Fan of Friday: Week of 4/27/2012

"Fringe" was picked up for a final season! YAY! You have no idea how happy this makes me! It's just, so, good!

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If you aren't watching it, what's wrong with you? Geez. Watch it tonight! Or, if perhaps you have a life and don't play The Sims and watch TV on a Friday night like some people (DON'T JUDGE ME!), DVR it or watch it on hulu. But, if you can, start in season 1. It's so well written, but damn if it isn't hella complex and confusing at times (Not like "Lost" confusing where everything just fell apart the last two seasons, but confusing because it's just so deep and detail-filled that it's easy to miss something important).

Trust me, pure awesomeness. I cannot emphasize this enough: it is the most well-written and the most underappreciated show on TV right now. Get on board people!

A Day in My Life

So, here's what I basically do everyday. I figured I would write it down so, someday, when I've got pets and kids and a promotion and no time and no sleep, I can look back at my wonderful life at the age of 25 and laugh and laugh. This was all I did and I was tired all the time for no apparent reason?!?!? Hahaha...

• 6:34 AM: Alarm goes off. Radio. Hit sleep button
• 6:41 AM: Alarm goes off. Get out of bed. Sneak out without waking up Dan. Bathroom. Make oatmeal and pour a glass of milk. Turn on "Good Morning Tucson" and check in on Facebook.
• 7:05 AM: Brush teeth. Wash face. Put in contacts. Lotion. Get dressed. Do hair. Apply make-up. Jewelry.
• 7:45 AM: Rush to put shoes on. Throw a lunch together. Tell myself I'll be quicker tomorrow. Head to work.
• 8:15 AM: Arrive at work. Check to make sure I'm not the last one in. Declare it a victory when I'm not. Check email and start my day. 
• Work: Meetings. Check on machines. Fix machines that have inevitably decided to stop working. Maybe actually get some design work done if there is time. 
• 10:00 AM: Snack at my desk. Usually some yogurt or a granola bar.
• More work
• 12:00 PM: Lunch at my desk. Typically left-overs from the night before, or a frozen dinner, or if we were really low on food, I head to the cafeteria to buy a pre-made salad and eat it at my desk. 
• More work
• 2:00 PM: If there isn't a meeting conflict, take a walk around the site with my dad. 
• 2:30 PM: Snack at my desk. Maybe a piece of fruit or yogurt (if I hadn't had it in the morning).
• More work
• 4:45 PM: Head home. 
• 5:15 PM: Arrive at home. Bring in packages that have been delivered for Dan during the day. Water my plants. Check in with Facebook again. Watch "The Big Bang Theory" reruns on TV. 
• 6:15 PM: Start on dinner. Cook so everything is ready around 7. Watch "Wheel of Fortune" and feel like an old fuddy-duddy by how excited I get when I watch it. Contemplate signing up for their contest because I watch it almost everyday and I could totally win.
• 7:00 PM: Eat dinner. Watch prime-time TV. More interneting. If I'm feeling ambitious, laundry, dishes, general cleaning and chores. 
• 9:00 PM: Work out. (I only do this every other day, don't think I'm crazy or something.)
• 9:30 PM: Shower.
• 10:00 PM: Get ready for bed.
• 10:30 PM: Crawl into bed and read.
• 10:45 PM: Lights out. 

Yep, that's my life. It's a double-edged sword. I love having a routine because it's how I know things work beset for me. I'm most productive when my day looks like this. But at the same time, routines are just so boring, aren't they? I really should try to switch it up on the days I don't work out more often, but things like that cost money and I'm cheap and lazy and ...

No One Wants to Be the Loser at the Reunion

I found out a couple of days ago that the film of a guy I went to high school with was accepted at this year's Cannes Film Festival, arguably the most prestigious film festival in the world. And while I'm happy for him, I barely knew him in my fairly small class (only 150 people) and all I can think about is how its going to make my ten year high school reunion that much crappier to attend.

Granted my reunion won't be for another three years, I'm already dreading it. With the invention of facebook, I am in constant knowledge of how everyone is doing after graduation. The nice thing about facebook is I can hide feeds and ignore people. I imagine it's a little harder to do that at a reunion.

There's something you need to know about my high school: it's a national ranked high school. Like a top ten nationally ranked high school. Yes, I got a great education, yes, it opened doors for me, blah blah blah, but it also bred snobs like you would not believe.

You could probably divide my graduating class into three groups. About 50% of us (myself included) went onto college, got our degrees, got jobs, and behave like fairly normal people. Some of us are married or in long term relationships. We have jobs in our desired fields and don't live with our parents.

