FeatherLight

PR5 - Episode One

Amanda — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:01:41 +0000

I have no intention of recapping Project Runway; there are others already taking up that gauntlet, and they do a far better and more entertaining job than I ever could. That being said… I caught the season 5 premiere lastnight, and have just a few questions and comments.

Heidi Klum, why must you yell at the contestants? I don’t know if it was terribly windy on the Atlas rooftop, or what, but Frau Klum was entering a vocal range reserved only for naughty prison inmates, not only in volume, but in tone, too. She was kind of barking at them. I’ll forgive her, though, because she and Tim Gunn make such a cute couple. I love Tim Gunn… I’m glad this season started so soon after the last, because I was beginning to miss him.

I usually form some opinions of the contestants early on (who doesn’t), and so far the only ones I really don’t like are Daniel — he looks too unkempt and greasy to me to be in fashion; Stella — she seems really hardcore, and also very one-note; Suede — anyone who refers to himself in the third person needs to GET OUT; and Blayne — he just scares me with the tanning addiction… melanoma, anyone? I liked Korto — she seems really down-to-earth, and I’m excited to see what she does the rest of the season; I also liked Kenley — not for any particular reason, other than her style aesthetic; Emily; and Jennifer — I don’t think she’ll last, but I liked some of the designs they showed during the intro.

I thought it was so cool to hearken back to the beginning of the series with this week’s challenge, but I could not believe how lame most of the designs were. The plastic cup dress by Daniel was kind of inspired, and while Korto’s was just another tablecloth among many I did like what she did with the produce. I was terribly dismayed that given $75 the best thing Stella could come up with was black trash bags. And not even high quality trash bags… the el cheapo brand. I thought Jerry basically copped out completely; thank god he has a real job, with an already established line of his own.

And Austin Scarlett! He’s precious. He wears more makeup and has prettier hair than any woman I know. It was good to see him, with that crazy fedora. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season… I may not post about it every week, but I’ll definitely have something to say, I’m sure.

ShareThis

Urgh

Amanda — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:41:20 +0000

I’m so sick of fast food lunches… today, because I was in a hurry to get to my favorite lunch-in-the-car spot, I actually went to White Castle. I’m sure I’ll regret it later, even though I tried to order the least innocuous item on the menu. Never mind the social implications of eating at a place that surely doesn’t use organic products (not sure what they use for fillers…). How ’bout a side of guilt with those chicken rings?

Tomorrow, I’m going Chipotle. Screw the post-lunch nap under the pear tree; I’ll live.

ShareThis

No zoo for me

Amanda — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:57:07 +0000

I took a vacation day today. I needed a bit of a mental health day… in case you hadn’t noticed from earlier posts, I’m so over my job right now it ain’t funny. I’m feeling a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place, as it were; I don’t actually have a college degree, and while my current position is kind of an industry standard, it’s different in the “outside world”, so it makes me nervous to think of looking somewhere else. I’m afraid that I don’t have enough experience with industry-standard tools and techniques. I’ve also been given the opportunity lately to broaden my horizons a bit and dabble in project management, which makes me think maybe I should stick around and see where that goes. Of course, I’m not confident that my current manager would recommend me for any other job at this point - he’s kind of a pinhead. In our very first one-to-one meeting almost 2 years ago, he made sure to tell me two things: 1) he very rarely finds fault with anything he does, and 2) he tends to focus on the negative in regards to job performance, because he’s sure you’re already aware of the positive. What a winner. Anyway, it’s all those negatives, like not arriving before 9am (clearly he has no idea how many other people arrive at 9am) or only working 40 hours a week (they don’t pay me for more than that, but I’d work more if it was needed), or not showing enough leadership (he needs to brush up on his Myers-Briggs, I think; the I stands for Introverted, which doesn’t exactly translate to LEADER). Anyway, I just needed a long weekend to recoup a little.

I made plans with my sister-in-law to go with her, Wia, and Emma to the zoo today. Naturally when my alarm went off this morning at 7, the rolling thunder began. And I’m not talking about the sound of lastnight’s gastronomy experiment from El Rodeo Mexican Restaurant… I’m talking about actual thunder. The kind that accompanies a downpour of rain. I checked the radar, and it looked like there was a big front coming through, and “scattered thunderstorms” were forecast for the entire day. I went ahead and showered and headed over to meet the girls; I figured at the very least, I could stick around and play until after lunch. It had stopped raining right around the time I got there, but no one was ready to go, and we figured it would start up again at any minute… right. Nope. No more rain today. We could totally have gone to the zoo, but the weatherman LIED. Why do we trust them at all? Why? I was bummed. I was really looking forward to the koalas.

ShareThis

Feeling sluggish…

Amanda — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:49:23 +0000

I didn’t realize, when I planned this lovely flower bed o’ mine, that I was going to have to deal with garden pests. Oh, they’re just your garden variety (ha, ha) garden pests, but I am not a girl who likes to deal with such things. I don’t do bugs. I was happy to plant the majority of the flowers by the end of May for precisely that reason. The most I had to worry about was the occasional worm I happened to dig up (which, yeah for the worms! That means my soil isn’t *too* bad after all!). But now… now there are slugs. And they’re everywhere! I mean, I knew they loved hostas, and I have loverly hostas, but I didn’t know they also loved daylilies and heucheras! And mushrooms!! I have mushrooms sprouting daily, which is apparently okay since they help break down the mulch into stuff the soil can actually use. But when I went outside to check on things the other night, one of the poor fungi was being attacked by not one, not two, but THREE slugs. Ewwwww.

