Work in progress

My nephew will be arriving in about 15 weeks (though his mama is already hoping for a little earlier than that).  It's a miracle that he's even on his way and we're all very excited to meet him, even if he's made this pregnancy absolutely miserable for my sister-in-law. 

I started planning the idea for this quilt as soon as I found out they were having a boy.  It's been surprisingly easy to put together so far.  I'm hoping to get a good chance to sit down and finish it next weekend so I can give it to them at the shower, but here's the quilt top, ready to go once I finish piecing the back together.

It's not perfect.  The corners don't match up as nicely as I would like, but I'm still pretty darn happy with it.  I can't wait until the little guy arrives. 

Baby Blanket

I know I've been a lazy blogger, but we've been super busy around here.  It seems that everyone I know is having a baby right now.  Hubby's cousin just had hers a couple days ago, a friend is due in a little less than two months, my nephew will be here in January and my best friend has one due in April.  That's not including all of the acquaintances that are expecting as well.  So I've been in baby crafting mode during most of my free time. 

I met my friend Tracie at work and we instantly became friends.  When she told me she was pregnant, I was so excited and I knew I wanted to make something for her little one.  I pestered her for a long time to pick a name for her little guy so that I could get started.  I spent last weekend putting this baby together.

 

Please forgive the horrible lighting.  I wanted to get these done quickly so her gift could be wrapped up.  It's soft flannel with monkeys on one side (which sort of matches her theme for the nursery) and a pretty blue on the other.

I added an L for baby boy's name.  It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.  I can't help but laugh when I look at this now because less than an hour after I had completely finished the blanket and cleaned up my sewing space, Tracie texted me to tell me her husband is second guessing the name and says he doesn't like it anymore.  Great timing, eh?  Fortunately, baby's last name starts with an L, so I told her that if they change his name we'll just say it's for his last name.  I also told her she wasn't getting any more monogrammed gifts until after he's here and the name can't change. 

Now just two more months until he makes his appearance and gets to snuggle up.

Amanda Tapping on Supernatural

This got posted on Twitter yesterday.  Looks like Amanda Tapping (of Sanctuary and Stargate fame) is going to have a recurring role on Supernatural for season 8.  It's a little sad how excited I am about this considering that I don't even watch the show.  But I'm pretty sure I'd watch just about anything that had her name in the credits.  I guess there's another show on the list for the hubs and I to watch. 

I am the Messenger

I think I've found a new author that I love.  Markus Zusak's I am the Messenger is even better than The Book Thief (which is the first of his books that I read).  After stopping a bank robbery, Ed Kennedy receives a playing card in the mail with three addresses and he has to figure out what to do with it.  The story follows him as he deals with his friends and trying to figure out what he has to do.

The book is brilliantly written.  I love Zusak's way of telling a story.  It is wonderful and he has a different way of explaining and describing than you usually see.  One little piece of the story is fairly predictable, but there are so many surprises that it's barely noticeable and doesn't take anything away from the story.  His characters are very well-developed and all have their own personalities.  Ed, our narrator, is flawed but he tries so hard to do what's right, which makes him a great character.

I can say with certainty that I'll be picking up more books by Zusak in the future. 

Why my Husband is Awesome

When my birthday was coming up back in June, the hubs asked me what I wanted.  The only thing I could think of was the bracelet that I really wanted, which he did get for me, but he felt like it wasn't enough.  He said he wanted to make me something, which meant he would finally get to use the compound miter saw I got him for Christmas.  Really, I think that made it a present for both of us.

I threw out a handful of ideas like a hutch for the kitchen (he thought that was too complicated for his first project) and a new bookshelf since mine has no room and there are books stacked on my desk instead.  He didn't like that idea either.  Then I remembered that when we were still renting and had no backyard whatsoever, he promised me that he'd make me a picnic table someday when we had the space.  So I asked for it, and that's what I got.  He started out with some blueprints he found online (sorry, I have no idea where) and then adapted it so it would be much larger because we have a big family.  It now seats 8 people (4 on each side) and we have enough room to add a chair to either of the ends.  So it will last us a little while before we start needing to add an extra table.

Wanna see it?

He stained it with a redwood stain, but it's made from pine.  He also drilled a hole in the center so that the umbrella my in-laws bought us over a year ago would finally have a home.  

I realize you can't really see the umbrella in this pic because it blends in with the clouds, but it's there.

