Wandering through E-Space

Illuminated Houses

2012-01-23T20:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Year of the Dragon!
Saw this on Craft-I want to make some-they would be perfect for the mantle above my fireplace! :-D

Illuminated Houses:

These illuminated houses seen on Anthology Magazine are simply gorgeous! So romantic and dreamy, I must make some.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T10:44:00.003-05:00

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!!

I've got some more baking to do, so I better get back to it!

*hee* Well, it looks like once again my New Years Resolution will be to post in this blog more! 0:-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

DWFO: "This Is Gallifrey/ Vale Decem"

2011-11-12T22:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a little something I contributed to over late summer/early fall. :)

I'd Walk 500 Miles!

2011-11-01T15:27:00.001-05:00

I'd Walk 500 Miles!: The video from which this came from has finally been put online for public viewing!

It was originally made for the cast's eyes only and was part of Russell T Davies' farewell, but here it is!!

From me: I'm trying out the 'Send to' feature in Google reader. The first test was a dud, but the second was ok-trying again with the original item I was trying to send. This time there is actual content in the title and body of the post. (first time there wasn't) Despite me being upset over some of Google's changes to Reader-this might actually be an okay one. I can post an article from my reader to any of my blogs, then add my own comments on the same post. Ok, that's pretty neat. Can't add a tag, though-wonder if it's something I can edit later...

This vid, in a word: AWESOME. :)

UPDATE: why, yes-not only can I edit to the post to add tags, but I can edit my font as well. A bit cumbersome, but I guess it will do for now. *heading back to do a little editing on my previous test posts...*

Gillan Will Welcome New Companion

2011-11-01T15:21:00.001-05:00

Gillan Will Welcome New Companion:

Karen Gillan has said she will welcome the next Doctor Who companion “with open arms” when her time is up on the show.

Speaking on G Read more ...

Just trying out a feature from Google Reader-maybe this one will work...

Just trying something new

2011-11-01T15:12:00.000-05:00

Dance, Timelord, Dance!!!

The Pig with the Froggy Tattoo

2011-10-03T18:30:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving cannot get here fast enough:

If you haven't seen the trailer this was parodied after, you can check out the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trailer
here.

Special thanks to Den of Geek for posting this. You guys rock!

The Great Pumpkin Addiction

2011-10-01T01:23:00.004-05:00

My name is Romana, and I have a pumpkin problem. :)

I don't know when, or how it started, but in the past few months, I have come to realize that I have a problem. ;) I love pumpkins!! I already have the Libbys pumpkin for Thanksgiving and Christmas pies.

Last weekend I went to the Country Living Fair down in Columbus with my friends Bob& Julie. Of course, this was my favorite display:

(by the way, this was a really cool trip-will have to post more about this before the season is over ;))

I was the one who insisted on trying to grow pumpkins in the Garden@Case-since the garden was new this year, we didn't really know what to expect-certainly not this!

At one point we had 5 pumpkins growing-unfortunately, two rotted out, and a third was picked and then tossed on the sidewalk by vandals. *arrrg* I really, really wanted the surviving pumpkin, so with the help of my coworkers, we brought this bad boy home!

We weighed the pumpkin using my bathroom scale-it is about 85 pounds!!! I have no idea what I'm going to do with it for Halloween, but for now, it looks nice on my steps...

(Linus couldn't be here for a photo-op ;) )

So as the Fall Holiday issues of magazines started rolling in, I found lots of cool pumpkin receipes, and I thought-wouldn't it be neat to make something with pumpkin every week?

Yeah, I should've stopped there...

But, no, of course I didn't-and walking to and from work gives me alot of time to think to myself. This is what I came up with:

There are eight weekends from October 1st to Thanksgiving. Why not challenge myself to make something with pumpkin every weekend, leading up to the Thanksgiving pies?

Probably should've stopped there...

So I started telling folks that I was going to try this. I'm not going to be snobbish about it, though-I'll use canned pumpkin, puree pumpkin from pie pumpkins, and even a pumpkin bread mix. The idea will be to try to do something different (and yes, two different types of pumpkin cookies count!)

Hopefully I will have time not only to make pumpkin-ny things, but to post about them as well. I've already got the first two weeks' ideas.

To kick it off, I'm going to try to puree my own pumpkin. Bought a couple of pie pumpkins on Sunday:

(aren't they cute?)

If successful, I will use the puree to make pumpkin butter for week two. If not, I will use a smaller can of Libby's pumpkin that I purchased, just in case. ;)

So this is the official kick-off post-YAY PUMPKIN!!!!! :-D

The Perseids

2011-08-12T16:14:00.002-05:00

Sky & Telescope illustration

Don't forget, the Perseids peak tonight!!!

Some observing hints from Sky & Telescope:

"The Perseid meteors appear to streamaway from the shower's "radiant" point near the border of Perseus andCassiopeia. This is the perspective point where they would all appear to becoming from if you could see them approaching in the far distance. In fact wesee them only in the last second or two as they streak into Earth's upperatmosphere, and this can happen anywhere in your sky. Under dark-skyconditions, you may see an average of one a minute around the time of theshower's peak."

For more info about this year's display, check out Off Year for the Perseids

The Feast

2011-08-11T21:06:00.001-05:00

Hey Blogger, what's up with you today? I can only access my blogs in draft mode-that kinda sucks. :p At least you still work with dial up (sorta-you're very slow.) *sigh*

If this is eventually going to be the new Blogger, I'm not sure how I like the layout of things...

Well, after that major hot spell we had back in July, I decided it was time to dig out my A/C from storage. Hadn't used it since I left Coventry back in 2007! (My co-worker Brian called me 'hard core'. LOL) Yeah, the heat wave was just too much this time around...

Now to my main points-the Feast starts tomorrow night!!! We'll have our usual walk around the neighborhood starting at 6, then we will have a sitdown concert around quarter after 8. That's the plan for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Monday, the 15th (and the last day of the Feast) we'll have our usual morning procession, walk around the neighborhood in the evening, then the evening procession after 9. (and fireworks!) :)

The Feast 2010

Oooh, just tried the image loader in Blogger to load the above image...I'm surprised it worked using dial-up! ;) (again, it's slow, but I can deal...for now.) I really need to do something about switching that...

Tomorrow night the Perseids peak, but the weather here in Cleveland is calling for storms, so I might try to catch some tonight while the sky is still clear. ;) It's too bad the moon is shining so brightly...LOL. I'm still gonna try!!! (check Twitter for updates after midnight!)

wild weather day

2011-07-22T22:39:00.002-05:00

Those in the Cleveland area-where were you when that crazy storm blew in around 4pm?

Sharon and I were in the stacks on the third floor of the library when it happened. We watched the clouds roll in extremely fast, with some pretty impressive flashes of lightning. Didn't have my camera but did have my cell phone. Here are a couple of pictures I uploaded to Twitpic:

3rd floor KSL, facing west

This one's my favorite:

3rd floor KSL, facing north

When I got home, one of my pots of rose moss had tipped over (it's ok!) and my lantern lights were on. What's the big deal with the lights you say? Well, they are on a solar timer-when the sun goes down, they switch on for a few hours. It was so dark because of the storm, they switched on!! And no, that doesn't always happen when we get thunderstorms during the day. I think it happened at least once before earlier this summer.

Well, the air has cooled a little bit-my house is still warm, but it's at least a bit more tolerable than it was yesterday.

Stay cool, everybody-the temp may have dropped a little, but it's still gonna be pretty warm this weekend!!

plants and other things...

2011-07-21T20:55:00.002-05:00

YUCK! It is waaaay too hot!! The heat index was at least 113 today. Bleh. No way I could walk home in this weather. (thank you Ron and Michele for the ride home!!!). You know what's worse? The weather in Minnesota-we've only been at this extreme heat for about a day-they have been like this for a while now-along with the rest of the midwest. Gah!

Not sure if this extreme heat is good for my plants-can't get out and water them fast enough!!!

Speaking of plants, I've decided to devote this post to them-since I haven't done that in a while-sure this post would be more interesting with more photos-perhaps I will add some later. ;) (although I have posted some to my Twitter account, or, for more direct access, check out my Twitpic)

This year my outdoor container garden consists of most of the same plants I had last year-with the exception of no pumpkin or cucumber attempts. The marigolds are slightly different in terms of blooms, but the colors are still the same (yellow, orange, yellow&orange and red&orange) I have pink petunias as well as violet, silverdust, a magenta geranium, mini-sunflowers and a tomato plant. My lily only had 3 blooms this year-but the leaves are still very green. Next year I will have to repot it.

New this year-daisies (by seed-no blooms yet) and rose moss (portulaca). I'm also attempting to grow strawberries from seeds (not that I expect to get any fruit-it was one of my 'fun' plants) and chives. I also rescued a sweet potato plant from our communtity garden on campus (the Garden@Case). I didn't have a pot at the time, so I used an old coffee can-the sweet potato plant is already growing-I was worried because I had to leave it in a jar of water for a couple of days after I accidently pulled it up while weeding the sweet potato patch. I love rose moss-it's such a cool looking plant-plus the blooms are multicolored-so one plant can add a variety of color!

Portulaca, early summer

This year I put my tomato in a bigger pot-the plant is a healthy size-and the first 3 tomatoes are turning out nicely. Unfortunately, the fourth tomato had blossom end rot-which was a problem I had with my tomato plant last year. I was talking to my mom and she suggested adding eggshells to the soil to help add calcium (lack of calcium is one of the causes of blossom end rot) I've been saving eggshells all week-hopefully I'll get a chance to add them to the soil this Saturday. I have 8, possibly 9 new fruits growing on the plant-I would be sad if they all developed blossom end rot. :(

Speaking of vegetables-Case has a community garden! I've tweeted pics, but I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here. Spearheaded by members of the Anthropology Department and the Library, along with help from the University Farm, we started a vegetable garden!

So far I've had peas, cucumbers and brocolli from the garden. I have a freakin' huge summer squash that I really need to do something with soon (I want to make bread, but it's sooooo freakin' hot) I was really excited about the cucumbers and brocolli-I just had steamed brocolli for dinner-it was very, very yummy. ;) Next I am really excited about the corn (although we had a critter attack last night-probably racoons), watermelon, and...

PUMPKIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, it is so freakin' huge!!! And there are at least 3 more growing in the garden! I LOVE PUMPKIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

...I'm ok-really, I am. :)

Turns out I love gardening-whether it be in pots or in the ground, outdoors or indoors. I love seeing my plants grow and flourish! :)

(all pictures in this post are from my Twitpic account-click on the image for a bigger picture :) )

Game of Thrones Violin Cover

2011-07-08T15:49:00.002-05:00

Wow...just...WOW. :)

Must...get...soundtrack....

Happy 4th!

2011-07-03T15:45:00.003-05:00

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!!

Not surprisingly, once again I neglected this blog for a month. Gah! As I'm typing this, I hear my next door neighbor's radio blasting-wow, I haven't heard that song since the 80s/early 90s. That takes me back... ;)

Tomorrow I'll be playing at the Shore Acres Fourth of July parade with the Italian Band. Hopefully I'll get the chance to see fireworks tomorrow night. :)

Well, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday! If it's gonna be sunny, don't forget your sunscreen! (I've already had too much sun this weekend!) LOL.

Marcon!

2011-05-27T01:17:00.002-05:00

Well, I didn't get everything that I would have liked to have finished for Marcon 46. That's okay, though-Julie was kind enough to lend me a back-up skirt, just in case I didn't finish mine.

I did complete my first sewing project! (well, first since Home Ec in the 7th grade). I made a little draw-stringed purse, which I will use with my Steampunk costume this weekend. This project was trial and error...mostly errors. ;) It took awhile, but I did finish it!! This project helped me become more familiar with my sewing machine, and now that I know I can use it properly, future projects will seem less daunting. (well, that's my hope, anyway.) ;-D I'll post some pictures soon.

I also have to debut my new toy-the Fourth Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver!! I'm sooo excited! I've wanted one for years, but they were always out of my price range. (most were collector/model types). Character Options debuted their version earlier this year. Late last year they debuted the Third Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, which I was considering, but never purchased (well, not yet anyway. ;) ).

Yikes, it's getting way too late. I'll be tweeting from Marcon (must remember phone charger this year!!!)

Everyone have a fun and safe holiday weekend!!!

Busy Bee

2011-05-13T11:56:00.004-05:00

Things to do this weekend:

-update blogs (yes, plural)

-clean house (gah, I hate cleaning-what I hate more is a messy place)

-laundry (blarrggg, but I do like wearing clean clothes...)

-empty outdoor flower pots, bring up outdoor decos and summer lights

-get to the garden store to refill soon-to-be empty pots :-D

-work on mock-up skirt, as well as other crafty projects

-catch up on dvr showings...once again I'm over 90% full. Hard to believe I was actually down to the mid sixties before the new year.

-READ!!! Uggh, I haven't had time to read! I wanna be farther along into A Clash of Kings and I've had to renew more than one manga twice already!! That never happens!

-get cards in the mail. (I'm already late with Mother's Day cards and 2 birthday cards. Hopefully my niece T's card will actually be on time.)

Seriously, there is not enough time in the weekend. Although, as I have come to the sad reality that a long vacation up north might not be a possibility this summer (WAAAAH), I've decided to take a day off here and there and make long weekends of it, starting next week. Next Friday, and then instead of taking just the Friday of Marcon off, I'll be taking the Thursday off, too. Mostly to try to finish up all my costuming. After my sewing lesson Sunday, I discovered there are a few more things I need to purchase at JoAnns.

...although a long trip up to MN might be out, I haven't given up on the idea of a long weekend. Although the logistics of that will be a nightmare-trying to see everybody within a couple of days could get crazy. ;) We'll see.

I've got a baby shower to plan! And a baby blanket to finish before said baby shower! LOL. :)

pondering in the middle of the night...

2011-05-07T02:21:00.003-05:00

...can be a bad thing. ;) Ahhh, insommnia is a crazy thing.

Still haven't posted a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen yet-but I am working on one...

I need to post more! I've got several projects coming up that I can post about-Sunday I'm getting a sewing lesson! I've got some costuming ideas for Marcon at the end of this month-so if I want to make them happen, I have to get going on the sewing! ;)

I need to decide what I'm going to try to grow on my back porch this year-I think I'm going to stick to flowers and foilage-as the vegetable experiment didn't work out too well last year...although I still might try to grow tomatoes in a pot.

*yawwwwn* Getting sleepy-but before I go, I just want to say Congrats to Perseph and Paul-they are going to have a little boy in the fall!! :) :)

RIP Elisabeth Sladen

2011-04-19T22:17:00.002-05:00

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/04/dwn190411204508-elisabeth-sladen-1948.html

Right now I am incredibly sad and at a loss for words. Sarah Jane was my favorite Doctor Who companion, and I absolutely adored The Sarah Jane Adventures. I can't believe she is really gone.

I will probably be writing up a tribute of my own within the next couple of days, but for now...

Farewell, Sarah Jane Smith.

Rest in peace, Elisabeth Sladen.

Relay and Obi-Wan....

2011-04-14T23:19:00.006-05:00

Howdy folks! I am writing this post from my "new" (as in, refurbished), computer, Obi-Wan! Yes, after many years, I finally got a new computer. Yoda has been good to me-he has lasted much longer than any normal computer would (in fact, he still is running, and can even get on the net, as I still am currently using dial up). He was my first computer when I started college-and although he has had a 'few' upgrades, he essentially remained the same in spirit. ;) There have been a few hiccups, and I am sure there will be many more. But it was time-Yoda could only handle Win98, and I really needed a computer that, at the very least, could handle XP. Even though Windows 7 is now the newest, greatest thing, I currently have XP running on this computer. Now I just need to find something faster than dial up. Rather than just getting high speed internet, I'm considering bundling some services, of which would mean I have to switch to digital phone, and switch my cable. (that would also entail either watching all of the 90% that I have stored in the dvr, or transferring it to tape or dvd.) So we'll see!

