Play Kitchen Pics

The play kitchens are still in the works. As Jase predicted, they are taking a lot longer to make than I estimated. But I'm having a blast working on them. Here are some preliminary pictures. Hopefully they will be complete by the end of this weekend and I can show them off! Better pictures and descriptions to follow.

Kitchen #1 before and during it's "renovation":

Kitchen #2:

Play Kitchen Fun

I love making stuff. Baking, cooking, painting, ceramics, writing, collage, woodworking, sewing, crafting, etc. I've often said my dream is to make a living "making stuff". The problem is I'm not really great at the aforementioned hobbies. I'm just OK, and OK isn't good enough to sell stuff, usually. No one will buy a cross stitched tea towel, for example, if the stitches aren't nearly perfect. A majority of the reason I believe I'm not really good at crafts and stuff is because I'm impatient and a little OCD. Nothing it more tedious to me than spending hours on one little piece of a project. I would much rather spend a few minutes sewing, then a few sanding wood, then some painting then...you get the picture. Working on an assembly line would make me insane in about an hour.

I think I've found my new favorite hobby. It's making play kitchens out of old entertainment centers. My friend Jen's sister-in-law Erin made one and posted it on her blog. I thought it was simply brilliant, so I set out to find an old cabinet and some materials to complete the project, for cheap. Found the cabinet for $10 at Goodwill, and spent another $20 between a salvage place and a Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Spent another six bucks at Home Depot for some foam rollers and tape. I have about another $25 dollars I need to spend, on a "sink", some fabric, some hardware and more foam rollers. The total cost should be about $55.

Since starting my project last week, I have spent nearly every discretionary minute working on my kitchen. Actually, it's plural: kitchens, because I went crazy and bought two entertainment centers since they were so cheap. I'm excited to post pics but I'm less than half way done with each kitchen. But I'm having a great time designing and putting together my little kitchens mostly from stuff I have on hand. And it beats Chemistry any day. :)

I'm not quite sure what to do with these kitchens. Sell them? Donate them? One of my friends who has a little girl has said she will buy one for her girl's birthday in January. And there are lots of charity events in the fall where I could donate to a silent auction. But I could really really use some extra money so Jase and I can have a Christmas this year, so maybe I could make and sell a few. Although I have no idea what to charge. Not a clue. But since I've gone part time and Jase has taken a pay cut, we're in deficit each month and Christmas is going to be paltry, as in homemade cards and IOU coupon books, without some added income.

I will post some pics when the kitchens get closer to being finished. In the meantime, I'm loving my new projects.

Bad bumpersticker - Charlotte NC

I saw a truck yesterday with signs all over it for "So-and-so's Martial Arts Academy". Then on the lower left bumper, a sticker:

My kid made your honor student tap out.

My immediate thoughts:

1. I'm sure he's a great parent, always supportive of any hobby or interest his child wants to try, including art classes or reading, right? Right.

2. The sticker and people like this make me nauseous.

3. I'm glad I didn't follow my childhood career aspiration of being a teacher because I would have to deal with parents like this. It would not be good for my blood pressure.

4. Sports are so good for kids; let them learn and play and compete but keep the "bully aspect" out of it.

5. I wonder how much the guy driving the truck resembles this fella from Karate Kid:

I dropped Chemistry

It's been a very hard decision to make, but after all the work I've done my grade is still in the 40s. The last day to drop is this Friday. I could maybe eek out a C but if I don't, it's not worth wrecking my GPA over it. I will take it again next semester with a different teacher. Since I now have a bit of a base I'm sure I will do much better. I plan on continuing to work on the material over the next few weeks.

I slept so well last night after making the decision. Best sleep I've had since I started the class.

