this little life of mine

Friday Love List

Miscellaneous stuff I loved this week:

1. Red Anjou pears
2. Unexpected gifts from friends and co-workers
3. Pretty petite Thank You cards with cute little stickers
4. The Body Shop almond oil nail and cuticle cream
5. New shoes
6. This Isabella Fiore purse and wallet (although I’m bidding on a different I.F. purse right now)
7. I.F. in general
8. Orbit Sweetmint gum
9. Delicious coffee
10. Yummy Cinco de Mayo feast @ work
11. The new Clay Aiken album
12. The new Chris Sligh album
13. Getting the prefect Mother’s Day gifts for my mom and grandmother
14. My mom’s pretty Earthbox garden
15. My pretty yellow rose
16. Dove shampoo and conditioner that’s making my hair feel so much softer
17. Eclipse – finished it this week, and it was really good
18. An update from Weetabix
19. Gorgeous Polaroid pictures of France
20. Curried chicken salad sandwich from the Courthouse Café
21. Planning vacations

2008 Gardening Extravaganza: The Beginning

So last weekend my mom bought and planted our veggies for this year and I dug up an old dead plant in the front yard and replaced it with a pretty yellow rose bush. And I'm just getting around to writing about it all today. How sad is that? Anyway, here is our garden:

We have two tomato plants:

Two bell peppers (one red, one green):

(Oh, and that stuff around it is to kill the couple of snails my mom spotted this past week.)

We also have two cucumber plants:

And one crookneck squash and one Japanese eggplant:

There wasn't much selection at Home Depot - mostly tons of different kinds of tomatoes and various kinds of peppers that we weren't interested in. There were no regular eggplant, so we're trying the Japanese version this year, and since there was only one of those that looked good, we grabbed the crookneck squash to round out the box.

In the front I pulled up the large, decorative grass that we have disliked for several years and which finally died, and replaced it with a pretty yellow rose bush called Midas Touch:

It's so bright and cheery. I really hope it lives!

Then Again ...

... this Isabella Fiore purse is cute, too. Plus the green in the design would closely match the green in the wallet I already have. I'd be saving money and still enjoy a purse from my fave designer. Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

It's All Weetabix's Fault

I officially hate my new purse (which I've only had a couple of months and which I took a picture of, but apparently never posted because I can't find it now). I’ve disliked it for some time, but this past week I realized that I well and truly loathe it. I still love the fun, muted colours on the outside, the handles that make it fit perfectly snug under my arm, and the fact that it’s so deep inside that I can fit my wallet, a full-sized hardback library book, and a good-sized notebook and pen, but there are other problems with bag that irk me. There is a nice zipper pocket where I can store my keys and ID badge, but the other two pockets are basically useless. One is just a little big too small for my digital camera (which is teeny tiny to begin with, so what the heck?), and while my cell phone fits comfortably in the other one, the loose, floppy construction of the purse itself causes the phone to fall out and flail about inside my bag along with whatever book I’m currently reading, my wallet, camera (in its case since the pocket’s too small), notepad and pen, and whatever else I happen to have shoved in there. It also doesn’t sit comfortably on my lap while riding the bus. Basically: it’s annoying.

Then last week my friend Weetabix sent me an email about this awesome Isabella Fiore bag. It was love at first sight, just as it was for the first Isabella Fiore bag and wallet I bought a couple years ago in Chicago. The particular bag Weet showed me was sold out at that department store, but it started me on a quest for a similar bag. I learned that that design (which is called “Live to Love, Love to Live”; the other bag/wallet set I have is “Me Hearty”) came in different styles, all with girls names like Keira and Nika and Bridget and then oh, my look at that: There’s one called Jordan.  And it has a matching wallet! How perfect is the Jordan bag? I mean, it’s my surname! Plus it’s a sturdy looking bag with a deep interior that includes a zippered pocket and two pockets for my cell phone and camera. And even if those two pockets don’t work out, there are two more with magnetic closures on either side of the bag. Sweet!

So, yeah, I think I'm gonna have to buy it. And the matching wallet. Gah!

Go Wildcats!

By now I'm sure you've all heard or read about the amazingly beautiful show of sportsmanship demonstrated by two softball players from my alma mater, but I just couldn't not mention it here as well. This is exactly what the world needs more of right now: human beings helping each other get through the tough times regardless of what team/side/political party/religion/race/etc., they're on/belong to/believe in. Way to go, Liz and Mallory! You make me proud to be an alumni of CWU!

