brewgrass!

Yesterday I had to be at Jess and Edglas' house at 7:15 to pack up a U Haul van they rented for brewgrass. I was so worried about oversleeping that I set 2 alarms. I woke up at 430 and couldn't go back to sleep so I read for a while and then got ready to go.

Which makes what happened next so ironic. I kept thinking I should leave but didn't want to show up at their place too early. When I finally left, there was some bike ride thing going on on my street. I crawled along at 5 miles an hour behind a group of about 20 cyclists. It was like something out of a 60s italian movie. 

Finally I got to their place and we packed up and headed to the festival (well, lots of stuff happened but you probably don't care). Once again, we were the first vendor to arrive and we ended up getting moved to a better spot. Also, Jess had not realized she needed to reserve a large space because she thought we could use the side walk behind us (turned out that was not the case). As luck would have it, another vendor had cancelled Friday night so we got to use their spot for free (so far Jess has been super lucky at events).

We started to set up and Jess realized she had forgotten the crock pots where the meat for the acaraje is kept warm. I ran back to their place and picked them up. Also, they had forgotten to bring an umbrella (there was a chance for rain in the afternoon) but I had grabbed mine that morning. We were joined again by Jess' sister Erica and her room mate whom I will call Romeo. We talked about our goals for the day. Erica and Romeo wanted to flirt with cute guys. My goal was to talk to as few people as possible and to learn how to mix the dough.

The festival started at noon and went until 10 pm. With so many of us there we got all the prep work done without too much craziness. We got the first order at 12:17. From that point on we were never without an order, but they were trickling in one at a time. I worked the dough and cooked. Edglas said I was good at mixing the dough and the acarajes were coming out picture perfect.

Then all hell broke loose around 3. We had a line and it started getting longer and longer. I was bouncing between the dough, cooking shrimp and chicken, and helping prep the sandwiches. And right as we were in the thick of it rain started to fall. That ended up being a bit of a blessing in disguise as it was the only break we would get for the rest of the day. At first we tried to keep cooking with me holding an umbrella over the fryer but it wasn't working.

at first it was just a light drizzle - 5 minutes after I took this picture it turned into a torrential downpour and we scrambled to move everything under the tent

Then it started thundering. People left or huddled for shelter. I decided to take some pictures since we couldn't do anything else.

Jess, Edglas, Romeo (a wine vendor had just come by and traded us wine for an acaraje), and Erica

me in the land of giants - at 5'8" I'm not used to being the shortest person in a picture - I started to think of the four of us as the amazons, with me being the runt of the litter

 I was then put on cloud duty to try to apply what I had learned in my meteorology class to figure out how long the storm was going to last. Jess and Erica frantically searched weather map sites to see what the radar was capturing about the storm.

And then it started hailing.

at first it was just little bits of hail, and Romeo and I were commenting that it was a typical little summer shower with some hail thrown in

then it started REALLY hailing and we worried the tent was going to fall down - it's hard to see in the picture but some of the hail was bigger than a marble - side note, do kids today still play with marbles? I loved marbles when I was a kid

At that point all of us were freezing, and thinking the festival would end in disaster, and just when things seemed to be totally hopeless, Romeo ran out into the hail storm and raised his hands to the sky.

"hail - FUUUUCK OFF!!!!"

I am not sure what mysterious incantations he used, but it worked. Five minutes later the sky cleared and the sun came out. Before we had a chance to even think about wiping the hail off the tables we were mobbed with people who patiently waited 20 minutes while we got the fryer heated up and the booth reassembled.

By 5 pm we had a longer line than any of the beer tents. Probably the only line longer than ours was the porta potty line which is why I ended up not peeing for 8 hours. Not that there was time to drink anything anyway. I worked dough, then cooked meat, then helped Romeo make sandwiches. The only thing I refused to do was take orders and money from customers. We could hear the bands really well because the speaker was right next to our tent so Erica, Jess, and Romeo would spontaneously start dancing. The customers loved it. They're all good dancers. I just stood there looking awkward.

Speaking of customers, we ran into some total assholes at brewgrass. There was a completely drunk woman who stuck a $10 in Jess' face and said "do you see this money? do you understand that I have money and want a sandwich?" (she had cut in line in front of everyone). Other people try to order from me so they wouldn't have to wait in line. And some guy complained about having to wait 5 minutes for his order (we were slammed and he had ordered 6 sandwiches - we deliver each sandwich as we make them so he already had some of his order but was just being a drunk dick).

