Standing on a Roof...

Its been quiet around here for far too long, and yet it it is very hard for me to write anymore.
Every thought that seems to come out of my head through my fingers seem to be... just complants, grumblings... and then i just sit here at my blank screen for another hour and delete it all.

They say if you dont have anything nice to say then dont say anything at all, and thats basically what I have done for the past 2 months. I have got to get past this... so I am just not going to let myself talk about that one topic in my life and MOVE ON...

[New Topic]
Why are topic's so difficult? I was going to talk about today's storm, but could not get past the first sentence. So I think there is no way I am going to have a topical entry today.. so I am going to just answer some "Get to know you" Random Questions... Enjoy

What food reminds you of your grandmother/grandfather?  I wrote an essay on this once so I will chose a different answer this time... I will aways remember my Grandma Mack making homemade whole grain waffles with nuts and some really good syrup for breakfast. And you cant forget her turkey meat loaf.. nobody makes it like her

What does home smell like? Well my dad would say that it smells like dogs... If this means what sent makes you feel at home aka "at peace" I would have to say the scent of my boyfriend's shirt, makes me feel like he is there giving me a big hug when I have a bad day.

What makes you jealous? Unfortunately a lot of things... time spent with someone else after someone promised to spend that time with you... but that seems more Mad then Jealous.

What is the worst kept secret at your work? UHHHH.... worst kept rule is No Cell phones while working... but secret? I dont know.. going to have to ask.

When was a time in your life when you where seeking attention? ... I was tempted to delete this question... i dont know how to answer this... I feel like I am seeking attention every time I write a blog [again with the 2 month break]

What food looks a lot better than it tastes? hmm, something that looks good but tastes bad... well lets just go with something that I dont like: Spagetti 

What was the most rewarding travel experience that have you had? I would say anytime that I travel to see someone I love... be it my family or boyfriend

When you have a sweet tooth what food do you crave?  This depends on what I have had recently or what is in the house.... It would be in the Carb family most likely, though I do love chocolates

When was the nicest meal you have ever eaten? One with a lot of friends and family... when? I dont know [Why again did I make myself do these ramdom questions?] Maybe it was my surprise birthday party last August.. but then that would also be a moment of "seeking attention" 

Do you believe in life on other planets? yes/no/maybe

What sucks away your time? Waiting... I feel like "The Girl who Waited" [Yes i did just throw in a little Dr Who]

What is your best personality trait? Yeah you ask that now that you have me feeling all selfish/self centered... But I feel like I am very caring and do go out of my way to see the needs in others

What celebrity crush have you had? you said "What" so I will say "a small one"...  :) you didn't ask "Who"

If you were going to get a tattoo, what would it be and where? I would never get a tattoo because it just sounds painful, but I used to want one on my bicep, not sure if I still want it... Thought about a band of some sort.

What personality traits do you look for in a partner? Someone who can be quirky and spontaneous with me

What is one thing you regret in life? I regret buying these halloween candies that I have not stopped eating.

What is one thing you like about being an adult? I like being able to visit places by myself if i want to

What is one thing you miss about being a child? I miss the cheeper entrance fees to the places that I am not visiting by myself 

If you had next Monday off, what would you do with it? I might paint since it has been a while

If you where on death row, what would you want your last meal to be? Something really fattening, like chocolate cake with a lot of icing, 

What is the most money you have ever held in your hand? I recently held a little over $700 in cash when I had to pay my dad for my cell phone

What do you like to learn about? I like to learn about history.. be it the history of people, places or things.. how and why things are the way they are.

If you where to teach a class what would you teach? General courses.. LOL.. yeah  a little bit of everything, some history, some art, and some cooking

How old where you when you had your first kiss? I was... [takes out calculator] .. I was 19

_________
I finished... and I did not delete any question even though some of them where hard for me. See you next time. 

How to pull a surprise Birthday party...

...Or what not to do

OK First of all, I cant believe that everyone showed up at 8/9pm to surprise me.. I really was surprised with who all was there. but I have to start this at the beginning

Friday I took my cousin to the Indiana State Fair which we had a great time.. I took her through her first Fun house, childish I know... and we rode lots and LOTS of rides... she did puke but that was only because she was laughing too hard while drinking a pop. She actually got me to ride a tower drop.. though I dont think I want to do that again.

On the way home we where talking about a little bit of everything and one question she asked me was what my birthday wish was... I said that I always wanted a surprised party but that it always seems like I would have to plan my own... 

