Year 3 - Day 60 - February 29

The calendar is already turned to tomorrow. Screw you, February. Good Riddance. Bring it on, March!

Year 3 - Day 59 - February 28

These things used to fascinate me on TV commercials. They were so beautiful. The one time I had one was so sad, because I wanted it to taste as good as it looked! Sadly, they're just not my thing. Mike likes them though, so I grabbed one in line at the checkout. I'd much rather have a mini Hershey bar!

Year 3 - Day 58 - February 27

Since our summer vacation may include a trip to our great neighbor to the north, I am in need of a new passport. My old one expired a year or two ago and I never got around to renewing it. There are a lot of (PITA!) steps involved. The actual application is no big deal. The changing my name thing added a whole new layer. I needed a marriage certificate, certified of course. They don't take cash or personal checks. Just cashier's checks and money orders. When Mike went to the bank today to take care of that, he found out it was a lot more money just to get either one of those things than the $5.50 he needed to put in that format. Luckily the bank took pity on him and sent him to 7-11 where they have cheap(er but not cheap) money orders. So what was supposed to be a 20 minute errand took significantly longer than that. Oops. We have an extra now just in case another reason pops up to need one. But this one is getting sent away so that I can go visit America North.

Year 3 - Day 57 - February 26

After a birthday brunch at the golf course this morning (cause we are apparently all true suburbanites now!) I headed down to AACo for a meeting. I was really excited about this one because it was in the media center of my childhood elementary school. The school opened when I was in 4th grade so I never really spent time down in the little kid wing, but I was familiar with half of the building and all the specials areas. I was surprised that it didn't really seem bigger or smaller than I remembered it. Maybe because I was already 4th grade size when it opened? I don't know. But it was a nice afternoon and fun memories!

Year 3 - Day 56 - February 25

After almost 2 years of hemming and hawing, we decided to take the plunge and get new sliding glass doors. We desperately need them but didn't really want to spend the money. They're ordered now and will come in March. I will greatly appreciate the one in the kitchen because it will make grilling SO much easier. Right now the door only easily opens about a foot and we turn sideways to go in and out. It's a pain. Downstairs there will be just a whole nicer situation because the old door is pretty much rotting out of the house! We decided not to do the 3rd one in the living room because we aren't sure what is going to happen there in the future. No point in spending money on a door we never open anyway. It's so silly to have 2 sliding doors at right angles!

Year 3 - Day 55 - February 24

This morning at the early hour of 9:04am, Harford County called to let us know that the mysterious gas smell floating around is being carried by the winds across the land and sea from somewhere in NJ. I guess they were getting a lot of calls about a gas smell? I didn't smell it, I did get the call on my cell while at work but just ignored it. Are we the only county that puts out these info calls regularly? Sometimes I appreciate it like with severe weather or something that we really need to know, but sometimes it's annoying and just another message to delete. At least I was at work - Mike was sound asleep on his day off for this one! :)

Year 3 - Day 54 - February 23

Unlike most stores that ask for your input via surveys & promise you the chance to win something, Bonefish actually gave us a coupon for free Bang Bang Shrimp (worth more than $9!) for filling it out. I don't eat shrimp, but Mike sure does. I appreciate the actual reward rather than the chance for one.

Year 3 - Day 53 - February 22

When I walked up the stairs before, Moose was having a fight with the two sides of this green towel hanging from the bar in my bathroom. He'd pounce on the back side and pull it down, but then the movement on the front side would startle him making him pounce on the front side. Of course due to the way towel bars work, pounding on the front kind of means you're pouncing on the back too. Back and forth he went with this insanity for several minutes. He's crazy. PS ignore the fact that you can see my shiny PJ pants laying on the floor. Of course I never leave clothes on the floor. Ever. :)

Year 3 - Day 52 - February 21

We are having ant issues this week. The exterminator is coming back soon, but meanwhile I had to get creative. We have a double whammy combo situation consisting of:
1 - Cat needs to eat pretty much only wet food right now because of issues
and
2 - Ants didn't go away because it didn't get cold for more than 48 hours at a time this winter.

