South Park Rules!!!!

Got this from Mindsprite...had to do one of my own. Looks like me too....although I hope I am not this stocky in real life...haha.

Finally....New Floor

It's about time I got this post up...sorry for the delay.

Here are some pics of our kitchen flooring project and the final look with the new countertops and new floor both.

This is what our kitchen basically looked like when we moved into our house. Old faux butcherblock countertops and a tan and cream plaid floor. This was a shot I took before we removed the countertops a while back, so that is why there is nothing on the counters really.

This is more of a close up of the floor (which wasn't in terrible condition but was very outdated looking). This is looking from near the kitchen sink towards our pantry. The doors are already off the pantry and everything that is normally on the floor in there is gone to another room.

We had to move the fridge, washer and dryer all into the family room, and then the stove and dishwasher into our dining room in order to do this flooring project.

This shot is during the rollout of the new floor. We had to take this 12x16 roll of linoleum and try to fit it and cut it while not tearing it...it was quite the feat and not something I would like to repeat anytime soon. Fortunately, we had done the floor in our little guest bathroom first so we kind of had an idea of how to proceed. Obviously, we didn't eat out of this kitchen for a few days, but we did have the fridge, the microwave and coffee maker plugged in, so we could do snacks and drinks.

This is just a comparison shot from the same location as the old floor shot above. This is looking towards the pantry from the kitchen sink after the floor was finished and all molding and doors had been replaced. I think the patter is much more modern looking and now all the linoleum in the house matches.


This is the finished kitchen with new floor and new countertops. All appliances and extras are back in place. It looks so much more updated and that is what we were going for. The floor only took us the New Year weekend. Hooking the fridge's icemaker back up ended up being the hardest part of the whole thing....haha.

We Are Going To The Superbowl!!!!!

Finally, my Bears pulled off the season I have been looking for. The last couple of years, they have gotten close but not quite there. Today they put the Saints away. I am so thrilled to be watching them in the Superbowl this year!!! The socks and sweatshirt I put on during the first quarter must have been just the extra kick they needed to get past the playoff hump (haha).

I hope the Superbowl ends up being an exciting game.....GOOOOOOO Bears!!!!!

The Lion Kitty

Finally, I got a couple of decent pics of the lion kitty living in my house. Her fur is so fluffy right now it is ridiculous. I hope it is keeping her warm, because as soon as it warms up a bit, it is gone (otherwise she sheds more than any cat I have ever seen). So here you go, enjoy it while you can....

New Pets

I finally got a few new fish (4 to be exact) the other day. I ended up with 3 Dalmation Lyretail Mollies and 1 black Mollie. One of the Dalmations is male and the black Mollie is male...so I have balanced out the gender issue (there are still more girls than boys but that is the way it should be). Only issue right now is that there is only one Red Wag Platy in there but I don't want to get more of them, so she will just have to suck it up unfortunately.

So anyhow, here are two pictures of the Dalmations...I couldn't get a good shot of the black one. These Lyretails don't have the really fancy dorsal fin like some of my others have had but they still look pretty nice.

Another Blogrolling Note

Seems that if you manually ping blog rolling in their ping form on their website, it will update your links in your blogroll.

I have been checking out their forums today after all my links when "new" and it seems that what has happened to cause most of their problems is spamblogs that ping as updated and have over worked the system. They are currently working on a cure, but if you want your blogs to show as updated, the work around is to do the manual ping on blogrolling's site. I tried to the ping at Technorati and Webblog but it didn't update blogrolling. I have tested pinging at blogrolling itself and it does work.

Update: I have been manually updating all the blogs in my blogroll with blogrolling....wow. I just figure that if you updated today, you deserve to be at the top...don't know if I will do it all day, but it is fun to see them move around a bit...it has been so long.

This also means that you will look updated to anyone else that has you on their blogroll...so if you think that Blogrolling is working again...it's not...it is just me!!!

My Towel Animals

I thought these were too cute and we had a new one each night in our room....I just had to photograph them before I took them apart. Now I just need to learn how to make them...it would be fun when we have guests. The ones with sunglasses are wearing my sunglasses.

No Skin

I managed to twist off the skin on my thumb today doing quarterly maintenance on the hottub.

I was trying to remove all 39 jets from the hot tub shell so I could clean and do maintenance on them as well and two of them would not come off. I even put on rubber gloves to try to get some better grip.