And then there were the idiots. One woman told Edglas that the proper name for the sandwich was something ("acar" is what it sounded like she said) because she had been to Portugal and had something similar. Then she started lecturing him on Portugese (apparently she took a class once) and the derivative of the name of the acaraje sandwich. After I purposely bumped her twice she went away. Another guy tried to speak to Edglas in Spanish and then told his friend Edglas must not really be Brazilian (this was a common snot ass remark heard from customers: "but is anyone working in your tent REALLY brazilian?"). My favorite stupid comment from people was "oh look, they're frying potato salad". Do people actually do that? One drunk guy kept insisting that he didn't want to try an acaraje but he did want to try the fried potato salad and could I make that for him since he couldn't order it from the front. He finally went away.

Then there were the assholes who would come up right behind me and ask what I was doing, or put their food on our prep surfaces even though there was an area full of tables and chairs RIGHT BEHIND US. I was as polite as I could be but it pissed me off that people would put a PLASTIC CUP right next to a stove where I was trying to fry shrimp or set their plates of food (from other vendors) on the table right where I was putting cooking utensils.

And for what ever reason, children of all sizes would make a bee line right for the fryer. I can't even imagine the catastrophe that would have unfolded if all of us in the tent weren't constantly scanning for the toddlers of drunken parents. The fryer is barricaded but there's only so much you can do to keep people away from it. One drunk guy told his friend he was going to reach into the fryer and pull out some dough. He really looked like he was going to do it. Edglas gave him a death stare; the guy left.

Oh drunken people at music festivals.

We started running out of food around 8 pm. By 9:15 we had served our last order. People in line were practically trampling each other trying to get the last sandwiches. One guy started yelling at me and I was like "who the fuck waits until 9:15 to get food?" All the other food vendors were already shut down except the guy next to us who was selling popsicles.

All of us were exhausted but managed to get the tent broken down and everything packed up in record time. Having the van was great because we didn't have to make multiple trips. And I finally had my first beer of the day (and also my last, I felt light headed after I drank it). I finally got home around 11:15 and had a hot shower, and then watched Magnum Force because I was too tired to go to bed. I had a lot of fun and felt a huge sense of accomplishment from helping out.

As an interesting, to me, ending to this story, I would just mention that the five points jazz festival is in what's considered a "poorer" area because we have low income housing. The brewgrass was held in a yuppie-ish area of Denver. Who do you think were the better tippers? Obviously five points. Maybe people who attend events like brewgrass don't know how hard it is to work in the food service industry. You have to be physically strong, have good people skills, and be quick on your feet so you can figure out how to solve the crazy problems that happen when you're trying to feed people.

Something to think about next time you're eating out and aggravated by the service...

garden growing!!!

Looks like my plants are doing well!

I hope this is arugula although Jess was just over here and she said it kind of looks like clover...I tried to find some baby arugula pics and these plants kind of look like baby arugula but I'll have to wait and see

little cilantros are coming up on the bottom left and some chives are coming up on the top right!!!

more cliantros and chives!!!

when cleaning (almost) kills

I'm sure no one who knows me would be shocked if I died someday while cleaning. Then they would say "she died doing what she loved". I have had some close calls, mostly involving mattresses that I moved so I could clean them (somehow they always seem to fall on me - I once got wedged behind a queen size mattress and had to call a neighbor to help me).

Anyway, I bought a book about a month ago because I heard the author talking on NPR. Now, I should know better than to listen to 1 minute of a segment about a self professed "clean person" who was talking about her crazy cleaning habits to just go out and buy the book without doing research. But I did.

I hated the book. It was incredibly stupid. The one cleaning tip I picked up wasn't enough to justify buying the damn thing, and the author spent way too much time talking about how bodily fluids on sheets react with bleach (she's having sex when not cleaning, apparently - congrats!). There was a tip on removing poop stains from the sheets if you have a boyfriend with a leaky anus (she also provides a pseudo medical explanation of why men have a leaky anus) but the first time a guy got poop on my sheets would be the last time he ever saw me.

And I was forever annoyed with her "environmentally friendly" cleaning solution - mix vinegar and water. What kind of vinegar? Ratio of vinegar to water? How is that in any way helpful?

