Finals

What I see when I look at Q's final. ;)

Check out my final project: Artistic Reflections on Deepwater Horizon. I did the site building & design & technical mumbo jumbo.

My Final

Hey Ladies,

This is a Apron I made in Class, do you think its too... fun... for craft sales?

Between a fire and a gas leak

Ever hear the expression "between a rock and a hard place"? Well I am stuck between a fire and a gas leak. Today Mr Man went out on the AT V's to a wilderness area and what did he run into but a newly sparked wild fire lit by lightning so he spent his day trying to put that out and we have a manged wild fire about 5 miles away that means that they aren't trying to put it out just keep it from getting out of control. As for the gas leak my town has two gas stations and one of them is expanding and someone messed up and created a gas spill right in the middle of town pretty much shutting the town down and for a town with one road down it well with that shut down no one goes anywhere. Well hopefully they cleaned everything up and they will be back to normal soon. And Mr Man and his buddies managed to contain the fire they were at so that it didn't get out of control. We will see what happens tomorrow regarding the fires and gas spills. My sister and I spent all day making Black berry jam. Yummy. and I had a fish commit suicide trying to chase a smaller fish it got stuck and well everyone knows that if a fish isn't swimming it dies. Well that sums up my week.

Not to Toot my Own Horn but.....

TOOT TOOT!!!!!!!!

This week I took a class on making hats. In four days I was able to form 5 hats and this is the one I got completely done. I am very proud of myself, and you can officially reefer to me as a Mad Hatter! I love this hat, its truly amazing! I was able to buy a hat block from my teacher and rest assured hats are going to accompany me to craft sales now.

Parents, Bookstores, and Earning it

My first pea harvest this year--45 pods in total.

Q can tell all of you how I've been drooling over her new Barnes and Noble Nook the last few weeks. I will caveat here that Fuzzy owns a Kindle, an equally awesome product. After weeks of obsessive research, I elected that the Nook would be my product because it's more hackable than the Kindle, despite the fact that Kindle has a heartier brand, a longer and better tested run in the market, and what is generally considered the more user-friendly interface. Nook is has more open file formats and expandable memory, which for me as an individual, were strongly needed features.

I've wanted an e-reader for some time now, but have been holding out due to the price and skepticism over the quality of newly released technology. Generally, I have a 1-year rule for this kind of stuff; new products have problems that need to be worked out. Example: the Xbox 360 red ring of death, the hacked iPad, and the read-aloud feature on the Kindle that got canceled due to copyright infringement. The first round of sales are the last round of tests, and when it comes to shelling out a C-note or more, I like to learn from others' use and abuse stories to know exactly what I'm getting.

I finally settled that I would wait until my birthday, and use gift cards to offset the cost. Then, yesterday, I got an email at work from a research colleague. She had just gotten back from Spain, where she had presented our research from earlier this year to an international group of experts, and several had responded with great enthusiasm! Our research will be featured as a chapter in a book, and I have been invited to write up an additional report on my research methodologies. I got kudos all day, and from my supervisors especially. My main supervisor told me that having my first big publication at 25 was excellent--he didn't author until he was 42. I spent the whole afternoon thinking about my parents, and how grateful I was that they had fostered my academic and literary interests. When the book comes out, I'm going to get a gigantic magnet and stick it to their fridge.

Later in the day, I'm driving home, and as a planned errand, I stop at Barnes and Noble to check out the Nook in person and quiz the sales reps. Walking up to the door, I'm hit with a huge wave of nostalgia, because this was the bookstore of my youth. I'd spent hours in there while my mom or dad just patiently waited on a couch somewhere, browsing fiction, science, art...This was the store that started it. In some small way, that Barnes and Noble contributed to my love of reading, writing, and research. And on the day that I got confirmation of getting published, in the topic of language and the next generation of technology, I wanted to celebrate by getting something from my old friend, the bookstore, and it seemed only appropriate that it would be something to do with the next generation of literature and technology.

I went home, I got my husband, and we went back and got the Nook (I didn't actually need Mr. B to make the purchase, but I wanted him there for my moment of nostalgia and victory dance). I'm counting it as my early birthday present, and I LOVE it. DoHP, Munchkin, you need e-readers--I've had mine for just over 12 hours and it's already changed my life.

Alula

Another Milestone

Anyone wonder what little mans next mile stone was going to be? perhaps getting potty trained talking in complete sentences? That's what I was hoping! But the mile stone was his first trip to the ER for stitches! 9 to be exact location below his left knee on the inside of the leg and according to the doctor that stitched him up down to the bone not really the deep on a 2 1/2 year old but I really didn't need to know that much detail. What happened he was playing with his aunts boyfriend on his fathers side and he walked by some tin that was in the yard slipped and gashed his leg. Well we went to the ER after they called us sat around for about an hour and a half waiting for the numbing stuff to take effect and began the stitches and after little man got over being held down by the nurses to get stitched up fell asleep while they finished the stitches and let me tell you those nurses had no clue what to do when he fell asleep that was a first for them. And you can't even tell he hurt his leg the way he is running around but that might change tomorrow after the meds wear off and I have to change the dressing. He will be in pants for the next week or so to keep him from messing with it. Well that's what happened today and everyone is telling me to get used to it this won't be our last visit to the ER but you know what no I am not going to get used to it and hate it every single time. So that's what I have to say on that. And even more family is telling me they are surprised he hasn't needed stitches before now. And I have no response to that and of course because the stitches came up everyone starting to compare scars and number of stitches and everything once again in too much detail. Oh and I re injured my foot doing yard work this morning its turning fun colors again.

Fuzzy

My week in pictures:

This week we had the big meeting at work. This equates to my leaving my house at the butt crack of dawn and returning in the "almost tomorrow" hours of night. I wasn't at home to fight the changes, so Mr. Borealis made quite a few of them.

Sunday, June 20th. Fireplace intact and all is well:

Monday, June 21st. I get a call at work, and find out that my husband has started ripping out my fireplace. We got lucky--the wall behind the bricks was already drywalled:

Thursday, June 24th. The man who provided my husband the tools to rip out my fireplace (my father-in-law) provides the tools to texture the wall after painting a base on it Tuesday and letting it dry on Wednesday:

Friday, June 25th. The textured wall gets painted:

Saturday, June 26th. My husband is gone all day with his dad, building a new mantle for the fireplace. He comes home at 7pm and tells me to get my shoes on because we need to buy something at the store. When I ask what it is, I find out he has intention of getting a big screen television. When I ask if we can maybe buy a new vacuum cleaner, replace one of our ancient cars, or perhaps fix the water heater that's crapping out on us, he says "it's okay, we have the money." Um, okay...Once in the car, he says he priced it out and we have the money to cover $1500 for a new television. That was the point of ripping out the fireplace, and besides, "we need a big screen now that I got the Wii for my birthday." Um, okay...when was I involved in this decision? --The answer is never, because I was asleep during the 6 hours a day I was actually home all week. We get to the store and my husband picks out a television. And a DVD up converter. And an Xbox 360, extra controllers, 4 new video games, a wall mount, and all the cables and other bits and bobs we need. My foot goes down at the Blu-Ray player and associated movies. With the bill almost twice the price he quoted me earlier in the evening, I'm secretly hoping I'm about to find out we won the lottery. But alas, no--this is just a mid-life crisis following the hospital drama earlier this year; I settle my mind that we can afford it this once, and if it makes him happy, I will allow it. ONCE.

Sunday, June 27th. We installed it ourselves. My heart palpitations from the cost haven't yet subsided, but I have to admit, my living room now ROCKS.


~Alula