- Grandparents stopped by for awhile this afternoon, and it was a really nice little visit. They'd been visiting family in Cassadaga, and took Tom and I out for lunch. Grandpa seemed to be doing really well, which made me happy.

- Tom and I.. well, actually, mostly Tom, super-cleaned the apartment today. I picked up a few things, then started washing dishes. While I was doing that, and then cleaning the sink and table, Tom picked up the living room, swept, vacuumed the one carpet in the apartment, and even attempted mopping the kitchen floor (which he got annoyed with after about five minutes and quit). It looks so pretty. The re-arranging we did awhile ago really made a big difference down here, and we've been really trying to keep boxes and things from piling up in the living area. (Thus, the spare room.. well, hey, no-one needs to go in there anyway, right?) So within an hour everything looked awesome, and it makes me really happy.

- Heading over to coworker Samantha's place for a small (I think) party later tonight. I'm hoping to talk Tom into coming, but I don't think it's going to happen. Sam is one of my favorite people on the planet, so though I'm not usually a going-out-places person, she never has to twist my arm very far. I'm going to try out Heidi's artichoke dip to bring with me. I have yet to make a dip recipe that really works, but this seems fairly fool-proof. While I was getting ready to make a quick run to the store (QUALITY IS GOING TO CLOSE SOON! NOOOOOO!!!) to pick up the ingredients, Tom came downstairs. He was both bored (as noted in a previous post this afternoon) and hungry. But not hungry enough to make himself something. I took pity on him and flipped through some recipes, and realized I had most of the stuff on-hand for:

- Polish Style Lasagna. Which tastes exactly like pierogies - but without the serious hassle of having to make buttloads of little pierogies. And who doesn't have random extra lasagna noodles laying around? (At least I assume other people have this problem? that you always think you'll need a full box to make lasagna, and you only use half or two-thirds, and then you have some left, and then the next time you go to make lasagna, you still think you'll need a full box...) It is definitely important to add cheese to this - I grated some sharp cheddar onto each layer. I also threw a few green onions, garlic and paprika in with the potatoes, then threw smoked paprika and parsley on top when it came out of the oven. Tom pouted to find there was no sour cream to dump on top - which would have been a plus, but I think it's perfectly good without. (So does he, given the fact that the silly thing's about a third gone now.) Definitely a keeper recipe, pierogi-flavor is seriously addicting.

- And, as mentioned, my Quality Markets (the grocery store that is a three-minute walk from my apartment) is going to close, for real this time, and I am really, REALLY sad. Tops recently bought them out, and for awhile it looked like they were going to keep it open - just stocking the Tops store brand rather than the Quality store brand, that sort of thing. Buuuut, when I went in today, there were signs all over for an upcoming EVERYTHING ON SALE STORE CLOSING, and I overheard a cashier say they were going to be open maybe another month. I am heartbroken. Largely for the convenience-factor - it was so wonderful having something right there when I just needed one more onion for a recipe, or ran out of coriander unexpectedly, or whatever. Also, their bread was cheaper than Tops. Tops is still not far away - I think it takes barely ten minutes on my bike to get there. But it's far enough that I would not be able to get a jug of milk home without issues. sigh.

- Whittling is harder than I remember it being. I wanted to get a little twig to use as a fastener for my little mohair sweater-let (which I will post a pic of one of these days). I've been using an antique stick-pin (from the family hand-me-down stash of random jewelry bits from the shop my great-grandfather once owned), buuut, I get a bit nervous about having this three-inch long sharp thing on me. And I finally poked myself with it today. So, picture in pattern book showed a little twig holding the sweater together, which I thought looked cute. I thought, well, I can get a little twig, and then maybe carve a little spiral into it, that will be easy, right?

Yeah no. It probably doesn't help that my twig is from a shrub, not really a tree, so it was a bit weak. Also, it was small. And my random little jackknife has been floating around in my stuff for probably fifteen years without being sharpened ever. Got the bark off, smoothed out the knots, and tried tracing a little line.. and it just looked awful lmao. So, I am leaving it as a little bare twig. Pretty much anything will hold lacy mohair together, so I'll test it out tonight.

Labels: art, being social, cooking, crochet, family, friends, life in general

 
Melissa is looking at things on her computer. Tom is downstairs having some coffee.