Then Sunday was to be the family birthday dinner, but I had to work... me being the paranoid person I am figured two things... 1. I would get a phone call of them singing happy birthday or 2. All or some would show up at work and try to embarrass me.

...Well neither happened so I figured meh, my vibes from my cousin where wrong and I really am over thinking everything.

Well that evening, Mom tells me that my Aunt [her mom] said that I could not have my birthday card since I wasn't at the party.. thus my brain said... "oh maybe she is going to come over and visit on my birthday. I was no longer thinking about it being a "surprise party".

So if everyone had kept their cool, They would have completely pulled it off {and I wouldnt have had my camera on me... because despite popular belief I dont carry my camera with me at all times}

However several things occurred on my birthday that kinda gave it away:

1.  Dad mentions that my cousin is coming over to look at the new saw that he will be using on friday... why would he come at 8pm? and why does he need to look at the saw right away? A saw is a saw, nothing that special about it.
2. While at dinner I mention that we have not had dessert and even though I was full it is still tradition to at lest HAVE a cake around... which we didnt, and with the new stove I knew Mom had not baked anything.
1. Mom says that I "can not go out and do anything tonight because I am busy." Ok so now we ARE doing something afterwards at grandmas.
3. As soon as we got home from the restaurant Dad is on the phone with someone and I hear: "We are home now"... Mom trying to be sneaky tries to start a conversation with me about "Who could he be on the phone with already?".... Hint, if you dont want people to know who is on the other side of the phone then DON'T ask them who they think it is, that just makes them pay more attention to the people on the phone.

My cousin does arrive, and spends several minutes talking to my parents.. thanks to my "self diagnosed ADD" I had slightly forgotten the previous hints and stay contently in my room watching tv shows... Mom asks if I want to come out to the living room and talk with him, but honestly I was tired {and given up on the possible event} and just wanted to relax. It was at this point that I got "The Call"... Grandma called me asking for help on her computer. This is not abnormal, and I have been called over there many times late at night... So they would have gotten me really good IF

1. Dad, who had complained of horrible headaches and being tired and going through a bit of a flash wasn't INSISTING on coming...
2. When I walked out and realized that it was pretty chilly and therefore had to come back for a hoodie I hear dad say "Now dont answer any questions" and then imeditatly follow with mom "hushing" him.... That was the kicker, so I immediately grabbed my camera and solemnly walked over to grandma's making sure I stayed with John as i didn't want to walk in too early.

However Grandma pulled her weight and had me slightly convinced that she really did have a computer problem.. though I honestly didn't know how I was going to be able to fix it, so I was glad John was there.

AND then they sent me to the computer room where everyone POPPED OUT!! I could not believe it, as I had figured it was only my Cousin and her mom...

If you are reading this because the other blog brought you here and you were part of that surprise, THANK YOU for making it special even if I had a lot of hints.. and dont worry, its only because of my overactive imagination and people watching that I figured it out... heh... It was still VERY SPECIAL to me.

My desk: with lots of balloons, I LOVE balloons!!

and my birthday Orchid and flowers

Lots of cards from friends and family

Whats today?.. oh Wednesday

Today's title is in reference to the fact that I have been thinking it is Saturday all day. With the holiday, and then my dad in the hospital and then driving up to see the Boyfriend and then working it seems like tomorrow should be sunday... which means if its this confusing for me, it has to be worse for my mom and dad.

Update on my dad: Tuesday he was released from the hospital after 5 days and 4 nights. Durring that time he has been on different doses of Prednazone [spelling?] and a blend of painkillers in the goal of getting him back to being mobile without any pain. One of the reasons that he was kept in the hospital so long was because his body reacts "violently" against steroids and they had to keep changing doses to try to give him some relief. [You come in because you have major muscle pain and the meds they give you cause you to have migraines and other worse symptoms ]
Then there was some drama about seeing the specialist, but I am very happy to say that as of Noon today, he was able to get the appointment rescheduled to Thursday morning [tomorrow] Hopefully then we will find out more information.


As for me, I have been holding down the fort.. and caring for a few sick dogs [Maybe something is in the air?]
On Tuesday morning I drove up north to have my boyfriend add some computer programs to my new computer and make sure everything was set up.. [There where a few that he didn't think he would be able to explain over the phone.. and after watching one of the programs "reject" the first three tries I am glad that I did drive up there]

Got enough Computer Screens there dear?

