Almost Finished!

I almost completed NaBloPoMo. So close! I just missed a day or two this weekend. This holiday weekend really sucked me of any desire to do any blogging. I was having more fun loving on a niece and nephew and hanging out with my family. I also got in some quality time with my cross-stitch project, and I'll post pics of that sometime this week, for those who understand the tedium. :)

The long weekend also apparently took away any common-sense and I'm missing 5 out of the last 6 days of the Daily DeMo. Hmmm. Somebody didn't keep track this week! This could be fun trying to remember stuff after my brain has been on vacation. Sometimes I have to resort to internet history, and if that fails, I have to think back to all of the conversations that I had to see if I can pick out any morsel of knowlege. It's a workout! If I can get organized the next DD will be a double dose so that I can get caught up. Ha.

I hope that you had a great holiday! I am headed back to home-sweet-home this afternoon, but before I get there I am going to see The Blind Side with some friends and then to a housewarming party.

Does anyone else feel like December -- no, 2010 -- is sneaking up on you?

Tu es très mignon

I'm feeling a bit romantic tonight.

One of my recent fave blogs is of illustrations from Craigslist missed connections. Just pick a city, and then the Missed Connections link. Sophie sorts through to find the good missed connections in New York and illustrates what she finds.

I also found this video of Google love.


Happy romancing! :) (and I hope that you had a great holiday!)

Wordless Wednesday: Double Trouble

Yesterday I asked my sister if she wanted to guest post for me today. She said no, but that I could post her sonogram pictures from her first sonogram this morning. We didn't know it at the time, but I get to share pictures of twins! So exciting! The creation of a child (two!) out of nothing just blows my mind. God is awesome.

Post-It Tuesday - Turkey Turkey

Oops! I goofed on somethin'. Will get it fixed soon!

Daily DeMo: Telephone poles and cochlear implants

Are you new here? Welcome! If you came from ICLW and don't know what Presently DeMo is about, I post the Daily DeMo, which is a week's explanation of what I learned each day. Hope you enjoy your time, and feel free to Follow or subscribe to the feed!

Daily DeMo : Edition 29

DD218 :: Saturday - Saturday - Tami and I sat with Christina S. and talked about how the deaf community considers cochlear implants to be the equivalent of a genocide. The implants are beneficial because of the ability to hear, but there are some debates of what to do. The surgery is best to do when the child is young, but at that point it's up to the parent and how they want their child to live: hearing or deaf? If they wait until the child is old enough to decide on their own, it might make the surgery more difficult, but the child has the choice to be deaf and be a part of the deaf community, or they can choose to get the implant and gain their hearing. This is the point when the deaf consider it genocide. For every person who gets the implant, one less person is part of their deaf culture. Christina has a minor in deaf communication and I loved watching her interact with the deaf people who came to Judgement House. There is something about sign language that I love. And all of those people who came had the sweetest smiles, and were so happy to get to experience JH.

DD219 :: Sunday - a good talk with Rachel and Chris about how they got where they are today, with job & life stuff. Chris wants to be a missionary pilot, and Rachel got her job from a connection her mom has.

DD220 :: Monday - CNN changed its website. Did you notice? WDD gives a good overview of what's different.

DD221 :: Tuesday - Kellogg & Rock opens this week. yaya!

DD222 :: Wednesday - Inspired by Leslye's post about archaic telephone poles, I did a little research on where they come from. I didn't get any questions answered about where all of the tall, skinny trees are, but I did learn that Samuel Morse started the telephone pole thing back in the days of morse code.

DD223 :: Thursday - Digital diaries. It sounds like we'll soon turn into something from the future. Like Bicentennial Man. Or was he from the past-future?

DD224 :: Friday - A fresh egg will sink, bad eggs will float.

What did you learn this week?

I heart huggies

My grandparents moved apartments and I collected my photo albums that my grandma made for me. She made two each for my sisters and cousins. It was fun to look through them and remember vacations to Arizona and Topeka (and some Christmas mornings involving very bad hair days). This picture is one of my faves. I used to sit in this chair with my dad, when I was little enough to fit between him and the armrest. I'd lay my head on his chest and try to match my breathing with his.