Anyway, besides vinegar, the author was obsessed with scrubbing bubbles and how great the product is. And I happened to be in home depot, and always have to go down the cleaning aisle to see what new things they might have, and happened to see scrubbing bubbles so I bought them. I figured I'd give them a try in my shower (which is not really dirty, since it's new, but I love trying new products).

I decided to spray the scrubbing bubbles and then watch an episode of an algebra class I'm taking (subject was moving back and forth between a parabola and a table of values to derive the graphed equation - very interesting). Then I rinsed the scrubbing bubbles (shower did not seem noticeably cleaner - my other product makes the tiles really shiny). I got a little blob of the scrubbing bubbles on my hand so I rinsed it off with water since I'm trying to use less soap since my hands are mangled from wearing gloves every evening to make the sandwich packets. I was kind of pissed that scrubbing bubbles didn't do a great job cleaning and further it smells horrible.

I went back downstairs and started the second algebra lesson. A few minutes into it I noticed that I was suddenly having some problems breathing. Then I looked down at both of my hands and they were swollen and red. So I went in the kitchen and turned on the light and saw I had patches of red all over my arms and that the patches were turning into blisters.

hand swollen, red patch on my wrist is where the blob landed

red patch that was literally spreading before my eyes, spots above are blisters

other arm, with spots and blisters - eventually had a big red patch on this arm too but my hands were too swollen to take another picture

alright, these are kind of shit pics but if you look at my arm compared to my hand, which is swelling, you can see how discolored my hand is - you can also see the red spreading from my hand down my wrist around my fitbit

Having been through the allergy rodeo before I took two benedryl and got into my contaminated shower and rinsed off twice with soap (and re-cleaned the shower the best I could since my hands were totally swollen). Within an hour my breathing was more or less normal and the red patches had started receding so I decided it was best to go to bed. This morning I'm more or less back to normal.

Fucking scrubbing bubbles and fucking book.

In other news, I did manage to finish all the sandwich packets (2,000 of them) so we're good to go for brewgrass tomorrow.

crushed it

and a cool story on the super predator shark killer

I love this shark blog (and not just because I love sharks) and there's a great post (linked at "shark blog") about the super predator shark that supposedly killed a 9 foot great white. And it turns out it was a shark that I might have seen on my trip (it better not have been Cuddles).

Suggested reading if you're one of those people who likes to dispel myths at happy hour or dinner parties (only to have your drunk friends look up questionable articles to refute you).

Just realized my great white shark trip isn't on my blog. Need to get that out...

denver, lebanese redux

My work colleague S was back in Denver on Monday for work so we met at my house with plans to go to dinner (I had to promise that where ever we went would be close so we wouldn't be walking for hours like last time).

The best laid plans...

He loved my new kitchen and said I should have been an interior designer (funny, on so many levels). We had a glass of wine and then got into his rental car so he could check in to the Curtis hotel. Actually, I asked if he was staying at the Curtis and he said "no, the doubletree". He had the address, and as we drove by I said "I think you are staying at the curtis" and he said "no, it's gotta be the double tree". We drove by it again and he saw a sign that said "hilton". The third time we drove by it we finally saw the double tree sign. The hotel is officially called "the Curtis, a double tree by hilton". Someone fire the marketing people.

By this time it was almost 8 o'clock. We had planned to eat at Hodson's but S wanted to check in first. Checking into a hotel is never easy when S is involved (every time we stayed at a hotel together some disaster happened). The poor young 20 something girl working at the check in desk had no idea how to respond when S said "you DID give me a room with a view of the ocean, didn't you?" and some other ridiculous things. She got so flustered that another staff member had to come over and help her. Then it turned out, shock and surprise, they didn't have a room for him but had to "unlock" a room so he'd have a place to stay that night.

I was like "great, unlock the room, we're going to eat". We walked to Hodson's and arrived 5 minutes after they had closed. Then I suggested a french bistro which was also closed. Sam's, also closed. I was about to faint from hunger and it was like the restaurant death march from the last time S visited all over again.

Finally we decided to eat at the office, in the Curtis. I ride my bike past the office all the time in the evening and it's always packed. On monday, there was one table with people. S asked to be seated near the ocean, again (he's from Florida), and the server had no idea what to do so I was like "we'll sit here".

The office, according to our waiter, is "exotic comfort food". What ever the fuck that is. I ordered the nicoise salad. It sucked. S got some fusion vietnamese, brazilian, chinese rice bowl thing that had a fried egg on top. It was okay. Would not eat there again except for the hummus plate which was excellent.

