Color Coordination in the Kitchen.

Guys. Martin says I shouldn't show this to you because it reflects badly on our housekeeping skills. But GUYS! It is so awesome. I give you...

MOLD!!!

Sometimes I like to soak things so they won't get all crusty by the time I get around to dishes. But in this case, I think it may have been counterproductive. Let's look at it again...



Isn't it pretty? And it kind of matches the bowl! Now that's fancy!

Dear family,

See you soon!



~Holly

Bits and Pieces

• I do not have a job at this time. I had a second interview for a job last Friday, but they have not called me back. This is disappointing because getting to the interview was super stressful and I kind of feel like the universe owes me.

• Last Thursday my eldest sister came up with her four kids and spent the day with us. Saturday, two other nieces came up and spent some time here too. I think that every doorknob and light switch in the house is sticky at this point.

• Martin bought a table a while ago, but it was on back order and finally came in a few days ago. So we pulled all the seats out of my car and brought it home to assemble. And now I can't get the seats back into my car because it is too hard. Also massive cardboard boxes and various other packing materials have taken over the kitchen and dining room.

• I finally got stuff hung on the walls in my room. I also rearranged my furniture a while ago, and my room is officially awesome now. Humphry sleeps in there all the time, and Martin even comes in to watch movies sometimes.

• Martin bought a little wooden Christmas countdown thing with two numbered cubes that you can move around each day. But the blocks are really only designed to display numbers 1-25, and there are currently 39 days left. So I turned the '8' block on its side so it looks like the infinity symbol. I think it is bumming Martin out.

Conflict of Interest.

I had a boss that always had an answer to everything. Problem was, sometimes he'd just make it up. Like the time he told someone that corned beef was named because it was traditionally serve with corn. Um... no. It's called corned beef because of the peppercorns used to season it during the boiling process.

Now, he's not alone in telling this kind of lie. People want answers, and often making them up is the easiest way to satisfy everyone. I've done it on occasion. And parents, in particular, seem to be huge perpetrators of this kind of lie.

Martin and I were actually talking about this the other day. Sometimes I'll be going about my normal day and it will suddenly dawn on me that some "fact" my parents instilled in me (when I was an impressionable, malleable child) is completely without basis. And not just the old wives' tales like don't swim for an hour after you eat.

No, no. These were outright lies they made up so they would have some sort of factual reason for making us stop our annoying behavior in a way that we couldn't argue with. On long car trips, they told us that the back seat reading lights would blind other drivers and we had to keep them off. "For safety." Clearly, they just wanted us to stop playing with the lights and sleep. But to this day I still get nervous when someone turns on interior car lights when I'm driving at night.

Anyway, back to my former manager. One time we were doing inventory of our ice cream novelty items, and I mentioned that sales would probably drop off now that it had started snowing. He told me that ice cream sales actually go up during the winter. I was properly amazed by his knowledge of all things sales-related, and then moved on to counting individual sticks of cheese.

But the other day, I was actually discussing ice cream consumption in winter, and my brain immediately piped up with that long forgotten factoid. After thinking about it for a minute, I became a bit suspicious. I decided to turn to my pal, the Internet to get some real answers.



See? I knew Internet would tell me the tru...

Wait a second... NONE of the top results can agree with each other? Internet! You have failed me! Can I trust no one?



*sigh*

How I wake up. Every single day.

The cat is upset.
The cat is upset because the door is closed.
The cat is concerned that I am unaware of his displeasure.
The cat attempts to make me aware of the problem by:

(a) meowing
(b) swiping his little cat paw under the door
(c) scratching
(d) more meowing

I do not open the door.
The cat does not give up.

The Shortcut to Enlightenment?

I have always been a very curious person. When I feel like I am out of the loop on something, I have a compulsive need to educate myself on the matter. For most things, I do not immediately delve into the deep, dark domain of decidedly detailed data.

(...might have gone a little overboard with the alliteration there.)

I am typically looking for more of a surface understanding. My most useful tool? The internet. Some days, my best friends turn out to be Wikipedia, IMDB, Acronym Finder, Amazon, Snopes, YouTube, Dictionary.com, and (of course) the almighty Google.

Here is a very incomplete list of things that I regularly search the internet for information on:

• Seemingly topical allusions/references I do not understand
• Song lyrics I can't quite figure out
• Status messages that seem like they might have a double meaning
• Apparently common conversation topics that I am unacquainted with
• Definitions of words I don't know
• Summaries of books I think I should know
• Jokes on TV I don't grasp
• Actors I recognize but can't place
• Current political events I have no actual knowledge of (but that keep popping up in discussion)
• Internet memes I have encountered but do not "get"
• Relative locations of places on maps
  

When I identify something I'm unfamiliar with, it niggles in the back of my mind until I can solve the puzzle. (niggles: 3rd person singular present (v.) 1. Cause slight but persistent annoyance, discomfort, or anxiety.)

