Sunday, August 30, 2009
DIY
This weekend I installed a bathroom floor. We used the vinyl tiles you can buy really cheap from Lowes and as my first attempt doing ANYTHING home-improvement related ever, I think it turned out really good. We bought a special knife for cutting the tiles but it ended up being too tall to cut right, so we had to cut the tiles with kitchen scissors. The only real problem area was around the toilet because there were all kinds of curves and hoses and things so it isn't quite 100% but I am going to fix it sometime this weekend when my dad is here and can show me the right way to do things. But I am still proud of it! It looks really good :) Hours and hours of watching HGTV paid off.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Life Lesson
Never schedule an eye appointment that requires you to get your eyes dilated and then return to your job where you read tiny print alllll day long searching for the smallest of mistakes. It was hell. Can't wait to see what frames I picked out for my new glasses - I could barely see the color or the shape so let's hope the woman helping me is moral & honest and didn't persuade me into buying something ridiculous :)
ALSO: I got my NC drivers license. They send them to you in the mail instead of just handing them over for some reason, so it will be in my possesion sometime next week. I am an offical North Carolinian.
ALSO: I got my NC drivers license. They send them to you in the mail instead of just handing them over for some reason, so it will be in my possesion sometime next week. I am an offical North Carolinian.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Adrienne
My mom bought a new puppy today :) A teeny tiny chihuahua! We already had a chihuahua named Rocky so we got a girl that looks JUST like him & named her Adrienne! Just like the movies, haha. We went to the mattress store to buy me a box spring and there was a pet store next door and that's where we saw her. This is pretty much the way every single pet we've ever owned has been purchased. She is 7 weeks old tomorrow and weighs less than 1 pound! She should get to about 4 pounds when she is full grown, which is HALF the size of Rocky. I will post some pictures soon. This brings the animal total at my parents' house to: 3 dogs, 2 inside cats, 2 outside cats & 1 bird. If Lucy & I still lived there it would be FOUR dogs! That cats are also recent additions...my aunt moved in and brought Jackson, Tommy moved back in and brought Jezebel, and some neighbors abandoned their cats which we now feed but they live outside, and we named them Stella and Orange Tiger (aka Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - courtesy of my 3 year old cousin).
I guess it goes without saying we are animal people. Adrienne is technically my mother's 50th birthday present to herself, which is funny because her birthday is next month and TODAY is my dad's birthday. But we asked permission before we bought her so that's fair, right? My mom got him tickets to see the Pats/Redskins game so that's got to soften the blow a little.
I guess it goes without saying we are animal people. Adrienne is technically my mother's 50th birthday present to herself, which is funny because her birthday is next month and TODAY is my dad's birthday. But we asked permission before we bought her so that's fair, right? My mom got him tickets to see the Pats/Redskins game so that's got to soften the blow a little.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Another Hit
Today when I was sitting on our porch eating lunch with my dad & my aunt I went to casually rest my arm on my chair and...got stung by a wasp. AGAIN.
This one was significantly less traumatic than yesterday. It didn't get me as good as his cousin. I think it was family revenge. Our backyard is basically a wasp mafia and I am apparently at the top of the hit list after my viscious murder of one of their bretheren yesterday.
It got me on my pinkie, on the same hand as yesterday. It was mostly just annoying because it swelled up and I had already used my only onion so I put ice on it instead. Then the sting on my palm sypathetically re-swelled.
That's 3 bee stings in a little over a month. I have managed to double the number of times I have been stung by a bee! Years from now I will remember this as the summer of bee stings.
In related news my mother and I are purchasing wasp killer at Home Depot tomorrow.
This one was significantly less traumatic than yesterday. It didn't get me as good as his cousin. I think it was family revenge. Our backyard is basically a wasp mafia and I am apparently at the top of the hit list after my viscious murder of one of their bretheren yesterday.
It got me on my pinkie, on the same hand as yesterday. It was mostly just annoying because it swelled up and I had already used my only onion so I put ice on it instead. Then the sting on my palm sypathetically re-swelled.
That's 3 bee stings in a little over a month. I have managed to double the number of times I have been stung by a bee! Years from now I will remember this as the summer of bee stings.
