Holiday Weekend

It was a relaxing and pleasant holiday weekend. Friday night we had kicked around the idea of going to the Drive-In, but ended up doing our grocery shopping instead. Saturday was spent doing additional shopping and visiting Adam’s grandma up in Green Bay. I also baked some Loaded Oatmeal Cookies per Adam’s not so subtle suggestion. Adam and his dad finished putting the trim on the second window and put up all kinds of hooks and organizer racks in the garage.



Sunday was a day of cleaning and cooking. Adam vacuumed and mopped while I cleaned and rearranged the rodent room.



Adam washed both our cars and changed my oil too. Such a handy man... I made a spiced pork roast and Adam got to try out the new rotisserie on the grill with a turkey breast. It turned out great and we got to have a mini Thanksgiving in May. Monday morning we took the cat boxes outside and hosed them down and gave their room a good vacuuming. We also picked up some shelving for the rodent room which Adam kindly installed for me.



I made a batch of frozen custard as well as an Apple Slump for after dinner. It turned out super yummy, although I did manage to take a chunk of my finger off with the peeler. Gah. We also snuck in a few hours of the "NCIS" marathon on USA.

Somewhere in there I managed to watch two movies: I’m Not There and The Amateurs. The first was an Oscar movie. Being not so much a fan of Bob Dylan (I mean the man can’t sing, why is he so popular?) this movie was a little painful since the entire soundtrack is Bob Dylan songs. Argh. Also there’s a vague semblance of a plot. I was bored for most of the movie. But I managed to watch the whole thing. So there. The Amateurs was one I picked up when I went to exchange the previous movie. I figured it would be good since the cast was chock full of great people. It’s a funny, independent-looking film about a group of friends who set out to make a porno with no experience in the movie-making or adult-film industry. It reminded me of The Girl Next Door, except with middle-aged men rather than sex-deprived teenagers. And with the trend lately of overly long movies, it was a relief to see one that clocked in at just 96 minutes.

Looking ahead, this short week is going to be a challenge for me. Inventory is Friday and month-end starts again. Adam will be helping his cousin, Dave, move on the 2nd and 3rd and might be staying up in Green Bay for a couple nights. Not that I’ll really notice since I’ll be staying late on the 2nd and going in early on the 3rd. Not a better time to choose to be apart, I’d say. That’s about it for now though. Hoping for good weather so we can leave the windows open more.

Chicago Trip

Well here we are, a week later, and I haven’t gotten around to blogging about our trip last week. Bad Martha.

We left last Wednesday around 6:30am after checking all the critters and making sure the house was ready to be left alone for a couple days. The weather was iffy when we started out. It rained sporadically and was cloudy. Traffic through Milwaukee wasn’t too bad. It was when we neared the state line and Chicago that it got messy. It took us 4 hours to get to the Field Museum. There was a ton of "start and stop" traffic and some "come to a dead stop" traffic as well. We finally got through it and downtown and parked. We walked the short distance from Soldier Field to the Field Museum.

I had a hard time avoiding all the puddles left by the rain and the bottom of my pants got soaked. Anyway, after getting our tickets (the cashier mistook us as students so we saved $6!) we started with the America exhibit. We didn’t hit school field trip congestion too much in that area. A group of elementary school kids were in the pottery room before us but they cleared out pretty quickly. We then headed to Egypt and were accosted by a swarm of rude and boisterous high schoolers. We let them get ahead of us for our own peace of mind. After Egypt we visited the Africa exhibit. After Africa we checked out the animal/wildlife exhibit. (We chose the “cat lover” door.) Somewhere along the line we broke for lunch at the museum’s Corner Bakery. I was unimpressed by both the prices and the quality of the food. Oh well. It was either that or McDonalds. We skipped the upstairs dinosaur exhibits and took a peek at the gift shop before heading to the aquarium.

The sun was out as we walked around to the Shedd. We got our tickets and wristbands and headed towards the fish. We kind of took the place in order, starting with rivers and lakes, spending some time circling the Caribbean Reef, seahorses. We went down to the Oceanarium and saw the dolphins and whales before their show started. Honestly, the whales were a lot less interesting now that we’ve seen them in their real habitat. We headed back upstairs and went through the special lizards exhibit. I’m not a fan. We then headed back out to the main area to finish our circle. We ended the visit with the Wild Reef exhibit. I was only spooked by one thing – a ginormous lobster that I didn’t notice until it moved right next to me. I might have let an “ahh!” out on that one. Adam took some neat pictures.



See them all here.

We decided to forego the Planetarium when Adam’s knee started giving him trouble on the way up from the Wild Reef. We did a lap through the aquarium gift shop and headed back to the car. We decided to head to the hotel and check in before heading out to find the restaurant for dinner. Turns out that’s a lot easier said than done. Being (relatively) small-town people, the whole parking in Chicago thing is always an adjustment. We pulled into the hotel’s affiliated parking ramp and when we asked if we could just go check in and then leave again we seemed to confuse everyone. Luckily we worked it out, checked in, and then headed back out into traffic. It was still a little early to go for dinner so we tried one of the Marshalls we had pinpointed. And, duh, it was on Michigan Ave, but it didn’t occur to us that parking would be a challenge. We drove past and regrouped. We decided to head to IKEA a day early to kill some time. Until we got on the highway and it took 45 minutes to go one exit. By this time we were both sick of traffic and getting crabby. We got off the interstate, turned around, and headed to the restaurant. Traffic was moving much better going the other direction and we were doing well until we got about 2 miles from our destination. All of the sudden traffic came to a complete halt. We were stopped for probably 5 minutes. Turns out there was a train and we had to wait for it, but we were so far back in the line we had no idea. So we finally got to The Frosted Mug and IT WAS CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS.