Daily DeMo : General MacArthur's pink pajamas

Daily DeMo : Edition 31

November 14-20, 2009

DD232 :: Saturday - Today I read a small memoir that my grandpa had written about his time in the service during WWII. General MacArthur wore pink pajamas.

DD233 :: Sunday - In Korea, it's polite to leave at least 1/3rd of your food on your plate. If you have an empty plate, they will refill it, because you are the guest.

DD234 :: Monday - PBR is coming to Wichita in MAY!


DD235 :: Tuesday - I finally figured out how to get Picasa to open when I plug my camera in instead of iPhoto opening. iPhoto and I haven't always gotten along.

DD236 :: Wednesday - Learn how to optimize your scratch disk in Photoshop.

DD237 :: Thursday - Jeff Dunham tickets are not $125 as the ticket website says. They are $45.

DD238 :: Friday - The longest paper doll chain is 2,591 ft long, in Italy.

Salsa (without the chips)

I can't help but feel like Baby in Dirty Dancing whenever I go Salsa dancing. I'm not sure if they do Salsa or Mambo in the final dance, but I think that the steps are much the same. Maybe someone who is more of a dance pro can explain. I enjoy dancing, starting from when I put my palm on my partner's shoulder, do a basic back, and my hips start moving! It's even more fun when you know that you look cute dancing! ;) It's really great how dancing can be such a great workout but is fun at the same time. I like that I learn more steps and turns, getting better each time I go dancing, and now I can pick stuff out from movies and can say that I know how to do that step.

This scene makes me miss Patrick Swayze. He was so great.


Dirty Dancing - The best free videos are right here

Do you have a favorite style of dance?

Shopping cures a sad closet

It's amazing what having new clothes can do for a girl's confidence. I spent way too much on some necessary things at the mall tonight: [you can click the pics for store links]


The shoes came from Von Maur's clearance closet. I know Dave Ramsey wouldn't approve but I neeeeeeeded these things. So it's ok, right?

Sedimentary incisors

Daily DeMo : Edition 28

DD211 :: Saturday - "1 in 3 borrowers wind up in default on their student loans". Yikes.

DD212 :: Sunday - On the Canon D50 you can't take photos using the LCD screen. You have to use the viewfinder.

DD213 :: Monday - You can change Gmail to send from the same address where it's received. This is handy when I want to keep my blogging email separate from my personal email.

DD214 :: Tuesday - Have you heard of email apnea? It's "a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email".

DD215 :: Wednesday - Not flossing is like letting sediment sit in your teeth. That is so gross.

DD216 :: Thursday - The more that you rely on GPS, your cognitive map in your brain decreases as does your hippocampus. This article is pretty interesting. It talks about taxi drivers in London having to pass a test that takes 2 years to study for, and it involves nearly memorizing every street in London.

DD217: Friday - My co-worker has a ton of costume jewelry. If you ever need something for a Halloween costume or just to accessorize, I can hook you up.

I wish...

that I had more time tonight to look at the stars and the city lights didn't get in the way

that I didn't have to be at work when the sun starts to set

that I had my camera and could have taken a picture of the Arkansas River today, without any ripples so that it looked like it was a mirror of water

that I could spend all night in meaningful conversations instead of going to bed

that I would make more time for God, and less time for Facebook

Leaving memories

After seeing pictures on Meg's blog of jumping in leaves, and also Sweet Juniper's, I realized that I haven't jumped in the leaves in a very long time. There was a perfect spot on my college campus (which is beautiful in the fall) where the leaves collected by this small sidewalk bridge between buildings. It was the best place for pictures, and was near where this picture was taken.
That building behind us is torn down now, and was replaced with a great building for the business department, but it's always sad when something old makes way for something new.

While I was looking for that first picture, I found some others that made me miss those days.

