Summer has begun!

The one thing I left off my list of summer activities was my own reading list.

I don’t have one.

Normally I pick a subject or a subject sort of develops from my reading matter – Regency romances, chick lit, chick lit mysteries, themed murder mysteries, steampunk & historic mysteries have each, in their [...]]]>

The one thing I left off my list of summer activities was my own reading list.

I don’t have one.

Normally I pick a subject or a subject sort of develops from my reading matter – Regency romances, chick lit, chick lit mysteries, themed murder mysteries, steampunk & historic mysteries have each, in their time, kept my summer lively.  But nothing is occurring to me this year.

There has been no one topic holding my interest lately. When I look back at the books I have read in the past few weeks or so there is no cohesion to my taste. Mostly the new ones have included a decent dose of humor, no matter the topic. And then the rest have been re-reads.

New stuff so far includes –

The DI Falconer Files series by Andrea Frazer, contemporary cozy British police procedurals with a nice dose of humor in it

The newest Bridgerton book by Julia Quinn, a collection of short stories which is a sort of ‘what happened to them all after the weddings’ with the usual Quinn humor.

The latest Lucky O’Toole book by Deborah Coonts, Lucky Bastard, a contemporary mystery with a lot of humor.

Several Tudor era fiction books, none of which had humor.

A bunch of Ngaio Marsh mysteries, not humorous really but funny in parts

Same with the Edmund Crispin books.

Since I inadvertently worked my way through most of my "Golden Age Mystery" books back in Feb & Mar, when had I been thinking ahead I would have saved them for summer, I am kind of at a loss for a topic

Great literature? (unlikely as I find most kinda dull) 

Fantasy? (used to love it, now I’m ambivalent, especially now it seems that everything must be a trilogy and I cannot always locate all 3 books and so many are set in a dystopian future. I don’t like dystopian futures. Too depressing, even if there is triumph at the end)

Sci-fi? (often gets way to technical IMO & brings up the Star Wars thing. I have a big gap in my Star Wars reading, having stopped in the late 90s apart from one or two & usually feel like if I am going to do sci fi or fantasy I ought to get caught up on Star Wars but that is such an undertaking at this point I feel overwhelmed by it…)

Paranormal romance?  (have a hard time with seeing vampires, werewolves and other undead as romantic)

Christian fiction? (well, it would certainly be different for me)

Regular fiction? (too broad of a topic I think) . 

Young adult? (maybe assuming it doesn’t involve a dystopian setting…)

Biographies? (has possibilities)

Steampunk (the perennial ‘give it one more try’ favorite. I *want* to like steampunk, but so far am running about a 25% success rate with it)

Historic fiction (hardly a challenge unless I focus on books that are set outside the 1400-1700 period & take place outside of England, France & the ‘new world’)

I suppose I need to give the library a good browse before I make up my mind. I haven’t been there since I started working so I am 5 months on their ‘new’ book selection.

Maybe I’ll come up with some sort of game where I don’t choose by theme but just pick up the 5th book on the 2nd shelf of the first bookcase and the 1st book on the 5th shelf of the second bookcase, etc, Say 3 books a week and see what happens?

Any suggestions?

Rinda over at Gallo Organico is hosting her annual summertime photo scavenger hunt. Here is this year’s list and my thoughts on it

1. Open air market – there are two farmer’s markets near me. I never go to them except during football season but that starts in Aug so [...]]]> It’s scavenger hunt time again!

Rinda over at Gallo Organico is hosting her annual summertime photo scavenger hunt. Here is this year’s list and my thoughts on it

1. Open air market – there are two farmer’s markets near me. I never go to them except during football season but that starts in Aug so I should be ok

2. Theater for performing arts (not a movie theater) – we have one of these in mid-remodel in town! (though I believe it also shows/showed movies as well as plays)

3. City Hall, Capitol or other similar civic building – just up the street from the theater

4. Airplane – only as toys unless someone needs a ride to the airport or we visit the air & space museum again

5. A sunset – Can do!

6. Someone or something taking a nap – between DH & the cats I can do this one

7. A sign that is intentionally or unintentionally funny – there is a specific one floating around in my mind but not clearly enough for me to know yet what sign I am thinking of but it’ll come to me eventually

8. A tower – well they took mine so  I suppose I’ll have to hunt down another one

9. A photo with someone or something that is clearly out of place or doesn’t belong – TADA!

Clearly that playset should not be in a lake. We had some flooding yesterday.

