What-What?! Week of May 3rd

No, I have not died.

But I have moved house.  Nearly all of it, anyway.  Last weekend, the husband and I spent Friday moving boxes and Saturday moving everything else (with the help of the husband's friend, too).  Sunday, we unpacked a bunch of the kitchen and living room.

The window of the car, all over the ground.  The rest of it was all over the interior of the car.

Monday, our car was broken into while the husband was at work.  The back passenger window was totally broken to pieces, and the car was a big mess.  Luckily, the only things stolen were two small coin pouches, which contained a minimal amount of cash.  Getting the car fixed and dealing with a rental and all that jazz took up almost three entire days.

Whacking things.  Ozzy being grumpy it's not his turn.

Happily, we've had the time to enjoy our new home this weekend.  We have a bigger dining room now, which means that we can have family meals again.  It's been about 11 months since we last all ate at the same table at home.  We've gone out to play in the backyard anytime the weather has been good, and it has been a lot of fun.

Made a cornhole game out of a Costco box.  This was a big hit.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the house we've bought; it was built in the late 60's, and has been renovated at least once in the past.  Unfortunately, the renovations were terrible.  This stuff is the cheapest option, and more so, done poorly.  The poor painting in the bathroom reveals that it was previously an avocado green (it is currently very blue); I know that the medicine cabinet was painted some time before this, because it has green paint drips on the frame.  The shower/tub liner is a multi-part adhesive one (like this), and the adhesive gave up the ghost long ago.  It is now held together with mountains of caulking.  The kitchen has laminate countertops, which sport a giant ugly seam right down the center of the sink.  I stare at that seam while I do the dishes (so ugly).  There's a little 18 inch counter top on the other side of the kitchen, also laminate, but the pattern on that counter doesn't match the others.  Poor little counter, so lonely.  I'm convinced that it was a scrap piece from some other project, reused here for the cost savings.

None of this renders these rooms unusable, or even unpleasant.  But you better believe that I'm changing them... eventually.  Gotta finish unpacking first. :P

Thursday is Ozzy's third birthday, and this year he's old enough to really understand what's going on.  So he's is super excited, and constantly asking for new toys (oh my goodness, the "I wants"!).  Been so busy with everything else that I'm just now starting to plan his cake out, though.  I'm sure he'll have a good day no matter what, though. :)

What-What?! Week of January 5th

It's January!  That means I've been doing this blog for a nearly a whole year.

We were all sick again this week, so that's been somewhat miserable.  The rest of us just have colds, but the baby has a double ear infection AND acute bronchitis.  We woke up in the middle of the night, and he was having trouble breathing, so it made for another trip to the ER.  Luckily, at 3:30 in the morning, no one is at the ER that doesn't really want to be there, so at least we didn't wait long.  Less than 8 hours before, and all he had was a mildly runny nose.  Blah.

Oh!  I had an article published -- 4 Ways Sears Gets It Wrong via Yahoo! Voices.  I'm also working on another children's book collection post which I'll publish sometime this next week.

Horrific SG-1 "Lego" Toy Found at Target

Growing up, I watched the original Stargate film, as well as the TV shows, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis (Stargate Universe does not exist in my world).  So when I saw this monstrosity of a toy at the local Target, I was both intrigued and disgusted.  When you first look at this Best Lock Jack on Abydos set, it doesn't seem so bad; the Stargate and DHD look true to the films, but then... then you get a look at Jack:

What's up with his face?  What happened?  Did the designer truly step back and say "that's exactly as I Intended"?  Had the designer ever actually seen a human before?  I have to wonder who on Earth gave Best Lock the license to make these toys, considering that the brand itself is third-tier knockoff Lego, with extremely poor reviews on Amazon.com.  Don't be looking for this too hard in your local Target, though, because the reports I've seen say that it was part of the Christmas seasonal section.

(When I was organizing images for this section, I could not stop laughing at the juxtaposition between Jack and his Best Lock counterpart.  What the what, indeed!)

Fashion: Victorian Star Trek:  The Next Generation Dresses

This is totally nerdy.  These ladies made themselves Victorian-era costumes of Kathryn Janeway and Data for seeing a sneak preview of Into Darkness, and possibly also for the WGT convention in Leipzig.  I like the cut of the top on the Janeway cosplayer a bit better, though the slightly-puffed shoulders on the other one is very cute.

I found this via Fashion It So, which is a Star Trek: The Next Generation fashion blog.  It's worth a read if you have lots of time to kill. ;)

(imgs via ebay, needlessessentialsonline.com, truhe-der-genovefa.blogspot.ca)

What-What?! Week of April 7th

Not too much going on this week; still working on the internal analysis of my capstone project, which has been going quite well.  A few days ago, we took the kids back to Chuck E. Cheeses, and they had a lot of fun.  It’s a pretty cheap trip, since we haven’t been buying any of the [awful] food.  Today, my baby is 11 months old, and is now walking short distances.  It is horrible. D:

Target: Pregnant Women are Huge via everywheres

So, this made it all the way to the front of Yahoo!  Target, on this maternity dress shown above, described the color as “manatee grey”.  For the plus-size only, no less!  I wonder if this was purposeful, or if some idiot somewhere thought that pregnant women like natural things, and the natural color of a manatee is grey, therefore a perfect color descriptor.  Next, there will be colors like “blue whale”, I’m sure. :P

Shopping:  Tulle’s Spring Collection

This past week, I got an e-mail from Tulle, a couture clothing company.  I love the vintage style they have, and would totally buy their dresses if not for one thing: the hem length is too short!  I just cannot wear dresses that are not at least knee length, it makes me uncomfortable.  Also, the things that I’ve bought from Tulle tend to fit a bit oddly anyway, and you have to pay shipping to return things.  So, while I love to window shop there, I don’t generally buy anything.  But oh how I want that scallop dress.  WANT.