Next, really starts tomorrow (today? it is after midnight after all). Unfortunately, the weather is not looking good, so they may have to move to the rain site. I'm going to try to stay the whole time, but we'll see. Not being a driver, I might only stay until my team leaves, unless I can handle staying by myself the entire night. (not that it would be a super hard thing-but sometimes it's just nice to have your team around so you can give each other encouragement to keep going :)). It will also depend on how they set up the rain site. In any case, I will post updates through my Twitter account (see the sidebar) while I'm there. :)

Tomorrow we are having a fundraising bake sale (an internal one-staff only) during lunch. Last time I checked, we were only $25 away from our team goal of $1000. We've already surpassed our fundrasing from the last two years. I myself have raised more money this year than in previous years-I even reached my goal before the end of March (Thank you everyone-you are AWESOME!!!) :)

I'm really looking forward to Relay-here's hoping the weather predicitions will improve before tomorrow night!!! :)

Lots and Lots of Walking...and Other Projects

2011-04-08T11:03:00.002-05:00

Well then, I’m quite behind in my walk reporting...

February was quite the snowy month. In fact, I was able to walk more in January.
February breakdown:
02/01-02/05: 1.5 miles
02/06-02/12: 3 miles
02/13-02/19: 15.1 miles
02/20-02-26: 12 miles
Total: 31.6 miles

Actually, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was checking in on my friends’ cats, I might not have even walked that much! So much snow... (not that I’m complaining about snow in February. LOL) The 25th was an interesting day-I was watching the school closings to see if the Cleveland Hts/University Hts school district would be closed (the bus tends to be early when there are no kids), and I never saw Case in the listings. While on the bus, I decided to check Facebook, just for kicks-when I found out that the University had closed!!! Got into the library, turned right around and went home (special thanks to Robin-she gave me a lift so I wouldn’t have to wait for a bus. She is an excellent snow driver!) Snow days are much more enjoyable when you don’t have to go to work first. LOL. I did get a little exercise shoveling the driveway that afternoon. ;) (I still need to find exercises to do in the winter...in addition to shoveling snow.)

March was much better, walk wise:
03/01-03/05: 12.6 miles
03/06-03/12: 17 miles
03/13-03/19: 27 miles
03/20-03/26: 24 miles
03/27-03/31: 20 miles
Total: 100.6 miles

I’m getting closer to my normal monthly total. April is off to a slow start (thanks to some wild weather), but I think I will make up for it. Tomorrow Perseph and I are doing the March for Marfan, and next weekend is Relay for Life!! This year I met my fundraisng goal before the beginning of April-yay!!! (Thank you for all your contributions!) I’m working on knitting up headbands for our team like I did last year. :)

Marcon is coming in May-I’m hoping to make a petticoat for my Steampunk costume in time. I found a really nice pattern I’d like to try. I’m also planning on making a draw-string handbag for my costume. It turns out that there will be enough scrap material leftover from my petticoat to make one! I’m hoping to dig out my sewing machine on Holy Saturday and give at least the handbag a try. We’ll see!!! I also recently purchased some modeling clay for Steampunkery type accessories... ;)

In addition to the walks and Marcon, I also have to start thinking about what I’m going to grow on my back porch this year. :) Marigolds are always awesome, and I did really well with the Dusty Miller last year. Petunias have always done well for me too. The mini-sunflowers were really nice, as well as the seed geranium (best 69 cents I have ever spent on an outdoor plant) I’m hoping my lillies will pop up again, too. I have another hanging basket and window box, which I would like to grow something new in. Haven’t decided if I’m going to try to tackle vegetables in pots again this year. Maybe I’ll try with a different type of tomato plant than I had last year...

Speaking of plants, my cyclamens are about to enter their dormant cycle-the last bloom has faded, but most of the leaves are still green. Cyclamens are new to my indoor plant family-I will have to post a picture that I took when they were in full bloom. On a brighter note, my African Violets are blooming again!!! I’m so excited! If I can get the cyclamens to come back next year, it’ll be perfect because I will have at least one flowering houseplant throughout the year! ;)

a couple of book reviews...

2011-03-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

Well! It's almost the end of March and I haven't posted here yet. Shame on me!

I know it's probably cheating, but here are a couple of (short) book reviews I did on Goodreads recently:

Bleach, Vol. 10: Tattoo on the Sky by Tite Kubo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really do enjoy Kubo's Bleach. Since I started watching the anime first, I'm much farther along in the overall story, so it is a little strange reading about the first time Ichigo entered the Soul Society to rescue Rukia from execution and seeing those who are now allies as enemies for the first time. Still, it was enjoyable, and I look forward to reading the manga and in the process, refreshing my memory of Ichigo &Co.'s earlier exploits.

Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3002283 Although I have only read 3 of Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan novels, I have not been disappointed yet. I love how in depth she goes, and yet is able to simplify some of the medical language for her readers through characters who don't get the medical jargon. I rather enjoy how different cases Brennan is working on which seemingly have nothing in common, end up being related.

I also found the information regarding the work being done by JPAC (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command) to be very interesting. I have to say, I had no idea about all the work that goes into identifying the remains of fallen soldiers, and returning them home.

View all my reviews

Yes, I need to finish my review of Prophecy of the Kings!!

I also need to post my walking totals for February-probably later this week. :)

Snowpocalypse 2011!!!

2011-02-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

...or, as my friend Lee posted, 'Blizznarok'. LOL.

Astronomer Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy posted this video that NASA and NOAA made with satellite images from January 31st to February 2nd:

Wow!

Anyone catch the front cover of the Plain Dealer yesterday? They had a satellite image from Tuesday, with a tiny 'you are here' arrow pointing to Cleveland. Pretty amazing.

I was lucky-didn't loose power, and the ice wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been (although I think a combination of the ice and wind took out half a strand of my snowflake lights-I noticed last night that they were out. :() Still, if that's the worst that happened to me, it's nothing. We've got mountains of snow along the streets (thanks plow trucks), so the sidewalks are pretty impassable.

It was amazing to see different posts from my friends all around the country-it was like we were all in the same area-it was just difficult to fathom that everyone was experience similar situations at the same time in different cities spreading across several different states.

How did you fare?

Walking update

2011-02-01T17:25:00.002-05:00

Well, looks like I was a little off with my mileage guesses. ;) Here's the new totals for January:

Week of January 2nd: 12 miles
Week of January 9th: 15 miles
Week of January 16th: 3 miles
Week of January 23rd: 8 miles
January 31st: 1 mile

Total miles for January 2011: 38 (not bad for a winter month!)

Walking into February

2011-01-31T20:23:00.000-05:00

It's the last day of January! First, I'd like to say, "GO, PACK, GO!!!" The Packers are going to the SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!! They are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers! Arthur and I are gonna get our co-hosted Superbowl party!!! But more on that later this week. ;)

One of the New Years resolutions I forgot to mention was I'd like to keep track of how many miles I walk each week. Here's the count so far (I think):

Week of January 2nd: not sure, but I think it's 0 (need to check bus pass)
Week of January 9th: 12 miles
Week of January 16th: 3 miles
Week of January 24th: 7 miles
(you get the general idea)

The first two weeks of January I'm not sure of at this point-I need to find the bus pass I had at the beginning of the year (if I still have it-I use 5 rides so each of my rides will be marked) and I need to check the weather-we had a bit of a melt down, so the sidewalks were clear for a brief time (biggest problem with walking in winter: walking through snow the snowplows from the street have tossed onto the sidewalks) I will update my mileage later this week.

I know I won't be able to keep track of every mile I walk, but I'd like to try to get a general estimate. ;) I'm already planning on how to keep track of the laps I do for Relay come April.

Here's hoping I can keep up with this! It will be interesting to see how much walking I do in an entire year.

*filed under LAFF plan-me and Sharon's 'Look And Feel Fabulous Plan'! ;)*

Congrats, Bert Blyleven!

2011-01-05T23:00:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to say congrats to new Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven! (Twins pitcher, 11 of his 22 seasons in baseball-including the 1987 World Series!)

Cooperstown calls for Alomar, Blyleven

Congrats to Alomar, too!! Both well deserving! :)

Welcome, 2011!!!

2011-01-05T00:35:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!!!

So I meant to write more while on vacation, but alas, it didn’t turn out that way. ;) I ended up being really busy-I mean, seriously. Since I wasn’t going to Minnesota this year (waahh), I thought this would be a nice, boring, relaxing vacation. Well, it was nice, and relaxing (when I actually had the chace to sit down!) It certainly wasn’t boring!

I had a plan-seriously I did-I even had what I was going to do before Christmas all mapped out-just ask my friend Sharon. ;) However, I should have known better. Somethings took a little longer than anticipated, other times I didn’t know how tired I actually was until I woke up from a long (but much needed) nap. LOL. Long phone conversations with family and friends far away. Then there were gatherings with friends here that I hadn’t originally planned (but was certainly not going to turn down!) It seemed I was always on the move. In fact, Monday was the first (and only!) day I didn’t go ANYWHERE. (ended up doing dishes, laundry, and finally finishing the latest season of “Ice Road Truckers” (the original-the spinoff is still in my dvr-LOL)). BTW-at the start of my vacation, my dvr was 97% full-I got it down to 66%! Woo!

I could list all of my New Years resolutions, but some are on a more personal/private level. So I’ll just list a few that aren’t so personal/private. ;)

-blog more : I’ve had a terrible time writing here the last couple of years, but if I can keep up the trend I started in November, I might actually do ok.

-find a different mode of exercise for when I can’t walk to work (because of the weather or when on vacation) Seriously-walking is awesome-may take a while to get to work, and I might complain sometimes, but I’m not complaining when my jeans feel loose around the waist-and not because they are too stretched out! ;) Gotta find something to supplement when walking on a regular basis is not possible.

-be a better daughter. Seriously, I need to call my Mom more-and not just when I’m not feeling well and need to hear my mother’s voice to make me feel better. ;) (Love you, Mommy!)

Well, I think that’s all for now. I just finished the last episode of Caprica-I have mixed feelings about it-if I can get it together, I might write a review/summary of it...although I’m terrible at writing reviews-I’m still trying to write a review of Prophecy of the Kings which I finished reading a week ago. 0:-)

Before I go, I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures of my Christmas Village and Christmas Tree for 2010. Hopefully I’ll get around to posting more pics before February. LOL!
(click pics for a slightly bigger image)

Spreading Some Holiday Cheer

2010-12-14T17:28:00.003-05:00

Well, so much for that blizzard that was supposed to hit us! Ok, the weather was kind of bad, and we did actually get to go home early yesterday (whoa!), but considering what they were originally predicting, this storm kinda just hiccuped and died. ;)

Finally finished my decorating! Now when I watch tv, I can work on my knitting, rather than trying to decorate during commercials. ;)

Thought I would send a little holiday cheer along. No matter how many times I see it, this video never gets old:

Also, do you like Target's commercials for the season? Did you know that you can download all the music from the commercials? ...for FREE?!?! AWESOME!
Check out http://www.target.com/christmas

Enjoy!!!

Snowy nights

2010-12-10T16:51:00.003-05:00

As promised, here are a couple of pictures from Wednesday night:
(click to enlarge)

Check out our lights, all covered in snow!!!

They are saying we are going to be hit with a blizzard Sunday, so there may be more snowy pictures in the future. ;)

Snow storms

2010-12-09T19:30:00.001-05:00

Wow! I hope everyone in the area survived the surprise lake effect snow storm that came through yesterday afternoon! (I say surprise, because it was all supposed to have passed by late Tuesday afternoon)I was lucky-I got a ride home, and we somehow managed to squeeze into an opening, then hit a pocket of no vehicles on the road and we whizzed up Cedar Hill (well, not exactly 'whizzed up', after all, the roads were nasty!) I had a couple of friends who were stuck downtown for quite some time. It took poor Arthur 5 and a half hours to get home! He could've been to Columbus and back at that rate! I've got a couple of pictures I'll hope to post sometime soon...

Tomorrow Sharon and I are going to the Botanical Gardens during our lunch break to check out the Gingerbread Houses-I'm so excited!! I'll definitely have to post some pictures of that.

This weekend is the annual holiday baking party that Perseph and I try to have each year. I'm making rum balls and fudge! ;) Speaking of the holidays, my place is slowly getting ready. The tree is up and decorated, and I have a few more Christmassy things to organize before I put up my Christmas village (yes, I'll post pictures!) Man, time flies! I can't believe Christmas is only 2 weeks away!

Thanksgiving weekend roundup! :)

2010-11-30T12:35:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! I did! I went over to the Jarc's for Thanksgiving dinner and had a great time! (even though I was coming down with a cold-boo!) Perseph's brother Adam and his wife Keeya joined us as well. After we ate we watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and played Mario Party 8. LOL. Good times, good times.

I forgot to mention Wednesday when I got home, my downstairs neighbor Rachel was adding lights to the outside of the house. I asked her if she needed any help, and also added a strand of old fashion lights and garland of my own! The front looks pretty good. :) Sunday I did my back porch-this year I did twinkling snowflakes, instead of blue icicles, and I also added a small tree with red and green lights. :)

I didn't do any Black Friday shopping this year (although there were some pretty cool doorbusters). Since I wasn't feeling well, I just relaxed at home. Even though it made my Saturday more busy than I would have liked, I really needed the rest. Of course that meant Saturday I had to run all my errands, plus try to decorate the house before heading to Winterfest later that evening. After I got home Saturday afternoon, I had to put away my fall/Thanksgiving decorations before I could even start Christmas decorating. All I managed to do was get my Snoopy lighted signs in the window. (That's ok, though-it's better than nothing!)

Winterfest was okay-keep in mind, my opinion this year is clouded somewhat, because I had a cold, which is not fun. I loved the Gingerbread houses on display at Tower City, but was disappointed that the flying contraptions they have hanging from the ceiling were once again missing. (someone mentioned that they might be at another mall). I loved those-and I finally had a decent camera to capture them! *sigh* I browsed through some stores before heading out for the lighting of downtown.

Okay, I need to find someplace to write a suggestion to the folks who run Winterfest-if you are only going to spring for one JumboTron, then at least face it in a direction so folks who are not lucky enough to stand in front of the stage can see what's going on!! That's been one of my biggest complaints.

The lights, however, were really cool! GE donated over a half a million lights for the downtown display (all LED, too). I got some pretty cool shots before my camera batteries started to die. LOL. Hopefully I will upload those soon. Unfortunately I didn't stay for the fireworks. Usually they set them off right after they light downtown, but this year they had several performances before the fireworks. I tried to stick around by walking around and taking pictures, but eventually the cold got to me (I blame the cold I had). ;)

Sunday I finished digging out my Christmas boxes and managed to put up my lighted garland and added a strand of lights to the bay window. My tree is up, but without lights. Hopefully I'll get around to adding lights tonight (while watching Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer!) I'm sort of planning on doing most of my decorating this weekend. For now, I have to box up some of my non-Christmas knick-knacks, so I have room! ;) I've also started a holiday baking supply list-there are my usual favorites for the season, plus several new recipes I would like to try. Once again, Family Fun has a couple of holiday cookie ideas I would like to try (last year it was fudge-and boy was it YUMMY!) ;)

Christmas season? Bring it on!!! :)

Fall Colors and More...

2010-11-24T19:00:00.000-05:00

Ah, yes! The day before Thanksgiving! Busy time for everyone-a lot of my coworkers took the day off, so it was very quiet at work. I took last year off, but this year decided to save it for around Christmas time. I will be making pumpkin pies in just a bit. I LOVE making pumpkin pies! Crust and all! ;) This year I’m heading over to the Jarcs’ for Thanksgiving dinner-which will be alot of fun! Dunno if I’ll be doing any Black Friday Christmas shopping, but I am hoping to head downtown for Winterfest on Saturday. Nothing like a good old fashion lighting to get you in the mood...old fashion with fireworks...and lasers. LOL. (hmmm...are there lasers this year...?)

Well, most of the leaves have finally fallen off the trees. I’m kicking myself for not getting out and taking more pictures (well, more than I did) This year I missed going to Cain Park and the Lagoon. It’s really sad that I missed the Lagoon-considering it is right next door to where I work. All I needed was one lunch break! Ha! I did manage to get some really nice pictures around campus and while out walking. (again, why didn’t I walk to Cain Park?)

Here’s a nice picture from Cedar Road:

(click the thumbnails to embiggen)

And this area by the Southside dorms (uh, I mean Residential Village) never fails to disappoint:

(click the thumbnails to embiggen)
The third year I was in Tippit, I basically took the same shot-only there were dark grey clouds in the background, making the browns and oranges on the trees really stand out-next year I might take another picture and post it along with this one and the one from 1998...

