I will try to talk about something other than the cats.
We were out and about yesterday and stopped at a food court to grab lunch. I ordered the vegetable stir-fry. What I got was a plate of mostly celery and tomatoes covered in sauce.
They say you get what you pay for, but I think $7 should get me more that. The other picture below is a veggie stir-fry from Stir Crazy that I had last week. It was only a dollar or two more.
I made homemade granola the other day, using this recipe. It was much easier than I thought it would be. So far I have enjoyed it on yogurt and on homemade strawberry ice cream.
I altered the recipe a little, using no coconut flakes and switching the honey to agave nectar. I used walnuts and raisins, but I am sure other nuts and dried fruit would be good. I also baked it at 325 based on what I read in the comments and that worked well.
(note: I realize that I blew the “blog everyday in June” thing on like the third day or something. I suck.)
I am presently in the Quad Cities. Well, technically I am only in one of them right now. (side note: I actually just wondered if there was a place where you could stand and be in all four cities. And then I remembered that Illinois is separated from Iowa by the Mississippi River. Clearly I am tired).
We got into town early and our hotel room was not quite ready so we walked on the nice path along the Mississippi. I saw a cute family of geese so I walked closer to them to get a picture. I didn’t realize that I was near to a duck mom and her babies who must have been in the area right by the water. That is, until the duck mom came after me flapping her wings wildly and quacking up a storm. I tried to retreat, but she started circling me and squawking. I admit I was a bit scared. Of a duck. Then she got into the water and we saw she has three baby ducks! They were so tiny and cute. I would have wanted to protect them too, if they were my duck babies.
We later went to the Deere-Wiman house, the mansion built by John Deere’s son and the house next door that he built for his daughter. Both were lovely. (photos below include a 1933 train set and a bust of John Deere done in Roman style, which was a popular thing for rich folk to do at the time).
We also visited the gigantic John Deere store and I was overwhelmed and didn’t buy anything and will have to go back.
We also went to a casino in Rock Island. I lost $55, but my husband won over $200. On his second spin on the slots! The machine kept beeping and the amount was in cents and we had to get out a calculator to figure out how many dollars it was. It was pretty funny. And pathetic now that I think about it.
Oh and I sat in the wheel well of a giant combine. It was roomy enough for two of me! No picture yet because it is in his camera and we left our laptops at home. (I am writing this on my phone)
Hopefully tomorrow we will head to Iowa and hit the other two parts of the quad!
I have always wanted to join one of the Flickr groups were you take (and post) a picture each day for a year. However, I am not too keen on posting lots of pictures of myself, which is what most of the groups are about.
For that reason, I was happy when I found the group iPhone365, where you post a photo each day that you took with your iPhone. I have been at it 72 days and haven’t missed yet. There were a couple days where I forgot to take a decent picture and had to rely on a crap picture I took (like a shot of the dead bugs in a light fixture on the train).
If you want to follow my 365 journey you can visit my photostream. Feel free to add me as a contact!
Happy June! This is my favorite month of the year. It has my birthday, it is usually sunny and warm, but not hot, and it always makes me want to watch baseball.
This June I decided that I am going to try to make some more progress on my 101 in 1001 list, as my progress has stalled recently. Although I still have a year and a half left, I am already feeling under the gun.
I am going to try to blog here everyday in June, which is one of my goals. It should be easier now that I am in Wordpress because writing with the Wordpress app on my phone makes is pretty simple and I can write on the train (like I am now).
The only downside from writing from the phone is that it puts the pictures at the end of the post, rather than where they might make sense within the post. For example, the pretty sunny scene below would have looked better at the beginning of the post.
I had my nine-week-after-foot-surgery appointment last night. The doctor said that my foot is the model example he would show people when they want to know the benefits of bunion surgery. Although I bet he says that to everyone, it still made me happy.
My foot is fabulous and I like to compare to the other foot and look at the dramatic difference. The other foot surgery is scheduled for July and hopefully I will soon have a matching pair.
My doctor approved me to wear sandals, with certain specifications. I am glad because I hate wearing socks and shoes in hot weather.