10. A bench that is outside – can do!

11. An animal in a zoo, aquarium, nature preserve, etc. – I’ll probably end up at the pet store for this, though we may get to a zoo

12. A cloud in the shape of something (please specify what you see) – can do!

13. A fence – easy

14. A stained glass object or a mosaic  – may end up at a church for this but I’ll keep my eyes open

15. A fire truck or police car – drive by the VFD every day nearly

16. A windmill – I think I may need to take a pic of one on TV or of a painting

17. Candle(s) – can do!

18. Your local pub/bar, coffee house or tea shop – I’ll need to think about this as I don’t generally visit any of these

19. A fisherman – not at all sure about this one either

20. A dinosaur – please. It’s just a matter of finding the *right* dino for the shoot. We’ll be holding casting calls next week.

21. A photograph of you with an artistic tool or craft supply (you cannot substitute for this item) – can do. I’ll probably drag out my nemesis the scissors & if not,  I have some painting to do outside.

Bonus/substitute items. If you find any of the above items too difficult, feel free to substitute either (or both) of these items. You can substitute up to two items, but you cannot substitute Item #21:
A person wearing an outfit (or item of clothing) that symbolizes your country – keeping my eyes open around the 4th of July
A sundial  – I think a visit to a nursery or other garden store is in order.

#summertimescavengerhunt

The menu.

I’ve made the mac & cheese, the turkey & ravioli, both steak dishes and the broccoli cheese soup last week. We had take out one night & Brad cooked another.

This is the boys’ last week of school. They want shrimp scampi on Friday to celebrate and if I never make the [...]]]>

The menu.

I’ve made the mac & cheese, the turkey & ravioli, both steak dishes and the broccoli cheese soup last week. We had take out one night & Brad cooked another.

This is the boys’ last week of school. They want shrimp scampi on Friday to celebrate and if I never make the chicken & sweet potato salad that would be fine with Mayhem.

Mayhem hates sweet potatoes.

Havoc has a science fair on Tuesday. So far he has made half a poster. I think more is required but as I have never seen any handouts or homework sheets about it I have no idea really.  I didn’t even know there was a science fair until Friday when there was a flyer invitation to the fair.

*sigh*

I made him make an example out of Legos just in case.

I feel like this is going to be a long week.

I stopped packing lunches 2 weeks ago.  I don’t know what meals the school is serving or whether the boys like them. I don’t care either.  They haven’t complained so they must be finding something to eat.

Maybe the school gave up too & is just serving hot dogs, hamburgers & pizza instead of salsbury steak or pot pie or BBQ sandwiches.

Wednesday I am supposed to take the car into the collision repair place because I did this

But the car’s water pump is leaking too & it’s wedged in in such a way the whole engine has to come out to fix it, so a grand or more to fix it probably, in addition to the $500 deductible for the body work.

I’m trying to sort out if I can put off the body work so I can get the water pump repaired. But that could take a few days & I need the car to go to work this week.

I get a rental car free while the body work gets done due to my insurance but I get nothing while the water pump is repaired so maybe I should just risk the leaking pump & get the body work done first. But the body shop is almost an hour away & that’s a long way to go with a faulty water pump.

It’s like universe absolutely does not want us to go to an amusement park or on any day trips. Last year DH’s transmission failed costing us $1800 in repair work. Looks like my car stuff will probably cost about as much this year.

This bites.

My manicure for May.

I never got around to painting my nails once, which hasn’t happened in nearly 2 years!

I’ve been doing Things in the Yard.

And Things in the Yard are hell on manicures.

I’m almost done with them though & am hoping to paint my nails this weekend!

We spent a lot of time talking about painting the walls.

A lot of time.

We want color but we are afraid of color.

And then what if we hate it?