The name DeMo was officially "stuck" since it made it onto my door my sophomore year. They didn't even use my real name to let people know who lived in that room. :) I drew the phonetic symbol over the E because people would always walk by and say "demo. who is demo?" And I would think to myself, It's D(long e)Mo!
This is my first roommate ever, Mollie. We got along well enough to live together our first three years of college. I think part of the three-year success was because we knew how the other lived, and we didn't really want to start over and get to know anyone else.
The last year, I lived with these girls:
And we lived next door to three of these guys:
They did such things as this:
and wrote stuff like this:
And we lived in 4c, the best apartment ever:
I spent pretty much every evening from 5 to 6 sitting in that blue chair eating Ramen or a tortilla filled with chicken, cheese and ranch dressing, and watching Everybody Loves Raymond. I'm thankful that my roommates had patience. :)
And then we graduated and started fresh in a world without semesters or summer breaks.
By the way, Ted Danzen and Mary Steenburgen wanted to tell you hello, and thanks for jumping in the leaves for me.

From Feeling Nostalgic

If you need me...

...you know where to find me.

From Presently DeMo

I ransacked (with permission) Heather & Rob's movie collection and won't be visiting a RedBox anytime soon! The list is going to be really helpful so that I know what not to put on SwapaDVD. :)

Which should I watch first? I've already seen The Proposal, No Reservations, P.S. I Love You, and Phantom.

Drama and Comedy

Taking Chance. I watched it with Heather. Saddest movie ever. Just warning you. It's a great movie, but it is so sad.


Then we watched 2 hours of Jeff Dunham. Definitely not sad. More like laughing so hard it hurts.

EMBED-Jeff Dunham And Peanut Part One - Watch more free videos

Awkward Animals

Me, Ginger, Alan, Jane, Emilie, Janel, Karen, Brad

My friends are so much fun. I went to salsa dancing lessons last night and after that we headed over to Mead's Corner for some music and lots of laughing. And gelato. It was yum-o.

Janel showed us that the awkward turtle has babies. Who is the awkward turtle, you ask? Well the awkward animals live with you and make appearances whenever there is an awkward moment in the conversation. There are different animals for various levels of awkward:

Awkward Turtle - (Ginger's animal) the most tame, for just casual awkward moments
Awkward Turkey - (Janel's) the next level up on the awkward scale
Awkward Moose - (Karen's) put your thumbs on your head with your fingers up like moose antlers
Awkward and Unfortunate Moose - put your thumbs on your head like the Awkward Moose, but one hand flops over for the "unfortunate" part. And if things get really akward, you can put your thumbs on your head and cover your eyes with your fingers. That one was my fave.

Until last night. When I met the turtle's babies!

Daily DeMo : Failed pie crusts

Daily DeMo : Edition 30

November 7-13, 2009

DD225 :: Saturday - Shooting guns! About how to do it safely, and that I can shoot a clay pigeon out of the sky on the first try!

DD226 :: Sunday - 46% of kids born in Sedgwick County in 2008 were born out of wedlock. That is just crazy.

DD227 :: Monday - Pie crust is a pain to make. Does not work. And Jonathan apples bruise easily.

DD228 :: Tuesday - You should be in a job that you love. you can plan your work around your life, rather than always planning your life around your work.

DD229 :: Wednesday - The process to become a missionary for MAF involves a very long application package, at least 12 hours of Theology/Bible classes if you didn't go to a Christian college, a year of raising support of $6,000 per month, and a four-year commitment.

DD230 :: Thursday - My friend Katie sells soaps and got started when she wanted to make an affordable gift for her bridesmaids. Go visit Barnett's Soaps!

DD231 :: Friday - I learned how to make the awkward turtle's babies! Thanks, Janel!

The Score

And again, when the microwave is working for 2 minutes, the score increases:

Microwave = 2, Breaker box/Me = 0

Or is it more like the microwave and breaker box are teaming against me and this is the score:

Microwave/breaker box = 2, Me = 0

On another note, the kids on Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? are much too energetic. I'm sure they'll be on that show Where Are They Now? and wonder why in the world they were on the show in the first place.

