My rain barrel runneth over!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!! The rain barrel is UP AND RUNNING! :)

Yes, I'm a big, fat dork. Ok?

The best part was it was finished before our 10-inch snow. Before the roof even started melting, the thing was FULL. And it's 50 or 55 gallons. I can't remember.


I can't count the number of hours I worked on this darn thing. Seriously, a week ago, I spent the ENTIRE day running around town looking for pieces/parts.

Above is a moveable rain gutter. This was a fantastic tip from one of the guys are the hardware store. :)


After much trial and error, I finally ended up with this design option. There were LOTS of options on the table, and after a lot of trying things, this just worked best.

I wanted to have a spout where I could attach the garden hose ... and put my soaker hose at the other end. I'm excited to get my garden planted and try this thing out! :)

I'm also getting VERY interested in using "grey water" .... but there are all sorts of "issues" here in the U.S. Check out what Colorado says HERE. And they have awesome looking systems, but you gotta go to Australia. Check them out HERE.

So, for the time being, I'll just be content to collect rain water for my veggie garden (and strawberry patch!).


If you want one of these bad boys, I'd be happy to make one for you for $30. They retail for $40 at Orscheln or almost double that in hardware/garden stores.

If you're picky about color, I can get the barrel in black or blue.

Bricks/blocks to raise the barrel off the ground & moveable rain gutter are NOT included.

Diabetes

A friend of mine sent me a message, asking for some resources for a friend of theirs whose child was recently diagnosed w/ diabetes. Growing up in a family of diabetics, I'm happy to help. :)

The point I made to him was it's a VERY livable condition. I also like to point out you can still be a rock star if you've got it. Mick Fleetwood of one of our favoritest groups, Fleetwood Mac, does.

So I checked out THIS article online ... and the list of celebs is ASTOUNDING.

Here are a few:


Halle Berry


Larry King


Mary Tyler Moore


Mike Huckabee


Mick Fleetwood


Aretha Franklin


Nick Jonas


Andrew Lloyd Weber


Jay Cutler

And the list truly continues ... CLICK HERE if you want to check it out.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't include some informative links.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
American Diabetes Association

Visiting "Baby Paul" .... take 2

A few weeks ago, dad picked me up and we hit the road to Champaign, Illinois to go to Engineering Open House at UIlli. It was one of those BYOA events (bring your own abacus). ;)

So, check out my co-pilot. A month or so ago, I found a photo of dad after my college graduation and found a photo of him "co-piloting" between Manhattan and Wichita.


Here Paul explains something vastly complex and above my head to Dad.


Yeah, this sign is hanging at my bro's workplace. Should I be concerned? ;)


Part of the open house was this demo-derby sort of thing. The engineering students made these robots to pick up balloons and put them in boxes, among other things.


This video is a little long ... just a warning. It's several clips spliced together.

There was also some robot bashing! Maybe I'll post some of that later.


Isn't this painting lovely? I wanted to bring it home with me. My pocketbook didn't (but it was TOTALLY a steal for the size it was!).


Ok, now THIS is interesting. It was a 3D copier. Yes, you read correctly. There are engineers in Illinois who can make a color copy of something in 3 dimensions. What WILL they come up with next!??!????!?


On Paul's frat wall .... not sure if I'll get him in trouble for posting this .... but .... :)


This is great. I slept at Paul's frat house the first night because *someone* snores like a grizzly bear. I am happy to report a few things. 1) ear plugs helped. 2) Tylenol PM helped knock me out before the bear started growling. 3) I was told I was allowed to poke any snoring parties if they needed it to shush up. ;)

I also have a new appreciation for how quietly Erik snores.


Check out the card catalogue at this place!!!! And this was only ONE wing of it!


Of course ... we photogs couldn't leave well enough alone. It was like the dualing point and shoot cameras!!!


I think my macro wins! ;)


Also ... check out this photo! I LOVE this image. It feels like an Edgar Allen Poe poem to me. Am I nuts? Oh, cruise on over to the Heartland Blog to read about me taking this photo ... and the dualing cameras that took the photos.