S told me a funny story: he had been at a defense conference in DC that had the latest in weapons. He saw a booth with a company that had a weird name, turned out it was an Israeli company. He asked if he could take a USB thing that plugs into the car cigarette lighter, what ever those things are called, that the company was giving away. The guy was like "sure" and S was like "thanks, that's the only thing the Israelis have ever given me".

(because he's lebanese - never mind - and for the record he has nothing against Israelis, he just always has to fuck with people)

We talked a lot about the conflict in Syria and the shit going on in Iraq and how it's not safe for him to go home to Lebanon to see his family anymore (besides the usual reasons, he's christen, not muslim). He said it doesn't matter what anyone does, the rebels, when you ask them what they want, have no definitive answer. They're just a bunch of asshole fucks that are wrecking the middle east. You can't negotiate with people who don't know what they want.

Then he told the waiter it was my birthday and the waiter offered to bring me a dessert which I declined because I felt guilty that it wasn't actually my birthday. Then the waiter offered to bring me a free glass of wine, and I declined that too. When we finally got the bill the waiter said "since I offered you a free dessert or free glass of wine and you didn't want them I decided to comp the two glasses of wine you guys already had" (we both had a glass of wine with dinner). And S was like "great job getting both of us free wine!" even though his company paid for dinner...

...and then we went to the lobby, his room was ready, he drove me home (it was 11 pm and he was worried about me walking home by myself) and that was the end of that crazy evening. He may be in town next week on Monday, which would be fun because I'm working in the evening at a brasil street food event for the world cup at the british bulldog and he'll get to try acaraje and we won't have to worry about dinner.

bird houses - finally!

In January of 2011 I had to have surgery, and my mom came to visit and take care of me, and I bought some bird houses for us to paint since I couldn't do much in the way of activity and I can't sit still for more than 2 seconds.

I finally finished painting and polyurethaning the bird house in April 2011.

My initial intent was to mount them somehow on the garage wall, but that didn't work. I tried a few other things with no success.

So they sat in my garage until today...last night I had an idea to drill holes in the bottom of the bird houses and then mount them on bamboo sticks that I bought for my sunflowers (which all died). It seems to have worked, and I think they look cool.

I used a metal hanging thing that I found in my garage (propped against the wall to the left of the bird house - I thought it was for curtains but Edglas was like "that's for hanging plants!") to make the hole for the bamboo. Thought this house looked nice above the lavender.

orange house near the mock orange bush, which really does smell like oranges!

I put this tiny house next to my tiny rose bush so the could keep each other company

I put most of the houses back toward the garage wall since that was my original idea - the pagoda house may be too heavy for the bamboo, which is ironic

I think the houses add a splash of color to my back yard - they may not be completely stable but birds can't sue me! anyway, someone pointed out the holes for the bird houses were too small for birds...

Well, that about sums up everything that's happened this week. Now I'm going to check to see if the dinner I made for myself actually turned out (it involved searing meat, which I decided to practice for next weekend when I have to cook at brewgrass) and will hopefully finish making all the packets for brewgrass.

Forgot to mention, Jess' business was written up in the westword blog...not bad for a new business!!!

a weekend in photos - gifts gone wild

Give me a gift certificate to Home Depot and Amazon (thanks Bob!) and you can expect all hell to break loose.

I've had a number of non-critical things I wanted to do around my house. Also, I am helping Jess and Edglas at an event next Saturday, brewgrass,  so I had some prep things to do.

First, the amazon gift certificate. Besides buying 3 used movies (surfwise, battle royale, and cloud atlas) and 6 used books (Virginia Woolf collection, St. Aubry collection, Making a Killing, a book on clouds, a book about ocean waves, and the power of habits) I also bought two dollies we can use to haul stuff around and roll the coolers under and out from under the tables at the booth.

it has rubber on top so the coolers won't slip and it can hold 800 lbs!

I also bought a privacy screen for my deck and two strands of 100 lightbulb solar christmas lights. My deck looks very cool!

christmas lights up (I hadn't put the privacy screen up yet)

privacy screen, as seen from the deck - I love my staple gun

privacy screen from below, you can hardly see it when the sun is shining

And I spent Saturday night making little packets to put the acaraje in. I had to stuff one packet into another packet and then cut the right side. I'm almost through the whole box, hopefully will be done tonight.

making packets for acaraje! btw, you're SUPPOSED to wear gloves when handling the packets

I found a few other things we're going to need for brewgrass that we didn't have the last time - this mat will replace a big metal tray and the dishes will be used to rest the spoons on

I also went to HD yesterday with the gift certificate my parents gave me and bought some pots and plants.

these flowers all smell nice, and I had to move my other plants inside because they were getting burned by the sun - most of these plants will flower into the fall, hooray!