Things I Love Today

1.  My new water bottle:

Well, it's not exactly new. I bought it several years ago at Copelands Sports (which doesn't even exist anymore, I don't think) when I thought I might actually go hiking or mountain biking or something athletic like that (ha!), but I just started using it today. I've been reading lately how some of the convenient plastic bottles our drinking water comes in are made from a kind of plastic that's bad for us and bad for the environment, so my mom and I decided that rather than buying our Arrowhead by the 24-bottle case, we're going to pour our Britta-filtered water into reusable bottles instead. This adorable aluminium water bottle from Life is Good is going to stay at work with me, so I'm looking for safe (and cute and/or fun) reusable bottles to have at home.

2.  My lunch:

Leftover Wehani rice salad (substituting brown rice for the Wehani which I couldn't find) that I made on Sunday from a recipe in my new Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook.

3.  Finally being healthy enough to go to the gym! Man, did I ever miss working out while I was suffering from a nasty cold last week! It felt so good to hit the elliptical and treadmill last night, and I can't wait to get a little workout in this evening as well!

4.  An exciting little shaker. It was only a 3.9 (followed by a teeny tiny 2.4), but the jolt was kinda fun!

5.  The quote on my calendar today:

Postcard from China

My friend Miss K. recently went on a trip to China and while she was visiting jade factories, tea factories and strolling on the Great Wall, she found time to drop a postcard in the mail for me. I love the designs on the stamps!

13 Things I Enjoyed About This Week

For this week's Thursday 13, I decided to dwell more on the positives of the week rather than the fact that I got a nasty cold AND my period on the SAME DAY, so I've been feeling cruddy all week, and haven't been able to go to the gym, and waaahhh, poor me!

1.  I finished reading New Moon last night. I'm really enjoying this series! I'm just devouring these books!

2.  Starting Eclipse. I picked up my copy at the library on my lunch hour today and can't wait to start reading it on the way home tonight!

3.  Putting together the new TV stand from West Elm. It was remarkably easy, and it looks amazing! Here's the TV stand we had before (it's actually a Lane cedar chest, but it worked just fine):

And, here's our new TV stand:

Now we just need to buy a new flat screen HD TV to go on top of it!

4.  Trying a delicious new tea! It was a blackberry/sage/somethingorother from Black Horse, and it was really delicious!

5.  Losing 4 pounds. (I guess being sick does have its advantages!)

6.  Getting my new cookbook in the mail! I love the Clean Eating magazine, and I'm really looking forward to trying some of these yummy looking recipes this weekend!

7.  Break/Meetings with Miss K. and Miss S.! So fun to sit out in the atrium and talk about books AND work!

8.  Good hair days! Every single day this week my hair has behaved itself and looked fantastic!

9.  Learning new things at work. It's been exciting and fun to try new stuff that has in the past been left to the LWs. Since my LW is on vacation this week, I've been trying my hand at some different things.

10.  Keeping busy. Nothing better for making the days go by and for making work fun and interesting!

11.  Getting over a cold. I got this cold last Saturday, and today is the first day I really feel better.

12.  Getting a good night's sleep! Well, I cheated and had to take Nyquil a couple of nights, but I slept SO well it was worth it. That's probably why I'm feeling better today.

13.  It's almost the weekend! Thursday evening is always wonderful for me because I know there's only one day left in the week and that day is Friday - jeans day, Glory Day, and this particular Friday is PAY DAY!!!

Lunch Today

Since the weather has warmed up a bit (well, it cooled down this week, but should be warm again this weekend), I've been craving potato salad. So, I was pretty excited when I saw potato salad was the side offered with the cafeteria's curry chicken salad sandwich (my fave!!), and I was even more excited when I saw it:

That, my friends, is not some mass-produced, artificially coloured, goopy-with-mayonnaise potato salad. That? Is freshly made with fresh ingredients and lightly seasoned with salt and pepper and a little dressing. Delicious!!

Happy Earth Day!

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than by sharing a photograph I took recently of the brand new, ecologically smart Smart Car? (Okay, I'm sure there are better ways like planting a tree or cleaning up the beaches and creeks of junk and pollution, but this is the best I have for today. Oh, except that I did ride the bus into work, so I suppose that counts as Earth-friendly, too!)

No, it's not mine (I wish!), but it's the first one I've seen IRL, and I was so excited! It's so cute! I want one, I want one, I want one!!!

Is it just me, or ...

... is the idea that you can buy a T-shirt with the latest headline on it a bit strange, stupid and/or disturbing?

