Roman Shade- Part I

I dislike our guest bathroom.

When we first moved in, the room was bright white. It was like a hospital. The bright white walls, bright white cabinet, bright white floor, bright white everything. I tried to introduce some color and went for a light gray when we repainted. Unfortunately for me, on the walls, it was pretty much white. See here:



Mr. refuses to repaint and frankly, I do too. This room was a major pain to paint. So the gray is staying.

We also hate all of the tile in this room but alas we have no desire to overhaul this bathroom. It is functional for the two or three times a year we have guests and we are content with that.

This is the shade that was in there when we moved in:



The color was OK but with everything being so bland, I felt we needed an infusion of something.

We also had the issue of the blinds showing their age:



Ick.

So I decided my next project would be making a roman shade. I found these instructions online.

I looked around for fabric for awhile. I wanted something in a blue and eventually came across some blue fabric I liked at Joann's on major sale so I scooped it up.

I was able to get all of the materials needed at Home Depot and Joann's.

One note: The fabric I bought was canvas, which has two downfalls: 1. it sheds super easy. 2. it is not super flowy. Still worked but if you are looking for those qualities, not the fabric for you.

Also, if you look at the picture of the window above, yes, that is our neighbor's house so we definitely needed something that was opaque. I have never seen them with their blinds open but still. Better safe than sorry.

The biggest challenge that I had for this project was that the instructions were for an inside mount blind. We need to have outside mount on our windows so I modified the instructions accordingly.

I don't want this post getting too long and picture heavy so stay tuned for part 2 where I go through the interesting bits of the construction process.

Jyllted

And then there were five. Jyll just couldn't settle on a point of view. First it was "entertaining" (a little too generic), and then she said she was about adding California flair to her Midwestern roots (huh?), and then it was about being fun and relatable (she was just rambling at that point), and then I think she settled on having her show called "Father's Girl's Saturday Dinner Sandwich Queen".

After Jyllicious Bites was the latest contestant voted off Food Network Star, we’re down to the final five. Before we get to what’s going to happen this week, let’s take a look at the remaining contestants and the pros and cons of each.


Jeff “The Sandwich King”

Pros: The sandwich idea might be a winner. He has a fun personality and can be pretty amusing. Has some versatility in that he could host either a cooking show or a show where he’s traveling around ala Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. The judges seem to like him (especially Susie – did you see her exclaim when he did the whole “every sandwich into a meal and every meal into a sandwich” line with Rachel Ray last week? Are Susie and Jeff dating?)

Cons: Thinks he’s funnier than he is. Is the sandwich idea too limited? That red headband.


Mary Beth “Sunday Suppers”

Pros: None

Cons: Her personality, the way she talks, the way she dresses, her hair, the food she cooks, her point of view, her general demeanor, and the fact that she has no neck (Mrs.’ latest complaint about our least favorite contestant)


Susie “Spice It Up”

Pros: Has a winning personality. The judges like her food and she’s come up with some interesting ideas. For whatever reason, just seems like she could have a show on Food Network. She’s not Mary Beth (ok, enough piling on).

Cons: Despite scoring high marks in food and personality, she still seems likes she’s missing something in order to be a “star”. What differentiates her from Ingrid Hoffman? Took a major step back last week and for the first time her status as the frontrunner looks vulnerable.


Vic “Mama’s Boy”

Pros: He’s got a memorable look. Those are some cool tattoos. He’s got the whole nice guy personality in a tough guy body thing that the judges keep mentioning. And . . . um . . . well, that’s about it.

Cons: Reminds me of a cross between a poor man’s Guy Fieri and a poor man’s Michael Symon, and as mentioned in a previous post, the network already has a Guy and a Michael. I’ve never been very impressed with his food. Wore a short-sleeve sweater over a short-sleeve dress shirt and tie. Can’t put his arms all the way down at his sides.


Whitney “Four-Star Flair”

Pros: I picked her at the beginning (I like to think I’m good luck). She’s coming on strong at the end and the judges are warming to her. Her food has almost always been near the top. Has a bit of a Rachel Ray thing going.

Cons: May or may not have a personality. Can be forgettable (as evidence - I can’t think of much to say about her positively or negatively). While her point of view could be interesting, I’m not sure she’s shown enough that I trust that she actually has “Four-Star Flair”. Has a bit of a Rachel Ray thing going.