The sunset the morning we rose early to return to Kansas. It's been quite some time since I've seen so many sunrises. :)

And, I truly did visit Paul a few months ago, but it was such a crazy trip. I was SO TIRED and truthfully rather cranky. It was also an immensely short trip. It was such a treat to be able to spend some time on his stomping ground.

Thanks for hanging w/ us, Paul!

In the news

For Erik's paper, we're highlighting the stories we read and where we stop reading them. Management wants to know ... whatever. In truth, it's creating a bit of a false positive from me. If I read the paper, it's usually a few days later ... and maybe one or two stories. But give me a highlighter and tell me to mark it up? I pushed through 6+ inches of snow on the porch this morning to retrieve the paper. Go figure!

So .... headlines that caught my attention this morning.

1. Jury finds George Tiller not gilty
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

REALLY??????? I was shocked. Especially after earlier this week he said "When she was working for me - correction, when she was providing consultations for the patient ..." in THIS article (the trial was over if his "second opinion" doctor was an employee or not). I thought after that slip, it was all over. Evidently not.


2. Kathleen Sebelius signs Kansas right to know abortion bill
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

I have to admit I was a little surprised, but not really. She's trying to get confirmed to a cabinet seat.


3. Law cuts cell use by teen drivers
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

I'm not sure if I feel safer or not .... what about passengers in the car? Oh well, I guess I'm not a teen anymore (thank God!). I'll be interested to see how this 'hands free' device while driving thing goes. It was in effect when we were in California ... but that's not to say we stuck to it. But I'm told they DO ticket people for it.


These next two are for Erik:
4. Kansas falls late to Spartans
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

Thank GOODNESS! KU was really messing up my bracket. (ok, not really. I just don't like them and their 'we're God's gift to basketball and we're entitled to win b/c we did last year' attitude).


5. Mizzou battles UConn for right to move to Final Four
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

A surprising event, but Erik's excited nonetheless. If they win tonight, maybe he'll go outside and roll around in the snow shirtless. Or not ...

Bracket update

I seem to be faring better this year in the Journal pick 'em .... but not as good as I'd like.

Oh well, for someone who knows squadoosh about the college basketball teams, I could be doing much worse!

# 101 — Pray night prayer every night for a month

... CHECK!!!


I'm SO excited to cross this one off my list!

It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but since I had mono and my sleep schedule got all turned around about a year and a half ago, I've been a SLACKER when it came to my prayers. So, I decided Lent would be a good time to pick up the practice again.

The heck of it is it takes about THREE MINUTES to do it by myself. THREE MINUTES. It's seriously a drop in the bucket of time.

How easy it is to fall out of our good habits, and how hard it is to resume them!

Book break!

I don't know how I stumbled across this, but I recently learned a fabulous book I read, "My Sisters Keeper," is being made into a film! How exactly I stumbled across the book, I'm not sure. I think I was living in Indy and grabbed it on CD to listen to in the car.

Anyhow, it's INCREDIBLY powerful and EXTREMELY thought-provoking.

I'm COMPLETELY aware this will spark a LOT of backlash when the film incarnation comes out. And I have to say, I agree some of the issues presented in the book ARE troubling. If you had an ill child, would you opt to have a child who genetically matched that child ... it's a slippery slope, and with the way the new administration is heading ... yeah. Anyway.

More info about the upcoming film HERE and HERE.

I suspect a LOT of misinformation will be spread in the ultra-conservative circles about this one ... and I just urge you to GET INFORMED. Seriously. Nothing irks me more than people blindly opposing something. There's plenty of lead time ... go to the library and check this one out. Read it IN ITS ENTIRETY. This is NOT one of those books you can read a fraction of and form an opinion.

How much is too much?

A few weeks ago, I went on a road trip with my dad. We headed up to Champaign, Illinois to visit Paul in college (he's on the fast track, and like his 2 older sisters, is slated to graduate in 3.5 calendar years!).