This year I noticed the leaves in several stages of changing color-I’m sure it happens all the time, but I’ve been noticing it more. Has walking on a regular basis made me more observant? I dunno, but I’m enjoying it. Here’s a tree with some brighter colors:

Here’s another tree with darker colors:

Are they not gorgeous? Have I mentioned how much I love the fall? :)

Well, if I don’t get the chance to post tomorrow, I just want to say, Happy Thanksgiving! If you are traveling, I hope you make it to your destinations safely! I’m off to make pumpkin pies!!! :)

Make your own Owl Lovers 2011 Calendar!

2010-11-23T19:00:00.003-05:00

Just found this on Craftzine-a link to make your own (free!) 2011 Owl Calendar.

I made one for myself. The images are just too cute! It was hard to pick only 12. I may have to make another one! The artwork is just fantastic.

Oh! I can't do a post today without adding, 'Happy Birthday Doctor Who!!!!' Hard to believe it's been around for 47 years! For fun, if you missed it on my knitting blog:
Tardis socks!

Halloween, part 3

2010-11-11T12:45:00.004-05:00

Well, even though I have tons of pictures (I take way too many!) I think I will wrap up my 2010 Halloween with this post. Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away, after all!!!

As I mentioned earlier, this year I spent Halloween at the Jarc's. Since I carved a pumpkin, and felt 2010 Jack deserved to have a candle light his insides, I brought along my freshly (actually, day old) carved pumpkin. He hung out on the front steps, and looked pretty cool!

2010 Jack

As we were getting ready for the kids, we noticed that the setting sun had a very cool affect on the trees in the neighborhood.

Isn't that cool? Look how the trees in the background seem to come alive with a warm autumn glow. Oooh, I love the fall!!!!!!!!

We didn't have as many kids as we've had before-I did a count on Twitter, but by the end of the evening, we had lost count (the gap between kids was unusually long). We probably had less than 100 kids. This year, however, a good portion of the kids were in costume (even if it was only a mask or a painted face, they got an 'A' for effort in my book) and they were all polite (which, for the kids who were not in costume or just in masks, helped with their 'A' for effort. ;)). If some missed saying 'Trick or Treat', they at least said 'Thank you!'. :) We didn't run out of candy, and there was plenty of leftovers!

Back at home, I had set up my annual lighted Halloween Village (thank you, Lemax!) I started this village in 2000 with just one building, and added a new one every year, with the exception of this year and last.

(click to embiggen)

I love my lighted village-both for Halloween and Christmas! Next year I hope to add some more trees to this village-I think it would look cool. I haven't decided if I'm going to continue to add buildings to this one-my Christmas village continues to sprawl, but I kind of like the way this one has shaped up. :)

And last but not least, my back porch! Although I had to replace the bats from last year, I did manage to find similar ones-there are six in a strand, plus the entire bat blinks with this set (the set I used last year, only the eyes twinkled.)

My bats, ghoulies, and totally awesome pumpkin lanterns

Ah, yes, I love this time of year!! Next up, Thanksgiving!!! :)

Halloween, part 2 Warning: images galore!

2010-11-02T11:53:00.004-05:00

Hope everyone got out to vote today! I did-bright and early (because I knew I would be too tired at the end of the day) ;)

For my second Halloween post, I want to share the costume I made-no real character (although from looking at some of the pictures, I could be the Mad Hatter or a character from A Clockwork Orange...). I wanted to try making a Steampunk themed costume, because I've always loved Steampunk, plus the theme for Marcon next year is alternative history-it will work for that as well! :-)

To start off, I needed boots-and as I've mentioned before, my calves are entirely too thick for fancy boots, but I came across a pattern for knitted spats (see my entry in Roknits for more details). Here's a picture of me actually wearing them:

Next I wanted to work on a really cool hat. This is where it could get rather expensive, with goggles and clock pieces and all. After finding an inexpensive hat and pair of goggles at Halloween City, I decided I could make stencils of clockwork pieces and make some using cardstock from JoAnn's:

(the colors are from Gemstones: Japser and Onyx)

Check out the stenciling:

Next it was on to the cutting-for the inner holes, I recommend a sharp xacto knife. (The first blade I tried wasn't very sharp-it was a rather harrowing experience. Fortunately, I had more blades.)

First I cut the inner holes with the xacto knife, then used the scissors to cut the main shape...

Now, I did fill up both sheets with stencils-this is more than enough! ;)

They are not all going to fit on this hat!!

Although the goggles had a nice tight band which worked as an anchor, I thought if I wanted to create a fancy design, good old fashion Elmers Glue would do the trick:

Once I had the pieces together, I was able to slip them under the goggles band for the finished hat:

(Ta-daa!)

My costume:

The shirt, skirt, and waistcoat all came out of my closet. The shoes were ones I had worn for a friend's wedding, and the parasol was a loaner from my best friend (isn't it awesome?!?!). :-) ...too bad I blinked! LOL!

(I created this entry for the Halloween contest at Craftzine) :-)

Halloween, part 1

2010-11-01T12:41:00.001-05:00

Well, I meant to post this entry before Halloween, with updates after, but alas-my costume needed just a little more tweaking than I thought it would, and I ran out of time!

I hope everyone had a fun, safe, and happy Halloween!! I know I did! Although I didn't give out candy at my place this year (like I did last year for the first time ever!), I still decorated, because, well, I love to decorate!

Here's my pumpkin, resting on my back porch-it had no idea what it was to become late Friday night. ;)

Here's a picture from part of my yard. I adore Peanuts-I think the Snoopy sign is the only decoration that I didn't buy on sale, because when I saw it, I had to have it before the store ran out! (which they did!) Not all of these decorations are mine-my downstairs neighbor also likes to decorate! :)

I recently finished a knitting project! Check out my Steampunk Spats at RoKnits:
Steampunk Spatterdashes

They were a part of my Steampunk themed Halloween costume that I wore to P&B's Halloween party. I also worked on a hat. Steampunk costuming can get on the pricey side if you're not careful, so I decided to find a simpler route. I picked up a pair of cheap, but IMO, very cool looking googles and a top hat at Halloween City, and decided to make some clockwork pieces using stencils I had created from pictures, and some card stock from JoAnn's.

(clock piece stencils)

I will be posting more about my hat-Craftzine is having a Halloween contest-normally I don't do these type of contests (I once tried to do a Christmas Village display contest at Michaels, only to find I had the cutoff date wrong!) but I thought I would give this a try. :)

Oh! If you haven't noticed-I finally have a working RSS-feed for my blog!!!! :)

A letter

2010-10-06T08:40:00.001-05:00

Dear Twins:

Okay Boys, this is it!!! Sure it's been a rough couple of weeks, but it's time to put that behind you and to start kicking some serious baseball butt! (remember 1987? You can do it!!!) You've got home field advantage for the ADLS in the brand-spankin' new Target Field-lets make some magic happen!! You know I love you and just want to thank you for the exciting ride this year (but I wouldn't mind extending that ride a little longer, say, until November? :)) xoxo, Romana.

P.S. WIN TWINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

some book reviews

2010-09-30T16:21:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of book reviews I did fairly recently on goodreads:

We're Gonna Win, Twins! by Doug Grow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book-it was great to learn more about the history of my home team, and to relieve the childhood memories of our first World Series win. Doug Grow did a excellent job-while reading about the first World Series win in 1987, I actually got shivers down my spin and couldn't help but feel excited all over again. And I have to admit, re-reading about the death of Twins announcer Herb Carneal the day before Opening Day back in 2007 brought tears to my eyes. I actually found a copy of this book in the Cleveland Public Library, but I will definitely have to add this to my personal collection at home!

View all my reviews

The Cain Saga, Volume 1: Juliet by Kaori Yuki

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I started reading Kaori Yuki's Godchild series first, and decided before I finished it off (I still need to read volume 8) I would give her prequel a try. Not too bad-the 2 extra shorts that were in this volume(that seem to have nothing to do with the Cain story) were a little distracting but not too bad. I will be reading the next volume of the series. :)

View all my reviews

One last hurrah for September!

2010-09-30T15:56:00.005-05:00

Ah, the last day of September! Fall is here, and I'm very excited about Halloween! :) This weekend I think I will put up my yard decorations. I already have some regular fall decos out around the house, including new candles from Glade..mmm...I love the new scents! (too bad they are limited edition). ;)

Decorating won't be the only thing I'm doing this weekend. Saturday I'll be participating in the NAMI Walk with Brigie. Check out our team page! Brigie works for Recovery Resources here in the Cleveland area. I'm looking forward to the walk-I'll be sure to take pictures (although whether they make it to the blog is a different story! ;) )

Sunday is the Peruvian procession for Italian Band, which will be our last official gig of the year. I think this is the first time in a while that I've been able to make every gig! (usually I'm away during the 4th, so I miss the 4th of July parade. This year I took my vacation later, and made sure to schedule it around Mt. Carmel. ;))

Today we had an open house at the library-Stephanie and I were at the front door, answering questions and directing traffic. We had alot of fun. We had alot of cool giveaways (tote bags, water bottles, etc), but we were surprised at the number of people who wanted a free t-shirt! (we had t-shirts especially for the event) It was also cool to hear students and professors walk by and say, 'wow, I didn't know they had that here'. We also noticed that some would stop by, see what was going on, and call their friends and tell them to come too. :)

Before I sign off, I'm going to do another post for some book reviews. I joined Goodreads earlier this year, and when you write a review, you have the option to cut and paste your review into your blog-I think I will try that-it will save time retyping! ;)

St. Rocco's 2010!

2010-09-03T15:42:00.002-05:00

It's time for St. Rocco's festival! Normally I would have a post about how excited I am for another Italian Band gig (and how excited I am for the zeppoli! I waited all summer!) but I've been busy setting up a blog for the Italian Band. :) We'll be at St. Rocco's Saturday evening, and Sunday afternoon for the procession, and Sunday evening again.

Stop by to here us play and have some Zeppoli!!

Oh! Here's a link to the post I created for the Italian band site:
St. Rocco's

Everyone have a fun and safe holiday weekend!!

Perseids and the Feast

2010-08-12T14:58:00.003-05:00

Well, phooey-nothing in July. That makes it the second month when I didn't post anything at all. Not even a short note to let you know I still have every intention of blogging again. Hmmm...maybe I should consider mobile updates for brief messages. I have a Twitter account for something like that, but not everyone uses Twitter. The only thing is it will only update this blog and not my LiveJournal or MySpace blogs. Oh, well.

Tonight is the first night of the Feast of the Assumption! We will be doing our standard around the neighborhood for the first couple of hours, with a sit down sometime after 8pm. Dunno if I'll have the chance to update during the Feast, but you never know-I might try. ;) If you are on Twitter, you can follow me there-as I'm sure I'll update it at least a couple of times this weekend. ;)

From last year:

Yeah, I know-not many pictures. That's ok-the Italian Band has a, wait for it... Facebook page!! It's set up so you can browse our photos without logging into Facebook. I'm hoping to eventually create a fan page... If you are on Facebook, check us out! Even if you're not-you can still look at our public posts. :)

Another exciting even happening tonight-the Perseids!!! Check out Sky and Telescope. I was able to see 70+ meteors from my backyard last year. Hopefully I'll be able to spot some tonight as well. :)

the beginning of summer!

2010-06-30T14:10:00.004-05:00

Well, I thought for sure I would post more in the month of June, but it just didn't happen. I caught a bad cold at the beginning of the month, which caused a double ear infection (yuck!), and I'm still not 100%. Blah!

It's weird still being here-usually by this time I'm in Minnesota visiting my family for the Fourth of July. I'm still going up there this summer-just later in July (after Mount Carmel!) Since I'm here, I'll be able to play in the parade at Shore Acres-I played there the first year I was in Italian Band, but ever since then I've always been in Minnesota. Wait, now that I think about it, I might have played there the first two years I was in Italian band...that still makes it 11 years since I've played that gig! ;)

I've got quite the container garden on my back porch-I've had quite a few successes, a couple of disappointments, a surprise, and one puzzle: I have no idea what's wrong with my marigolds this year-half of them are thriving right out of the window box, the other half seem to be thinning out. I turned the box around so the thinner side would get more sunlight, and have cut away the dead buds/leaves to encourage new growth, so we'll see how it holds up. *keeping fingers crossed* Indoor plant wise-I finally re-potted my jade plants! Most of my jade had died off, but I had several little pieces that I kept in water-they lived like this for a couple of years! So far they are doing well. Speaking of re-potting-I had to re-pot my African violets!!! These were ones I got at Jerm and Allison's wedding shower last July. I left them in their original pot and kept watering them after the original blooms had fallen off. Then, just before Easter, I noticed new blooms!!! That's a first for me!!! Those blooms fell off back in May, BUT-they are blooming again!!!! I noticed new buds a couple of weeks ago-unfortunately, the leaves were starting to look yellow (and the plant looked a little crowded), so I re-potted them-they are blooming again and the leaves are starting to look greener. :) I've also started feeding all my plants (indoors and out) on a regular basis (something I hadn't done in a while...)

Well, my afternoon break is just about up. So I'll leave you with this video, which incorporates two of my most favorite things: Orbital and Doctor Who!!

Epic. Win.

Flying into (outof?) Spring!

2010-05-27T11:31:00.004-05:00

Whoa! It's the end of May! I haven't had much time to post since I switched my blog, and so much has gone on!

I still need to write up the rest of the events at Relay-I also need to get on the ball and post some pictures! (I haven't even uploaded any to flickr or facebook yet.)

Summer is just around the corner! My summer lights are up! Also, I've planted new flowers! I have more this year-I added another hanging basket-filled with purple petunias, dusty miller, and some English ivy. In my original hanging basket, I planted the extra petunias (the extra dusty miller went into a regular pot on the table on my porch) This year I decided to have marigolds in the flower box (last year I had marigolds and white petunias). I have yellow, orange and French (orange and red) marigolds. I also purchased a geranium, to add a touch of pink to my porch.

Speaking of pink, my Asian lillies have come back! Last year I just cut down the old plant and left it on my porch. Earlier this spring, I noticed several new shoots starting to pop up! I repotted the plant, and now some of them have buds!! They will probably be a little smaller than the ones I had last year, but that's okay by me! :)

This year I decided to start some seeds. I had some leftover miniature sunflower seeds that I planted, along with some cucumber seeds that I purchased a couple weeks ago. I also wanted to try to start the pumpkin seeds I had dried from my pumpkin last October. I started them using potting mix and egg cartons (the papery-pulp kind, not the styrofoam kind). Since I've never had that much luck with seeds, I didn't expect them to sprout-but they did!!! Even the pumpkin seeds!!! I have seedlings now!!! Unfortunately, I don't have enough room to plant them all. :( Fortunately, I know some people who are willing to 'adopt' my little plants, once they've matured enough to be replanted. Even the pumpkins! :) I've been taking pictures documenting all of my container gardening exploits-maybe someday I'll remember to post them along with the pictures for Relay. I still haven't given up on my quest to grow a tomato plant. Even though it is getting a little late, I may try to see if the garden center up the street from me still have some plants.

Marcon is this weekend! I'm working the video room again. I volunteered to take the Friday night/Saturday morning shift again-time to stock up on caffeine!! ;) I'm not sure if I'll be going in costume this year. I will still bring my Doctor Who scarf, and Krismutt's K-9 costume. ;)

Have a fun and safe weekend everybody!!!

Success? I hope so!

2010-05-03T23:07:00.002-05:00

I think I managed to successfully migrate my blog!! There were a few hiccups though.
First, Blogger couldn't reach my ftp account. I wasn't sure who wasn't talking to who, but I finally managed to get Blogger to sign into my server. Not really how I wanted to spend my lunch hour, but since I'm still working with dial up here at home, I wanted to do the migration with a more reliable connection.