So I look it up. I satisfy my urge to be in the know. I figure out the lay of the land before engaging in conversation on the topic. A quick internet search tends to give me a decent overview of the situation, allowing me the confidence to discuss things and feel like I am doing so in an intelligent manner.

I don't think there is a problem with educating myself. But what about when it comes down to discussing things with other people? Could my constant and instantaneous internet searches be construed as... cheating? Taking the shortcut to enlightenment? Am I misrepresenting myself to my peers by bandying about ill-gotten facts as though I am an expert on the subject?

I desperately want to appear intelligent and well informed when I talk to people. If you bring up a book I've never heard of, there is a fifty percent chance I will have it's Wikipedia entry open in 2 seconds flat. In fact, here is an example of a time when I did exactly that...

[A conversation I had in 2006, where I come clean about my internet search tendencies, mid-deception.]

Bonnie: We read Crying of Lot 49.
One of my least favorite books ever.
Me: Ah, the muted horn.
So deep.
Bonnie: Out of all the books we read this semester the one I truly sincerely hated.
Muted horn!
Holly, I am impressed by your knowledge of books you have never read.
Me: What's to hate about world wide conspiracy theories?
Bonnie: I don't know. It's a mystery.
Me: (You do realize I'm reading the Wikipedia article, and do not know such information off the top of my head? Though I am tempted to let you think I do.)
Bonnie: Wow.
I feel sheepish.
You were looking at Wikipedia the whole time and here I thought you were just brilliant!
I stand corrected.
Me: Now I'm sorry I corrected you. I like when people think I'm smart.
Bonnie: lol

A different friend of mine was recently telling me that she dislikes when I Google things while chatting with her. Once I am armed with the knowledge of the internet, I feel more comfortable talking about things authoritatively. This is a favorite past time of mine. But apparently, she feels like I am talking down to her.

And I'm not sure what to do with that. Obviously it's okay to let someone else be the expert sometimes. But... does that mean I should stop the searches? Can't I learn more from the broad spectrum of opinions that the internet has to offer than I can from hearing one single viewpoint?

So should I keep doing the searches but keep my findings to myself? Should I just cut them down to a more appropriate level? Or do I need to stop all together so I can live my own life and think my own thoughts?

I'm really not sure what the answer is here. Maybe I'll go ask Google.

Leaf peeping? Is that something we do now?

So Martin is big into Christmas. She has a ton of Christmas decorations in big storage tubs up in a spare bedroom that we refer to as the "Christmas Room." Turns out, one of those tubs is full of autumn decorations. Which we put up this weekend!

The most awesome part is not a decoration at all. We've had a "Spice Market" candle burning all day and now our entire house smells like Thanksgiving. The smells are the best part of the holidays, don't you think?

My second favorite part is the lights. I talked Martin into a putting up a bunch of Halloween lights in our front windows. It's really hard to take pictures of twinkle lights, so this is the best I can do. They're warm and glow-y and awesome. I keep waiting to go get the mail until the sun goes down so I can see them in all their glory.

We strung fall leaves most any place we could think of. Woven into the chandelier, up the banister, on the ledge of our key rack, and in front of the television. You can probably guess by the very large, very angsty looking Edward Cullen that we were watching Twilight when I took this picture. I think it's best not to delve too deeply into how that decision got made.

Martin keeps referring to our cat Humphry as a 'decoration' just because he is black and it is October. I keep telling her she's being racist. Apparently she's okay with that. Here you can see him turning up his nose at the weird pumpkin-made-of-orange-flowers. Actually, he's probably just plotting to chew on it as soon as I leave the room.

I put some spooky spiders on this mirror in the entry way. It also fell prey to the fall foliage campaign. Actually, we just finally got around to hanging this mirror today specifically so we could decorate it. That's not weird, right?

We also sprinkled a few cheesy seasonal trinkets to round out the picture. A cheerful scarecrow, a tiny little crate of strange nature-y looking things, and a Halloween cat! (Humphry keeps knocking that one over. We think he is jealous.)

And last but not least, some adorable sock pumpkins my niece made for me last year. We tucked them into one of the DVD shelves next to Ghost Whisperer. It seem appropriate.

Guys. I know that was a ton of pictures of things you probably don't care that much about. But guess what? I WAS HOLDING BACK.

Just wait until the Christmas decorations start going up.

Hiking.

So a while ago, Martin mentioned that we should go hiking sometime. I agreed, but the Arizona summer made it kind of impractical until just recently. Mostly because in July and August, the temperature jumps to 100 degrees the second the sun comes up.