If you think they have visitors, your wrong..
these are just a few of their cars parked outside the office/garages

Happy Day-After-the-Fourth

First I have to mention that currently my Dad is in the hospital for sharp pain in his legs and feet and a rash that is covering his body. As of the last phone call to my Mom, the Drs do not know what exactly is causing it. Hopefully there will be some answers tomorrow when the tests come back.

____ Now for a recap of festivities______
This was the first time that my boyfriend has come to my family's annuel fourth of July celebration, though half of them had meet him this past New Years. I unfortunately had to work and did not arrive until 1.5 hours after it started so I figured introductions had already been established to those who did not know... I was wrong and called out on this after another hour had past [I am still amused]

Enjoying the yearly history Quiz, This year it was about family trees and State Mottos

Because of the heatwave and drought we spent the evening inside and did not shoot off fireworks at our home. So I persuaded the Boyfriend to take me downtown Indianapolis to see the show. 
20 minutes of fireworks set to music, It was spectacular! Seeing all the different shapes and colors are so fascinating to me.  There was one that I thought looked like a Peach/Hot Dog/Hamburger [Maybe I was hungry?] But it was several ovals together in red, green and orange. There where several that I call "Weeping willows" and lots of Sparkly ones, but we where too far away to tell if there was any "Screamers" [the ones with the high pitched screeches]


This morning was a very early morning for me [which has then missed up my internal clock making me think its later then it actually is]... My parents went off to the hospital and I cooked breakfast for the boy. After discussing whether to go to the Children's Museum [They have a new Hot Wheels exhibit] we settled on going to the Mall area to pick up some things he wanted.

If we thought that we where going to save money by not going to the Children's Museum we where mistaken, as I ended up purchasing a new computer at Best Buy. It has been on my list of needs for a few months now and I was planning on getting one in September. However yesterday while I was getting ready for the Fourth, my Laptop spat out a screw at me and took 5 restarts to print a simple document.
Next Month it will have been 5 years, which is pretty good for a laptop. In those 5 years I have replaced the motherboard, harddrive, battery twice, and power cord. I also went from Visita Premium to Windows 7. I have dropped it twice and I have unfortunately seen the blue screen at lest 10 times [which I have not decided if that is a high or low number for 5 years]

Durring those 5 years, I have also been introduced to the dark side... or brought into the light.... the World of Apple.
My first year of college was the first time that I had to work on a Mac, as it was required for my major and I was completely lost. And then to add into my "transformation", my boyfriend of 4 years has nothing but Macs.... Thus it was pretty much settled from the beginning of our relationship that this Mack was going to have a Mac.  [Yep the sales person thought it was funny too]

I leave to get food and let him finish setting it up... Come back and he's playing a game. Boys and Toys

So I am now getting used to the new Keyboard and mouse, but since starting this blog I have started to really like the system... And as I have told BF a million times..
I HAVE A BIG SHIFT BUTTON AGAIN!!

yep really happy about the small stuff.

Solved: Mystery of the Crackling Knee

In April, I wrote about the problem I had with my left knee always cracking when I moved. When I brought this up with several different people who know sports injuries they simply said that unless it caused me pain then there was not much that could be done about it... it was just part of getting... OLD [dramatic music]
So I proceeded about my days/weeks/months until about three weeks ago I was running on the treadmill and had pretty intense pain and was unable to finish my run.
Because of my schedule I was unable to get to the dr right away and had to wait until this week... That being said it was too late and the disease had spread and taken over and they had to take off my leg

I stand here as proof that you shouldn't put things off for tomorrow what you could do today

Ok all kidding aside, no I didn't lose my leg... and I apologize if I have offended anyone by joking about it but I did get the "result" of my knee cracking yesterday at the doctors office and when I saw this photo [taken today] I thought it was pretty fitting.

ANYWAY.....it is believed to not be a bone issue, but a muscle issue... which is good because all I have to do is be diligent about building up more muscle in my thigh which will strengthen my patellar tendon.

Therefore this mystery is solved with the diagnosis of Patellofemoral Disorder [also known as Patellar Malalignment or Runner's Knee]

Which is funny since I have never really done any "running"... except for my attempt at doing Couch to 5K [which I have only gotten to the end of week 2]

MAY I have a moment...