This is making the ants go NUTS. After a few different ideas that have worked in the past failed this time, I came up with this one. The pan has a little water in it. The bowl in the pan has the cat food in it. Even if they can still smell the food, they will drown before getting to the food.

Hopefully this will get us through the next day or two before the exterminator can come back!!

Year 3 - Day 51 - February 20

Our 3rd piece in the room is from Yosemite. (Another not beach picture! I'm growing as a picture hanger!) This one we took, so it's on a different wall than the professionals but we did blow it up to 11x14 or something like that. We got really lucky last summer and the waterfalls in Yosemite were still big late in the summer. After standing in line, we got a nice shot across the valley from one of the viewpoints.

Year 3 - Day 50 - February 19

In addition to our 3 piece picture over the couch, we also recently hung this one. We got it at the same art show but from a different photographer. The first picture to catch my eye was the shack that you can see from the LBI causeway. (Google LBI causeway and "lbi causeway shack" pops up as a suggestion to search) I knew it was the LBI shack as soon as I saw it, so I went in to see what else he had. During my childhood, the brown building below the full moon was a junk store slash ice cream shop called "Andy's." I started climbing that lighthouse once, but stopped at the first landing. (I hate curly staircases with lousy railings!) Mike doesn't want to have ALL beach pictures in the house (I don't understand! There are other seasons?? There are other picture worthy locations?? All rooms don't have to be blue and white?! Someone explain this craziness!) but he is willing to get some as long as we have other things to balance the beach out. :)

Year 3 - Day 49 - February 18

Depending on the channel or source, we are either having a beautiful day tomorrow or getting some snow. I'm leaning towards beautiful day because it's 52 degrees right now!

Year 3 - Day 48 - February 17

This is Robin. Well, on GH she's Robin. In real life she's Kimberly McCullough. She's played Robin on GH since we were little. Back in high school she did a great but sad storyline where her boyfriend died from AIDS after Robin contracted it from him. They've kept that an important part of the character's storyline for the last 15 or so years while the actress has gone to college and done other things. Recently she decided to permanently leave the show. At the same time, the character's HIV viral load was a little iffy and it appeared that she too would succumb to the disease. But then, she got better.

Of course, for the past 2 weeks, the character has been WAY too happy. In soap opera world, that means that death or dismemberment is imminent.  I thought she was going to explode today in a gas explosion caused by the blonde in this picture, but it didn't happen. Instead her husband is in dire circumstances while Robin plays with her mom and kid.

Will the husband die so that Robin can just go off to mourn off screen with the kid and mom? Will they save him but then she'll die? I'm actually not spoiling myself because I wanted to watch it unfold, but now I really want to know!

Year 3 - Day 47 - February 16

Are you on Pinterest? I use it to waste time mostly, but occasionally it helps me out. Basically, if you're not already using the site, you click on photographs of things you like either out and about on the web or things that people have already posted in Pinterest. Think of it like an electronic bulletin board. I like that it retains the link to the original source or website where the picture came from. (My librarian brain likes it for copyright reasons and my regular brain likes it so that I can get more info than just a picture.)

This is a screen shot of a few things on my "Home and Decorating" board. Easy centerpiece with 3 flowers, 3 upside down wine glasses, and 3 candles ... snapshots of ways to arrange photo frames on a wall, ideas for using basic scrapbook paper as art, and how to arrange flowers in a big bowl. :)

Year 3 - Day 46 - February 15

My Valentine's gift this year was also of the chocolate caramel variety. He works near Greetings & Readings in Hunt Valley, so he stopped at their candy counter. This is a box of chocolate caramels sprinkled with sea salt. Sounds crazy, right? But holy cow are they good. I would have taken a picture of the inside so you could see what they looked like, but I'm embarrassed about how empty the box is just 24 hours in.... ;) He said "oops" when he realized that the price tag was still there, but the price tag made me laugh too - look at the number!

