Observations on life

When I get gas from the KwikShop in Newton, if I scan my Dillon's card it will give me 2 cents off each gallon. If I put in my phone number, it will give me 10 cents off. I think I know which one I'll be using...

I know for sure that there's been inflation because my strawberry banana slush costs $1.50. Seven years ago it cost $1.15.

Did Century II get a new sign? I drove by the other day and had one of those thoughts where I am sure that something has changed, but I can't remember what it used to look like. I do the same thing when a building is torn down. I notice that something is missing but can't remember what used to be there.

"They" say that you'll save gas if you drive the speed limit. But sometimes the speed limit is 60, sometimes it's 70. So according to "them" I should be saving the same amount of gas.

In Life Group we're doing a study on the book What's So Amazing About Grace? The definition of grace is "undeserved forgiveness." Yesterday a Sheriff's Deputy was killed in the line of duty after making a house call. Thinking about how as Christians we should give grace to the shooter (who also died), it's hard not to think that he should get some sort of vengeance instead.

There is a man who walks on Central during his lunch hour. He wears a badge so I'm pretty sure that he works somewhere downtown. Every day I see him walking and he is always smiling about something. Yesterday, he was walking and it was the first day I'd seen him not smiling. I wonder what happened to his happiness?

Catching up on the Daily DeMos!

Your Google Reader might look like it's on the fritz with Presently DeMo, but it's really just because I had four Daily DeMos to post and I wanted to keep the DD and the posting date within a reasonable amount of time. I moved one out a few days and posted three more which might seem out of order but they're really not. Hopefully now I can keep things a little bit more organized!

The Daily DeMo - Edition 20
(Crop marks and bee stings)
The Daily DeMo - Edition 21
The Daily DeMo - Edition 22
The Daily DeMo - Edition 23

The Daily DeMo :: What's a Gewachsen?

The Daily DeMo - Edition 23

DD177 :: Saturday - The lead singer from Audio Adrenaline now has a raspy voice. It sounds like he has a sore throat. It's actually due to overuse of his vocal cords, and he was told that he couldn't sing again, but miraculously, God has healed him enough that he can sing a little bit with Audio Unplugged and is able to share his story of when the band broke up and how he got through his divorce.

DD178 :: Sunday - I met lots of new people at the pathways bbq. It seems like the bbq is when new faces come out of the woodwork.

DD179 :: Monday - Google's logo was kind of weird today so I looked it up. It's for H.G. Wells' birthday, and is part of a UFO series of Google logos.

DD179.1 - I played clarinet in middle school, put it away so that I could take art classes, and never got serious about playing ever again. Well, the desire is back and I was telling JMor about how I don't remember how to play. She knows how to play saxophone and wondered if the fingerings are the same. Good question! I didn't know the answer so of course I looked it up. (I did a lot of Googling today.) Answer: "...the saxophone's second octave fingers like the first octave, while the clarinet needs extra keys to get the first four notes of the second octave."

DD179.2 - If you type in "target/vp" (which is target.com with speedy fingers that type /vp instead of .com), it will redirect you to target.com. Smart little internets!

DD180 :: Tuesday - Kathleen explains what a Monday morning schedule looks like for an oncology nurse.

DD181 :: Wednesday - Have you heard of Gewachsen? I had no idea what it was, but it's a hatial hernia. A Joyful Chaos writes an interesting and bizarre story of how one might receive a Gewachsen.

DD182 :: Thursday - Always always ALWAYS make sure that you don't get click-happy when deleting pictures that were taken at an out-of-town site. And be very very thankful to the person who invented backup. *wipes away sweat*

DD183 :: Friday - Mom & dad told stories about their trip to Florida, and about how white and clean the sand is on the beach near Destin.

A bit of crochet for my phone

From Presently DeMo

My friend Tammy is an awesome crocheter. She writes a blog for Crochet Soiree. I told her about a little problem that I have in my car. When I drove Maverick, I could keep my phone in that place where you grab the door handle to close it, but TJ has an opening, so anything that I want to store there will fall through. So I showed Tammy and told her that I needed a place to keep my phone in the door. Yesterday she brought me this phone holder that she'd made from scratch, and I love love love it. It's also handy for keeping loose coins (which I seem to be collecting easily since starting FPU).

Wakey Wakey!

From Presently DeMo

If this doesn't get you going in the morning after you pull back the shower curtain, I don't know what will.

The Daily DeMo :: Flea poop and giant cauliflower

The Daily DeMo - Edition 22

DD170 :: Saturday - I learned so many wedding-related tidbits today. Among them was how to tie a bow that hides the knot part. Perfect for dark blue bridesmaid dresses!

DD171 :: Sunday - A building permit is required when you're doing any sort of work that costs more than $500.

DD172 :: Monday - Very cool story about the Wolf Education Research Center. A photographer tamed a wolf pack enough to be able to take pictures of them.

DD173 :: Tuesday - Flea poop is just undigested blood. (via @flowerdust) Gross, I know. But I bet you didn't know that!

DD174 :: Wednesday - According to JMor, cauliflower at the state fair in Alaska is huge, like arms-spread-wide huge.

