What are you supposed to eat in Maryland now?

Bad news. Crabs feel pain. Actually, they feel pain and remember it, too. What will Maryland do? And will I ever be able to eat a crab again? And what about lobsters? I mean it was all fun and games in college when I would eat seafood and Doug would make funny little voices- "No, don't eat me!" "Ahhhh!" But, it's not so funny now.

Hail! No!

We got a short, nasty storm this evening. It started right around 5:00, of course, because driving in the rain with a bunch of morons is always a good way to end your day. If it had just been that rain, it wouldn't have been so bad.


Unfortunately, it hailed. Quite a bit. I was driving through part of it and didn't see the biggest hail fall. I certainly heard the golf ball sized stuff hitting the car, though. Not pleasant. It was raining too hard when I got home so I haven't checked for damage yet. This pic is the front yard and the side of the house.


This is some of the veggies in the backyard. From what I could see through the windows, everything appears to be okay. One tomato plant is bent over, but it didn't seem to be broken. The big leaves on the potato plant were damaged, but the stalk looks okay.



And this is the gutter damage from the hail. Luckily, the gutter is just over the patio door, not around the whole house. The patio gazebo thing got ripped a little bit. It seems that the canvas cover is okay, except for the netting. The netting on top has a few holes and the netting on the sides is all ripped up. It was ripped in a few places already anyway and on the verge of needing to be replaced. Guess we can do that now.

Ouch!

Well, not so much ouch yet, I guess. I have to have a bunch of dental work done and I'm not looking forward to it, especially having the wisdom teeth pulled. I hadn't been to the dentist for a while and so I had a checkup at a new place a couple weeks ago. Today I went in for a deep cleaning, the other half of which I'll be having next week. I could have had it all done today, but not being able to stand mouth pain, I opted to do it in two appointments.

Turns out, it didn't hurt. It was uncomfortable, but not too bad. And my mouth hasn't been sore since this morning either. I cannot stand mouth pain or the dentist, no matter how nice they are. People talking about the dentist makes me want to puke. Hopefully the next few appointments are just as good! Wish me luck!

Bond. James Bond.

Just so you know... Quantum of Solace comes out on DVD Tuesday. I will be buying it right away, as usual. And most likely, I'll be watching it immediately, too. So, movie night at my house on Tuesday! You may come if you bring a coke slushie or Reese's pieces.

When did that happen?

I have just come to the realization that I might be a little bit nerdy. I mean, Doug's been telling me that for the last 6 months, but I think he might actually be right. A little.

It started with me finding the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novels at the library one Saturday last fall. On top of that, there's BSG. And then Doctor Who. I've just discovered that there are a couple of Doctor Who spin offs, too. I'm going to be adding those to Netflix shortly.

Anyway... I guess that thing that has made me realize that Doug might just be correct is my ridiculous excitement of the snacks I have decided to make for our BSG finale party. I have 5 great ideas for this mini party and I can't wait to make them and take them over to our friend's house Friday to watch the end of the show. Doug didn't seem all that excited or impressed by the great ideas I had found. Which is totally fine- he hates the show anyway. I suspect that our friend Ken is the only one that is going to think that these snacks are as cool as I think they are. (I will post said snacks later this week.)

I guess this all means that I have, at least a tiny bit, joined the nerd ranks. Which explains the really cool Doctor Who ring tone I now have.

Twitchhiker

Twitchhiker. Heard of him? If not, you should definitely check him out! His real name is Paul Smith and he's trying to see how far away from his home (Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK) he can get in 30 days, relying solely on the kindness of Twitter users. He's also raising money for charity:water. He started March 1 at home and tonight he will arrive in San Francisco. Not bad for two weeks travel! I'm not quite sure where I first heard about this. I thought it was pretty neat, though, and I've been following him on Twitter for a week or so.

Paul arrived in Austin very late Friday night. I was ready to offer up an air mattress if he didn't find a place to stay Friday night, but someone offered him a bed at the Hilton downtown. Much better than our air mattress! He got a flight from Austin to San Francisco today, but didn't have a ride to the airport. So, I volunteered! I picked him up downtown and dropped him off at the airport 20 minutes later. He's quite nice, but the poor guy seemed awfully tired. Not much sleep to be had, it seems, on his journey. Sadly, I had my camera, but forgot to get it out. But, Paul got a pic of me at the airport when I dropped him off, so I may appear on his Flikr photostream.

I recommend checking him out. It's really fun to see where he gets and how he gets there. This is such an interesting experiment. And really, what a fun way to travel!