I’m totally serious.

By this time I’m bordering on psychotic and Adam’s just as frustrated as I am. We stopped for gas ($3.99!) and then headed back to the hotel. We properly parked the car, dropped our stuff in our room, and went to check out the restaurant in the hotel. Unfortunately they only took cash so we went across the street to KFC instead. We ate back in our room, I checked my email and did my IMA stuff, and we decompressed from the day.

Thursday morning we were up around 6:30 although the alarm was set for 7. It wasn’t a very restful evening. The bed was way too soft, our room looked out over an El line, and the air condition fan didn’t work so it was hot and muggy all night. In any case, we got up and showered. We went to Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast. I’d never been to one and I really don’t understand the hype. But whatever. We checked out of the hotel and headed to a second Marshalls that happened to be a block away from a Trader Joes. Parking for this was easier to find since we planned ahead knowing we’d need to park somewhere. The Marshalls store was much like the others we’ve been to. I did find some underwear though, so yay. We checked out the Trader Joe’s as well. I’d also never been there but a lot of the blogs I keep up with are by people who live in areas that have Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s around so I wanted to see what the buzz was about. It’s a neat place and I bought some apple rings and chocolate and Adam got a baklava sampler. Once again this prompted him to suggest that I make baklava. And once again I had to bring up the international meal that forever tarnished phyllo dough for me. Anyway, cool place. Too bad there aren’t any in the Fox Valley.

We hit another Marshalls out in Skokie (it had a parking lot! For free!) before heading to the Kohl Children’s Museum and the Kim and Scott’s Twisting Café (we had decided to forget trying to get to IKEA.) I’ve got to say that this was my favorite place we went. Even though we were only there for maybe 20 minutes, it’s such a neat concept and the atmosphere was so friendly. I got the chocolate pretzel and Adam had apple cinnamon. We also picked up a bunch from the freezer to bring home. The flavors available locally (at Walgreens) are limited, so it was good to find some of the other flavors we’d wanted to try. Yum. After the pretzel pit stop we went to one last Marshalls before heading back home. The drive back was pretty smooth. I don’t remember any horrible construction delays, but as it’s now construction season there was plenty encountered. We got back home around 3.

I unpacked, started laundry, caught up in Money on our vacation spending. Then we headed back out to Appleton and the PAC. We submitted our season ticket request for next year. We stopped for dinner on the way back home. Friday we ran a few other errands: got my ring inspected and re-tipped, went to Target, went grocery shopping, went to BBB. Saturday was a lazy day for me. Adam spent a good deal of it working outside. He filled in the garden patch in the back, added mulch to the front, put weedkiller on the lawn again, mowed the lawn. I’m probably missing some stuff. Sunday we went to another movie (Baby Mama - not as good as I expected, but ok) and spent the evening inside.

Monday night I had dinner at Culver’s with the ladies from bells. It’s such a fun group of ladies and everyone came, which was surprising. It was a good way to wrap up the year although there’s an “appreciation brunch” on June 1st as well. Tuesday night was the last IMA meeting of the year. It was a good meeting – interesting speakers, in fact so interesting that the second presenters went well over their hour and no one cared. Board meetings start June 3 so things will keep busy there. The rest of the week should be boring.

Movie-wise I watched two: The Golden Compass and Mad Money. The first was on the Oscar list. I’m not sure what to think. I know there was all kind of controversy over its subject matter and the Catholic church was all up in arms about it. Were they also against Harry Potter? I mean, he’s a wizard. Anyway, the movie itself was not terrible but really, not much happens, and without the sequel(s) it’s kind of a throw-away movie. Meh. Mad Money was not on the list but I had intended to see it eventually anyway. It got panned by critics but really, it’s a pretty funny movie. One of those “what ifs” played out for you. I’ve always enjoyed Diane Keaton and even Katie (oh, excuse me, Kate) Holmes’ airhead character provided some good moments.

I also started watching Romeo + Juliet (again) after rediscovering the soundtracks while cleaning out my CD library. I’d say that this film and The Wedding Singer have two of the best soundtracks ever (perhaps excluding films that are musicals, that is. And maybe A Beautiful Mind is one the list too.) Both required two discs, and both remain in my favorites, 12 and 10 years out respectively (oh my God, really? I suddenly feel old.) Anyway. I’ve got I’m Not There waiting to be watched and after that I’ve got 13 to go. Doing well.

So, that about gets everyone up to speed. Our holiday weekend looks to be pretty normal and boring. We've got some projects on the list (rearrange garage, rearrange rodent room, etc.) but nothing too exciting. Just hoping for decent weather so we can grill out at least once.

This weekend, and Vacation!

Aah! Not the Go-Go's! Make it stop!

Anyway...

This past weekend was a good weekend for movies. Only one was an Oscar movie, but it was still impressive that I managed to watch three movies in one weekend. I watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly on Saturday evening. I was originally going to watch it Saturday afternoon when Adam went to work and before I had to leave for church. But I fell asleep. So, yeah, I watched it later. Once again I couldn’t get the subtitles to work (see: Pan’s Labyrinth) (I think this is DVD player problem) but luckily not only was this one in French (which, hey! I majored it so I should be able to understand) but I figured out I could turn the captions on on the TV and it gave me English. Kind of a good thing since there turned out to be some technical stuff that I would have gotten lost on. Overall, a good film. Interesting choices in direction, as a good 75% of the movie is shot from the perspective of a paraplegic who can see out of only his left eye. Anyway, kind of sad, kind of inspiring, that’s about it.