As for what’s going to happen this week:

I know I’ve been saying it for weeks, but THIS is finally the week that Mary Beth is eliminated.

There will be crying.

The “Roast” of the contestants will not be funny. But hey, Gilbert Gottfried was available.

Someone will decide to make a dish that will take much longer than they actually have to cook (why stop the streak this week?).

Vic will stand like he’s posing for a Mr. Olympia competition.

Susie will praise Mexican food loudly and proudly throughout the episode (after Susie’s criticism of her disparaging it last week).

Jeff will attempt to joke with the Roasters and it will fail.

Jeff will still be funnier than the Roasters.

Blink

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is about first impressions and our unconscious reaction to particular situations. He describes how we can often use the first few seconds to make better decisions than we would if we had more time and information to analyze, but also when a quick judgement can be problematic (stereotyping as an example). He explains when we should trust our instincts and when we should spend more time critically thinking about a situation, using examples of marriage counseling, speed dating, police officers in the heat of the moment, doctors judging the urgency of a patient's symptoms, voting for politicians, and judging artwork, music, and even food. One part I liked was when Gladwell wrote that while only 14.5% of all men in the U.S are six feet or taller, 58% of Fortune 500 CEO's are six feet or taller. He uses this as an example of how on an unconscious level we see taller people as more intelligent and successful. As a member of the six foot and under club, perhaps this is why I'm not getting promoted at work.

I don't have too much else to say about this book. In part because I read it a few months ago at this point and in part because it's a nonfiction book with a lot of information that I'm probably not doing a good job of explaining anyway. I'd say my first impression was that I liked it and that it was my favorite of the three Gladwell books I've read. Although perhaps that's an example of a faulty snap judgement. But, like all of his books, I did find it very interesting. And like all of his books, if there was a fault, it was that some of the conclusions seem obvious, while some make me wonder if they were a result of a small sample size and may ultimately be wrong.

So that's a long way of saying that I'd recommend Blink, just like I would all of Malcolm Gladwell's writing. It was a good break from the fiction I usually read. It's the kind of book that had me saying to Mrs., "Listen to what I read in my book . . . ", while she feigned interest and wondered when she could get back to sleeping on the couch. A good time all around.

Next Up: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Mango Sorbet

This weekend Mr. and I attempted to make a mango sorbet with our ice cream maker.

We discovered a boat load of mangoes at Whole Foods so my worries about not finding good ones were pointless.

We did however find ourselves at the mercy of Whole Foods' corn syrup. I was looking for Karo brand but alas, if you know WF, that was not going to be. We ended up with the only corn syrup in the store and that was called "Organic Light Corn Syrup with Organic Vanilla Flavoring". I am not sure what the vanilla did to the sorbet if anything.

In the end, the taste of the sorbet was decent but it was weirdly chewy like the ice cream you get once the box has been opened and the top ice cream exposed to air.

I did not care for the chew.

Mr. didn't like the chew nor the overall sugaryness of the sorbet.

Overall, kind of a bust.

Maybe we will try another type of sorbet and see what happens.

Borders 1971-2011

As you may have heard, Borders is going out of business for good. Tear… And a sigh…

You may have also heard that they have started their going out of business sales.

So last night after work, I went to the last surviving Borders by us to see what they had because I love books, I love Borders, and I love sales.

As I approached Borders, I saw people coming out of there with stacks of books like they raided the place. So I got excited for some good deals.

But alas, all fiction was only 10% off. While their stock was decent, 10% barely covers tax and not to make it worse for Borders, it’s still cheaper on Amazon.

I think people see sale signs and go nuts thinking they are getting a good deal without really thinking that they are in fact aren’t.

Because I hoofed (ok took the train) all the way there carrying my computer, a bunch of plastic containers that my lunch salad was in, as well as a new 16x20 inch frame I had bought earlier, I decided I was buying something and left with one fiction book (10% off), one biography (20% off), and one crafting book on sewing (10% off). Somehow I managed to spend $68 on all three.

Damn $40 sewing book that I got for $36.

But it did look helpful and as I am a self-taught seamstress for the most part, I figured it could be of use.

I think I am going to wait to see how far the prices go down.

On that note…. A few final (semi-deep) thoughts as I am not a fan of this book revolution with everyone reading things on their iPads, Kindles, and phones. I hate that it is killing bookstores and making real books obsolete. I have mentioned all this before.