Ugh

I am sick. As a dog, so the saying goes, though how that became a saying I have no idea. All I know is I woke up Saturday morning with a sore throat and a stuffy head, and basically spent the weekend in a haze of nose-blowing and moaning. Mom and I did go to the Swap Meet on Saturday, but I barely remember wandering among the booths looking at stuff people were trying to sell. It's all a blur. Today mom and I put together our new TV stand from West Elm. It's gorgeous and was really easy to put together. I feel much better today, which is odd since I'm not taking any cold medicine. It might've helped that I slept for about three-and-a-half hours this afternoon. I have every intention of going to work tomorrow (considering we're down two people, I don't really feel like I have a choice), but I'm definitly not going to the gym!

Happy National Library Week!!

This week is National Library Week. I didn't even know that until I came across the information somewhere yesterday (and, sorry, I don't remember where I saw it), but I think it's pretty coincidental that the book I've started reading this week I just checked out from the library on Friday. I put a hold on it probably two or three weeks ago, and checked the library website nearly every day to see where I was in the queue. The anticipation as I watched the number fall from 19 to 11 to 7 and finally to 0 was very exciting! It was akin to counting down to Christmas Day!

Okay, maybe it wasn't that good. But, it was fun all the same. It had been a very long time since I'd checked out a book - or anything else for that matter - from the library, but I think it's time I got back into the borrowing-from-the-library habit on a regular basis.

Checking Out the Back Garden

I finally remembered to go out and feed the birds this morning, and while I was out in the back garden, I thought I'd see what was growing. The first thing I noticed is that the bush I chopped down earlier this year is trying to make a comeback:

It's kinda cute, and much more managable at this size, but I still haven't decided whether or not keep it.

I also saw some buds on the wild rose bushes and the irises:

Mom and I planted these bright and beautiful flowers last summer, and really didn't expect them to come back this year. I'm thrilled they did, though, because they're bright and cheerful, and there's one less pot to deal with!

And, finally, here's another pretty pink flower I love but have no idea what it is.

Cheers!

Japanese Rose Garden

One of my favourite O.P.I. nail colours is Japanese Rose Garden, and I thought with spring fully underway, it would be the perfect colour for my toes:

A Night at Farmer's Market

So, Farmer's Market was a ton of fun! As I mentioned before, I had dinner at Novo (the chicken Caesar salad because I love their's and also because I'm boring and predictible) ...

(btw, I found out the wine was Blue Slate Riesling by Dr. Loosen, and it's German, not French.)

... and after stuffing myself near to bursting, I wandered around the market and got kinda sad when I saw all the BBQs, pizzas, pita sandwiches, roasted corn-on-the-cob, giant turkey legs, pies and cakes and other delicious yummy things I could've (and probably should've) noshed on instead.

Next time, I told myself. Next time.

One of the best parts about the SLO Farmer's Market is all the entertainment. There's bands:

Belly dancers:

And, even a very fun and popular puppet show:

The guy who does the puppet show is awesome! He has different voices for the characters - all of which sound delightfully fake and are utterly charming! -  and he sings songs, and totally and completely charms everyone, children and adults alike.

And, of course, there's lots and lots of produce:

I picked up some beets (from the Cal Poly stand above; sadly they didn't have kolerabis this week), spinach, radishes, almonds, sugar snap peas, a 3lb bag of the sweetest, juiciest oranges I've ever had, and a bouquet of beautiful, fragrant lilacs:

The evening ended with a lovely drive home and a beautiful sunset:

Tomorrow is Friday (thank God!) and Glory Day! I can hardly wait!!

dinner @ novo

Since I have a free parking space this week, I decided to take advantage of it and go to farmer's market. I am dining at Novo - my favourite restaurant - and am sipping a light, crisp white wine I can't remember the name of. Dr.- something-or-other. I think it's from France.

Anyway, after dinner I plan to hit the produce: beets, berries, kolerabi, spinach, radishes, broccoli, asparagus if I can find it, and some almonds, fresh basil, hummus, and, if I have room, maybe even some fresh flowers.

It feels pretty nice to spend some quality time with myself. It's been a really busy, hectic week, though a good one, too.

Still . . . very happy tomorrow's Friday!

