we have a yummy chicken breast slices and spinach wrap held together with my awesome little elephant picks ^______^( and a close up of the bottom tier and what is inside that cute little cup???  )

What do you green-thumbers recommend for watering a rabbit's-foot fern that currently has some renters?

Obviously, we can't just dump water into the top. Mist the rabbit's feet?

We're likely to have these two as boarders for at least the next three weeks.

Book #23
Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
Fiction; humor
317 pages


"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton-and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers-and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

This book was one of the most unique stories I have ever read. I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of reading classic literature, but when zombies, violence and mayhem are added into the mix, it certainly does make for an interesting read. I thought it was commendable how Seth Grahame-Smith changed the wording but it still felt like one was reading Pride & Prejudice. I didn't think that this book was outstanding, but it was very humorous, nevertheless. If you're a fan of zombies and Austen, then this book is definitely worth reading at least once.

Books read this year: 23/50.
Pages read this year: 8795/15000

Visited Harvard University today w/ people from Poland, Brazil, & England. Very funny tour guides! Dinner w/ guys from Oxford and Germany. Tomorrow, taking tour of MIT and flying to Baltimore for 2 weeks for training. The other night, dinner with girl from Vancouver.

I have a sweet tooth tonight and it's way too hot to turn on the oven. I want to try out that recipe where you combine a box of yellow cake mix, a jar of pie filling, and a stick of butter in the crock pot.  I have the cake mix and the butter, but no pie filling.  What could I sub for that?  I have FRESH cherries--could I combine those with something (more) sweet, say, sugar or jam?  What do you think?

ETA: I washed and pitted some cherries, then mixed them with some red raspberry jam I had hanging around the fridge. I'll let you know how it turns out, but so far it's smelling reeeeeally good!

Hi all - my husband and I *finally* went to Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington, even though we've lived in the area for almost a year. 

My FAVORITE part of the whole day - the kitchen gardens and the "frou frou" gardens.  I think they were DH's favorites too. Apparently, G. Washington was quite the garden and specimen collector. Anyway, there was a smallish tree/bush in the gardens that was absolutely beautiful, but I have no idea what it is.  It had these very soft green buds in large bunches.  They almost looked like hydrangea buds, but I don't think they were, as they were blooming like this way back in May.

The first two pics on the cut are the mysterious tree/bush, the rest are Mt. Vernon GARDEN PORN.

( The first two pics on the cut are the mysterious tree/bush, the rest are Mt. Vernon GARDEN PORN. )

For the pool! Muffin and I have a nicoise salad, grapes, kielbasa with mustard, two tiny tomatoes, bread and butter pickles, ginger snaps and crackers. I put cheese in a separate container.

A fella I know has a carbine barrel for the Contender that he wants to sell me for $200. Its stainless, no sights, has a base on it, fits my blued fram just fine, and is in .22 Hornet.

Anyone have any experience with the Hornet in a Contender? I have a 14" .223 barrel and while I know the Hornet isnt anything like the .223, the Hornet's appeal is that I can load it down to somewhere between a .22 LR and a .223..... any one have any experience in that?

It seems like it would make a nice short-medium range gopher popper but I could probably get the same effect with a .22 or .17 Mag. I like the idea of being able to reload for it since I could, in theory, load some very mild loads for it that would be much quieter than a .223. It would also be a nice choice for popping turkeys in the head I would imagine.

So, heres the question - if I have a .223 in a 14" is there any real advantage (other than just wanting it) to getting a carbine length .22 Hornet barrel?

I wonder if someone can give me an ID on the two pointy leaf plants next to the leaf mine suffering columbine?  TYIA

This is really late, because today was my rib fest. I cooked over 118lbs worth of ribs and had tons of people at my house. I did not take many photos since well, was pretty busy. However a few shots were taken so this is what i am going to share.

1.  kayleigh.
2.  eighteen.
3.  nr. leicester, uk.
4.  phone, ipod, face wipes, hair brush, deoderant.
5.  four pounds from primark (chain-discount store in uk).

( go go go! )</div>

I was thinking about applying for it. I'm barely squeezing by as is and my work's insurance is lousy (I work low end retail). I'm part time and was wanting to go back to school. I'm hoping to not have to go back full time because I will still have to work (in other words I would not be eligible to go back on my parent's insurance; I'm only 23yrs old so if I were full time- 12credits+ I would be). I tried going to school and working at the same time but felt like I was drowning. I live at home with frugal rich parents who would rather spend their money on my little sister's apartment, spends hundreds towards church each month, and  a couple hundred a month on Mary Kay instead of paying ~$200 for my medical which includes dental too. Is it possible for someone who makes less than $16k a year while living at home to receive medical in the state of Minnesota? I'm just trying to make good out of a bad situation with people, who have money, that refuse to help me out financially.