But, remember that real books won’t be lost when your computer motherboard is fried and you haven’t backed them up. (Mr. lost all of his e-books on the demise of our last computer so score one more for real books!) Real books don’t run out of batteries. Real books are substantial and easy to flip through.

I recently saw an ad about getting text books as e-books. How does this work? As a math major and one subject to a lot of text book referencing especially during open book tests, I can’t imagine doing this with an iPad or laptop. How do you flip around? How do you flag pages? How do you make notes in the book? How do you highlight? And what are you paying $100+ for? Some file that can be lost when your computer dies? No way José. My text books are 10+ years old and still sitting on my shelves collecting dust nicely oblivious to any technological revolution. I will never need to upgrade them to a better technology so I can read them. Not that I would actually want to again. But you get my point.

Real books will have their day in the sun again when this whole generation of electronic book readers is making their way to the eye doctors because they spent too much time reading the Harry Potter series on their iPhones.

UPDATE (written by Mr.): Much to Mrs.' chagrin, I informed her that I didn't actually lose any e-books in the demise of our computer. While I didn't back up any of the book files (which were all free anyway) and lost them when the computer crashed, all of the books were already uploaded to my Kindle. Mrs. didn't realize that I "stealthily" moved these onto the Kindle, but her point remains true that you can lose the book files if they haven't been uploaded to an e-reader, or if in fact your e-reader crashes.

Back On-Line

Earlier this month Mrs. mentioned that our computer crashed. We did end up bringing it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy and they informed us that our motherboard was fried (they may have used a more technical term - although I doubt it). So it was time for a new computer and wouldn't you know it, Mrs. got her wish and we are now the proud new owners of an iMac. The good news - our external hard drive that we thought was only formatted for a PC was actually saving files compatible on both a PC and a Mac, so while at the Apple store purchasing our new computer we were able to load all of our backed up files. So yes, backing up was a great idea. The bad news - I didn't actually back up all of our files. Luckily, there were only a few that we're missing - some unpublished blog posts (I'm not sure I want to re-type my top albums of the last decade post), my book list (a list of books I own but haven't read - Mrs. makes fun of me for having this list, but I'm still distraught over losing it, so I'll have to start a new one), and some other Word and Excel files (including - much to Mrs.' dismay - our address list, so sorry if you don't get a Christmas card this year Mom).

But we're back up and running this week after two weeks without a home computer. The longest two weeks of my life. I was having withdrawal symptoms by the end. And this is despite having internet access at work and owning an iPhone. Hey, I love to wind down with my computer time at night. And Mrs. is even happier than me. Not because of the computer, but because she doesn't have to put up with me bothering her during "snooze time" every night. Without the computer at home, I found myself instead trying to engage my wife in conversation each night on the couch. This was problematic (I'm told) for two reasons, 1) I was taking up valuable space on the couch, preventing Mrs. from fully stretching out, and 2) My talking prevented Mrs. from watching "her shows" (which meant whatever was on the I.D. channel) and more importantly, falling asleep at 9pm.

I've long had a fear of switching from a PC to a Mac. But I'm happy to report that so far the transition has been relatively painless. So now I can finally get back to doing the things I missed most the last two weeks, 1) sending e-mails without having to try to type them on my iPhone or borrow Mrs.'s work laptop, 2) having access to my iTunes library (how I missed those 1200 songs, even if I only listen to about 25 of them), 3) sporcle.com - I need my daily trivia fix, and of course 4) blogging - have you ever tried typing a blog on an iPhone? Our blog has gone to pot the last two weeks, with Mrs. forced to do all of the blogging herself using her work computer . . . uh, at home of course.

First it was the iPhone, now the iMac, and Mrs. is already talking about wanting an iPad, so I guess we're officially Mac users. Congrats Steve Jobs, you've caught us in your web.

The Food Network Star Surprise Double Vote-Off

Well, I guess it wasn't too much of a surprise they voted two contestants off the show last week since they did mention it in the previews for the episode and all. But it still surprised me because I'd obviously forgotten, or else I would have predicted two finalists going home in my last blog, which would have given me the opportunity to be wrong twice.

Ok, so what does Mary Beth have on the judges? Incriminating pictures of Bob Tuschman and John Mayer? Seriously, why is she still around? Does anyone think she's a potential Food Network star? It's like they're trying to mess with our heads.