Year 3 - Day 45 - February 14

When you work in an elementary school, it keeps Valentine's Day as this great candy and red shirt holiday. There's much less stress and drama than the romantic comedies of the world would have you believe. My hubby and I don't really do much for this holiday every year, but we try to buy something small for each other. This year, this was my great find at Target. A black, velvety, heart shaped box with a rhinestone Darth Vader. It has a few heart shaped chocolate caramels inside, too. I told him he could keep his special treasures inside after he finishes the candy. :)

Year 3 - Day 44 - February 13

I downloaded a free app today that is a red laser pointer dot flying around the iPad screen. Moose watched it, but he wouldn't hit it. I'm trying to figure out how to train him to play. ;)

Year 3 - Day 43 - February 12

I read Steve Jobs' biography this weekend. I really, really enjoyed it. Granted, I'm a fan of Apple products, so that probably played into it. However, I don't think the biographer wrote a one sided "I love Steve!" book so maybe others would like it as well.

Some things I knew, (the stories of the iPod coming out of Steve & other employees love of music and dissatisfaction of how everything was working in the post Walkman post Discman clunky MP3 Napster era) some things I re-remembered, (The Newton PDA! The acronym PDA! The original Macintosh was totally different than the original Apple even though they came from the came company!), some things made me think about childhood (the blank screen with green text Apple II!) and some things I had never thought about before. (Steve wasn't with Apple for most of my schooling years - how much cooler would technology be if he hadn't been fired and gone to work on other stupid things?)

I'm not a inside-the-computer person or a coding or programming person, so I never have the need or desire to open up a machine. I like when things work intuitively and don't take an instruction manual. That's why I've always been ok with the post-1997 Mac/Apple world where I buy something (that comes in beautiful packaging - a whole chapter is devoted to that in the book) and it works. The batteries are charged before they're packed so you can use your iPad as soon as you open it! I always thought it was impressive that I could open a brand new piece of technology out of the box at 85% battery life. But there was a section in the book that talked about how they got their warehouses from weeks of backstock to a week and then down to just a couple days. (No wonder there's always a wait for a new product.) Since they were recently packed and shipped, the battery doesn't have time to die! I like that my MacBook, iPad, and iPod all work together and with iTunes and the App store and all of those things. I totally get why computer tinkerers would hate it, and I'm surrounded by lots of those people in my life, but I love the seamless don't-have-to-think-about-it experience.

There were things about his personal life and kids and all of that as well of course. He (self admittedly) didn't succeed in those areas all the time, but those parts of the book were good as well. I was just so fascinated by the invention thought processes that were always going on his brain. I'm sure that at some point in the not so distant future, Apple will just be a memory like so many other seemingly "there forever" tech companies, but the whole thing is interesting.

Year 3 - Day 42 - February 11

Today has been the weirdest weather day! This is what it looked like this morning at 7:30. Fluffy snow was stuck to everything. A few hours later, everything was gone without even a trace. But then this afternoon it snowed again and the wind picked up, so now everything has a light sheen to it. This is about all the winter we're getting this year!

Year 3 - Day 41 - February 10

I have been the treasurer of my state library organization since a month before I got married (May 2008.) Tomorrow morning, I am passing the baton. I have moved these boxes and bags from my townhouse to the apartment to our current house. When I started, it was just the blue milk crate and the box of binders on the right. I have added a binder for each fiscal year since then and a variety of other "stuff." Of course most importantly, I have a CD with all my computer files and that kind of stuff. All the details, and much easier to transport. In fact, it fits in my purse. :)

Year 3 - Day 40 - February 9

As you can see, it really blizzarded last night. We didn't even get a delay! Just a little sticking on the freshly laid mulch at the park and ride...