Can you believe that it is the second week of may and I have yet to post something? Ok so maybe it isn't that hard to believe but I was trying to be better about posting. This week has flown by, I can't believe that tomorrow is Friday already. One week ago today I was north of Atlanta Georgia sleeping in a hotel on my way to my "half sister's" graduation. It was a whirlwind trip spending three days and two nights in Savannah, GA along with two nights in Acworth on the drive up and down. It was my first time to savannah and the brief time there has me wanting to go back. Granted I am not sure I want to live there... The homes I saw where very close together. On Saturday was the graduation, and Sis got her masters! We went out to a place called "the crabshack" for some seafood. I have eaten sea food often when visiting my moms side of the family in New Hamshire, but to my knowledge I had never had crawfish or mussels.. Though I had previously had clams (or is that actually the same thing?) I didn't like shelling the crawfish because they still had their faces (ommatophobia) but I still enjoyed the meal... I just didn't look at what I was doing (heh).
We also went to the beach and I found the atlantic to be very warm (apparenty I am used the to frigid waters off the New England coast). On Sunday (our last day in Savannah) we went on a bus tour and got to learn a lot of local history. Like how Forrest Gump was filmed there as well as Miley Cyris' movie. Savannah was started in the 1800's and was spared in the civil war ( atlanta and a city on the other side was burned to the ground).
Since coming back from this vacation I started working 40 hours in the floral department because of mother's day. So it's been crazy in my life. I am learning a lot every day and hope that I am actually helping and not slowing everyone down. I have yet to go the gym since coming back from georgia. So it's a good thing that my trainer is gone for two weeks because I'm sure I would hear about how I haven't been in in a while since I don't see how I could get in until after mothers day.

Things happen

It's been quiet here because life just got really busy. I am not even sure I remember everything that has happened but here are a few. ( by the way there might be errors here because I am using an app to type this using my little iPod keyboard)
1. On Monday I got a text asking me if I wanted a job... Thus I now have what is considered by most a "real job" (I realize what I have typed here might seem shady. The job is not shady... Well there are times when I am in the shade (lame joke laugh here) it is actually a really cool opportunity to help a fellow Maple Street pal. It's been fun granted it's a lot of work. I called myself the assistant to the assistant though my technical title is Jr designer... Not sure how much designing I will actually do which is fine sine I have only made a handful of arrangements in my life
2. A silk scarf order has come in. Sadly it's still within the family, but hey some of you where beginning to wonder if I was ever going to paint. I will hopefully post more about that later (after it is done and given to it's new owner)
3. My plan for pinterest Friday was in the works and then two things happened... First I realized that maybe I don't know how to do everything (ok so I knew that but sometimes I tell myself that "it can't really be that hard") secondly I was kidnaped

Ok so maybe I went voluntarily and MAYBE there was a lovely lunch and a side trip to my favorite store... So maybe it was more of a "fieldtrip" but that is the reasons that pinterest Friday did not happen this week.
Hopefully i will be able to sit down and write the rest of those interesting stories.
What have you been up to?

The Mystery of the Crackling Knee

To preference this post I have to say that I have been wary about posting things that are personal just because of the uncontrollable access there is in the internet, however lately I have been pondering more and more about this [and reading other blogs] and decided that maybe I should be a little more personal.

Last Christmas I received the gift of a gym membership, which was exactly what I asked for. After my introduction, I decided that I was going to scrap up the trainer fee as I felt it was important to keep me on track. I was going about 5 times a day with a trainer once a week until March and then I fell off the face of the earth. Between going out of town, getting www.308maplestreet.com running and eating junk food at birthday parties [we have a lot in march] I went 6 times in 30 days.
When April hit I mad myself promise that I would make up for it and not fall behind again. The one upside of not going in March was that I now had extra trainer days [they roll over into the next month if you don't use them] So for the month of April I am being forced to meet my trainer 2 times a week... and let me say that I think that is the best way and its too bad that I don't have enough money to continue on that schedule.

Anyway now to the real reason for this post

Since returning to my activities at the gym I have noticed my left knee "crackles" every time it is bent. And I am not talking about just an occasional "pop" I do mean.. EVERY TIME. I talked to my trainer [actually I talked to substitute trainer] and she said that as long as it doesn't hurt me I am ok and that its just a part of being old [ to which my mom kinda "freaked out" about saying that I am not old... aka she doesn't want to be ancient]
However she showed me that doing backward lunges would put less stress on my knees and allow me to continue working out.
This past monday I had my regular trainer and since it was my first time back with him since the crackling I told him what was going on and he to had me do different positions of squats and lunges to alleviate over stressing it.

