Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
SPD Party 2010
The McHusband and the house are still recovering from last night's party so I'm taking advantage of the quiet time to do some blogging.
These two pictures give you a pretty good idea of how things went. The first picture was taken late yesterday afternoon when the final preparations were taking place. The second one was taken around 2:00 this afternoon. Anyone have deja vu? The second picture reminds me of the day after last year's party.
But let me back up and show you how the McHusband got from the giant inflatable cooler-cup to the couch.
I set the food up in the dining room this year. That definitely helped to spread people out and since the table's in the middle of the room, people were able to navigate all the way around it.
I made two different lemonades - alcoholic and non - and also had a dispenser for water. I even made tags so people would know what everything was. We couldn't have Vickie and Kristen accidentally drinking the wrong lemonade.
And the lemonades.
For the most part, it was the usual crew.
Byron and Lisa made the trek all the way from Wake Forest.
Kim came with her boyfriend Greg, but for some reason I missed getting a picture of the two of them. But I got a really cute one of her and Jovyn.
Unfortunately, Shawn was out of town for a combo work-family visit trip so he missed this year's bash. Jennifer was happy to stand in for him in regards to Vanessa's Rub Me for Good Luck t-shirt.
Speaking of doing what t-shirts tell you to...
Kevin L. made it and so did Amy and Andy.
One of Ryan's coworkers and his wife joined us, and they were big fans of the Jell-O shots.
Check out this crew doing a Jell-O shot.
The roomies, together again! That guy on the right is Gary. The four of us shared a four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment in college. Gary moved back to the area in the fall for school, and I saw him at Camille's when we girls ate lunch there after the Reindeer Romp back in December. We were so glad he came to the party.
Cheers to old friends!
Jeremy and Scott brought over an orange cooler and filled it with various liquids that turned into a yummy green concoction. They called it Swamp Juice and said it was famous back when they were in college. Jeremy wasn't letting even the last drop go to waste.
Of course, it wouldn't be a party with this crew if the den didn't turn into a disco.
Poor Scott, he was the DD.
Vanessa was the last to leave, and I think she headed out around 2:30, which was really 3:30 since the time changed last night.
Here's how things looked this morning.
The cones are the McHusband's. He put them up along our neighbor's yard so people wouldn't park on his grass and damage the sprinklerheads he has at the edge of his lawn. If you look closely, you'll see two more on the front porch. I have no idea who put all the cones in place.
It's almost 6:30 and the McHusband still doesn't feel too good. Guess that means the party was a success!
These two pictures give you a pretty good idea of how things went. The first picture was taken late yesterday afternoon when the final preparations were taking place. The second one was taken around 2:00 this afternoon. Anyone have deja vu? The second picture reminds me of the day after last year's party.
But let me back up and show you how the McHusband got from the giant inflatable cooler-cup to the couch.
I set the food up in the dining room this year. That definitely helped to spread people out and since the table's in the middle of the room, people were able to navigate all the way around it.
I made two different lemonades - alcoholic and non - and also had a dispenser for water. I even made tags so people would know what everything was. We couldn't have Vickie and Kristen accidentally drinking the wrong lemonade.
And the lemonades.
For the most part, it was the usual crew.
Byron and Lisa made the trek all the way from Wake Forest.
Kim came with her boyfriend Greg, but for some reason I missed getting a picture of the two of them. But I got a really cute one of her and Jovyn.
Unfortunately, Shawn was out of town for a combo work-family visit trip so he missed this year's bash. Jennifer was happy to stand in for him in regards to Vanessa's Rub Me for Good Luck t-shirt.
Speaking of doing what t-shirts tell you to...
Kevin L. made it and so did Amy and Andy.
One of Ryan's coworkers and his wife joined us, and they were big fans of the Jell-O shots.
Check out this crew doing a Jell-O shot.
The roomies, together again! That guy on the right is Gary. The four of us shared a four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment in college. Gary moved back to the area in the fall for school, and I saw him at Camille's when we girls ate lunch there after the Reindeer Romp back in December. We were so glad he came to the party.
Cheers to old friends!
Jeremy and Scott brought over an orange cooler and filled it with various liquids that turned into a yummy green concoction. They called it Swamp Juice and said it was famous back when they were in college. Jeremy wasn't letting even the last drop go to waste.
Of course, it wouldn't be a party with this crew if the den didn't turn into a disco.
Poor Scott, he was the DD.
Vanessa was the last to leave, and I think she headed out around 2:30, which was really 3:30 since the time changed last night.
Here's how things looked this morning.
The cones are the McHusband's. He put them up along our neighbor's yard so people wouldn't park on his grass and damage the sprinklerheads he has at the edge of his lawn. If you look closely, you'll see two more on the front porch. I have no idea who put all the cones in place.