Movie #2 was Made of Honor, seen in the theater. Now, I don’t remember if this opened this weekend or last weekend, but Adam and I were two of six people watching this movie. Granted, it was 10AM on a Sunday morning so perhaps that attributed to the low turnout. Anyway, this movie wasn’t terrible, but it also didn’t have an original plot point in its entirety. Totally ripped off parts of My Best Friend’s Wedding, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Some Kind of Wonderful, and lots of other cliché-y romantic comedies that fail to come to my mind right now. While I suppose some people find Patrick Dempsey to be fetching, the movie begins with a flashback to ten years ago and (according to Patrick’s interview on the "Rachael Ray Show" last week) apparently the actors were reverse-aged with computers and the result was just creepy. Kind of tainted the rest of the movie for me.

Finally, move #3 was Things We Lost in the Fire, rented when we returned movie #1. We had intended to see this movie when it was in the theaters but never got around to it. It definitely starts slow. Well, ok, so David Duchovny’s character dies within the first 2 minutes, but it takes a while for the plot to get into the swing of things. Once it gets going it was ok, but I seriously wanted to just give up until about 25 minutes into it. Halle Berry gets more sobbing and beating up men (see: Monster’s Ball, although she did more than beat guys up in that one. Ahem) and Benicio Del Toro gets more unflattering drug usage (See: Traffic.) *sigh* Really, not a terrible film, but not nearly as good as I was expected. And the kids? It took about an hour before I realized the older one was a girl. Not good.

So, other that waste time watching movies, this weekend was pretty dull. Friday night I made a chicken tortilla lasagna and we went grocery shopping. Saturday morning I took care of the rest of the shopping and got my hair cut. Adam worked a few hours in the afternoon while I napped and then went to play bells at church. Sunday morning we went to the movie and then took care of some errands on the way home. We spent the rest of the day at home doing various things, none of which were very interesting. We grilled out some chicken kabobs for dinner.

The rest of this week will be fun. Bright and early tomorrow morning we head to Chicago for two days. We plan to hit up the aquarium, field museum, and planetarium on Wednesday. We also plan to try and find The Frosted Mug, a drive-in Adam saw on a Food Network show. Thursday we’ll go to IKEA and maybe the Sears Tower. We also plan to stop at the Kohl’s Children’s Museum on the way back home to find some new flavors of Kim and Scott's Pretzels. We also might throw some Marshalls shopping in there since there are a bazillion of them in the Chicago area. We plan to be back home on Thursday night and we both have vacation on Friday as well. We hope to get our season tickets for the PAC’s 2008-2009 lineup at that time. This is my first vacation for the year so I’m looking forward to some time off (without being sick to get it.)

General Update (two weeks worth)

Last week was a doozy. Tuesday morning I woke up bright and early to head to Goodwill for our first ever breakfast IMA meeting. We had 17 people total which, in my mind, was a success. We only had 13 at our lunch meeting back in September. The speaker was dynamic and made it almost alright to be in a meeting at 7:30 in the morning. After the meeting I dropped my stuff back at home and headed in to work. I got there around 9:15. Not too bad. Wednesday was inventory day, the day my month-end fun starts. Inventory went well and for some reason there wasn’t a lot to count. On the one hand, that’s good since it means we get done quicker and there’s less for me to summarize. On the other hand, that’s bad since it means machines aren’t running. Hm. Anyway, the rest of week was busy with month-end work.

Adam (and everyone else at Convergys) got a long weekend when their system crashed. So there was no happy hour on Friday since they all went out on Thursday. And since Friday was day two (ie: Martha works until 6pm on day one and then goes back to work at 6:30am on day two so she can get her estimate done by 10am) there was no way I would be joining them in their carousing. Oh well. Saturday was spent doing some shopping, Adam put the poly on the window in the rodent room, and I don’t really remember what I did. Adam also built the shelving for the computer desk:



On Sunday Adam’s dad came over and the finished the workshop in the basement by installing the baseboards and also put up the brick-mold on the window that was missing it. Well, part of it. They sent 4 of the same pieces and we’re missing the bottom part. That should be coming soon and then the windows will be done. Adam put poly on the cat room window Sunday morning as well.



I cleaned critter cages and spent some time catching up on my DVR shows. We watched another Oscar movie as well: Transformers. Admittedly, not one I was excited about. But seriously, it’s a pretty good movie. It clocks in at 2 hours, 20 minutes. And it takes 1 hour and 6 minutes for them to even tell you what the plot is and another 1 hour and 6 minutes for good to triumph and the guy to get the girl. But it doesn’t feel like 2 hours and 20 minutes. The special effects are not distracting, which is something I’m always worried about with this sci-fi, cartoon-inspired movies. Shia LeBoeuf has some great lines and hilarious reaction shots. Not knowing anything about Transformers (I was more a Barbie and My Little Pony kid, although I do recall a massive amount of Micro Machines…) I was a little slow on the whole evil guys have red eyes thing. Anywho, even if you think this movie is probably stupid, go ahead and watch it. You might be surprised.

I also went through my CD collection and purged about 95% of it. I figure I've put all the songs I want from the CDs on the iPod, so why take up space (that we need for DVDs) with the CDs? Hopefully we'll get up to the media exchange place sometime soon to see if I'll make any money from them. I just trashed my cassettes.