After being told that this is "normal" I headed to the internet and WebMD told me I was dying of cancer to the knee... kidding [for those of you who have not used WebMD it is a online "Dr office" where you type in your aliments and it diagnosis you.. often the common cold is listed as also being something deadly... i guess they want to cover all their bases so that they can not be sued]
Anyway, most of what I read on various sites was that if there is no pain, then you use exercise to try to work it out on its own [which is what I am doing]
Today in my searching I finally came across what might be causing the issue... the way I sit. Now I will admit that the first cause is the simple fact that I am on my computer too much.. however the next big cause is that I sit in a "half lotus" position.. that is my left leg is tucked up in a half pretzel or for us --non-politically correct people --half Indian style. I believe this is in fact the cause to my knee pops so I am trying my hardest for a week to not sit like that at all and see if there is any improvement.

For those of you who remember the photo of my room, you will notice the green exercise ball. I actually got that out in February to help me sit more correctly but haven't used it in over a month... well that is being changed too.
So that's my current story, if you want to read some of the articles they are listed below. Since reading about the wrong ways to sit with your laptop I have dug out an old keyboard and have the keyboard on my lap while my laptop is still on my computer.. here's to trying to solve the mystery.

http://www.zafu.net/laptopergonomics.html
http://www.zafu.net/whatswrong.html
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Wrong-Ways-to-Sit-on-Your-Office-Chair&id=3076430

Oh and if you actually made it all the way down to here I shall reward you with this little trivia: I have been rereading books in my personal library and have several Nancy Drew's nearby which accounts for the Blog Title.

Monday movie review

Today I watched "Extremely loud and incredibly close". Its about a young boy struggling with the fact that his dad died in the collapse of the world trade centers. The child, named Osker, is extremely brilliant and knows a lot of trivia (the actor actually was the winner of child's jeopardy a few years ago) but has a huge list of fears (he is afraid of loud noises, old people and things where you could get stuck to name a few) and these fears just multiplied after his father's death.
While his father was alive he planned scavenger hunt like experience in the hope that it would help his son become braver. A year after 9-11 Osker finds a key in his dad's closet and thinking it is another clue (and desiring to "find" his dad) he sets on a journey to find the lock it fits.

This is a hard movie to watch at times but it's such a good story about the struggles of losing someone and yet finding out that you are not really alone. During his travels he mets so many interesting people and they share moments and dreams
One line that stood out to me was when Osker is talking to his mom and he says "everyone I met had lost something or someone." it truly was a healing process for him.
I'm not sure if I "recommend" this movie but I thought it was quiet good and thought provoking. The acting is well done with the young Osker as focus (my mom asked me where Tom hanks was... Which I informed her he was the dead father..they didn't focus on the big stars) There are a few choice words that are not needed and for those of you who are worried about the depiction of the tower collapsing:  they only show tv screens (no blood) though there are brief memory flashes of Tom hank's character falling (as if out of the building).

Pinterest Friday

Friday has come and went, but that does not mean that there wasn't a Pinterest Friday event going on... it only means that this gal is behind in her posting because of the crazy weekend. Also this Pinterest Friday was the most time consuming that I have planned, because it involved 5 days. You ask, why so many days for one event? Well today’s Pinterest is sponsored by thin you can’t live without.. FOOD! And I knew that I couldn’t just post one meal… so I have five meals that I made this week that where either new recipes or something above and beyond what is normally served at this household.

Monday: Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce from Pioneer Woman.

Now I have made Mustard chicken since BC [Before College] and love it, so I figured that it was fitting to see if I could snazzy it up a bit.  But like most of my cooking, I hadn’t really planned for it and therefore started the cooking process without checking ingredients. {Typical} So there was a lot of googling for substitutions… like how to make your own heavy cream… which would have worked just fine until I realized that it was too soupy… thanks to our recipe making a cup of cream when we only needed ¼ cup… Heh. Also the recipe called for bourbon or white wine… which I had neither of… so out came a bottle of sparkling grape juice.

Despite not really following Pioneer Woman’s recipe it turned out really good and I will most likely be making it again [and who knows what I will substitute then]

Tuesday: Taco Boats… not one specific source other than my head... with handmade torillas

Something you may not know about me, is that I seem to be the only person around here that doesn’t really like the taste of beef… and because everyone else likes it I always am trying to come up with ways to hide the flavor [Or am I hiding the “Pink slime”?] I do like tacos because you have all the taco seasoning to cover up, so I made up the meat per tradition. However being required by Pinterest Friday to come up with something new/different I discovered a homemade tortilla recipe that I love [and have decided that I will most likely not be returning to store bought]

Making the tortillas was a fun new experience and has me requesting a press to make more.  Once everything was made [cooking the tortillas and the meat] I pressed the tortillas into a muffin tin and scooped the meat inside topping it off with cheese.