DD174.1 - When killing slugs with salt, pull them off the plant and onto the sidewalk before salting. Putting salt onto the soil may make it toxic, and if that happens you might as well leave the slugs there because your plants will die anyway.

DD174.2 - Crossing a slug and a piece of copper will produce a little electric volt in the slug. I haven't seen this in action personally, but would like to try it.

DD174.3 - Every air force base has a golf course, so that the people on the base can have a sport to play no matter where in the world they are. It's much easier to play golf when on base than team sports such as baseball or soccer.

DD175 :: Thursday - Supposedly, snickerdoodle is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln, which means "snail dumpling." (Wikipedia)

DD176 :: Friday - TFK plays a very loud, strobe light-filled concert. Check out Angela's blog for some quotes from the night.

A Schneckennudeln is a Snickerdoodle. Didn't you know?

I've been wanting to make cookies for a while. I'm feeling brownied-out so I needed a change. I love love love these cookies (and the dough too!), and after lots of trial and error and many years of making these, I've figured out how to get them at their best. This recipe has been around for a while. It's from my grandma, and when I make them I always wish that she was still here to make the cookies with me. And we'd make tarts, and pies, and Thanksgiving dinner...

This week I've been getting emails from friends and strangers as part of a recipe exchange. I'm feeling generous, so I'm going to share my recipe with you. :) Share a recipe in the comments, or email it to me at presentlydemo[at]blogspot[dot]com. I will post some of the recipes that I've received and may do a little review of the recipes that I've tried.

Snickerdoodles

1 cup butter-flavored shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Mix shortening, sugar, eggs, and blend in sifted dry ingredients. When I add the flour, I add about a cup at a time. It starts to look like this:

I love it when the dough looks like this.

Pinch off about a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball. Then roll those balls into a mixture of 2 tbsp cinnamon & sugar each. Place 2" apart on cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375°.

For crunchy cookies leave them in for the full 10 minutes. I like mine melt-in-my-mouth soft, so I pull them out at 8 minutes or before, and let them finish baking on the cookie sheet for a few more minutes. When I pull them out, the tops are baked (and sometimes slightly brown) but the insides still are squishy and look like they're not done yet. Perfect! After a few minutes transfer the cookies to a cooling rack, and then to a cute blue plate and try not to eat them all before you share them. :)

Oh yum. Perfection.

The slugs. They eat my flowers.

I've become like a mad mama toward the bugs that eat my plants. I took revenge on the bud worms earlier this season, and now it's vengeance toward the slugs. I salted four of them tonight and went back out to salt two more. I was armed with two plastic knives and a salt shaker. My neighbor was seeing a completely different "fiendish" side of me and could tell that I don't like the bugs eating my plants. He said something depressing like, "If there are this many bugs on these pots, just think of whats in your big garden." GAH! I don't want to think about that.

If you're looking for ways to kill the slugs, this blog has some humorous suggestions, and this blog is a little more professional about the process.

Happy slugging!

The Daily DeMo :: iphoto took over my computer

The Daily DeMo - Edition 21

DD154 :: Saturday - I learned how to make a blinky button for a blog. It's over there on the right, advertising for Judgement House at the end of October. Check it out!

DD155 :: Sunday - If you call a drug dealer and say "hey baby, can you get me for 80?" it means that you're asking for $80 worth of drugs. Thank you to Women Law Enforcement of Broward County. Fascinating show.

DD156 :: Monday - I figured out where all my hard drive space was going. iphoto was saving a copy of every picture I imported instead of aliasing. There's a box to uncheck to get it to quit. Despite that annoyance, I still switched over to picasa for Mac. It has a cool feature that posts pics directly to my blog!

DD157 :: Tuesday - The biggest struggles for singles and saving money are lack of accountability and loneliness.

DD157.1 - compound paths vs clipping paths. I still don't quite understand (though I should definitely know this by now), I just know that what I was trying to do with a logo was not working because of these paths.

DD158 :: Wednesday - A stenography machine requires typing a letter + spacebar to make a number.

DD159 :: Thursday - Staring at a computer screen for hours a day isn't necessarily bad for your eyes. Things get bad when you get eye strain from not taking breaks and blinking frequently. When not looking at a computer, a person averages 12 blinks a minute. The computer user averages 5.

DD160 :: Friday - So, I guess I can only use the BREAKROOM code at the redbox just once. I went to rent a movie and when my code didn't work, I refused to pay the $1.06 to get one.

Time to share your marriage advice!

It's not for me, silly!

It seems that two years ago all of the weddings happened in May. This year they're happening in September and October. By the middle of October I will have attended four weddings, two bachelorette parties, and (so far) three wedding showers. I'm not complaining about the fun times, just saying that weddings are keeping me busy! Oh, and golf tournaments. And seeing Wicked (did I tell you that I finished reading the book and that it was not. a. good. book?). Every weekend in my Google Calendar is booked until the beginning of November.

I'm looking forward to Becky Lee and Nathan's wedding this Saturday. It's been fun to see their relationship start from the beginning and grow into something so sweet in a very short amount of time.

