Dyno's Whine

Bursts of creativity

2010-02-09T07:15:00.004-07:00

Friday morning I woke up early wanting to cross stitch. Such bursts of energy and enthusiasm are extremely rare with this particular depression of mine, so I got up and found all my old cross stitch stuff, found a pattern I liked, and determined that I was just in need of white embroidery floss. So after the local fabric store opened I called them to determine if they had the floss, which they did, and I went down to pick it up. I felt dumb just writing a check for 50 cents though so I browsed and bought some sock yarn and needles (I already have the book, now I just need the guts to try something as intimidating as socks) and a loverly swatch of oriental panels.

Now, I don't sew. I'm terrible at quilting. But in this burst of energy I bought those panels anyway, so I was going to need help. So I went to my good friend Amber and she helped me go back to the store and find matching material. She is a MASTER quilter, so yesterday I also went to her house and she helped me plan, cut, and sew the whole top for this project together! In one day! Normally something like that would take me, oh, about 3 years, as my friends and family will attest to. I'm excited about it now. Maybe it will take me less than a year to finish! Wouldn't that be a miracle! How do you like it?

Poor kitties!

2010-02-08T21:37:00.006-07:00

It's tax refund season, so it's time to take care of the cats with their annual shots, bloodwork, and teeth cleaning. We have to wait until tax season because it's GOL-DURNED EXPENSIVE. Most people I talk to say that they wouldn't spend that much on cats, but they are our babies. If we had been able to have children of our own things might have been different, but as it is we want them to have as long and as comfortable a life as possible so we buy them the good food, get them their shots, and get their teeth cleaned. Unfortunately, one of the things that is required to get their teeth cleaned is they have to be knocked out. (Crud, just trying to get them in place so the vet can get to them gives me huge scratches, so I can understand why they have to be sedated!) After much yowling, and then sedation, then cleaning, we laid them out on the living room floor so they could be comfortable and safe when they woke up. However, they looked so pitiful that my nephew Jeff couldn't resist taking pictures, so here they are. Three dead-looking kitties. I'm glad they forgave me after a few hours...but then, they didn't know that I was going to post pictures of their stupor on the internet for the world to see, did they?

Another review

2010-02-08T11:09:00.003-07:00

because I've been feeling like posting for a few days now, and I happen to have a new phone, I will review it.
It's a Palm Pre Plus with Verizon and I like it very much.

The good: Nice, easy interface. Decent built-in software. Syncs with Google for contacts, email and calendar. And it looks stunning ('specially in the shiny purple case I bought for it. :) )!

The bad: Not that many apps available, built in google maps directions aren't very good, boot up time is ridiculously long (2 minutes! We timed it!), battery life is poor (have to charge EVERY DAY even if you don't use it very much) and the sound quality isn't as good as my old Palm Treo on AT&T.

The ugly: When I bought it, the sign said it had turn-by-turn directions. It does, sort of -- VZ Navigator is right there, BUT it costs $9.99 a month to use it! Sure it has traffic and voice navigation, but I don't want to pay an extra $10 a month when my husband's Droid has the same service for FREE! Grrr. Still, I'm tempted simply because our Tom Tom's maps are so bad and expensive to update.

OK, the good list isn't as long as the others. But overall it seems to be a very good phone that does almost exactly everything I need. I like it a lot.

review

2010-01-27T21:36:00.003-07:00

Looking at my sister-in-law's blog makes me sad that I don't have any babies to blog about. :( So I'm gonna blog about dishwashing gloves instead.

When I do dishes, I use the hottest water that will come out of the tap. Which means that I have to wear gloves so that I don't scald myself. I used to use those cheap yellow latex gloves you can get at any big box store, but they don't protect from the heat very well and they get holes in them WAY too easily. So about a year ago I found these gloves that I LOVED -- they were thick and tough, keeping out heat and sharp things easily. Unfortunately, they only came in one color (pink) and size (medium) so they were a little small, making them hard to get off, so recently my nephew accidentally put a hole in them by trying to pull them off with his teeth. So I went to Amazon, my ultimate shopping place, and found them in multiple colors and sizes! They are called True Blues and I was able to get a large purple pair and they are absolutely PERFECT -- a little spendy, but if you use gloves, these will easily pay for themselves in the time you're using them.