 Popping them in the oven just to melt the cheese they came out beautifully.

These were also really delicious and the left overs did not last very long [Me eating beef, who knew]

Wednesday: Based off “30 minute crispy salmon with creamy basil noodles” from How Sweet It Is

Since the New Year, our household goal is to eat fish more often and I have made it that Wednesday is fish night… However a certain member does not like fish so I am often on the lookout for a new way to make it more appealing. [Suggestions accepted]

Once again, I didn’t have what I needed to make this recipe so I just broiled the fish normally and then boiled some Asian noodles, drained them and then tossed the noodles in a cream of mushroom soup/milk mix. Toping that with the salmon and putting a dollop of left over soup mix on top.

Thursday: “Clean out the Fridge and Pantry” salad… from my brain.

It had been decided that we really needed to eat up the huge bag of spinach [from Costco] before it turned, so a big salad was in order. Again being “forced” to be creative, I wanted something other than “normal”. So I stood before the pantry pondering. My personal goal [besides making something “different”] was to make something that used up items that had been sitting around because we were not particularly fond of them. So it didn’t take me long to settle on a fruity salad.

For my Throw Out salad I used: 1 can of chicken breast[which I shredded], 1 can of pineapple bits, 1 can of mandarin oranges, 3-5 roma tomatoes[chopped], several splashes of strawberry poppy seed dressing, lots of spinach, some random cheeses, and a handful of pecans.

As a side we had a platter of 3 cheeses [which I can’t remember the names] and the very end of our box of wheat thins [Having not bought any crackers, again the whole planning thing] … was a pitiful platter but thoroughly enjoyed.

Friday was to be the last meal with me making pizza from scratch [something that is very rare around here] but I got rushed with preparing for scrapbook club [another interesting story], so we ate frozen instead. Saturday had us all in different locations so it wasn’t until Sunday that we once again ate a home cooked meal together.

Sunday: Mushroom Chicken and Fajita Chicken

Both of these are really simple and only count as Pinterest creativity in that I had never made them before. I pan fried chicken breast which I had cut up in 3 inch-ish pieces. Then in one pan I used the left over cream of mushroom soup with some milk and let that simmer while another pan had half of the chicken with the New Philadelphia Cream Cheese cooking cream Fajita style. Both were very good… personally liking the fajita more but I have never been a big fan of mushrooms.
Well I liked everything that I made this week. If you want to find out more about a recipe the links have been provided since I didn't want to type out all the recipes. 
Well I only have 4 days till the next Pinterest Friday... What have you created this week?

Come fly with me...

Let's fly away. Or just let balloons fly up in the sky.
Today was your average day, I woke up with a headache and then spend a long time perusing the net. After a bit I decided to mow the back paddock (between my yard and my neighboring grandma I have a lot of acreage that needs to be mown... Enough that you don't do it all in one day) So today I was in the far back that we just mow walking paths.
Again nothing really exciting (until google earth takes a new photo *wink*)

Returned the mower to the garage and proceeded to look in kitchen for inspiration for tonights dinner. At this time I look out the front door an notice that there is something shinny on the gate. Walking closer I see that it is a Micky Mouse happy birthday balloon. Now my birthday is far away, mom's is in three weeks and dads was last week but with extended family and a few of them practical jokesters you never know. Upon reaching the balloon I see that it has not been tied there (nixing a joke) and has been most likely pulled away from a party. Which is sad but still exciting to me cus I now have a birthday balloon.
Only a few seconds later I notice why the balloon got stuck in the first place... It has been tied to a dog collar.
Now not only sadness from a child missing a balloon but also worry that dog has escaped from party and child is now extremely heartbroken.
At the same time I wonder if maybe this is not really a collar of a pet as it is a "science balloon experiment" -- you know, like where you see how far the balloon traveled.
Seeing the pets name and a phone number and city I decide to call the number and find out what is going on.
Lady on phone: hello?
Me: um do you have a per named max?
Lady:what?!
Me: I found a pet collar tied to a balloon and wondered if you are missing your dog?
Lady: (starts laughing) I can't believe you found it. I was driving to ( omitted) birthday party and tied the balloon to my dog's collar. ( omitted)... It flew out the window.
Me: so you have the dog?
Lady: yes he's fine. Where did the balloon land? Are you in Indiana?
Me: yes actually im in the same city. Would you like the collar back?