Now that I'm only taking 8 hours of class and working 17, I will have so much more time to do stuff! Good stuff, like working out, going to the park, volunteering at CRC and exploring career options. I also need to look for an internship/part time job for winter break. I'm hoping to get into a Veterinary Hospital near by, Carolina Veterinary Specialists. They have over 30 board certified veterinary specialists. To get board certified a Vet needs an additional 2-4 years of school after vet medical, which means specialists have a total of up to ten years of education. An amazing amount of knowledge and talent is under one roof at CVS. I would be honored to work as a part time receptionist or kennel assistant.

I also would like to finish up at The Raptor Center. I will have 100 hours in a few weeks and would like to take a break for a while. Because it's a 40 minute drive from home it really eats up my time. I need something closer. I would love to find something on a farm but I'm not sure where to begin. There are some Belted Galloway cows down the road from here and another place with goats. I'm wondering if I could just stop by there and ask if they need any help. I love the cows, they make me smile whenever I drive by.

Sharing CRC

I shared it with Jase, a girlfriend of mine from work and her three year old daughter, and a friend of Jason's.

I was nervous, giving my first "tour" of the place, I'm not sure why. Maybe because I wanted CRC to live up to the expectations of them as much as it does to mine. I'm not sure that's even possible, now that I think of it. While they all had a good time, I really feel like I enjoy being with the animals on a different level. No better or worse, just different.

It felt neat to be able to take them through the woods, stopping at enclosures to talk about the different birds. I surprised myself a little by how much I have learned in just a few months. Jason took a few pictures, and his friend with the paparazzi lens, as Shan called it, will be posted soon.

Lazy Saturdays in the park rock!

Since the weather has cooled down a bit, we can finally spend some time at McDowell Park. There are great little picnic areas with grills tucked in the forest, accessible only by foot trails. It makes for a great peaceful environment to hang out, read, and make and eat dinner. Last weekend we took the dogs to the park to hike, then decided we should really go home, get some provisions, and grill out.

The flames only lasted about 30 seconds after dousing the charcoal with lighter fluid. Mmm, lighter fluid, the new condiment.

We had fun despite the "old charcoal" Jase was blaming it all on.

We ended up tossing the meat into the woods for the raptors. Our "gross" is a raptor's "nom nom nom".

We hit Five Guys (best burgers in Charlotte) on the way home. Overall, we had a blast, especially making fun of Jase's inability to get the grill going. Good times.

I really wanted to go back this weekend but yard work and Chemistry are keeping me home. Good news: the yard looks great and I'm starting to understand some of the basic concepts that alluded me. Thank you, YouTube Chemistry videos!

A realtor is coming over tomorrow to talk about putting our house on the market. We really need to lower our monthly expenses and renting or buying a much smaller place would help tremendously.

Wear hooker shoes to get ahead?

So I used to work with this girl who wore these shoes to work. I'm not saying she wore them on occasion, I'm saying she wore them every single day. At a financial services company. She had a pair in black, white, and *shudder* red.

The women at the company had no respect for her, because of the shoes. But there were no women in power at this company; all of the higher ups were male.

The men at the company had no respect for her, because of the shoes, but they were always very nice to her, never challenging her opinion or giving her a ton of work with a short deadline. So she appeared like a *superstar employee*, because it's easy to be seen as really really good when you only have two things that take 5 minutes to do during the course of a day.

One Tuesday afternoon, I remarked to one of the board members of the company, a man, who I had a close friendship with, "Does she just not get it?" He replied, "Oh, she gets it.", meaning she understands what men like and how to give it to them. I remember the conversation today, nine years later, because it was such a bizarre moment. I was floored.

I left that company about three months later.

Shuffle forward a few years, and this is one of the styles I have seen worn around the office. They're patent leather, and six inches high with a platform at the toe. They are definitely more conservative than the hooker shoes of yore, but are they appropriate?

I personally don't think they are, mostly because if you wear something that is an obvious distraction, it's inappropriate in the workplace. It doesn't matter if it's a pair of shoes or a tie or a hair style. And if financial advisors are gabbing about your shoe choice-of-the-day at lunch with their buddies, it's a distraction. But guess what? The people who wear these shoes don't get laid off. Even though some of them might be poor performers, they don't get laid off. So I'm wondering, am I the idiot, for not wearing them?

