Still flying high

I still can't believe we did this. It's like watching another person.

But for anyone who cares, the video is pretty funny, once you fast forward past the infomercial.

The day we jumped out of a plane.

The night before

I'm considering Xanax and wow, are they readily available at the mere thinking out loud suggestion. But, Scott says, "take it raw." So, thus, no aids in taking this leap. Probably best not to jump in a hazy stupor anyway.

Inspiring art by Scott.

Morning of
Nothing but fear-filled dreams during the night. Anxiety in the morning, especially the part about signing your life away death attorney video. Really, we weren't signing our life away buying a house-it was skydiving.

In the plane
Dear babyJesus, expletive, expletive, expletive.

Though everything physically said this is extremely unnatural, I kept my cool for the video camera.

Afterthoughts
Super fun and exhilarating, but probably the peak of my extreme sporting activities!

But at the end of the day, Happy Birthday Dad! May this be an exciting start to your 60s! And the entire reason for the insanity of us falling out of the sky!

Stung

I've never been stung by a bee, but Oliver, who's been outside approximately 10 times, pounced on one in the backyard Monday.

With some Googling after a quick internal freak out about the vet being open on Presidents' Day, here are some steps for removing a bee's stinger from your cat's paw:

1. Two people are required.

2. One person must muzzle the cat while the other acts as the doctor. I had to put on my big girl pants and play doctor.

3. Do not try to remove the stinger with your hands or tweezers, use a credit card to scrape away at the pad to release it.

4. Keep going even though you think your cat hates you and is so mad and in pain. It's good training for children one day.

Oliver's paw never swelled, but you can Google the images for your own reference to see the possibilities. Icing the area helps alleviate the swelling, but we acted on it so quickly it was not needed.

No copay required.

Saturday Spent

Up and at 'em searching for a duffle bag at 5:30 a.m.

Stayed up reading, started 1/3 loads of laundry, and made shopping lists until bootcamp at 8:30 a.m.

Target, grocery store runs.

Primed the new side door.

Painted the fixed trim on the new side door.

Picked up laundry and a new foam rollers for paint job. Note to self-all paint projects and errands fall under my responsibility.

Painted two coats on side door and second coat on trim.

Swept the porch.

Dusted, vacuumed, laundry.

Cleaned the dishwasher.

Watered the gardens. Felt kind of guilty about the water use today.

Showered. Napped.

Chatted with a potential DJ for my high school reunion.

Roasted chicken and chopped vegetables for Sunday night dinner, chicken pot pie.

Walked to Two Saucy Broads for salad and pizza for my own dinner.

Finished making the chicken pot pies.

Settled in to finally watch tv recordings from earlier in the week: Up All Night, Parks and Recreation, and What Women Want.

Bed. TGI a three day weekend.

Tagged

I've never been "tagged" by a blog before and I raise eyebrows at them sometimes, probably because it reminds me of the nonsensical bulletins (remember those!) from MySpace of yesteryear, but Kelly did and I've always enjoyed her blog and then I learned she was on Bug Juice so now I want her to think I'm cool so I decided to participate.

The Random Eleven

The Rules:
Post these rules
You must post 11 random things about yourself
Answer the questions set for you in their post
Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!

Random facts:

1. I grew up living in the same house my entire life and my parents still live there.
2. I've never had a cavity and my former dentist used a mold of my mouth to show patients as an example.
3. I went to four colleges and rekindled a high school friendship with a dear friend at one and met one of my now closest friends, who was a bridesmaid in our wedding, at another.
4. I was on TRL in its heyday in 2000, though I had to take of my shirt to get picked. Don't worry though, my mom was there. KIDDING, not like that. It was spring break in high school, we went with the dance team and I was wearing a thermal underneath. I was in one of the pop up videos during Blink 182's "Adam's Song."
5. I live for weddings so I can dance because I don't go clubbing.
6. My dream job would be a food writer/critic.
7. I was homecoming queen my senior year of high school. The way the reveal was done was a 8' x 8' foam board portrait of my head on a royal woman's body as a portrait and it was in my parents' living room for months afterwards, until I threw a Pocahontas beach towel over it.
8. My sister and I are seven years apart and people don't see our resemblance or believe we're from the same parents. We are.
9. After pleading for a perm I finally was allowed to get one in 4th grade. I'm pretty sure it ruined my once thick hair into the fine, thin mop I've got now.
10. I will have been at my first post-college job 5 years this April.
11. I would love to be part of a Civil War reenactment in the South. By no means does this mean I support slavery or seceding from the US though.

Kelly's questions:

• Valentine's Day: Love it or Hate it?

Indifferent, I think I will love it more when there are kids. I associate Valentine's Day with school parties, mailboxes and picking the perfect Valentine for each kid. For example, you got the one on the back of the box that I had to cut out (badly) if you had a nose picking issue.

• Favorite place to shop?

Ultimately, Target. I frequent it the most and as I mentioned to my best friend recently, I go to multiple ones (sometimes per week) and you'd think they'd have different merchandise but it's.all.the.same. It's like there's a homing beacon on every aisle, even if I need nothing on it.

• Social media outlet of choice: Twitter or Facebook or other?

I like them both, but I probably tweet more because there are less people I know. FB is getting a little crowded and too much mixed company for me.

• iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, or Other?

I have enjoyed having my iPhone but my Google Eris was my first smart phone so it will always have a special place.

• Biggest fear: Sinking on a cruise ship or airplane crashing?

Airplane. Never been on a cruise, but my airplane fear has more to do with claustrophobia than crashing.

• Did you go to public school or private school growing up?

Public. Can be such a controversial issue, but my education was just fine. Beaurocratic BS exists in both sectors.

• Coffee, tea, red bull, none of the above?

Coffee.

• Best Spring Break trip?

Never did a spring break trip but I loved our winter break trips to Big Bear in college where we stayed in a cabin for a week and went boarding every day.

• General bathing/showering: at night or morning or choose to go the dirty hippie route?

Depends on when I exercise, but most often night.

• Favorite boy band? NKOTB, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC or one of the others that don't matter?

NYSYNC, even if Lance turned out to prefer boys.

• Dogs or cats?

I became a cat lady after marriage but I love dogs equally.

My questions:

1. Favorite place to live?
2. Perfect meal?
3. Next vacation destination, planned or hoped for?
4. Do you watch reality television? If so, favorite one? If you say The Bachelor don't answer this question.
5. Your drink at the local dive bar?
6. Last really great book you read?
7. Are you friends with your boss on Facebook?
8. Least favorite household chore and why?
9. Do you have an in with a food critic or writer?
10. Favorite trait in your best friend?
11. What are you doing tonight?

I'm not sure a)I have 11 people to tag or b) all of these people read my blog to find out I've tagged them and c) for some it may be their first post in years if they follow through. No pressure!

Andrea

Ashley

Carly

JJ

Kerri

Katie C

Krissy

Kirsten

LeeElle

Melisa

Tess

Dear AAA

February 16, 2012

Automobile Club of California
P.O. Box 25001
Santa Ana, CA 92799-5001

To Whom it May Concern:

Today I placed a call for roadside assistance following my car not starting, at 4:40 p.m. After an initial 20 minute wait with no dispatcher assistance, I vacated the car and decided to walk home, mercifully it was within a reasonable distance.

During the 20 minute walk, I called again and continued to wait on hold for an operator or dispatcher to receive the call. There was no answer.

After 40 minutes waiting on hold at this point, I made it home, hung up, and dialed again. After being on hold waiting for a dispatcher an additional 10 minutes, I opted to go online and try the method mentioned in the hold message to receive roadside assistance. After a few minutes of simply locating the “roadside assistance” page which required some navigation of the website, I gave up that method and opted to download the application to my phone for assistance. Miraculously, it worked and a driver contacted me to meet me at my vehicle.

I would like to point out how extremely dissatisfied I am with the lack of service provided today. For a company that touts itself on customer satisfaction, it was entirely unacceptable to wait on hold for nearly an hour without any customer service agents picking up the line.

I am extremely grateful that this happened in a place where it was feasible for me to find alternative means home and back again, while also owning a smart phone to ultimately come to my aid. It is regrettable that not everyone is likely to be in a position such as that, in a remote or unfavorable area.

When my membership comes up this summer I will seriously be considering its renewal. I hope you seriously look into what obstructions might have prevented my call and possibly others today during the evening hours from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. I would appreciate a follow up phone call with any answers as to why this occurred and ultimately ruined my plans for the evening and inconvenienced other people in an effort to help me.

Very truly yours,

Erin Haselton

sent via US Mail February 17, 2012.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sweet tokens from Vivien and Nathaniel next door.

Geeky gifts for the man in my life.

Oh, Ron Swanson

Who doesn't love a reason to decorate?

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all, except those out there who say Valentime's. And libary.

The best pizza in the history of the world

1 package pre made pizza dough
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3 sprigs thyme

1 cup gorgonzola

8 slices prosciutto
Some parmesan-it's a pizza, load up as much or little as you like.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Roll out pizza dough as directions indicate on package. Or make your own if you have that kind of time.

Heat olive oil, garlic, and thyme in saucepan until warmed through but do not let garlic burn. When fragrant, turn off the burner and put lid on pan to let flavors infuse.

Roll out pizza dough, and using a pastry brush, spread olive oil "sauce" over dough, followed by the gorgonzola and parmesan. Top with prosciutto ribbons and drizzle any remaining olive oil over entire pie. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

No picture because we consumed it as if it were the last pizza on earth. Thus, imagine what the best pizza on earth looks like and there you have it.

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten's fabulous white pizza.

Project: nursing cover

Sewing project number two was a surprise gift for new mom Virginia. I found this set of directions and it was a great lesson in working with a knit, velcro, and boning.

I forgot to take pictures of the cover before giving it to her and asked if her husband could get her in some shots this weekend, and the kind souls they are obliged.

And she's such a good friend she even flipped it over so everyone could see the cute polka dot fabric underneath.

Sunday Confessions

We've lived in our house nearly two years and today I cleaned the oven. Lessons learned:

1. Follow directions and wear long gloves. Chemical burns are terrible.
2. I should do this more often. At least annually; maybe next Superbowl.

We hosted an awesome game night last night and I made 7 different apps and desserts and yet took absolutely no pictures of food or people. The food was great, the libations flowing, and the company the best.