At Becky's bachelorette party we had to go find three bachelors and ask them to write down marriage advice. Bachelors? Really? Yeah, they were just as clueless about what to write as we were! They wrote such things as "Never go to bed angry" or "Respect each other," and that's only because they didn't know what to say so we had to coach them. (I'm always so horrible at the bridal shower games where you're supposed to write marriage advice for the bride. I end up asking something of the married girl next to me so that it seems like I know what I'm talking about.)

Mel gave me the link to a blog with guests sharing their wedding advice while the author is on her honeymoon.

Even though I am not planning a wedding of my own, I thought that it might be helpful to the engaged girlies who read this to get advice from my married readers (and maybe I'll come back to this in a few years when it's my turn).

I know that I have readers who are newlyweds, and readers who have celebrated a few (and then some) anniversaries. So, what would you tell the bride-to-be? What do you wish someone would have told you when you got married?

from 100layercake

The Daily DeMo :: Crop marks, bee stings, and the DOD

My bestie, Mel, came to visit over Labor Day weekend and it was one of the best visits ever. She spent the night and got to meet a few of my friends at a graduation party for Angela's Doug, which is wonderful because now when I talk about y'all she knows who I'm talking about. ;) We played a fun game of dutch blitz that Mel dominated, and watching the pilot to MacGyver. Saturday morning Mel and I went for a run through Riverside Park and then ate brunch at Sugar Sisters and it was delish! I would show you a picture to prove that she was here and that I did go running with her, but we have this problem of not remembering to take a picture. Ever. I think the last picture that I have of the two of us is the one that I used when I started this blog.

Anybody have a camera...?

The Daily DeMo - Edition 20

DD147 :: Saturday - His Helping Hands gets used bicycles and sends them to Ellsworth Correctional Facility to be refurbished and sent back so that they can be given away.

DD147.1 - No matter how you think you might cut the paper (professionally, by hand, with a paper cutter...), always put crop marks on all sides, not just two sides.

DD148 :: Sunday - It really does work well if you don't like to handwash clothes, put them in a pillowcase and throw it in the washer on the gentle cycle.

DD149 :: Monday - I learned how to use some prototype cell phones during a usability survey. That's about all I can tell you. It's super secret stuff. :)

DD150 :: Tuesday - A great video full of facts about how social media is not just a fad, it is the norm.

DD150.1 - Gained lots of info about finances after beginning FPU tonight.

DD151 :: Wednesday - Remember the guy I was telling you works for CIA? It's actually CID, which is somehow related to the DOD and all these 15 other acronyms for government departments. Anyway, he was saying that interrogating the bad guys is nothing like what's in the movies. He treats the guys with respect and gets whatever they want to keep them happy. He spent 3 months having pizza and beer with a guy until he finally got the information he needed. Oh, and he uses an interpreter because if he learned the language, it would be an insult to the people he's talking to, trying to act all tough, but having something equal to a hick accent.

DD152 :: Thursday - Bee stings HURT!

DD153 :: Friday - Watching Gladiator on BluRay is a very different experience than watching it on DVD. It's almost too crisp of picture to be believable.

My Second Home

I'm pretty sure that we're laughing because Janel's bowl is accidentally uneven.

Richard centering my clay.

As I've mentioned before (in the birthday post, here, in DD122.1, here, and in DD146), I was taking a pottery class at The Secret Gallery/Wichita Pottery. Everyone there is so friendly and my first impression the first night was that it's like a big happy family. If you're new, someone will definitely step up and introduce you, and laughter rolls after that. I feel like in the 4 short weeks that I was there (and mostly only for a couple of hours a week), I made some new friends who will hopefully still be there once I come back for another class. There are some other studios in town, but they all offer semester-long classes. I like Secret Gallery's because they are 4-week classes, which are affordable and allow more flexibility and the freedom to come and go depending on your schedule.

For me, making pottery is relaxing, and it's nice to know that I've made something with my own hands, and to see it transition each day from raw clay into something functional. I still have a long way to go, but every hour of practice definitely makes a difference in the final product. By the last night of class I was finally able to center my clay and Janel's clay when she got it really off-center. I was doing something that I'd seen Richard do in the first weeks and wondered "How the heck do you do that and make it look so easy?"

My first finished piece. Still Life: Pot with Concord Grapes Techy stuff: Blue green with 1/4" waterfall on top.

I went in on my last free Friday (August 28) to grab my other pots that aren't finished yet. Linda and Cedric were there working and convinced me to stay for the 4th anniversary party for the studio. It was tons of fun and I'm so glad that I stayed. I met even more people who I'd seen around, but never talked to them until the party. Sheila is one of the regulars who practically lives at the studio. She teaches on Thursday nights and is really fun to be around. Jill was serving up margaritas and probably should have cut Sheila off pretty early... :)

Jill gave a little emotional speech about how proud she is of everyone, and for making the studio the kind of place that it is. It's been her goal to make it like a community, and to have a welcoming atmosphere, and she's definitely achieved that.

Thanks to Jill and Richard for making the studio a fun place to spend my time. Hopefully I'll see you all soon!

Jill, Me, Richard, Sheila