Year 3 - Day 39 - February 8

Another Wednesday, another month, another free glass from Duclaw! The beer of the month is Double Naked Fish. Something with chocolate and raspberry, but of course it just tastes like beer to me. I don't know what it is about beer or what ingredient blocks my taste buds from tasting anything else, but it almost always just tastes like beer. I just go so that I can have my BBQ brisket sandwich. :) I will say that tonight was the kind of night where if we weren't regulars, we probably wouldn't go back. I don't know if people called out because of the "blizzard" (nothing is sticking, people!) or what, but we only saw 2 waiters the whole night and they just couldn't keep up. It took over an hour and a half to have dinner. I felt bad for them because it obviously wasn't there fault, but they needed serious help.

Year 3 - Day 38 - February 7

Yesterday, they hooked up our FIOS. That meant I had to spend the evening getting the DVR all set up to tape my shows. I had to help teach a professional development tonight, so there wasn't a lot of TV time, but my absolute favorite episode of HIMYM was on, and now it's on my DVR! :) I often see the shows just before or just after it when I watch (and let's face it, HIMYM is in syndication on so many channels that they're always in various parts of the series) but I've never come across the episode by luck. I guess today's wasn't really luck ... I noticed last week that an episode just before it was on, so I searched the guide until I found the day & time I needed to record. ;) I don't know why the episode makes me giggle so much every single time, but it does. For laughs, hunt down "The Naked Man."

Year 3 - Day 37 - February 6

Just like last year, the first couple weeks of February are free XM Radio weeks! Sadly, unlike last year, the Broadway channel didn't make the cut. That's ok though because I listened to 90's at 9 with no commercials. Every song that came on reminded me of something in middle or high school. Perhaps a couple college things, too. I imagine it's like any channel and once you listen to it or awhile it gets repetitive, but for a couple weeks I will love it! I miss my XM Radio days, even though I pretty much listened to Broadway exclusively. ;)

Year 3 - Day 36 - February 5

Super Bowl day! So Mike's chili is warming up ... (he cooked it yesterday and then put it in the fridge over night)

And I made "Fun-da-Middles" cupcakes. The chocolate with white filling came out ok...

But I got falsely confident and screwed up the vanilla with chocolate filling because most of them leaked...

My guess is that people will eat them anyway. ;)

Year 3 - Day 35 - February 4

Ok, so I really took this picture Wednesday night, but I used Mike's phone and forgot to forward it to my computer so I'm posting it today.

We bought this set of art work at the Bel Air art show back in September. It's been sitting around waiting to be hung for awhile. We decided to do it Wednesday night before my family came on Thursday. We measured up and over both on the ground and when putting the picture hangers up. You know the old adage - measure twice, cut once. We didn't want to have nail holes everywhere so we really really measured. Imagine our dismay, horror, and embarrassment of measuring skills  when we popped all three pictures up and they looked like this!!!!!!

Luckily, it was the wires on the back of the pictures that weren't sitting right so once we solved that problem they were hanging in the right place.  ;)

Year 3 - Day 34 - February 3

We're on our way to NJ for my cousin's wedding for the evening. I want to get off at this exit and go to the beach house!!!!!

Year 3 - Day 33 - February 2

So this morning after getting my blood drawn, I noticed this in the hallway. The door knob is on the right and that mark on the left is a hole the shape of the same door knob. :) There is a rubber door knob stopper, but it's been pushed into the drywall far enough that the whole handle made a hole!!

Year 3 - Day 32 - February 1

It's Super Bowl week which can mean only one thing around here - a giant vat of chili. I think Mike's chili recipe uses more ingredients than anything else we eat all year! His friend's girlfriend came up with the idea of having a chili cookoff for the Super Bowl rather than Mike just making it for everyone, so that's what we're doing. If the contest was just based on number of ingredients, Mike would have the win  in the bag!