Culinary adventures during the week were kind of limited since I was feeling totally lazy and tired. I think we went with leftovers for most of the week. Saturday night I made a duo of corny dishes: corn cakes and corn bites.



Sunday night was a pasta dish with ground turkey and leek. It was quite yummy.



Anyway, Monday night was the final handbell practice of the season. We ring this Saturday and we’re done. Next week we clean the bells and pack up the tables for the summer. The week after that we have our end of the season shindig and Culvers. Tuesday was relaxing and I spent the evening watching 27 Dresses while Adam watched wrestling in the living room. Wednesday night while cooking dinner I discovered we have an infestation of ants. Adam mowed the lawn when he got home, we ate (Cabbage with bacon and home fries



if you wanted to know), and then we headed to arm ourselves with the necessary items for a three prong attack against the insect invaders. Adam caulked the space between the counter/backsplash and the wall which is where we suspected the ants were getting in. We also set out four ant traps to catch anyone already inside. We tried to hide them among small appliances so that cats (well, ok, just JC) wouldn’t find them and try to eat them. They do smell like peanut butter… Third prong is some ant dust that Adam put outside last night. We’ll see how well our plan works. We had tickets to Spamalot yesterday and that was a lot of fun. Well rounded and offensive to pretty much everyone, chock full of Monty Python jokes and general hilarity. I didn't get to see Clay Aiken (ha) but it was still a good show.

This weekend doesn’t have a lot on my list. The normal shopping and cleaning is always there. I’ve got another Oscar movie waiting to be watched: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. No idea what it’s about. (Pause for a quick trip to IMDB) Hey, it’s French! Anyway, so I’m almost certain I’ll be watching that one alone.

Weekend Fun

This weekend was kind of depressing.

Firstly, we got a letter from the city finally telling us about our new appraised house value after the county came through a few months ago. Not a pleasant letter. Our home value dropped almost $10,000. We now officially owe more on the house than it’s worth. That’s depressing.

Secondly, I finally went ahead and threw all my old clothing that had been hanging in the hamster room closet into a garbage bag (or two) and took it to Goodwill. I guess it was time to give up on the notion that I will wear any of it any time in the near future. But it was still hard. We did get a receipt this time since we’ll be itemizing and I estimated the total value of the clothing in the bags to be well over $400.

Thirdly, it snowed. That’s all I have to say about that.

In other news, the windows continue to be a work in process. The brick molding for the second window is supposed to be shipped directly to us sometime in the next few weeks so the outside can be finished. The inside is due to be stain this coming weekend, weather permitting. Then they should be good to go.

The outdoors is another topic. Adam finished up the edging on the side of the house where we ran short before. Last night he also put edging up in the back of the house to the deck. He’ll be spraying Round-Up on errant patches of grass, planting more robust grass in the patchy garden area, and adding some new wood chips/mulch to a few areas in the coming days. As I’m completely uninterested in anything that puts me in close contact with dirt/mud/worms, I’m leaving all of this kind of thing to him. I’ll sit on the deck and appreciate his handy work later.

I concentrated on cleaning out closets this weekend. As previously mentioned I tackled the hamster room first. After the guys were done in the cat room I went in there to do some clean-up. I finally put my wedding dress and veil back in their bags but I still just shoved them back into the closet. I don’t know what to do with them… I also discovered a forgotten bag from my mom (honestly, I thought it was Adam’s since I had forgotten that he lent her his bag when her luggage was stolen when she visited a few Octobers ago) that contained some long-lost friends.



When I introduced them to Adam he wondered (out loud) if there was a clause in our marriage agreement that would get him off the hook if I turned out to be completely nuts. So I had my stuffed animals get married with extravagantly planned (and photographed) weddings attended by every other stuffed animal I had. That’s not totally weird, right?

Ahem. Anyway, I think I’m almost done going through the things from my mom. I’m still working my way through the bag of school papers. Other than that I think I’ve found a place for everything except for a few things from my first trip to France. I also got around to organizing our computer desk. After having Adam complain every time he needed a pair of scissors, I threw a few old sour cream containers in the drawer to hold pens, paper clips, etc and called it good. I also drew up some plans for shelf dividers for our stash of printer paper, stationery, and my various IMA and filing supplies. Adam says it should be cheap and easy to construct something for me. Yay for handy men.

Cooking adventures this weekend were limited. We went out with Adam’s dad on Friday night to thank him for all his help around the house (and also Adam’s mom is out of town.) Saturday I think we just had leftovers. Sunday morning I made French toast for the first time in a while. Yum. I also made an excellent vegetable chili in my effort to eat better and eat more vegetables and beans.



Even with all the chopping involved I managed to not cut myself at all and only burned one finger in the cooking process. Adam expressed no interest in even tasting it, so I’m left with seven glad containers full. Woo!

Playing with the Cat

Here's a little video of the fun we have with JC from time to time:

Paint Job

Adam had Tuesday afternoon off so he came down at lunch and we stopped at Menards to pick up some paint. He spent his afternoon moving the cats out of the room, taping, and painting. He was done with the first coat and had already started the second by the time I got home. I ran up to Menards to pick up another gallon of paint because he was afraid he’d run out. He made it on the two original gallons but now we’ll have some extra for touch-ups and perhaps the eventual repainting of my bathroom. It’s a nice, light purple color (you may notice we also took this opportunity to rearrange the room):



As I commented while browsing through the colors choices this weekend, we’re turning our house into an Easter egg. We’re stuck on pastels. Our bedroom is a minty green,



the living room is yellow,



and now the cat room/office is a soft purple. The rodent room is still the original darker blue bottom/dark green chair rail/cream top



but that will change eventually as well. The kitchen will probably remain white/cream when we decide to repaint it (and finally paint over those awful stencils!) I suppose there’s nothing wrong with light colors and it’s not like I picked these shades on my own. I kind of expected a certain amount of resistance to my purple suggestion but I really didn’t get any. I’m pleased with the result and Adam says the color is relaxing.