Then I started the migration process-everything was going smoothly until I got an error from Blogger-it couldn't reach my ftp server again. They gave me a link to download all the files I needed, and instructed me to upload them manually (which, by the way, is what you have to do if you waited until after May 1st to update your blog. The migration tool was designed to do most of the work for you, while it still had ftp support.) Since I couldn't access my server at work, I had to wait until I got home. Just for kicks, I decided to see what my blog looked like in it's current state, since Blogger did say my new site was live. To me, it looked like everything was there, except for the images and coloring in the template. It took me a while before I realized what was wrong with the template. It was a simple mistake-since I was publishing using ftp, Blogger didn't have to know where in internet land the css file and images were for my template-it just needed to know the right directory to look into on the server. Once Blogger started doing all the publishing again, it got confused and didn't know where I was pulling the old files from. Once I realized the problem, I typed out the full address in the template, and now the images, structure, font, and coloring are correct. *whew*

As for the problem with loading files-I think I may have reached my quota for the day, so the system couldn't finish the migration. However, I checked some pages in my old blog, and the correct tags seem to be in place, for the most part. I checked some entries from 2006 and ended up with a missing page. I received a note from someone on Blogger, and he seems to think everything is in place. Also, I glanced at the files on my server-it looks like most of them are there... Maybe the issue has corrected itself, or the server hadn't registered all the changes when I checked the old blog. Since my entire archive is available here, I can take my time to check the old links.

Speaking of old links, I still have to clean up a few of my sidebar links, but I've updated most of them. I replaced my list of books with a widget to my goodreads account, plus a couple more widgets. Hey! Now that I'm back with blogger, I have an rss-feed! (see post below).

I think that's it for now. I gotta find time to write up another post for Relay, plus I want to post about this weekend Go, Twins!!

This blog has moved

2010-04-30T12:48:00.001-05:00

This blog is now located at http://wanderingthroughespace.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://wanderingthroughespace.blogspot.com/rss.xml.

Leave it to me...

2010-04-29T14:20:00.003-05:00

...to leave things to the last minute.

Yup, I'm still publishing with my ftp server. The deadline is Saturday-yikes!

I've actually been thinking about this for several weeks-how do I get Blogger to do what I want? I would like to keep this blog at my dreamingheart address, but Blogger doesn't support my current set up (publishing to a file). Each blog has to have it's own unique address (like blog.mydomain.com, instead of mydomain.com/blog) There is also an issue with naked domains, but I'm not as clear about that...

In any case, if I want to keep my dreamingheart address, I can't do it on my own-I'll need some help from my hostess. She is quite busy at the moment-being a new mommy and all. ;) I would rather wait until we both have enough time to work on this. :)

That leaves me to my next dilemma-what do I do in the meantime? Move temporarily to blogspot? Leave this be for now, and just post to my liveJournal account? (Right now it's boringly called Romana1's Journal, I've been thinking about calling it 'Somewhere between N- and E-Space.' ;) )

After debating it for a while, I have decided I'm going to temporarily return to blogspot, rather than let this site go dormant. Once we get the custom domain figured out, I should be able to switch back. I'm planning on migrating sometime either tonight or tomorrow (when all the last minute folks will be doing it-god help me!). I think the idea is that even if you still click to this site, Blogger should direct you to my new blogspot address. If you don't see any new posts by Tuesday, May 4th, head on over to my main page http://romana.dreamingheart.net. I am planning on using that to update on my progress, or rather, report any snafus that may occur. If I have to hangout somewhere else in blogland, I'll point you in the right direction there.

After all this is over, I plan on writing a couple more posts about Relay. :)

See you on the flip side!!

Relay 2010, update 1: the setup!

2010-04-20T11:38:00.003-05:00

Wow, what a Relay! This year was quite a challenge with the weather (well, it is April in Cleveland, after all). First it was rain, then wind, then chilly temperatures, and even a few snow flurries! ;)

All last week the weather had been calling for rain, but by Friday the chances had diminished quite a bit. It was drizzly throughout the day, but had pretty much gone by about 4pm. However, the wind picked up! It took Brian and I nearly an hour to put up our tent. Because of the sprinkler system, we weren't allowed to use stakes in the ground, so that provided to be a real challenge. As Brian retells the tale, I was in the back, holding down the tent while he was trying to set it up in the front. There was this huge gust of wind, and I screamed as it nearly took me out. Brian calls 'Are you okay?' and hears me say 'I'm ok!' in a tiny voice. LOL. Finally, a couple of guys came over and asked if we needed any help. ;)

They did provide sandbags-sort of. The sandbags were these gallon sized bags from Walmart that you could fill up with pool filter sand. Unfortunately, the bags broke easily, so we had to come up with other methods. At one point we had 2 recycle bins and one trash bin in our tent, to hold it down as we found other methods to keep it from blowing over. We ended up with two spare tires and a cooler on the inside, and about 10 "sandbags" around the posts on the outside. We even let the team next to us use our tent to house there stuff so we would have extra weight! ;) (the didn't have a tent) We were lucky than most-by the end of the night most tents had blown away or collapsed. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take a few pics of our initial set up-by the time we checked in, got our tent up and unloaded the van, it was 6pm!

Our team met up in the middle of the field for the opening ceremonies. After CWRU's president, Barbara Snyder, spoke the Survivors did a lap around the track. I was a little sad to see that there wasn't as many this year than last year, but I hope it was because the weather turned some people off. After the survivor lap, it was time for the team lap. Brian, Perseph, Ron, Mark and I were there for the team lap. I had made everyone in our team headbands, and I was thrilled that everyone wore them-even the guys! :) We had a different sign this year-I think it may have been a bit longer. All I know is that the wind made it feel like it was going to whip us away at any second! ;) We did two laps as a team (go KSL! ;)) Afterwards, Perseph and I did about 4 more laps before breaking for dinner.

Yikes, that's all I have time for today. More updates coming soon! And hopefully I'll have pictures! (by the way- thank you, Jess, for taking a picture of our team holding the banner!)

Relay!!

2010-04-16T14:53:00.003-05:00

Rain or shine, this weekend, I'll be at CWRU's Relay for Life! I'll be updating my twitter page (which also updates my facebook page) from time to time throughout the night and hopefully I'll be taking lots of pictures. Relay runs from 6pm until noon tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for dry weather! ;)

Playball!!!

2010-04-12T15:39:00.003-05:00

Shhh...what's that I hear? Why, it's the sound of outdoor baseball returning to Minnesota!!!!

Go, Twins!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

2010-03-17T13:17:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to take time out and say, "Happy St. Patrick's Day!"
Stay safe, folks!

hmmm...updates coming soon (I hope!) ;)

new commenting

2010-02-15T12:52:00.003-05:00

So a couple of days after I find out that Blogger will no longer support FTP publishing, I find out that my current host for my comments, Haloscan, will be ending their service this Friday. Yay. :p

No matter, I decided rather than switch to another commenting system (before Haloscan, I was using Enetation) I decided to go ahead and use Blogger's commenting system. (Why didn't I start with Blogger? Well, when I first started my blog, Blogger didn't support comments)

Haloscan is allowing its members to switch to a new service-but it is a pay service, so I think I'll decline-after all, not many people comment on my blogs, so why pay for the option?

Ah, well-haven't switched my publishing yet-that will be an adventure over the next few weeks! ;)

testing....sigh

2010-02-02T13:24:00.002-05:00

Grrr...so I didn't post at all in January-my streak is broken! :(

However, today I got an email from Blogger saying they will be discontinuing FTP support in March. (that's how I publish Wandering) This is just a test to see if my blog is still publishing, so this entry probably will not show up on LiveJournal or MySpace...

To top it off, my comments don't seem to be working! Argggg....

Changes are a-comin'. I don't know if I have time to adjust!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T01:10:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! (or Happy Hanukkah or Happy Solstice, or Happy Festivus, etc.-which ever your holiday was, I hope it was wonderful!)

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!! :) See you on the flip side!

Full of turkey...

2009-11-30T16:39:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Mine was eventful. Blew a fuse Thursday night, had to get the circuit breaker fixed (thanks to my awesome landlord, that was taken care of the next day) While fixing that, he noticed some roofing had broken loose-yikes! Looks like there will be roofers in my immediate future. ;) Overall though, I had a good Thanksgiving. :) Plenty of leftover turkey! I love turkey!

Saturday I went downtown for Winterfest. I hoped it would help me get into full Christmas mode. ;) I've got pictures, will have to post a couple soon...

Started decorating for Christmas! This is my favorite holiday. I love Christmas lights-had to replace a few this year (which is why after Christmas sales are awesome! I have backups-lights don't work? Just head down to the basement, instead of the store! ;)) I'm no where near done, but at least the is a tree with lights in my window. :)

*heehee* Okay, so I never wrote about how I felt when Brett Favre signed with the Vikings. I won't go into details, but needless to say, I was not happy. Not that this has anything to do with football, but this t-shirt made me laugh:
http://www.linorulli.com/Lino_Rulli/Shirts.html I may just have to get one!

Tomorrow is Halloween!!!

2009-10-30T16:09:00.004-05:00

Oooh! I'm so excited! Halloween's tomorrow!

I'm actually going to try to give out candy at my own home (normally I help Perseph and Paul on Halloween night-but Perseph is currently on a road trip! :))

I have no idea how many kids I'll get-I'm thinking about being a total nerd and Tweeting the events through the night. We'll see. ;)

Until then, I have a few pictures to share:
My pumpkin!

which will soon be turned into a jack-o-lantern...

Some porch decos!

I hope my bat lights survive the wind!!

And this I took last week-it's totally cool-but would be much cooler if I had a telephoto lens:

Can you see it between the trees and the telephone poll? It's the moon-less than 10 percent full! When I first spotted it, I actually thought it was a jet trail (since there were several in the sky) The full size image is much clearer, but, well, that's a pretty big image!! ;)

Happy Halloween!!!

They did it!!!!

2009-10-07T16:13:00.002-05:00

They did it!!! The Twins are the AL 2009 Central Division Champions!!!!!!!! The first team to win after being 3 games behind with only 4 left to play. Those are my boys!!!!!! Now, it's off to New York.

Man, that tiebreaker game with the Tigers-12 innings!!! I was jumping up and down-my emotions were all over the place as they were behind, ahead, behind, tied, AHEAD!!!!

The Twins landed in N.Y. at 3:05am-first pitch is less than an hour from now...

It ain't over yet!!!

GO TWINS!!!!

September...no, wait, OCTOBER!

2009-09-30T11:30:00.002-05:00

Holy smokes! It's the last day of September, and I haven't written anything in this blog all month! Wow, and I thought only 2 posts a month were bad...

I've just been busy, I guess. It's not like I have nothing to write about-I think of entries all the time-just don't have the time to write them all out! I have quite a few things I've starred in my rss-reader that I'd like to write about. *sigh*

Let's see, what has happened this month? Well, St. Rocco's for Italian Band, the Tippit reunion. I actually went to the movies (btw, 9 is pretty awesome!) Worked on cleaning my Dad's telescope (the mirror really needs to be re-silvered-but that's another story that I didn't get to this month...perhaps I'll write more about that later). Hmm...what else? I participated in Case for Community Day again (7 years running!), love my tv shows (well, duh), my flowers on my porch are still blooming-my petunias have taken over my marigolds!! (although it's getting pretty chilly at night.) I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting...

BTW, the Sarah Jane Adventures starts in 16 days in the UK!!!!! (see? That's another thing-I haven't put any new countdowns in my sidebar...) I wish someone would pick it up here in the US. SciFi rebranded it's self to SyFy (Siffy), and not only did the SJA website on scifi.com disappear, but I haven't heard if they are considering airing it or not. (yeah, I haven't had much time to really dig down into GeekGirl mode to find out, either)...

Okay, okay, okay! Enough about the stuff I haven't had time to write about...

Fall is here! (YAY!) This marks the beginning of my favorite time of year (fall/winter). A couple of weeks ago I took down my summer lights in favor for some autumn decorations. (oooh...pumpkin spice candles!!!) This weekend the goal is to dig my Halloween stuff out of the basement. (oooh! for the first time in 2 years, I'm NOT moving! I get to dig my stuff out of the basement instead of bringing it home from storage...)

OOOH! A (delayed) shout out to my niece, Boo!!! Her MN reading comprehension tests came back-and she's reading a whole grade level ahead!!!! That's my girl!!!

Also, GO TWINS!!! Beat Detroit!!! You can do it!!!!!!

Bring on October!!!!

Well, now, I feel silly...

2009-08-27T15:41:00.005-05:00

So I'm sitting here at work, catching up on some older Lino at Large podcasts that I missed...

Lino was playing "20 Bible Questions" with Lou-Lou was asking, Lino answering. Lou's usually pretty good at guessing-but he was having a hard time with this one: a thing that Jesus never touched, made of wood. It wasn't until close to the end, when Lino answered yes to 'is it from the Old Testament?' when I realized the answer was "Noah's Ark".

...however, I didn't just think it. No. I blurted, "the Ark!" for all to hear.

Lucky for me, most of my coworkers had left for the day and those that remained had headphones on-just like me. *whew!*

The Backyard Test

2009-08-13T15:51:00.003-05:00

Perseids, Day Two: Observation time: 11:30pm-2:00am. Number of meteors spotted: 70.

Considering where I live, with the level of light pollution (not counting the moon), I'd say that's pretty good. :) I started out sitting in my lawn chair again, but quickly decided to grab my beach towel so I could lay down in the grass instead. I'm really glad I did-I had a much wider view of the sky, so I was able to catch more meteors from behind than I would have in the chair. The backyard test? Well, when I first saw this place, and looked at the backyard, I thought it had potential-not a huge backyard (although bigger than the one on Hampshire), but the grass was well kept-enough room to spread out, and there are no trees(although plenty of trees in the surrounding yards), so there'd be a wide view of the sky. I first thought, gee, I bet I could watch the Perseids back here...turns out I was right!!! Yeah, there's some light pollution, plus the potential of lights from the neighbors, but all in all, not too bad.

We had clear skies!!! I was so excited-plus, the first meteor I spotted was nice and bright, and had a long tail that graduallly faded after the meteor disappeared (I love those!)

Some notes:
-Spotted first meteor just after 11:30-by midnight, I had seen 12. By 12:30, 20.
-One meteor was slow, bright, with a fading tail...the meteor seemed to flash as it was eaten up by the atmosphere-it was really cool. Kinda reminded me of the Enterprise-D going to warp. ;)
-Around 1:20am there was a flourish of activity-I saw about 2 every minute, for roughly 10 minutes.

Yes, this was a good night. :)

Totally worth it, even just for one.

2009-08-12T08:29:00.005-05:00

I ended up seeing three meteors last night-two were definitely Perseids, the other a stray from one of the lesser showers. I was facing East/North East at the time, with Cassiopeia to my left, and the rising moon to my right. The Perseid meteors I saw ripped through the sky from left to right (N to S), the other meteor I spotted was more West to East (from my POV).

I started out around 10pm-took a lawn chair and my handy can of OFF!, and sat outside for a bit. Not for very long, though-because it was very cloudy. Whatever break in the clouds that I had seen earlier quickly disappeared, frustrated, I went in about 10:30, and decided to give it another hour.

11:30pm I headed back out-it was still quite cloudy, but there seemed to be more breaks in the clouds than before, so I decided to sit it out. After about an hour (and a couple of close calls with a skunk), I went inside to grab a light sweater. (not that it would help with the skunk, but I just wanted to add that. Good think they’ve got that white stripe, otherwise I might've been singing a different tune.LOL-I think). Anyhoo, I came back out and sat for another hour. Around 1:15am a cat with a bell on his collar nearly gave me a heart attack as it had found something in my garage that startled it. Still frustrated, I readjusted my lawn chair and decided to give it a few more minutes. I was really glad I did-around 1:25am a bright Perseid ripped right across the sky!! I was so excited!! That one alone made it all worth while for me. Shortly there after, I spotted a dimmer meteor (the one going W to E). This was around 1:30am, so I decided to stay outside until 2 (yes, I'm insane-I think I got that from my father). Around 1:41 I spotted another Perseid. Three meteors!! Despite the clouds, light pollution (my neighbors stay up as late as me-go figure!), and the rising moon.

The forecast calls for clearer skies tonight (last time I checked, anyway), so I might try to sit outside after Game Night. Also, I’m taking Friday off, so even though the peak will have passed, I might sit outside after our gig Thursday night.

(image courteous of Sky and Telescope)

Oooh! I meant to post this article by the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait yesterday:
Tweeteor shower I love the Bad Astronomy blog. :)

I am definitely my father's daughter. ;)

Summer evenings, summer stars

2009-08-10T20:52:00.002-05:00

Gah!! It's hot-very hot-hot and muggy. We were spoiled this summer-cooler temps, not as muggy as it had been. Even when I went up north, it was unusually cool. Blah to those who whined about the temperatures never being above 90 degrees!!! I am happy with cooler summers-75 degrees, with the lower 80s tolerable for a time. But I digress...