Another 40% composes the group I call the "high and mighties". These are the ones that love to talk about the Ivy League schools they went. The ones that offhand mention the thousands of dollars in national grant money they won. The ones that talk about the time they spent overseas, either researching classic literature, building schools in third world countries, or teaching English in Asia. The ones who talk about the big cities on the East Coast they now call home. The public office that they ran for (he lost, so I wish he'd really stop mentioning it.) And before you think I'm just being bitter (I'll admit it, I am a little), it's the fact that the snobbery feeds of off the snobbery of others. They have to one-up each other. They have to rub it in your faces that they are better than you. Things like they wish they could settle down like you, but with their fancy job/doctorate/saving-the-world and constant traveling, how could they? They wish they could have a simple 8 to 5 job like yours, it sounds so relaxing. We've had several unofficial reunions through the years, so trust me, I'm not just making this up. They just have this way of getting under my skin like you wouldn't believe. Making me doubt my amazing life and the decisions that have led me here. I hate them for that.

Lastly is the remaining 10% of my graduating class. These people cover the spread. They are the ones that dropped out of college to get married and moved back in with their parents once it fell apart. They are the ones who do build schools in Guatemala but would never mention it unless you brought it up. The one that ODed. The ones that are bartenders and waitresses. The truly nice, innocent ones and the ones that life wasn't so nice to.

And who knows? I'd imagine my group will be larger in three years at the official ten year reunion. The unlucky ones get their lives back on track and the "high and mighties" start to slow down and realize what we have.

But seriously, if this guys wins his category at Cannes, there will be no escaping the brown-nosing in three years. Ugh...

Fan of Friday: Week of 4/20/2012

Another blogger turned me onto this wonderful make-up tutorial channel on YouTube by this British make-up artist named Tanya Burr. She does things with make-up that you won't believe. It's incredible. She breaks down celebrity make-up tricks and, more importantly for me, actually shows you how different sorts of make-up are supposed to be used. But if you want to look like Beyonce, Zooey Deschanel, Rihanna, Adele, Jennifer Lawrence (speaking of Jennifer Lawrence, I found this today. I swear if it weren't illegal, I would stalk JLaw until she was my best friend.), Audrey Hepburn, you name it. She can do it.

It just makes me wish I had a wedding or something to attend in the coming weeks so I would have an excuse to try out some of these looks. I don't think most of them are work appropriate for the lone female mechanical engineer at my work.

I fully plan on spending most of this weekend trying out these techniques. Tonight is date night after all, maybe I could make a smoking eye work that doesn't make me look like a crackhead who just woke up with these videos...

And she has her own website and video blog, too, but I'm pretty wrapped up in the tutorials for now. 

Project House Update: Ghetto Trellis

In a spur of the moment decision a couple of weeks ago, I bought a seedling kit at Target. It was only $8 and seeds were like $1 a pack, so I thought I could grow a bunch of types of produce for Turtle to eat. Being so cheap and given how bad I am with plants, I didn't expect much to grow.

Man, was I wrong!

Two types of lettuce quickly took over each box. Then, as if overnight, my sweet peas shot up, out of the dirt packets (don't buy the kit I did from Target, it's just crap. Almost none of my dirt packets behaved like they were supposed to.), and inches into the air. It took a couple more days, but my cilantro and parseley sprouts finally emerged, too. Almost every single pod had seedlings.

And then panic set in. I had plants. A lot of them. And absolutely nowhere to put them.

First, I found this idea on Pinterest. It lets you turn a plastic bottle into a planter. I didn't have any big 2 liter bottles of soda, but I did have a couple of water bottles...

But when I say I had a couple, I seriously only had two water bottles. So it didn't really solve my problem. Even though it was risky because they are so tender and fresh, I decided the rest of the sweet peas would have to fend for themselves in the garden. However, I could give them a little protection in the form of chicken wire. I have enough of it sitting around from the previous owners' landscaping.

No, this isn't how they landscaped. This is how we piled it when we undid theirs...

I figured I could unroll one of these bundles, prop it up against the wall in the garden, and plant the peas under it. That way, when the grew larger and stronger, they could climb it as a trellis.

So, I transplanted the majority of my sweet peas. Easy stuff, except for minding the roots that were already growing out the bottom of my little tray. Then I propped the chicken wire up against the wall and disaster struck. The pre-cut lengths are just short enough that they can't reach the top of the wall and the soil at the same time! I tried just leaning it against the wall, but no matter how I tried to flatten it, it just coiled up and crushed my sweet peas underneath it. I decided I had to anchor it to the top of the wall. It's just bent over the top of the wall, but it does grip to it remarkably well.

But now, it doesn't cover the peas at all! And it's inches from the peas, so even if they grow, odds are they would flop over and never reach it. However, I am an engineer for a reason, so combine some string and skewers and you get this!

The skewers support the peas as they acclimate and once they grow, they can follow the string up to the chicken wire.

So my peas aren't doing so well, but a record heat wave for April in Arizona definitely isn't helping (I may have to start watering twice a day). Hopefully they'll rebound and I'll have a pretty wall of sweet peas until Turtle eats all he can reach, probably including the base stems...

A Frenzy of Cooking

Over Easter, we had house guests. And like the good hostess I am, I stocked the fridge full of food.

Now, a week and a half later, we've still got plenty of food that wasn't eaten and it's reaching the end of its shelf life. So, I'm stuck with a ton of ingredients that needs to be cooked, eaten, or frozen before I lose a ton of money on it. I've started cooking as complicated recipes as I can to use them up, but I'm running out of ideas.

