Weekend Wrap-up!!

Caption Contest Winner! This week's winner is none other than Aynde with her, "I said to pull your head out of YOUR ass not MINE!"

Well done!!
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Outside of the laundry, we didn't do much this weekend. I finally got around to painting the master bathroom. When we moved in it, like the rest of the house, was blah beige. Two years ago whilst pregnant and in a fit of pregnant hormoes I decided I needed to paint it and get more color. So I painted it blue. Not just any blue but about the shade of the "Save Now" button whenever you type anew post. With the white wood work it was nice.

After we painted the bedroom I decide the bath was going to follow suit for color. I ended up woolie-ing the whole bathroom. It's about 75% done. Now I need to go back and re-roll some light spots and do all the trim work. With the nice weather coming I know it will take a backseat to gardening. It didn't take long to paint but the trim work with so many corners and tile is going to take a while.

Grilled out last night and had a couple of friends over. I did four NY strips, veggies, pesto, and Steve made his "famous" maple walnut cheesecake. When we were dating I lived in an apartment but would spend the weekends at his house (GASP!). Usually Friday nights when I'd get off from work he'd have some decadent dessert waiting for me. This was one of my favorites. And it still is.

Getting things lined up for an upcoming wedding mid-May that I am in. Jenna is the flower girl and we'll pick up her dress today after her KINDERGARTEN PHYSICAL!!!! Found a cute dress for Mallory that's ivory and have multi-colored flowers embroidered on the tulle skirt. It comes with a little sweater so she can wear it for Easter, as well. Mom took in the bodice of my dress. The dress was already a bit loose when I bought it in September and that was 25# ago, so it was really baggy in the bodice.

Mom wasn't sure if she'd be able to make it work by taking in the dress, but she did an AWESOME job! I have BOOBS!! She snugged it in perfectly!! This is a big deal for me as I've never really worn anything that "flaunts" this feature of mine.

Not sure if I'm ready to see Jenna all dolled up with flowers in her hair just yet....

Caption Contest!!

Early, long, and busy day for toady; it's our annual Pulmonary Conference and I've been up since 0530 and the conference gets over round about 1630-ish. I hope Steve orders a pizza or something....

So I'll this little gem to your over-active and creative imaginations. Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday!!

Back To The Basics

Last night was week two of my second fencing class. Things just make sense this time around. It's a pretty large class again, about 15. AND!! There's six other women!!! WOOT! Plus more adults so I won't feel so bad talking an adult down as I did an 11 year old.

Worked on foot work again and learned parrys 4, 7, 6, and 8. Got to suit up again *squeal!* After class was open fencing so I went up against Alex; why do I do this to myself?? Fought him for about 10 minutes. He peeled away and went up against Patrick, so Clint stepped in. This is his first time and h'es fighting like I did last session. I found his weak spots fairly easily, though he found some of mine, as well. Clint and I dueled for 15-20 minutes. We were both spent. I strongly recommended to him that he take lots of ibuprofen when he got home!!

This class and sport just ROCKS!!!

Weekend Wrap-up!!

Caption Contest Winner! This week goes to Becca with her, "Medusa meets Barbie?"
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Yesterday was Steve's 44th birthday. A couple of weeks ago he and Jenna were discussing cakes and what kind he wanted. As she's all things pink, she was truly shocked and appalled when he stated he wanted a grey cake (as a joke).

"NO!!! It has to have pink!"
"It's my cake and I want grey."

Never jokinly tell your spouse you want a grey cake, as you just may get it! So I began thinking about his cake and what I needed to do. I figured I'd get a white cake mix and add black food coloring to it. The frosting would be darker grey and I was going to try and leave the frosting streaky so it would look like a slab of marble.

I was discussing this with my mom a few days ago and the marble slab cake morphed to the mouse cake as they're grey, as well. And instead of grey cake mix I opted for red velvet a la "Steel Magnolias."

Now came the task of engineering this cake. I've never done a 3D cake before. I had two mixes; one in a 9" round, a loaf pan, and the rest in cupcakes if I needed any extra pieces. The round cake I cut in half and frosted together to make the back. The loaf cake I cut in half for the head and shaped it:Using the rest of the loaf cake I fashioned legs:

Now the mouse is mostly frosted.

And it's done! The whiskers are toothpicks that I colored black with a sharpie. I had a corner piece of cake that made an excellent hunk of cheese. I piped frosting for the tail.

Notice the little detail....

It's not perfect and is most definitely an amateur cake. I don't think Duff has anything to worry about......

