Sep 24, 2011

Fridays and Saturdays: "Maybe"

Ok, I found my new motto today at the vacuum repair shop.  Instead of just summers, I would go ahead and substitute any season.  Then I would throw in any day of the week.  Just "maybe" I will be working... maybe not.  Yes, I realize we are the ONLY people in the entire United States who service their vacuum cleaner every six months.  Or ever, probably.  But can you believe they can afford to stay in business and pay someone to stay open six days a week until 5:30!?

A few extras of Massey being a cutie pie:
Laptop Table
Piggie in a Blanket

Sep 18, 2011

Lululemon Love

I finally broke down and bought some Lululemon pants!  YAY!!!  Lucky me they have free hemming--they are SO long.  After I tried on 50 items, I stuck with my one piece.  Willpower.  Now for the birthday list... I love everything, and I'm a 4 if you're wondering.
This is a good place to start.

Sep 11, 2011

Go Go Gadget Ninja


Am I a ninja? A surgeon? A boy scout? The creepy guy from "Saw III"? The answer is yes, I am all of those. Obviously. Today I had the bad luck pleasure of helping my husband lay down 6 mil. plastic sheeting in our crawl space as a moisture barrier. Originally, I was named the "assistant" (read: I supplied the water on water breaks, cut the plastic roll to size, called the in-laws to bring over lunch, etc.) until I was sitting in the living room and heard Philip yell through the floor, "Can you come out here? This is a two man job." That is not the way to get me to help with anything. Ugh. I went down to clear things up.  Me: "I don't want to help."  Phil: "Well, that's not a choice. Go get some old jeans on and cover up."  I don't have any old jeans that I would crawl around in dirt in!  Doesn't he know me at all?  I don't have any clothes I want to get dirty!!!  Did you see what I ended up wearing?  I know.  And, I DO NOT want my neighbors to see me.  So I creep down the stairs and duck behind the bushes... Into the dungeon I go.

To start, you have to crawl under the porch, through a dwarf door into the mini addition (Side note: the first owners thought it would be brilliant to add 8 feet to the house, all the way across. Good call.), then crawl through another dwarf door into the real crawlspace. The floor is dirt (duh), and the air conditioner and water pipes are blocking all the good crawl ways. You really do have to crawl. It's about 3 1/2 feet tall. Luckily I'm 5 feet tall, so I just squatted and stomped around like a duck instead of crawling. After about 5-10 minutes of Philip laughing at me (and me kind of, not really, laughing while giving him the I-am-really-not-happy-to-help stare), I was all over that space crawling over pipes, waddling to and fro, cutting holes for the support posts, and doing all the work! Philip's nice way of thanking me was to say, "Look at you! You were born for this! We are going to rent you out for $150 an hour!" Thanks, Phil.

Sep 6, 2011

Chocolava Cookies

Borrowed from Julie

Craving brownies and cookies like me?  Then try these chocolava cookies!  I know, it's soooo fun to say chocolava over and over and over and over.  Ok, so here's the recipe (courtesy of Julie at Dinner with Julie):

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 large egg whites or 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
icing sugar, for rolling
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl or in the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt, breaking up any lumps of brown sugar. Add the butter and pulse or stir with a fork, pastry cutter or whisk until the mixture is well combined and crumbly.
Add eggs and vanilla and stir by hand just until the dough comes together. The dough will be fairly dry – it will seem at first that there isn’t enough moisture, but if you keep stirring, or get in there and use your fingers, eventually it will come together.
Place a few heaping spoonfuls of icing sugar into a shallow dish. Roll dough into 1 1/2” balls and roll the balls in icing sugar to coat. Place them about 2” apart on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 12–14 minutes, until just set around the edges but still soft in the middle. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Makes 20 cookies.

*I made my cookies about 1" in diameter, and it made 36 yummies!

Per Cookie: 111 calories, 2.6 g fat (1.5 g saturated fat, 0.7 g monounsaturated fat, 0.1 g polyunsaturated fat), 21.3 g carbohydrates, 6.2 mg cholesterol, 1.8 g protein, 1.3 g fiber. 20% calories from fat

Sep 4, 2011

Randomness

That's right, no posts in August.  Not one.  It's been busy, but here are some random goings on from the past month.
  1. A new batch of 17 little nuggets, ready to be trained and molded into the workforce of the future.
  2. A million blogs to read (obviously this is an important thing on the list). Here are most of my faves:
  3. Seeing my best friend and meeting her sweet baby!
  4. Paint 8 doors, front and back, which takes 1 1/2 hours per side!!! [I officially hate painting]
  5. Almost last graduate class.  Yay!
  6. Lots. Of. Work.  How can it be that I have done the same thing for so long and it still takes forever?
  7. Bags are on super clearance and an extra 40% off at Loft--Look! Only $2.10!
  8. New throw pillows in the living room (well, soon-to-be once I get the fabric for the back, the down inserts, and then I actually sew them)
  9. Oh yeah, and I put a soaked paintbrush in paint thinner in a red plastic cup on the super light/white part of my granite counter top.  The thinner ate away at the plastic and spilled ALL over.  Since the thinner is acetone-based, it cleaned up with a dry cloth, but the PINK ring from the cup is still there.  In a VERY obvious spot.  AHHHHHH!  So I've googled a million suggestions, tried poultices of baking soda + water, bleach + flour, Comet (DO NOT TRY THIS ONE), nail polish remover, just bleach, Shout stain remover gel, and nothing has worked so far.  I'm  moving on to the hydrogen peroxide + moulding plaster poultice and leaving it on overnight.  If that fails, I'm trying bleach + baby powder overnight.  Way too much stress for a holiday weekend.
*****EDIT***** The bleach and baby powder poultice for 24 hours (covered with Glad Press 'n Seal) worked!!!!!!!!!!!