To the airport!

Adding up the trips to Grand Rapids (4 in the last month) and the 24 hour drive to Kentucky and back, I’ve been on the road a lot recently.

So why am I excited about driving to the airport this afternoon?

I’m such a kid when it comes to planes.

My Old Kentucky Home

Actually, Katie’s new Kentucky home! We’re back from the mad dash to Kentucky this weekend to deliver a truck’s worth full of stuff to my cousin’s new home. Twenty four hours, 1000+ miles, several gas station hot dogs and miles of dancing to the radio station later we are home in Michigan safe and sound.

Riding in cars with boys

Sitting in the backseat of this car I’ve learned/relearned something important about myself.

Patience is not only NOT one of my virtues...it’s not something I can even pretend at for very long.

Today we’re heading out to my cousins for the big trip this weekend. We’re going to pack up her apartment today and then tomorrow we head down to Kentucky where we will unload in record time and then drive straight back to Michigan. I’ve been trying to come up with a good title for this trip and so far all I’ve got is “BOY WE WILL BE TIRED IN THREE DAYS!” That’s not really creative but maybe I can play around with the theme… ‘Exhaustion 2010’? Or maybe just go with the non-creative cliché “Kentucky or Bust (but hopefully not bust since this is a rental and that would be hard to explain to the insurance company)!”

Anyway, my brothers and I are driving up today and, of course, my brother is driving. Since I intend for them to do most of the packing, I’m fine hanging out in the backseat. Or at least I was fine until my brother started taking us on a back road tour of Michigan. I am not good at directions and I knew I was the only one who knew where my cousin lived, I was more than a little nervous about not taking the highway. But I tried to be patient. I tried to trust my brother’s driving and directional skills. I tried to find things to keep my occupied in the back seat but it didn’t last long. Like a kindergartener on a vacation I piped up from the backseat: “are we at the highway yet?”

Even now, I’m cringing a bit. My brother, bless his soul, took it in stride. Despite my whining he explained that the highway was eventually coming up and that he knew where he was going and that we would get to Grand Rapids just fine.

I texted my little sister to let her know that I should qualify for sainthood after getting through that trip without blowing a fuse. But maybe it’s my brother who should be getting the real props today.

For loads of people in my life today…

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7

Stormy weather…again

Seems like we’ve constantly been under severe thunderstorm warnings for a week. Thankfully we’re nowhere near a river so we don’t have to deal with flooding. Just lots of rain and wind and watching of the local weather channel.

Your love is like a summer storm,
rude and overpowering.
It cares not for picnic plans
or tended gardens or weak trees,
yet promises fertile grounds
and coolers winds in trade.
It comes in fierce and loud
shouting "I am here! Look at me!"
Yet blows over quickly leaving behind
debris and puddles and rainbows.
Your love is like a summer storm
powerful yet brief.

Owie

I celebrated the first day of summer with a BBQ, yard work, and a very nasty burn on my hand. Ouch.

Yummy!

I’ve had a huge craving for lemonade recently and this weekend I took advantage of cheap strawberries and made a strawberry lemonade slushie. Quite possibly my new favorite drink!

We drove past Gibbs U-Pick farm this weekend and it brought back lots of memories. When I was little we would go to this farm to pick our strawberries with Aunt Sandy. She had a hat and enthusiasm which are both required elements in strawberry picking. I felt like a proper farmer as I walked through the rows and picked strawberries to toss in the boxes. I tried very hard not to eat any strawberries while I was picking them…but I’m sure I failed. Fresh strawberries just taste too good and I have very little self control.

We didn’t go picking this weekend because I find grocery shopping much easier nowadays. But I do sort of miss my days ‘farming’ with my family and coming home with a big box full of delicious strawberries.

Happy Father’s Day

We didn’t quite work out the logistics of a BBQ today but we did meet up to give gifts to my stepdad and discuss important things like fishing, frikkin’ chicken, Filipino food and mosquitoes. We’re very random.

I plan to spend the rest of my day watching Stargate DVD’s and eating strawberries (yay for cheap strawberries!).