The summer has flown by so quickly!!! Mt. Carmel came and went, the week of many actives flew by. Jerm and Allison got hitched! (Yah, I've got lots of pics, but I need to put new batteries in my camera-wedding shower, staff picnic, retirement party, baby shower, wedding from said shower-I used my camera ALOT in the last month!) And now the Feast is upon us! Oh, my-not only do I need to pick up batteries for my camera, but I could use a couple of extra reeds for my clarinet as well!)

I've spent the last couple of evenings (ok, more like later at night) on my back porch reading and enjoying the breeze (strong wind) and other nighttime sounds (crickets chirping, tree frogs, the occassional train whistle). Now that I discovered I do have electricity running to my porch (I've only been here, what, a year almost?) I need to put up my summer lantern lights. Sure the season is almost over, but I've still got plenty of nights to enjoy them (plus, the nails will be in place for my Halloween lights in the fall!!)

Despite my misgivings about the weather, I do love August nights-and this week is one of the best weeks in August! There's the Feast (starts the 13th! We'll be there every night!!) And this is the week the Perseids peak!!! When we were little, my dad would lay out sleeping bags in our front lawn in Minnesota-and we would stay up late and count the meteors. Sometimes my mom would make hot chocolate for us afterwards (it gets cool at night!). I loved doing it and looked forward to it every year growing up. We used to refer to it as 'the tears of St. Lawrence'. This year, the peak is actually during the day for us here in North America (2pm, August 12th), but Sky and Telescope says that either the night of August 11-12, or 12-13 should be good for catching a few meteors. You do have to fight the waning Moon, but Perseids can be pretty bright-so you should be able to spot a few (if the weather holds!) So find an open patch of dark sky, and pull up a blanket or lawn chair, and look towards Perseus and Cassiopeia (11pm-till dawn-best viewing times) You might even catch a few stray meteors from the Delta Auarids and Kappa Cygnids. Check out the article, Perseid Meteors by Moonlight.

Oh, and don’t forget the bug spray!!!!!!!!!
Clear skies and happy veiwing!!

August!

2009-08-05T14:33:00.004-05:00

Yikes!! Is it August already?!? The Feast starts next week!! Boy time flies. Right now I'm having issues with the month-I keep thinking it's a month later than it really is-at the end of July, I thought it was the end of August-and for some reason, I keep thinking it's September already. Do I really want the summer to be over this soon? NO! (although I am a big fan of the fall... ;) )

Got some updates-I totally meant to post reviews from Torchwood: Children of Earth but, man, that mini really drained me-as my friend Arthur said, it made Battlestar Galactica look like a picnic on Sunday! (I thought it was very good...just emotionally draining)

So what has happened since the last time I posted? A wedding shower (followed by the wedding! Duh!), a staff picnic, a retirement party, a babyshower...now the Feast is coming up...arrg...I've got alot to say, but not enough time to post it! ;)

Gah, I'm reverting back to my once-a-month only posts-gotta stop that!!!

Back from MN!

2009-07-20T11:56:00.003-05:00

Yes, I've been back for what, 2 weeks now? I just haven't had time to update this blog. I got back late Tuesday, then the following weekend was Mt. Carmel-so this past weekend was the first chance I've had to rest since I got back, and I didn't really do a lot of resting. ;) Anyhoo, since I'm terrible at breaking my trips/events into multiple posts, I thought I'd give a breakdown of my trip:

Things We Did: (in no particular order)
-overnight camping trip to Snake River, first day I was there
-played disc golf at Inner Grove Heights (first time a tornado siren has ever been a hazard. ;) )
-had a Doctor Who marathon (well, duh-we try to have one everytime I visit)
-campfire/bonfire (to go with the S'Mores)
-made S'Mores! (to go with the fires)
-Ladies Starbucks run (me, my sis, Shan, and Angelz-the kids thought we were going to a bar. LOL)
-went 4-wheeling (at Snake River and Willow River-rode from Willow River to Sturgeon Lake)
-became a God-Mother (yay!)
-PARTIED!
-went swimming in Lake Nokomis
-saw my cousin Christina!!! (it had been, like, 10 years!!!)
-went for a walk with sis and the dogs
-Fireworks at Forrest Lake!
-had some of Corey's fried chicken (the man can cook-best chicken EVER. Kentucky and Popeye's haven't been the same since)
-picked Boo up from the airport

Planned things we didn't get around to:
-drive around St. Paul looking for Peanuts (statues)
-late night run to White Castle and/or Taco Bell
-hiking in the Falls (Minnehaha, Taylor, or St. Croix-we just didn't get the chance)
-trip to MoA (Mall of America-that's ok-that's more of a Christmas adventure anyway. LOL)
-4-wheeling with my lil' sis. (got rained out-see camping trip and unexpected things)

Things We sorta got to do:
-See Peanuts statue (Lucy-at the ER....)

Unexpected Things:
-slept in truck overnight (that overnight camping trip? We got rained out-ended up sleeping in the truck overnight-that's also why Al and I didn't get to go 4-wheeling together)
-Met Boo at the gate!! (the lady at the Humphrey terminal was really sweet-normally only one person can go wait at the gate-I was planning on waiting at the baggage claim for her. I went with my BIL, and after she had printed out his pass, she looked at me and said, 'would you like to go to?' I told her I didn't think I would be able to, and she winked and said she was in a good mood and printed me out a pass)
-became addicted to Ice Road Truckers (thank you Shan and Lee! ;p)
-trip to ER (where I saw the Lucy statue) You know that 4-wheeling trip to Willow River? Yah, I flipped the sucker. It was the third time flipping on (first two times were at Snake River, landing in mud) But this time, I kinda rolled a bit with it-point of impact was inner right leg-I kicked it off with my left. There was a nasty bruise, and when I rode it back to the truck, I felt every bump along the way. My right leg was sore for quite a while, but the Doc up there said everything was fine, and healing normally. So who saw the latest episode of Primeval? You know-the stag party with all the ATVs? When that pre-historic rhino came up and flipped the thing with her horn, I was like, "I did that, without the help of a rhino!!" LOL.

That pretty much sums up my vacation-I had a great time, and miss everyone terribly. I might post some pics later on-but we'll see!

Don't forget! Torchwood: Children of Earth starts tonight at 9pm on BBC America!!!!

YAY!

2009-06-25T16:04:00.003-05:00

It's my vacation time!!! I can't wait to get to MN! I just added a Twitter account, but I don't know if I will be updating it much. I will be updating my facebook status occasionally. :) If I get the chance, I might post to my blog, too.

Not hitting panic mode quite yet-that's for about midnight tonight when I realize that I'm running out of time! LOL.

If you are interested in following me on Twitter, here I am: http://twitter.com/romana1977. :)

Everyone have a fun and safe 4th of July!!!!

Save Ohio Libraries

2009-06-23T13:24:00.000-05:00

Editorial: Dear Governor Strickland :

Join Ohio's librarians, and citizens, in rallying against a proposal that could close many libraries in the state.

Ohio Governor Proposes Halving State Support; Many Libraries Could Close :

Library aid would be cut by $227 million over two years; librarians react with new Twitter icon.

Tornadoes!

2009-06-09T09:26:00.006-05:00

My friend Peter posted a link to this video on Facebook, and I just had to share:

(original link here: The Sideways Tornado).

It gave me goosebumps!!! Tornadoes have been on my mind lately (with all the activity this weekend, no wonder!)

I've always been fascinated by thunderstorms and tornadoes-no wonder this was one of my favorite books growing up:

(I loved those Lets Read and Find Out books!!!)

No, I am not a storm chaser, but I wouldn't mind playing one on tv. ;)

Growing up in MN, while not exactly what you would call 'tornado alley', we certainly had our fair share of tornadoes. Tornado drills were the norm (hey, do they still test the sirens on the first Wed. of every month at 1pm?), and I can remember having a set plan to get all of our outdoor toys inside the fastest way possible whenever a tornado siren sounded.

Here's a picture I took with my cell phone almost 2 years ago. My sister and I were on our way back to her place from the Cities when we got a call from my mom and the kids-you could hear the sirens going off in the background. The kids wanted us to pull over somewhere to stay safe (they didn't know we were still on the outskirts of the storm). As soon as we got off the phone, I snapped this picture:

Cool, yeah? :)

I think I'm going to have to start watching Vortex 2 on the Weather Channel now. Darn you, Mike Bettes!!! ;)

(Oh, yeah, I think I need to post a Marcon update soon...) ;)

Time to get your geek on!!!

2009-05-21T16:37:00.002-05:00

Marcon starts tomorrow!!! Yay!! I'll be there-I never did get around to making my Sarah Jane costume from the Hand of Fear, but I did manage to put together a couple of costumes from the Sarah Jane Adventures. They aren't perfect, but they'll do. As with all of my costuming-I start out basic, and try to improve them as the cons go by. ;) Now if only I could find a pair of boots that'll fit my freakin' huge calves! ;) My goal this summer is to set up my sewing machine so I can get working on a couple of 'classic' SJ costumes!

My badge will say 'Romanadvoratrelundar'...I'm not sure if I remembered to include the "-DWC". I'm also considering adding 'Romana1 on Sarah-Jane.tv', which I eventually did to my Chicago Tardis badge (I really should have done that at the beginning of the convention!) I'll probably be totting around good 'ole Krismutt, dressed as K-9. :) I'm adding something to the K-9 costume-nothing big, but I hope people will think it's cute. Gotta remember to make it tonight!

Yikes! I better get going-I have more geeky tidbits to share, but I don't know if I'll have time to post again tonight, or before I leave for Columbus tomorrow.

Yay, Marcon!!!

Relay for Life, part 2-remember this for next year!

2009-05-04T17:24:00.006-05:00

Betcha didn't think I'd ever get around to this, did ya? Well, who could blame you? My track record for posting events/trips in parts isn't exactly spot on. ;) As it is, I started this 10 days ago, and haven't had the time to finish typing it up!!

Brian and Bill, setting up our tent

So, since this was the first Relay for pretty much everyone on our team, we came up with a list of items we should have on hand for next year:
(I do realize this might be a better part 3 post...? Who knows? By the end of this entry I may have decided it would be.

Our campsite, with sign)

Most items are intended for the campsite:
1. more blankets (it gets chilly at night!), sleeping bags (so the boys can camp out!)
2. travel pillows (not everyone can walk all night-I had to take a nap, and I think having a pillow would've been nice)
3. reclining lawn chairs (another rest aid!)
4. at least one change of shoes and socks (this is more for me-since Brian already planned for that!)
5. Chapstick! Hand lotion! (kudos for having hot water and plenty of soap-however, I had a hard time drying my hands-I didn't want to use up too much of paper towels, so my hands were always fairly damp after I left the restroom-and since the weather was still on the chilly side...yeah, my hands are now finally getting back to normal...)
6. Hillbilly golf (Perseph thought of this as well-to join the legions of cornhole-a fun way to relax...maybe even try to organize an on-site fundraising tournament.)
7. SUNSCREEN!!! (yes, even in April! Oh, how we do forget in the cooler weather...)
8. sunglasses (the morning glare...ouch!)
9. jogging pants/shorts, maybe a hoodie instead of a jacket. (not really neccessary, but if you start out in shorts, like I've mentioned several times before-it does get cool at night)
10. First aid kit (just in case-for blisters, scratches. Not to freak anyone out, but you are outside for a long period of time, and things could happen=always good to be prepared!)
11. Couple of old towels (Arthur Dent would be proud. You never know...you just never know... ;) )
12. Advil (sore feet!!! Helps ease the pain...)
13. Hair brush (ok, that's more of a vanity thing, I think-but 18 hours: wind, naps, etc. I don't have 'perfect hair forever!' In fact, I don't think I have perfect hair at all!) ;)
14. Arch bandages (you would think, having been diagnosed with plantar fascitis several years ago that I would have thought about this beforehand...but NOOOOOOOO....of course not!) ;) I was in pain for a good 24 hours before it even dawned on my that that's what the problem was.
15. Ice packs
16 Allergy medicine!!!! (I neglected to take an antihistamine overnight, and, along with my allergies acting up, managed to catch a cold that lasted a good week or so-arrg!)

I'm sure we'll think of more things.

So we've come to the end of the post, and as you've probably guessed, I decided to keep this as my second post about the event. ;) So I'll leave you with a picture of Sharon's boys-those cute little rascals!!! :

(Sharon's boy's, having fun in the tent)

Fun Stuff for the First of May

2009-05-01T14:54:00.003-05:00

Happy May Day!!!

Eureka is coming back to SciFi in July!! It's moving to Fridays:
http://video.scifi.com/player/?id=1090958

...wouldn't new day and time indicate that it would be in a different time slot? It's moving from Tuesdays at 9, to Fridays at 9. Oh, well, maybe that's just me. ;) Yay, Eureka is returning!!

Also, I should have posted this long ago, but, tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day!!!!

www.freecomicbookday.com
Check out the website to find a participating comic book store near you!!

Coming soon: Relay update #2!

Playball..?

2009-04-30T11:49:00.003-05:00

So Sunday, I went to a Twins game...although most people around here would call it an Indians game...go figure!

It's tough being a fan of a non-local team-no hoopla, no fireworks when one of your guys does something totally awesome. No flashy announcements (although it was cool when they used to use the Imperial March to announce the opposing team. Hey, if you gotta have enemy music, at least it's the most awesome enemy music out there! ;)) But something does have to be said for being in enemy territory, and then spotting someone sporting a Joe Mauer jersey just like yours in the crowd. The look of recognition on someone's face when they see a complete stranger, yet we are not complete strangers, since we are rooting for the same team. Yes, we are here, and we'll keep screaming for our team!

Earlier, I ran into my friend Jerm at the Rapid station-he was there with his dad and his fiance, Allison (not to be confused with my lil' sis, Ally!!) After joking about how I was going to a Twins game and everyone else was going to an Indians game, we decided to grab lunch once we hit Tower City. Once at the game, Jerm called me and asked where I was-I told him the lower reserve, near the homerun porch. He spotted me, I waved, but still couldn't find him. After about 5 minutes of trying to figure out where he was (they were in the 400 section, way up in the sky over homeplate), I noticed they had signs for each team member and asked him which one he was by. He said, 'Oh, yeah! That's a good idea!' Once I found him, we waved at each other like over-excited children.

Here was my view:

That's the third base line-I was inches for away from the homerun porch. A great place for foul balls right? I mean, after all, it seams like when I'm on the other side, I see balls fly over here all the time. So did it happen? Did I get the chance to catch a foul? Of course not!!! Go figure, the balls all went flying on the other side that day!!! :p Sharon's husband managed to catch a foul ball...in the loge!!!

It was a great day for a game-maybe just a tad bit warm for April, but a great day. Too bad the Twins forgot their brooms!!! LOL.

I had a good time-even though I would like to see my team in my home town again. Last year for the Dome! (that's a good thing, although I bet come April 2010, they are gonna be wishing they had sprung for the retractable dome.) ;) Hey, Shan, we are SO going to a game when I come visit this summer!!!

Relay for Life, part 1

2009-04-23T15:12:00.002-05:00

Our team, taken by DJ Dohanyos

Friday, April 17th, I participated in Case Western's Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society. Brian (our team captain) and I stayed the entire 18 hours, with various members coming and going the rest of the time. I tried to stay awake for it all, but I had to take a nap about 10 til 5 Saturday morning. I was also made a team captain, but I'll get to that later.

I've decided to update this in parts-otherwise I'll never get any of this out! The unofficial total was $88,000+ raised-hopefully by the time I get to my last post, there will be a final total. (btw, the unofficial total alone makes us the highest collegiate effort in Ohio-and there are some pretty big schools here!) Go Spartans!

That's all for now, but I leave you with this-it's an awesome video Brian put together using a bunch of pictures that the entire team took throughout the weekend:

Oooh! Before I leave, a quick shout out to
Perseph-welcome back to the blogsphere!!

Another long stretch...

2009-04-10T15:43:00.004-05:00

Egaads! Another long stretch. I really need to find time at home to sit down and blog.

Tonight's our first Italian Band gig for the year-the Good Friday procession at St. Rocco's. Hopefully we'll get our summer schedule, too. Hopefully the rain will hold off another couple of hours! ;)

I've signed up for Case's Relay for Life which is next week. I've been meaning to write more about this...*sigh* Where does the time go? ;) Here's my page, if you are interested in my progress. :) I've joined the library's team. Only one week to go!

