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.

my illogical brain

so (background) my laptop is making a super funky noise whenever i move it.  as i have a lot o' pictures and music on there that i'd like to not lose (as in my last laptop's 4 hard drive failures in 2005-06), i was just researching pricing on big flash drives vs. external hard drives.  yes, i do feel a little bad now that when scott wanted to get an external hard drive last fall, i said no and got him 4gb and 8gb flash drives with a giftcard.  best buy has some multi-terabyte networked external hard drives (i fully realize that i don't need that much storage, but they're so cool) which reminded me of the pioneer woman talking last year about how many external hard drives she'd gone through backing up pictures while she was shooting in RAW.  as they're pricey little suckers (but nothing compared to her amazing cameras and lenses!), that prompted me to ponder how much money she makes blogging.  that's a logical progression, right?

apparently i'm not the only person to wonder that since my google search bar filled in "how much money does the pioneer woman make" by the time i got to the "pi" part of the question - and the answer is a lot!  based solely on ad revenues from her pw site, she probably grosses around $1m/year.  not to mention her cookbook sales, endorsements, or any revenue from the tasty kitchen - but obviously she pays for her giveaways and for her contributors out of that, too.  from the same search, there's also a lot of speculation on the web about how much she and her husband are worth - estimates vary, but consensus is that they're pretty well off.  some people said $15-20m, which seems high, but if they are - hey, go them for still working and living in the middle of oklahoma and not relocating to a beach in hawaii.

speaking of pw's giveaways, though, i struggle with them and here's why: i don't want my affection to be bought.  (or feel bought to my crazy brain.)  i genuinely liked her website before i saw her first giveaway, and while i don't enter each giveaway she has, i wonder sometimes if i continue to like her website because of the possibility of winning a sweet stand mixer or a shiny new nikon d90 (which i really don't need thanks to my loving parents, but still enter giveaways for anyway).  i want to like her blog because i enjoy the recipes and pretty pictures and funny stories - and i do like it for those reasons - but i don't like feeling as though there's the possibility that my affections are being bought.

goodbye spring

we had a very productive weekend if i do say so myself: we actually installed both of our new toilets ON OUR OWN relatively quickly and with no problems - wow!  we took scott's truck in to get the snow tires taken off and squeaky brakes checked out.  we got our outside water turned on so that our roof guy could come fix the masonry on top of our chimney (that was supposed to be monday, but it's on hold for now due to cold and rainy weather - not great for what he needed to do).  we installed my new bird feeder "kit" that i got with birthday money (thanks, mom and dad!) and hung up my also-newly-acquired seed feeder and hummingbird feeder.  we got another estimate for landscaping work, and while the whole project is going to be a little pricier than we initially realized, no better time for it than now, so i think we're going to go for it.  i spent yesterday examining the landscaping plan we had done last year and trying to figure out how much plants and trees cost.  we also enjoyed the lovely and sunny spring weather with a walk, grilling, and much relaxing and movie watching.  please note that as i write this, our lovely spring weekend has disappeared into a chilly and overcast week - complete with a snowstorm last night/today.

the drive-in on friday night was fun in my mind and a little disappointing in scott's.  it was chilly on friday night, so we took wally, laid down the seats, and camped out in the tailgate ... but unfortunately that means that we were looking through the rear window which has big black defrosting lines across it.  it didn't bother me at all, but scott wasn't thrilled with the situation.  scott thought the theater was dumpy and the radio quality staticky - i thought it was a normal drive-in.  combined with the 40 minute drive and our 1:15am return home, i don't think we'll be making the drive-in a weekly destination, but i relatively sure i'll be able to convince scott to take me back by next summer.  movie reviews: "how to train your dragon" was cute, well done, fun, and i highly recommend it!  "iron man 2" wasn't quite as amazing as the original, but it also started after 10pm and both of us were falling asleep by the end, so i don't know that i can give a realistic review.  (saturday night's movie-at-home - thanks to our blockbuster rewards card and a free old-movie monthly rental - was john grisham's "the firm" from 1993, back when tom cruise was successful and un-crazy, and 17 years later the movie is still pretty fabulous.)

drive-in date night

so excited that it is once again drive-in season!  there is only one drive-in movie theater left in the metro area, about 40 minutes away, but since we haven't been to a drive-in in two years (three?), we're going to brave the drive on friday night.  we were originally aiming for saturday night to go with friends, but everyone has other plans so we moved it up to be our regularly scheduled friday night date night entertainment.  on the docket is how to train your dragon and iron man 2 (both of which we were already excited about seeing, and make for a pretty rockin opening night at the drive-in if you ask me) and approximately 15 blankets and pillows in wally's tailgate.  even if it is mid-50s and rainy today, summer, here we come!

scott had originally wanted to do a full on 50's date night and go to sonic or culver's for hamburgers and custard before the movies, but in reading the drive-in's website, i saw that they ask you to eat at their snack bar because that's how they make a profit and stay in business.  since i'd like to not start having to drive 90 mintues each way to get to the next closest drive-in, i voted for giving the snack bar a shot at least.  i may still whip out my thick-rimmed-and-rhinestoned 50's cat-eye glasses that i wore to a costume party last halloween, though.  :)  yes we do have fun together, why do you ask?