We always say “Oh paint! That’s the easiest [...]]]> We bought the house in 1997. The walls were all painted ‘sell your house white’.

We spent a lot of time talking about painting the walls.

A lot of time.

We want color but we are afraid of color.

And then what if we hate it?

We always say “Oh paint! That’s the easiest change to make!” because it is.

But it isn’t easy – just easiest.

Painting means clearing the walls & moving furniture & you have no idea just how hard inertia compels us, me in particular, to absolutely not move the furniture.

Don’t you know you have clean behind & under things when you move furniture?

But in 2006 we had bamboo flooring installed and took the opportunity of no furniture to paint the walls.

It’s a sort of Gulden’s mustard warm yellow.

We thought it would ‘warm up’ the big space.

It certainly brightened it, with the lamp light glowing off the walls.

For about 4 years I like it, but about Christmas 2010 I was so tired of editing for the golden glow in all my photos.

And the sofas clash with the yellow.

I hate it when that happens.

I wanted to paint the walls.

More specifically, I wanted the walls painted.

I was 100% behind the idea of someone painting the walls.

DH felt the same pretty much, maybe 85% behind the idea.

It takes me awhile to get around from wanting the walls painted to wanting to paint the walls.

2.5 years approximately.

But apparently on Saturday the stars finally aligned in my motivation sector and I painted the living room while DH took the boys camping.

He helped me move the furniture & then I did the painting

I went with a grey blue

I haven’t worked out how to compensate for the new blue cast to my photos

The sofas match now.

It feels very calming.

Partly because its only about 75% lit.  We have random lamps all over the room and that corner with the mirror is much darker now, as is the corner opposite it.

We’re discussing recessed lighting now.

I think we might have finally reached a point where professional help is required though. We’ve had 16 years to work it out & we’ve failed. I think we need a lighting intervention.

Now that the painting has happened I can finally get going on the photo walls I have been plotting for a year while waiting for motivation to turn up.

The wall on the right is getting this plan with black frames

The top 4 will be of Havoc & the second 4 will be of Mayhem.

The wall directly opposite the one with the tv will have this plan also with black frames

These will be from my 365 photos.

I’m debating whether to paint the gold mirror frame black as well.

I inherited it from my grandmother & sprayed it gold to touch up where the original had faded. I think it will look very goth, with the black curliques. But it has an appeal.

And if I hate it I can always get around to eventually repainting it.

Homemade vanilla.

I love the glass flasks I found!

They are 8.5oz each, plus we had a pint & half extra as well.

So that’s Christmas gifts taken care of.

I made these using a recipe I found on Pinterest.

Which recipe? I have no clue as I have 4 pins about making [...]]]>

Homemade vanilla.

I love the glass flasks I found!

They are 8.5oz each, plus we had a pint & half extra as well.

So that’s Christmas gifts taken care of.

I made these using a recipe I found on Pinterest.

Which recipe? I have no clue as I have 4 pins about making vanilla and they mostly disagree about how to go about it so I searched a bunch more & came up with this sort of composite recipe:

• One large size bottle of very cheap vodka. (available wherever fine and not so fine liquors are sold or Amazon will link you to someone who might mail it to you depending on local laws)
• About a dozen vanilla pods, cut in half and the insides scraped. (available at health food store or much much more cheaply on Amazon)

Pour vodka in a large saucepan, add the pods & scrapings & set it over med-low heat for awhile. Until you smell warm vanilla, then enjoy the smell for a few minutes. Then let it cool down. Then pour it and the beans & the scrapings back into the vodka bottle. Write the date on it so you remember it. Put it someplace out of the way (I like the pantry). Then once day or so, for a month or so, shake the bottle.

After a month or so it’s ready to be rebottled into smaller containers (also available on Amazon). Include some of the beans in the new bottles. 

Tada! You’ve just made a huge supply of vanilla for considerably less money!

Theoretically if you give a bottle of this as a gift, you should include a fresh bean & they can keep recreating the vanilla indefinitely by adding vodka to the bottle at intervals.