You can never have too many bags

I've needed a little clutch for a while. I bought a great, huge bag for work and school that has turned out to be amazing. It's big enough for my laptop and files or books, with about 6 small pockets. I can fit everything I need for a long day of work and then the library.

But, I don't have anything small to grab out of the big bag if I'm just running into the store, or going out for lunch. So, I just grab my wallet and have to stuff my keys and phone in my pockets. Which I hate. For some strange reason, I cannot stand to have bulky things in my pocket. Especially my keys. But, that's what I've been dealing with for the last few months.


Well, no more! I just bought an adorable clutch from my brother's Etsy shop, underground grace. I didn't even realize he had an Etsy shop until this morning when his girlfriend told me. I popped over to his shop and was blown away! I know he can do anything artistic and crafty. He's always been able to. But, these bags are just gorgeous and he's got a nice little array of fabrics and styles right now. Not to mention some of his prints and some really adorable little felt creatures.

Did I mention that my bag has roosters on it? I love roosters!

Wishful thinking

You know what would be great? If one, just one, of the spam emails I've been getting were legitimate. You know, the silly emails with poor spelling and grammar from someone in a foreign country who has millions of dollars they'd love to just hand over to me, if I can just fork over advance them a few thousand first for fees.

In the last month or so, I've started to get a bunch of these emails at work. It used to be that one would pop up every couple of months. I've got 6 or 8 of them a week now. And they're appearing in my personal email, too.

It would only take one good one for me to be able to retire to a beach giant library somewhere... sadly, I just haven't found it yet.

Hot, hot, hot!

We're in the middle of a pretty awful drought. This cheery little map appeared on the Statesman website this week. That deep, dark red is pretty ominous and the colors on that map don't do enough to illustrate just how hot it will be this summer if we don't get some rain.

Today, luckily it is damp and rainy. With any luck it will actually last through the rest of the week as forecasted. Unfortunately, we apparently can't have rain here without it being cold, so we're back to the chilly 40s today. I don't necessarily mind, but I was really starting to enjoy spring and all the flowers that were budding. But, if it means some much needed rain and if it means that maybe, just maybe, it won't be 90 degrees in April again this year, then fine, I'll take it!

The week of library farewells (and hellos)

Things have been all shook up at the library this week. For me, at least.

The central library is closing for some renovations for 6 weeks. So, for that time, I'm moving to another branch downtown, a little further away from home. I've just recent meet the teen services librarian that works at that branch and she's very nice. I won't see her on the weekends, but it was nice to meet her and put a face to a name so I at least know who I'm talking to if I have to email her about something.

So, Saturday was my last day at central until mid-April.

Tonight is my last night at my Thursday branch. I'm switching to Mondays at a totally different, and much further away, branch. I've worked with the teen services librarian at that branch and she's fun. I don't know how much I'll ever see her, but, again, it's nice to know who I'm emailing. I'm sad to be leaving this branch, though. I really enjoy working there; I like the kids and the other employees.

What can you do, though? I hope this works out. It's going to be a lot of driving time for me on Mondays. And, I guess I'll at least have some experience in a handful of different libraries.

Name part of the International Space Station!

Cast your vote for the name of the next piece of the International Space Station. This is a particularly fun little contest thing if you're a fan of Serenity and Firefly, as it's the name in the lead right now! Plus, space is cool.

Double the bread

We make all of our own bread. And pizza dough and hamburger buns. Pretty much everything I can. Although, I have yet to master hot dog buns. I can't seem to find a good recipe. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is, I love my bread machine. It was a wedding present. We didn't use it very much up until about a year and a half ago and then we started using it quite heavily.

Well, a couple weeks ago it broke. I was so sad. It happened on a Sunday and I had great plans for that day, including a new oatmeal bread recipe. And then, the machine fell apart. After thinking about it, I decided that I was mostly sad that I couldn't make bread that day, not sad that the thing broke. The lid was already broken, and always had been, and I'd scraped the pan up pretty badly, too.

So, I did a little research and found a fantastic bread machine that makes a 2 1/2 pound loaf. Do you know what that means? That means that I can get two loaves of bread out of one batch of dough. it also means I can just make a huge loaf in the machine, cut it in half and then slice the halves. Amazing! All my baking done in one day instead of having to make bread twice some weeks. What a time saver!



And what a cool machine, too! It's bigger than the old one, but it sits nicely on the counter. It doesn't jump around and is pretty quiet, too. The neatest thing is the little yeast keeper on the lid. It keeps the yeast separate until the right time and then it releases it all into the mixed dough.

I love it! And I have great plans for it in the next few weeks as I have been checking cookbooks out of the library for the last two Saturdays.