Next up on the home improvement front – staining the window frames. Adam and his dad put the new casing up this weekend. I did a bit of spring cleaning but I'm not done yet.

An update on the Oscar movie front: This weekend I knocked off The Savages and Charlie Wilson's War. Kind of an unintentional Philip Seymour Hoffman trend going there. Both movies were decent. I would probably say I enjoyed The Savages more but that might be because I like Laura Linney and Julia Roberts annoys me. Anyway, two more done. Woo!

Window Weekend

So the weekend was kind of a mixed bag. We were able to watch two Oscar movies: Lars and the Real Girl and There Will be Blood. I enjoyed the first. The second, not so much. It was way too long, had no point, a weird soundtrack, and was just way too dirty. Not porn dirty. Rolling in mud, haven’t taken a shower in a month dirty. Blech. Anyway, I’m almost halfway done now.

Saturday evening I made myself some lentil soup while Adam grilled out a steak.



If that’s not a strange juxtaposition of food preferences I don’t know what is. Sunday morning I headed to 8am mass to play handbells but not before Adam noticed the top shelf of the fridge was filled with a liquid. He suspected it was chicken stock since I had put a partially used box there the night before. More on this later. While I was at church Adam’s dad arrived to help start installing the new windows. I stopped at Menards on the way back home to pick up the additional edging we needed. When I got home they were working on the window in the cat room. Apparently they needed some additional supplies so they left for a few hours (to go to Menards. How ironic.), leaning the box spring up against the hole in the wall so bugs and birds were kept out.

I was in the process of baking cookies (white chocolate macadamia nut)



when they returned. They finished up the first window and proceeded to the second, which went a lot faster.

One old and one new:



Both new:



From the inside:



There was a foam insulation incident that has necessitated the repainting of the cat room (and perhaps replacement of carpet, but for now we just covered that up with a cat scratcher.) We were planning to repaint it eventually anyway, but it just ends up it will be sooner rather than later. Other than that both windows went in nicely. They will be stained to match the wood trim and then they should be good to go. The cats already like them.



The space between the screen and the edge of the window is wider than the other windows were so even Ted can fit.



And as Adam discovered last night, we can even shut JC inside the window. Ahem.

That was finished up around 3:30. Then Adam and I headed up to Menards (Yes. Again.) to investigate paint colors. I think we’ve settled on a very muted lilac color. I’m still toying with going more gray, but we’ll see. We also stopped at Linens ‘N Things to pick up new towels for Adam’s bathroom (the former towels being another casualty of the aforementioned foam insulation incident.) Our last stop was JC Penney’s where I took advantage of a nice 20% off everything sale. I made honey mustard chicken tenders for dinner, whereupon we noted that the top shelf of the fridge was once again flooded with liquid. Obviously it wasn’t chicken stock since the offending box had been thrown out that morning. As I mopped up the mess I tried to think about what might be causing it. Then I recalled that after dinner the night before Adam had used the in-door water and after lunch that afternoon his dad had some soda with ice. I made the connection and we discovered the filter (which just happens to be right above the top shelf) was leaking. (So the whole thing had absolutely nothing to do with me since I rarely use the ice/water but I’ve yet to hear mention of being sorry for yelling at me about it that morning.)

Anyway. After perusing the owner’s manual and online troubleshooting sites Adam went to Lowe’s to get a replacement filter figuring perhaps it was cracked. No such luck, the new one leaked too. So we put an ice cream bucket under the leak and he called the service department this morning. They think it’s an internal filter problem so they ordered a part and should come to fix it when it comes in. We got in under the gun on this one – our year warranty is up in about a month.

So, a pretty good weekend for accomplishing things. The rain that was supposed to come didn’t. The weather was great and we were able to enjoy it for a while. This week is supposed to be pretty good too – 60s and 70s, some rain showers here and there. Adam figures he’ll need to start mowing the lawn next weekend. Speaking of which – our neighbor was out this weekend steamrolling his lawn. I found that kind of odd, but apparently it’s very common. It makes the lawn look more manicured or something. Strange.

This week for me is a little unusual. I have my normal Monday night hand bells. Wednesday night is UWO’s CMA Night. I was debating whether I really wanted to go or not since I usually don’t talk too much and feel kind of out of place. But the chapter is picking up the tab so I figured why not? I’ll just make sure not to get there so early this time so I have less time to stand around feeling stupid. Also my boss is on vacation all week long. She left me with a long list of projects, of course. This coming weekend I have the cleaning I didn’t get around to this past weekend to take care of. Potential painting or additional yard-related work. Appleton West is doing “Little Shop of Horrors” but Adam doesn’t want to go and I don’t want to go alone so we’ll see about that one. The same thing happened when Oshkosh was doing “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” I need a “going to local theater” buddy. Sometimes it sucks not having friends.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with some more kitty pictures:

Home Improvements

This weekend looks to have the possibility of being busy. Our replacement windows arrived Thursday night and Adam went and picked them up. We’re missing some parts on one of them but apparently they’re decorative parts so we can install the windows and add them on when they come in. They should be taken care of tomorrow. Adam's already begun the demo work.

