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Busy Busy Busy Weekend


Matt's mommy and brother came to Madison this past weekend on their way(ish) to Denver. Andrew is heading back to CU Boulder for his sophomore year … and he's got an apartment to fill, so we spent lots of time furniture shopping. I won't go into all of the details, but Andrew has a bunch of IKEA furniture en route to his new apartment.

The end pictures were taken outside of Trader Joes, where we stopped after visiting CB2. They had orange sorbet in oranges (and lemon sorbet in lemons) … and we picked some up for a quick snack and Andrew and Matt were being v. goofy with the tops to the oranges. The other pictures is while we were waiting for our ride on the Wisconsin Ducks (DUKW amphibious vehicles) in the Dells to start.

I'm going to recover from the weekend by doing a little work around the house and watching the Olympics!

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Party Potatoes

from: Paula Kafer

Ingredients
6-8 medium potatoes, boiled
ΒΌ cup sour cream
8 oz cream cheese

Directions
Whip potatoes and add sour cream and cream cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spread in a greased casserole dish. Pat with butter and sprinkle with paprika. You can freeze or refrigerate. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes.

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Happy B'day, Vati!


Today is my Vati's b'day … and I hope it's a great one because he really deserves it. No one could ask for a better dad. He's the best definition of a dad … what every dad should strive to be. Thanks for being mine.

A proverb for your b'day:

May your weather be fine,
May your fish be plentiful,
May the stars shine brightly,
May the fountain of beer never run dry,
May the Republicans win the election.

I love you very much!

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Am I losing my mind???

I distinctly remember making a post yesterday, and yet when I came out to the computer this morning, it's not here. Am I going crazy? I think it was about JS2 and Sims2. Where the heck is it? I've emailed my host to ask them if they had a server failure that might have led to a loss of data. Otherwise, I'm afraid that it's to the loony bin for me.

Ah ha! The support dude has emailed me back (good work too, as it's 7 AM in Cali right now). There were server problems this morning. So I'm not going crazy(er). Oh well! Guess that's a post lost for the ages. Continue reading “Am I losing my mind???”

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Digital Scrapbooks

I got a couple of questions about digital scrapbooks, so I thought I'd write about 'em a little.

The idea behind digital scrap books is that instead of using the tangible 3D objects (papers, embellishments, pens, scissors, etc.) you would normally use to make a neat-looking scrapbook page, you instead use your computer. You take photos, and textures, and lettering, and clipart and combine them using a graphics editing program (photoshop, or paint shop pro) to make a simliar layout. Once your done with the layout, you can either print it or just save it digitally to view on a web page or to burn to a DVD or something like that.

Obviously, this scenario has it advantages. For one, if you're a digital photographer (like me), it makes lots of sense to simply import your images into a program and play around with them. For another, it's hugely excellent have your best friend, ctrl-z with you at all times. The “oops” factor is big with digital cropping. Another thing you've got to love is the cost … around $1/page if you print them yourself. Which is a huge savings in comparison to traditional scrapbooks. Another thing I really love is that I get to use my favorite fonts … and other digital elements that would be a super-pain to use with traditional scrapbooks. Another reason for me is that it's yet another way to keep my skills sharp. Continue reading “Digital Scrapbooks”

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Busy Weekend

We had a very nice weekend. We did quite a bit of shopping on Sunday. We raided the summer sale racks at the normal places and got a few new items for the closet for not much $$. And we got another piece of my b'day present, a new car stereo that has an auxillary port so I can plug in my MP3 player. It even glows amber (though it has a green option, too), just like all of the lights in my little Honda's dashboard. It's so very cool. We also ran some much more mundane errands, worked out, and spent most of the evening at home watching DVDs. Continue reading “Busy Weekend”

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Smilies and Such

I noticed today that Mazeguy has a great new selection of smilies. I don't know if I'll add any of them to Jesser.org since we've already got a zillion or so, but I really do like 'em. But Elmo is incredibly tempting … hmmm … I like the Sponge Bob ones too, but as I've never gotten into Sponge Bob, I don't think I'll add those.

I've been really really enjoying They Might Be Giants lately. They're a band I'd had in my periphery for a long time, but never really listened to a complete album. But a couple of days ago I downloaded Flood and Factory Showroom from AllOfMP3 and I've been playing them like CRAZY. They're so very enjoyable. I especially luv their rendition of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” Continue reading “Smilies and Such”

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B'day Update

Well I had a very nice b'day and it's one of those that's going to be prolonged for quite a while. I'm not going to celebrate with my family until they come up here near the end of the month. But when I got home today I had a nice package waiting for me at the door … Mommy sent me Pictures of Naked People (John Stewart's book) which I'm really excited to read. I will have to force myself to not read it all in one sitting as well as The Griffin and Sabine books which are correspondances between two characters in vividly realistic postcards with envelopes and letters interspersed. I'd never seen them before. They kinda remind me of a grown-up version of The Jolly Postman. I'm very excited to read them as well. Last but not least, there was also a very cute pair of flip flops from J.Crew in the package. They have salmon-colored straps with little bees embroidered on them. I love surprise packages … and no one can surprise me quite so well as my mom. She knows just what I like.

Now I'm sitting here very happily listening to some music and getting some work done. Life is good.

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Worth its Own Post

Okay, so Matt and I saw a while back on The Screensavers that there was an MP3 service out there called All of MP3. It's based in Russia and it's border-line sketchy, but maaaan is it cheap!! I've already downloaded two albums and spent around $1 for both!!!

Now, as I said, it's borderline sketchy. But they do accept paypal, though that's down at the moment. So you can also get one of those 1 use credit card numbers for a pre-set limit and pre-set window of activity and use that (which is what I did). If you do that tho, be prepared for your credit card to possibly reject you until they call and assure that you're OK with transactions from Russia going thru on your card.

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Birthday!

Whee!! It's my b'day and I'm 24!! I project it to be a very good year.

It's already been a good b'day. Yesterday evening I got a package from UPS. It had a b'day present from Dorothy (Matt's mummy) and Matt … a very cool Dell MP3 player. I've been wanting one for quite a while now so it was a really great gift. Now that I've had a chance to play around with it, I'm super impressed. Can't say enough good stuff about it.

This morning, Matt took me to Mc Donald's for brekkie, which might sound weird, but I really like to have Mc Donald's for breakfast every now and again, and I hardly ever have brekkie with Matt anymore, so that was really good. Then I got to talk to my lovely family for a while … we'll be celebrating my birthday (as well as my dad's) when they come to help us move … so I get a nice long celebration. And my mom promises a package will come by Friday. Excellent!

This evening, Matt and I are going to dinner at Biaggis, probably my fave restaurant in Madison (and just one of my fave restaurants in general) and that's another excellent thing to look forward to.

And I've had nice cards and emails from friends and family and it's been very nice. Everyone has made me feel quite special. Thanks so much.