Poetry: I've been prolific; I feel like Plath in the time leading to her suicide. I have 20 "done" post-grad poems, including the one I finished today. I'm already working on another. I feel that my depression is, in part, fueling my drive; not that I expect to die and get an Ariel out of this, but I do expect that I'll soon have groups of poems to start sending out. I haven't played the publication game since before I graduated. It's exhilarating to be back in the full thrust of my primary creative element.

Depression: still in the process of getting regulated on meds; still dealing with occasional suicidal tendencies. I don't think I'll actually do anything, though. I've recently asserted myself in important ways, as I need to ground myself, to protect myself and my boundaries.

Music: I've returned to my after-work and weekend practices. I warm up with a few intermediate Beethoven pieces, some songs I've arranged by ear (covers), and some boogie-woogie bass lines (to strengthen my left hand). I've halted my attempt to learn the Bach pieces I'd been practicing. Instead, I'm focused on Chopin's preludes (Op. 28). I find Chopin's often crashing insanity to be too frenetic and demanding to direct my attention to other composers. It feels especially discordant to go from Bach to Chopin (whereas I can go from Beethoven to Chopin, as Beethoven straddled the divide between the Classical and the Romantic eras in his later years).

Medical: too absurd to discuss. There was another trip to the ER last week involving catheterization. The drama continues. Eh. It's my life; what else can I say. I'm happy to enjoy the general excellent health that I have outside of my chronic issues.

Martial Arts: I've returned to regular weekly training with my capoeira instructor. However, as he's also a Wing Chun expert and instructor, he's been teaching me Wing Chun primarily. Once some basic Wing Chun is embedded in my "muscle memory," we'll work on fitting it into capoeira. For now, I'm just excited about learning Wing Chun - it's completely different than any fighting art I've studied, so there's nothing in my past from which to draw. I'm loving this challenge.

Wow I have been so busy...working and prepping for ava.  I can't believe it - 2 1/2 months more.  I am getting nervous and anxious about her arrival.  

Pregnancy has been treating me good.  I feel great for the most part.  I emotionally feel great and physically feel pretty good as well. :)  Joe is still being absolutely awesome and tells me I am beautiful on a daily basis.  I really don't know what I would do without him.

So here are some update pictures from the last few weeks - 7 months pregnant.

Last summer, the dude and I bought a full bed set from Ikea. We opted for the Hoppen dark wood collection because it caught all six of our eyes (b/c I wear glasses and all.) We loved the way they looked after they were set up...until we put clothes in them and saw that you could see EVERYTHING. No matter how neatly you folded your clothes, it always looked sloppy. We knew eventually we'd probably want a nicer bed room set but being as we have a budget and all, we racked our brains for a solution. I first thought of frosting paper that is used on windows but the cost and effort in that was too great to convince us it was a worth endeavor. Eventually I thought of a quick, inexpensive trick - perhaps we could take poster paper, cut it, and then adhere it inside the drawer with two sided foam mounters? This way trying to fix the problem wouldn't break the bank and if/when we do eventually well the set, we could simply remove the poster paper without damaging it. And, low and beyond my gamble worked! It cost me all of $18 and my opinion it's a MAJOR improvement! Hell it doesn't look cheap or retarded or anything like that - it actually looks like it came that way!

With luck, our house will be on the market in the next few days. We've done the typical de-cluttering and cleaning. The closets look half-empty, the bathrooms are sparkling. The paint scuffs have been covered. We replaced the doormat and added flowers by the door.

I'm looking for any additional small tricks or suggestions that you may have tried with success. Do people really bake cookies and leave a tray on the counter? Have you seen something on TV that made you say wow, I wish I had thought of that?

Thanks in advance!

Melody. 25. NV. Wallet, iPhone, makeup bag, chapstick, gum.

( A few more... )

♥.

Very basic bento today... I had a friend coming later. And no snack bento as I'm out for the most of the day. Le sigh.



So I have octopus hotdogs, spinach and cheese ravioli (just when I think I've used up all of the family's leftover pasta, we have more. We're a pasta-loving family, I can tell you that much), Smartfood popcorn, broccoli florets, tomatoes, and little cubes of cheddar. Oh, and plum sauce. I have that on everything. So nothing too pretty today, but that's okay. I'm just glad to get into a routine of making bentos every day, regardless of what I have going on.

01: Katarina
02: 21
03: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
04: Iphone, keys, wallet, work bag, ipod
05: random bag from chapters haha.

here's my previous three posts: 01 02 03




( come insideeeee )