My newest obsession - the modern home

I want to live in a very modern, 1200 square foot home with concrete floors in the mountains. Something like the dwelling pictured above, but larger. It won't need A/C because I can do without it in the mountain air. It will feature the following:

one kitchen, with IKEA cabinetry

1.5 baths, one with a large walk-in shower, maybe a small Japanese soaking tub

lots of windows

metal exterior in dark brown or dark red

interior walls covered in drywall

back deck

wood stove for heat

ceiling fans

two bedrooms

one big, open kitchen and living area

The modern prefab homes we have found cost between $115 and $180/square foot, and that's not including the land and in some cases, foundation. Basically it's totally out of our price range.

While visiting Boone last weekend, I found a place that I loved. It was an art gallery and I was ready to move in. This is it:

It's a metal building that has been upfitted with drywall, concrete floors, and nice windows and doors. It's exactly what I want, minus the kitchen and bathrooms. I wish I would have taken some shots of the interior.

So I have started to do some research and I think we could build one on a piece of land for as little as $70,000. I'm going to call the gallery today to see if they can offer any input. I'm more than willing to put in a ton of sweat equity to be able to live in a place like this. I'm just not sure where to start: do I look for land first? Find a manufacturer of metal buildings? Try to come up with a floorplan? Look for financing? Research building codes? It's way out of my scope of expertise. I know how to estimate the cost, for the most part, from my insurance adjuster days. But I've only estimated repair and not new construction. As an example, I have no idea what a foundation costs, or what it costs to run plumbing. And for that matter, I have seen some lots advertise that site work is in place. Does this mean the site has plumbing already and it just needs to be run to the house? What if the site doesn't have site work? How much is it to perform? Geesh, does anybody know anything about any of this?

The great college textbook swindle continues

I just realized the $100 lab experiments book I was required to purchase for Chemistry has 43 experiments in it. According to the class syllabus, we're doing just 10 of the experiments. What a ripoff.

You too can get swindled. Buy one here!

Maybe I should be a statistician instead

I woke up early this morning to spend a few extra minutes reviewing my Chemistry material. It helped a little but not much. I'm basically predicting that I made between a 65 and 75 on the test.

The Stats test I took Tuesday went much better. I thought I had made an A, and in fact I scored 98%. I'm very happy about it. It's nice to have a little positive reinforcement after all of the negative feedback I've gotten from the Chem class.

Tomorrow I have no work or class (that's right, I have no class--I'm a classless pirate hooker), so I'm dedicating the day as follows:

Wake up when I wake up, with no alarm

Eat breakfast while reading blogs, newspapers and Facebook posts

Crack open the Chemistry book around 9:30am

Work on Chemistry until I "get it" (approximately 4-6 hours)

Go to the gym or walk/run outside if the weather is nice

Go to a party at a co-worker's house at 5:30

Come home and hang out with Jason and the dogs

Hopefully I can get a handle on the new unit we have started, on The Mole. I thought I understood it in class, but when I tried to do the homework I obviously didn't quite grasp the concept. I also need to work on the concepts I didn't get for the first exam, mostly nomenclature. I'm good at the math parts but really bad at

the "language" parts. I'm also bad at foreign languages, go figure. I just don't get why acids and bases and ionic compounds and salts and polyatomic compounds with H all are named differently. I'm more confused with these than I was with Equity Options while studying for the Series 7.

I'm heading back to CRC this Sunday after a two week hiatus. I'm anxious to see how the birds are doing, especially my little Osprey buddy. Although I needed the break to get caught up in school, I have really missed going there each week.

How can you not love this face? ------------->

School is really pissing me off

I scored 40% on the first pop quiz of the semester for Chemistry, taken last week. Just when I think I get it, I don't get it. It's infuriating. The first test is the day after tomorrow and I just got home from school, so I will be spending every spare moment tomorrow at lunch and after work studying for the test. After school and work today and more school tonight, my brain is toast. Took my first Statistical Analysis test tonight and I think I did well but I thought I did well on the pop quiz. My confidence is really shot.

