FeatherLight » hometown happenings

Handy, take 2

Amanda — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:26:29 +0000

I think I’m just a lucky person. Or unlucky… but I bounce back?

I got up this morning to shower, turned on the tub faucet, and it went “pffffttttt”. No water. Frozen pipes. It was supa-dupah cold here overnight, with lows of -12°… and I completely forgot to leave a faucet running. Oops. I called my dad, who suggested that if the pipes had not yet burst they surely would, so I should attempt to thaw them with a hair dryer. I couldn’t imagine that it would work, so I (naturally) second-guessed him and checked on the internet. Lo and behold, every website I read said to use a hair dryer. I bundled up and headed into the garage with my trusty Conair and set to work – it took 45 minutes, but I was able to get things flowing again. According to a local news channel, it is currently NA°, which is why I left the faucet in my bathroom running and the furnace at a nice, steady 71°.

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In other news, I mentioned the other day that I ordered a hard drive enclosure so I could take the hard drive out of the decrepit Gateway desktop and try to recover files. It arrived yesterday – can you say quick shipping?? – and I was able to mount the hard drive and get it up and running. There’s clearly nothing wrong with it, so something else in the Gateway malfunctioned… I’m not even going to bother trying to find out what. If I had to guess, I’d say the graphics card finally died, but it’s just not worth it to me to try and keep it going. I am relieved to know that I didn’t lose any data, though, and I’m glad I can keep that hard drive for additional storage. I consider that $39 well spent…

Piemaker

Amanda — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:56:33 +0000

Can I just tell you how disappointed I am that Pushing Daisies has been cancelled? I love that show… *sniff*

Oh, well. As a tribute, I made my first pie ever for the Thanksgiving feast taking place tomorrow. First, I baked four Sugar Pie pumpkins…

I love the coloration on this one after it spent an hour and a half in the oven. So pretty.
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Next, I pureed the pumpkin using a blender (as opposed to a food processor, because I don’t own one of those fancy contraptions)…

I think it turned out pretty well. I mean, what did people use before food processors were invented?
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After that I mixed the ingredients…

Not pictured: 3 large eggs.
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in this bowl…

My grandmother used to mix her pies in this bowl, too. She mixed everything in this bowl.
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And then I poured the mixture into the pie crust and placed it in the oven…

New pie plate. Removed the glue from inside the pie plate with nail polish remover… don’t tell!
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And after 65 minutes, out of the oven came my first pumpkin pie…

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I’m so proud of myself. I committed to doing the dessert for tomorrow, so I’m bringing this pie, a sour cream apple pie, and a strawberry pie from Gray Brother’s Cafeteria. All of that for three adults and 2 preschoolers. Forget turkey coma… I’m thinking we’ll be in a sugar coma.

NaBloPoMo – Day 1

Amanda — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:23:29 +0000

It’s that time again – November is the REAL National Blog Posting Month, and I’ve signed up like I did in March. I think this will get me back into the swing of posting more often, because I’ve been very neglectful lately.

Mom’s here visiting this week, so naturally we’ve been spending a lot of time with my brother and his family. Tonight we went down to Conseco Fieldhouse for a free Blues Traveler concert. Ryan and I saw them ten years ago at the Horde Festival, and they were just as good tonight as they were way back then.

They only played for an hour, but they played some old favorites along with a couple of songs from their new album. The girls enjoyed their first concert, dancing along to the music and generally being as cute as they could be. Emma is not so happy with crowds and loud noises, apparently… after about 45 minutes or so she stuck her fingers in her ears and said “TURN TOFF”, which I took to mean she wanted the noise to stop. I love being there for first experiences like this… the girls’ reactions are always surprising, and always entertaining.

Bo-ring

Amanda — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:06:20 +0000

Life just got a little boring all of a sudden, there. USA network started showing reruns of House – and just like that, I became addicted. Add to that the new fall season of TV has started, and I’ve been sucked back onto the couch. Sorry ’bout that. But hey! I’ve done a few things over the last couple of weekends…

I went to the Indianapolis Vegetarian Society’s Great American MeatOut ’08, which was awesome. Good food, okay music… cool prizes. I’ve always wanted to go, but never really paid much attention to when or where it was until this year. Indiana HRS was invited to have an information booth, and since I knew a couple of other HRS friends would be attending just for the food, I figured I could volunteer to do the booth and maybe I’d get to eat! It was moved to a larger venue this year – the historic City Market – but I don’t think they had as big a crowd as they usually do. I will say, though, that this crowd was much more my speed than what showed up at Ribfest…

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This past weekend I spent some time with my girls. Both of them are getting so big, and so grown up. Emma has learned “stop it!”, and if you annoy her just the right amount, she growls it at you. It’s fun to pick on her, I suppose because she’s so gullible. Oh, and, she’s discovered clocks. Only, when she says it, it’s definitely not C-L-O-C-K. The L is kind of silent. She’s precious, I tell you.

Wia is well on her way to threedom, and not in a good way. I’d always heard that the Threes were worse than the Twos, and she’s living proof. She’s generally a very good girl, but she was very bad this weekend, doing things specifically to taunt Emma and flouting Mommy and Daddy’s instructions whenever possible. She’s testing, testing, always testing, to see where the boundaries really are. The other night as I put her to bed, I said “Now, you’re going to stay in bed for me tonight, right?” Her response: “Why do I need to stay in bed, Aunt Amanda?” I don’t believe in the ol’ “because I said so”; I don’t think there’s anything wrong with actually answering the question. It might require some thought, but why shouldn’t a preschooler get an explanation? Of course, I’m not the one stuck answering questions ALL. DAY. LONG. I suppose it would get old after a while. Anyway, I told her she needed to stay in bed so she could sleep, to which she queried, “Why do I need to sleep?” Hmm. “So you have energy tomorrow to play, and read, and run, and play some more!” “….” I guess that stumped her! I AM smarter than a 2.9 year old!!

Oh, and in a brief moment of continuity…

Oh, how time flies.

RibFest ’08

Amanda — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:14:15 +0000

I’m not a big meat-eater, but I do like outdoor concerts, so when my brother and sister-in-law invited me to go to RibFest yesterday, I figured I had nothing else going on… and besides, Jonny Lang was playing.

We got there around 6:45 or so, and unfortunately missed most of Jonny Lang’s show… but we were in plenty of time for Ted Nugent. I didn’t even know he was still alive! I couldn’t believe how expensive it all was — $5 to get in, and then 7 tickets for $10. I spent $40 on food and drink alone… and I have to say I don’t think it was really worth it. The food wasn’t bad, but I could have had it at any barbecue place here in town. But…

I would NOT have been able to see the Nugent fans en masse. What a crowd! First, there was a woman who *might* have been pregnant, wearing what I think was the top half of a nightie, carrying her toddler with one arm while holding a cigarette in the other hand. It was really great to see her blow smoke in the baby’s face. Then there was the guy standing around with his ginormous beer belly, but instead of fastening his shirt, he only fastened the bottom button. As if that made all the difference? Oh, and it’s always fun to watch the drunks try to navigate the cable protectors on the sidewalk. H I L A R I O U S.

The thing that struck me most, though, was how the crowd went wild when Nugent yelled “Obama can bite me!” I can’t believe that this — THIS — is the Republican constituency in central Indiana?! This is the right wing? These people are conservatives? These people are ignorant. These are the people that vote Republican because it’s what they’ve always done, not because they think McCain is the right man for the job. It’s a scary proposition, and I’m so glad to have the freedom to vote for Obama. Ted Nugent can bite ME.