It didn't start to hurt until later when I was doing dishes and trying to make dinner. Somehow, no matter how I hurt myself, it ends up being the one thing I use the most...how is that possible?

It seems that each day I am being able to get a few things done off my list since school has been over, and that has been gratifying even if a bit painful...

Fish Tank

I wanted to post a picture of the fish tank with the new cabinet...here it is...and I think the fish like it. Now I just need to get some more fish...the ones in there look a bit lonely.

Sometimes I Wonder

Okay, we went to NY City this summer and I have had pictures and souveniors ready to put in an album for ages but I couldn't do it because I couldn't find the postcards I purchased to keep for the book...I figured I would find them eventually but had honestly looked every where that I thought they would be.

I had just about resolved myself to the fact that I was going to have to do the book without them, when today, while looking for a pen in the glove box of our truck, J stumbled upon them. I am such a dork....guess that means getting that travel book done is now on my list of things to do. I really need to get pictures from our trip and the holidays uploaded to York because they are having a sale on prints until the 16th and I don't want to pay more for prints than I have to...

How Do They Do It?

Until recently, I haven't had my nails painted by anyone but me (or my mom when I was little). While we were on our trip, I lost all the polish on one foot while rafting in Costa Rica...and we had a formal occasion to attend a few days later. Even though I am Ms Prepared, and did think of just about everything to bring with us on the trip, I didn't bring polish or remover, so I was left to pay for it.

Since I wasn't have a complete pedicure, just a repolish, I made sure things were cleaned up and nice before going to the appointment. Basically the entire process entailed removal of old polish, a little buffing of dry skin, base coat, two coats of polish, and top coat. I think the entire thing took only 10 minutes. The technician was very quick and did a great job, and I am amazed at how well this polish stands up.

It is like having a clear coat car finish on my toenails...is it the top coat, or the type of polish that causes it to be so tough? Whatever it is, I need to buy some of this stuff for myself. I love it.

It's Official

I got word yesterday....I am officially a graduate. I should be getting my diploma from my graduate school in a few weeks. Whew!!!!!

Observations

Started Ian's book "Hard Word of Life"...pretty interesting so far...definitely a fun read. I would provide a link but I can't seem to find one even on Lulu.com which is where it was published....perhaps "someone" could point interested parties in the right direction?

My gym is affiliated with a local medical center, so it has a lot of older members that are in physical therapy...it is strange to me to see old lady knees. I haven't seen a grandma like person in shorts in my family in ages...I have to say, it is pretty cute...especially when they wear pink socks with their little white Keds.

Since we are talking about the gym...when I am there, I usually have my shuffle with anything from Disturbed, to Favela Chic playing. Every once in a while I take my earphones off when I am in the locker room. I am always surprised to hear Glenn Miller playing softly over the main speakers...do they think people (even old people) can get their work out on to that music? I makes me want to read or contemplate but not work out...

I put out the new Diabetes travel bug in one of my caches the other day. I went with J to see if he could find it (the cache, not the travel bug)...he did, he is good that way. We ended up running along a new trail that I had only seen 1/2 of. It was a good thing, and I ran farther and longer than I have in a long time (without a soccer ball in front of me).

Speaking of J, the other day, I went with him and another friend on a hike in the national forest near here. The friend and I each had a GPS in our hands as we were also finding a couple of caches while we were out. J had a topomap of the area and a WWII compass that he had borrowed from the friend. I was amazed, let me say again, amazed at how well J can navigate in the woods. He would find a bearing on the map, put the map and compass away, and we would all start hiking to it (we weren't on a trail and had to cross creeks, and get under and through all sorts of bushes and trees). Everytime I would think we were a tiny bit off course, I would look at the bearing on my GPS and J would be right on target...how does he do that?

Put the fish tank on the new fish tank cabinet last night. Had to move a few things around in the family room. I might end up moving some more things around. The tank looks really awesome on the cabinet and the fish seem to like it as well. I'll post a pic later if I remember.

Got 4 packages yesterday from family for Christmas. J got this awesome workout toning bar that I think we can both use for exercise and golf swings...we'll see. It is definitely a nice addition to our home gym equipment. We got this fun game from his mom (that we even played last night) along with a few other things. Then we got this cool piece of art from my dad and his wife. I have a lot of my dad's artwork in my house (not that I couldn't use more...hint, hint) but I never had any of his wife's and this piece is one of hers. It is really great and I am so thrilled to have it.