Also, that show makes me feel like I don't know anything. But I do know how to write in cursive! (How many 5th graders can say that? They're such little techies.)

Tonight is a sort of mini-reunion of some girls who I went salsa dancing with many months ago. I'm looking forward to it! Time to get my groove on.

IComLeavWe

Are you a part of NaBloPoMo and have given up on the posting every day thing? Even if you're not doing NaBloPoMo, you can sign up for IComLeavWe. International Comment Leaving Week is November 21-28. Even if you don't post every day on your own blog, you can leave comments on other blogs. You just have to leave 6 comments a day: 5 on other blogs and return a comment that's been left on your blog lately. Not so hard, huh? You have to get registered because once the 21st comes around, the list is closed and you can't get on until next month. (This happens every month! Who knew?)

There's more detail here: http://www.stirrup-queens.com/2009/11/icomleavwe-november-2/

I'm a Words of Affirmation girl so I'm really looking forward to the boost in comments. :)

People will never forget how you made them feel.

Writing late again tonight. I was going to write about Girls & Guns but I have the beginnings of a headache so I think it will be better if I go to bed. But here's a quote by Maya Angelou that I found today. What quote inspires you?

I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life. I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life. I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back. I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I've learned that I still have a lot to learn. I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Daily DeMo : When I finally admit that some of this stuff is pretty random

Does this stuff make my life sound random? Sometimes I look at what I've learned and wonder what it looks like to an outsider. Probably looks like I have some really strange conversations or major tangents while googling. Or that I google way too much.

Daily DeMo : Edition 27

DD204 :: Saturday - No HDTVs are being sold in California because the electricity is too expensive, or it takes too much energy.

DD205 :: Sunday - When road crews need to remove the lines on the shoulder, they blast off the paint with a giant sand blaster.

DD206 :: Monday - The medals for the 2010 Olympics are made out of recycled material. [via DailyDesignBits]

DD207 :: Tuesday - The band Steel Magnolias is a product of the show Can You Duet on CMT.

DD208 :: Wednesday - Dillon's lets you clip stuff and make a shopping list according to their circular ad online.

DD209 :: Thursday - How to make ricotta cheese. Lemon juice and milk! So simple!

DD209.1 - You can get paid $120 a day to work the election booths in Sedgwick County.

DD210 :: Friday - Cartograms are maps that show the land mass of a city based on its population.
__
I had some bad links on the Video Thursday post. They're fixed now!

Daily DeMo: Red Robin petite burgers

Daily DeMo : Edition 26

DD197 :: Saturday - My friend Kristen got married. It feels really weird to be introduced to someone as a friend that they've known for 20 years.

DD198 :: Sunday - Red Robin petite burgers aren't on the menu anymore, but you can order your burger in petite size. It's smaller and a dollar cheaper.

DD199 :: Monday - Lots of research today about Microsoft Word templates and how to change the master doc, and where it's stored...

DD 200 :: Tuesday - Making a PDF package in Adobe is pretty cool! You can put a cover on it, and make the PDFs into different sections.

DD201 :: Wednesday - America lost 425,000 civilians in WWII. Russia lost 40 million. Every family in Russia was affected somehow. Can you imagine?

DD202 :: Thursday - I've been learning about how TV commercials get set up for the past week, and today was sort of a combination of a process of getting a commercial ready to air for Judgement House. The scheduling for commercials is pretty interesting.

DD203 :: Friday - My headlights are on the same circuit as my window switches. I discovered this when I was driving in the dark and accidentally pushed the switch on my windows. I noticed that my headlights flickered. And I continued to do that for the next mile.

Happy 39th, Jimmy!

Jimmy has a thing for brunettes. ;)

Hospitals of Hope, a Smith & Wesson, and a birthday

Busy day! I have a little break to take a quick shower and get ready for the last part of the day: Lindsay's birthday party! This morning I sorted medical instruments with Pathways people at Hospitals of Hope. HoH sends overflow of medical supplies overseas in huge crates. The instruments that we sorted (and sometimes wondered "why in the world would someone need this?") will be shipped out sometime next month. I saw my friend Leta, who is in charge of volunteer events if you ever want to go help out.