But now it's cool enough in the wee hours of the morning that you can actually go outside without melting. You have until about 10 o'clock in the morning before you get back up into the 90s.

So I started looking. I looked high and low. But mostly online. I had high standards. A local hiking venue with established, clearly marked trails. It was a tall order, but I was committed to making this work. I did the research. I planned it all out.

But when I told Martin about it, she just stared at me blankly. "I didn't think you understand how this works," she sneered. "I suggest things, and we feel good about ourselves for our good intentions. Then we move on. I. Don't. Do. Things." Then she turned on her heel and made to storm off.

"Wait just a minute," I commanded. She froze at the tone of my voice. After all my awesome research, I wasn't willing to just let this go. "Be ready by 6:45 Saturday morning," I instructed. "We're doing this."


Now, once we got out on the trail I discovered something. I had assumed that since I am woefully out of shape, I would be the one holding us back. But as it turns out, Martin is a big fat baby. But we pulled each other through.

At one point we thought we had missed our turn off, and that we would be adding an extra three miles to our four mile hike. But just as we started looking for the second turn off, we found the first one... proving that we have absolutely no concept of distance. Like, at all.

In conclusion, we saw some nice views, we got awesome nice sun burns, and learned that we are nice hikers. Not very good at it, but still pretty nice.



Martin looked sick, stoned, or annoyed in all the pictures of her. So you get two of me instead. You are welcome, Internet.

Overreaction.

I made the mistake of forcing Martin to watch Grey Gardens with me. It's kind of a bizarre film, but the relevant bit is that the two main characters end up living in a house that basically rots around them due to their own negligence. Well, that and a lot of cats.


And because we have cats and haven't vacuumed in a few weeks, she thinks we're turning into those people. And she keeps glaring at me when I leave my dirty plate in the living room.

Sigh.

It's not like I'm tossing empty cans in the corner of the room.

Compromises.

Things which I yesterday promised to do for a five year old today:

1. Make grilled cheese sandwiches.

2. Paint her fingers and toes. Pink.

3. Bring my DVD of the Goofy Movie.
   

It was the only way I could get her to go to sleep. But, to be fair, they seemed like reasonable requests at the time.

Hairs Cut.

I know you were all concerned about the state of my hair. Have no fear, I didn't give into my late night impulses to chop it off myself. I went to a professional.


It was possibly the most expensive hair cut I've ever gotten, but that's really not saying much considering I've only ever gone to beauty schools and Cost Cutters. She did an awesome job. Look! Layers!


Aaand now I have bangs. Again.


Anyway, I like it quite a bit. It's still long enough to do stuff with it, but I don't have to deal with all the weight of it.


I'm super hot. Just admit it.

For the record, I have three brothers and three sisters. This post is not about them. Well, except Martin for a little bit.

So I convinced my sister Martin to go see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with me. I had to promise to make it a double feature with Eat, Pray, Love to get her to come.* But it was worth it.

It was pretty awesome. Imagine a video game that is not based on a fantasy novel or an action movie or, um, fraternal plumbers, but is instead based on a romantic comedy. Aaaand then they made it back into a movie. That's this film. (For clarity, Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic novels which was concurrently developed into a film and also a video game which were released around the same time. That time is approximately now.)

There are lots of video game references that may have had some subtler meaning, but made sense and were enjoyable on a surface level as well. And Michael Cera has managed to escape some of his typecasting trend of playing a shy, quiet, dork. I mean, not by much, but a little bit. He's still a nice guy who's a little down on his luck, but he manages to man up and fight for the girl. And *spoiler* finds a little self-respect along the way.

I think it might have helped a lot that I was in a room full of very excited people while watching it. They laughed at every punchline, applauded at every victory. They clearly wanted to be there, and (if their vocalizations were anything to go by) they enjoyed the heck out of it.

I don't know if you will like it, but I sure did.




*This is completely the truth and I am in no way exaggerating Martin's passionate desire to see the film Eat, Pray, Love.

How To Install Your Garage Door With Confidence.

Found sticking out of the VCR in the guest room at my parent's house.

It's not as bizarre as one might initially assume, since my dad has been building a garage for the last 10 years (...and has only recently gotten around to installing a garage door). But the title of the video just makes me giggle.

It sounds like an overly specific self-help video. Like "How to Make Friends While Trimming Your Mustache" or "Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior While Living In Madison, Wisconsin."

The News

What they said: "Covering both sides fairly and accurately."

What I heard: "Covering both sides fairly inaccurately."

To be fair, I'm not sure my interpretation is that far off the mark...

A tip for living with cats.

Martin's cats have an annoying habit of drinking out of any cup left unattended.