As promised...

2010-01-12T12:45:00.005-07:00

Here are some pictures. Please note the largest moonroof EVAR.

New Car!

2010-01-11T20:28:00.002-07:00

Well we finally sold our truck. Part of me misses it, just to be stubbornly sentimental, but most of me is ecstatic. I shouldn't have hated that truck, but I did. It rode rough (needed new shocks) and I had problems with the stick shift and the air bag didn't work and it needed new brakes and it didn't have enough room. SO...to replace it we did a lot of research. Research on models of cars and sales and things like that. Narrowed it down to either a used Subaru Forester or a used Ford Escape Hybrid, since I wanted more room and Jake wanted better gas mileage. Couldn't find anything local so we were preparing to have to travel a bit to get one, but we needed some 'hands on' of different models. So we went to a couple of dealerships to check them out, and lo and behold, one of them had just had a '07 Subaru Forester traded in that day. It was LOADED with extra features that we didn't really need, but the idea of buying locally rather than traveling a few hundred miles was overly appealing to us. We haggled quite a bit and got it down to a manageable payment and now we have a lovely, loaded, pearly white '07 Subaru Forester. I'll post pictures of it at soon as I remember to take a picture in the daylight.

Stuff at the bottom

2009-12-17T21:28:00.001-07:00

In case you haven't noticed, I've added a couple of things to the bottom of this blog that you might want to check out. One is a very cool little playlist gadget that has some of my fay-vor-ite songs. Another is some fishies. Click on the fishies and you feed them. Feed them! Feed the fishies!

Back on the writing wagon

2009-12-14T15:25:00.002-07:00

I'm writing something else. This time I'm trying to work out the plot FIRST so it doesn't unravel my whole story like it did last time. And I've realized that story writing is complicated and takes a lot of research! Man all mighty, I might just be too lazy for all this.

If anyone wants to hear the plot line I've got so far and offer input, please drop me a line!

Bookstore!

2009-12-06T11:05:00.002-07:00

My husband and I are talking about opening a book and game store here in Kuna. We're still researching possibilities and options. We'd deliver free to the Kuna area, might sell a little bit of software while we're at it, and I'd probably sell some cool pens just because I could. The more we talk about it, the more excited I get about it, though it's also a very scary prospect. I mean, most small businesses fail in the first year. But the more we talk about it, the more excited I get about it. What do you think?

Movie Results

2009-11-22T21:09:00.002-07:00

My opinion? New Moon is good. It captured the feel and most of the details of the book while flowing well; I didn't feel like there was too much or too little portrayed; the action scenes were much better (didn't look like people being swung around on lines). I feel like the romance wasn't too heavy and the tension with Jacob was good. Overall I'm quite pleased, though still ashamed of myself for liking it so much.

An Unfortunate Addiction

2009-11-20T15:16:00.003-07:00

I don't mean to like the Twilight stuff. I mean, they are cheesy and shallow and annoying. But I just can't help myself. I've read the books twice and I'm going to see New Moon tonight on opening night, hoping that it's better than the first movie but knowing I will probably see it 2 or 3 times anyway. They appeal so much to the 'natural man' that the better, more intelligent, more spiritual part of me looks down on them, but I have to admit that the 'natural man' part of me still holds enough sway that the idea of living forever young, beautiful, strong and amazing is appealing to me. Sigh.