Already have my ticket for my summer trip to MN. Airfare's are much lower than they were last time I was looking! Yay!

I've decided I'm not going to make my Sarah Jane costume for Marcon this year. (I was going to make her Andy-Pandy outfit from the Hand of Fear) The only weekend I have free in April is the last weekend (even then, it's not-I'm going to a baseball game that weekend), and who knows what May will be like. Oh, well-perhaps next year!

Well, I need to get going-have to meet my ride to St. Rocco's! If I don't get the chance for another update before Sunday-Happy Easter!!!!

Just wanted to say...

2009-03-20T15:57:00.002-05:00

Happy Spring, everybody!!! :)

Quick note:

2009-03-17T10:42:00.002-05:00

First, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2nd: I've updated the events on my sidebar-more about that later. :)

A list...

2009-02-19T12:58:00.004-05:00

...of things I need to do:

1. Write here more.
2. Write here more.
3. Write here more.
4. Write here more.
5. WRITE HERE MORE!! (ha!)

Seriously, I was hoping I would get back on track with the new year. That hasn't happened yet. Lent starts next week-maybe I'll get my act together by then. ;) I'll write a list. I'm very good at writing lists...just not so hot at keeping up with them. ;)

List of projects:
1. Finish Bella's baby blanket
2. Start my SJ costume for Marcon
3. Scrapbook for Chicago Tardis
4. Put Tardis consol together (no, Dave, I haven't forgotten!!) ;)
5. Get back on the healthy track
6. Coca Cola reward points (more on that later...)
7. Develop film (more on that later)

Ah, well-it's back to work for me!

some new year thoughts

2009-01-29T12:44:00.005-05:00

Woo! So how's everyone holding up with the storm? I've got mounds and mounds of snow up and down my street. It's a good thing I had a ride home yesterday, because now I live too far to walk, like I did during the Valentine's Blizzard of '07. Although we didn't have the whole day off like we did in '07, the University did close early yesterday.

So I've been thinking about New Years resolutions-I was going to post them, but now it's like, 'what's the point?' After all, one of them is writing here more, and I've already broken that one! LOL. Seriously, though-I may just do a post of some goals I've set for myself this year.

One thing I have been thinking about, though-I'm going to start re-posting my blog entries in LiveJournal. Originally I just got the account so I could respond to some of my friend's entries, and would just post random things there, but I haven't posted there in a while, and I really dislike having an inactive blog. Not that I have many readers, but for the ones I do, continue to read where ever you like, and as always, feel free to post comments! ;) Things I won't repost: testing new features for Blogger and LiveJournal. I mean, what would be the point? I do prefer blogger's interface, so I still consider Wandering my main blog (well, that, and it's what I started!), but at least my LiveJournal won't look abandoned anymore. ;)

I'm back!

2009-01-08T09:32:00.005-05:00

D.W.Q: "Sorry, must dash." -the Fifth Doctor

Just a quick note-I'm back from MN! I had a great time (when do I not?) Now I'm playing catch up at work and home. I need to sit down and really update this blog-I still haven't posted reports from Chicago Tardis, and now I have Christmas and New Years!

I was thinking if I didn't do it before then, I'd have a nice long weekend next weekend-however, I'm heading to Michigan that weekend for a hockey tournament. :)

Gotta run!

Chicago and Back!

2008-12-09T12:39:00.003-05:00

D.W.Q.: "Brigadier, a straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting." -the Third Doctor

Okay, okay, okay. Yes, I have been back from Chicago Tardis for over a week now. No, I haven't uploaded any of my pictures yet. (Bad, BAD, Ro!!) Next year, I hope not to have to move in between big events in my life-in fact, I hope not to move at all next year! But, man-I sure have been wiped out over the past few months. All last week I spent trying to catch up on sleep at home after work-I think I'm finally getting there... ;)

I met Elisabeth Sladen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But before I get to that awesomeness (and the awesomeness of meeting Colin Baker, and hanging out with people at the con), I'll have to share with you my travel adventure-because my vacations always seem to involve crazy travel situations. (Next week I'll share one of my favorite stories, just before I head out again!) ;)

I decided to take the Megabus into Chicago. Cheap trips (depending on when you leave). If you've never been on a Megabus before-it's a double decker bus, and I got to ride up top-Way Cool! :-D It wasn't too bad-I was traveling at midnight, so there weren't many people on the first leg of my trip. The bus was clean and quiet (until we picked up a rather loud snorer in Toledo (although I should talk-I've been known to wake the dead with my snoring...) The bus driver was pretty cool, too, with a sense of humor.

All was fine and dandy...until we hit the tolls in Indiana. At first we were doing ok-then we hit a toll booth that took a little longer than usual to get through...but we made it through. The next one, however-we were sitting at for quite a long time. This was around 4:15am. When we finally did get through, the bus driver then pulled off to the side and said to us, 'Uh, folks, we have a bit of a situation here. Apparently my bosses have not satisfied the state of Indiana with their tolls, and want me to pay $150. So we're just gonna pull over and wait for a state trooper to show up. I'm not going to pay one dime, and I'm about to call and wake up my supervisor'. Holy crap!! After waiting about 20 minutes or so, the bus driver got out and walked back over to the booths-when he returned, we were on our way again, but taking the back route, since his supervisor couldn't do anything for him, and the State of Indiana probably wasn't going to let us drive through any more toll booths. Yikes!

We got into Union Station about 45 mintues late. I had called my friend Gene (who was picking me up) as soon as I knew we were going to be delayed-he didn't mind waiting. You think my story ends here? No! Chicago Tardis was actually being held in a hotel in Lombard, IL-about 20 mintues away. Somehow, on the way back, Gene got turned around, and we couldn't find the highway! (After relaying this story to some friends here at work, they weren't surprised-the highways are rather hard to find if you're not from the area) After driving around a bit, Gene pulled into a gas station to ask directions. Go figure-the attendent on duty didn't speak English, so we had to go somewhere else. He pulled into a Walgreens and managed to get directions. However, we figure he may have left something out. Not intentionally, of course. You know how if you are so familiar with an area, you may forget something that comes second-nature to you while giving directions? After driving around some more, we figured that's what happened, and ended up pulling into another gas station and buying a map. I may not have my driver's license, but I do know how to read a map!!

After 3 hours of driving around Chicago, we finally made it back to the hotel. I was tired, hungry (I realized I hadn't eaten since 3pm the day before), and was wondering why the heck I was going through all this trouble. As we walked into the hotel, I spotted Elisabeth Sladen chilling in the lobby, and thought to myself, "You big dummy! THAT'S why you're here!!!" Ha! As we stepped into the elevator, the inner-child in me started shouting, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! I just saw Sarah Jaaaaaaannnnnnnnneeeeeee!" ;)

Skip ahead, skip ahead, skip ahead. It is now Sunday night (I promise I'll get to the exciting stuff later!!!!) I'm sitting at the airport doing two things I swore I'd never do again: Fly from Chicago O'Hare, and fly United. (both have been bad experiences for me.) My excuse? flying Sunday night would allow me to stay the entire day on Sunday, without having to take an extra day of vacation (with Christmas, this time of year I'm very tight with vacation days). So I'm sitting at the gate-had no trouble with security, and the screens are rather informative-they have the flight that is currently departing, with a little note at the bottom telling you which flight is next out of the gate. A flight to LaGuardia was scheduled to leave before us. So I glanced at the screen-we were about an hour and 10 minutes delayed (due to the weather-it had started snowing quite a bit on Sunday) Checked the game that was on (Bears vs. Vikings-neither team I wanted to win, but one of them had too), then called Paul to tell him I was going to be late. After getting off the phone with Paul, I checked the screen-next flight out: Cleveland, 11pm. I gave my sister a call just to squee about all the fun I had. She can't wait to see pictures! I had to let her go because she had to get up early for work. Time for another screen check: Cleveland, 11pm. Ok, good. I decided to read for a bit-I leafed through the current issue of DWM that I had picked up at the convention. Screen check: Cleveland, 11pm. Then I decided to read a chapter in a book I picked up. Screen check: Orlando, 7:15am.

Orlando? ...7:15...AM?!?!?!?!

What the...? I lugged all my stuff to the Departures/Arrivals screens in the hall-apparently, they switched gates on us, and now we were all the way down the other end of concourse B. They didn't even bother to make an announcement. I rushed down to my new gate. Boarding was to start at 10:30pm. It was just after 10, and we were still due to leave about 11pm. The screens at this gate, however, are less than helpful. In fact, they were out of order. The only people from United at the gate were flight attendants, and they had no idea what was going on. The flight before us was going to Boston. At 10:25, they were still loading people up for Boston-I figured they'd just wait until they were out before starting our boarding. (I have to say, at this point, I was a bit concerned that my flight might actually be cancelled. Last time I got moved around, they cancelled my flight.) Just as I'm debating whether to grab my stuff just to check the Departures/Arrivals screens again, a fellow passenger walks up and bellows: "If you're waiting for Cleveland, they've switched the gate on us again!" Much groaning and hurried walking ensued. I actually dropped my hat and gloves while trying to gather my stuff and get to the next gate. A gentleman stopped to help me gather my stuff. :) (Whoever you are, wherever you are-thank you!) When I got to the new gate, they had us leaving about 11:16pm. To be on the safe side, I gave Paul another heads up.

When we were finally situated, we left the gate. However, departure times are based on when you leave the gate, not when you actually take off from the tarmac. We had another 20 minutes to half an hour waiting on the tarmac to be de-iced, then waiting in line to take off. (There were two lines of planes-they'd let one in our line go, then one in the other, then let one in the air land.) By the time we hit Cleveland, it was 1:50 am-almost 2 hours from our original arrival time. I felt so bad-I was hoping that Paul didn't have to drive around the entire time. Luckily-they were letting people park and wait at the arrival doors (something they don't normally do-but since it was so late, traffic wasn't such a big issue.) I owe Paul a big batch of yummy brownies. :)

I didn't get home until about 3am, and didn't fall asleep until 4. Silly me, I still went to work that morning-even though I got up about 5 minutes before I had to be out the door!! It was a rush job-clean clothes, brush hair, but no makeup. Grab a cereal bar and run!!! I actually made it to work on time. However, in my rush, I had left my camera at home. LOL.

That's all for now-I'm gonna get my pictures uploaded. I've also promised updates for the Idiot's Lantern and sarah-jane.tv. Stay tuned for more! :)

Blog-keeping

2008-11-21T13:21:00.003-05:00

D.W.Q.: "I can see you've been doing the TARDIS up a bit. I don't like it." -the Second Doctor (from the Third Doctor story, the Three Doctors)

I've just done a little template cleaning on my blog-actually, not much-I need to do more. I've finally added some countdowns to my sidebar, and I decided to move my archive list to the end, since it's getting so long. I still have to go through my links to see which ones are still live, but I'll do that another day.

Chicago Tardis is next week!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY! :) Thanksgiving, too. :) Fall is being overrun by winter, but that's another story.

Been unpacking my boxes-discovered I'm missing a couple of boxes of books, and one of cds. Dang it! Back to storage...

Long-delayed updates...

2008-11-08T23:43:00.004-05:00

D.W.Q.: "Eureka!!" -the Third Doctor

Well! I'm finally online at home!!! Took me a little over a month, but I'm all set up. (Actually, my computer has been set up for a while, but I just haven't had the energy to get online at home.) *hee*

I'm still trying to settle in-this is actually the first time I've been home on a Saturday night since I moved. I've had something going on every weekend. I've also been busy during the week, so that doesn't help.

I've managed to hook up my computer, get cable (digital! I get BBC America now!), get a wardrobe (the closets here are very small), and a new microwave (My old microwave was really old-I'm surprised it still worked.) Still need a new couch, though. Yah, I gave up my old couch-it was sad, it was the first couch I ever purchased (even though it was used, it was still mine!) Apparently I'm the only one who was comfortable in it (although my friend Mike did sleep on it while he stayed with me for Italian band events-but he was probably just being nice. ;) ) I couldn't find anyone who was willing to move it to my new place (and actually, the way the stairs are, we might not have been able to get it up here). So we put it out on the curb of my old place-it wasn't there 10 minutes before someone picked it up! I warned him it might not be comfortable, but if he wanted it, it was his. He was collecting stuff for charity (I have his card somewhere...)-so I gave him a bag of clothes I had been meaning to donate as well. Perhaps they can fix up the couch before they give it to a family.

Halloween came and went-I didn't get to decorate much-just my bay window (I did manage to get my Halloween village up this year) Since I didn't decorate much, I lent Persephone some of my Halloween decorations. Hopefully I'll get a little more up for Thanksgiving. By Christmas, I hope to have my Christmas stuff out of storage!

Yah, I need to get my stuff out of storage. I don't have any of my books, dvds, cds, knick-knacks, pictures, and my glasses and mugs (well, I do have a few, but not enough to last a week!) I've got my dining room table, but the legs need to be put back on (I"m using a card table for the time being) I'm going to hold off putting it together-I want to move one of my bookcases from the dining room to the living room-it'll be easier without the table in the way. But that has to wait until I get a new couch, because it'll probably be easier to get the couch in without the bookcase in the way! ;) (I really need to get that couch!)

I'm going to Chicago Tardis this Thanksgiving!! (I get to meet Elisabeth Sladen!!!) Normally I wouldn't even try-too close to Christmas-but, but-Elisabeth Sladen! Actually, when I moved, I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to pull it off-it drained all of my savings (my mad-money savings-for fun stuff) However, something unexpected happened, and not only will I be able to go to Chicago Tardis, but I'll be able to fly home at Christmas!!! I had been monitoring airfare (and train fare) since the beginning of August-I meant to post weekly updates here, but never got around to it. This is the first time since August that my flight had been under $400-even though it's still a little high (and I have to pay for my luggage), it's under 400, and I noticed whenever the prices dropped even a little, it was only like that for a week before it went back up.

BTW-I just discovered how AWESOME dvr is!!! I don't think I'll ever go back to the VCR again...(although never say never). LOL ;) I did set up my dvd and vcr so I can watch my Doctor Who stuff (yes, that came over with me-the box never made it to storage, so I guess I do have some stuff to watch. LOL)

I hate moving in October-it's the start of the busiest time of year! One of my friends from work, Michelle, says she noticed I've been looking really tired lately. I'm still not used to the sounds of the new house-some keep me awake. However, there is no one above me now, and the girls downstairs are pretty quiet. They seem nice-they had a big party, not only did they warn me about it, but invited me as well. (I went down and introduced myself to them before hand, but didn't stay-I had a sinus headache, plus, I was going to Cincinatti the next day) They are both CIA (Cleveland Institute of Art, silly) students, so I dont' see them much. (I hear art students spend alot of time in their studios!)

I miss living in the Coventry area-I'm just a tad to far away to walk. I am still able to hear the train horns, though! (that's one of my favorite nighttime sounds) I don't have a front porch (wahh), but I do have a small back porch. There's a bay window in the livingroom, which I love! :)

Well, I've finally finished checking my dreamingheart email-time for bed! :)

quick update

2008-10-10T13:22:00.002-05:00

Just a quick update-I have moved!!!! Still need to do a few things, but I finally got my phone at the new place-now I just have to set up my computer so I can get online, instead of trying to post during my breaks at work. ;)

Now I just have to call the cable company...I'm going through some SERIOUS withdrawl. LOL ;)

stress relief

2008-09-25T13:43:00.000-05:00

Enjoy!

gah, moving...

2008-09-18T12:04:00.002-05:00

D.W.Q.: Ace: "Oi, that sounds brill!"
the Seventh Doctor: "My sentiments exactly"

Just a quick update-I know I promised more, but I just haven't had the time.

I have to move...AGAIN. It's only been a year, but my rent went up quite a bit, and with the cost of heating this place during the winter, it's just too much. (That, and other things, which I may or may not go into detail later)

Packing is going slow, and I have yet to find a place. I'm not quite into panic mode yet, but I'll probably get there.

My life isn't completely sucky. :) Once I have a moment to really sit down and type out an entry, I'll go into more detail. Plus, I do have a few more MN stories to tell! (hopefully my sister will send the pic of our mom on the 4 wheeler so I can post that here!) ;) *hint, hint, little sister!*

Lunch is over, gotta get back to work...whee! ;)

busy life!

