So. quiet.

It's nice in the office around the holiday season. Quiet and mellow. I like it this way.

The Twin won't be able to come out and visit us this week, after all. I'm disappointed, of course, as is Leo, but we totally understand. I'm really proud of her for being so on top of her finances, and in control of her situation right now, actually. She had a pile of money issues fall on her all at once (first it was the front brakes on her car, and then one of her puppies had a tumor-like growth on her face she needed to have checked, and then yesterday she learned her rear brakes needed replacing as well...), and as we all know, those kinds of unexpected obligations piling up all at once can be killers to the ol' bank account! So the drive out here just wouldn't be prudent, is the thing.

Unfortunately, I decided to buy a frozen turkey on Sunday, and thaw it in the fridge all week, because it was cheaper than buying one fresh or already thawed or whatever. So now Leo and I have to figure out how to work a 14 pound turkey into our meals for the next week! Should be fun, I think. ;)

I'm done with my work week after today, so posting might be light for the rest of the week. If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a lovely holiday (except for those of you in the service industry, who likely don't get the holiday at all, like Leo...), and have as much in their lives to be thankful for as I do.

Free money...for them?

So I've noticed, as I'm sure everyone else around town has, that the Boulevard Brewing Co has come up with a plan to help the city turn around it's woeful situation involving recycling glass containers...namely that unless you live in Johnson County, you don't have an option to get it done. And so springs forth Ripple Glass. And all of it's convenient containers to collect your crap. (i.e. glass bottles and such. I was just digging the aliteration there...)

I thought it was going to be kept to the Missouri side of the state line, but then I saw a collection container at Whole Foods on Metcalf yesterday, and realized they were being put everywhere. I alerted Leo to the situation, since we tend to collect a loooo-hoooot of glass containers in our household on a monthly basis (we're wine-o's), and told him that maybe a weekly dump at that location will help lighten his monthly trip to the recycling center out south.

The thing is, I wonder how much Boulevard is making from this venture. As far as I know, all those glass containers have a redemption value to them. And except for a select few states, I'm pretty sure you're supposed be able to turn in all the bottles for a return of $.5, or something. The Twin does it in CA, so maybe she can speak more to the value of them, seeing as she collects a pretty penny from her recycling whenever she turns it in!

Are we in one of those select few locations where the glass is worth nothing? Or are we missing out on a great opportunity to collect on our efforts to be greener and reduce landfills? Hmm...some interesting info I just found via Google/Wikipedia on the subject:

- Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Iowa, Michigan, Delware, Hawaii, and California are the 11 states that currently have the recycling redemption legislation in place.

- Studies show that beverage container legislation has reduced total roadside litter by between 30% and 64% in the states with bottle bills.

- Studies also show that the recycling rate for beverage containers is vastly increased with a bottle bill. The US beverage container recycling rate was 39.4% in 2001. States with bottle bills recycle approximately 78% while states lacking bottle bill legislation only recycle approximately 23%.

Um, I think we might need that legislation, yo.

She's the evil/crazy/mean/littler one...

As the Twin mentioned in yesterday's comments, she and her daughters will be driving out to our house for the Thanksgiving holiday next week. I didn't mention it yesterday because I was saving the info for today (so I'd have something to post about), and also because when I was referencing the fact that nothing was going on right now, I meant that there isn't any drama in my life. At the moment anyway. Dad is doing well, Leo still loves me (for some reason), ex-"friends" are leaving me alone like I asked, etc, etc...

Which is all very nice, and yay.

Of course we're excited about their visit! Twin's kids get the whole fucking week off from school (which is ridiculous, and don't even get me started on the whole teacher conference days thing, where teachers need to take Thursdays off to fucking prepare for them to happen on Fridays, so kids often get 4 day weekends at random times these days, too, and seriously, how're kids supposed to learn that the Real World doesn't have random and stupid holidays like this if school isn't teaching them about it, hm? Because guess what kids! We don't get all that time off once we get to the Real World!!! Look forward to your 30's, because hopefully by then you will have been at a job for more than 10 years, and you maybe get more than 3 weeks off annually. Yeah. That's right. Only THREE. Have fun, you little pains in the ass! Hahahahaha!), so they're heading out here on Monday and expect to arrive on Wednesday night, and then leave on Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'm very excited to be able to have them over for a few days! They haven't been here since the wedding, so they haven't seen the addition on the house, or had the chance to meet Jake yet...it should be fun.

