Mom's Birthday Cookies

Mom's birthday was last week, so I baked for PINS this past Saturday in honor of the occasion. The recipe of choice was one I found while browsing around at KraftFoods.com: Cranberry-White Chocolate Shortbread.

I took half of the more than four dozen cookies produced by the recipe to share with the ladies at PINS, where the cookies were a hit with the needle crafters. I think three lonely little cookies came home with me, and I sent another 5 or 6 home with my parents. I took a half dozen to HistoryDiva's apartment for her and LibraryDiva to share. The remaining cookies went to work with me yesterday, where the last one disappeared somewhere around lunchtime. Unless HistoryDiva and LibraryDiva are hoarding their cookies, every single one of the 55 cookies I baked on Saturday morning have been eaten. And there is no greater complement to the baker!

Austen Overload

I wasn't planning to post today, but HistoryDiva had posted a "Which Austen Heroine are You?" quiz, and I just had to check it out for myself. Then I noticed that LibraryDiva also had the quiz on her blog, so here is my post to complete the set (thought I am not Elizabeth Bennet, like the two of them).

Take the Quiz here!

My Babies

I got to spend some quality time with my "babies" this past weekend. Layla, my squeaky ball obsessed niece-puppy, was very entertaining with her new favorite toy: a giant squeaky crab with a hole in the middle that was just big enough for her head. The hole was also great for hanging the toy on your foot and pulling Layla up off of the ground while she tried to wrestle it away from you.

Booger, my other niece-puppy, was much more laid back. Once she had been greeted with pats and kisses, she turned herself into a giant dog-skin rug in random corners of my sisters' living room. I guess she was sad that her mama wasn't home.

I can't forget Ralph, even though technically he's not a "baby" (after all, he's at least 12 years old). He was happy when we got back to the parents' house because we had brought a pizza. And there is nothing Ralph likes more than a pizza box--except maybe a French fry in a Wendy's bag or licking Dad's dessert dish clean.

Some Assembly Required

I woke up on my day off to the sound of the lawn guys doing their thing outside my window. So much for plan A, which was to uproot the psycho bush next to the garage. I foraged around the house for a project and found this birdfeeder kit my mother had given me when I moved in a year ago.

Since that small project only kept me busy for so long, I started looking through the weekly ads and stumbled upon my project for the afternoon on sale at the local office supply store. I have a very similar bookshelf, purchased from the same store, which I use as a nightstand on one side of the bed. On the other side of the bed, a giant green Rubbermaid tote has served as the other nightstand for the past year. This tote is well-loved since I used it to lug stuff back and forth between my parents' house and the dorm during college.

I was fascinated by the bookshelf, which advertised itself as a "No Tool" kit. Every bookshelf I have ever assembled required at lease a hammer to nail the faux-woodgrain cardboard to the back of the shelving unit. I don't know how to explain the assembly process, but it truly did not require a single tool to create the sturdy unit that *almost* matches the other shelf/nightstand. As long as no one looks too closely at them or puts the shelves side-by-side, they shouldn't notice that they are not exactly identical.

Mission Complete!

My favorite father, aka Coach Ceiling Fan, was sweet enough to come over yesterday and help me complete my first project. It took a lot longer than expected--we'll just say that the contractor who built my house obviously didn't take the time to consider that real people were going to be living in the house he built, and that caused a few difficulties and a run to the local Home Depot for spacers and longer screws.

But we got the fan up (I say "we" because I was too short to get the actual ceiling fan guts up into the bracket, so Dad did the heavy lifting, playing with wires that were out of my reach, etc.) It is much nicer than the one it replaced, and I am now a pro at assembling and installing fan blades.

Speaking of the one it replaced, Garfield seems happy to have the old fan upstairs in the playroom. Dad mounted this one on the ceiling for me as well (with a trip to Wally for the appropriate screws--thank you Mr. Slacker Contractor for the light fixture that was held up by one rusty screw), and I cleaned and attached the fan blades all by myself!

"Wow! I just know that is going to make my room so much cooler!"

Project: Ceiling Fan

Yesterday was my first day off, courtesy of the four-day work week I just started. I figured that I will tackle one big home improvement project per week till the students are back and I have to resume my five-day schedule at work. This week's project was "Ceiling Fan," and I did a spectacular job procrastinating the commencement of this undertaking. I even made it to the library to do "research" for my project. I found one book with clear enough (picture) instructions, as well as a few books and CDs that were unrelated to my research--so much for just going in for a couple of home improvement books...