Gilligan's Island shows

2009-11-12T19:52:00.002-07:00

You know what I mean. The shows that have some great goal or premise that the protagonists are constantly trying for, but which they can NEVER attain or else the premise and purpose for the show is over. Like on Gilligan's Island -- they could never get off the island, but every week they tried to. There's really not that many shows that fully meet this definition, and in my opinion none that can really carry it off. Star Trek: Voyager could never get home. V's humans can never defeat the invading aliens. There's even a few romantic shows out there where the 'lovers' can never get together, though that's obviously a much more variable and debatable topic. Why do I bring this up? Because I don't watch much TV and I just decided not to follow V. I just can't stand the fruitlessness of it. What do you think about it? Are there any 'Gilligan's Island' shows that you've found redeemable? Why?

blatant plagiarism

2009-11-09T18:24:00.003-07:00

I'm stealing this picture from my sister-in-law Sienna's site because it's the CUTEST PICTURE EVER. Though I can't pick which of my nieces or nephews is cutest, that is the cutest picture.

new game

2009-11-06T22:05:00.002-07:00

We've discovered a new game. A new MMORPG called Aion, and so far it's very nice. In fact, I just went and canceled my World of Warcraft account for this new game. The graphics are stunning (which makes the gameplay a little choppy, I think -- though the servers are quite full since it's only been out for a month, so they are probably still working out kinks), and the concept is unique. After reaching level 10, players get to fly because they reach something of a demigod status! It's taking some getting used to...some things are similar to WoW which makes the differences all the harder to get used to. So check it out!

Insert New Post Here

2009-11-02T10:38:00.003-07:00

For some reason I feel like blogging lately though I don't have anything to blog about. At least nothing that I don't think is too personal to put out on the world wide web. I'm excited about Thanksgiving, which is at my house this year. I'm also excited about my women's barbershop group which has started practicing again. If anyone in the Kuna area wants a group to perform Christmas songs, let us know!

welll......

2009-10-24T20:01:00.002-06:00

I forgot about Dollhouse. Don't know how I could forget, since Joss Whedon is my master now, but I forgot. It's remarkably cool. Not as cool as Firefly (alas!), but fairly cool nevertheless. Another one of those shows that makes you think of the nature of being, of good and evil. Wait, did I say /another/ one? I can't think of any others! Anyway, you should watch it.

AND...

2009-10-23T15:01:00.000-06:00

Of COURSE I miss Pushing Daisies because who wouldn't? Luckily my sweet husband just bought me the first season on Blu-Ray and hopefully I'll get the 2nd season for Christmas or something and I can cherish them forever.

On another topic, raising kids is really hard. Just thought I'd mention that.

Oh, and...

2009-10-16T23:45:00.003-06:00

On the subject of television, I should also mention that I miss the show Life. The last episode last year was one of the best shows I've seen in a long while, though it hinted at closure so it's not a HUGE surprise that the show is gone. I just miss it. It was a unique crime drama and I'm sad it's gone. But hey, it's not like the old days where I would know immediately when a show wasn't renewed and get my britches in an uproar, so I guess I'm getting more mature about such things in my old age.

Apologies and TV

2009-10-15T18:10:00.004-06:00

First, I'd like to apologize for saying, "At least in the US I've been to a lot of states." Because, DUH, where BUT the US will I have been to a lot of states?

Next, I'ma gonna talk about TV. Don't watch it all that much anymore, but hey, there ARE some good things.

1. The Mentalist. Really like it, esp. the main guy. It's just fun to watch the interactions between the characters.
2. Castle. Liked it okay last season, this season I LOVE it. And not just for my crush on Nathan Fillion. It's just plain fun to watch, and funny. It's hard to find original crimes in these shows these days -- and this one is really no exception to that rule -- but if you can give me another good gimmick, that's good enough.
3. Chuck. Apparently not coming back until March, which is just plain cruel, but it IS coming back. Yes, Chuck is my other tele-crush.
4. House. I was almost over watching this, but this season they pulled me back in with the mental health angle. The depictions of the repercussions of mental illness, and the depiction of the mental health industry, were spot-on according to my experience. We need to get rid of the stigma of not only mental illness in our society but the stigma of the medications and personnel equipped to HELP us through mental illness. I'm still watching with trepidation, but so far so good.
5. Everything else. I watch a few other things, but not much worth mentioning, really. You'll have to tell me if there are any new shows that are outstandingly fun to watch.