(as they were:)


(demo begins:)


My to-do list has a lot of cleaning projects, some shopping, and some cooking/baking. And if the weather is decent maybe we’ll get a walk or two in.

While we were at Menards for a part for Adam's new miter saw (and no, it won't stay on the kitchen counter)



we picked up some new edging for the front of the house since the stuff that was there was starting to pull up.



Adam worked on that this afternoon while I was out shopping. We are just a few pieces short



D'oh.

I've got to say it looks a lot better now though. The scalloped shape is much more interesting.



And those tulips? Still growing.

IMA

IMA Thursday night was pretty good. We had a few attendees not show up, but overall I think it was a lively, entertaining, and educational meeting. The round-table presenters were great. It’s always a gamble, bringing in professionals to speak about recruiting and employment. We’ve had occasions where the speaker launched into a narrow view of his or her company. We’ve also had occasions where the speakers were so boring that the students started to sneak out half way through. This time the speakers were great and everyone stayed for the whole thing (even though we started late and had some long-winded answers.) Yay! We got killed money-wise with having 7 presenters and charging students $5 instead of the usual $15. And one guy gave me his $5 in quarters. Seriously. Oh well. We’re a NFP so I guess we really shouldn’t be making money. Anyway, we’ve got a breakfast meeting in a couple weeks and then our final meeting of the chapter year in May. This year has sure flown. I’m staying on in all my current roles for next year so now I get to look forward to summer board meetings.

Spring? My feet sure hope so...

The weather today is beautiful. My car thermometer at lunch told me it was 68. It was 74 on my way home. The sun is shining and nature is buzzing. It’s a tad windy, but what are you going to do? This is Wisconsin. You can’t expect perfection. While my new shoes are relatively comfortable, my feet are antsy for freedom. I keep kicking my shoes off while at my desk and it’s hard to put them back on when I need to get up and go somewhere. Soon, sandals. Soon. I suppose I’ll need to do something with my toenails first though. Gah.

Public Enemies

I’ve gotten away with not blogging about this yet, but today I made my first venture downtown since filming started on Main Street. I wanted to get lunch at Erbert and Gerbert’s by campus and then drop off some bills at the downtown post office. I figured it would be pretty simple since I can take Jackson to campus and the post office is a few blocks down from where the action is.

Wrong.

It’s a total zoo. I made the mistake of trying to go up High rather than go down one more block to Pearl. Police barricades were set up by the opera house and I had to go down Division over to Pearl anyway. And all the smart people had taken Pearl in the first place so it took forever to turn left. Then add in crazy tourists and sight-seers not paying attention to where they’re walking. *sigh* I made it to the post office, dropped off the mail, and headed back to work. At the corner of Pearl and Main there was a crowd of people hovering outside the barricades. As I approached the red light the crowd seemed to swell and a wave of people ended up in the street. They got yelled at pretty quickly by a police officer, but still. Stupid people… Luckily I didn’t run anyone over. After I got back onto Jackson it was pretty much smooth sailing. But there were crowds everywhere, cars everywhere. I just hope they’re patronizing local businesses while they sit outside for hours trying to catch a glimpse of Johnny. I’m glad I don’t work in that area. It would drive me crazy to have to deal with it every day. But yay for Oshkosh gaining some notoriety that doesn’t involve overalls or drunken riots!

Getting Back to the Books

I recently began looking for ideas regarding books to read during my lunch hour. I can only re-read the books I own so many times before I need to branch out. I found a New York Times “100 All-Time Novels” list and downloaded it. Sadly, of the 100 on the list I’ve read only 13. And there’s not a single John Irving book on the list. Boo. Who determines what books are the best anyway?

Anyway, when I finally went to the library a few weekends ago I picked up two books from the list: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood and The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. Yes, I was in the first aisle of fiction, why do you ask? I’m about ¼ of the way through the first one (I’ve been going home for lunch or working through lately so I haven’t been reading as much as I usually would.) I’ve liked the other books I’ve read by Atwood so I had no great fear of this book. So far, so good. I’ve never even heard of Saul Bellow although he has TWO books on the list. Hrumph.

If I go through a couple more books by people I’ve never heard of and end up hating more than I like I’ll scrap this idea and look elsewhere. I also found a “1,001 Books you Must Read Before you Die” list (based on the book of the same name I'm guessing.) I’ve got 42 of those down (and there are three of Irving’s books on this list!) so maybe I’ll pick and choose between the two lists.

Crazy Critters

While I was posting that last entry JC was rolling around under my feet:



But when I got the camera out, all he wanted to do is try and eat it:



Cats...