The first steps of the project were emptying the box (and lining up everything in the same order as the picture in the manual because I'm OCD like that) and programing the remote (yes, the ceiling fan has a remote control--isn't that cool?) I got through these without any difficulty.

I was very proud of myself for getting this far... basically, I did everything up until I would have to remove the old ceiling fan (which will be moved upstairs) and start playing with wires that were actually connected to power. It amuses me that my friends will make sure that I don't go hiking alone, but say nothing when they know I will be fiddling with electricity all by myself.

There were two parts of this project that were quite easy for me to handle: assembling the fan blades, and installing the hangar for the remote. I'm still debating about spray painting the fan blades black to match the furniture in my living room, but I could always remove them and do it later if I decide that it would look better. But for now, my ceiling fan is in partially assembled pieces across my living room floor while I wait for my favorite father to come help me with the electrical portion of the installation. I admit it--I chickened out when it came to the part where I have to mess with electricity.

An Unexpected Package

So my grandmother sent a HUGE package to my parents' house. It was address to my mother, but once Mom had opened the box, she crossed through her name on the address line and wrote in my name... because the box was full of YARN! I wish I had gotten a picture of the box before I emptied it, but at least I got a pic before the cardboard was dropped off with recycling. Look how small my cell phone is in the bottom of the box!

So I had to reorganize my craft closet to include all of my new additions because there was some cool yarn in there. I now have two Xerox boxes full of Red Heart and assorted baby yarns in addition to my wicker laundry basket full of more decorative yarns. I really have to get going on some of my current projects so that I can get started on a few of those I have in mind after going through my entire stash!

Outdoors Again!

I may have gone hiking at Amicalola Falls with a couple of co-workers and a couple of student interns on Tuesday, but I am always up for another hike!

I planned another excursion into the great outdoors at the prompting of my college friend/hiking buddy, Robin. This time we would be hiking at a public park in Forsyth County. I had heard good things about Sawnee Mountain Park, especially about the view from the top of the Indian Seats Trail.

So Saturday morning, Robin, Julie and I met at the park and prayed that the overcast weather would hold. Neither of my hiking companions gave the impression of impending mutiny (see previous hiking excursion), which always helps with the enjoyment factor during the hike. Actually, we all looked pretty darn happy when we made it up to the top!

If you look at the trail map on the Sawnee Mountain homepage, you can see where we started our trek at the Spot Road entrance to the park. We then hiked the Laurel Trail to the Indian Seats Trail. After a break at the top of the mountain, we came down and traveled the Yucca Trail until it connected back onto the other half of the Laurel Trail (which is complete, though the online trail map has not been updated to reflect it). While on this last stretch, we met a couple with their three young children. They asked us how much farther till they reached the Indian Seat lookout. The three of us kinda looked at each other, knowing that it would take us (without children) at least 20-25 minutes to get back. Sympathizing with the parents' plight, we volunteered that there was a playground about 10 minutes up the path that would be a lot closer and a lot less uphill climb for the little ones.

At the end of the trail, we stopped in at the Visitor's Center and spent a while on the deck overlooking the beginning of the trail. We saw the father of the hiking family come back through to get the car (presumably to drive to the other entrance, where his family was waiting at the playground).

On the Vistior Center deck were at least a half dozen wooden rocking chairs with small tables between every pair of chairs. I thought it was funny that all of the tables and chairs had cable (think bike lock cable) through the legs so that no one could steal them, though we could still rock in them. These are solidly built wooden rocking chairs, but I must admit, if I were strong enough to manage one by myself, and my car had slightly more trunk space, they might have been missing a chair after our visit...

My Favorite Book

I was a bit of a bookworm growing up, but my favorite was a beat-up hardcover copy of "The Neverending Story" I discovered at the local library. As I read, I wished I could be Bastian and find a book that would take me into a fantastical new world. As an adult, I bought the paperback version and I received the DVD as a gift. The DVD does not do the book justice, mostly because of the fact that it only deals with the first part of the book. Bastian's adventures in Fantastica (renamed Fantasia in the movie) and his journey back to his own world are the subject of the second half of the novel. For more discrepancies between the book and the movie, check out this link.
Randomly searching around the internet, I found out that "The Neverending Story" was published the year before I was born. I also discovered that the German author, Michael Ende, passed away in 1995 from cancer.
And the reason behind my sudden desire to blog about my all-time favorite story? I found a couple of cute Falcor the Luckdragon lols online...