That is, until tonight when it’s time for the Leverage season premiere. WATCH IT, PEOPLE! 

Home safe and sound. Ended the night with leftover pizza, a purse-full of candy, a trash bag poncho and 5 hours of sisterly bonding.

The end is near! The guys are putting down the last coat of wax and we've sung every 80's song we know.

One hour left! Whoo hoo! I may be a bit hopped up on candy right now!

It's not a party till the cops show up!

2nd trip to gas station bathroom. Did not buy candy. That makes me a sad Jen...and a sleepier one.

Floor guys went 4 food. We are debating riding on buffers. There are 2! We could race!

Made pop rock sounds vid. We are awesome!

Between the sneezing, the laughing and the accidental horn honking...I would stink at stakeouts.

Gas station bathroom was nice. Starburst on sale even nicer!

The rain has almost stopped, the hilarity keeps going!

Tip: when making a poncho remember head & armholes. Without them its just a trash bag on your head!

Accdntly honked horn. Would b embrsd, but it did make the floor guys end their cig break... so yay me!

Pizza is a go

1st adventure of the night: wind turned canopy inside out. Jen vs wind, round one!

It’s only 5 hours…

Tonight I’m hanging out with my sister in a parking lot till 2 AM. She has to monitor the crew stripping the floors at her work and since it’s sort of dangerous for a young woman to be hanging out in an empty parking lot by herself, I’m going along.

Sitting in an empty parking lot for five hours…yay?

Actually, I’m hoping that we have some fun. I’m bringing my laptop so we can watch Merlin episodes and we’re ordering pizza and I’m bringing a bag stuffed full of books, cards, games and enough bug spray to protect from anything in the tri-county area. I’m very pointedly not drinking a lot of water tonight because I don’t relish the idea of making a lot of trips down to the local gas station. My sister keeps saying “it’s only five hours” like it’s not like that long to sit in a dark parking lot on a Friday night. I think there’s a disconnect between my sister and I because I think five hours is a long time.

To add to the fun…we’re under a severe thunderstorm warning capable of heavy rain, hail and hurricane force winds. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS. When I got the first email warning about the storm, I was worried…and then I laughed. A lot. Because now I’m imaging me and my sister skidding across the parking lot with our lawn chairs and our pizza and my sister screaming out…

“It’s only five hours!”

Dreams

“The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.”

Ugh, that is so not the best thing about dreams for me. That moment, just before being fully awake is horrible. I clench my eyes shut tight, hold my breath and strain to hear what else is in my room. Is that rustle the shuffling movement of a zombie? That soft click the gun of a South American dictator’s assassin? Is the creak outside my door the nearing footsteps of a rabid bear ready to attack? These are the things that flit through my mind as I struggle out of dreamland. My dreams, even when they are nightmares tend to be incredibly detailed and very dramatic. Take last night for example…

Some thought it was the end of the world. There were monsters everywhere. Reports varied on whether they were zombified, infected with a virus, demon possessed, or just plain mad. We ran through our neighborhood (the one I grew up in as a child) searching for a safe haven, gathering fellow survivors on the way. We trapped something tall and green in a dumpster and we had to run Bigfoot over with a pickup truck. There was a terrifying moment as we crawled through the broken windows of a house when these dead-eyed mannequins spotted us, but we were able to beat them off long enough to barricade the windows. But we knew we were done for, and we gathered on a mattress in the corner of the room to huddle together and listen to the world ending.

Instead of the end of the world, we heard evil monkey laughter. (Yeah, never say that my mind doesn’t relish in the absurd) We watched as this small teal monkey walked into the room, his red eyes glaring at us. He told us, in quite a scary voice for a monkey (sounded like Tim Curry), that he was somehow at the heart of all the madness outside. I’m sure he would have gone on to explain his reasoning or just what had made him decide that killing off the human population was a good Monday morning activity, but when we heard he was the instigator we tried to kill him. As you do. Tiny Evil Monkey was strong and flung people across the room and into walls, laughing horribly the entire time. I smashed into a dresser drawer and started throwing the broken pieces at the Tiny Evil Monkey in desperation. He stopped throwing people into walls and started impaling them with the weapons I was inadvertently handing him and I had enough. Feeling bits of wood pelting and penetrating me, I ran towards the monkey and drove my spike into him.