She goes on to tell me that the party was not far from my house so it must have gotten stuck on the fence nearly as soon as it flew out her car. So now as I write this I keep getting up to look out the window and see if it's still there... I tied it back to the fence so she could see it from the road.


Yep still there.

Long over due...

Things that are often "over due" in my life.. Phone calls. Books from the library. And blog posts.
I don't really know why it is. I love rambling and it often is not that hard for me to come up with something to talk about... It's almost like I talk myself out of posting whatever idea I had... Or I say to myself that it really is not note worthy that I need to wait for something really good. Though that is true most of the time I would say it's because something shinny has taken my focus. Lets say that there is a Hanzel and Gretal in my life dropping shinny golden nuggets... Wait who am I kidding the original story of bread crumbs would work... Mmmm BREAD!! (this post has been interrupted by the dreams of bread loaves dancing in Marissa's head)

Pinterest Friday!

Today’s Pinterest Friday is sponsored by your childhood… crayons! When is the last time you used a crayon? Was it just the closest thing available when you wanted to write something down? Or did you color with a child recently?

I personally could not remember the last time I colored with crayons. When I babysat a month ago the girls wanted to use paints and makers… you know, the messy stuff is always better.

I have two projects today…

Behind the Scenes: Mouse in the House

308 Maple Street has a mouse… but this is not like your normal  house mouse, our mouse is kind of like Ratatouille… except he can do a whole lot more then cook… AND he doesn’t sit in our hair. [eww]

Cheese, who is illustrated by Laura of WatercolorTales

{http://laurawinslow.blogspot.com/} and {https://www.facebook.com/WatercolorTales},

 is a very personable mouse who’s best friend is a duck named Quackers.  I can’t tell you exactly how Cheese came into being, since I am not his creator, but I do know that it was developed through Laura’s love of mice. [Side note: She thinks they are cute when they are in their own habitat not necessarily when they are in her house]

Pinterest Friday

Today being Friday results in

 PINTERTEST FRIDAY!!!

Today’s idea  was one of the popular items that I ran into back when I was just starting to get into blogging last fall.

How to make a Men’s Dress shirt into a dress/top/skirt without any sewing.

I had completely “backburner-ed” the idea until last week when I ran across a beautiful purple shimmer dress shirt. Loving the color I knew that I had to get it and at least try out the idea, knowing if that didn’t work....
 I could always cut it up and make flowers.

So without further ado,

Go CLEAN your ROOM!!

How many times have you heard a parent [or guardian] or even roommate say any of the following:

• "You really should clean your room." 

• "You know, things would be a lot easier if you had a clean room, you could find things.”

•  “Clean up your room, it looks like a tornado hit.”

•  “M is for Mom, not for Maid.”

•  “Were you born in a barn? Clean up that mess.”

[more after the comic]

Hacking

Some days I feel like a super cool super-agent… I sit at my desk with two computers and a monitor and feel like I could be the next Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds or Angela Monetengro from Bones…. Yeah, I think I'm cool.

Be that what it may, today I finally hacked a pin number… No worries it wasn’t a credit card or bank account. It was the pin to a game from when I was 13.

Tuesday's Tangents

For some reason this post did not post on Tuesday... so yesterday's Tuesday Tangent has become a Wednesday Wanderings

Pintrest Friday

Today is the first Pintrest Friday, where hopefully I will accomplish somethings that I have pinned. Today includes a little "cheating" because I am going to post some items that I did a little while ago. But I do have one from today... and I am in the middle of working on the logistics of a big one but it will not be ready to report on until next week.

1. First up from my board Organizations 

As a preface to this nice tip, I have to say that I am not a big fan of my computer desk. It only has one drawer and doesn't offer enough "cubbies" for all my stuff [Reference my desk photo from last post here ] I diffinally miss my desks that I had while at college... however I will figure out how to use this desk for now.

Ok so having one drawer means that you cant have a "junk" drawer... however that was what my drawer seemed to be....