The trick to keeping your glass of water cat-free in this house is to leave a decoy cup. In most cases this needs to be a shorter cup with a high water-level, because it is easier for them to drink out of. Cats will always take the path of least resistance. It is science.

In which we build a thing.

Martin and I did a lot of furniture shopping when we first moved into this house, but we never really got around to doing anything with the big living/dining room area. Last week Martin broke down and bought a coffee table and a console table that she'd been eying for a while. The new tables made the seating area a little less bare, but also made the big empty space opposite the couch seem even more empty. So we made the trek to IKEA on Friday and bought the most giant bookshelf we could find.

I was teasing Martin that she would never be able to put it together by herself, and she needed to be nice to me so I'd help. At which point she decided she would put it together on her own. (Actually I think this was because I told her I would buy her Eureka Season 3 if she did it on her own. And then I called her a "tiny little woman" and laughed at her).

So Saturday morning I went to the kitchen to make donut-muffins. She went to the living room to build a shelf. For about twenty minutes all I could hear was ripping cardboard noises and wood clanking together.

Aaaand... then she gave up and we finished the shelf together while my muffins baked. But it looked so empty, and we were super tired. So we just shoved whatever we had on hand into the little cubbys.
Cute, no?We did leave some empty ones on the bottom for Humphry. He likes to sit on shelves, especially black ones so he can be a chameleon. And if there is stuff in the way, he is not shy about making room by pushing stuff onto the floor.
The end.

Family Matters

I was at my parents' house last weekend for such Independence Day festivities as: eating crap, blowing crap up, and a purely hypothetical game of Pregnant Lady Bingo. (Game cards featured such activities as: Make Her Cry During an Action Movie, Make Her Crave Gross Food Combinations, and Make Her Wet Herself While Laughing. Erm... hypothetical game cards, that is.) Um, anyway... my entire family ended up being there, mostly just hanging out. Which meant lots of babies and toddlers to keep an eye on.

Now, babies are cute and adorable things, but holding them can sometimes put a limit on which activities you can actively participate in. At one point we were playing a card game, and my youngest brother--age 15--ended up with one of the babies. He was struggling to keep her in check and keep track of the game at the same time, so he asked if someone with "baby skills" could take over. To which I replied "Oh, don't be so hard on yourself! Of course you have the skills of a baby!" Hee. I'm sooo funny. (He thought so too.)

Anyway, then Mean Mommy started bragging about her "skills of an artist," and things went downhill from there.
In other news, look at the baby dragon! Such a cute little burninator. Yes he is! *tickles his little feetsies*

Doing Stuff #4

I finally got around to painting my room today. I bought the paint shortly after I moved to Arizona, but I never had the motivation to get it done until today. I dragged Martin upstairs to entertain me while I worked.

It was a long project. We ended up watching Peggy Sue Got Married, an episode or two of Psych, Annie Get Your Gun, and Newsies. Martin only got moderately annoyed with me when I started to not only sing along, but also to quote the characters' lines before they got to them.

Please don't be duped into thinking Martin helped at all. She mostly lounged in my bed and mocked me while I toiled away.

As punishment for this, I am posting pictures of her. I would have just posted the one to demonstrate how unhelpful she was, but this is the best picture of the finished project, so it is getting posted too.

For the most part, I like the way it turned out. (Except a teeny-tiny part of me that is convinced it I chose a horrible, terrible, awful shade of blue. But it is a small part.)

Once I get some stuff on the walls, it will tame down the sheer blue-ness of the room. Because right now, even if it is a good color, it's really blue. When my bed is unmade, the blue sheets do not help. Maybe this will be good motivation for me to keep my bed made.

But, realistically... probably not. :)



~*~*~*~*~*~*~



This concludes my posts about doing stuff. I hope you have enjoyed them. Tune in next week (or month...?) for more exciting adventures! Same blog time, same blog channel!

Doing Stuff #3

Martin and I have been putting our blender to good use battling the Arizona heat. We make frozen hot chocolate and watermelon-strawberry smoothies, and sometimes random milkshakes with whatever we want in them (usually strawberries for Martin and some combination of peanut butter and chocolate for me).


The milkshakes don't get a picture because we don't have cute glasses big enough to hold them in their entirety. They always end up being enormous. And we always feel sick afterwords. Turns out sometimes our blender is bigger than our stomachs.

Doing Stuff #2

I got to babysit a couple of my nieces this last week while my brother and his wife got in a temple trip. Being the awesome aunt I am, I magically got the youngest one to fall asleep instantly. I also let the older one watch Dora the Explorer and eat all the cookies she wanted.

Turns out she wanted quite a few.

I am the best aunt ever.