There was a silence, like right after lightening, when a sound so loud is coming that it’s sucked up all the noise in advance. Then the monkey’s red eyes exploded and a concussive blast threw us all to the ground. Outside the house we could hear screeches and moans and cries that all ended in explosions. Like a wave of combusting dominoes, monsters went poof all the city. It was several minutes until we stopped hearing the faint echoes of explosions and though we were tired, injured and now covered in Tiny Evil Monkey guts…we celebrated. There was hugging and laughing and jumping around and we were so happy. Someone scavenged food from the fridge and we gathered in the living room to watch TV. Because despite the near-apocalypse, USA Network can be always be counted on for a NCIS marathon.

The next morning, we were making plans for moving out when we heard the first car. Even though this whole situation had lasted just days, the sight of that car seemed it was the first car we had ever seen. We crept to the windows and just stared as it drove down the road, driving carefully among the debris and bodies. There was debate about going out and meeting other humans who had survived, but before someone could make a break for it…we heard the trucks. Big ones with heavy engines and thick tires were nearing us and on instinct alone we shrunk out of sight. I stayed at the window, peeking out to watch as four big trucks rumbled into our neighborhood, carrying multitudes of orange clad prisoners. My eyes widened and I ducked away from the window, cutting a hand across my throat to silence the room. As I looked at our ragtag group of survivors, I wondered if we were truly safe yet.

Then I woke up. I held my breath and listened and decided that no monsters or monkeys were in my room and then I carefully crept to the window looking for signs of life. (It was early (and, you know, a small town) so not much) Eventually I stepped away from the window and started my day, hoping this dream would fade away. Unfortunately, it’s made me incredibly jumpy all day. I keep expecting to see a monster or a prisoner as I turn each corner. When I hear an unexpected noise, I flinch, trying to duck the flailing hands of someone trying to get me.

Oh, my subconscious…you are at times my worst enemy. (Also, a teal evil monkey who could talk? Seriously?)

My new favorite superhero

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!

 

It’s PizzaMan on Wheels!

Dawn Treader trailer!

or click here - HERE!

I'm so excited for this movie!

Turdus migratorius

I was over at my friends house and I looked out her window to see this lovely Robin perched on the deck. I scrambled for my camera and thankfully he perched there very patiently for me. I love this shot through the blinds, it makes me feel all sneaky and birdwatcher-y.

I used to think that birdwatching would be a cool hobby but then I realized I lacked the ability to stay still and quiet for more than a few minutes at a time and decided to pick a hobby that required less silence and patience.

 

Turns out this robin has a nest over the porch light and I nipped outside to take a quick peek. It’s actually a very cute nest and on one of my shots (that turned out very blurry) you can see the edge of a little blue egg. I’m enough of a city girl that I still get excited over seeing birds nest.

Every time I see one, I always remember taking nature walks when I was little and the singsong reminder to “keep your fingers and your toes out of the baby animals homes”.

New Pork Slogan!

Apparently, the Pork Council is tired of “The Other White Meat” and is looking for a new slogan. I’m happy to help!

Make a Pig of Yourself!

Pork: Cheaper than Steak (alternately “Pork: Steak of the Recession”)

Ham it up!

Ready for a pig-nic?

We’re Achin’ for Bacon!

Chicken is Full of Salmonella!

Pork for Every Meal – with shots of breakfast, lunch and dinner meals all with pork. Pork chops/roast/bacon/BLT/sausage/fajitas

Put Pork on Your Fork

Any other ideas?

Jen can (sort of) cook!

My high school had a course called Independent Living, in which students in the senior class were taught the basics of running a household on their own. How to write checks, how to keep a budget, how to sew buttons and how to cook. The culmination of this course was the Senior 2 Senior Dinner where the students budgeted, bought and cooked a dinner for the senior citizen home down the street. My senior year, the dinner consisted of pork chops and mashed potatoes.