Then as I was "wandering" through Pinterest I ran across the brilliant idea of using toilet paper rolls for small objects.
[Did i mention that this drawer is only 10 inches wide by 5 inches deep and 12 inches long? ]

So I saved up TP rolls for a few weeks and had started putting my head phones and flash drives in the tubes... but the drawer was still messy... [you cant see the TP rolls but they where in the upper right hand corner under the Asian cloth]



 So today I dumped everything out and started fresh.
Check it out! The only items that left the drawer between photos was a camera charger and 5 sewing needles that had fallen out of their case... Oh and I found out that not only do i have white out.. but I have TWO of those swipey things.. :)

            2. From my board titled Deadlies

So 2 Weeks ago this Saturday was my boyfriend's birthday and ever since we have been dating.... [4 years and 2 weeks from today [Friday]... and if you just did the "math" my first job as girlfriend was to celibate his birthday so its kinda a big deal to me]

Anyway..... since we have been dating I have created a cake for him.. The first year was kinda plain [give a girl a break, I had one day to create it] However I have designed more elaborate cakes since then... the past   four have had the them of "cars" since it is his passion... but this year, inspired by Bakerella's Fast Food Post I wanted to make his other "passion"--- Food-- more specifically a Hamburger.

Bakerella shows how to do this in smaller "slider" forms, but after having a kitchen disaster, I thought making one large hamburger would be better.... after all the cake had to travel 2 hours in the car.

The cake is quite simple... I used one box of yellow cake mix for the "Bun" and  one box Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate brownie mix for the "patty". Using half a can of icing and food coloring I made the "lettuce" with icing and coconut. Typically you would put yellow and red icing for "Mustard and Ketchup" but my BF likes his hamburgers plain or maybe some bacon.... so the bottom layer of icing is supposed to represent bacon... I even had red and white crushed sprinkles as "Bacon bits".

I think he really liked it... though he never seems to care what it looks like as long as it's "Yellow with sprinkles and coconut icing"

Your turn, what have you created after looking at pinterest?

308 Maple Street

For several weeks... and the past 120 hours... I have had this view....

Yes that is my desk... and yes i did kinda clean it before I took the photo... and for those of you who may be confused, yes you are looking at three computer screens. I have been working on making a website.. which just went live today which if you have not already looked at 308 Maple Street you really should.... go... now...
You need to check it out HERE

Sorry about that.... :) What is 308 Maple Street? Well it is a new online shop featuring 3 other artists with some of my stuff. {though if you checked it out like i told asked you, you should already know that right?

Anyway my part was to design what you see from what Heather {From http://blackberryrambles.blogspot.com/} and Christina {http://classiccableknits.com/blog/} and Laura {http://laurawinslow.blogspot.com/} have envisioned for years. Which i have got to say is a daunting task... just because you like something does not mean that the "customer" will. But Today was our launch party which I think was a HUGE success.

Heather, Christina and I after opening the website

During this process I have learned several things...

1. I have learned that it is always important to save copies of copies of copies and even in different places so that you have something to go back to
2. I have learned how to make a gluten free cake... will talk more about that later
3. And I have learned that I really really need to learn how to spell.... words like "twitter" and "position" set me back several unnecessary minutes.

But overall I am happy with what I have created and deep down I think I did a pretty good job. I know that the website is not done, there are several issues on/in it... but like author Karl Stolley said, "websites are never DONE, they only have long periods of time where nothing changes."

On to the Party:

Like i said today was the launch party for the website, and of course we had to have a tea party. I kinda consider myself an "intermediate" cake artist because I love creating different designs in the cake. With that in mind I really wanted today's launch to be special so I offered to make the cake. I had never made a gluten free cake before, but a while back during a triple coupon sale I snagged a Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow cake mix with the plan of making something for the 308 girls.

The recipe was simple enough, butter, vanilla, water, eggs... and I put it in my mini bunts and voilia cake! As the design started coming together in my head I relized that I was going to have more mini cakes than I wanted for the design.... Also in my head I was wondering what it was going to taste like... So i did some googling and found Gluten Free Diva and her recipe for Gluten Free Cake pops... so i went out to the store and bought some preserves, whip cream and melting chocolate.

Her exact Recipe can be found here. However I found that after you crumble all the cake just ad the preserves until it is slightly gooey and you are able to form balls. Since I did this all "day of"... i put them in the freezer for about an hour and a half and then dipped them in the chocolate, then let them sit until it was time to leave... Diva says they should it over night in the Frig.

Over all the cake pops were a BIG HIT and they are sooo easy... think about how many times you have had a cake fall apart on you... well here you go, use it for a cake pop.

The cake before I left my house...before it melted

The Flower cake was another story... sure it was good... I put a layer of preserves on it, too. But the request for Whipped Cream Icing did not get a long with traveling an hour in our "heat wave" of 75 degree weather today.