It's almost 6:30 and the McHusband still doesn't feel too good. Guess that means the party was a success!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Bowled over
Part of the laundry room renovation was removing the plastic dog feeder. Morgan's food bowl and the water bowl was in it, while Tucker's bowl sat on a tub of Mastec (leftover from our backsplash project) next to the fridge.
The raised feeder did fit nicely under the counter, but it was past time to come up with something better that would work for both dogs.
We ordered three bowls and hangers meant for a crate. The big bowl would hold water, and the two smaller bowls would go on either side for food.
We covered a 2 x 6 in the beadboard and then the McHusband attached that to the wall. When the bowls came in, he added some eyelet hooks to the board and we were in business.
Well, almost. Apparently the welds weren't quite strong enough on the water holder so the McHusband had to use some duct tape to reinforce them. Hey, what do you expect for $4.99?
I like that you can't really even tell the bowls are there so it just looks that much more uncluttered in the laundry room. Unfortunately, it's that much more open floor space that I need to sweep and mop.
Tucker was a little confused at first, and I think this bowl is smaller so he has a hard time getting those last few pieces of food. Not too worry, though, he doesn't give up until that bowl is empty and licked clean.
The raised feeder did fit nicely under the counter, but it was past time to come up with something better that would work for both dogs.
We ordered three bowls and hangers meant for a crate. The big bowl would hold water, and the two smaller bowls would go on either side for food.
We covered a 2 x 6 in the beadboard and then the McHusband attached that to the wall. When the bowls came in, he added some eyelet hooks to the board and we were in business.
Well, almost. Apparently the welds weren't quite strong enough on the water holder so the McHusband had to use some duct tape to reinforce them. Hey, what do you expect for $4.99?
I like that you can't really even tell the bowls are there so it just looks that much more uncluttered in the laundry room. Unfortunately, it's that much more open floor space that I need to sweep and mop.
Tucker was a little confused at first, and I think this bowl is smaller so he has a hard time getting those last few pieces of food. Not too worry, though, he doesn't give up until that bowl is empty and licked clean.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Laundry room redo
The Thursday (Feb. 25th) that the McHusband headed to Charlotte, I sent him an email at work asking how he felt about beadboard and crown molding in the laundry room. I tempted him by promising lots of work for his nail gun, and he agreed to go along with my plan. So by the time he got back to the house on Saturday evening, I had the laundry room almost all painted (I ran out of paint) so there was no turning back, and we spent several hours at Home Depot the next day getting the rest of the materials.
I'm really happy with how the room turned out. Of course, it was pretty blah before so anything would've been an improvement.
Some befores:
Please excuse my pile of gym clothes.
And now onto the good stuff. I painted the walls the same color as the kitchen and den. Well, I painted MOST of the walls that color. Then I ran out and took the can to Home Depot to have it matched to one of their paints and, well, it's really, really close, but it's not exact. You can't tell except in the couple of spots where I touched up the leftover paint with the new paint. But you have to look pretty hard for those spots and if I hadn't just admitted it on the world wide web, you'd probably never notice. Now that's all you're going to notice when you come over, isn't it?
I even spray-painted the mirror so it went from dingy off-white to shiny dark brown.
My mom gave me some DIY laundry room art for Christmas, and I finally got to hang it up.
One more picture to highlight the McHusband's terrific job with the crown molding. And yes, there was a beer that afternoon.
Just so you know what we're working with with most of these projects. Conditions often aren't ideal. Take the coat-rack wall of the laundry room, for instance. Notice anything strange about it toward the door?
No, that's not trick (or, in my case, bad) photography. The wall really isn't straight. No wonder the McHusband has to drink.
I love how the beadboard lightens up the space and it's going to be really great in the long run since it's very wipeable. The paint cleaned the walls up so much, and the crown just gives the space a really nice finished touch.
Thank you, McHusband, you did a great job! Ready for the next challenge?
I'm really happy with how the room turned out. Of course, it was pretty blah before so anything would've been an improvement.
Some befores:
Please excuse my pile of gym clothes.
And now onto the good stuff. I painted the walls the same color as the kitchen and den. Well, I painted MOST of the walls that color. Then I ran out and took the can to Home Depot to have it matched to one of their paints and, well, it's really, really close, but it's not exact. You can't tell except in the couple of spots where I touched up the leftover paint with the new paint. But you have to look pretty hard for those spots and if I hadn't just admitted it on the world wide web, you'd probably never notice. Now that's all you're going to notice when you come over, isn't it?
I even spray-painted the mirror so it went from dingy off-white to shiny dark brown.