We go through way too much vanilla for that. I think for it to work you would need to let the bottle sit for a week or so before using it after refilling & at most we go 3 days before needing to add vanilla to something.

That 1.75 litre of vodka had given us about an 18 month supply of vanilla assuming we kept it all.

Do you read the Pintester’s blog?She recently began the Pintester Movement & I knew my vanilla would make a good post for it so I badgered DH into getting me a huge bottle of vodka right away.  Go check it out & read some of the other interesting pins people are trying out.

We have 3.5-4 weeks left.

I’m not sure just how many days are left because of all the snow days & because we had so many ‘banked’ days to offset them (we go to school 15 minutes or so longer than other schools [...]]]> We are in the final stretch of the school year.

We have 3.5-4 weeks left.

I’m not sure just how many days are left because of all the snow days & because we had so many ‘banked’ days to offset them (we go to school 15 minutes or so longer than other schools in the area so we get more ‘saved’ days toward bad weather). I’m sure sooner or later they will tell us when the actual last day is

Or maybe they want it to be a surprise.

I’m starting to make plans for the summer.

First, I am scouring Craigslist for a new pool.

Ours is so out of whack from being blown over in a hurricane and has developed a bunch of small holes, most of which I have found & sealed but it’s still leaking & now I can’t find where. They are all pretty much in the same square 6 inches of space. But no doubt this final one is on the other side of the pool, just to mess with me.

Second, I have decided that the boys only get 2 hours of screen time a day – that’s Wii, computer, DS & tv combined so they’ll need to plan these things.

To save arguing about how long they have been online I am setting up the parental controls on their laptop to only allow logins at certain times of day & for certain amounts of time. They’ll each have their own user ID & password so they can’t argue about someone logging in as them.

Third, we will be reading the Lemony Snickett Series of Unfortunate Events series together for a non specified number of minutes a day.  Usually I opt for having each boy doing one of those Summer Bridge activity books to keep their school skills a bit current. But this year I got my hands on some used homeschool curriculum & I’m going to mix in bits & pieces of that with reading the series.  Plus there will be our weekly library visit.

Fourth, they will be able to earn extra screen time by being outside or reading – half as much screen time as activity time & you can’t use it for 24 hours, but you can save it up. So they can’t earn more screen time usable that day but if they read an hour a day Mon-Fri, they can earn & save up an additional 2.5 hours for the weekend.

I’m going to need to find a way to track time earned & used.

Fifth, we are signed up for some online classes at Big Picture Classes. 

The boys will be taking Kidding Around 4, which will give them a series of prompts and activities that have them put together a sort of art journal 5 days a week for all of July. I think Havoc will mostly enjoy it but Mayhem will moan, as he does, because he has to use his fingers to work the paint brush, pen, crayon, etc, but he needs to keep up with his fine motor skills use. 

I am signed up for the Phone Photography Project, which is also through July & challenges, plus lots of tips & tricks & apps to help improve your phone pics. DH & I just upgraded our phones at long last so I have a new phone to work with!  Plus our old phones still work as cameras & can connect to the web for apps like Instagram & Flickr, if there is wifi for the connection, so I am hoping to get Havoc, if not he & Mayhem both involved in this class as well

Sixth, we are planning some excursions we’d like to have happen, barring financial emergencies like last year or DH’s job suddenly needing him in Connecticut for weeks like the year before last. We want to go to an amusement park, either King’s Dominion or Busch Gardens. DH wants to take them to another major league game. I’m thinking of taking them museum visiting in either Richmond or DC, depending on train ticket prices & what the sequester does to the Smithsonian operating hours this summer. We’re thinking of trying some geocaching on weekends. We’d also like to hit up a water park or two if I can find some reasonably priced less than hour away.

So no water parks probably, unless I am in the mood to drive.

Some people might go camping.

Not me. But others think it could be fun.

Seventh, I am getting a tattoo. The one I was thinking of getting for my 40th birthday but didn’t, and then was thinking again of getting for my 45th birthday but didn’t. I figure your 46th birthday only comes around once so you might as well make it special.  I’m going to get a tree on the inside of my wrist.  I’m still sorting out the design but I’ve a decent idea of the general look -  http://pinterest.com/staceylynn42/body-art/

Eighth, we will be Vadering and working on Rinda’s  summer photo list.