I love sitting in the shade at this table and watching the amazing view we have from our backyard.  I can't wait until the next big get-together we have where we can actually sit outside and eat and have room for everyone. 

The Getty

On our last day in L.A. we visited some old friends of my husband's who I hadn't had a chance to meet.  He worked for them not long after he graduated high school and they had a huge effect on the person he became so I was really excited to finally meet them.  We had a wonderful time and they took us to the Getty, which is a giant museum built into the top of a mountain.  It is a massive structure and it's gorgeous.

The view from up there is pretty awesome too.  

There's also a huge garden with a little manmade creek running through it.  If it hadn't been so unbelievably hot and we weren't completely exhausted from two days at Disney, we would have spent more time there.  Instead, we walked through the shaded parts and took a few pictures from up above.

We also got to see paintings by some really well-known artists.  The first is Irises by Van Gogh and the second is by Monet (but I can't remember the name of it).  Getting to see these was really amazing to me.  My elementary school was big into art and we studied a different artist each year.  These guys were second and first grade, respectively, for me.  I studied them again when I took an art history class in college.  I saw prints of these paintings so many times and I never really thought I'd see the originals. 

I really wish we'd been able to spend more time there as the buildings themselves are incredible and they're all full of art.  I know we passed by so much and I would love to return and see what other little things they have to offer.  Oh, and if you go, don't forget to grab a bite to eat at the cafe.  The food there is surprisingly good, especially considering that you don't really think of going to a museum for good food. 

Legos are Awesome

We visited Downtown Disney after our first day at Disney.  After stuffing ourselves at the Rainforest Cafe, we wandered over to the Lego store because my husband loves Legos.  The outside has amazing giant Lego statues like these:

Lego Beauty and the Beast (I loved this movie when I was little).

Buzz and Woody!

This dragon is on their roof and is fighting the guy in the picture above.  The pictures don't do it justice because he is huge and he catches the light just right to make him look silver in the late evening.  

Inside the store they have even more awesome Lego creations, but on a much smaller scale.  These ones are all sets that you can buy and build at home yourself.  A lot of them are super expensive and I'm not really sure what I'd do with my very own Lego R2D2 (although I'm sure I'd find a place for him).  

It was hard to get a good shot of R2 here because he's trapped inside a plastic bubble that was super reflective and was determined to keep me from getting a good photo.  I'm really surprised my husband didn't try to convince me that we needed to have one of our own (although he did try to talk me into other Lego sets).  I think I might have caved for this guy though. 

The Soulkeepers

The Soulkeepers by G. P. Ching is the story of a young boy named Jacob whose mother disappears.  He's in a terrible accident the day that she goes missing and he has no idea if the memories he has of that day are real or not.  He's forced from his home in Hawaii and goes to live with family that he didn't even know existed.  While there he meets a mysterious neighbor and strange things start to happen to him.

I picked this book out because it was in the top free sci-fi books available for the Kindle and sounded somewhat interesting.  I'm not really a big fan of fantasy (which is what this really is, but Amazon is terrible at telling the two apart), so this book did take me a little while to get into.  The writing, however, is pretty good (though there were a few typos).  The story deals a lot with Christianity and Jacob's lack of belief.  I found the author's handling of such a usually touchy subject was very good.  It managed to avoid pushing any one viewpoint on the reader.

Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with this book, but I know a lot of that is because I don't really like fantasy.  If you like fantasy, I would definitely recommend this book. 

World of Color

On our last night at Disney we watched the new World of Color show at California Adventure.  We were a little late, but we did get to see most of it.  This was the most amazing thing we saw in our entire vacation and, considering that Disney has some great sights, that's saying a lot.  Through most of the show my husband and I were in complete awe.  It's a magical combination of lights, water, and projection that comes together beautifully.  It was absolutely incredible and, if you're going to be at Disney, it's worth going to see, even with the massive crowd that it attracts.

Unfortunately, it's really difficult to get decent pictures of the show because it happens at night.  I got a couple of short videos, but even those are hard to see.   This is at the very end of the show, which, lucky for me, was when my camera decided to crap out so the video is cut short, but it gives you a little bit of an idea of just how awesome the show really is.  It's nothing like being there in person though.  I highly recommend it.  

Disney Pictures

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite things we saw at Disneyland.