But that wasn't the year I took Independent Living. I took it my freshman year due to an overcrowded Spanish class. At first I was completely scared to be stuck in a room of seniors who would probably know way more about living than me. Boy, was I wrong. Most of the seniors had no idea how to do the tasks set in class and the rest of the class didn't care because Independent Living was a pass/fail course. You didn't need to get an A, you just needed to show up and not sleep through it. I felt confident in the check writing class, and got flying colors in budgeting. My sewing skills left much to be desired (I still can't sew a button without major blood loss) and the teacher was never satisfied with my dusting...but my real weak spot was cooking. I was rubbish at it. My omelet didn't flip. My cake didn't rise. My pierogis fell apart in the pot. Half of what I cooked came out charred and the other half just looked like a mixture between vomit and radioactive waste. Needless to say, I wasn't top on the list when it came to assigning cooking jobs for the Senior 2 Senior dinner. In fact, I was low enough on the cooking totem pole to rate "salt shaker filler".

So the week before the dinner came around and we were supposed to do the cooking dry run. We weren't going to have to go shopping or decorate, just cook the meal so we would be prepared for the real thing the following Saturday. The only problem was that the dry run fell on the same day as Senior Skip Day. In case you don't know, skip day is when the seniors all play hooky and go somewhere fun to hang out. The teachers know that it's going to happen, but they don't know when, so they usually mark important days on the calendar and hope whoever is planning it pays attention. Apparently whoever was in charge of picking the date didn't care about Independent Living because I walked into an empty kitchen on dry run day. Well, it wasn't quite empty. There was me, my teacher, and a giant ham. She shrugged and told me that I'd get the kitchen to myself today and then promptly took up a position in the far corner. Maybe it was to have privacy to read her romance novel, but I think it was more of fear of me and my mad cooking skillz.

I stared at the ham for several long minutes. I knew the basics of the recipe. Our class had decided to do a luau complete with flowers, grass skirts and pineapple ham. You know what I'm talking about, right? The big baked ham glazed with brown sugar with artful placement of pineapple slices on top. Very yummy, and the directions looked easy enough but as I gazed at the printout in front of me all I could think of was the unfortunate incident involving me, cinnamon rolls and my cooking partners quick reflexes with the fire extinguisher. Even the most simple of cooking tasks seemed to go wrong in my hands and doing something on this scale was more than daunting. But there wasn't a lot of choice, and with the entire class out partying it wasn't like anyone would be witness to me failing so I decided to give it a shot.

Slipping on an apron, I set to work. I dug out a roasting pan and dumped the ham inside, trying to match it's placement to the one in the picture. The next step involved scoring the ham, and while I was smart enough to know that didn't mean "10 out of 10", I wasn't smart enough to figure out the part that told me to insert cloves in the center of each diamond. What the heck was a clove? Was it like a clover that had just been misspelled? Did they want me to put plants on the ham? I knew that sometimes ham was served with onions so I figured that clove was a fancy name for an onion and cut up one to insert. Then I was supposed to make a brown sugar glaze to pour over the ham. Note to anyone wanting to make glaze, it involves more than pouring a bag of brown sugar over the ham. I know that because my teacher gave a small sound of despair when I upended the bag and then just shook her head, going back to her book. I waited for five minutes, hoping that things would look more 'glazey' but no dice. I went back to the handout and saw the fine print telling me that glaze included pineapple and lemon juice, some spices and crap. Since I had already jumped the gun with the brown sugar, I just dumped the rest on top of the ham and tried mixing it by hand. Not the best way to make glaze. Finally, I figured that the pineapple slices would cover the worst of the mess and decided to get that ready.