After the service project Lindsay, Rachel and I went out to shoot guns with Jeremy & Matt. The last time I shot a gun was probably six years ago, and I was a horrible shot. It's nice to know that I've improved without having to do anything. :) I'm pretty sure that my arms will be supremely sore tomorrow.

Time to go wash off the gunpowder smell and turn into a diva! :)

Scenes from a walk

Video Thursday

I wanted to share some videos that I've come across this week. I just discovered the Obsessives series on Chow.com.

Have you ever met someone so excited about pop?


"It's not a Hummer, you know, it's like a Ferrari." This video is really interesting, but I held my breath in the first 4 minutes as his face is 8 inches away from a grinder and a piece of sharp steel. And then there's the moment when he tells the camera man "That's gonna come right at you."


And here's one for when you're needing to open a bottle of wine and you don't have a corkscrew. Physics class paid off for this guy. :)


Ok, one more Obsessives. Urban farming!

Chicken Parmesan: FAIL

I had good intentions of making chicken parmesan for dinner tonight. I got everything out and put my chicken patties in the oven. Yes, I was making chicken parmesan the lazy way. I smelled something burning 6 minutes later and I had to take the chicken patties out early. I'm not sure what was burning, but I think my oven is telling me that it needs a good cleaning.

So since I'm afraid to bake anything else until I clean my oven, I went for the trusty always-a-reliable-backup-for-a-failed-meal Mac & Cheese. I got the noodles cooked and set aside, and had put the chicken patties in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Then I blew the breaker. This microwave is more powerful than my old one, which only blew the breaker when I used the toaster at the same time. It was probably a mistake to have both lights on in the living room, and the light and lamp in the kitchen, and the microwave going, all at the same time. This is the second time in a month that I've blown the breaker. Not annoying at all! I'm really looking forward to when this happens and it's 30 degrees and dark outside.

I set aside the noodles, got my shoes on and declared "I am woman, hear me roar" and headed down to the basement. I flipped the breaker and was glad to see the lights back on. I still needed my chicken cooked though, so this time I turned off all the lights that I didn't need and used the microwave. I strained the noodles while I was waiting. Straining noodles in the almost-dark is sort of an adventure.

So now everything is ready but the buns which had been in the freezer. I used the defrost setting on my toaster (which is actually a bagel toaster so it has more settings than a regular toaster) but I didn't really watch the buns and they ended up coming out more burned than toasted.

It's a good thing that I'm an even-tempered person. I am pretty sure that if I had anger management issues, I would have thrown a few plates against the wall by now or curled in a ball of depression. It could have been worse. I'm really thankful that a fire didn't start in my oven or toaster, and that I'm capable of flipping a breaker. This reminds me that I should probably put a fire extinguisher on my Christmas list. Just in case.

The Daily DeMo :: A million miles in a thousand years

Oh, hello. Four days into November and I am doing well at posting every day, but I've been really bad at posting the latest Daily DeMo... times 4. We have some catching up to do! And because some of my learning is based on current events, you can probably figure out when the DD was supposed to be posted.

The Daily DeMo : Edition 25

DD191 :: Saturday - I went to my first ever book tour, for Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. He told the process of a story, about how it's not a great story if the character just sits around doing nothing. The narrator has to make something happen. This in turn related to our own life stories, and how we are in control of the characters in our life and how they interact.

DD192 :: Sunday - At Tim & Steph's wedding shower I learned that you can retire from the Air Force after 20 years, Phil from my Tuesday night Bible study is engaged and his fiance is living in Europe and they're trying to plan a wedding and decide where they'll live since they're both in the Air Force. Also, after a conversation with Angela, I learned that a hog farmer in Elizabethton, NC makes $33k.

DD192.1 - I should know how to do this, but sometimes it's nice to have another lesson about paths in Illustrator.

DD193 :: Monday - To be seen from 750 feet away, a sign's letters need to be at least 33 inches tall.