My mom gave me some DIY laundry room art for Christmas, and I finally got to hang it up.
One more picture to highlight the McHusband's terrific job with the crown molding. And yes, there was a beer that afternoon.
Just so you know what we're working with with most of these projects. Conditions often aren't ideal. Take the coat-rack wall of the laundry room, for instance. Notice anything strange about it toward the door?
No, that's not trick (or, in my case, bad) photography. The wall really isn't straight. No wonder the McHusband has to drink.
I love how the beadboard lightens up the space and it's going to be really great in the long run since it's very wipeable. The paint cleaned the walls up so much, and the crown just gives the space a really nice finished touch.
Thank you, McHusband, you did a great job! Ready for the next challenge?
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Of mice and...homing pigeons?
This article, "Always lost? It may be in your genes," on MSNBC.com was really interesting for me. The first line immediately caught my attention: "When it comes to navigation skills, some of us are homing pigeons. Others are mice in a maze." My mom and Shannon are pigeons; I'm definitely a mouse.
Everyone knows that I have a terrible sense of direction when it comes to me getting places. If you can believe it, I think I'm actually worse if I've followed directions to a new place and then I have to refer to the directions backwards to get home. Nine times out of ten, I'll end up lost.
Now, when it comes to giving directions, I'm very good, which can also be a bad thing. I tend to give detailed instructions and if you're alone while navigating, you really don't have time to look away from the road long enough to read, "About a half-mile ahead, there's a shopping center on your right. You'll turn left at that light onto ABC Road."
The article mentions Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder where one of the characteristics is trouble reorienting oneself. I'm not generally a hypochondriac, but when I read, "Individuals with Williams syndrome have strong language skills and are extremely social, but they have trouble with tasks like doing puzzles or copying patterns or navigating their bodies through the physical world," I'll admit I was worried that I had it. I mean, I'm pretty good in the language skills department and I know how to interact with people, but there are some puzzles that I just can't do, geometry was NOT my forte, and I've already admitted to my tendency for getting lost. Gulp.
In reading more of the features of Williams syndrome, though, I'm pretty sure I don't have it. I just suffer from a good ol' fashioned bad sense of direction. Phew!
Laura Lakusta, a psychology professor, led a study about how genes play a part in figuring out where you are:
In the study, Lakusta and her team challenged individuals with Williams syndrome to find a hidden toy in a rectangular room. The room had two long walls and two short walls and was covered in black felt. The Williams syndrome individuals were shown the toy and where it was hidden in one corner of a room. They were asked to close their eyes and were rotated for a few seconds. Then they were asked to find the toy.
When looking for the object, the Williams syndrome individuals — who were both male and female ranging from age 9 to 27, "searched all the corners randomly," Lakusta said, as if they had never before seen the overall geometry of the room or the lengths of the walls and their geometric relation to each other.
When testing a group of college students and a group of 3- and 4-year-olds who did not have Williams syndrome, Lakusta and her team found a more typical pattern of responding.
"If we hid the toy left of the short wall and right of the long wall, they could mentally construct an image of the room and find it, even if they became disoriented. They would tend to search the geometrically appropriate corner. They could figure out that there are two corners where the toy could be. This is the geometric pattern of responding," Lakusta said.
"The Williams syndrome subjects could not construct a mental map of the geometry of the environment," she said.
I would really like to see how I'd do in this kind of experiment. Just because I'm pretty sure I don't have Williams syndrome doesn't mean I wouldn't have trouble finding my way around a box.
I guess I'm glad to know that my genes are probably somewhat responsible for my navigational issues.
And for those C's in geometry.
Everyone knows that I have a terrible sense of direction when it comes to me getting places. If you can believe it, I think I'm actually worse if I've followed directions to a new place and then I have to refer to the directions backwards to get home. Nine times out of ten, I'll end up lost.
Now, when it comes to giving directions, I'm very good, which can also be a bad thing. I tend to give detailed instructions and if you're alone while navigating, you really don't have time to look away from the road long enough to read, "About a half-mile ahead, there's a shopping center on your right. You'll turn left at that light onto ABC Road."
The article mentions Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder where one of the characteristics is trouble reorienting oneself. I'm not generally a hypochondriac, but when I read, "Individuals with Williams syndrome have strong language skills and are extremely social, but they have trouble with tasks like doing puzzles or copying patterns or navigating their bodies through the physical world," I'll admit I was worried that I had it. I mean, I'm pretty good in the language skills department and I know how to interact with people, but there are some puzzles that I just can't do, geometry was NOT my forte, and I've already admitted to my tendency for getting lost. Gulp.
In reading more of the features of Williams syndrome, though, I'm pretty sure I don't have it. I just suffer from a good ol' fashioned bad sense of direction. Phew!