Did you know that there is a website called "How to cut a pineapple"? This simple website has clear instructions and even photos to help you along. Sadly, this website was started in 2005, ten years after I stood in the classroom kitchen and pounded a pineapple with a frying pan. The leaves wouldn't come off, I broke my vegetable peeler on the side of it and the darn thing kept poking me. I couldn't figure out how anyone on earth ever ate a pineapple, much less cut them up into perfect little circles for hams. I decided that I would just smash the heck out of it and put the mush on top of the ham. The pineapple flying off the counter from a poorly-aimed smack once again drew the focus of my teacher who calmly informed me that a knife would work better. It worked…somewhat, and after 30 minutes, I had 2 perfectly round slices of pineapple and several handfuls of pineapple mush. I slopped the mush on the ham and mixed it with the so-called glaze and then placed my two perfect slices on top, sticking a cherry in the middle of each slice with a toothpick. Just like the handout showed.
I finished up and popped the ham into the oven and left to go to my other classes. I had the pie pass from my teacher which was literally a plastic piece of pie that had "I'm cooking" written on the bottom. Those were our ticket to get out of classes five minutes early to come back and check on whatever was in the oven in Independent Living. Since my attempts at baking had usually fall into a state of disrepair early on, I had never needed to take the pie pass. Now I held it up proudly as I waltzed out of Zoology to go check on the ham. My fellow freshman were suitably impressed and I fairly sauntered down the hallway to the kitchen classrooms. As I got closer, I realized I was holding my breath. I didn't want to inhale for fear of smelling smoke or burnt ham or burnt-something-else. Finally, I paused outside the door and took a deep breath. Instead of inhaling the familiar scent of smoke and charred meat, I got a whiff of something amazing. It smelled sweet and rich and quite like a ham should smell. I bounded inside, eagerly inhaling the aroma. Even my teacher looked pleased as she watched me open the door to the oven and pull out the pan.

...to reveal something ham-shaped. My scoring had been a little heavy and I ended up with ham chunks lying in a mixture of glaze and pineapple mush. Even my two perfect slices of pineapple had been tipped off to the side, and now instead of resembling a crown of glory...they were more like little ears. But it wasn't burnt. There were no smoking bits or suspicious lumps or anything that remotely looked like vomit. So far, it was the best looking dish I had ever made in class. My teacher helped me lift it out of the oven and tried to figure out a place to cut us off a slice. Finally, she just speared a chunk with a fork and plopped it onto a plate. The two of us took small forkfuls and eyed each other warily. Her, because she knew I hadn't produced anything edible yet and me...well I was a bit nervous about teachercide by way of ham. Then I took a bite. The ham was soft and juicy and the glaze had actually congealed into something delicious and even the pineapple mush gave off the right tang. I grinned at the teacher while she complimented me and went back to get another chunk.

I had cooked. It wasn't easy and it certainly didn't turn out pretty, but it was edible. No, it was better than edible. It was good!

And when the Saturday of the Senior 2 Senior dinner came along, I sat on the back counter and filled salt shakers, waiting until everyone freaked out before letting them know that knives worked best on pineapples.

Useless home remedies

Once I had a headache and cured it with cookies. Other times I've cured eye strain by resting a stuffed lion over my eyes. I am a big believer in using cold washrags, warm cups of tea and short naps to relieve pain.

For some reason none of these solutions are working for me tonight.

I've tried the hot shower remedy, the dark room remedy and even the cry-into-a-pillow remedy (okay...that last one is less of a remedy and more of an effect of all the rest of them failing) but still no change in my head.

Logic tells me that this is one of those things I'll just have to live through.

I hate logic.

Yummy!

As much as I hate hot weather, it is good for two things; growing strawberries and eating ice cream! (okay, I know that you can get strawberries year round and there’s never a time when ice cream isn’t an option…but go with me here.)

I got a huge pack of strawberries at the store and mixed them in with lemon chiffon ice cream. So very delicious!

Not quite as good as Freckled Lemonade from Red Robin, but still incredibly tasty. Right now, I’m loving summer.

Shiny Green Memories

When I was 15, the coolest possession I owned was a Mountain Dew backpack.

It was big, bulky, had more straps than I could ever use lugging my books to school and it was made out of this shiny green fabric that crumpled when I moved.

I loved it.

I remember toting this puppy to school everyday with something in every pocket. It took me 10 minutes to find a pen as I unbuckled, unstrapped and unzipped at the start of every class. I was prepared for bad weather with my umbrella strapped to the bottom and a poncho stuffed into one of the side pockets. But the real reason I loved this backpack wasn’t because of the excessive storage space…it was because I earned this bag.