Ninth, the local bowling alley has Kids Bowl Free days Tue-Fri all summer long, just pay for the shoe rental, and the skating rink will have discount open skate from 2-4 on Wednesdays, as well as their Sat 2-4 time.  Not sure how much either will happen but I expect it depends on what their friends are doing.  They are almost, but not quite, old enough to spend the summer texting friends & making plans. I’m already saving up the cost of adding a ‘non-smart’ phone to the cell plan in a year, as I suspect next summer will be the one when Havoc having a phone might come in very handy

Tenth, it appears there is data stuff for me to do this summer. There is a random task that a former employee used to do once a quarter, going through all the customers’ logged equipment & checking it’s status to make sure they still have it, or if it’s been returned to inventory & new stuff replaced in the system. I can do all the data part of it from home.  I can’t go through the actual equipment matching serial numbers (and if people are doing their jobs, there shouldn’t be much equipment to match), but I can make a list for someone else to look (like maybe the people who ought to have done it in the first place), or I can drop the kids at the skating rink and spend 2 hours on random Wednesdays do it.  But it ought to pretty much take me about 12-15 hours a week, over 6-7 weeks, to get through it all and summer vacation is only 10 weeks long. So yay for only being underemployed instead of unemployed over the summer!

And then football practice will begin in early August and that will be that for any other plans.

Wednesday was a baseball game & we ended up tying.

Saturday was another game & we won, so so far we have a 7-2-2 record.

I think we win the league for ‘most tie games’

I also found my missing travel mug

It’s been in my car [...]]]> We’ve had an interesting few days.

Wednesday was a baseball game & we ended up tying.

Saturday was another game & we won, so so far we have a 7-2-2 record.

I think we win the league for ‘most tie games’

I also found my missing travel mug

It’s been in my car all this time. It was on the passenger side, tucked between the seat and the console between the front seats. Tucked in just enough that I couldn’t see it from the driver’s side or the passenger side, and I have sat in the passenger side at least 3 times between losing the mug and finding it again. It wasn’t until we got to the baseball field and I got out of the car and looked in that area for a ball that I saw it.

But now that I have become reacquainted with the lasting heat of the new travel thermos I think I will keep this one for trips where I am drinking the coffee not ones involving keeping the coffee hot for a couple hours, like I need with my job.

Mayhem is getting better with the shoe tying. He is successful at making a knot about 80% of the time, though about half of those are too loose to stay tied.

Still, it’s progress.

We’ve also been playing more dominos with friends

Sunday DH & I went to Lowes armed with measurements

This is the depth of the hallway nook where the washer & dryer are. I want some cabinets built above them, like I saw in a different Lowes a month ago.

There is no reason my laundry nook can’t look like this.

Except there is.

As you can see from above the nook is 37.5” deep.

But cabinets are 12” or at best 16.5”, which is no where near deep enough.

We have a 12” deep shelf over the washer & dryer but I can’t reach anything on it without a step ladder because I can’t reach over the machines & back that far.

Cabinets up flush with the washer & dryer would work so much better!

But DH would have to build some sort of custom support structure to hold it up near the front & it would leave me with at least of 20” of unused space behind as a dust & spider area, which doesn’t work for me. So we’d need custom built cabinets.

So that’s not going to happen any time in 2013

This week I made a frittata & bought a roast chicken & we had chicken & dumplings one night & triangle sandwiches, plus leftover frittata or roast chicken one night.

It was a very poultry centric week for meals. Plus we had fish once.

And I made that 10 egg pound cake again. Using a metal pan & remembering to adjust the temp resulted in a much better pound cake. This cake will be making monthly appearance. Next time with raspberries instead of chocolate chips.

How was your week? Any interesting developments?

or rather they were Mayhem’s shoes.

As you can see they are unwearable

Cheap or pricy, all of Mayhem’s shoes blow out the same way. The little tab of sole that wraps up over the front of the toes gets ripped down and takes the sole with it eventually.