penmanship

The re-occurring theme this weekend has been cursive.

First, I was watching the BBC mini-series "Bleak House" (with Gillian Anderson), based on Charles Dickens's book. I think Brett's sister might have recommended it? anyhow, it is absolutely fabulous! Like the pride and prejudice mini-series , I resisted watching it, but once I did I was so drawn in that I that I watched the first 5 hours strait (hence why I have not brought myself to start watching the rest of it, I am scared!) I

After reading Great expectations, I really had no interest in reading Dickens. This one might bug me as a book to though, because (so far) like great expectations, multiple totally unrelated characters are all so intertwined "that it is, like, ya right."

Now, to the cursive. Someone's handwritting is an important part of this plot, and I don't know who they hired to do the writting in the movie, but I am jelous. I have such horrible cursive. (snapshot from the movie)
I WANT TO LEARN TO WRITE LIKE THIS


Then, today in church, they did a combined RS/PH class, were they got out a projector (with bad resolution, hard to see) to show us how to index names for the temple.

It was here that Brett informed me THAT HE CANNOT READ CURSIVE. I think he may have said it before, but I thought he meant he had difficulty reading some people's cursive (doesn't everybody?), but in actuality HE NEVER LEARNED CURSIVE, at least not traditional cursive. he learned some other kind of cursive where the letters look more normal ( like r's and such) and not all the letters connect, so he really cannot read cursive (including most of the examples we saw from indexing).

room Tour: Room 3-Hallway

One of my favorite looking rooms (sad? I don't think so) The color I picked goes awesomely with the carpet, and looks nice with the sconces. We still need to do the trim/doors/ceiling... but it looks good anyway.


Such happy colors.

On the left, front to back:coat closet you can't see, guest room, board game closet (you might use it for linens) then office, then at the end is the master. Sorry I didn't really take any showing that side very well for some reason, but honestly, you don't care.

right side of halway, front to back: bathroom, utility closet, utility panel, laundry closet, and once again the master is on the apex.

Room Tour: Room 2- Kitchen (unpainted...and our new table)

First, we have a table! Actually, I got it for christmas. Technically, for christmas I lost the privilege of picking out the table that
we had saved up to buy AFTER christmas.


Luckily, Brett did good. It took some pondering, but I like it.

1. I wanted SOLID WOOD so that it can be sanded in 10 years after baby's have teethed on it. -and it is!
2. I wanted a dark stain, because it makes my heart go a twitter- and it is!
3. I deeply wanted bar or counter height- and it is! (bonus!)
4. I didn't care if it was small (like a fourseater) , but wanted something that could at least expand for company. Lucky me, it seats six as is, and expands for eight!
5. I hoped for matching bar stools for our counter so that I can pretend it is a breakfast bar. (it came with all 8 chairs, so when we aren't using the expansion, I get my breakfast "bar"
6. I like square tables. Well. it is rectangle, but in the end, rectangle looks better in our dining nook. BUT IT EXPANDS TO A SQUARE!
7. I like that it looks classy. cause the only time you get to have classy looking stuff is before kids and after they get kicked out, so I will relish it now.



It fits perfectly. Not to big, not to small.



a slightly more topical view of the table...



Ohhhh leatherrrrrr.




Extra chairs for the counter



and a low view of the kitchen... I don't know why I did it so low, maybe there were dishes in the sink.... and I was too lazy to move the light out of the shot.

Room Tour: Room 1-LIVING (unpainted, unfurnished, undecorated).

THE BORING_EST SHALL BE FIRST.

I've decided that these photos are good enough, so instead of making you wait while I DON"T color correct them to match exact color (pretendingthat I will get around to it), I am going to post them now, as is. Most of the photo colors are decent.


These rooms are the same color they were when we bought them. I may have been mocked for painting my closet first, but I think it was wise. The kitchen and living are the first thing people will see so I want to do it right (and possibly wait until we buy a couch). The simple fact is that the last two rooms we painted are my favorites, and we only had to paint them once. The first 3 involved a lot of stress, remixing paint, and repainting. blehg.

THE LIVING ROOM!?!?!?!?




so... un exciting (Don't worry, the rooms will get better), but at least Polo has his bean bag of deflated joy. We were planning on steaming the carpets after we moved in... but as you can see, it still has it's move-in grime.


THis isn't a room, but I wanted to show you the cool chest I got at an estate sale, back in the days of house hunting.I was supposed to be looking for furniture, but it was all stupid. The color is a little richer than it looks here.


ALso, you'll notice one of the lion knockers is crooked. Ickle Canon broke it while trying "find the pirate treasure," which, much to his disappointment, was merely feel-good teenage chick flicks.
Those are some sketchy pirates if you ask me.

and you thought that 3 hours was long

10 hours, and THEN you get to go to sacrament. Awesome.

I miss paying bills

And no, I'm not kidding.
I think I've mentioned that before, I actually enjoy paying bills.
It brings me some kind of inexplicable satisfaction

WHy don't they have happy photo's of people paying bills?


I've always been the one to do it, but since we've moved here Brett has taken over a bit. He likes using the Bill Pay at our secondary (now our primary... because they kick well's fargo's butt) bank. I guess it's like our vacuum... a gadget...He logs on line, and schedules payments as we get the bills (I am adamantly against setting it up to auto-pay/draft bills every month). He even uses the the bill pay to have the bank send my dad checks for our portion of the family plan (cheeper than a stamp).

And I feel like I will never get to write a check again.
At least I still have tithing...

I also miss the control... the knowing what has and has not been paid. he can tell me, but I will forget, but when I do it, I know... He says that is what he hated about me paying bills. He never knew how much money we really had. But in favor or me doing it, he forgets to check the credit card bills online (I put all of my work props-to-be-reimbursed on a card). I freaked out today and wondered when the last time I paid it was.