2008-08-29T23:40:00.003-05:00

Life's been busy, got somethings to say, just haven't had the time to write a decent post lately.

This weekend is St. Rocco's-which means lots of zeppolli!! Woo! Lots of zeppolli and playing Roxie's Theme. ;)

Hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend!!!

The mis-adventures of Hoppy the Frog

2008-08-07T21:33:00.003-05:00

D.W. Quote: "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish, sometimes." -the Fourth Docotor

No, I'm not quite ready to talk about the whole Brett Favre thing, so instead, I bring you...a long over due update from my vacation!

I know, it's been over a month, but now I'm finally getting around to posting some things.

So, the first day I was there, it rained! Did that stop us from having fun? NO! Ally still fired up the grill, and me and Mellon were sitting in the garage-well, sort of-Mellon was all giggly, and I'd chase her and try to tickle her. *hee* I started to run outside in the rain-and began dancing in circles, just like a little kid. Mellon laughed and ran out with me. Even big sister Tia (formerly known on this blog as T) decided to join us. :) It was fun, but we had to stop once the lighting hit.

You know what you see alot of after a rain shower? FROGS. Lots of frogs-there is a pond in my sister's back yard, which is full of green frogs.

Mellon and the fire pit-in my sister's backyard

Last year, they were all over the place-all sizes, and the kids were catching them and putting them in buckets. In fact, when I saw one last year, I shouted, 'You better run, little guy!' Jon (my brother-in-law)says he finds them every where-in the kids' sandbox, near the kennel, in the garage, in the garden. Just the other day he accidently stepped on one. (aw, poor froggy)

Anyhoo, the next day, Ally and I went to the Cities to pick up Shanna's girls, Sum and Maddy-who were going to spend the weekend with us. Shanna lives near Minnehaha Falls, and has an awesome vegetable garden. She had heard frogs were good for gardens, and her girls had just made toad houses during a summer kids' program. So she told the girls to catch her some frogs.

Well, Maddy absolutely loved this idea! She loves frogs-last year she was upset because she couldn't bring the ones she caught home-so this was great! Sum wasn't really interested in catching frogs, but Mellon was!

Maddy and Mellon: Frog Catchers

Not long after we let them loose, they caught their first frog, named him Hoppy, and put him in an icecream pail with a rock, some grass, and water. This poor frog-Maddy would pick him up, hold him, kiss his head (I know, ewww...) Mellon has one of those big wheel trucks-Maddy and Mellon would go for a ride, and Maddy would put the frog bucket in the back and take him with too!

Over the course of the next couple of days, they caught 3 more frogs-when I asked her what their names were, she replied, "Hoppy, Hoppy, and Hoppy". LOL. She loved those frogs.

Monday morning Maddy and Mellon were playing with the frogs as usual. All of the sudden, Maddy came running in and said that the orignal Hoppy was missing! Jon had a wheelbarrow that he used for compost, and Maddy had been picking up the frogs and putting them in the compost to play around (mostly grass cuttings), and she lost track of Hoppy the first. So I began sifting through the compost, and came across a shrivled up frog. "Maddy, are you sure you left Hoppy in here?" "Yes! I was only gone for a minute!" How do you tell a 6-year-old that her four-legged friend may have just croaked? I made sure she didn't see the frog and told her to look around the garage some more. Thankfully, a few minutes later-she came running back and said he had been hiding in Mellon's car! *whew* Crisis averted.

Later that evening we brought the girls and the frogs home. We all went outside and Shanna put the frogs in the garden and said, 'welcome to your new home!' Two of the frogs immediately hopped to the fence. The other two sort of sat around, taking in the situation. We would have stayed out longer to see how they were settling in, but all of the sudden, we were attacked by mosquitos-LOTS of mosquitos. Inside we ran!

We were back at Shanna and Lee's for the Fourth, and when I asked about the frogs, Shanna said, 'as soon as they realized they were free, they ran for the Falls!' LOL. Awww, poor frogs...poor Maddy! Guess they'll have to try again!

Happy Friday!

2008-07-18T15:33:00.003-05:00

D.W. Quote: the Second Doctor: "If only I could find my recorder, I could play you a little something to pass the time."
the Brigadier: "We should be thankful for small mercies." (from the Third Doctor story, the Three Doctors).

Enjoy!

(special thanks to Paul for sending the link! This totally made my day.) :-D

Herdi Habanera!!!

well, ain't that the pits...

2008-07-14T22:56:00.003-05:00

D.W.Quote: Harry Sullivan: "Look here, Doctor, you're not fit."
the Fourth Doctor: "Not fit? Not fit? Of course I'm fit. All systems go."
Harry: "I say! Look..."
the Doctor: "Heartbeats."
Harry: "I say, I don't think that can be right."
the Doctor: "Both a bit fast, are they?"

Arrrg....SO not the way I wanted to spend my first weekend home from vacation. Waiting for a stone to pass. Bloody hell. It's still in there, too-I can feel it-taunting me.

I woke up Friday morning in pain. To make a long story short-I have a kidney stone. Blah. However, that didn't stop me from playing at Mt. Carmel this weekend. Armed with painkillers, a HUGE bottle of water, and my clarinet, I headed over to the west side and had a good time. I was a little uncomfortable by the end of the first night, but I think that's because of the chair I was sitting on. I had a different chair last night, and didn't have any trouble at all.

The turnout this year was WAY better than last year! Although Saturday night was a little light, turnout for the procession early Sunday afternoon was much better-we had 16 musicians. That's twice as many as we did last year! Rich and I were not the only ones with melody this year! Yay! Sunday night we lost a couple of people, due to other commitments, but we gained just as many, if not more, than what we lost. We sounded pretty good!

Weather-wise, not too bad. Saturday night was quite muggy, but Sunday-although warm and sunny-the air was drier, and there was a nice breeze coming off the lake for the procession. Sunday night it was actually cool! However, that 'nice breeze off the lake' turned into quite a pain, as our music went flying around. At one point, Nick lost the entire clarinet section as our music went flying all at once.

Tons of fireworks during the procession. We could actually see some of the colors! Now, I'm a big fan of fireworks-however, having them explode in your ear when you're playing can be rather annoying. I'm not too fond of those giant snakes-they are too loud, and the smoke is awful. If it's gonna be loud, it better be pretty-and the snakes are definitely NOT that. Several times I had to step out of formation because my eyes were starting to water due to the smoke. I think there were 3 fireworks stops this year.

We only had to play 118 three times this year!
It seems each major festival has it's favorite- Mt. Carmel: 118 (Onore D'una Banda) Holy Rosary (the Feast): Marcia Reale (ooh, I know I just butchered that spelling...) and St. Rocco's: Roxie's Theme.

*yawwwnnn...* I'm getting a little tired, so I think I'll call it a night.

two more!

2008-07-10T11:18:00.002-05:00

Yikes! I can't believe I forgot to add these to the list!

1. Adventures in flying: Cleveland to Minneapolis
2. The mis-adventures of Hoppy the frog (and his buddies, Hoppy, Hoppy, and Hoppy) ;)

Hopefully I'll have time to update more soon-I've got all this, plus it's Mt. Carmel this weekend!

back!

2008-07-08T12:37:00.003-05:00

Hey all!

I'm back from vacation! Still haven't unpacked, and I miss everyone already. Loads to catch up on at work, but I just wanted to post a few quick notes:

1. rock climbing in Taylor Falls
2. off-roading at Willow River
3. fun with my sister's telescope (Jupiter!)
4. shooting stars (i saw 2!)
5. mosquitos! (those bastards!)
6. the Fourth of July
7. the Fifth of July (the fun continues!)
8. Doctor Who family night
9. bonfires, grilling, other fun stuff
10. Al's big gay dogs (yeah, they are a riot)

I'm sure there's more-I hope to write more about most of this-plus, I've got pictures!

countdown!!

2008-06-24T22:54:00.004-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: "Of course you don't, why should you? You're a busy man, you don't want to stand here burbling about my ears. Neither ear, nor there, is it? Eh? But I can't waste any more time. Things to do, places to go. I'm a busy man too, you know." -the Fourth Doctor, to Harry Sullivan, in Robot

In a couple of days, I will be on vacation.

I am so not ready.

I'm not in panic mode...yet.

Actually, it's not too bad-finished my laundry, paid some bills. I think I'm doing good if I don't call my sister and nag at her everyday between now and my vacation about when she is picking me up. LOL.

Tonight I am going to do something I almost never do-I'm going to start setting aside clothes to pack...3 days before my plane leaves for MN. Ha! Take that, vacation gods! *hee* I can't wait!

Okay, quick fan girl moment: Spoilers for episodes 12 and 13 of Doctor Who...
+
+
+
+
+
+
.....you've been warned....
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Sarah Jane and Luke in Doctor Who!!!! YAAAAAAAAY!

new season, old memories

2008-06-20T22:04:00.004-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: "When everything is new, can anything be a surprise?" -Cho-je (from the Third Doctor story, Planet of the Spiders

Happy Summer! (well, almost.) ;) I can't believe it's summer (partly because, well-it's been quite chilly the past couple of days-even for me!! It is supposed to warm up, though)

This past Thursday was the summer debut of the annual Coventry Street Fair (or is it the art fair? Geez, I should know better) Anyhoo-every third Thursday of the month during the summer, Coventry Village closes off the streets for the fair. In the past, I've only passed on through-my apartment was far enough away that once I was home, I didn't hear or see any of it. This year, I'm quite a bit closer! There was a cop at the corner of my street, directing traffic away from the fair, and, of course, people were parking up and down my street-I sat on my porch Thursday evening and watching families come and go. Next month I'm going to try to mosey on over myself, since I'm so close. I didn't go yesterday because I was actually working on cleaning out the small storage unit.

Have I mentioned how much I love my porch? ;) The trees around the house are now full of leaves, and I love listening to them rustle in the wind. Also, at night, I can here the train horns from the tracks by campus. I don't know why-but that's one of my favorite sounds. It also attracts a nice breeze (as well as some pretty gusty winds!) Several days last week I sat outside and worked on Shanna's baby blanket-usually during the summer it's so warm I don't like to knit-but sitting outside with a breeze-that's really nice. I also have strings of lantern lights up (Target is awesome!!) and a citronella candle to keep the bugs away.

Boy, even with a duplex, I have waaay too much stuff. I really need a house. Blah. On a different note-the storage unit had a leak-fortunately, only one collumn of boxes seemed to be affected-unfortunately, my high school graduation memorabilia was the hardest hit (I just can't bring myself to throw them away)-I ended up having to re-box several boxes. I'm going to have to air out a bunch of stuff. One of my Barbie Doll boxes (collector's barbies-Hey! I think they're cool-I have the Wizard of Oz and some of the Princess's collection) was also hit-but I think they're going to be ok. I was tempting fate, though-the box with my Star Wars figures was an open box-it didn't get hit- *whew!*

Why does going through storage always trigger trips down memory lane? I finally pulled the telescope my dad built (before I was born, I think) out of storage-I spent the evening cleaning it up (before Doctor Who, of course! *hee*) It's been all over the place, and it's starting to show it's age. I'm considering re-painting it to give it a fresh new look (that, and something spilled on the side, taking some of the old paint with it). I kind of want to paint it over in it's original color-but the original paint came from when...the 60's? 70's? Who's gonna have the right color? It was joked that I'm going to be one of the people in that Loew's commercial for Velspar (or is it Bear?) paint-I'll drag the base of the telescope in and point to it and say, 'can you match this?' LOL.

Another thing I came across today was a carousel full of slides (remember slide projectors, folks?) I looked at a couple and saw some with me when I was younger. I also saw one with my grandpa, holding me, and my mom-we were looking into the window of a nursery, probably checking out my new baby sister (my mom was in her robe). Sure enough, the next slide had a picture of me holding this cute little baby with a head of dark hair. Another one had me, my mom and my sister. (btw, her girls looked just like her when they were born!) *hee* Ally was a cute baby-but don't tell her I said that. It's funny, just yesterday I came across a mirror and brush set that someone had given me when Ally was born-they were shaped like apples-and I can't believe that I still have them!

Well, I gotta run-tomorrow I'm heading down to Columbus for the day for a couple of meetings (a Marcon vote meeting, and Doctor Who Columbus's monthly meeting). Since both are near the Greyhound station, and I got a fairly decent fare (considering gas prices), I'm going to head down-I'll be back tomorrow night-yay, day trips!

One week 'til my vacation!!! I can't wait!!!

Reeds!

2008-06-09T11:39:00.004-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: The Second Doctor: "If only I could find my recorder, I could play you a little something to pass the time."

The Brigadier: "We should be thankful for small mercies." (from the Third Doctor story, the Three Doctors

Ha-ha! For once, I actually bought reeds before the Italian Band season started!! I didn't forget until the day before and say, 'Aww, crap! I forgot again!' Well, unless you count Good Friday, then, nevermind...

We had a procession at Holy Redeemer for St. Anthony's Feast yesterday. We were a small band (not unusual for procession), but we were pretty well-rounded. We had Nick, our fearless leader, plus 3 clarinets, 2 trumpets, 2 saxs, a euphonium, 2 precussionists and a sousaphone. Mike even drove up from Dayton to join us.

When Mike and I were walking towards the church, I noticed the big tree we usually sit under while waiting for the precession, and stand under for the blessings afterwards, was gone. I couldn't believe it! For a second there, it almost seemed like we were in the wrong place. When I saw Buffy and Rich, I said, 'what happened to the tree? The tree's gone!!!'

It was quite sunny and warm, but there was an awesome breeze, which helped. If it hadn't been for that breeze...man, I don't even want to think about it! They also chopped off a few blocks, and were given breaks between numbers-we didn't even get throguh the whole book! Also, the fireworks were realitively short as well-didn't last more than 5 minutes. When we walked past the guy who usually does them, I overheard him say he was too lazy to do his usual spread. (Usually he has several boxes, plus an incredibly huge/long snake that he sets off).

All in all, not a bad afternoon-even though I did get sunburned (ow!) The next gig for me will be Mt. Carmel, since I'll be in Minnesota for the 4th of July.

Not to get all fan girly on ya-but how 'bout that episode of Battlestar Galactica last Friday?! Best last 5 minutes of BSG EVER! :)

Also! Today marks the 5th year I've had this blog! Woo!

to blog or not to blog!

2008-06-04T19:00:00.000-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: "Now you've squashed my favorite Beatles." -the First Doctor

I'm coming up on my 5th blogaversary. Hard to believe I started this blog 5 years ago!!! I looked back at when I first started, and I realized I posted quite alot. More recently, I haven't been posting much at all. Once, maybe twice a month, if that.

So I have decided, in honor of my upcoming anniversary, I will try to post more, even if it's just silly little things-short entries without much content. I want to get back to personal blogging. :) (I haven't been totally absent from the blogsphere-I've been contributing to the Idiot's Lantern and Sarah-Jane.tv on a somewhat regular basis. ;))

In honor (geez, there's alot of honors in this post.) of my new commitment, here is a fun, silly fan vid from BabelColour:

I love his videos!

The road to and back...(MarCon!)

