catching up on randomness

After a quick trip to MO to see a sister graduate from college and visit fam, returning to the daily grind, finish 2 weeks' worth of laundry in 3 days, and taking a Wii fit test, I now realize I am more than 'just a little behind.' My e mail and blogging communities have 'missed me' (although that e mail community didn't make me feel happy to be home!)...

On top of all of that, I have delved into a new creative endeavor... Altered Books. Kinda like scrapbooking without the cookie-cutter rules. (I think I may have found a new favored creative niche!)

I also invited a beloved friend over for BREAKFAST this morning! It was quite fun to host and it featured some of my favorite foods! And it was a totally random, earlier time, too!

Here are some random facts to add to my profile:

-I LOVE the bells in the themesong for Futurama, but I am quite annoyed by that show!

-I got more exercise and cardio and muscle-strengthening in my 15 minute Wii session this morning than when I had to bike all over town! I WANT to fit it in every day.... But we'll see how that goes!

-I really wanna do some Tae Bo right now, though.

-I had some leftover orange chicken, but I ran out of sauce. And I ran out of OJ to make the orange sauce.... So I used diet orange soda. Surprisingly, it was really good! And low sugar!!!

Curso Particular

Now I know that title didn't sound so great, or even 'clean,' but that is the job description of my latest position. Tutoring... Spanish. For the Watertown City School District. I'm ready. Excited. Nervous (why). After spending a little time visiting an online translator, I am feeling much more confident. Porque tenemeos jucicio fangoso primero?

Wish me luck! Tomorrow is my first session!

P.S. That statement is "Why do we have cloudy judgement in the beginning?"

Paint, Canadia, and Beef Stew

On a whim, we decided to head to Ottawa during our Spring Break (except for poor doc, he doesn't get Spring Break, he just got a few days off due to the law mandating medical residents to have at least 24 hours off every 10 straight days of work... So he earned it).

Ottawa. Our neighboring nation's capitol. It was a very European city. No direct route anywhere. (Thank God for Nicole's new best friend, Tom-Tom!) After circling the city 5 times due to no seeing the turnoff for our hotel's parking, and having no side streets, and touring the ancient roadways of Canada, we finally found our hotel. In the middle of the city! It was pretty cool! Our room had a view of a little bit of the canal, the streets, the people... It was lovely. And the hotel butted up against the mall. Pretty convenient for food and commodities access... But it was a little strange to take the elevator in the mall and press the button marked 'Westin Hotel.' We toured the Canadian Mint and the Contemporary Arts Gallery. In the art gallery, we were greeted by a 40 foot sculpture of a just born infant. Interesting. (But most contemporary art is) They also had an exhibit for children to attempt their own art. Nicole made a beautiful 'bug' perched on a coffee filter (I couldn't think what else to call it!). We also dined in a restaurant called 'Elephant & Castle.' Not sure of the name, but I loved the food! It was a cozy little pub. Dave and I both ordered the Stuffed Yorkshire Pudding. (I crave it now, perhaps that's what I will make for dinner this weekend!) But as we were seated, we noticed we were next to a table of college girls. By eavesdropping, we concluded they were all 'travellers' of sorts and were trying to 'one up' each other with their stories and experiences. Kinda funny! We giggled a bit at their comparisons of belongings and adventures! But the thing that threw us over the line of giggling and straight into rolling our eyes was the invitation to the other girls to come and visit her house. "No, better yet, come to my cottage, you'll love it." This girl owns a house and a cottage? Listening a little more, we discovered the house, the cottage, both belong to the 'rents and all of their travels were family vacations! Yes, cool to visit so many places with family, but not cool to brag about your solo travels and personal properties. We enjoyed out meal much more after the afore mentioned party paid for their meal...

But the beginning of the week, I was determined to paint the office. I have had the paint IN the office since August... Same time I painted our bedroom. I had even taped half of the office in September. I also invited some of our previous house guests to take a whack and the paint job themselves.... However, after the doc became disgusted to realize I have still waited this long and the week was coming to a close, I decided to tape the whole thing off and get started. It took 3 or 4 hours, but it wasn't really THAT hard! The office is now a gorgeous shade of barn red. That's how I describe it! I think the actual name of that particular shade is 'Sun Dried Tomato' or something like that. It's lovely, but I will have to post pictures later.

So now that things are back to normal, I am the car-pooling, lunch-making, hard-working mom again that I was before break. But something seems to have died in my car while we were gone! It smells. (That is as graphic as I will get!) Nicole tells me it smells like Beef Stew (a reference to the movie 'Benchwarmers' with John Heder) The Beef-Stew-mobile. The one that had a crack in the tranny's filter (I had that fixed Monday and now it's running...... better!), the black jelly bean has changed its name.

Dunh Dunh Dunh... And another one bites the dust.....

I always wanted to play that song for my basketball warm-ups...

Why do I keep buying DYING cars???Time for us to face the facts. My little black jelly bean is dying. Which means, I have driven yet another car into the ground (or in the last leg of its life). That makes 4 for me that have given up on me before I was done with them. Four cars that were actually dying before I got ahold on them... The van, LeBaron, Cressida, now the SL-2. I don't pray for rain nor food on the table (well, yes I do, but not as desperately as) I pray for transportation. We need a miracle. Don't stop praying!

Random Acts of Kindness

At the New Year, I decided I wanted to be a friendlier person. One who loves her friends and goes out of her way to do things for them. I've been praying for such opportunities in my life and this past month I have completed a bunch of them! A friend of mine is having some car trouble. Well, her car got into trouble and she can't get it fixed right now. She has been walking everywhere! Not just to the store, but to her jobs and back, the stores and back... And she lives close to me. This is a big help for me, too. So I don;t have to worry about not remembering to go get her, I see her on the same path as me! It feels good to help out a friend.

A Frustrating Frustration

*Names have been changed for posterity's sake*

Frustration is not only frustrating for the frustrated, but also for the free-standing friend, Long division, although it can provide a fair amount of frustration, is not a conspiracy formulated for the sole purpose of instigating frustration. I bet *Caty* would disagree...

Yet, I seem to have a hard time comprehending the frustrations of long-division, since I am no longer in the 3rd grade. I, too, remember questioning the random remainders, the supposedly logical methods for dividing by some random numbers, but that was 10+ years ago (okay, 20!!).

As the free-standing, faithful friend, I find that factors of division in themselves are invaluable to daily life. Only if I stop to focus on it, that is. They are engrained, invisible, understood, even part of the daily mechanics in basal functioning. But for some, especially those in the 3rd grade, I sympathize. I have a hard time seeing the simplicity of a misunderstanding in the mathematical world. Don't call me callous, nor ignorant, simply simple-minded in approaching the frustrating factors of mathematics.

In essence, if you are frustrated at my attempt to help, I will most likely become frustrated as well. The world does not have to come crashing down for me, just because it does so for you. We simply need to take one math step at a time. Together.

Snow Bunnies

Nicole was snow shoeing.

Dave was snow shoeing...

And I was, too.

Today we headed up to Thompson Park to do a little snow shoeing. Dave nd I got new 'shoes' a few weeks ago, but never had the chance to break 'em in properly. It was a little cold (and Nicole never ceased to remind us!) and we really did't go that far, but we sure got a work out.... And a lot of that workout was fixing Nicole's shoes, setting her upright again, and attempting to sprint through the slush and ice!