Then I went back to HD today because I finally figured out what to do about my creepy dirt floor crawl space (I'm going to cover the floor with a vapor barrier I ordered this morning and use drylock to seal the bricks / plaster). I also had a new painting project in mind.

the last of my HD gift certificate - drylock, rollers, gloves, a crap paint brush, scrubbing bubble (I can't resist cleaning products) and safety goggles...I had to get those respirator masks and the goggles for working in the crawl space

I took these two old tv tray tables (purchased in 1994!!!!)...

...and painted them this snazzy neon red which did not show up very well in this picture - I'll take another pic when they're done

seriously??? arugula????

I might be 100% wrong but...I think I've grown some arugula!!!!!!!!! From seeds!!!!!!!!!!

if these are weeds, don't tell me

Also, I was on a leadership call today and found out my sr. VP shared the video I made with my colleagues with our CTO and they both LOVED it. And they both said I should be in Hollywood making movies.

Hahaha.

But the CTO wants me to make more movies!!!!

Go me today!

In other news the guy who offered me a job in his kitchen at the jazz fest contacted Jessica on her FB page and offered Brasil Street Food the opportunity to cook at his distillery every Sunday. She's looking into the permits.

the official diagnosis - I'm "internally deranged"

I went to see a doctor today (I'll call him Dr. M) because my dentist told me I have TMJ (it's causing pain and hearing issues in my right ear, difficulty sometimes chewing or opening my mouth, and apparently wreaking havoc on my back teeth so she suggested I go see someone).

I knew he was the right doctor for me when the first words out of his mouth were "wow, you have a REALLY big forehead". Later in the exam, Dr. M asked "why does your nose look weird????" (I broke it 3 times). Anyway, he said that the problem should be fixable with surgery because I have the kind of TMJ that can be helped with surgery (caused by trauma, when I broke my jaw in 2001), but he was afraid to suggest surgery because he didn't know what the doctor who originally fixed my jaw did to fix it. He is worried that the other doc used a teflon thing to repair the break and that teflon stuff is bad (I researched it and he's right). And the 2001 doc put in some screws which I was supposed to have taken out 6 months after the surgery...but I never did that. So I have some bone spurs that have grown over the screws that are contributing to the mis-alignment in my jaw.

So he had me see another doctor in his office for a second opinion and I have to go see a third doctor at the end of June. Dr. M said it's a simple problem to fix, potentially, if they can find out what the original surgeon did, but as it turns out, he's no longer practicing and I don't have a surgery report (I broke my jaw in a bike accident and was treated at the ER so it wasn't like a normal surgery where they give you a report after - luckily I kept the doctor's card). In the mean time I have physical therapy to do and potentially may have to wear a mouth guard that will keep me from closing my mouth (that's. just. great). I'm sure it will all get sorted, eventually.

I wish I had those "easy" medical problems to fix. This is like my zombie knee redux...

think pink!

I got my hair re-pinked today (thanks for the gift certificate mom!!!!). Since pink is what's called a "fashion" color it fades more quickly than normal dye. But hopefully since I've stopped washing my hair it will stay bright a little longer.

very pink! looks the same on my hair!

I'm 44 - I can do whatever the fuck I want now

A note on not washing my hair...Jess kept telling me about how she only washes her hair when she gets color put in but I thought, since she has really long hair, maybe that's why her hair didn't look dirty (we have similarly curly hair and you would never know she didn't wash her hair if she didn't tell you). And I did stop washing my hair for almost an entire year when I lived in Athens in 1998 - 99, mostly due to the water shortage, and only washed it after I slept in the sahara desert and got sand in my scalp. But I was swimming / scuba diving practically every day in the ocean.

Anyway, when I got pink in my hair a month ago I decided to do an experiment and not wash it for as long as possible. Then I did some research about not washing hair.

Personally, I've found everything those articles said to be true. I used to have an itchy, flaky scalp (thanks, aging scalp, for that) and my hair would come out in big clumps. Plus, it always looked dry, even though I never blow dry it and use a really good, mild shampoo.