2008-05-30T12:13:00.003-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: "Didn't you find two angry men stuck to my car?" -the Third Doctor

I thought I would start my MarCon reports by telling you of our adventures on the road for two reasons: 1, it doesn't require pictures (so I have a bit more time to upload them from my camera) and 2, part of the excitement is just getting there (we've had stalls, crammed into 1 tiny car, stuck in traffic, etc.) Eventually I'll get to my report with pictures (although I might be directing you to the Idiot's Lantern at some point, since much of my Marcon adventure involves Doctor Who!! (and probably will continue to be for a very long time-I hope!) :) )

Alicia showed up at my house around 12:15 on Friday, and I wasn't even ready! That's what I get for staying up the night before. We loaded the car with all my stuff (I didn't realize that being on staff at MarCon would require loads of crap! I almost forgot my Sonic Screwdriver, and I just bought batteries!) and headed out to pick up Arthur. Nothing too eventful there-we picked him up and then put in, what we now call our 'MarCon Anthem' into the cd player. What is it you ask? Promise not to laugh? Barbie Girl by Aqua. No, seriously, it is-I don't know how it became that-it was the first song on one of my Dance/techno cds, and the three of us ended up singing it at the top of our lungs the first time I played it (maybe 3 years ago?) Anyhoo, we had so much fun, we decided we had to play it every time we start our Marcon trip. :)

The trip started out smoothly. I had a phone call from Jarrod down in Columbus-I was getting my schedule for the video room. Alicia hadn't eaten all day, so she stopped to grab something from the drive thru-Arthur and I decided to wait until we hit Lodi before stopping for lunch. All the way down, I couldn't help but think I had forgotten something. Then, as we were leaving Lodi, it hit me-I forgot my fairy wings for the masquarade!!!!!!! I was so POed-I couldnt' believe I had left them behind-I even went back once 'cause I almost forgot the headdress I made!!! How could I forget the wings!?!?! Arrrrgggg... Here I was the night before, talking about how I forgot something I specifically set aside so I wouldn't forget, and I go and forget something else!! Oh, well-guess I'd have to be a wingless-fairy. :p

The ride home was somewhat more of an adventure. We left the hotel, stopped for gas, then stopped for food and a quick trip to Toys R Us to see if they had any Doctor Who toys (I missed getting the Master's Laser Screwdriver by about 10 minutes in the Dealer's room! Arrg!), then we were back on the road. We were just getting settle, listening to our tunes, we we started to hear this loud grinding noise. At first we weren't sure if it was us or the car next to us, but a quick press of the off button on the radio made us realize that the noise was, in fact, us. The car started to vibrate, and we figured we had a flat. Alicia wanted to try to make it to the next exit, but I told her we were going to have to pull over to the shoulder, because I didn't think we'd make it to the next exit. Arthur also said he thought he smelled something burning. We were in the middle lane and managed to pull over rather quickly, without further incident. As soon as she stopped and turned the hazards on, Arthur and I jumped out and discovered that we had a blow-out!! The rear passenger side tire had completely shattered. We had just passed the exits to Polaris, so we hadn't even made a dent in our trip back home yet! Alicia checked the trunk, and she did have a doughnut in the back-yay!! I remembered how to change a tire (my pops taught me as soon as I turned 16, even though I didn't get my license then), so I made a few suggestions, and Arthur pulled off the lugnuts, jacked up the car, and then put on the doughnut. He screwed in the lugnuts just enough so the tire wouldn't fall off, then lowered the car and tightened them some more.

...it should be noted that Arthur and I do not have a drivers licenses. LOL.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. I meant to ask Alicia to pull into a rest area halfway to check the tire, but forgot. When we dropped Arthur off at home, he checked the lugnuts again, and they were still tight. Yay!! We all got home, safe and sound.

However, I left my fairy headdress in Alicia's car. $#%&$!!!!!

Marcon!

2008-05-23T00:57:00.003-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: "You're a part of that L.I.N.D.A. group, aren't you?" -the Fifth Doctor to the Tenth Doctor in the CiN special, Time Crash

Marcon 43 is here!!! Yikes, it's 2:00am, and I'm so not ready. (What the heck am I doing online then?) ;)

I'm pretty much ready to go-I'll be doing all my packing in the morning-I just hope I remember everything! I'm donating my extra set of Doctor Who trading cards as a prize for the Doctor Who Jeopardy game, so hopefully I'll remember to bring that! (I think it was last year- I put all my gaming cards, and a few trading cards, in a separate backpack, so I'd be sure to bring them-wouldn't you know-I left the damn thing in on my bed!)

I've got all my costumes put together-including new batteries for my sonic screwdriver. :) The only thing I don't have is a sonic lipstick-ah, well-that'll be for next year!

Ehh...Blogger seems to be having issues for those of us who publish via an FTP server. I'm lucky, though-my text still shows up as a new post, even though my dashboard says the last time I published was back in April. Go figure-this happens when I not only post more than once or twice a month, but more than once in the same week! LOL. :p

OMG-if you haven't seen it yet-go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! It is AWESOME!!! (as spoken by a giddy fan girl) *hee* ;)

Everyone have a great weekend!!!

Moffat to take over from Davies!!

2008-05-20T13:06:00.003-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: "Splendid chaps...all of them." -the Brigadier (from the Fifth Doctor story, the Five Doctors)

Steven Moffat will be taking over the reigns of Executive Producer and Head Writer of Doctor Who from Russell T. Davies, starting in 2010 with the 5th series:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/05_may/20/who.shtml

In one word: AWESOME!!!
I love Steven Moffat!

(x-posted to the Idiot's Lantern)

party on, party on!

2008-05-19T22:32:00.007-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: The Brigadier: "Do you know what you're doing?"
the Third Doctor: "My dear chap, I can't wait to find out."

Need to write more...need to write more.... (same old, same old!)

CONGRATULATIONS, PERSEPHONE!!!!! She graduated from MSASS this past Sunday!!! Paul and I went to convocation, and I have to admit, I got a little teary eyed. She worked really hard the last two years-and totally deseves it!! After convocation, Paul and I jogged over to the temple where MSASS was holding their diploma ceremony-we met up with the rest of the family. MewMew and I were going to shout 'Brown chicken brown cow!' after Perseph's name was called, but we chicken out, since they told us to wait to cheer after everyone's name was called. Afterwards, when the Dean said, 'It sounds like everyone is having fun!' MewMew shouted 'Brown chicken, brown cow!' (you really have to hear it to get the joke...) It made Perseph's day! :)

After graduation, we all headed back to the Jarc's for her graduation party-it was so much fun-we all hung out and had fun talking, with SciFi's Indiana Jone's marathon running in the background. LOL. It was a good day. :)

Marcon is this Friday!!! I'm not quite to panic mode yet, but it seems I should be doing more to get ready. I finished my fairy headdress for the masquarade (i'm on the committee, and we are doing a little skit before the actual show). I was hoping to have a Sarah Jane costume from Eye of the Gorgon put together for Friday night, but I still need a waistcoat, and I don't have a sonic lipstick [yet]. ;) If I do find a waistcoat(Perseph and I are gonna hit a thrift store on Thursday), I 've got an idea for the lipstick... I've done some improvements to my Fourth Doctor costume, new pants, new hat-so that should be fun. I want to find a classic sonic screwdriver-but those are harder to come by now-especially with the new ones that keep popping up all over the place. Oh, that reminds me-I need to get new batteries for mine! I'm ok now, but I'm sure I'm gonna hit panic mode come Thursday night!!!

It's getting late, and I'm getting kinda sleepy-hopefully I'll try to update this before I leave for Marcon this Friday~!

Mommy Time! ;)

2008-04-22T23:59:00.006-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: Sarah: "Oh, I could murder a cup of tea. You're serious, aren't you?"
the Third Doctor: "About what I do, yes. Not necessarily the way I do it."

My Mommy came for a visit!! Well, actually, she went to D.C. to see the Pope, but she stopped by on her way there, and on her way back! So we had a short visit, 2 weekends in a row. ;) This was the first time she's seen my new place. :) Even though our time was short, we still managed to have fun.

The first weekend she was here, the Sarah Jane Adventures premiered on SciFi, so we watched that together. :) (Have I mentioned she's partly responsible for my Doctor Who addiction?) This was an extremely short visit, though-she had to leave the next morning for D.C., and I was headed for Cincinatti that weekend.

This past weekend, she came on Saturday. I had just bought the Time Warrior and Planet of Evil on dvd, so we sat down and watched the Time Warrior (which was my very first Doctor Who story) Saturday night-just like old times! :) Sunday we did a little shopping, watched more of the Sarah Jane Adventures, and we talked about some of my costuming efforts, and one of my knitting projects. I was having an issue with some of the directions for a baby blanket that I'm working on for Shanna, and just talking to her about it-we figured out what to do-yay! (let's hope I remember, now! LOL)

She's back home now, safe and sound-we didn't get to do alot, but hopefully next time she comes my way, we'll have more time!

Well, I bought a box of Stargate SG-1 season 9 trading cards for Open that Box Day-unfortunately, I waited too long to order, so I missed posting about it on Card Talk by about 11 hours. Oh, well-I'll probably post my findings here sometime, and I should post them to Card Talk, even though I missed the official entry. I wish I had more spare $$ to work on this hobby-'cause I really love my trading cards!! I like Open that Box Day-I've been setting aside a little bit of money towards a box for that each year, so even if I don't get to collect as much as I really want to during the year, at least I'll have one box to work with each year. Plus, it's fun participating! :)

Now that I have a porch, I want some outdoor plants! :-D I was at Target on Saturday, and in their dollar section, I found those little starter kits for plants. I ended up purchasing several different kinds of flowers (including sunflowers!) and a couple of cute little garden gnomes. LOL. I'm planning on potting them and creating a little mini-potted flower garden for my porch. I'll take pictures when I get it set up. :)

I know it's over an hour late, but Happy Earth Day!

yay!

2008-04-15T22:18:00.003-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: "You know, I am so constantly outwitting the opposition, I tend to forget the delight and satisfaction of the arts... the gentle art of fisticuffs." -the First Doctor

Congrats to the Cleveland Heights IceHawks!!! This past weekend in Cincinatti, they one their first Championship!!! YAAAAYYYY!!!!!!

GOOOOOO, WILD!!!! (although, I just checked the score, and they are currently loosing this game to the Avalanche. *sigh*, they are still ahead in the series, 2-1!!!!!)

That's life!

2008-03-17T22:11:00.004-05:00

No Doctor Who quote tonight-I couldn't think of anything clever enough for this post. ;)

Ever go through a period of writers block? That's what's happenening to me right now! So much has been going on, but whenever I sit down to write, I just don't know where to begin. The other day I was looking at some of my older blogs-I couldn't believe how much I used to write here! (and look how much it's dwindled!) Maybe if I wasn't so tired... ;)

This past weekend I was in Cincinatti and Dayton with the IceHawks (babysitting!) I had alot of fun. The tournament next month is in Cincinatti, and if we stay in the same place, I'm going to have to remember my swimsuit-they have an indoor/outdoor heated pool!! I also hope I have the same roomies-then I'll have to remember to bring Phase 10!

So where were you during the big storm two weeks ago? I was stuck at home-everything I had planned on Saturday was cancelled (with good reason, too). I stepped off the front steps and I sank to my knees in the snow-we had about 20 inches in our front yard. Junior (my landlord's son), must've been out there 3 times with the snow blower-he said he ended up helping at least 3 others get out of their driveways. I saw two plows get stuck-watching them try to free each other was kinda scary.

So what did I do on that snowy Saturday? Well, I was telling my friend Valerie that all I wanted to do was sit, relax, and watch the snow fall. Did I do that? No! I cleaned. All day. I ended up doing 4 loads of laundry, a weeks worth of dishes, I swept and vacummed my floors (I have hardwood with area rugs), AND I cleaned the bathroom! I was exhausted, and I didn't even shovel any snow. (did Sunday, though)

Hmm...what else is new? I started a 1000 piece puzzle the other day-it's quite frustrating! Once it's finished, though, I'm planning on getting some puzzle glue, glue it all together, and frame it for my livingroom. That's the plan, anyway!

Orange cheese!!

2008-02-23T23:46:00.003-05:00

D.W.Q.M.: Duke Juliano: "There's this man in Florence claims that by arranging ground glasses in a certain order, it's possible to see the moon and stars as large as your hand."
Marco: "Is that a good thing?"

Did you catch the Lunar Eclipse on Wenesday?!?! Amazingly enough, it actually cleared up so we could see it!

I was at Foofy and Persephone's for taco night-since there were six of us and the game we had decided to play only played 5, I decided to hang out with MewMew and watch Ghost Hunters: International. MewMew really wanted to see the eclipse, too, so we would peak outside during commercial breaks to see if it was clearing up. It was still pretty cloudy, so we had pretty much given up. Then, towards the end of Ghost Hunters I got a call from the Doctor-I had moved and leaned over the edge of the couch to answer-he said, 'I take it then you aren't outside?' All I said was, 'What, you mean it's clear?!' and I heard MewMew jump up from her seat on the couch and run to get her shoes and coat. I just managed to get my boots on, and we both ran out back, much to the chagrin of the gamers in the dining room. ;) After a minute or so (it was like, what? 20 degrees? 18? 15?) I decided to run in and get my coat. Along the way, I told Perseph that it was really clear outside. She got her coat and came out as well. As we were getting outside, Alicat called and was like, 'What the hell is up with the moon?' *hee* She didn't realize that there was a lunar eclipse happenning that night. ;) Saturn and Regulus were also out, and very bright. It was quite a sight to see. :)

I have quite a few updates to make-I've noticed that I haven't made any updates to my main site since June of 2005. I want to make some of those links on my homepage working links, plus I have a couple of ideas for a few more pages. I also need to update my knitting blog. I haven't been doing much knitting lately, but I started working on one of my K-9s again, plus I'm planning on getting started on a baby blanket for Shan, soon (she's going to have a baby towards the end of the summer!)

I'm also hoping to get started on a new costume for Marcon (although I don't think it'll be done in time for Marcon this May). I don't remember if I mentioned it or not-but last Thanksgiving I purchased a sewing machine on Black Friday. I've picked up a few supplies from JoAnns, and I need to order the material for my Sarah Jane costume. I also have to figure out if I can adjust a pattern to fit my size. I am so bad-I need to plan a trip to JoAnns just to surf through all the different patterns. While I was looking for another pattern to use for my Hand of Fear costume, I came accross a pattern that might work for a Masque of Mandragora costume. *hee* I need to print out some pictures of Sarah Jane so I can take them with me to JoAnns...I am so bad. ;)

Speaking of being bad (sort of), I also want to start scrapbooking again. Back when I was in CRASS in college, we made posters with pictures of the band at games and having a good time at our end-of-the season pizza party at Mama Santas for recruiting freshmen during the first week of class in the fall. Well, I still have the poster boards, and they haven't asked for them in a few years. Just as well, really-as the pictures are probably outdated and don't have any current members in them (well, undergraduate memebers-since Alumni are also allowed to join CRASS.) The poster boards have become rather beat up over the years, and since I really don't have any intention of putting them up on my walls, I decided to make a scrapbook out of them. I picked up a few stickers the last time I was at JoAnns-some music themed, and junk food themed (for the pizza stickers), and some quotation-bubble stickers. I need to get the posters out of storage (yes, I still have stuff in storage) so I can determine how big of a book I'll need, and if I should put it on black or white paper.

Hmm...my sidebar links for this blog and the Idiot's Lantern really need to be updated. I bet Ro Knits could use a little sidebar updating, too. ;)

Wandering through E-Space

Illuminated Houses

Merry Christmas!

DWFO: "This Is Gallifrey/ Vale Decem"

I'd Walk 500 Miles!

Gillan Will Welcome New Companion

Just trying something new

The Pig with the Froggy Tattoo

The Great Pumpkin Addiction

The Perseids

The Feast

wild weather day

plants and other things...

Game of Thrones Violin Cover

Happy 4th!

Marcon!

Busy Bee

pondering in the middle of the night...

RIP Elisabeth Sladen

Relay and Obi-Wan....

Lots and Lots of Walking...and Other Projects

a couple of book reviews...

Snowpocalypse 2011!!!

Walking update

Walking into February

Congrats, Bert Blyleven!

Welcome, 2011!!!

Spreading Some Holiday Cheer

Snowy nights

Snow storms

Thanksgiving weekend roundup! :)

Fall Colors and More...

Make your own Owl Lovers 2011 Calendar!

Halloween, part 3

Halloween, part 2 Warning: images galore!

Halloween, part 1

A letter

some book reviews

One last hurrah for September!

St. Rocco's 2010!

Perseids and the Feast

the beginning of summer!

Flying into (outof?) Spring!

Success? I hope so!

This blog has moved

Leave it to me...

Relay 2010, update 1: the setup!

Relay!!

Playball!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

new commenting

testing....*sigh*

Happy New Year!

Full of turkey...

Tomorrow is Halloween!!!

They did it!!!!

September...no, wait, OCTOBER!

Well, now, I feel silly...

The Backyard Test

Totally worth it, even just for one.

Summer evenings, summer stars

August!

Back from MN!

YAY!

Save Ohio Libraries

Tornadoes!

Time to get your geek on!!!

Relay for Life, part 2-remember this for next year!

Fun Stuff for the First of May

Playball..?

Relay for Life, part 1

Another long stretch...

Just wanted to say...

Quick note:

A list...

some new year thoughts

I'm back!

Chicago and Back!

Blog-keeping

Long-delayed updates...

testing....sigh