On the way back, dad was commenting about how comfortable people "of a certain age" and below seem to be with posting personal info on the web. Hmm......interesting. He used Facebook, Twitter and blogs for an example.

It's true .... some people I know post on their blog when they'll be out of town/etc. And I have to say that does make me nervous. I generally write posts in advance, and then have them "scheduled" to post in the future (if you want to do this, click post options directly below your post as you compose). That way, it looks like I'm still around even if I am not. But ... I would NEVER feel comfortable advertising on my blog that I'd be gone for xxxx or Erik is out of town for yyyy. Um .... no.

But ... what about other things? Facebook? I have to admit, most of the "friends" I have on there are photographers who know someone I know and so they "friend" me. I'm comfortable w/ that, but ... the conspiracy side of me says "you never know..." Same goes for Twitter. Right?

So, blog readers ... what do YOU think? Do we post too much out there? Are we at risk for exposing too much of ourselves? Have you ever NOT posted something b/c you were concerned? (note: I've purposely NOT posted some medical stuff here ... because if we ever have to self-insure in the future, I don't want to give people an excuse to tell me NO ... does that make me paranoid?).

Comment below!

Sports fan?

One of my friends commented they didn't know I was such a sports fan (I'm a little nutty about my NCAA tourney bracket).

Weeeeeeell. Ready for a secret? It's not about the bracket. It's about not coming in dead last (like I did last year). Do you believe Erik the sports guru STILL married me after a such an embarassing performance in last year's bracket. Miraculous!

So this year, I'm determined to not finish so poorly.

Except I don't know anything about any of these teams .... so once again, I picked teams blindly.


First round was good, but it ain't looking so good now. :(

YUMMIE!

Last night, I improved on the black bean burritos I made awhile ago.

There was some extra salsa I made and threw in the freezer. Erik wasn't keen on it .... thought it was a little bland. So, I thawed it out, and tossed it in w/ the mushed beans, and loaded on the chili powder. Result? YUMMIENESS!!!!!!!!

Here's the most amusing part ... Erik thawed some salsa awhile ago and blended it w/ a jalapeno. The result? The salsa looked black and goopey because there were kidney beans in it. Oops! I think this is a MUCH better use of the lackluster salsa (honestly, it is more like pico de gallo).

-- I know I have 100 misspelled words in this post, but just deal folks. ;)

Happy birthday, ERB!!!!!!

Last month, I had Erik's birthday gift shipped to my parents' house so he wouldn't snoop around. ;) Mom even wrapped it for me!


Erik was certainly EXCITED about finally getting an iPod of his very own! I was excited I kept the secret of what he was getting for about a month. Sheesh, keeping secrets from a new husband is NOT easy!


And since they were willing to engrave it .... but let me tell you. It was no easy feat. I tried to do it online, but evidently they didn't like "Esse" ... so I had to call ... and they still had trouble getting the computer to accept Esse on the back. SO we had to put in "Booger." Who'd have thought Booger wasn't offensive or questionable and Booger was? So strange.


Test drive.

Now he spends tons of time transferring his infinite music collection into 120GB worth of electronic space.

Famous photos

This is spectacular! A photog friend of mine sent this along .... and I enjoyed seeing Lego renditions of famous photos I recognized.

To check them out, CLICK HERE.

# 93 — Finish sanding/re-staining the wooden chest

Yippie!!!!!

The wooden chest is FINAAAAAALLY done! I acquired the beast ... 4 or 5 years ago at an auction. It was an ugly duckling when we were introduced. I don't have a "before" photo of it ... but boy was it uuuuuuuuuuugly. It was dark and varnished. It was difficult to get the varnish off. Robin can attest to it. She helped me one afternoon in Hays. It was a beast.

THEN came the sanding. I eventually gave up on chemically removing it ... and just went for sanding. Only I tried by hand. BIG mistake. Next was the ghetto sander. I couldn't get the darn thing to keep the sandpaper on. Ugh. What a task. Enter: the radial sander from my buddy, Coop. We borrowed it ... and I am tempted to keep it. For REAL! It made it all better!