In related news my mother and I are purchasing wasp killer at Home Depot tomorrow.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Unpleasant Surprise
So since today is Friday and I didn't feel like going to the gym, I thought I would give swimming laps in my pool a try. It's bigger than the usual kidney-shaped pool, but still not quite the distance a lap lane would be. Athan had tried to get me to do it while he was here and I kept telling him I couldn't do any strokes because I don't have goggles. The reality is I am really bad at swimming laps and I was embarassed to have him see me struggle through it. But with him gone I thought today would be a great opportunity to give it a shot sans-audience, because Lucy doesn't judge me.
I hate opening my eyes underwater but I convinced myself it was for the good of my health, and was able to ignore the burn. Even though I can't maintain a straight line and sometimes don't lift my face up high enough to inhale air instead of water, I wasn't doing too bad. There has been a raft floating in my pool for like a week now because I am too lazy to put it back in the shed where we store our pool toys, and since me swimming was making big splashes, it started to float over to the half of the pool I was using as my "lane." I was really enjoying swimming laps but since I am out of shape I was starting to get tired after about 15 minutes. I decided to do just a few more and then give myself a break. From the shallow end I lifted my head up and saw the raft was exactly where I needed to turn on the wall of the deep end. I came flying at the raft at full speed and instead of hitting the wall with my left hand, I slammed it down on the raft, planning to push it away as I turned the rest of my body.
What happened what not what was planned. Instead of slamming down onto the raft, I slammed my hand down directly on top of a giant wasp. Of course I didn't know this at the time and when I jerked my hand up and my face out of the water to examine it, I expected to see two daggers sticking out of my palm and blood gushing into the water. What I actually saw was the nasty wasp, which I then drown out of hatred.
I probably set a new world record swimming back to the shallow end of the pool to get out, rhythmically chanting "fuck fuck fuck" the whole way. Only ONE month ago I was up visiting Athan when I stepped on top of a bee in his backyard and got stung on the bottom of my foot. Before this summer I hadn't gotten stung by anything since I was in sixth grade! My foot bee-sting bothered me for like 2 weeks after it actually happened, occasionally itching or swelling up for no reason.
Remembering my Back Yard Bee Sting Incident of 2009, I dried off and put the remainder of an onion Athan and I had bought onto my palm to stop the swelling. His mom had showed me the trick and it had helped a lot for my foot. The stupid bastard wasp must have stung me twice, if that is even possible, because it looks like I had 2 different stings about a centimeter from each other. I went to the bathroom and since the onion was offering no immediate relief, I was beginning to convince myself I was actually stung by a new poisonous insect and that the numbness I felt in my hand was actually the first sign of a heart attack. So I put the onion down on the counter and got into the shower so I could run hot water over my hand. While I was in there I was in a limbo between wanting to cry and wanting to puke, that's how bad my sting hurt. After about ten minutes, though, the swelling started to go down so I got out and put the onion back on, which helped even more.
I swear I am not usually that big of a baby but this was terrible. I hate insects. And of course now I am paranoid about bugs in the pool stinging me when I am not looking.
Moral of the story: Attempting to be healthy causes extreme pain and misfortune. Haha.
I hate opening my eyes underwater but I convinced myself it was for the good of my health, and was able to ignore the burn. Even though I can't maintain a straight line and sometimes don't lift my face up high enough to inhale air instead of water, I wasn't doing too bad. There has been a raft floating in my pool for like a week now because I am too lazy to put it back in the shed where we store our pool toys, and since me swimming was making big splashes, it started to float over to the half of the pool I was using as my "lane." I was really enjoying swimming laps but since I am out of shape I was starting to get tired after about 15 minutes. I decided to do just a few more and then give myself a break. From the shallow end I lifted my head up and saw the raft was exactly where I needed to turn on the wall of the deep end. I came flying at the raft at full speed and instead of hitting the wall with my left hand, I slammed it down on the raft, planning to push it away as I turned the rest of my body.
What happened what not what was planned. Instead of slamming down onto the raft, I slammed my hand down directly on top of a giant wasp. Of course I didn't know this at the time and when I jerked my hand up and my face out of the water to examine it, I expected to see two daggers sticking out of my palm and blood gushing into the water. What I actually saw was the nasty wasp, which I then drown out of hatred.
I probably set a new world record swimming back to the shallow end of the pool to get out, rhythmically chanting "fuck fuck fuck" the whole way. Only ONE month ago I was up visiting Athan when I stepped on top of a bee in his backyard and got stung on the bottom of my foot. Before this summer I hadn't gotten stung by anything since I was in sixth grade! My foot bee-sting bothered me for like 2 weeks after it actually happened, occasionally itching or swelling up for no reason.