I tried to talk the Twin into waiting until the Friday after T-Giving to go see the new Twilight movie, but she wasn't having it. She's one of those odd types that bought her ticket in advance for a showing today. She's there right now. I'd imagine it's about 2/3 done by now. Hm, maybe I should text her to find out. Maybe I should text her to see if it sucks. Maybe I should text her to see if she still loves me even though I think she's a bit over the edge on the whole Twilight thing. Maybe I should text her to tell her that even though I know she's a bit over the edge, I still don't think she's as bad as some people are with the whole thing, and that I really commend her for being able to see that Stephenie Meyer is NOT all that good of a writer, and didn't even write the fucking movies anyway, and so people should stop connecting the books and the movies so closely because aside from the general story line, they're really two different things. (Cndnsg wds so tt wld al ft, btw.)

Me? I can do without seeing it right away. I'd put it off a few weeks (months?) actually, if it weren't for the Twin and her girls being here. I think it'll be more fun to see it with people who are fans of the books as much as they are. Leo stopped reading halfway through the 2nd book, so he can take or leave the movies, really. He'd go with me to see it, and he'd be happy doing it...but only because he loves going to the movies as much as he does.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Some are luckier than others.

Today is the day of our annual fall pot luck lunch here at the office. I made an "old fashioned" macaroni salad (sans celery, because celery is the equivalent of throwing Satan's fingernail clippings into a recipe, IMO), as well as a pumpkin bar recipe that has me just about drooling in anticipation of lunch while it sits on the other end of my desk. Both chosen for their cheapness and ease of transport/set up (I'm so done with bringing my stuffing recipe in a crock pot every year, it's not even funny), I actually wound up really pleased with the outcome of both, thank goodness!

I have to say I'm really proud of the pumpkin bars...they have a cream cheese icing on top that I made from scratch, and is the main reason for the drool issue at present. It's such an easy process to make it! I think I might be topping a hell of a lot more stuff with cream cheese icing from now on...cookies, cupcakes, meatloaf, etc...

Sorry things have been slow around here this week. I'm tired. And yesterday wound up being ridiculously busy when all my attempts to reserve a room for an hour long meeting in 2 weeks were thwarted by the evilness that is a suddenly full building. Made me miss the days when I could run through the halls naked without seeing anyone else for hours...aahhh...nakedness.

There's literally nothing else going on right now. Which, I suppose, could be seen as a good thing, right? Hell, after the year I've had, I'll take it! I deserve a couple of quiet months to finish out the year, dammit.


UPDATE: Note to self - never make macaroni salad for a pot luck again. Not sure if it was due to the lack of a proper dishing out utensil, or the fact that someone put a tin foil cover (!!!) on my container after I served some to myself, but I was the only one who took any. ::sigh:: At least it only cost me about $4 to make!

Can't see the wall for the stripes.

Since some asked to see them, I finally uploaded some photos of the finished product of the blue wall from hell in our living room that we completed last week, and decided subsequently that we hated and weren't about to live with it. It was just. so. much. BLUE.

Evidence of what different light can do to the color...here it is in a dark moment:

And here it is in a bright flashy moment!

Our living room has a tendency to reflect color back in very different and funky ways. We really loved the gray we chose, because it seems to stay pretty true to itself in all lights. It's a winner. So when we chose the new colors for the gym locker room wall from hell, we went with ones that would of course match the gray, but also were more gray in tone. We found a blue one we liked, as well as a slate color that was pleasant. And so we decided to break the wall up even more into smaller stripes of color, and use both the new blue and the slate, and add a line of gray to bring in the color used on the other three walls. Here's what the samples of the slate and blue looked like. (Slate is on the left...)

So we got to work bright and early on Sunday, painting out the gray lines so we could tape them up and get to work on painting the rest of the stripes. FYI, the stripes are relatively easy to do. The laser level makes taping go quickly, but the labor intensive part is when you caulk the tape so the paint won't seep under it, and so you can get straighter/crisper lines. I HATE the caulking part. Leo is forevermore in charge of all caulking at our house.