So, I came home the other night with slug bait. Not the bad kind, but rather the kind that won’t kill any birds that happen to eat the dying slugs, or any animals that might accidentally ingest it. I have lots of wildlife (e.g. bunnies) in my yard, and I’d feel terribly guilty if, in my quest to rid myself of mollusks-without-shells, I happened to kill some innocent furries. Now, I have yet to actually put out the slug bait, and I’m not sure if I should. I came home Friday evening to a veritable flock of birds in my flower bed, and I believe they were feasting on slugs and bugs and other creepy things! Do I put out the bait anyway, or do I rely on my bird friends to take care of the problem? It’s quite a dilemma, I tell you.

In other gardening news (is this all I can talk about anymore? Apparently, yes.)… I’m excited to try a new (to me) technique for a no-till flower bed. I have a space on the east side of my house that I’ve always wanted to plant, and I’m going to try (sort of) lasagna gardening. Sounds tasty, right? You basically layer cardboard and organic materials over the area you want to eventually plant, water it very well, and wait for it to break down. I’ll be working on it over the summer… I’m thinking this will allow me to finally do something with the contents of the bunnies’ litter boxes. I feel so guilty every time I clean litter boxes, because I normally just throw everything away. I don’t think the neighborhood association would be very keen on composting; everyone around here just seems kind of uptight, and the possibility that it might smell makes me think it wouldn’t go over very well. I’ve just never been able to figure out how to get started, and rabbit poo, disentegrated wood pellets, and old hay just aren’t enough to get a good compost bin going… as a single girl, I don’t have much kitchen waste to throw onto the heap, and I have a mulching lawnmower so I don’t have to bag or rake the grass. But I’m willing to give it a try; I’m going to try to find a local compost co-op or something so I’m not wasting so much. I’m also going to look into installing a rain barrel. I’m not sure how I would water plants with it, but it would sure help with the water bill, and since reading about them I feel guilty just letting the rain water go. As if the ground around here needs more saturation. Look at me, goin’ green and everything! Er, trying to, anyway.

Photo by bizrytr, via Creative Commons

ShareThis

Is there a word for this?

Amanda — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:41:52 +0000

Uninspired? Unmotivated? I can’t think of the word. I’m feeling a little ennui right now, I think, and that’s causing the lack of posts. I have so many things saved up to write about, but that would require me to sit down and actually write. Mom’s here this week, so I don’t know if I’ll have much time, but I’m going to try. Stay with me, people!

ShareThis

Working from home

Amanda — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:42:12 +0000

A couple of weeks ago there was an article on MSNBC about how telecommuting just one day a week can make a big difference in your weekly fuel bill. I drive about 25 miles round-trip every day to work — I do try to run errands after work so I don’t have to make extra trips on the weekend, but it sure would be nice to save a little gas each week. So… my colleagues and I pitched it to the boss. We made a schedule where the three of us would each work from home one day a week, available via forwarded telephone and email, just not physically in the office. I really thought it would go over; each of us works from home as needed anyway. Alas, he did NOT go for it. His first “inclination” was to say no, and knowing the boss, that’ll be his only inclination.

That’s fine. This week I got to work from home anyway… the parking lots at work were so flooded that only essential personnel were required to stay in the building. Everyone else was sent home, and since I have the ability to log on remotely, I won’t have to take a PTO day. For now, until he agrees, we’ll just keep operating the way we have been.

ShareThis

Home

Amanda — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:15:34 +0000

I did sign up for NaBloPoMo for June, but of course I’ve already missed the first two days. The theme for the month is home, and while I thought that sounded easy enough, I’ve had a dreadful time trying to think of things to write about!

I thought today I would write a little about my home. About seven years ago I decided to build a house. Interest rates were low at that time, and even on my single income, my house payment was going to be less than what I was paying in rent. I wanted out of apartment living — I wanted room to spread out, to have a yard, to be able to paint any room any color I wanted without having to obtain permission first. I found a cute little house plan I liked, a neighborhood I liked, and I moved in a few months later. It’s just a little one-story ranch, and it’s easily one of the smallest houses in my neighborhood, but I love it. It’s just me, the cat, the guinea pigs and the rabbits, anyway.

In six years I haven’t done much to the house. I have plans — I want to put in wood floors, I want to paint, I want quieter, more energy-efficient appliances. I’d also really love to have real, grown-up furniture. I’d like to make it as cozy as possible for as long as I’ll be here.

ShareThis

I’m still here!

Amanda — Wed, 28 May 2008 02:18:34 +0000

Yes, I’ve been away from blogging… but I have good excuses. One, I’m feeling uninspired. The only subject I can really think to write about is how unhappy I am at work, but who wants to read about that? Nobody, that’s who.