What I do is rinse my hair with water...

...one sec, forgot I was boiling water in the kitchen and the pot is making a horrible noise...

...every other day or every third day and then I apply conditioner (and rinse it out, obviously, or maybe not so thought I would mention to do that).

My hair feels like little kid hair. My curls are healthier. And my scalp is itch and flake free. And that's after not washing for just 5 weeks. The first two weeks were a tad bit rough (until I found out about the rinse with conditioner thing). And my hair was put to the ultimate test standing over frying dough and shrimp / chicken at the jazz fest. It did not retain any frying smells after I rinsed it. And a guy at work complimented me on the way my hair smelled (I don't know why, but when I'm in an elevator with men they sniff me - weird, I know - I was once in an elevator at work with this totally uptight religious guy and he was like "SNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF" and then said "I love your perfume!" - I had to laugh because my perfume is made with cannabis extract - it doesn't get you high, it just smells nice but he probably would have freaked out if he had known - btw, the one product I use occasionally in my hair smells like coconut, maybe that's why my colleague liked it - also, I was only taking the elevator because he wouldn't take the stairs).

Anyway, if you're bored, not washing your hair is a fun experiment to try. Think of all the money you'll save. I hardly put any product on my hair these days because I don't need to tame frizzy curls or try to make it look less dry and crap.

Now I'm off to continue this really cool algebra class I'm taking (watching it to get ideas for a book I've been thinking to write called the math castle) and eat some spaghetti with Martha Stewart baked cherry tomato sauce that I just made (hope it's as good as the reviews claimed - it was so simple to make it seems like it shouldn't taste good.).

crushing it in Colorado

Not to brag, but I've finally managed to break into the top 10 in the Colorado fitbit group.

It's the little wins every day that keep people fit...

the best awful shoes ever

I decided on Wednesday that I should look into getting some flip flop like shoes so I don't have to put on my socks and shoes to walk at my treadmill desk. I checked at a store my ortho surgeon recommended to see what they had in stock.

And I did get two pairs of super cute flip flops and have decided to retire my chacos because they hurt my knee (possibly because every pair is at least 5 years old). And I did find one of the most comfortable pair of sandals I have ever worn. They have a rubber sole with a cork middle and the insole is made out of memory foam so it's literally like walking on marshmallows but they are durable enough that I can put a lot of mileage on them without having to replace them.

The only problem is, they are SO FUCKING UGLY.

are you fucking fist fucking me????? this designer needs to be fired and then sent somewhere without pencils and paper so they never design ANYTHING EVER AGAIN - I can't believe I paid $120 for these shoes

Seriously, if I had to walk over molten glass and was given the choice to do it barefoot or with these shoes, I would go barefoot because I don't ever want anyone to see these on my feet. I kept the box so I can hide them when I'm not using them on my treadmill.

Why do shoe designers equate "comfortable shoe" with "people who have no sense of style"? Ech. I'm doing some research on how I can cover that awful triangle in the middle of these shoes with something more esthetically pleasing because I occasionally catch of glimpse of them under my treadmill desk and they make me want to throw up.

I love paint and plants

On tuesday I was going to do some ironing and noticed that the hamper I keep my wrinkled stuff in, which is 17 years old, was looking kind of crap. Then I noticed the trash can in the laundry room also looked like crap. Then I spilled pink nail polish in the trash can in my room so I was like "fuck it, I have a Home Depot gift certificate". I got some spray paint and went to work.

very cool spray paint

hamper, I tried to clean it so it would look nicer but the paint came off

$3 trash cans I got from Ikea in 2001 - they're rusting

nail polish disaster

post painting - they look so cool!

And since I was painting I decided to repaint all my window sills since the plants / cacti have made a mess on them. I coated them with polyurethane this time so they'll be easy to keep clean.

But the painting of the window sills required me to move all my plants outside and I decided to re-pot them (I did not know you were supposed to re-pot house plants at least once a year to refresh the soil until I took a gardening class). I have them all outside until the window sills dry. Might leave them out for the summer, I'll see how they do getting real sunlight.

I put the old shelves from my office outside - the plants seem to like it out there so far

I transplanted all of them into larger pots I had laying around...might use these pots to start an herb garden using seeds

I also went to the nursery and got some arugula seeds (apparently no one sells arugula around here that's already grown - I called a bunch of places and no one had any). Funnily, the woman who owns the nursery where I got the seeds said she'd never tried arugula. I was like "hmm" and she said "I hate vegetables, but this year I decided I'm going to try kale".