Speaking of eating, I also "tortured" them this afternoon by coming into the computer room (which is also their food room) before their feeding time to open my mail. I sat here and watched as they all came in and sat down and stared at me:



JC started the plaintive meowing:



And on a guinea pig-related note, both Mo and Einstein keep flipping their houses over. But only Einstein has the talent to knock it up on its side:

Oscar Update

Here’s my updated progress (movies seen are in red):

3:10 to Yuma
Across the Universe
American Gangster
Assassination of Jesse James, The
Atonement
August Rush
Away From Her
Bourne Ultimatum, The
Charlie Wilson's War
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
Eastern Promises
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Enchanted
Golden Compass, The
Gone Baby Gone
I'm Not There
In the Valley of Elah
Into the Wild
Juno
Kite Runner, The
La Vie en Rose
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
Norbit
Once
Persepolis
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Ratatouille
Savages, The
Surf's Up
Sweeney Tood
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Latest addition was Once, watched Sunday afternoon. It’s a pretty short movie compared to some of these two hour plus “blockbusters.” It’s touted as a musical, but I’m not sure that’s accurate. At least not in the sense of the word I’m used to. Yes, there’s much singing and music in the movie, but it’s not like someone says, “Daaaahling,” and then breaks into a song and dance number about how much they love the other person. This is more like a movie about songwriters, not a musical. It also seems like the plot is kind of second place to the music. But, in a nutshell: a guitar-playing songwriter/Hoover vacuum repairman recruits a Czech pianist/flower saleswoman to help him record a demo tape that he can take to London when he meets with recording agents/reunites with his ex who cheated on him. Yeah, nothing too original, but they write music and lyrics together (out, you evil mental images of Hugh Grant!) and have some fun.

Next up - Lars and the Real Girl. I'm looking forward to this one as it's one I would actually have watched even if it wasn't on the list!

Weekend Recap

So, we went grocery shopping on Friday night. Saturday morning we did the weekly Walmart run before Adam went over to his uncle’s house for a few hours to help with a new computer. I met him at the movie theater for Smart People. Decent movie. Then we ran up to Simon’s cheese so I could (finally) get another block of Parmesan. Our final stop was Fleet Farm for the ramps that were on sale. Now Adam has all the equipment he needs to do oil changes in the driveway. He dropped me back off at my car in the movie theater parking lot and he went to Hobby Lobby to get some paint for his model while I stopped to get gas (Aaah! $3.39/gal!) on the way home. I don’t remember what we did the rest of the day. I know that there was an "NCIS" marathon on USA that I watched way too much of. Sunday morning we read the paper, ate breakfast. I cleaned both guinea pig and two of the three hamster cages. Adam spent a good deal of the morning helping our next door neighbor with sump pump hose issues. I spent the afternoon watching Once and finishing up season four of "Dawson's Creek" while Adam watched the race he had recorded Saturday evening. (Which went long so he missed the end anyway!) I made the yummy mac and cheese Lorraine for dinner. That’s about it. Pretty uneventful as weekends go. And I think we even managed to leave his dad alone completely! If you don’t count Friday…

Anywho, this week is semi-eventful. I had my regular handbell rehearsal yesterday and IMA on Thursday. Nothing else is planned for the week, but we’ll see what happens.

And on a completely unrelated topic – 1Q profit sharing results for the plant came in last week and apparently we hit a record payout – over 5%. Woo. And the best part about the plant incentive is that it’s a cash reward, not an addition to your 401(k) as the company-wide plan is. Not that there’s anything wrong with 401(k) contributions or free money…but you know what I mean.

A Monster Blog Post

So, it’s been awhile and I figure that gives me license to post a ridiculously long blog post. In the spirit of full disclosure, I did write parts of this over the last week. I just never got around to posting them. So now I’m going to post them all in one big monster blog. Bwahahahahaha.

Last weekend was beautiful with temperatures hitting 60 and lots of sunshine. So of course this week was dreary, windy, and depressing. Yay! In any case, last Friday we went to Willie Beamon’s for an early dinner since we both managed to sneak out a bit early from work and were able to get there before it got too busy. Not too smoky and not too crowded. The food is as good as ever and they’ve started to add a piece of candy on your plate. I found that kind of strange, but whatever. Maybe someone’s kid got way too much Halloween candy and they’re trying to get rid of it.

After dinner we headed to Menards. It pains me to say this, but I went to Menards every day last weekend. Every. Day. Anyway, on this first trip we picked up new faucets for the bathrooms. Yes, I know, why didn’t we just do this when the kitchen faucet was replaced the weekend before? Who knows. We’re stupid. In any case, we got similar models for the two bathrooms which Adam and his dad installed Saturday morning.



After a search for compression nuts that led to Oshkosh (and which we ended up NOT NEEDING – and returning them was my reason for going to Menards on Saturday) we got home to hungry kitties and some TV.

Saturday morning I did some shopping while Adam and his dad worked on the aforementioned plumbing project. I finally got new shoes and so far they’re ok. We’ll see if my feet adjust to them enough for me to not want to throw them away. I also got a pair of sandals for work for the summer since the ones I got last year have no heel and I was constantly in fear of tripping and breaking my ankle. I had to stop wearing them after a month or so because I was so worried I’d walk down the aisle in a wedding dress and a walking cast. Heh. With Rogan’s BOGO 50% deal I spent about the same as I would have at DSW or Famous Footwear so I can’t complain too much. Well, I can, but I won’t.

Sunday morning we watched No Country for Old Men. I suppose it’s a good movie, but it’s really not my kind of thing. Too much blood, violence, and scary parts. I’m such a wuss. Just ask Adam how many times I jumped. We then headed to Menards (again!) to order our windows and get a new mailbox. And the rest of the lawn fertilizer. So when we got home we ate lunch and set to work putting up the new mailbox. It wasn’t too complicated I suppose. I didn’t really do much. I raked up leaves, pulled up some of the rotted wood, and stood next to the pole holding the level and looking pretty. Anyway, it’s up and looks pretty good.



It’s definitely huge. The rest of the afternoon and evening were pretty uneventful. We went to bed pretty early. As in Adam was snoring during "Family Guy". Oh well.