Remembering my Back Yard Bee Sting Incident of 2009, I dried off and put the remainder of an onion Athan and I had bought onto my palm to stop the swelling. His mom had showed me the trick and it had helped a lot for my foot. The stupid bastard wasp must have stung me twice, if that is even possible, because it looks like I had 2 different stings about a centimeter from each other. I went to the bathroom and since the onion was offering no immediate relief, I was beginning to convince myself I was actually stung by a new poisonous insect and that the numbness I felt in my hand was actually the first sign of a heart attack. So I put the onion down on the counter and got into the shower so I could run hot water over my hand. While I was in there I was in a limbo between wanting to cry and wanting to puke, that's how bad my sting hurt. After about ten minutes, though, the swelling started to go down so I got out and put the onion back on, which helped even more.
I swear I am not usually that big of a baby but this was terrible. I hate insects. And of course now I am paranoid about bugs in the pool stinging me when I am not looking.
Moral of the story: Attempting to be healthy causes extreme pain and misfortune. Haha.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Updates
Things at work have been extremely exciting this week! I was asked to write the script for our newest promo video. It is a HUGE opportunity, especially considering I have only worked there one month, and I know a lot of other people there wanted to do it. So I have been working really hard and writing draft after draft after draft. It required a lot of research because before last month, I literally didn't even know what fiber optic cable was or how it worked. And now I am advertising it! Insanity. We went to a demo yesterday where a technician showed my department how to use our product and then showed us its competing technologies. As good as I thought my three fully developed scripts were (people like to have options so I did three similar ones, pretty much the same idea but variations on the focus) I kept feeling like a more creative aspect was missing.
Then this morning when I was sitting at my desk, it just HIT me. I just suddenly had a brilliantly creative idea, and immediately wrote a completely different script. My boss loved it, so now we have sent 2 options to the department that requested the video. One is my creative stroke of genius (haha) and the other is a blend of my 3 previous scripts. There isn't anything wrong with the non-creative one, I just really like the idea behind the one I wrote this morning better. Plus I feel like I do better writing dialogue than just straight information. And I know its very sorority-girl of me but there is also a tshirt design associated with the creative script and I would REALLY like to make tshirts. I can't help it - old habits die hard and this will be my first event-related tshirt-free year in a while.
In other news, Athan left this morning. He was here for a long time so it sucks that he left, but hopefully when he comes back on the 24th it will be for good! We went a ton of places when he was here too. Old Salem, Grandfather Mountain, Glenn Hilton Park (okay, so this is just a local place with a good frisbee golf course and trails, but hey), JJ's, the Moosehead in Charlotte...it was so much fun. Now its back to being just me and LuDoggie [and my "roommates" - aunt & uncle]. But not for long, because my family is coming down this weekend and staying for a week. It should be pretty crazy when everyone is here but I am looking forward to all the FREE FOOD. You never realize how expensive the grocery store is until you pay for your own food. Also sales tax here is 7%, which is like 2 %or 3% higher than what I was used to in VA.
Anways, here are some pictures from Grandfather Mountain that I took this week. It's really beautiful but windyyyy. Athan bought me some fudge at a store up there too but unfortunately crazy bandit Lucy somehow got it off my desk (HOW?!) and ate most of it. Luckily she has a digestive system similar to an industrial garbage disposal and didn't get sick. I think her body should be preserved for science. She is obviously much more evolved that your average beagle-mutt.
Because of my love for my sorority, I called him the Phi Bear
Then this morning when I was sitting at my desk, it just HIT me. I just suddenly had a brilliantly creative idea, and immediately wrote a completely different script. My boss loved it, so now we have sent 2 options to the department that requested the video. One is my creative stroke of genius (haha) and the other is a blend of my 3 previous scripts. There isn't anything wrong with the non-creative one, I just really like the idea behind the one I wrote this morning better. Plus I feel like I do better writing dialogue than just straight information. And I know its very sorority-girl of me but there is also a tshirt design associated with the creative script and I would REALLY like to make tshirts. I can't help it - old habits die hard and this will be my first event-related tshirt-free year in a while.
In other news, Athan left this morning. He was here for a long time so it sucks that he left, but hopefully when he comes back on the 24th it will be for good! We went a ton of places when he was here too. Old Salem, Grandfather Mountain, Glenn Hilton Park (okay, so this is just a local place with a good frisbee golf course and trails, but hey), JJ's, the Moosehead in Charlotte...it was so much fun. Now its back to being just me and LuDoggie [and my "roommates" - aunt & uncle]. But not for long, because my family is coming down this weekend and staying for a week. It should be pretty crazy when everyone is here but I am looking forward to all the FREE FOOD. You never realize how expensive the grocery store is until you pay for your own food. Also sales tax here is 7%, which is like 2 %or 3% higher than what I was used to in VA.