Here, Steve is posing, getting ready to hack into his very own ROUS.

Lining up for the first cut......

Beheading the ROUS.

I made red frosting to glue the pieces together. However, I wasn't able to get the red dark enough. We weren't expecting this visual, but it was an added bonus!

Steve's first sucessful mouse lobotomy!

Way too much food this weekend, but all-in-all, I think it was a sucessful birthday! Happy birthday, Stevie!!!

Caption Contest!!

Yet another week shot in the arse. And yet another week that I don't have a picture ready to go so I Google. When in doubt, find a fashion show. There's BOUND to be something worthwhile!

And here it is.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

The Pen Lady

I've started up a hobby of mine again; making pens. I work from my home (read: garage) using domestic and exotic hardwoods and burls, acrylics, stone, and Corian solid surfaces. <-- Yes, that was my schpeel when I used to do shows.

I don't do shows anymore. The last show I did Jenna was due in 2 weeks. I make pens as gifts and do some comission work. I "close down" in the winter as it's too damned cold! Here are some samples of my work. Most of these pieces are available, if interested.

This letter opener is one of my earlier pieces and is made from green Corian. Available.

A neighbor of my mom's works at a Tile shop and brought over a couple of 4" Corian sample tiles of a line that is discontinued. As she brought me stock, I made her a pen and have charged her to advertise for me. I think she will bring in many as she stated that the company is always looking for "Thank You" gifts for customers. How cool would it be to have a pen and/or letter opener made from the same Corian that's in your kitchen?? Along with two different colors of Corian I added black guitar picks. This pen is spoken for.This lovely little gem is made from Red Malee burl from Australia. Burls are probably my favorite medium to work with as I have no idea what is on the inside and there's no grain to the wood, just swirls and birdseyes that really show up with I clear coat the wood. Available.Here's another sample of a burl. This pen is Buckeye burl (light) from North America and Thuya burl from Morrocco. This pen is spoken for.
This is another example of Buckeye burl. The piece has more figuring. Available.These two pens are from the same type of Corian that someone I work with just gave me. She and her husband had their kitchen remodeled and had this hunk left. In return to the free stock she received these two pens. It's neat to see how the "mood" of the piece changes depending on what color kit I choose. Spoken for.This is made from a product called acrylester. I'm not too fond of this material as it likes to explode if it gets too hot. This color is Ocean Mist and is available.This trio of pens was a special order for a gal in my office. She wanted a pen for herself and her two daughters that are graduating college this year. You'll notice that each pen has a piece of the other two in the cap, signifying the relationship. Spoken for.This is a two-tone blue swirl acrylic with white guitar picks at both ends. Available.This desk set is a combination of Box Elder burl (light) from North America and Cocobolo from Central America. Spoken for.This is made from the same green Corian as the letter opener. Spoken for.This piece is made from amber Crushed Pearl acrylic. Available.Finally, this set I made from a pre-fab piece of wood consisting of either birch or maple (North America), Purpleheart (Central America), and Walnut (North America). I entered it in our county fair in 2006 and won First Place! No one is getting this set. Ever.

Just because a particular piece is spoken for doesn't mean I can't make it again. Just letting you know in case anything peaks your interest. ;-)

Spring Steel Wrap-up!!

Caption Contest Winner!! This week goes to Tom with his, "The sliced up remains of Kristi's prepube classmates."

Unless you've been sleeping under a rock for the last few weeks you'll remember that I had my beginner's tournament at Spring Steel this past Saturday. There were only 11 people that showed so it was a very small turn-out.

We were divided into two groups and those were the ones we would fence against for the tournament. My group had 6 and the other group had 5. In the first round I was 3-2, and I was pleased with that.

There was one kid, Josiah (in the red), that was doing all this fancy schmancy crap with me that got me to wonder if he was beginner. I asked Patrick if he was and he tole me that Josiah was in an intermediate that's practiced a lot. I was a bit miffed that I, a one-time beginner, was up against a decent intermediate. He'd stomp his foot or quickly wave his foil in an effort of draw me in. I wasn't having any of it, and frankly, was getting really annoyed with his anticks. Maybe it's my age.

As you can see in the picture he's in a lunge but he's really low with his foil pointed up. With this move the attcker anticipated the opponent will come at him so he ducks while the opponent is up high, thus leaving the opponenet wide open to attack.

In between rounds I was talking with Steve and mom when Patrick comes up and somewhere in the conversation he mentions that I was in the intermediate group.

"What?!?! Since when?"
"Since this morning."
"I thought the groups were younger beginners and older beginners."