Indiana Jones!  One of my favorite rides.  I wish we'd had time to go on this more than once.  Because of the Ancient Egypt theme that the ride has, the hubs and I spent our time in line making Stargate references.  It only made the ride better.

 While waiting for Star Tours there are a bunch of droids that are being unpacked from their crates.  The one on the right was seriously adorable, but we couldn't get a good close up shot of him. 

This guy is near the end of the line for Star Tours.  He scans passengers, which is what the screen next to him is.  Disney does a great job on the details because from the other side of that screen, you peak through and see what he's looking at and they actually look like real, working computers.

While exiting Space Mountain we ran into a little trouble with a storm trooper.  Also, my husband wants this costume. 

Far away shot of the Matterhorn.  It was approximately a million degrees while we were waiting to ride the monorail and we saw three guys climbing to the top of the mountain.

This is a shot in the new Carsland at California Adventure.  They did such an amazing job it really felt like we were out in the desert.  The scorching heat only helped the illusion.

Disneyland

My husband and I just got back from a little vacation to the happiest place on Earth.  I hadn't been to Disneyland in 12 years and it had been 17 years for him so we thought it was time.  We spent the first day at Disneyland and went on a ton of rides.  I have to say that the fast pass is the most awesome thing ever.  We would get our fast passes for one ride, then go on rides with short lines, then jump past a ton of people by using our fast pass.  It felt like we spent most of the day on rides rather than waiting in line. 

The heat was awful, though.  We picked the week that had a massive heat wave covering most of our state (hello, 112* temps) and so it was horribly hot, even in Anaheim.  However, we got an early start, went back to our hotel to cool off when it got hot, then went back to do some of the late night stuff. 

Aside from the heat and the crowds (I don't recommend going in the summer time if you can avoid it), we had a wonderful time.  We got to check out the new Star Tours ride, which is amazing.  Seriously, it was a huge improvement over the way it used to be and it was an awesome ride when I was little.  We got some Star Wars souvenirs at the shop that you walk through after the ride.  Husband got a hat (to replace the one he lost on Splash Mountain) and I got a shirt. 

We got to watch the fireworks while we were on the Matterhorn, which was a great treat.  They started before we got on the ride so we watched from the line, then got to see them as we went around the mountain.  

We spent the second day at California Adventure.  They were still in the process of building it the last time I was there so I was excited to see what it looked like.  I loved the early 1900s feel that it had.  We went on Soarin' and Grizzly River Run.  Soarin' was incredible.  We got front row seats and it really felt like we were flying over California.  There is some crazy technology involved in that ride.  Grizzly River Run was so much fun.  We rode a raft with six other strangers, but it was fun.  Both times we rode we chatted with our fellow passengers and really enjoyed the experience.  Also, we got really wet both times, which made for a nice break from the heat.  I prefer that ride to Splash Mountain.  Splash Mountain has one big drop and two smaller ones.  The big drop scared the heck out of me and we didn't even get that wet.  Grizzly River Run has a bunch of drops, but nothing terrifying, and you actually get wet.  It's probably not as great if you're there in February, but it's wonderful in August. 

We did a few other things on our trip, which I'll share later once I have all the pictures that we took and I stop feeling quite so much like a zombie. 

Between the Bridge and the River

Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson (host of the Late Late Show and known to many as Mr. Wick from the Drew Carey Show) was a pretty good book.  It starts out seeming like it will be a story about the relationship between two young boys, but then they reach high school, stop talking, and grow apart.  It's also about two brothers who try to make their way in Hollywood.  It's about finding God and what makes you happy. 

Overall, it was a decent book, but a little hard for me to get into.  It seemed to jump between these characters who had very little connection to each other and then into chapters of a character telling a story.  There are also scenes and chapters of at least one character having a dream/hallucination.  It is not a lighthearted book.  There are some very R and X-rated scenes, which I can normally handle, but some of the characters are just such disgusting people that it was a bit more revolting than it might normally be. 

The book does have some pretty funny parts, which is not at all surprising considering that the writer is a comedian.  The writing style is good, even if I didn't find the plot particularly grabbing until it got closer to the end.  I did like the message that seems to come from the book.  It doesn't say that one has to find God in order to be happy, but one should at least be a good person.  One of the main characters says that the primary rule in life is to help others. 

I think I would read something else by Craig Ferguson, although I admit I expected this book to be a bit more on the humorous side.  It did show that there is more to him than just the funny guy we see on stage. 