Anways, here are some pictures from Grandfather Mountain that I took this week. It's really beautiful but windyyyy. Athan bought me some fudge at a store up there too but unfortunately crazy bandit Lucy somehow got it off my desk (HOW?!) and ate most of it. Luckily she has a digestive system similar to an industrial garbage disposal and didn't get sick. I think her body should be preserved for science. She is obviously much more evolved that your average beagle-mutt.
Grandfather mountain & hanging bridge. +5000 ft. elevation
Athan at the top of the mountain
Not only are you strongly ENCOURAGED to feed the bears, food is provided. Basically almost no fencing is involved.
Because of my love for my sorority, I called him the Phi Bear
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Top Ten
My top ten favorite things about living in Hickory & greater Western North Carolina. In no particular order.
1. I have a 15 minute commute to work. If I hit all green lights, it can be 10 minutes. And my work is on the other side of the town! There is NEVER TRAFFIC here. It rules.
2. Trivia Night @ JJ's. JJ's is a bar/discount movie theatre in Morganton. It's a truly fantastic combination. The owner loves me and Athan and we have come so close to winning twice but always get the final question wrong and end up losing our points (its Jeopardy style). We eat popcorn and drink beer and watch wrestling or football on the big screen. Also in the bathroom stalls there is a fold-up table where you can rest your drink. Genius.
3. Having a pool. It has been 90+ degrees every day for about a week, which means when I get home from work at noon I can go for a swim right away. It's so refreshing and its a good place to do a workout.
4. Live jazz on Sundays at the Hickory Tap Room. It brews all its own beers and has really good food and all the performers have been great too.
5. Lowes Foods. A fantastic grocery store. Also I love Harris Teeter but we had one at home.
6. Locally grown produce. There is an abundance, mostly located on roadside stands
7. Drive-thru japanese hibachi. Yes. There are like 5 just on the main road. It costs between $5 and $9 for something basic like teryaki steak or chicken and carrots and a ton of rice. Honestly it's almost the same quality as an expensive Japanese grille.
8. Kiss 95.1 MyPod lunch. I don't know if something similar exists on radio stations elsewhere, but even if it did, I doubt it is as good. From noon to one they play some of the most hilarious, random and nostalgic music ever and I love it.
9. Old Salem. I know people think historical reenactments are lame, but at Old Salem they have one of the best bakeries EVER. It's beautiful but also insane because Old Salem is so quaint, but when you come to the end of it you are standing in the shadows of Winston-Salem's monstrous downtown city buildings.
10. Directions are given by landmark, not by road. That is because Hickory is on a grid system and all the streets have names like "7th Ave St NW" or "18th Cir Pl SE." Personally I live on a St Cir NE. So when you get directions people say things like, "turn right at Sandy Ridge Baptist Church and left at the empty lot that used to be a bank." It might seem annoying but the landmarks are embedded in the minds of everyone in the city, and you can have an emotional connection with the person or the place right away. That never happens with plain street names.
1. I have a 15 minute commute to work. If I hit all green lights, it can be 10 minutes. And my work is on the other side of the town! There is NEVER TRAFFIC here. It rules.
2. Trivia Night @ JJ's. JJ's is a bar/discount movie theatre in Morganton. It's a truly fantastic combination. The owner loves me and Athan and we have come so close to winning twice but always get the final question wrong and end up losing our points (its Jeopardy style). We eat popcorn and drink beer and watch wrestling or football on the big screen. Also in the bathroom stalls there is a fold-up table where you can rest your drink. Genius.
3. Having a pool. It has been 90+ degrees every day for about a week, which means when I get home from work at noon I can go for a swim right away. It's so refreshing and its a good place to do a workout.
4. Live jazz on Sundays at the Hickory Tap Room. It brews all its own beers and has really good food and all the performers have been great too.
5. Lowes Foods. A fantastic grocery store. Also I love Harris Teeter but we had one at home.
6. Locally grown produce. There is an abundance, mostly located on roadside stands
7. Drive-thru japanese hibachi. Yes. There are like 5 just on the main road. It costs between $5 and $9 for something basic like teryaki steak or chicken and carrots and a ton of rice. Honestly it's almost the same quality as an expensive Japanese grille.