Laura Lakusta, a psychology professor, led a study about how genes play a part in figuring out where you are:
In the study, Lakusta and her team challenged individuals with Williams syndrome to find a hidden toy in a rectangular room. The room had two long walls and two short walls and was covered in black felt. The Williams syndrome individuals were shown the toy and where it was hidden in one corner of a room. They were asked to close their eyes and were rotated for a few seconds. Then they were asked to find the toy.
When looking for the object, the Williams syndrome individuals — who were both male and female ranging from age 9 to 27, "searched all the corners randomly," Lakusta said, as if they had never before seen the overall geometry of the room or the lengths of the walls and their geometric relation to each other.
When testing a group of college students and a group of 3- and 4-year-olds who did not have Williams syndrome, Lakusta and her team found a more typical pattern of responding.
"If we hid the toy left of the short wall and right of the long wall, they could mentally construct an image of the room and find it, even if they became disoriented. They would tend to search the geometrically appropriate corner. They could figure out that there are two corners where the toy could be. This is the geometric pattern of responding," Lakusta said.
"The Williams syndrome subjects could not construct a mental map of the geometry of the environment," she said.
I would really like to see how I'd do in this kind of experiment. Just because I'm pretty sure I don't have Williams syndrome doesn't mean I wouldn't have trouble finding my way around a box.
I guess I'm glad to know that my genes are probably somewhat responsible for my navigational issues.
And for those C's in geometry.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tucker's two!
Today's Tucker's second birthday. My baby's growing up.
Here he is the day we got him.
And now. Notice just his HEAD barely fits on the corner of the bed these days.
My handsome boy. :)
Tucker grew up, but Morgan's the one who aged. Check out how gray her face is now compared to when we first brought Tucker home.
Oh man, am I gonna look that different two years after our first kid?
Here he is the day we got him.
And now. Notice just his HEAD barely fits on the corner of the bed these days.
My handsome boy. :)
Tucker grew up, but Morgan's the one who aged. Check out how gray her face is now compared to when we first brought Tucker home.
Oh man, am I gonna look that different two years after our first kid?
Sleep Talkin' Man
Has anyone heard of this guy/blog? It's hilarious! Adam, the sleep talkin' man, is a mild-mannered English bloke by day, but his dark side seems to take over at night. His fiancee/wife (I think they recently got married), Karen, records his ramblings and writes them down for our enjoyment. She even includes some sound bites in some of her posts.
Here's an example from last month:
"My computer needs more power. Feed it chips. Lots of chips. With ketchup. Not mayonnaise."
"Hmmm, feathers in your armpits. Tickle yourself stupid."
Sometimes Karen will try to guess where Adam gets this stuff. Like here in this post from January:
"Baby poo. Baby food. Just warm it up. Throw it on the floor. You don't need the baby... Stupid. Shite. Poo."
"Babies don't bounce. They don't bounce! Shame. It'd be much more fun if they bounce."
"I think you should sit down. Surely your ankles can't take the weight."
"Come back. Come back. Come baaaaack."
"Tick tock tick tock... Everybody's waiting. It's time for me to shine."
Karen's note: That last one, I was doing a kakuro puzzle on the computer next to Adam, so lots of mouse clicking. We had just gotten the wonderful news last night that a good friend is pregnant, so perhaps that explains the baby theme? I don't know how she'd feel about him wanting to use her impending child as a basketball, though...
Check out the blog and be sure to listen to some of Adam's ramblings. Oh, and a quick word of warning - Adam has a bit of a potty mouth at night.
Here's an example from last month:
"My computer needs more power. Feed it chips. Lots of chips. With ketchup. Not mayonnaise."
"Hmmm, feathers in your armpits. Tickle yourself stupid."
Sometimes Karen will try to guess where Adam gets this stuff. Like here in this post from January:
"Baby poo. Baby food. Just warm it up. Throw it on the floor. You don't need the baby... Stupid. Shite. Poo."
"Babies don't bounce. They don't bounce! Shame. It'd be much more fun if they bounce."
"I think you should sit down. Surely your ankles can't take the weight."
"Come back. Come back. Come baaaaack."
"Tick tock tick tock... Everybody's waiting. It's time for me to shine."
Karen's note: That last one, I was doing a kakuro puzzle on the computer next to Adam, so lots of mouse clicking. We had just gotten the wonderful news last night that a good friend is pregnant, so perhaps that explains the baby theme? I don't know how she'd feel about him wanting to use her impending child as a basketball, though...
Check out the blog and be sure to listen to some of Adam's ramblings. Oh, and a quick word of warning - Adam has a bit of a potty mouth at night.
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