How can you own a nursery and hate vegetables?????????????????

an herb garden with chives, arugula, arugula seeds, and chives seeds...could be a disaster or might turn out great

tomato and raspberries seem to be coming along...well, at least they're still alive

with apologies to the Blair Witch Project

On Friday I and two of my colleagues made a movie. It's about solution architecture which is what I work on. I've been trying to think up ways to encourage people to follow a standard practice and thought, since they seem bored with my power points, multimedia would be the way to go.

It's horribly acted and likely only funny to anyone who is an (IT) architect that has also seen the Blair Witch Project. You can see the fading pink in my hair (have to do a refresh next week). I am eternally grateful that my colleagues agreed to join me in this project.

I used wondershare to edit the video since we filmed it on an iPhone, iMovies sucks, and I don't have a Mac. I've never edited a video in my life so had no idea what I was doing. I think it came out pretty well except for a bad splice at the end (learned a lesson about having some pauses in the vid in case you have to edit it). It's pretty obvious I spent the whole movie on the verge of hysterical laughter. My colleague Pete kept coming up with one liners that I wasn't expecting and that I couldn't laugh at. We both almost made each other laugh a few times in the movie.

Anyway, not heading to hollywood, but had a ton of fun and plan to make more movies. The movie took us about 20 minutes (including set up and practicing each scene) to make.

I also did a vlog after the movie about making the movie and the ideas behind what we did. I sent the above vid, and the vlog, to a senior VP in my company (I made the vlog for him). He should get it on Monday at which point I'll either be praised or fired. I'll try to post some quick clips from the movie later this week.

fingers crossed for a green thumb!

While I've been slacking on my blog I've been busy with all kinds of projects...

I had to sand, patch, and repaint my ceilings upstairs because I had new vents installed for my swamp cooler. It took a lot longer than I thought it would to sand and patch and there was a huge mess to clean up after...

And today a guy came to fix the back flow for my sprinkler. He also made some minor adjustments to make the drip system work better (no charge for that). I happened to mention to him how I get a really bad pipe bang (pipe banging against one of the 2 x 4s holding up my kitchen) every time the sprinkler system goes off. The banging is so loud it would wake me up at 430 every morning, and because the sprinklers run for 15 minutes it kind of sucked (sometimes I could fall back asleep but most times I couldn't - nothing sadder than wandering around a house at 5 in the morning with nothing to do because it's too early to vacuum). He managed to fix the banging by putting in a release valve. Psyched!

it's like a cigarette for the sprinkler system - relieves pressure

I told the sprinkler guy how my next door neighbor was complaining about military planes flying low over our building early in the morning waking him up and at first I was puzzled since we hardly ever hear planes and then realized my neighbor was also hearing the pipe banging and assumed it was an F-16 or something. The sprinkler guy laughed so hard he had to turn off his torch thing that he was using to weld the release valve. As I was writing him a check he called one of his sprinkler buddies and told him the story. If you read about it somewhere else, that was me.

And since my mom gave me a gift certificate to home depot for my birthday I decided to go there after work today to buy some plants. I didn't even spend half of the money yet because they were sold out of some of the plants I wanted...things could get really interesting in my back yard as I use up the gift certificate.

I got these, um, white and pink flowers - I don't know what kind they are, they're...flowers - and I like them

the plant to the left is a raspberry bush (going to see how it does in a planter as an experiment), and the other two are cherry tomatoes plants purported, by their labels, to grow "excellently" in planters

blueberry bush!!!!!!! much of what I read cautioned that blueberries can take over a yard - have at it! I love blueberries

I had to re-pot my christmas cactus that Cam gave me for christmas - hope I don't have to re-pot it again because it's getting too heavy to lift - 13" planter, I remember when I first got it and it fit into a 6" pot

this is the start of an herb garden, I'm going to add some chives and cilantro to the pot as soon as I can find some - it's like a little herb garden in a big pot

while I was carrying the christmas cactus outside one of his little arms snapped off - so I put it in a shot glass to see if it will grow roots

this is some thai basil from take out pho that I got two weeks ago - I put it in a shot glass and it grew roots so I potted it to see what will happen

Hopefully my garden will be a success this summer. If not, I'll be sure to post pics of the deadest plants ever.