8. Kiss 95.1 MyPod lunch. I don't know if something similar exists on radio stations elsewhere, but even if it did, I doubt it is as good. From noon to one they play some of the most hilarious, random and nostalgic music ever and I love it.
9. Old Salem. I know people think historical reenactments are lame, but at Old Salem they have one of the best bakeries EVER. It's beautiful but also insane because Old Salem is so quaint, but when you come to the end of it you are standing in the shadows of Winston-Salem's monstrous downtown city buildings.
10. Directions are given by landmark, not by road. That is because Hickory is on a grid system and all the streets have names like "7th Ave St NW" or "18th Cir Pl SE." Personally I live on a St Cir NE. So when you get directions people say things like, "turn right at Sandy Ridge Baptist Church and left at the empty lot that used to be a bank." It might seem annoying but the landmarks are embedded in the minds of everyone in the city, and you can have an emotional connection with the person or the place right away. That never happens with plain street names.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Fort Defiance
I was having a lazy Sunday today while my uncle was painting my new bedroom for me, so I decided to get in my car and go for a scenic drive. I ended up going to Lenoir, where I found Fort Defiance. It isn't actually a fort (don't you love names with no purpose?), it's the Lenoir house. William Lenoir was a pretty important guy back in the day and his family lived there from the 1770s to the 1920s. He was a general that served in the Revolutionary War, served in both houses of NC congress, was part of the Constitutional Convention as a delegate, and also played a big role in UNC Chapel Hill. The tour was obviously very informative since I had never heard of him until I rolled up to the Visitor Center. The house is completely restored and in a really beautiful area. It used to be a plantation but all that's preserved is the house and the extremely creepy graveyard that is for some reason located adjacent to the parking lot.
Even though it was 90 degrees outside and there were only 4 people on our tour (including myself), our guide was still a) extremely excited about being a guide b) obviously very into history and very in love with the Lenoirs and c) dressed head to toe in 1800s attire. He was sweating like CRAZY. There was actually a lot of excitement because the tour group consisted of myself, the tallest woman I have ever seen in my life, an 80 year old man with a cane and a 75 year old tiny woman, and when we went upstairs the old lady collapsed from the heat and we had to call the paramedics! It was crazy. What was weird was that her niece, the tall woman, didn't think it was too concerning and while we were waiting on the paramedics she finished the tour with me. Another weird thing I noted during the collapse drama was that the director of Fort Defiance was a) barefoot and b) wearing a tshirt that said "Last of the Mohicans." Why didn't she have to dress up?
When the tour guide found out I was working as a copyeditor he got so excited and wanted to show me all these historical documents he was transcribing which was neat, and asked me to volunteer and help him out. It seemed cool so I gave them my info, but on the drive back I realized just how far away it was so I don't think I'll get up there too often. He also invited me to volunteer at a reenactment there the last weekend of September, but when he started talking about costumes and stuff I had to politely decline. I may not know anyone around here yet, but that would still be embarrassing. Also I have no immediate desire to wear a whale-bone corset or a hoop skirt.
Even though it was 90 degrees outside and there were only 4 people on our tour (including myself), our guide was still a) extremely excited about being a guide b) obviously very into history and very in love with the Lenoirs and c) dressed head to toe in 1800s attire. He was sweating like CRAZY. There was actually a lot of excitement because the tour group consisted of myself, the tallest woman I have ever seen in my life, an 80 year old man with a cane and a 75 year old tiny woman, and when we went upstairs the old lady collapsed from the heat and we had to call the paramedics! It was crazy. What was weird was that her niece, the tall woman, didn't think it was too concerning and while we were waiting on the paramedics she finished the tour with me. Another weird thing I noted during the collapse drama was that the director of Fort Defiance was a) barefoot and b) wearing a tshirt that said "Last of the Mohicans." Why didn't she have to dress up?
When the tour guide found out I was working as a copyeditor he got so excited and wanted to show me all these historical documents he was transcribing which was neat, and asked me to volunteer and help him out. It seemed cool so I gave them my info, but on the drive back I realized just how far away it was so I don't think I'll get up there too often. He also invited me to volunteer at a reenactment there the last weekend of September, but when he started talking about costumes and stuff I had to politely decline. I may not know anyone around here yet, but that would still be embarrassing. Also I have no immediate desire to wear a whale-bone corset or a hoop skirt.
Part of The Grounds