Tom is bored.

Tom darts over and steals one of Melissa's slippers off her feet. Melissa doesn't see what he does with it, but as soon as she realizes it is not, in fact, on his person, she knows right where to look:

On top of the blades of the ceiling fan.

Which is about an inch out of her reach.

After much pleading, and much amusement on Tom's part, he returns the slipper.

Five minutes later, on pretense of picking something up off the floor, he steals it again and puts it on top of the fan.

He now refuses to get it down. "I want you to figure out how to get it down yourself! Problem-solving!"
"I don't want to turn on the fan and have it come flying down and break something. I don't think I have anything long enough to---" and she spots the bicycle pump two feet away from her.

After a few seconds of simply nudging the fan blades into spinning, Melissa knocks down the slipper.

Tom: "There, see, you can do it. I'm just trying to prepare you."
"For WHAT?!"
"For when I'm no longer here, and my ashes are in an urn on the shelf, and you have to do things all by yourself, and---"
"IF YOU'RE NOT HERE, MY SLIPPER IS NOT GOING TO BE ON THE CEILING FAN!!!"

Labels: life in general, silliness, storytime

 
//WARNING// The following is me writing things out in order to help myself make a decision. I would recommend skipping this post, unless you're in the market for an mp3 player too, in which case, omfg help.


Blehhhh. Trying to pick out a new mp3 player is annoying. I had to go up a price-range, because the 8gb Zune I was thinking about is an old (and apparently iffy) model.

So. iPod Nano 16gb: $179. Zune HD 16gb: $199. blehhhhh.

I *like* my current Nano. I'm used to it, and god knows my iTunes has hours and hours and hours worth of effort already put into playlists. (I am playlist-happy. I use playlists like most things use tags.)

Tom has heard nothing but rave reviews on Zunes, and I think the software has a lot more going for it in terms of growth.

The Nano has VIDEO CAPTURE. ickickick. The Zune's big advertisement is the ZunePass music-buying deal, which I am not so sure I would do.

...Tom finally had to tell me that I need to look at what things I WANT, not things I DON'T want. lmao. How sad is that. But the problem is, that with each new generation of mp3 player, they add more bells and whistles. The Nano does voice-overs that will tell you (in basically any language) the title and artist. The Zune has an oled screen and will supposedly play HD quality (on a 3" screen). I DO NOT CARE. I rarely watch video on a screen that small (I'm an art kid, I want to be able to see details!). It does not cause me any trouble to glance at the screen if I'm not sure on a track title, and the need to do that is insanely rare anyway.

I rarely buy things from the iTunes store. The ZunePass deal lets you download all you want, but only 10 of those songs each month will be playable after 30 days. (Which, honestly, is a huge leap forward - thank you for being reasonable about letting people try out new music. But... I need more than 10 songs a month if I'm after an album or two.)

The fact that the Zune will sync wirelessly is making me lean pretty heavily that direction. But, my iTunes is so nicely organized right now - and having used both, I feel like iTunes handles huuuge quantities of music better than the Zune software. Granted I've only thrown in a test batch of music, just to poke at the Zune software, but.. meh I don't know.

I'm aware that there are other things out there, buuuut, I want to stick with a major-major brand on this. I use my iPod.. probably 6 hours on a workday. All but like two or three waking hours on a day off. So reliability is a major issue, as is compatibility. I haaate that nothing will handle flac or ogg or anything still, but, I can deal. What I do not want to happen, is have major chunks of my stash inaccessible. MUST have Audible support. Occasionally I have weird formats floating around, and goodness knows what I'll get in future, audiobooks I download are sometimes in weird things.

Zune also has a touch screen, which I'm not sure if I want or not. I probably do. But I also foresee it potentially causing problems.

Both of them are stupid annoying sizes. I do not want something as big as a phone, but apparently there's not much choice on that one.

Lmao this should be such a fun, exciting thing to think about, but it's just making me angry! Maybe I *am* becoming a curmudgeon. (Tom keeps accusing me of this, but he also tends to forget what the word actually means.) sigh. idek. I *did* *want* a nano, but having looked at all the info... it really looks like apple is just rehashing the same old things and trying to keep up with microsoft, in this round of releases at least. The Zune just looks like it handles all the extra goodies in a MUCH more logical way, while the nano has to kind of fudge things into working. (Tag a song you hear on the radio, so you can buy it from iTunes when you plug your iPod into your computer! Or, hear a song on the radio, click and buy as long as you've got wifi going.)