Alrighty, photo time!

Here's it after sanding ... I couldn't get the orange part out of the seams.


The overall:


And ... I still couldn't get all of the orange out.


And the after:


Erik, of course, wanted to introduce the kitty to the new furniture.


But not just SHOW Esse the trunk, he wanted to put Esse IN the trunk. Poor Booger boo.


She certainly made efforts to squeeze out...




And finally ... freedom.


Checking more items off of the 101 in 1001 list!!!!!!

AND now I can put it in our basement and give a good home to all of the blankets that roam around our house.

# 45 — Make one new recipe/week for 3 months

BOOOOOOOOOO YEEEEEEEEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm excited to check this off of my 101 in 1001 list. :-)

The idea behind this was basically because I can get stuck in a culinary rut. I'm a sucker for simple. If it were up to me, I'd make stir fry chicken and veggies every night for dinner. But that gets old. SO ... I decided to try one new recipe per week for a few months. Some weeks it was difficult to find the energy to do it. Others I was extremely looking forward to. It just depended.

So when we were eating our last meal, I asked Erik if he had any favorite, or recipes I should be sure to make again. His top few were:

1 — Ham and Bean Soup (it was probably my favorite, too!)
2 — Peanut Butter Pancakes
3 — Tagine Chicken
4 — Calzones (I think I'll try different fillings in these ... I really liked them. I think they'll even freeze and reheat well).

Here's the list of the new recipes:
Dec. 21 — Peanut Butter Pancakes
Dec. 31 — Calzones
Jan. 9 — Braised Brussell Sprouts + Pork Chops with a creamy herbed sauce
Jan. 14 — Black Bean Burritos
Jan. 18 — Hot Chocolate Mix
Jan. 29 — Ham and Bean Soup
Feb. 1 — Macaroni Salad
Feb. 14 — Focaccia Bread
Feb. 17 — Honey Glazed Chicken
Feb. 27 — Potato Soup
March 4 — Crunchy Chicken and Fruit Salad
March 11 — Tagine Chicken

Or, if you want to check them all out en masse, just CLICK HERE.

I'm 1/4 way through THE LIST now. I have a few more items to blog about ... but this ends in 7 months, so I better get cracking on some of these other items!

Tomato time!!!!!

Check out what's growing in our basement!!!! I took my large fish tank and have converted it into a little greenhouse to start up my tomato and basil plants! The tomatoes are growing like mad, but the basil (right) just started sprouting this week. I hope it picks up, because I have plans to make LOTS of pesto this summer ... and will need gobs of basil to do so.

Over the weekend, I tilled up more of the backyard and DOUBLED the size of our garden. I am excited to plant in it in a few months!

We're growing 3 types of tomatoes:


We will definitely have some extra plants, so if you want a plant or three, hollar!

It's been about 4 years since I used the aquarium for fish .... and this is what Esse did when there were fish in it:


I'm not saying I'd never put fish in it again ... but I've been so mobile the last few years it seemed a waste to get a stock of fish going, then have to give them away when I moved.

Besides, where would I start my garden plants next winter????

Front Bedroom — Before & After

Do you see the light in the "after image" ... well, I'd like to replace it with THIS:


I think Erik would need some serious convincing, though. Oh well, I like it and can dream, right?????

OH, and of course, there's the progress of the whole thing:

Here's the room once it's been emptied and primed.


Here's the paint color we selected ... the one in the middle, that is.


Here are all of the tools ...


And Erik workin' hard ... I wish I could blame the lack of focus on someone other than myself ... but no.


Booger's investigating our handiwork.


Check out how well the wall color goes well with the sheets (yes, I'm a DORK!).


Also, be sure to check out THIS post about how I suckered my sister into making the wall art for me. :-)

And for anyone who is interested, the photo on the wall is from my trip to Africa in 2006.

This is our GUEST ROOM, so if you're ever in/through Salina and need a place to crash, shout! I *adore* having company.