bargain hunting

in case you're curious what i decided on scott's ipod situation, i opted for choice "d) none of the above": a newer shuffle for his birthday, procured (used) for about $20 off on ebay!  i decided on this largely because i'm curious what features the new nano will have - specifically, if they'll add a built-in app for the nike+ like they have with the touch and iphone 3gs.  if they do, great; if not, they'll still have dropped the price on the current 5th gen nano to close it out - either way, i can get scott a nano for christmas either at current price or (likely) lower, and if we want, we can sell the birthday shuffle on ebay.

bigger bargain, though: a hiking pack!  i've been in debates about this for a few months - constraints on my pack purchasing have included 1) the fact that i'm short and have a small-ish frame (ie, men's sized packs don't fit me well, and a good fit is kind of key for longer hikes), 2) i have a dslr i'd like to be able to take hiking - but i also want to be able to fit things like layers and water into my pack, and 3) i'm picky.  i'd been leaning toward a lumbar pack for ease of use with getting camera in/out and the fact that they allegedly work better for women since the weight is around your hips rather than your shoulders - center of gravity and all that.  anyway, in my recent infatuation with amazon.com and their wishlist feature, i've been stalking the mountainsmith lumbar packs for a while now, and today happened to notice that the price range on the recycled tour pack started at $34.37.  the only color they had for that price is the cobalt blue which may not have been my first pick, but hey, those packs normally retail for $70 (although amazon seems to have them for $58)!  for 40-50% off, i'll take not-my-first-color-pick.  plus, free shipping and free returns, so if i get it and hate the color or find it won't work for me, no biggie!

next up on my list is finding an inexpensive neoprene camera sleeve (i'm envisioning the dslr inside the neoprene camera sleeve, and then rigging up velcro to keep the sleeve in-place-but-removable inside the pack) and i'll be ready to go for our summer adventures!

birthday gifts

i'm very up in the air about what to do for scott's birthday.  we normally don't exchange birthday gifts, just get an extra allowance for buying whatever we want (which normally goes into scott's play-poker-at-a-casino fund).  a few months ago, though, scott declared that he wanted a new ipod for his birthday.  right-o.  i started pondering the idea and thinking about it in terms of christmas.

then a few weeks ago, scott got back from picking up a new sprinkler head (to replace the one he'd shattered with the lawnmower), pulled the ipod shuffle out of his pocket where he'd left it from doing yard work that morning, and found that he'd apparently sat on it in the car and broken off the clip.  as in, the thing that attaches the ipod to his clothes while working out and running.  it's still useable, but it's now a four year old, 512mb ipod shuffle with a broken clip.

as regards the new ipod, i had been thinking of getting him an ipod nano, you can connect to the nike+ipod system so it keeps track of miles run, time, calories, that sort of thing.  you can even set a special song to play for your cooldown every run.  he'd love it!  and apparently you don't even have to get the special nike+ shoes to hold the sensor anymore - you can get a thing that straps onto any shoe's laces to hold it in place.  i was thinking of doing the nano for him and having his sisters get him the nike+ipod kit and armband.  perfect, right?

well, according to my wikipedia research, apple has released a new nano every september for the last 5 years.  which means that if i get him a nano now, in less than three months, there'll be a new one on the market (and the current one will be probably dropped by 1/3-1/2 the current price).  scott's not really up on gadgets, so he probably wouldn't care, but i remember how bitter i was that apple released the color ipod within months of me getting my "classic" ipod for graduation from my parents.  so what to do?  get him the nano now, or wait and make him use the old one in the meantime?

family week

this is a good week for my family!

today (june 2) is my parents' 31st wedding anniversary, which is pretty fabulous.  growing up, i always took for granted that my parents were together (yet loved getting to put their wedding ornament on the christmas tree every year), but as an adult i am thankful that i have parents who are still happily married and enjoy being together and planning a future together.  happy anniversary, parents!

today also happens to be our housiversary - the 2nd anniversary of the day that scott and i closed on our house!  while i went through a bout of buyer's remorse a few months after the purchase, two years in i'm heartily convinced that we have the perfect house in the best location for us.  it has its quirks, takes work, and there are always projects on the horizon, but its ours and i like it.

coincidentally also this week last year (june 4), scott and i bought sir walden, affectionately known as wally - my highly anticipated and much beloved subaru forester.  one year and 16,000 miles (yes, you read that right) later, it still makes me smile to walk down to my parking garage, click my unlock button from across the garage, and hear his perky "chirp chirp" in response.  my mental image of wally includes big pink heart bubbles hovering over his roof.

sunshine times eleven

we had a positively blissful weekend.  in eleven parts:

1. i learned that wd-40 can fix almost anything.  cases in point: we spent 20 minutes trying to screw a fresh blade onto the lawnmower but it kept sticking - lathered it all up with wd-40 and voila!  also, scott ran over a sprinkler head with said lawnmower, and it turned out that he broke not only the head, but also the plastic stem that connects the head to the sprinkler lines a foot into the soil.  part of the stem was broken off inside the little junction, and pliers alone weren't able to unscrew it - add wd-40, though, and scott had it off within minutes.  (which was doubly awesome because then we didn't have to pay the sprinkler guy to come out and fix it for us.)
2. i found my broom after 3 weeks of being without and was able to give my floors a good sweeping - the dust mop just can't do everything.
3. we finally caved and signed up for trugreen.  we have just had a super weedy yard, to the point where if it had been a week or so since scott mowed, i'd be embarassed to be seen out there even picking up mail because of all the dandelions.  scott's opinion was that trugreen is an unnecessary expense and we can do it ourselves, but as we currently don't do anything about it on our own, i figured that we need some professional help to get our lawn on the right track, and we'll see next year if we want to take it from there.  sadly one of our next door neighbors doesn't do anything about her weeds, so i'm not sure how much good it'll do with all of her weed seeds still infesting our yard ... but it can't hurt.  their first visit is today.
4. we got wally's oil changed and tires rotated for a grand total of $23.xx!  since we faithfully take all of our service to firestone, they sent me a gold club membership for free in the mail a few months back which entitles me to free tire rotations (although i'd get that for free from the tire shop we use anyway), and i got a coupon for a $20 oil change from the back of a grocery store receipt.
5. we turned the heat off on saturday morning and haven't had it on since then - plus we had the windows open all weekend and got to enjoy lovely warm, sunny smelling fresh air.
6. i finally got my vegetable garden planted!  two cherry tomato plants, one regular tomato, one zucchini, one yellow squash, one green bell pepper, and one red bell pepper.  i also finally took back my dead basil plant to home depot and got it replaced with a living one, and picked up some petunias and moss roses for my front porch planter.  i feel sort of like an odd mother hen over my little veggie garden now - i got home after dark last night (had dinner with some girlfriends) and went outside to check and make sure my little plants all survived the crazy windstorm we had yesterday, and this morning got ready earlier than i normally do so that i'd have time to water my garden before leaving for work.  we'll see if i keep it up for the next two months until they start to give us fresh produce.
7. i had a $30 pre-paid gift card as a rebate from buying my contacts lenses earlier this year, which paid for my flowers and veggies - i bought some miracle gro, too, though, and paid maybe $8 out of pocket!
8. we enjoyed chicken tikka masala with naan for dinner on friday night, and grilled steaks to go with fresh corn on the cob, steamed artichokes, and baked potatoes on saturday night.  (sunday night we had salad.)
9. we watched the last king of scotland on saturday night which was intense but really good.  sunday night post-suns victory we caught up on our tivoed episodes of lost; we still haven't seen the series finale - sniff sniff - so don't ruin it for us!
10. i went grocery shopping on sunday and actually stayed on budget with groceries this month!  i guess dave ramsey's cash method really does work.
11. i made a mid-may resolution to like yard work, and so far so good.  i don't naturally love working in the yard - i see the benefit of it, but when i think of things i can do with my free time, yard work just doesn't ever spring to mind.  similarly, i've historically had the same attitude with things like reading the bible and exercising.  i see the benefit and i know i should do them, but i just have other things i'd rather do.  i found that once i put my mind to enjoying them and seeing legitimate benefit in doing them, though, it's not as much of a struggle.  so, i'm going to attempt the same practice with my yard.

okay, in retrospect, it sounds like we had a very work-ful weekend.  which i guess it was.  it was also just so gloriously peaceful and sunny and warm, and we got to enjoy being outdoors and didn't have any outside obligations (other than that scott had to go in to work for a few hours sunday afternoon).  it was nice, and oh-so relaxing.

the glue gun incentive

i've been on a want-to-be-crafty kick for the last few weeks.  at least i am during working hours when i can dream big but can't do much about it - i seem to lose motivation at night when i'm at home!  the same holds true for working out.  between 10am and noon, i can't wait for evening to roll around so i can go to the gym and hit the running track, but the motivation and energy steadily dwindle over the afternoon, til by 5:45 when i get home i'm pretty content to sit on the couch, eat frozen chocolate chip cookie dough balls, and watch "house" on tivo.  which i may or may not have done earlier this week.  (for whatever reason, i feel the need to defend that decision by stating that i did get several lovely workouts in this week.  i'm not a total sloth.)

anyway, i found this crafty project that has, for the first time in my life, made me wish that i had a glue gun.  (i know, it is a little surprising that i haven't acquired one to this point.)  making the wreath cost that blogger a grand total of $2, and she said that she was inspired to make it after seeing one in a flea market stand for $40.  lo and behold, on the sidebar of her page is selections from her etsy site - including that very wreath, selling for $50!  i have toyed with the idea of making something to sell on etsy, and i'm sure there are plenty of people who do quite well with it, but i feel like most things (other than, say, clothes, graphic design, and jewelry - none of which i do) on there are easily replicable with a little crafty knowhow, and that most people who visit are window shoppers like me who see stuff and get fun ideas of what they could make.  ah well.

happily, i was able to not take a three hour sunday afternoon nap today, and instead set up my sewing machine in the basement and got a pair of jeans shortened!  it's really remarkable how the length of your pants being right makes the rest of the pant fit better.  still on the sewing to do list: shorten my other pair of too-long jeans, sew together my picnic quilt top.  and then on to fun home decor things like making curtains and a slipcover for the glider i got on craigslist a few months ago.