Life of Pi Movie

Oh my gosh, they finally turned this book into a movie!  I first heard that it was a possibility years ago, but when nothing really came of it I figured that the idea had been pushed aside by other projects, but now it has a trailer.

I read the book many years ago when it first came out and I absolutely loved it.  I've read it three times and even used it for a research paper in college.  This is one of my all-time favorite books and I am so excited to see it turned into a movie.  I'm incredibly curious to see how the ending is handled.  If you don't know why, go read the book.  I can't recommend this book enough.  If you do pick it up, I realize that the beginning is slow, but stick with it because the second part of the book is absolutely amazing. 

Here's the trailer.  Check it out.

Thoughts?

Clearly I Should Not be Left Alone

This weekend my husband went away for a guy's weekend.  His best friend is getting married in September and they're having his bachelor party.  While I wasn't really looking forward to a weekend spent alone at home, I didn't really think it would be too bad, but evidently I was wrong.

I woke up on Saturday feeling pretty good about being by myself for the weekend.  I decided to put food in the hummingbird feeder because it was empty again (they finish off our huge feeder just about every day).  For the first time ever it was actually an easy process.  That should have been a sign that something would go wrong.  I think I managed to pull the hanger off the hook because when I let go the whole thing crashed to the ground.  Somehow the glass survived the drop, but the plastic part is in a million pieces now.  In the process I also managed to get myself covered in sugar water as well.

Later I decided to drive into town to get a few things.  On the way home my air conditioner crapped out (which is so much fun when it's 95* outside), which it's been doing because I thought it just couldn't handle the giant mountain that my car has to climb to get home.  Then when I got home I looked at my dash to see that my car was majorly overheating.  Thank goodness I made it home because otherwise that would have been terrifying.

I know it could have been a lot worse, but it still sucks and none of these sorts of things happen when my husband is around.  Probably because I would have had him refill the hummingbird feeder and we would have taken our other vehicle to go shopping, but still.  I think he's just not allowed to leave me again.  Or maybe the next time he leaves I'm just going to lock myself in the house and hide.

Oh, I also had to kill my own spider and it was huge.  Finding that thing right before I went to bed was not good for me.  

This is Just Wrong

I was checking out Cupcakes Take the Cake this morning and searching for some yummy inspiration when I happened across their blog post on this baby. 

Photo from bettycrocker.com

Seriously?  This just seems way too lazy.  I will be the first to admit that I'm a bit of a cake snob and I prefer scratch cupcakes over anything from a box (and don't even get me started on canned frosting), but this just seems like absolutely no effort whatsoever.  "Just add water?"  Really?  What about eggs or oil?  What's that going to taste like if all of your fats (which are supposed to hold the cake together) are made from some sort of powder?

I can see the benefits if you have a last minute cupcake emergency, but in general it doesn't take very long to mix up a quick batch of cupcakes.  This reminds me of that pancake batter in the bottle.  That freaks me out too.  I just don't trust foods that are that easy to make.

Out of curiosity, if there's anyone out there who has actually tried this stuff I'd love to hear about how it worked and how it tasted.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened

I recently read Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, who you might also know as The Bloggess.  If you've ever read her blog you know that she is unbelievably funny and that holds true in her book.  I loved this book.  In fact, it might just be one of my new favorites. 

It's a collection of stories about some of the crazier things that have happened to her from asking people to identify their penises while working in HR to having wild animals around her house as a child.  Her stories will make you laugh out loud.  Because of that, I don't recommend reading the book in public unless you want to get a lot of looks.  As it was, I read it in my own house and my husband still looked at me like I was insane a few times.  Her book does include some not-so-funny parts, but she still manages to write them beautifully. 

The book also includes the story about how she got Beyonce the giant metal chicken, which is one of my favorites.  I read it when she posted it on her blog last year and laughed all over again as I read it in the book. 

If you need a good laugh, I highly recommend this book. 

Why I Hate Pop Culture

A few weeks ago, I saw this on Pinterest:

 

At first, I just laughed at the sentiment.  My husband and I have had the conversation many times about the difference in female characters (and male characters too, but we're focusing on females) in the awesome sci-fi shows we watch versus some of the more popular shows on television.  This pic has stayed with me over the last few weeks and it honestly makes me a bit sad now.

