spinning-jennie: archives « June 2007 | Main | August 2007 »

July 29, 2007

Muir Woods
We finally made it down to Muir Woods yesterday. I'm not happy with the photos that were even viewable, but I doubt any attempt, more skilled or no, at capturing that level of awe-inspiring loftiness would approach any real interpretation, anyhow.

Plus it was really dark in there.
07/29/07 02:51 PM |  Comments


July 28, 2007

Over There
"Hey! Do you have a secret blog or something?"

When coming from your significant other, it probably means that you haven't posted in/about your Vox site in, oh, nearly a year.

Yeah, I'd pretty much abandoned my Media b/log there. But hopefully I'll be doing the Random House Early Reviewers thing on a sporadic basis, so that seems like the perfect place to dump those. It's still right over there, where I left it.
07/28/07 09:30 AM |  Comments


July 27, 2007

See?
My neighborhood's Walk Score (via Megan) is a sickening 22 of 100. And it shouldn't even be that high -- they've listed a Fuller Brush Store under Groceries (?????), and a cafe at the airport that, while charming, only serves breakfast and lunch (and not every day) under Restaurants, and someone homeselling Discovery Toys under Bookstores! A lot of the other stuff is way too far for walking, too.

ETA: Quite unsurprisingly, the most walkable place I've lived is downtown Marquette.
07/27/07 09:25 AM |  Comments


July 24, 2007

Resurfacing
Momentarily emerging from my funk to say howdy. The brightness and long days and insomnia are keeping me cranky. Last week (I think it was? or maybe the week before) we had one blessed day of fog and clouds and cool, it was lovely. And it even rained another night -- a real gift, when there are watering restrictions. I can't complain too much about the heat, since temps have been tons more liveable than last summer.

We had a garage sale on Saturday. Didn't quite hit $100, which is pathetic, but it was only three hours long (and a nice enough day), and we got rid of a bunch of clutter, so not really a waste of time. Though it did a) remind me why I tend to the antisocial (ugh) and, b) reinforce "one man's junk, another man's treasure;" the stuff I think will never sell always goes first, and vice versa.

Of course I'm reading HPVII; had it delivered on Saturday. My time with it is limited, but I've managed to make it to the 600's. I'm torn between dying to find out what happens, and not wanting it to end. I'll be catching up with my email when I'm finished, which will, hopefully, be tomorrow.

Ellen tagged me, and, in the interest of content... Though I get the feeling I may have done this one before.

Players start with eight random facts about themselves.

People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. John Krasinski is slowly overshadowing my Zach Braff love. Sorry, JD!
2. My serger still terrifies me. After four years. Stupid, huh? Luckily I bought it for a song. I wish I'dve saved the posts from Sew Wrong, because that's where I wrote about it first. And the Wayback Machine is down. Oh, well.
3. My upper arms are made of nothing but tissue and raw nerves, I swear. It's annoying, painful, and slightly embarrassing.
4. Suddenly I'm nostalgic for this 1974 Playskool set:

.

I hear there was a Holiday Inn set, too.
5. A big part of what's hindering my weight loss is not having anything to walk to. In Antelope, there were useful stores a half-mile away, close enough to be sane, far enough to matter. And so I ended up doing the bulk of my grocering by foot, several times a week. I still walk, but lack of a concrete destination just isn't as attractive to me (and I mean the routine, same-neighborhood kind of walking, not hiking in wild yonder). Deep suburbia often pisses me off -- I mean really, really pisses me off -- and leaves me feeling trapped, in that regard.
6. I will watch almost any Little House rerun, almost anytime. During which it is almost assured that I will a) cry, and/or b) be able to recite a scary percentage of the dialogue in my head. I am also aware of most of the timeline and character discrepancies.
7. I really need to get a home business plan going... like now.
8. I hardly enjoy magazines anymore. Not even good ones. Maybe it's because I've been more or less forced to choose between them, and books. In any case, I'm taking a hiatus.

So many people I read have done this already, and I can't remember who, so I'm not tagging. If you do it, feel free to comment and let everyone else know.
07/24/07 07:28 PM |  Comments


July 06, 2007

Meltdowns-R-Us
Heat? Check. Daily tantrums? Check. Sensory overload? Check.

Nerves in need of alcoholic therapy? CHECK. In lieu of rum, a desert island/padded cell vacation would be happily accepted.

Jittery as hell. Loud noises make my spine jangle. And I haven't even had any coffee today, not a single drop. D. yelled at his computer (presumably) behind me earlier, and I nearly jumped into the skylight. Don't make any sudden movements -- I'm liable to accidentally leap through the nearest plate glass window.
07/06/07 11:13 AM |  Comments


July 01, 2007

Reconstituting Made Easy
I admit it, I'm a scatterbrained cook. Even if I have a list in front of me at the store, there's a good chance I'm going to forget something on it, something crucial to what I plan to make. When the something happens to be onions, at least I can reconstitute the dried ones I keep in the spice cupboard for just that (or deciding at the last minute to make a recipe which should include the lacking fresh onion).

Recently, I realized that the job is really so much easier when you put the dried onions in a tea ball, and submerge that into the ice water. Perhaps not original to cooks, but a huge help already to me!
07/01/07 05:47 PM |  Comments