So, today, I resumed my thrown. I beat him to it and scheduled some of my bills. Yes, I did it online. Saves stamp money... but I still really miss signing those checks.

Picture frames up!

Yesterday, we finally put up picture frames... and a shower curtain in the master bath. All day today I've been seeing them and thinking about what a lovely difference it makes.

7 of these frames are ones I made (mats, wood, and all) over 2 years ago. 4 of those have never ever ever ever been hung before. So, after going through 2 moves and years of storage, they were still oh so perfect. How lucky am I? then, because I had the lights out I decided to take photos of my pretty walls and such.


and I lean against one wall to get a picture of the opposite wall ...and I crack the glass on one of my frames! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh



it came so far just to die in its first hourrrrrrrrrrrrr. now, it is neither expensive nor difficult to cut new glass, but right now these are all sealed up so that dust cannot get into the inside... plus I used this tool that holds the mat board up apainst the glass so that it doesn't fall back... and I don't have one of those of my own... and they are probably expensive.

So now I am sad and that crack is there to mock me and remind me that if I owned all the tools for all the hobbys I wish to indulge, I would be in much debt.

I hope to post the pictures sometime soon, but I should be working right now. Or sleeping... something productive.

Cordon Bleu.

What gives chicken a sticky texture... you know when you are chewing and your teeth have a slight stick as they touch... I really don't know how to describe it... but fish does this a lot.


Anyhow, yesterday Brett and I decided to make dinner for his grandparents, Nola and Ted. I decided to make Chicken Cordon Bleu, which came out pretty good. I think it needed some kind of seasoning but at least it looked okay. I would have photographed it, except I used matzo crumbs instead of bread crumbs, so it didn't get that pretty golden look to it...

We also played some games with them and with Brett's uncle, Mark. We played 5 hand pinnacle, In which Brett and I victoriousy tied for first, and Wizard. Wizard is a variation of Shoot the Moon. It was my first time playing wizard, and while everyone else was near 300 points, I managed to make some points right at the end, bringing my score up to a total of ZERO. At least I wasn't negative. I'll be honest... I think I would do just as badly if I ever played again.

Does anyone have a really killer recipe for cordon bleu? I want to make it again but with more flavor...

testing.... video

Testing out my little video camera on my new ipod.... things that you really wanted to see... like this.

Wow... blogger really compresses this video... that's no fun.

Kinda disappointing, really. the video is so much better than that. I wonder if Brett knows any secrets to making it prettier.

Let me test out a different one.

Nope. still ugly. Grrrrrrr. I blame google. I hear that google and mac are enemies now. I bet they purposely degraded my video!

SURPRISE!

So I have Christmas money left over. I've been debating whether to spend it on a pressure canner, a peacoat, Ski lift tickets, or a video nano.

But while I was dragging out the decision process of how to spoil myself, Brett was busy secretly spoiling me. Thus today I found out that Brett had ordered (for me, with his own christmas money) an video nano. It is orange, and says "brett loves char" on the back.

For some reason, the upload on blogger isn't working right, so I will have to share some video s with you later.

A book a month, month one

Okay. So I adore reading, I truly do. But I have been pretty horrible about it. I used to read and read and read, and now I am lucky if I read 2 or 3 books in a year. I cheat and do a lot of audio books while I work, which is awesome, but nothing quite compares to reading a physical book. If I hadn't read those 2 or 3 books while living with my brother, I doubt I would have read anything last year.

So, one of my goals is to read 12 books this year. One a month, totally doable. I have a handful of books around the house that I've started and never finished, so I am going to start with those. It is not necessarily that I disliked the books... its just that wellll...

I have this theory. I only have 1 read speed. I either read a book in several hour increments, over the course of a week, or I try to ration myself and I never finnish the book. So I have resumed reading in the bathtub, during my pre bed bath. The result of which is that I once again take 3-4 hour prunny baths until 3 am.

January's book.


I am proud to say I have already finished January's book. Finished it around 3 am monday morning.

I am sad to say that I don't recommend it.

I used to love Daphne Du Maurier. In the beginning, I found the beginnings of the books a little tough, but I usually ended up liking them. This was a book I had never read, meaning that the Los Angeles county library didn't have it when I was in Jr. High. I don't blame them. Not her best. I enjoyed reading it okay, but I didn't get into it. No wonder Amazon doesn't have any new coppies of the book!

awesome!

Ideas like this make me wish I had 5 year olds. A pancho that unzips to a cape? brilliant!

Puzzles, Scattegories, and Brett's mom

After Christmas, Brett's mom came to visit for a bout 2 weeks.
As many of you have heard, Brett went through a period of puzzle obsession. He bought 8 puzzles with his christmas money, and, during that first week his mother was here, he did , I think, 13 puzzles. Most of these were Dowdle puzzles,. He tells me Dowdle does not make his FAVORITE puzzles, but they are still pretty good. I didn't know people had favorite puzzle artists.







We also played a quite a few rounds of scattegories, as Brett's sister really seams to like this game. His mom likes it to. SO, after we played through all the lists, I decided that, for the 2nd or 3rd time in my life, I was going to make my own new scattegory list.
So, together, Brett, Carrisa and I made up some new lists. We didn't get to do them all though.




You are welcome to use them, if you are so inclined. A few of them have more personal context.

My roommate is so famous....

She was on the news for a whole 5 seconds, and they even let her talk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrpCjmYv9c0&feature=channel

Things you should know

This is our gospel principles manual for 2010

And this is Brett's ex-girlfriend

I find this amusing.