News:  The Jobs Report is Actually Quite Depressing via the WSJ

This article discusses that, while the unemployment rate has fallen another 0.1%, it’s mostly because people are leaving the workforce.  As someone who’ll soon be fresh out of college, it’s pretty frightening to think that others, with more experience and education, are leaving the workforce because they cannot find jobs.  How nice.  And, of course, this particular author is blaming welfare programs for part of this, because as soon as you get a low paying job, you lose benefits.  So, people don’t take the low paying jobs, because the after tax income doesn’t make up for the non-taxable benefits you lose.  Neither is what I’d call a sustainable way to live.

Cooking:  Loaded Cauliflower, via Linda's Low Carb Recipes

Recently, I've been experimenting with cauliflower, just for a change of pace.  I don't generally eat it, and never have, to be honest.  Yesterday, I made "loaded" caulifower, and while I had this recipe, I  totally did not follow it.  Instead, I chopped up my cauliflower small, daubed on some ranch dressing, added a sprinkle of cheddar cheese, and popped it into the oven for about 30 minutes.  It came out surprisingly good, and I think the addition of bacon or ham would really perfect it.  The husband and I liked it, while the kids mostly just poked at it.  This one I will make again.

TV:  Mad Men via Netflix

Netflix has just offered the fifth season of Mad Men this past week, so I’m watching it.  I haven’t loved all the plot twists (Don Draper’s backstory makes me roll my eyes), but I do enjoy the interaction between the characters, and looking at the fashion, if nothing else.  My favorite character is probably Harry Crane, the firm’s director of television marketing.  So far this season, we haven’t seen much of him, but I still have another 10 episodes to go, so there’s hope. :)

(images via Yahoo! news, genaw.com, browntweedsociety.wordpress.com)

What-What?! Week of March 31st

This has been a pretty good week; probably the slowest week I’ve had in a while, including over Spring Break.  I’m pretty sure that my capstone class will be a cakewalk for the rest of the semester, now that we’re through the external analysis paper.  My team’s currently working on the internal analysis, which is made up of a lot of educated guesses, but it’s the best we’ve got.

Shopping: Geek Shopping via Amazon

My husband just had his birthday on Thursday, and I got him some geeky things.  One book I bought him is this one, Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure, by Arthur Conan Doyle.  This book is Conan Doyle’s diary from his six month trip in 1880, as ship’s surgeon on an arctic whaling ship.  I first read about this book from a New York Times article back in November, and was planning on buying it for Pete for Christmas, but unfortunately, the book sold out at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Now, though, it’s back in stock and only $25!  :P

 

Interwebs:  Me on FB, also TG and Princess Celestia

The big news this week is that I’ve started a Facebook page for this blog!  I will try to keep it updated, but I really want to limit the amount of time I spend on FB.  Starting that page was pretty interesting, especially when I decided to like some peoples.  So, I liked Epbot, because who doesn’t, and then I got to Princess Celestia, who I didn’t like.  This is why:

 

Then, after you go to the actual Princess Celestia page, it is fanboys and rude humor.  So, I decided not.  I found that the Stig has more likes than Jeremy Clarkson’s fan club page, though Clarkson’s page is much more entertaining to visit.  Clarkson’s real page ("Power Hungry Clarkson", LOLz) is kind of ho-hum, though interesting to see his thoughts on Top Gear episodes.  James May has a fan-run page, and no others.  Richard Hammond has a page, and more than that, his personal official website is www.thehamsterscage.co.uk.  It is brilliant.

Cooking:  Ham and Cheese Scones via Tasty Kitchen 

This week I also made these delish scones.  I left out the onion, and I doubled the amount of ham, and it made for a great lunch along with some apples.  This time, I decided to use my KitchenAid mixer to cut the butter into the flour, and that worked brilliantly.  It was much, much easier than doing it by hand.  The husband liked it, as well as my daughter, though my middle son didn’t much care of it.  All in all, I am definitely making these again.

WTH: Elise Andrew, of “I F###ing Love Science” via The Marie Sue

This woman has been in the news recently, for something that utterly surprised me; Elise Andrew is a science blogger who runs the Facebook page, “I F###ing Love Science”.  When she set up her Twitter page, she let her fans know about it, so they could follow her.  Then everyone found out she’s a woman, and all heck broke loose, with people saying “whoa, you’re a woman?!” and so on.  It just staggers me that our society has yet to recognize that a person’s interest in science has nothing to do with their gender or attractiveness.  As a society, we have spent years trying to get young women and girls interested in science, and now we act surprised when women promote it?

I absolutely recommend checking out her page, or the PG-13 version, “Science is Awesome”.

Oh, this week I also saw this, which is made by Crazy Dog T-Shirts:

Geek trollin', huh?

'Til next week. :)

(images via Amazon, Facebook, Zulilly)