Damnit I'm leaning toward the Zune. I can't believe something non-Apple costs more than something Apple. But then again, touchscreen (and a bigger screen, and an oled screen) and wifi for $30 more. That's not bad at all.

Blehhhhh I did not want to spend much over $100. And I do NOT want to have to migrate eeeeverything into Zune from iTunes. But if I do it now, I should have a few playlists good to go by November, which is when they're most crucial.


My iPod isn't dead yet - it still comes back from screen-death if I let it sit untouched for about 15 minutes - but as Tom's pointed out, the SECOND it does die, I am going to OMFGNEEEEEEED!11!! a replacement.

Labels: griping, product whoring, technology

 
Our neighbors are fighting in the entryway. They're college kids, a guy and a girl. Occasionally they play music waaaayyy too loud. They've been there since the start of the school year. That is about all that I know.

So they're yelling, and I'm slightly comforted by the fact that Tom and I do not yell at each other like that. Yes we get upset and voices get raised, but, we both back off when we know we're being totally irrational. (Or, Tom just points out how ridiculous I am being and makes me laugh, and then we discuss things.)

Girl: "Well I guess I just don't know you at all, then!"
Boy: "No, you don't. Like you don't know the real, inner me."
Melissa thinks: Good God how did you two think moving in together was a good plan if you're not capable of being open with each other??
Girl: "No, I don't at all!"

Girl: "You never TOLD me that!"
Boy: "Well YOU never asked!"
...I am not joking. I wish I were. I didn't think actual real people said that. But, they did, and their tone of voice said they meant it. I'll admit, I've fallen prey to that one in the past. Fortunately for me, Tom has made me realize how toooootally ridiculous an "argument" that is to make. It's not an argument. It's an excuse for both sides failing to actually discuss things with each other - it means you are currently incapable of having honest communication.

One of them just said something about myspace. lmfao. I should not be so amused by all of this, but good lord, it's so ridiculous. Something tells me they will not be renting the apartment again for next year.

Boy is saying that girl never told him that she wished he'd pay more attention to her. An email was read - an email??? really??? YOU LIVE TOGETHER YOU IDIOTS. From what I gather, she has felt lonely and neglected and never made it clear that that's how she felt. So he's getting defensive, and she's half-hysterical. ...did she just say something about fucking a teacher? hmm.

...And yes, I AM this nosy. I do not have my ear pressed to the door or anything, and it's not like I could help but hear the louder parts. I claim it's all for the good of future novel-writing. I plead character research!!!

Ooo! Now they're having the argument about him looking at pictures of girls online! She accuses him of looking at pictures of these chicks, he says "well don't you and your friends get together and go, 'oh this guy's cute'?" Oh man. Tom and I have discussed that one a thousand times. We both have picture-stashes. I have no interest in seeing his, and he has no interest in seeing mine. I'm aware that he is a boy and thus porn is probably a part of his life. He is aware that I have, in a past life, written slash fanfic. lmao. So what. We love each other, and at the end of the day, I fall asleep in his arms. That's the important part.

I really should feel guilty, but, honestly? These two are making me SMILE. And feel all warm and fuzzy. Because Tom and my relationship is NOT, in any way shape or form, like that. (I attribute this mostly to his insanely acute interpretations of human motivations. And the fact that I am insanely patient.)

Well. My Roasted Potatoes (with green beans and broccoli, since I apparently used all my asparagus the other day) are done, and they smell freaking amazing. And I need to go hunt in the cupboard, and see if I might possibly have stuff with which to try making onigiri, as a happy surprise for Tom, who is at jury duty for the first time today. (He's so cute and 1950s when he combs his hair!)

I. am. SO HAPPY. with my life.

Labels: apartment, cooking, life in general, navelgaze

 
Because I do not trust facebook to not decimate the quality and sharpness etc. of my awesome, awesome birthday drawing for Mel:



Love you kiddo. ;) Happy birthday. Your REAL birthday present is currently stretched out on my blocking mats - are you visiting soon, or should I mail?

Labels: art, family, photoshop, silliness