The thing is that even in that picture above, you can probably see that the gray was coming out more beige in tone, compared to the wall over to the left in the photo. It was bugging me, but I figured it would dry darker, or more true to tone, or something.

Painting the new colors went quicker after we locked Jake in the kitchen to keep him from leaning against the wall as I painted it. Damned dude keeps getting paint all over his back and ass!

I was loving the color combo we chose as I stepped back to take pictures of our work in progress. LOVING IT.

But then Leo started taking down the tape...

And damned if that gray line didn't look beiger than ever! And the baby blue color doesn't look chic and pretty in this combo...it looks more 80's than anything else. I told Leo that the whole thing reminded me of a sweater my brother used to wear in high school. (Pastels were in back then...for some reason.) ::sigh::

I hate it. Last night I told Leo not to worry about cleaning up those lines that didn't caulk well, because I just want to paint over them all together. I liked it better when it was just the blue and the slate, and that was it. So we're going to paint one more time and just get rid of the separating stripes, and have it all be the blue and slate, and then call it a day. FINALLY. We have so much paint on that wall now, I'm afraid it could collapse from the weight of it!

That...can't happen, right?

Painting SUCKS.

Ok, we're done painting the walls in the living room. Now we just need to tackle the trim, and Leo needs to clean up a couple of the lines that didn't work out, and we'll be good to go.

Unfortunately, I still feel like I've been hit with a mac truck today, so I can't say I care about it at all anymore. I want our living room back the way it was! And to sleep for another 5 hours! I think I have a cluster headache, but it's not a terrible one, so I can't tell really. That isn't helping, to be honest.

The blue ball hasn't reappeared since it's last disappearance, so that's why I haven't updated on that. Instead, Jeffers has taken to opening things that are supposed to be shut. Yesterday morning, I rolled over to face my side table, and the top drawer was just wide open. I looked in it, hoping that the blue ball would be in it, but nope. It was just...open. For fun, I guess. ::shrugs::

Then, we went out to get painting supplies from Home Depot, and to grab lunch, and came home to find that the doors to the guest bedroom and the office had been opened while we were gone. I shut them again, and went into our bedroom (that door wasn't open, for whatever reason), and the top drawer on my bedside table was open again. I yelled out to Leo, "The drawer is open again!" His reply? "Maybe the ghost knows that's where we keep the condoms and lube. He wants us to have butt sex."

::sigh::

I'll post pictures tomorrow. Of the living room. Not of...other things. You're welcome in advance.

Oops! Or wait...yum?

Last night, while Leo was out playing bocce against the KC eye-talians in a league with his buddies, I decided to make cookies for my coworkers. I have several different chocolate chip cookie recipes, but have become partial to this one lately, because its so easy (melted butter instead of having to pull out the mixer and cream it), and the results are yummy. (Duh. They're chocolate chip cookies. Of course the results are yummy!)

The only thing is that I also really love this other recipe I have for oatmeal choco chip cookies that calls for whole wheat flour, ground rolled oats, and a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil to reduce the amount of butter that's usually required in most cookie recipes, so it cuts down on the saturated fat in them. They are delicious, but they require a bit of work. (I can't find the recipe online right now, so I can't link to it...sorry! If anyone is interested, let me know, and I'll get it written and sent over to you from the recipe I have printed at home.)

So last night, I decided I wanted to be lazy, but still try to make the cookies somewhat healthy. I have a ton of the whole wheat flour, for some reason, so I've been using it when I can, and I decided to sub the all-purpose flour in the recipe up top with the whole wheat flour instead.

It didn't occur to me that it would cause any kind of problem at all (I'm not much of a baker, as the Twin can attest to), until I got halfway through adding the dry mix to the wet mix, and my dough was turning into a dry ball of scariness. I still had at least a cup of flour to add to the dough! I kind of started whining at myself, hoping I wasn't ruining the cookies, and just pushed on and kept adding until my arm felt like it might fall off. (Being careful not to overmix, of course! I didn't need to help the cookies turn into bigger rocks than they already were looking like they might be.)

But, surprisingly, they turned out to be really good! They aren't as sweet as a regular choco chip cookie is, and there's something attractive to me in that aspect. So if your arm is up to the mixing challenge, I say go for it! I'm all for finding a relatively healthy way to have a treat, and this is definitely one way to achieve it.

Happy Friday, everyone!