Apparently not. Now I didn't feel so bad about being shown up!

The other match I lost was a good match against Ben. We were tied 4-4 when I came at him and saw the tip of my foil indent his lame' but it didn't make solid contact so it didn't count. He got me right after that.

After break was Round two where we fought each other again. My first match was Josiah and I was bound and determined to not let this punk show me up 5-1 like the first round. It didn't help that he is a Southpaw, thus adding to the challenge. He tried the same stuff to no avail, though he was pretty jumpy whenever I approached him in the same manner. Then at one point he was very far away from me and appeared to lose interest in the match; his foil was down, he was looking around. I think it was another tactic to draw me in. By this time the three-minute mark was reached so the match was called. I lost 2-1. Punk ass kid....

At the end of the Tournament was the medal ceremony. As you can see here I medalled, much to my surprise. Not only did I medal, but I came in second!! How I did this still remains a mystery.

So all-in-all, this was my first tournament in a group of intermediates and I came out second to Punk Ass Kid. I was very pleased with the day, not to mention very tired and stiff.....So here you are, Tom, video of one of my matches. This is agaisnt Noelle who tied for third. She had some wicked parrys and fought close to me which made if difficult to score against her. I'm in the blue work-out pants on the right; Steve is shooting video.

The second round wasn't near as rewarding as the first, mainly because I was getting pretty tired. I had a great time. It was interesting and challenging to fence strangers and to figure out their style, strengths, and weaknesses.

I start class up again Tuesday night!

Caption Contest!!

So it's Friday again....that can only mean one thing....SPRING STEEL IS TOMORROW!!!! WHOO-HOO!!

Or, it could mean it's that special day of the week reserved for the illustrious Caption Contest. Does that work better??

So here is this week's installment of the contest. Have a great weekend, wish me luck and many parry repostes (hopefully a medal, too!), and I'll see you on Monday!!

Tagged!!

A la Meg, through Becca.

All you have to do is open up your photo file program. Find the sixth file and post the sixth picture.

This was taken from my home computer. Thanfully this file was from this year!! As you can see, this is Mallory taken at the end of January.

This next one is from my work computer. This is Jenna's 3-month photo.That's all I got.

Weekend Wrap-up!

Caption Contest Winner! This week goes back to Aynde with her, "The truth behind "Greenhouse Gases."

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<-- In the glass bubble, as explained below.

Saturday we decided to trek to the zoo as this is something the four of us haven't done yet. All was well and good and Jenna wanted to see the penguins. We walked into the aquarium and she freaked. out. when she say the fiberglass Great White shark hanging from the ceiling. This was more than her usual whining. She froze, hands TIGHTLY over her eyes, and sobbing hysterically. No amount of talking her down was going to do the trick. This went on for about 15". Mal and I moved on a bit to the penguins. In this enclosure is a 4' glass bubble that juts into the water so you can sit in the bubble "underwater" and watch the penguins up close and personal. I still marvel at ther fluidity under water.

Oh yes, as Mal and I were finishing up in the aqaurium we came across the ray tank and there we found a diver scrubbing the rocks.

I stuck my head around the corner as it had gotten quieter and Steve and Jenna were gone. I assumed they were at the entrance waiting. So Mal and I went through the rest of the aquarium to no avail. So I thought they went to the new butterfly pavilion. No luck, either.

<-- I took that!!

This was my first time through the pavilion - very cool! Tropical setting with butterflies and hummingbirds just flying around doing their thing. A Giant Morpho almost landed on Mallory a couple of times. She now knows what a butterfly is and would point and say "fly!"

I decided to head back up to the jungle and wait to see if I could find them. Keep in mind that I left my cell at home as did Steve but her had his on-call pager and on-call phone. Do you think I know those numbers???

An hour later and no sign of either of them I flag down a zoo employee to either put out an APB on them or use a phone to call the hospital and get his pager number. I was finally able to track it down through Security and I paged him. About 20 seconds he calls back and they're in the cat house - a ZOO cat house with tigers, lions, pumas, and leopards. Not the red light cat house, Tom.

Came home, sent everyone to bed after lunch. The rest of the weekend was the usual domestic crap, so I'll spare you the details.. Saturday night we watched "Charlie Wilson's War." Woo. Such is our date nights.....

Caption Contest!!

This is one week I am glad to see go bye-bye; not a good week financially. We just can't seem to get ahead these days.....

So on that depressing note I present this week's Caption Contest!! As I am in such a dismal mood I hope this photo will help lighten it up.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you Monday!