The Rose

Support Carlos

Apparently one of our favourite bus drivers, Carlos, is in a bit of a pickle with the company he works for. I've heard a couple different stories about the incident (or whatever it actually was), but the bottom line is he was suspended, in our opinion unfairly. Carlos is one of the best drivers RTA has working for them. He's friendly, polite, helpful, and most importantly a really good, safe driver. The group of riders at the Cal Poly stop had all these fliers that said "Support Carlos", which they had been holding out for people to see as they drove by. They said other buses that passed by honked their support. Hopefully Carlos will be reinstated as a driver very soon. That company needs all the good drivers they can get!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is my grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary. Yes, I said 70!! That's 70 years. Married. To each other. I know. It blows my mind, too.

Mom and I actually celebrated their anniversary with them this past weekend with a picnic lunch of Subway sandwiches, fresh veggies, and a four-bean salad. For dessert we had little angel food cake cups with fresh strawberries and fat free whipped cream. It was a lovely day and so much fun to celebrate such a momentous occasion!

Peacock Feather

My former pod-mate has a friend who has peacocks (whether they are pets or being raised for some reason or just wild, I don't know), and this morning he presented me with three lovely peacock feathers:

New Toys

Last month it became apparent that my printer was near death - it would start printing something, then stop suddenly and all the lights would flicker on and off rapidly, and it refused to turn off unless unplugged, and basically I think it just had a nervous breakdown (It happened soon after mom and I did our taxes. Coincidence? I don't think so!) - so I decided to buy myself a new one. And, while I'm at it, I thought, why not buy a new scanner as well? The one I had was so old it didn't have a USB connection, so I could only use it with my old computer, and well, while it wasn't impossible to scan something, it was really inconvenient, so, yup, a new scanner went on the "Things to Buy Today" list. I picked up both of them (both HPs, just like my computer and moniter) at Staples which very nicely took the old printer and scanner away to be recycled. Sweet!

So now I have an awesome new HP Photosmart D7460 printer:

Which prints gorgeous pictures like this:

AND, even prints 4X6 prints like these:

Which, I suppose, means I can get rid of my old small HP photo printer that I bought specifically to print this smaller size. I wonder if Staples would recycle that?? Actually it works perfectly (just not with my new computer, strangely enough), so maybe I'll just sell it on eBay or something.

Anyway, here is a picture of my lovely new scanner, an HP Scanjet G4050:

To test it, I scanned an old black and white infrared print I took in 1986 (then printed it out on my new printer):

The clarity is amazing! I can't wait to scan more of my old photographs!

Weekend Warriors: New Kitchen Floor

So, over this 3-day weekend, my mom and I decided to cover up our ugly, stained, gouged and cut kitchen floor with some lovely peel-n-stick tiles. Sorry I didn't take step-by-step photos, just the before and afters.

My God I cannot believe how hideous the floor was before! I mean, I knew it was bad, but I guess I didn't notice exactly how badly stained it was. I have no idea how it got all yellow like that, but it's disgusting and it had to go!

The hardest part of prepping was removing the quarter round from around the base of the cabinets. I thought it would be easy to just pull them off, but it was hard to get even the small pry tool we bought between the moulding and the cabinets because the cabinets stuck out so far. Gah. Then instead of the nails coming out with the moulding, some of them stuck in the wood, and then broke off when I tried to pull them out with pliers, which meant that I would have to drill new holes in the quarter round to put it back up. Double gah.

Laying the ties was pretty easy until we got to the part where we had to cut around the edge of the wall (behind the fridge) and the base of the cabinets. Considering our kitchen looks square, you'd think it would be a cinch, but you'd be wrong. Nothing in this house is square - not the cabinets, the walls, the carpeting - nothing. Each and every piece had to be individually measured to include its particular quirky measurement. By the time I was finished, I became quite good at wielding a straight edge and utility knife!!

One aspect of laying the tiles that I hadn't anticipated was the pain! I purchased knee pads because I knew I would be on my knees for a long time, but even that didn't help keep my poor knees from getting horribly bruised and sore. My arms are a bit achy, too, especially the shoulders. It's probably from using the marble rolling pin to flatten the tiles after laying them down, which, by the way, is a great ab workout, too! Basically my entire body aches today. I think I might take tomorrow off from the gym!

After laying all the tiles, we sprayed some protective coating on the quarter round and proceeded to reinstall it. A couple pieces came off with the nails intact, and were easy to pound back in, but as I mentioned before, most of them lost their nails, and new holes had to be drilled in the quarter round. That wasn't so hard, but pounding the nails in turned out to be a horror. I should've taken a picture, but it would have been way too embarassing to show the nearly 20 nails I bent trying to pound them in. Even when I tapped gently, I bent the damn, wimpy, useless things! Grr!