DD194 :: Tuesday - Are you missing the underscore key on your Motorola Q? It's not really missing, you just have to push the "alt" key, then the "cap" key, and then choose the underscore from the symbol menu. Here's how I found out.

DD195 :: Wednesday - I was going to mention that my friend Allen has inflatable packaging for about 5 pounds of ground beef that he leaves sitting on a shelf in his living room. It really messes with your mind, especially if you know that meat should be refrigerated and not sitting on an antique bookshelf. But I'm not going to mention that, because I wanted to find a picture to go with it, but once I started looking through Google's pictures of ground beef, I suddenly lost my appetite for any bovine-related meal. I stumbled across such beauties as this one.

But I will tell you that I didn't know about the Indian on the Tootsie Roll Pop wrapper. There's a rumor that if you find the Indian on the wrapper and send it in to the TRP people they'll send you a free TRP. I found this website, which led me to this website that talks about urban legends of candy. (btw, the free TRP thing isn't totally true) I learned all sorts of fun candy facts that could make the Daily DeMo list for a week, but I'll let you read through them all.

DD195 :: Thursday - lots of computer stuff. transfering files and other junk. {post note: This is all that I have written. I think this was the day that we switched servers at work, and I was busy helping people get set up and find all their junk and was too exhausted and tired of computers to write more. I learned a lot of technical computery stuff that day. One thing I do remember is that if you're wanting to copy a file, you can right-click the file icon and drag it to the destination, and when you let go of the mouse button it will give you an option to Copy, Move, or Create Shortcuts.}

DD195.1 - We're bombing the moon. Crazy.

DD196 :: Friday - To change the default location to save files in Word 2007, go to Word Options > Save > Default file location.

Banditos and Dog, and a Cat! Oh My!

This is just a sampling of the costumes at Fred & Wilma's Rob & Heather's party on Saturday night. I won prettiest costume, and then sort of a people's choice that everyone cast votes. Too cool! I wasn't expecting to win anything at all, so right now I think my friends are just the sweetest people ever. And I already have a costume idea for next year and can recycle some props (thanks, Cari!).

I traded my two Starbucks instant coffee gifts for Jimmy's Chipotle gift card. It was a fair trade since Jimmy loves coffee, and I love Chipotle!


This is Jimmy as Aladdin-turned-Pope, and Jennifer as a woman from Kazakhstan, or Kyrgyzstan. I'm not really sure from where, but I know that her costume is authentic. :) Jimmy wanted a picture with me (do you blame him? haha!) but I'm not sure when I'll get it since it's on his camera.

I'll post more pics tomorrow! In the meantime, you can find me listening to the Wicked soundtrack (with Defying Gravity on repeat).

A misaddressed email

This is part of an email that I got yesterday.

Hi D,

Looks like Tuesday evening is good to go....Hope you had fun with your girlfriends and doggies today. See you Tuesday. Take care.

love valorie

I do not know these people. My email address is one letter different from D's. I've gotten emails addressed to D before, from a place that raises dogs to be assistance dogs (what's the right word for that?). Some of those emails were confidential so I emailed back to say that I'm the wrong person and to fix their address book. Any time I emailed D I never got a response.

So what do I do about this email from valorie? If I email valorie, she'll maybe pay more attention to D's email address, or she might not and I'll keep getting D's emails. If I don't do anything, tomorrow night valorie will mention the email and D will say she didn't get it, and then maybe they'll figure out that D needs to change her email address.

What would you do?

Is there a rule against posting an email from someone I don't know? If there's an email etiquette, I don't know about it and should probably follow it.

NaBloPoMo Day 1: Brought to you by When Harry Met Sally

"Oooh. I can just get it in under the wire."

That's what Harry says to Sally when she answers that the statute of limitations for apologies is 10 years. That's what I'm saying as NaBloPoMo begins and I have less than an hour to get it started.

Typical me.

I'll be writing a post a day for a month as part of NaBloPoMo. It's official. I've joined the club. I promise that you will see "Presently DeMo (1)" in your GR once a day for at least the next 29 days. :)

Are you doing NaBloPoMo?