I will admit that I don't recognize the first three woman on the geek culture row (I'll get there, I'm sure, but there's only so much tv we can watch in a day), but the last two are both well-known to me as they come from two of my favorite shows.  Those two woman are great role-models for young girls.  Both of them manage to be completely brilliant while managing to also be kind, beautiful, and just generally good people.  They are not sexualized, despite the fact that they are gorgeous.

The women in the top row are largely famous for doing nothing more than exposing themselves to the public and allowing their stupid decisions to be broadcast to the entire world and yet I'd be willing to bet that most people could identify more people from the top row than from the bottom. 

I think about my four-year-old niece and the types of female characters she will grow up with and likely idolize as many children do.  She will see these women and perhaps think it's normal to show off her body to everyone or spend all of her time partying.  I wouldn't have a problem with it if these women were also intelligent and were showing off their bodies while also explaining astrophysics.  I think Jeri Ryan's Voyager character, Seven of Nine, shows that it can be done.  And certainly the women in the geek culture line-up also happen to be gorgeous.  I mean, Terry Ferrell used to be a model and Amanda Tapping, at 46, still looks stunning, but the characters (and in every case I've seen so far, the actors as well) are very intelligent women who don't use their looks to get what they want.  I think those are the types of role models little girls need (and little boys as well).  This idea that being stupid is fun or funny and that being intelligent is only for losers needs to change.  It's not science fiction to think that women can be both beautiful and smart and I'd like to see some better role models for my future children.

Ape House

I recently finished reading Ape House by Sara Gruen.  I picked it because Gruen wrote Water for Elephants, which I loved.  I enjoyed this book, but not as much as her first novel.  Ape House is about Isabel Duncan, a researcher who works with a group of bonobos.  When there is a bombing at the lab where she works and the bonobos live, she must work to figure out where they are and get them back.  She turns to a reporter named John Thigpen for help. 

The book is interesting, but it seemed like there should have been more to it.  The book seems like it's missing something.  I think part of that might be because there seems to be foreshadowing of certain events that never actually happen. 

Outside of that, the book is interesting.  Gruen seems to do a decent amount of research for her books and it shows in this one.  She clearly researched both sign language (which wasn't entirely necessary, though it did make it more interesting for me) and bonobos. 

The writing is wonderful and flows really well.  It was easy to get lost in the book and suddenly look up to realize I'd read nearly half the book.  While this book wasn't as wonderful as Water for Elephants, it was definitely worth the read and I look forward to more books by Gruen. 

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone out there has a fun and safe 4th of July!

Forgotten Books

In creating the list of books I've read (which you can find here), I realized that I left a few books out.  I read all of them while I was recovering from surgery so I'm not all that surprised that they were passed over.  It has nothing to do with how much I enjoyed them, though.

First I read Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton.  It was a Christmas gift from my husband and, while I started it on Christmas Eve, I quickly stopped.  I realized that I was going to fly through it because of how easily the book flowed so I decided to save it for my recovery.  I loved it.  It's Wheaton's story of how he created a new career for himself by writing and also about learning to be honest with himself and with the fans who read his blog.

He uses a lot of his old blog posts to illustrate not only his thoughts and feelings at the time the posts were written, but to show the evolution of his writing style and his story-telling abilities (which are fantastic, by the way).  I'd recommend any of his books.

Secondly (and thirdly, and fourthly), I read the Tenebrea trilogy by Roxann Dawson and Daniel Graham.  Dawson is well-known for her role as B'Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager.  She was one of my favorite characters on the show and I loved the episodes she directed so I decided to give the first book, Entering Tenebrea a shot.  I figured that if it was awful I didn't need to buy the other two books.  I ended up ordering Tenebrea's Hope and Tenebrea Rising when I was only about half-way through the first book.  I knew that I wouldn't want to wait to see what happened to the characters.

The story is about a young woman named Andrea who witnesses the murder of her husband and daughter.  She is taken in by an alien named Hal K'Rin who trains her to be part of his personal army called the Tenebrea.  Under his command she infiltrates a planet of humans who manufacture clones and ends up helping with a clone rebellion.

These books are so well-written.  They move quickly and have very vivid descriptions as well as great characters and an intriguing plot.  There are more than enough twists and turns to keep you occupied.  I rarely say this, but I would read these books again.  I can only say that about a handful of books that I've read so it really means something.  If you have any interest in science-fiction at all you should read them.  Even for the non sci-fi fan I think these books would still be enjoyable.