Well, I need to get in gear...so I will have to do some more "observing" later...

Comment Text Editing

I am posting this link as a reference to myself because it tells me how to make my comment text grammatically correct and I had to search everywhere to find it. I figure if I make it a post, at least I will have it later if I want and can do a search on my own blog for it.

Comment Text Editing Directions...the help forum couldn't be bothered to answer my questions but in posting a third time, this link came up in their cool search window and it is set up for new Blogger (which is what I needed). Yeah!!! Now if I could only get a few other tweaks going my way...I'll be good.

New Cabinet

J made me this cool cabinet for our fish tank to sit on since our current fish tank stand is not looking so hot and has no place to hide the stuff.



Problem is, this cabinet is so cool looking (and it matches, in style, our buffet in our dining room) that I don't want to ruin it by putting the fish tank on it. I am afraid that the little bit of water, condensation or salt that gets out of the tank will ruin the wood. I need to find something to put between the wood and the tank to try to protect it some.



Anyhow, here are three pics of it...one as it was being made and glued and two of it finished (we had even ironed on the paper to the sliding screens). Isn't it nice?

I Got Lucky

Okay, I know, enough about new blogger, but I have one more thing to say for now and then I will shut up about it. When I converted, it was pretty much painless, all three of my blogs have been upgraded to the new templates and besides a little glitch on where the email and pencil show up on this blog, I can't complain. Pictures upload faster, the layouts are easier to tweak (once you get comfortable with them), and the publishing is a million times faster. I also like the new spell checker, and the labels an awful lot. I have not been locked out, or completely deleted like some have.

I have been scoping out the scene on the Google Blogger Group. Some people have been completely hosed in their transfer. Yes, there are those like me, that are just trying to find out how to do some of the tweaking we did before and that is no big deal. Others have lost their entire blogs, are locked out of their blogs, have their blogs stuck between the new version and the old...all sorts of nightmares. It makes me glad that I have backed up my most important posts in case I were to lose everything.

The point of my post I guess is that there are those that do business via their blogs. Sounds like a good idea, until it goes down. Thing I don't understand is that they are getting irate at Blogger. As a free service they can't really get mad if it is not available or needs tweaking. I mean, I would hope that you would not have your entire business relying on a free service, right? This person in particular is mad because her RSS feeds are not working....her blog is functioning fine otherwise.

I guess I am just thankful that my blogs are working well, and that I am not watching dollars go out the window because I put my business in the hands of a free service with no guarantees.

Christmas Has Arrived

One of my MILs makes this awesome fudge every year for Christmas. It is to die for. I was excited to see the package in the mail because as soon as I saw the handwriting I knew it was in the box.

She sent ours late this year because we were out of town so it arrived today....it is so good. We will have to spread it out over time so we don't end up eating a billion calories in the next few days. I am not complaining though because it is just not Christmas until the fudge gets here.

Reading Update

Got the 3rd blog upgraded and updated today. Check out Mishka's Reading for a list of the books I read in 2006 and my rating and reviews of them.

Playing Around

Have actually had some time today to do some of the things that I have wanted to do during the semester, holidays and travel.

I have backed up most of my posts from last year (at least the ones that I want to keep). I have tweaked my blog a bit, and have added labels to my last 50 posts.

I still need to tweak my other blogs and post our travel stuff to my travelblog as well as post pics from our recent kitchen floor work.

Now I am going to get some lunch going, and maybe even watch a movie I know J won't want to see while I work on a project for a friend.

New Year Activities

We went to our friends house last night to celebrate the New Year's countdown. We watched Pay per View Pride fights until the midnight hour. It was a nice time and some great food. The only thing that wasn't great was the hour long drive home at 1am in the morning.

Needless to say, we slept in today but managed to get lots done. The kitchen in complete (I'll post pictures soon), and that was no small feat. The laundry room is up and running again, and we even got the ice maker on the refridge hooked up again.

I managed to get a B in my class so unless I have seriously miscalculated, I should be graduating soon. I will check in with the school next week and hopefully that will be confirmed.

Last but not least, I updated my blog to beta (or not beta, whichever it is now). It wasn't as bad as I thought and it publishes a lot faster but I still want to change my template but not back to the classic settings so I guess I will be stuck with this one for a while longer until some of the free templates out there start working with widgets....

Anyhow, just wanted to get this post up....Happy New Year everyone.