Second, I have a sick bunny. Hazel had surgery almost 3 years ago to open his floppy, loppy ear canals to combat recurring ear infections, but somehow he managed to develop one in the last month that caused some facial nerve damage, leaving him unable to chew properly. He got to the point where he would eat a soft mush on his own, but in the last few days he’s having a harder time with that so I’m syringe-feeding him again. He doesn’t mind it, but it’s just a lot of extra work. Life is much easier when he eats on his own, and fortunately he seems to be back to it as of yesterday.

Third, I’ve been landscaping! I started Thursday night by spreading 18 bags of topsoil on the flowerbed. Naturally it rained on Friday, so I spent the day driving around buying plants and more dirt. It doesn’t sound like I did much those two days, but when I think about the fact that I, personally, moved almost 2000 lbs. of dirt… it’s a wonder I’m still standing! Saturday I got up early and added cow manure and peat to the flowerbed, then turned it all under. The soil here is such heavy clay, it really needs a lot of work. I also bought mulch, and then spread some of it around some existing spots. Sunday was D-Day… I spent the entire day adding another 22 bags of topsoil to the flowerbed, raking it smooth, putting down landscape fabric, planting all but 5 plants, and mulching. I finished at 8:30… just 1/2 an hour before sunset. Phew! My goal was to get it done over the weekend, and it is mostly done. I have a few more plants coming from White Flower Farm, and I’ll be visiting Soules Garden in a couple of weeks to pick out some daylilies to fill in the big bare space. I’m planting all perennials, and most of them are not mature plants, so I’m excited to see how it looks in the next couple of years.

I may join NaBloPoMo for June… just waiting to hear what the theme is. I’m hoping it’s something I can be creative with, but I can say for certain that it’s a lot easier for me to post when I have to… it’s easier having a reminder of sorts.

ShareThis

So…. tired

Amanda — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:43:39 +0000

I’m not a weekend person. I’m especially not a weekend warrior kind of person. But I have work to do, and so this weekend was an exception. RC came over around 7AM to start working on digging up the steel edging, and I joined him outside around 7:45, just in time to provide directions for digging up the shrubs. He couldn’t stay longer, but planned to come back and help me till while the girls napped. My goal was to get as much done this weekend as possible, since next weekend is a four-day holiday weekend for me — I’d like to have dirt and mulch delivered so I can get to planting while I have four days to do it!

Well… RC couldn’t make it. The tiller is in the shop, and… let’s just say he was strongly discouraged from spending more time over here today. It’s not personal; my sister-in-law is with the girls all day, every day, during the week and just needs a break on the weekends. Anyway, I had to press on without him. On my list of things to do:

Pull the hostas out of the flowerbed and plant them in big pots;
Dig and turn the entire 100 sq. ft. flowerbed, by hand;
Overseed the part of the flowerbed that used to go down the sidewalk, the part I’m letting go back to lawn;
Plant clematis (I bought 2 clematis plants while I was at Lowe’s this morning, and in order to plant them I had to remove the sod around the trellis so I don’t kill them by mowing over them or trimming around them with the weed whacker).

I actually got it all done. I took a break around 1:30 to go find something to eat, and stopped by a local nursery to see if I could find any of the plants I think I want, just to see if they’re available locally or if I’ll need to order them online.

Needless to say, I’m pooped. I’ve taken enough Tylenol to put me down for the night, and I’m already loafing on the couch in my jammies, watching the Indiana Jones trilogy on SciFi. And now, I am done. I might pop out for a Dairy Queen (I passed no less than three of them on my trip out this afternoon, and now I think I need a Blizzard or a Peanut Buster Parfait. Yep, I need it.)

ShareThis

My girls

Amanda — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:52:19 +0000

I have the cutest nieces. I don’t know what I ever did before they came along… I love ‘em to bits and pieces. Wia (which is what she calls herself) is 2-1/2 years old, and is such a little person. She’s one of the smartest kids I know, I think because all of us have always talked to her like a little adult rather than a baby. She’s definitely starting to test everyone, and I warned my brother lastnight that he really needs to watch out for the threes. She’s the apple of my eye, and totally knows it.

Emma is 17 months old, and she’s really starting to blossom. She’s always been a little more standoffish than Wia was, but now she’s getting to the point where she wants to be in the mix. She’ll still sit and entertain herself, but she’s also the one who brings a book and sits herself down in your lap to read. She wants to do everything Wia does, but she’ll also blaze her own trails. Her vocabulary has really expanded in the last couple of weeks, but a lot of what she says is still gibberish. I know she thinks she’s giving us the what for, but we just aren’t getting it!

I went to visit the girls yesterday afternoon while my brother and sister-in-law went out. I always have a ton of fun with the girls, and the last couple of times I’ve been over we haven’t even touched a toy. We just entertain each other. Lastnight, in fact, we entertained each other by playing with Aunt Amanda’s expensive camera and mobile phone. Probably not the smartest idea, but I got some cute footage…

Wia & Emma, May 11, 2008 from Amanda on Vimeo.

Seriously. I can barely stand the cute.

ShareThis