Still, through all the difficulties and headache and bodyaches, it was all worth it because here is our new kitchen floor:

Beautiful, isn't it? It's Armstrong Flooring Granite Mills A4185, in case you're wondering (or interested). It's got some white, grey, and golden brown, and goes really well with out white appliances, grey countertops and golden brown cabinets (whiche need to be refinished, but that's a project for another weekend), as well as our brownish/greyish carpet:

I even included my own special signature - one tile installed in the opposite direction as the others. Can you find it??

It's glaringly obvious to me. It bugged me at first, but now I think it's kinda cool, and makes the whole floor more personal and unique.

Mom and I love it, and are so happy with the results!

And I've Never Even Been There!

You Belong in New Zealand

Good on ya, mate You're the best looking one of the bunch Though you're often forgotten... You're quite proud of who you are

What English Speaking Country Are You?

Another List of Updates

1.       So, I decided it was time to get a new handbag. I love my Isabella Fiore purse and wallet very, very much, but I’m getting a little bored with them, and also I want something a little lighter colour-wise and more spring-like. So, during my lunch break on Friday I wandered down to a funky little boutique called French Quarter, and looked at their handbags. They had several different bags to choose from, and I found two I was instantly attracted to. One was a shiny patent lime green with large pink and white and orange flowers. Very pretty and fun and spring-like. And shiny. The other one wasn’t shiny, but had muted stripes of white, denim blue, red, mustard, lime green and silver. They were both the “hobo” style, both had a large interior to fit notepads, books, a wallet, etc., and pockets for a camera and cell phone and keys and stuff. In the end, I chose the one with the muted colours mostly because I thought I would tire of the shiny lime green quickly and also because the zipper didn’t go all the way across on the green one, leaving two large openings on either side where stuff could fall out, or someone could reach in a steal something. To be honest, the zipper doesn’t go all the way across on the striped one, either, but the openings are smaller, and I am less concerned about losing stuff. Once I decided on the purse, I went a picked out a lime green (that really closely matches the green stripe on the purse) reptile patterned wallet. It’s shiny! I am so very happy now!

2.       Friday night after work I went for a pedicure. It’s been about three weeks since my last one, and I was just starting to feel the achy little twinge I get along the bottom of my feet, so I knew it was time to get a good foot massage and some reflexology before the plantar fasciitis kicked in. I haven’t taken a picture yet, but I used Revlon’s Pink Petal if you’re interested. It’s a pretty light pink colour that’s perfect for springtime!!

3.       I haven’t had anything for sale on eBay for a couple of weeks. The rubber stamps and the carousel horses were being watched, but not bid on, so I just didn’t relist them. Friday night I got a wild hair up my butt and decided to relist everything. Please don’t ask me why; must’ve been some sort of premonition …

4.       Saturday morning I was checking through my emails, and saw one about having received an instant payment for my box of rubber stamps. WTF?! I pop over to eBay and sure enough, someone bought my box of 100+ rubber stamps!!  Finally, after being on there for weeks and getting no attention (except for one woman who was just way too demanding – wanting close-up pictures and detailed descriptions of the ink stains on the rubber and wood (Gah!) - and another who offered to buy the box for fifty bucks (Half price?! Forget that!).), in a matter of a few hours, they sold! Yay!

5.       Saturday afternoon I shipped off my box of rubber stamps at the post office inside Long’s Drugs, then stopped into Fantastic Sam’s for a haircut. I have been in need of a trim for weeks, but the salon has started closing at 6 p.m., so getting a quick haircut after work is no longer an option.  I hate wasting my weekends sitting in a boring damn hair salon, but I was desperate, so in I went. And my good luck continued because even though there were several people on the list ahead of me, none of them were present, so I got in right away. I had been contemplating doing something different with my hair – cutting it shorter or something – but I chickened out and just got an inch chopped off and kept the layers, and blah, blah, blah. At least I don’t have two inches of bangs hanging in my eyes! I hate that!

6.       Sunday was Easter, and we spent part of the day up at my grandparents’ house eating ham and green beans and scalloped potatoes and asparagus, a Jell-o mold, and an angel food cake with Cool Whip and sliced strawberries, and visiting with them and my aunt and uncle.  It was, for the most part, a pleasant day, but mom and I left after just a couple hours. Neither of us was feeling terribly well, so we just wanted to go home, put on comfy clothes and relax the rest of the day. Which we did.

7.    Sunday night I coloured my hair, and now it’s soft, shiny and auburn (Feria by L’Oreal in Cardinal, in case you’re interested), just the way I like it.