote from their website: "Can't find it online? Not everything in our stores is available online. If you don't see what you want here, please visit any Home Depot store." Aarrrgrg! They might as well say "We probably have what you want, but we aren't going to tell you because that would make your shopping too easy!" Why won't Home Depot let me compare styles and prices from the comfort of my own home like every other company that has a web presence does?
Ihave come to the realization that as far as home projects go, I like planning them, and I really like the finished stage... but the part in the middle where all of the dishes and cups are stacked on the dining room table, you can't find the forks, and the fridge is almost completely inaccessibly because it is shoved right up against the stove in the middle of the kitchen... I don't really like that stage much at all.
John and I got two layers of primer on almost everything yesterday. Still to go - the cabinet doors and bottom cabinets have to be primered, and the rest of it needs between one and two layers of the actual paint.
At least the weather is still nice.
November 24
[Taken October 29 2006 | Red Leaves | Centerville, OH]
Happy Thanksgiving! And, for those who love to shop and like nothing more then the thrill of the crowd and the hot bargins you can find... happy Black Friday as well.
I think that one of the things that I love the best about Thanksgiving is the leftovers.
Even though John and I stayed home, and it was just the two of us for the dinner, I still did the full feast - stuffed 10 pound turkey (using Grandma's stuffing recipe) roasted with squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and parsnips, a loaf of cheese bread, cranberry sauce (both jellied and whole berry), sweet potato pie, pizzelles, and a bottle of zinfindel. 4+ hours to make the lot of it, and less then 15 minutes to stuff ourselves silly.
We have lots of leftovers. Which is going to be a very good thing because it might be a bit difficult to cook in the kitchen over the next couple of days. My current ambitious project is to repaint the kitchen - walls and cabinets - this weekend. Today I emptied out all of the cabinets and drawers into piles in the dining room, removed all of the bits for the light switches and outlets, took down the photos and pictures, cleaned off all surfaces with a degreaser, and started to tape off doorways and woodwork. Not bad... except when you consider that the original plan had me start to actually lay down primer. Which I would have... except that when John and I were getting supplies for the project, we forgot to include some little things... like drop cloths. And on Black Friday you could not pay me enough to venture anywhere near a retail establishment. (I value my sanity too highly for that.) So I am making a list of forgotten items and am going to hit Home Depot as soon as they open tomorrow.
It was a beautiful day today. Just gorgeous. Yesterday was nice and warm (upper 50s) and sunny... nice enough to do yard work while waiting for the turkey to roast. Today was even better. I swung through Starbucks and got a nutmeg and spice latte and then went to the arboretum and wandered around, and felt quite self-indulgent. I can't believe that so many people spent all day today shopping and inside malls, when it was this nice out...
I hope that it is this nice tomorrow, so that I can have all of the windows open while I paint, and so that I can take the Calumet to the arboretum with me in between layers.
November 8
[Taken November 4 2006 | Princess Faranah | Centerville, OH]
I am much more pleased with the results of the election then I thought I would be.
Ohio has gone solidly Democrat.
The Democrats have won the House, and picked up a lot of seats in the Senate
as well.
We are poised to have the first ever female Speaker of the House.
Rumsfield resigned. (ding, dong, the witch is dead!)
Oh happy day.
Perhaps the country is at last coming to its senses.
And now for something completely different... the honey martini (which has no honey in it whatsoever)
1 shot of vodka
1 shot of vanilla liquor
2.5 hots of apple juice (not from concentrate... pure juice)
Tastes just like honey mead and is very yummy.
November 7
[Taken October 2006 | Leaf | Cleveland, OH]
I hope that everyone had a productive voting day... myself, I did not visit the polls today, since, thanks to the magic of Ohio's "no excuse needed" absentee ballots, I mailed in my opinion a little while ago.
So.. the big news this weekend was that Saddam Hussein (and a few compatriots for good measure) has been found guilty and sentenced to death. This really shouldn't have been big news, most people should have foreseen this outcome as soon as the trial started.
(Never mind that Hussein's death sentence will probably never be carried out, because that is all that would be needed to propel him into insta-martyr status in certain select, ultra-violent and irrational, circles.)
Personally, I found the timing of the verdict and announcement to be rather convenient, especially given the hotly contested mid-term elections, and was completely unsurprised to see headlines that in the NY Times that read "Bush Trumpets Iraq Verdict to Rally Support". Yeah. Way to go. I think that I am beyond being politically jaded at this point.
I am interested in the election results, but not really hopeful that anything will actually change as a result.
As far as the elections in Ohio go, I will be honest and say that I don't really like any of the candidates. I think they are all jerks, and the deluge of mud-slinging and attack ads here hasn't endeared any of them to me at all. I ended up voting a straight-party Democrat ticket, since I view the Democrats on the ballot as being slightly less reprehensible then the incumbent Republicans, especially since the vast majority of those incumbent Republicans have had rather scandal-plagued terms of office.
Meh.
Enjoy your democracy...
November 5
[Taken 3 Nov 2006 | Virgin Burn | Centerville, OH]
Happy Guy Fawkes Day! A penny for the guy?
This evening, John and I lit the first fire of the season in our fireplace in honor of the day.
In addition to ending on a fiery note, the weekend also began on one. Friday evening, a handful of us who have been practicing poi for the past month got together at our teacher Erica's house to light up our poi for the first time... our virgin burn. Lighting up the poi was a lot different then swinging around fluffy practice heads, or even unlit fire heads... The fire was a lot bigger then I expected it to be, and it was also a lot louder. When I was doing my burn, I know that Erica had some music turned up pretty loud on the cd player, but all I actually remember hearing was the roar of the flames.
Since it was under 30 degrees outside, which is probably a little bit outside optimal temperatures for firespinning, none of us did more then one burn.
It was a lot of fun. I'll do it again. After I get in some more practice...and the weather warms up a little...
[Taken 3 Nov 2006 | Virgin Burn | Centerville, OH]