In the 90’s Pepsi had a promotion where you collected pop bottle tops and sent them in for PepsiStuff, a catalog of merchandise. I had taken the catalog from the grocery store and decided that I needed that shiny green backpack. It was long enough ago that I don’t remember how many caps I needed, but I know it was a lot. Enough to fill a shoebox. I remember because I had to buy a shoebox from my brother for a dollar, he had the biggest feet in my house and I needed the space. The box sat in my bedroom floor, with the catalog propped on top so I could see my future backpack. As the months wore on, I collected caps from my house, from my friends house and from every random bottle I found outside.

Soon I had enough caps and I carefully filled out the form and took the bus to Meijers to mail my box. There were a couple of other people in line with boxes of caps to mail and I chatted with them about what they had picked out and how they had earned their points. I was proud of my big box of caps and when I mailed that box covered with brown paper, I figured that even if they never sent me anything, I had a lot of fun with the whole project.

The backpack came eventually and I toted it all over the place for a year or so. Eventually it got left behind in a move or sold at a yard sale or disappeared into my little sisters closet. I’m not sure what happened to my bag, but I’m happy with the memory that when I was 15, me and my backpack were the coolest things around.

Not quite the A-Team

Every county in Southern Michigan is under a tornado warning tonight and it seems to have hit just late enough that all the regular news crew had gone home. Instead we have the JV team on the air tonight.

Intrepid Weather Girl – She is so excited that she was here when the big weather dogs had gone home. When she’s not giggling, she’s struggling to find Michigan on the map. We seem to end up looking at Toledo an awful lot. She keeps saying “we’re in for some eventful weather tonight” and “it’s coming OFF THE WIRE right now.” And while she doesn’t seem to be as focused on Liam (anchor boy) as he is on her, she does giggle a bit more during her interactions with him.

Nervous Anchor Boy – “Don’t need to PANIC here”, Nervous Anchor Boy says with a squeaky voice. He’s apparently here to provide us with perspective because every time we cut to him he talks about putting a perspective on tonight. Sometimes it’s actual perspective and sometimes it’s just information. He also has a HUGE crush on the weather girl…”Julie is doing such a great job tonight” and “We’ll get back to Julie is just doing awesome tonight.” Before the night is over I expect him to start singing “Wind Beneath My Wings” when he switches back to the weather.

OH….they also are insanely focused on the lightning. “OVER 6,000 STRIKES!” “6,000 STRIKES! OF LIGHTNING!” “THAT’S THOUSANDS OF STRIKES….6,000!”

Oh, WILX, I love you so.

5 Things I Like

I’m very bored today and can’t really think of anything to write, so I thought I’d just do a list. Yay for lists! BTW, the above picture is actually a restaurant here in Lansing. Corner of Jolly and Cedar. I can’t vouch for their food since I only go there to take pictures of their sign.

1. Mad Style – The outfits of Mad Men critiqued – Beautiful costumes and pretty clever commentary.
2. A post on Wil Wheaton’s blog about how Facebook is evil. Oh, Wesley Crusher, again you are my hero. I hates the book of faces, and I’m happy to have links to point people to for explanations why.
3. Feed by Mira Grant. A book about zombies that is less about zombies as it is about society, news, truth and sacrifice. I fell in love with the characters in this book and can completely imagine the world that the author worked hard to build. I can’t wait till the other books in the series come out. I totally recommend this book to everyone (even non-zombie fans)!  It’s cheap, go buy this book!
4. Teeny tiny McFlurrys! McDonalds has come out with a snack size McFlurry and it’s the perfect size. It’s also cheap ($1.89 at Lansing McDonalds) which makes me happy too!
5. Disaster movies – I rented 2012 this past weekend and it was awesome. I watched it a couple of times all the way through and then fast forwarded to the parts where things fell down a lot. I don’t why I enjoy these types of movies so much (Volcano, Armageddon, The Core) but I really do.