Final Class

Last night was our final class. Didn't do anything new but did a mini-tournament with pools and learned how real tournaments work. In my pool of four I came in second having won 2 of my three matches - both of which were against kids. I lost by one point to Dwayne, whom I've fenced against before.

I stuck around to watch Patrick and Alex duel as they usually do in open fencing. I didn't do any open fencing, just wasn't in to it last night. I'm going to try to make it to open fencing next week to prepare a bit for the Spring Steel tournament.

It was interesting to watch others fence. We hadn't had much opportunity before because everyone was fencing everyone. But getting the chance to sit and watch was good. You could tell who had good posture and footwork, who's been through the class before, who really gets it. I'd like to think I sort of get it.

As I was leaving for the night Patrick said, "I look forward to when you beat me."

I smiled and chuckled, "Keep looking."

HUZZAH!!!

FINISHED!!! I repainted the bedroom wall and now it's done! Granted, we still to get the pictures back up on the wall and I need to repaint the bathroom. Here's what I came up with:

In this picture, taken in the hallway, shows what the wall color was. One word; boring. The hall, living room, kitchen, and master all had pretty much the same wall color; milktoast. Yech....
Now here's the finished project. Three of the walls are an oatmeal color and I bought a quart of paint that is two shades darker than the wall color to woolie an accent wall. The woolie faux paint system utilizes a split paint pan that will hold two colors of paint. The roller is covered in lambs wool with a thick knap. Once you've chosen your palate, usually two shades different (for a more pronounced look. Gow ith colors that are one shade apart for a more subtle look), just load up your roller and butterfly on your walls! It's super easy. The time-consuming part is the detail along edges. But the beauty of this faux system is that there is no patterns so if one area is blended more than another, that's ok! That's how it's "supposed" to look.

We had a slight problem. We couldn't find our split pan, so I bought two cheap small pans and zip tied them together and cut down the middle so the roller would fit. You could probably just get two mini roller pads with a thick pile and do the same effect. There are dual sponge rollers available, as well, to do the same thing. A typical roller is 9" and mini-rollers are 4" so just place them on either end and you're good to go!


Here's a closer detail of the corner. When using two very dramatic color differences, keep in mind that as you roll the two colors they will blend into each other and soften. So your colors on the sample may seem frighteningly distant, but they will even each other out. Also, you can blend more to get an even softer look. We wanted something a bit more dramatic so I just blended enough to hide the roller lines. On the Woolie website it suggests using two completely different colors.
Here is a close-up on the window valances I made Sunday. The floral vine pattern is horizontal in nature to mirror the horizontal lines of the bedding set. But the slightly curvy lines of the vines help soften the very linear feel of the pattern. Though it's difficult to see there is an accent pillow that has embroidered circles, so that's why I chose that fabric. Actually, the part that's showing is actually the reverse of the fabric. On the other side the flowers and vines are a much heavier embroidery and a bit too bold for the look I was aiming for.
Do I watch too much HGTV??

Weekend Wrap-up!

Caption Contest Winner! This week is by default and it goes to Becca with her, "Spring is like Old Faithful; always erupts again!"
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Ok, Friday. Mom took Jenna Thursday night for a sleep-over and was to take her into school on Friday. Steve and I were out the door at 0515. Mallory pretty much stayed in our laps. At 0600 she got a cocktail of sedatuves. By 0620 she was snoring in my lap. At 0700 anesthesia came to get her. She opened an eye and laid her head on his shoulder.

Steve and I had a couple of breakfast sandwiches and juice and turned on the TV. Anesthesia came back at 0720 and said she was done! Dang, that was fast! Mallory came back to us at 0735 and slept on either myself or Steve until about 0915. Spoke with the doctor after her procedure and he said that a fair amount of thick fluid came out of her left ear and that it was too thick to drain on its own, so we feel better about having the tubes placed.

Got home about 0930 and Mal be-bopped with Steve for about an hour. I put her down for a nap around 1030 and she slept until 1345 - three hours!!During that time Steve helped me paint our bedroom. We got three walls done as the fourth wall was going to be an accent wall. It's painted a dark oatmeal and the accent wall I woolied two different shades of the wall color. We like it, but it's not the bold accent wall we were hoping for. So I'll stop at Lowe's today and get a quart of paint that is two shades darker and try again. I will get pictures when it's all done, but at least it's much close than it was 2 months ago!

I bought some fabric and made valances for the bedroom and I have the bathroom valance ready to go even though I haven't even started in the bathroom!

Since Mallory's surgery we've noticed that she isn't as loud, more than likely because she can hear herself now!