We took down the rest of the plastic on the windows and put the screens back in the bay window in the living room. Hopefully the cats can restrain themselves from climbing up them this year. We opened windows on Sunday and I believe we even had the heat off for most of the weekend. The cats made the most of the open window sills.



I turned it back on on Monday since it was only 58 in the house. The temperature was still dropping outside and while I know that cats have fur and everything, I still don’t want to torture them too much. Adam put the first step of fertilizer out last Sunday morning and seems to have had perfect timing. He got it out before it got too windy and it rained overnight. Woo. Now we wait for the grass to get greener and leaves to start showing. There is something sprouting over on the side of the house by the garage and our neighbor said she thinks they’re tulips. I thought we tore everything up, but I guess it’s like in Jurassic Park – life finds a way. I also had to stop for a duck this past week on my way to work. It was a female, just moseying across the street. Aah, signs of spring. Wonderful.

I finally got into April on Thursday. It was a rough month/quarter-end. And I’m not even really sure why. My stuff all went pretty smoothly and I was sitting around, waiting for almost two days to get word that things were final so I could do my final reports and finish up some quarterlies. I don’t know what happened during that two days but at least this time we weren’t all looking for an inventory error when it turned out to be a sales error. (Ahem. Long story. Don’t ask.) I finished my final quarterly report this morning (I still do some consolidation stuff for corporate) so now I can fully concentrate on getting my April stuff started. And working on Shelbyville’s tax book (Yes, that’s Shelbyville, TN, and no, I’ve never worked for them. Don’t ask me why I’m doing their tax book. Even I haven’t figured that out yet.) Which was due March 31st. Yeah. Good stuff.

Anyway, outside of the circus called “work” things have been pretty laid back. Handbells is back to normal, having not had a cancelled practice in over a month now! We play next Sunday morning and then once more on Mother’s Day. Adam and I were supposed to go to a Timber Rattlers game on Tuesday since he won free tickets and parking through work but it was sleeting/raining/snowing (aah!)



so we passed on that experience and stayed home instead. Wednesday Adam fired up the grill and cooked up some brats. Last night we watched another Oscar movie – The Bourne Ultimatum. I’m looking back now and it seems I forgot to mention we watched Eastern Promises sometime last week as well. Both movies weren’t really my thing. Too much pointless violence and stupid action sequences. What bugged me the most about The Bourne Ultimatum was the fact that it looked like the camera guy had Parkinson’s. Seriously shaky. Eastern Promises sounded good on the blurb on the package but was a lot less interesting than I anticipated. It did have that whole naked fighting scene everyone was talking about though. Meh. I’m doing pretty well on the Oscar list so far – 12 of 34 done.

Tonight depends on the weather. It’s been raining nonstop since yesterday afternoon. Our sump pump went on for the first time since we’ve been here last night and was on nonstop all night. This morning at like 5:30 Adam was down in the basement checking it out since it seemed to go on every two minutes. Turns out the sump pump installed was too small for the pit we have. It would most likely have burned itself out if he hadn’t gotten a new (bigger) one and replaced it this morning.



Luckily he had vacation today anyway but I’m not sure that’s what he expected to do with his free time. He also got some flexible hosing and extended the pipe out to the road so we weren’t just pumping the same water out over and over.



Everyone in the neighborhood has flooded yards and parts of Cty A are water-covered as well.



And it’s still raining. And it’s supposed to rain for the next week straight. Argh. So far, so good in the leaky basement department though. The leak over in the back corner that was patched last summer is just fine and there’s only one other small leak by the furnace that drains right into the floor drain like it should. It doesn’t bother anything but we still plan to take care of it this weekend.

Anyway, if it continues raining we’ll probably stay home and watch tv or a movie. If it lightens up a little we’ll get our grocery shopping in early. Tomorrow I have some other shopping to take care of (cat food! Woo!) and then we plan to go see Smart People at the theater.

And now on to something completely different…

Despite the tanking of the market, my 401(k) recently exceeded the $15,000 mark. Woo. It’s still pretty depressing that my ROR for the year is -8.3%. Ugh. Thankfully the company did decently last year so the profit sharing contribution for 2007 was around 4%. Otherwise my balance would almost be less than my ’07 year-end amount. That’s painful. Come on stock market. Fund my retirement!

In other monetary news, we got the rebalancing of our escrow accounts a few weeks ago. They didn’t increase by quite as much as I expected so that’s nice. I’ve already adjusted my direct deposit amounts so it will be ready for the first higher payment on May 1st. I also called Associated and bumped up the additional principal payment to get to an even total amount. We got all our insurance renewal notices recently and our auto went down a total of something like $20 (for 6 months.) Gnarly. Homeowner’s stayed the same. I think. I’m not sure since it changed when my marital status changed and I just got a pro-rated refund.

With the elimination of my $330 a month car payment (have I mentioned “woo”?) hopefully we’ll be able to take care of some of the seasonal stuff that’s been popping up and will continue over the next few months. Like the lawn stuff. And the pricier than anticipated windows. Between Adam’s anticipated upcoming quarterly bonus (he tells me he should max out again) and that federal refund hopefully we’ll be able to take care of the windows along with some of the remaining credit card balances.

Speaking of which, in the last week I’ve gotten notices from two of my cards telling me my credit lines have been increased. I also received a coupon from my Chase Rewards card for $10 off at Lowe’s and a coupon from the Citi card we used for the Lowe’s balance transfer for $10 off at Sears. Strange.

This concludes your "In the Life of Martha" monster blog post. Hopefully I can get around to posting in more regular, manageable post sizes in the future. :)