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!