So if I thought Orchid getting sent home two weeks ago was a surprise, then Penny getting voted off last week was the biggest surprise yet. Yes, she was confrontational and I really don't see how her attitude would have played on her own show, but at least she kept things interesting and everyone seemed to love her food. I don't see how the judges, faced with the decision between her and Mary Beth, could have chosen to keep the latter around. And this is from someone who was happy to see Penny go home.


Ok, so with the show down to the final six, it's time for one more look at where each contestant stands:

The Favorite - Susie. She's going to win this, it's a done deal.

Vic - He's moved into the 2nd position. But the Food Network already has a Guy Fieri and a Michael Symon. And really, Vic is just a combination of the two.

Whitney - She's coming on strong late, but just doesn't have the personality to win. I don't know if a contestant has ever made it this far without sharing any personal information (oh, she did mention she was in a sorority - does that count?)

Jeff - Fading a bit. I still think he could be an Adam Gertler type personality on the network, but ultimately I think even that will allude him.

Jyll - Hanging by a thread. She's just been too inconsistent to take seriously at this point.

The Steerage - Mary Beth. Ugh.


My quick predictions for this week:

Mary Beth is out. I will not be wrong about this again.

Mary Beth will inexplicably not be out, I will be wrong again, and my head will explode.

Assuming Mary Beth does have those pictures, I guess Jyll's time is up. She won't get a pass this week because the judges feel bad about Wolfgang Puck humiliating her. Speaking of which, the whole risotto debacle gave us two great moments, 1) Bobby closing his eyes and saying to himself, "Oh, Jesus Christ" as Wolfgang leads Jyll back to the kitchen - one of the funniest moments ever on the show, and 2) Jyll asking why no one told her she was making the risotto incorrectly. Uh, Jyll? This is a competition. And more specifically, it's a cooking competition. So if you don't know how to cook risotto . . . why are you cooking risotto?!

At least one contestant (and more likely all of them) will be starstruck by Rachel Ray. Every year the contestants can't believe they're meeting the various Food Network personalities each week. This is inexplicable to me.

Jeff will embarrass himself in front of Rachel Ray.

Someone (probably Mary Beth) will cry because they miss their family.

Vic will be described as a "big teddy bear".

At some point, Mrs. will exclaim, "What is (fill in name of contestant - at this point guaranteed to be Mary Beth) wearing?!"

At the final judging, Vic will be standing in a pose that will make him look like he's a bouncer at a nightclub and/or Susie's bodyguard.

Bob will say before they vote someone off that this was the "toughest decision we've had to make". Would love for them to say just once, "Well this week it was really easy . . . "

Garden Update

Awhile ago I mentioned that we were starting a rooftop garden.

Things were going well. We returned home from our 4th of July extravaganza to find this (tomato):



and this (banana pepper):



I was very excited.

The banana peppers grow fast and we have eaten two already without falling ill so major score!

Tomatoes are one of my favorite foods so I have been waiting for them to ripen only to discover that all have started rotting on the bottom:



Sad face.

So a quick google search has led me to discover that our plants have blossom end rot which is a common ailment for tomatoes. It can be caused by a number of things like irregular watering (definitely do that), bad drainage (yep), and a low calcium in the soil.

Now, when I planted my tomatoes, I failed to notice the soil I bought was for in ground use only. Oops. Another google search showed that this could cause problems with the moisture in my plants. So I am guessing this may be a factor.

One solution however was to put calcium tablets in the soil. I went to CVS and was scouting the med aisle only to discover that calcium pills are not cheap and I really don't need 1000 pills sitting around. So, I went with another suggestion which we already had and that was Tums. Last night, I broke up two Tums and put them in one of the tomato plants. I went with two because that is what I take so I figured that is what the plant could take as well. If it's good for me and all.

They were fruit Tums so that was another fun twist. I hope the plant likes flavored meds.

I am not sure how this going to work because when I went out just now the red Tums were sitting in the soil still. I hope they dissolve. If not, I will try again.

I only tried this on one plant because not all three are affected and I didn't want to screw them all over if this was a bad idea.

I do think it is strange that I feel I will need to give a medical warning to anyone who eats my bionic tomatoes. Like "Oh we have some extra tomatoes. You aren't allergic to Tums right?"

For final kicks, here is the garden when we started and now:

I Scream! You Scream!