Here are the x-rays of my foot: with Eggy, yesterday, and before surgery.
I recently got a fun new app for my phone. It is called quad camera and is just like the real lomo toy camera that Prince E has, although his is broken.
It is best used for action, as the idea is that you take four (or eight) shots in a row by just depressing the shutter once. It is good for cats or babies, both categories of which don’t like to sit still for pictures. Although the first time I used it on Eggy she sat perfectly still and I had four identical pictures.
In the past 15 years, I moved a lot. From home to college to Chicago to the suburbs. From one apartment to the next. Even if I am in a place for a couple of years I need to move the furniture around every once in awhile. I guess that is why it should not be a surprise that I am moving my blog again.
I started Unpublished Opinion on blogger five years ago this week. I moved it to Vox two years later. Now I am feeling constrained by that platform and am moving to Wordpress.
I have no idea how to move my posts from blogger and vox or even if that is possible without doing it one by one, so for now my archives will be elsewhere. (save for my 101 in 1001 list which I need to have with me).
I know the blog is not very attractive right now, but if you are like me you will be reading it in a feed reader anyway, so it might not be so bothersome. I will be working on it, though.
I also have plans for a dedicated crafting blog, which I hope will inspire me to get back to crafting. This blog will become more active I hope now that I have more free time after giving up a (barely) paying blog gig. I will try to write about a variety of things, but you know that it will mostly be about the cats.
I hope you will join me at my new home and I promise not to move again. For at least another couple of years.
Here is my list of 101 things that I want to complete in the next 1001 days.