I've still got:

• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 2/3 cups heavy cream
• Fresh basil
• 2 blocks of extra firm tofu
• 1 lb strawberries
• 1 cantaloupe
• A bunch of lettuce
• Deli meat (not for me!)
• Ricotta Cheese
• A homemade loaf of rosemary bread
• Half a cucumber (Update: I found another cucumber in there, so I have 1 1/2 cucumbers...)

Know of any recipes that use at least two of these ingredients?

If you haven't clicked my "About Me"...

... it's full of pictures like this!

I love animal statues! This past weekend, I finally made it to the zoo, the first time since they built a new elephant exhibit. They have a baby elephant! And more importantly, a baby elephant statue!

And yes, I do wear a ridiculous floppy hat whenever I'm outside now. It's not even the middle of April and I've already had two pretty severe sunburns this year. I'm just that pale.

Project House Update: Chandelier Bing!

Come on! I don't know what you're talking about! The title is an awesome 'Friends' reference. Not lame at all...

Anywho, we picked a light for the entryway!

It's the one from World Market.

Reasons why we went with this one:

• The shape. After staring for hours at pictures of light fixtures, I decided I liked the bell shaped ones best because they match the arches between the rooms and the arch of the window
• The coloring. The interior is turquoise, but given the design, you can only really tell it's turquoise inside when you're right underneath it. Also, the antique bronze exterior is kind of Southwestern so when you see the light from outside through the window above the door, it fits with the look of the house.

• The size. The original picture I posted doesn't do the size of it justice. It's so big! It's actually 15 inches in diameter. I found a calculator online to determine the ideal size fixture for a room. You add the length and the width of the room in feet. That number, in inches, is the ideal diameter of the fixture. Given the size of our entryway, it's almost a perfect fit. Dan still thinks it's too small, but any bigger and I think it would be taking over the room.

• The detail. I love the cutouts. Since we still haven't hooked up the light fixture itself (just the shade was hanging for a while when I tried to win over Dan), but I have to imagine it will make all kinds of awesome shapes on the ceiling.

So what do you think? Did we make the right choice? The entry way still needs some work (i.e. a table, a plant, some art), but at least we'll be able to walk into our house at night and flip the switch and forget every single time that there is no ceiling light. Seriously, we forget every single time. Fun stuff.

Pet Peeves: "Act Like We're Not Here"

Part of the reason my posts have been few and far between is that we have been hosting house guests. I like having guests and entertaining, but at some point, it just becomes exhausting from the inherent need to be on your best behavior constantly.

Our house guests actually ended up arriving a day early (with some warning), which was fine. Usually though, these particular guests come down for holidays and such so we have time off work and can spend most of our time hanging out with them. However, this time because they were a day early, they were smack dab in the middle of our work weeks.

After settling in a bit, they politely said, "No need to worry about us. Act like we're not here." And while that's a nice sentiment, how the hell am I supposed to pretend you're not here? If you weren't here, odds are Dan or I wouldn't be wearing pants. We'd be playing a game of chicken to see who could trick the other one into cooking dinner. I'd be frantically flicking between at least three TV shows while playing Zoo Tycoon and lounging, taking up most of the sofa. I'd leave my dishes on the coffee table after eating dinner on the couch, most of which would probably be Goldfish crackers. The aforementioned pants would be somewhere on the floor in the bedroom. Once my stomach settled, I'd try to talk Dan into doing a 15 minute McDonald's DVD workout with me in front of the coffee table.

There's a level of politeness and neatness that comes with hosting which I fully accept, but guests should realize that this isn't our natural environment. It's clean and the fridge is stocked and I'm trying to keep conversations going. Our home is messy and the only vegetables in our fridge are in the 14 different types of salsa and we could sit together in a room and not say more than ten words and be perfectly happy.

So no, we're not going to act like your not here, but will try to make you think we are this put together all the time. But I doubt it's working...

Fan of Friday: Week of 4/6/2012

I'm officially a fan of the Hunger Games.

I've been meaning to read the books for a while, but being the cheapskate I am, I had to wait for my sister to get her copies back from a friend so I could borrow them. She finally got them to me last weekend, the weekend the movie opened. Of course, she went to the midnight premier, but she wanted to go again and take me and my mom. I told her I didn't want to see the movie until I read the book, so I don't think I've ever been so dedicated to getting through a book.

After about 150 pages, I couldn't put the stupid book down. Staying up late, promising myself "only one more page" and breaking that promise over and over. I even conned my husband into carpooling to work so he would drive and I could read.

Maybe it's just me, but part of the reason I really enjoyed this book was because none of the emotions of the characters were simple. Guilt, revenge, love, trust, loyalty, self-preservation. It's well layered and complicated.

Also, it's really good motivation on the treadmill. I just plod along, thinking to myself, "I want to be a badass like Katniss. If she can do it, I can do it." That's a total lie, but it's good inspiration. Let's be honest, I'd be the first one dead. I have no skills. I need some skills.

Unless there was some sort of 80's trivia portion of it. Then I would totally win.

I feel a little better now.