So we haven’t had a good food blog in months mainly because we haven’t eaten anything super interesting or worth writing about. But, this weekend, I delved again into the world of ice cream making with my trusty Cuisinart ice cream maker.

I was originally going to make mint chocolate chip but then I saw a recipe for vanilla with mint Oreos and asked Mr. what he would prefer. He loves Oreos so you can guess which one he chose.

If you’ve never made ice cream, the basic ingredients (plus or minus some extras depending on the recipe) are milk (whole no 2% crap. This is ice cream!), cream and sugar. For vanilla, you throw in some... wait for it… VANILLA!!!!

So I whipped up some vanilla ice cream seen here:



Five minutes before it was done (per the instructions which I actually read***) I added the Oreos:




I added more than was actually called for because I tend to find most recipes get cheap on these kinds of add-ons. Going back, I would add more. I don’t want a mouth full of vanilla with no Oreo!

After that, I scooped it all out and put it in a container and into the freezer for two hours.

It was quite good. Yum!




I think I might make some mango sorbet next assuming we can find some decent mangoes. I think their season is getting close to over.

***When we first got our ice cream machine, we didn’t realize you were supposed to freeze the bowl for 6-24 hours beforehand. Oops. We were not pleased when our ice cream experiment got delayed for 6 hours and was an overall bust.

Read This!: Penhallow

By Georgette Heyer

Borders Spree… I only have three books left from my spree so we are getting to the end of the road.

Adam Penhallow is a tyrant who lords over his family, bending them to his will because he holds the purse strings. For his own amusement, he has gathered the whole family under his roof for a birthday celebration with the intent on keeping them at Trevellin, the family home. Tensions are running high and soon someone at the house feels that everyone would be better off without him.

This was a different murder mystery than most because you know who the murderer is right off as the narrator describes them committing the crime. The interesting part of the story was trying to figure out if the murderer was going to reveal themself or let someone else take the blame. I liked this approach as it was a different twist on a normal genre. I will also say that there was one shocking reveal in the midst of the story that I never saw coming. I thought I would be disappointed with this book since it took 250 pages or so before the murder was actually committed so I thought the mystery portion would be lame. But, the character development in the early part of the novel was crucial to the ending. And the ending made me go, “AHHHHHH!!!!!!”. In high school, I wrote a paper on Romeo and Juliet and how if Romeo wasn’t so rash, everything would have been fine. I felt the same way here.

PS I loved Aubrey. Of all of the brothers, he was my favorite because he made me laugh more than once with his flair in the midst of the manliness of his siblings.

A Food Network Star Surprise

I can say that I was genuinely surprised at the final voting on last week's Food Network Star. I mean, obviously I knew Orchid could be in trouble and said as much in my previous post, but after watching the entire episode I thought it was a foregone conclusion that Whitney was getting ousted. She was on the worst team, she made the worst dish on that team, and she wasn't exactly lighting it on fire this season. What saved her was that she had her best showing the previous week. But still, I really thought she was gone.

Anyway, I think it's safe to say I should have flipped Jyll and Whitney in last week's rankings. Other than that, I think I've still got them properly ranked. And although we've still got a long way to go, it's starting to feel like Susie has taken control of this in the same way Aarti did last season. It's really hers to lose at this point.

I think this is finally the week that Mary Beth's dream comes to an end. And it can't be soon enough for us (in particular Mrs., whose dislike of Mary Beth is bordering on irrational). Maybe she'll get lucky and The Cooking Channel will be looking for someone to host Mom's Home Cooking (note: this is not an actual show to my knowledge).

I think this will finally be the week that Jeff doesn't make a fool of himself (although I wouldn't wager on that).

I think this week we'll see Chris do something that will cause Bobby Flay to sarcastically criticize him in the evaluation. I feel we've been lacking in Chris doing stupid things. Step it up man.

I think we'll see another Penny-Jyll fight and it could spell trouble for one of them. The judges can't be happy with all of the fighting. They really want less arguing and more crying. Where's Alicia when you need her?

I think Whitney will bring it this week. And I think she'll show why I had her ranked so high last week.

Seen and Heard

I was telling my Dad a story about how I told my co-worker, whose wife won’t let him use weed killer because of the kids, that we had ChemLawn on our grass as kids and managed to make it this far. My Dad’s response:

“You know when we had ChemLawn, Grandpa used to use the grass clipping to fertilize his tomatoes.”