Sick

2009-09-24T09:44:00.001-06:00

I'm sick today. Thought it was allergies but last night I started feeling feverish, so STAY AWAY FROM ME. cough cough haaaaaaaaaack cough cough cough don't you love cold and flu season? And I was supposed to perform with my barbershop quartet tomorrow evening. :(

Places I've been

2009-09-21T14:54:00.001-06:00

At least in the U.S., I've been to a lot of states.

visited 24 states (48%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Busy summer, birthday's coming, etc.

2009-09-10T23:57:00.005-06:00

Man, I've had a busy summer. Chicago, Oklahoma, and Utah thrice all make for a fair amount of traveling! It's been fun, but a little stressful too. I'm in Utah again right now, visiting my newest little nephew, who is incredibly cute, as you can see here.
Otherwise, life progresses. I'm looking forward to Annual Dyany Day here in a few short weeks, or, the 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday, or, The Last Birthday Ever. I'm not looking forward to getting old. To make it better, you can buy me stuff. After all, I keep you entertained every few months with my exciting blog posts, right? :b

strange hybrid

2009-07-13T21:56:00.004-06:00

no, not cars. Vegetables.
Last year we planted zucchini and white pumpkin. Both turned out okay. But this year we had an interesting 'volunteer' crop up in the garden that both Jake and I wanted to see what it was. Well, it grew big and fast and very hardy and you know what it was? White zucchini! They are fatter than normal zucchini, and mostly white (just a hint of green). Not many seeds in 'em. And, oddly enough, they taste kind of like peanut butter. Yes, peanut butter.

Kickin' Back Old Style

2009-05-26T22:10:00.002-06:00

OK, we're in Chicago and so far it's been AWESOME. At first, I was a little worried. The two days of driving were very long, thanks to lots of construction and heavy rains, and then the hotel we had originally booked (the Days Inn in Niles/Skokie) was AWFUL. Like, blood on the walls, no towels, internet not working, bad shower curtain AWFUL. So today we checked out of that hotel and moved to the downtown Howard Johnson's. It's old and obviously 'economical', but it's well-maintained and the people are nice so we consider it a big improvement, even though we're paying more for the convenience of being downtown.
We went to the Sears tower this morning which was pretty cool though the weather was hazy. I started getting souvenir-crazy then, though luckily I've been able to say 'no' to most everything so far. Then we went to Giordano's for some real Chicago deep-dish pizza that was ever so tasty. Then we went to Grant Park and saw Buckingham Fountain, easily the most impressive fountain I have ever seen, though some might consider it overly ornate. Then we went to Millennium Park and saw sculptures and fountains and gardens and the Giant Silver Bean (I believe it is officially called the cloud sculpture or something like that) and I was duly impressed. This evening we headed out to Wrigleyville for a Cubs game. It was AWESOME. It's amazing how everything, absolutely EVERYTHING there is built and geared around the Cubs. It was awesome! I got a new Cubs shirt and we ate hot dogs and popcorn and got rained out and the CUBBIES WON!! Hooray!
Now I'm bushed, though we still have 2 more days here. So fun!

Authority

2009-05-21T14:53:00.003-06:00

I have what some would call an unhealthy respect for authority. I don't believe EVERYTHING I see/hear, but by golly if someone who's done a lot of validated research comes to me and tells me that the sky isn't blue, I begin to wonder if blue means what I think it means.
This is the opposite of my husband. If he didn't think of it, or if he can't understand it, then he generally blows it off or disparages it.
This produced a lot of conflict in our early marriage. So I begin to wonder: what is a HEALTHY level of respect for authority? If you don't respect any authority, then not only does it make certain social interactions (like work) difficult, but you are doomed to repeat many mistakes and not be able to learn beyond what you are able to test for yourself. But if you believe everything you are told, well, you'll end up buying a lot of Brooklyn bridges. Either extreme, you get hurt.
I don't know the answer. (HA! You came here looking for answers?! Sucker!) I like my level, imperfect though it is. I suppose everyone has to find their own level. But from what I've seen in the world of late, I would recommend erring on the side of healthy respect for authority. So many people throw away authority simply because it is what it is, forgetting that authority became that way through experience and gaining knowledge. It's not always right, and sometimes it is even taking advantage of you, but if you show people respect you at least improve relations with them and might learn something in the process as well.