Deadline: Friday, December 17, 2010
Completed, In Progress, Failed
Travel
1. Portland, Oregon
2. Visit a new state (besides Oregon)
3. Take Prince E to a game at Comerica Park.
4. Grand Canyon.
5. Visit a new town in Illinois. Sleepy Hollow and Dundee, April 5th, 2008
6. Visit cottage on a weekend that is not a holiday. August 1st-4th, 2008
7. Take a road trip that involves at least one overnight stop.
8. Starved Rock.
9. Garden of the Gods in Southern Illinois.
10. Go to a Llama or Alpaca farm.
11. Go to a fair. Rotary Fest, June 14th, 2008
Adventure
12. Go ice skating.
13. Go sledding. 12/23/08, 12/25/08
14. Ride a roller coaster.
15. Ride a unicycle.
16. Ride a tandem bicycle.
17. Go skydiving.
18. Go horseback riding.
19. Go white water rafting.
20. Climb an indoor rock wall.
21. Ride in a hot air balloon.
Health/Beauty
22. Complete a triathlon. Danskin Sprint Distance Triathlon July 13, 2008. (2:13:55)
23. Swim 1000 yards. June 3, 2008 (39:55)
24. Participate in Bike the Drive.
25. Finish another marathon.
26. Lose 10 pounds. (8/10)
27. Keep weight off.
28. No diet pop for a week. June 11-June 18th, 2008
29. Get a radical hair cut or dye my hair. July 11, 2008
30. Dry my hair at least once per week.
Trying something new
31. Take a dance class.
32. Try yoga. Yoga for Dummies DVD, May 12, 2008; Yoga Wii Fit May 2008-present
33. Learn to use clipless pedals. April/May, 2008
34. Learn sign language.
35. Eat out for dinner on a weekday. March 5th, 2009. Outback Steakhouse
36. Go 48 hours without television.
37. Go 48 hours without the internet. Friday July 4th, 2008 1:52pm to Sunday July 6th, 2008, 2:26pm.
Food-Related
38. Try Korean food.
39. Try an additional kind of cuisine. Made vegan cookies and ice cream. June 8 and June 13, 2009.
40. Make a cake from scratch.
41. Try one new vegetable and one new fruit. Fruit: 5/10/08, Cherries; Veggie: 5/11/08, Cauliflower
42. Make a new kind of cookie. 3/28/08; gluten free chocolate chip cookies
43. Taste sushi. 3/14/09
44. Try lobster
45. Try scallops. Ate five at Joe’s Crab Shack, March 23rd, 2008
46. Take a cooking class.
47. Cook 10 new dishes. (6/10) 5/27/08, Scrambled Eggs; 6/01/08, Maplelicious butternut squash mash; 6/02/08 Turkey meatloaf; 10/13/08, Roasted Asparagus and Honey Lemon Chicken; Mashed Sweet potatoes 6/14/09
48. Try different teas until I find one I like. 3/27-Lipton Herbal Apple Cinnamon (I put too much ice I think)
49. Dine at three new (to me) local restaurants. (3/3) Ted’s Montana Grill, November 30, 2008; Munchie’s Pizza, 2/04/09 (actually tried it two weeks before this or so, but cannot remember exact date); Bistro Dragon 3/14/09
Crafty Things
50. Put together wedding album.
51. Make a clothing item for squishy baby. 06/28/08
52. Learn a new crafting hobby.
53. Sell something on etsy.com.
54. Print digital photos and put in albums or organized photo boxes.01/03/09
55. Finish GR Marathon collage.
56. Hang already framed photos/collages. 09/08/08 (Included wedding photos that doubled as guest books. Took nearly two years to hang! Was nice to see the signatures and remember the wedding guests.)
57. Make artwork to hang in our apartment.
58. Sell items at a local craft show.11/02/08
Financial/Big Deal Things
59. Reduce credit card debt by at least half.
60. Sign up for deferred compensation at work.
61. Save $XX/paycheck to deferred compensation.
62. Get pre-approval for a home loan. 3/24/08
63. Buy a condo or townhouse.
Arts/Entertainment
64. See a new musical. Dirty Dancing. 10/18/08
65. Attend a professional hockey game.
66. Go bowling with Prince E.
67. Go on a picnic.
68. Finish Tomb Raider on Wii.
69. Go to an opera.
70. Attend a play.
71. See 10 new movies on the 2007 version of the AFI 100 List. (2/10); Annie Hall, 4/13/08; Sophie’s Choice, 4/19/08; Taxi Driver, 7/4/08; Platoon, 7/17/08
72. Go to a Chicago museum I haven’t been to before.
73. See a movie that I don’t want to, but Prince E does. Hellboy 2: 7/19/08
Good Things for Others
74. Donate blood. 11/01/08
75. Donate to one of the shelters where we got a kitty.
76. Donate bicycles to charity. 8/09/08
77. Teach another class.
78. Get certified in CPR.
79. Volunteer 20 hours of my time. (4.5/20) 5/17/08 Discovery Ball
80. Donate $1 to charity for every item not completed.
81. Do a random act of kindness for a stranger.
82. Donate old cell phones. 12/20/08
Reading/Writing
83. Write something fiction (at least 10 pages).
84. Launch new blog in the works.
85. Read two new books from Prince E’s bookshelf. (1/2) Dishwasher Pete, finished 12/03/08
86. Make a pop-up book.
87. Submit an article to a law review or legal magazine.
88. Read two books that I already own but haven’t read. (2/2): Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, finished 4/5/08; Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, finished 4/12/08.
89. Write a poem per month. (I totally forgot I set this a due per month thing. Oops. I will consider it complete if I write enough poems between now and end goal that equal one per month)
90. Write a story for each nephew. S: Captain Boxer Shorts and the Caught Kitty; J: Sack’s Secret
91. Blog everyday for a month in a non-NaBloPoMo month.
Clutter Reduction
92. Get rid of all non-essential VHS tapes. Complete 4/15/08
93. Sort through and donate unwanted clothing. 08/09/08
94. Donate at least 15 books to the library. 4/7/08
95. Go through still unpacked boxes in closet. 12/01/08
96. Reevaluate what things are mementos and which are garbage. 12/01/08
97. Organize old print photos.12/01/08
Miscellaneous
98. Change to married name on passport. Received new passport 10/17/08
99. Stop biting fingernails.
100. Carve a pumpkin with Prince E. 10/26/08
101. Make a new 101 list to do for the next 1001 days.
My blog is here. Please join me.