OK well then… That could explain a lot about our family.

_________________________________________

In our bathroom:

Me: I think these pants are too tight.
Mr.: What size are they?
Me: 2.
Mr.: Um you haven’t been a 2 for years.
Me: That’s not true.

Um it kind of is.

But I still wear my size 2 pants, usually with the top hook unbuttoned and my muffin top tucked in.

_________________________________________


I just got an e-mail from Gap about school uniforms.

School uniforms from the Gap?????

Um, what happened to those snazzy Crill Tog uniforms that I was forced to wear for years???

Kids these days are really spoiled.

I don't know what's worse..

Being stood up by the cupcake guy or having the building security guy run over and tell me the cupcake man is MIA...

...Out of the thousands of tenants in my building...

...Maybe I spend too much time at the cupcake man...

"No Good Deed" and so on

On Saturday, our niece, Bambina A, dropped by for her first visit to our house.

Our house is a child-free zone so the most we had for her to play with was an iPhone and a channel changer.

It was sad.

So yesterday I decided to buy some baby accoutrements for the girls to play with if they come to visit.

One of my purchases was Sophie the Giraffe. I love Sophie and have wanted to buy her for ages. But alas, I couldn’t justify the purchase. (Is it weird to buy baby toys when you don't have a baby or any reason to? I think it is a bit.)

Plus all the hip babies in my ‘hood have one.

I mentioned this to my Auntie D yesterday and she asked what a Sophie was so I sent her the link to the Sophie site.

About an hour later, I got an IM from our IT department saying they suspect my computer of having a virus.

Oh having an IT incident with the Sophie site all over it for everyone at work to see.

I was obviously working hard all day yesterday.

It could have been worse considering some other sites I have been on at work (If you were a lucky one who got an in depth description of our campylobacter disaster and the tests we had run, think certain WebMD searches related to that).

But still.

How embarrassing.

Read This!: I Remember You

By Harriet Evans

I read one of Harriet Evans’ books, Going Home, on my honeymoon four years ago and I remembered liking it. So when I saw more books by her on the shelf at Borders I grabbed one.

Tess and Adam have been best friends since birth. After breaking up with her boyfriend in London, Tess moves back to her home town of Langford to teach classics at Langford College. While in Langford, Tess lets herself go a bit but then when Tess takes her class on a trip to Rome, she has a whirlwind romance with an American named Peter and begins to rediscover herself. Meanwhile Adam has remained in Langford all these years. He is having a bit of a crisis himself as he comes to terms with his family history. Tess and Adam are at a turning point in their friendship and they need to decide where it is going.

THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS BELOW!!!

So, I am reading this book and usually in these types of boy-girl best friend novels, they have a romance so I expected one here. But, about 150 pages in, with no hint of a romance, I changed my expectations and so had no clue there was going to be this sordid back story suddenly revealed. Also, as one would expect in a book like this, it should be a question of when will they get together. But, throughout this whole book, I never got the idea that they had the hots for each other and I was rooting for the American. I felt the end was a bit forced because I don’t think Harriet Evans did a good job in developing the characters as being “meant to be”.

Bottom line: Ok read. Chick lit all the way.

Another Day, Another Food Network Star Post

Hey, it looks like I’ve found my predictive powers again as Justin (f/k/a Justin D.) was sent home this week as foreshadowed in last week’s post. But really, who couldn’t see that coming? Of all the different personalities he tried out, it’s unfortunate he never thought to try "likable Food Network reality show winner".

I thought for this week I’d rank the remaining contestants from most to least likely to win:

1) Susie – I think she’s safely established herself as the favorite. And wouldn’t you know Mrs. pegged her from the beginning.

2) Jeff – Also known as “red headband guy” by Mrs., who refuses to remember his name. Jeff has surprised me because he really seemed like a doofus early on. He might be the contestant who doesn’t win but still gets his own Food Network show.

3) Vic – I know Mrs. disagrees, but I still think Vic has a chance to win this thing. He might not be able to put his arms down, but the judges like his food and his personality.

4) Whitney – Might be a little high for her, but she’s been waiting in the weeds and had a big week last episode. Could be the late bloomer that comes on strong at the end.

5) Penny – Should maybe be higher, but I don’t know if “mean” or “unlikable” is the direction the Food Network is heading in for their next star.

6) Orchid – Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

7) Chris – I guarantee he has no chance to win, but he just keeps inexplicably advancing.

8) Mary Beth – Why is she still here?

9) Jyll – She’s at the bottom because I think this week is the end of her run. And I can’t say we’ll miss “Jyllicious” too much.

So I think Jyll’s gone this week (although I was tempted to say Orchid – what happened to her?). I also have a feeling that Chris will do something stupid (or does that go without saying?). One of the contestants is going to come out with some personal sob story about the hardships they endured to get there (What have you got for us Whitney?). And of course someone will cry - at this point take your pick of the women and Jeff.

Eaten in the Nick of Time

Mr. and I went to lunch today.

I bought some cookies that we could have later tonight.

We decided to eat them right then.

Good thing because when we were finished we noticed this:


That was close.

Us in a Nutshell

Last night around 9PM in our house:

Mr. was doing the dishes.

I was assembling our new cabinet.

That sounds about right.

Read This!: The Girl in the Gatehouse

By Julie Klassen

Another Borders spree purchase.

Living in the time of Jane Austen, Mariah Aubrey is sent to live in a gatehouse at the estate of her aunt due to an “indiscretion” which has ruined her socially. While there, Mariah works on her novels (which she publishes under a pseudonym) so that she will have enough money to cover the bills and becomes friends with some residents of the local poorhouse and a Captain Matthew Bryant, a newly arrived and newly wealthy naval officer who is trying to win the love of a lady who once rejected him due to his inferior status. Throughout the novel, Mariah attempts to come to terms with her “sordid” past and its consequences as she learns to accept her current life.

The story in this book was OK. At times I felt the characters were a bit too modern in their behavior and speech. The author is definitely channeling Jane Austen and the behaviors in this book weren’t always in line with something that would happen in a Jane Austen novel. The middle of the book where there is some play production going on was boring. I also thought some of the scenes were really contrived and the long drawn out reveal of what really happened during Mariah’s fall was too long and too drawn out as it lasted almost the entire course of the book. I was pleased that her fall from grace was a bit scandalous because I get tired of these books that are like “she is a scarlet woman!” and we find out that the character made out with some guy once and no more. Eye roll.

Final verdict: Not terrible but don’t expect to be wow’ed.

Back It Up! Back It Up!

So about a month ago, I became a little bit (ok a lot a bit) obsessed out of the blue that we needed to back up our computer.

I nagged Mr. for days to back up everything on our computer on the external hard drive.

He finally did.

Thankfully.

In the interim, I ordered 1500 (4 years worth) of pictures from Kodak Gallery so that I would have the hard copies in case of a crash and in case KG started deleting my pics because I hit their storage limit and didn't spend enough money. (Tip: Order pics at least annually) I also uploaded to KG any pictures we wanted in case of a crash that weren't there already.

I can be a bit obsessive at times and wanted extra reassurance that our pictures would be saved in case the external hard drive died as well.

But thankfully again.

Because Thursday "Otis" our computer crashed. Blue screen and all. Ugg.

We left on Friday for my cousin's wedding and decided to let Otis rest and see what happened when we got back.

And, yesterday no dice. I did have my work computer at home and we had our iPhones so we didn't go through internet withdrawal.

I did do some searching about what these error messages mean. Still don't know.

But, we did attempt to take the side of the computer off and look at the parts, covered in dust. (Oops.) (Note to self: clean the inside of your computer every so often.) However, we had no idea what we were doing and quickly stopped that.

So, now we are debating on calling Dell or trying to go to the Geek Squad. We had been thinking about getting a new computer anyways so eh. But, I at least want to see if our hard drive can be saved and we can get anything that wasn't backed up. Fortunately, any pictures we have taken since then are still on our camera so those are not lost.

On buying a computer, this is my second Dell. The last one crashed after about four years as well. So I am not sure we want to go this route. And yes I know computers are dated the second they leave the store but I'd like my computers to stop crashing on me.

I would really LOVE a Mac but they frighten Mr. And we are not sure how compatible all of our stuff is with Macs which could be an issue.

Unfortunately, this means that no picture posts until we get this sorted. Sad face. But, we have some fab ones coming on a garden update and my adventures making a roman shade.

And some parting words: BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

And let's hope that external hard drive of ours does not crash.

Happy 4th of July!