Another class I'm taking, Geography, is online. Basically you read a chapter, email the professor for a test, and email the test back within a week. The professor has sent out four different versions of how to get a test, beginning with "he will send it on a Tuesday and it's due back that Thursday" to "email me when you want a test and it will be sent to you that week and will be due back in two business days unless it's a Friday, where in that case it will be due back Monday". It's about the most convoluted testing process I've ever encountered. So last week (Friday) I emailed him asking for a test. He sent it and asked, "want any more?" I said, sure, thinking getting the tests will allow him not to have to send me an email every week. So he sent me five. Then he comes out with a new testing email explanation for how it's going to be done, and it says all tests are due back in two business days. I email asking him when mine will be due, since he sent five when I asked, and he said I have submitted one and the other four are "seriously overdue". Ugh! I can only think he will take points off each test for lateness, which means the A I thought I would get in the class is probably now a B. This is the second online class I've taken and I reluctantly took it because I don't have good luck with them: I have straight A's for college courses with the exception of the one online Psychology class I took where I made a B. I'm going to pray hard for the teacher's leniency with this incident, although it was his ill communication that caused the whole problem in the first place.

I still can't believe I made a 40 on that Chem quiz. I spent a ton of time and thought I had started to understand the material, but it's obvious I did not. I'm seriously questioning whether I'm smart enough to become a Vet. I printed out the curriculum for the Vet Med Tech program at Gaston Community College today. That feels like such a white flag to me though. Hopefully with a ton of work tomorrow I can get a solid grasp on this crap.

Birthday Lunch at The Palm

Since both of us were off today, I treated Jason to lunch at The Palm in honor of his birthday this weekend. I had been there once before, when my boss took me for my birthday, but Jason had never been. It was such a treat for both of us: the fine dining service, excellent food and the luxury of leisurely eating a meal together that neither of us had to prepare nor clean up afterwards.

He had the Business Man's Lunch (Funny! Does that come with a side of scotch?) which consisted of a soup or salad, entree, side and dessert. He chose the lobster bisque, twin filet mignon, onion strings and key lime pie. Since I eat much smaller meals, and not much meat, I had the lobster bisque and salad. And two glasses of white wine. The bisque was rich and delicious, and I could have drank a quart of it. The salad was very green with lots of different kinds of lettuce and a vinaigrette made with high quality olive oil. What a beautiful feeling, to be eating a wonderful meal with the person I love while drinking wine on a weekday afternoon. Bliss.

Tonight we're going to relax and starting packing for our trip to the mountains. I stopped by the library today and picked up a bunch of books and dvds, including:

Six Months in Sudan (looks absolutely riveting)

Prefabulous (I'm currently a tad obsessed with prefab construction)

Treehouses of the World (for fun)

Magic Books and Paper Toys (I'm a sucker for a craft book)

A documentary DVD on Wright homes (non-fiction DVDs can be kept for 2 weeks!)

A documentary DVD by National Geographic on the wilderness of Alaska (I heart the library)

DVD My Kid Could Paint That

The cabin may or may not have internet service, which frightens me a little because I'm such a current events junkie, so we are going to need some reading material and movies to watch in case there's no cable. Ordinarily I wouldn't worry so much about books and movies, but the skies opened and poured rain on us every single day of the last two trips we have taken, so I'm going to be prepared. A reminder: ten days in Nova Scotia, poured rain every single day. Never even left the room. Six days in Myrtle Beach: poured rain every single day. Came back less tan than I arrived. There's only a 30% chance of rain this Sunday, so I'm hoping we're safe. Please, God, don't make it rain. Please, please, don't make it rain.

We're taking the camera so there should be lots of pictures to share when we get back. I'm also taking some school work with me since I have tests next week. So far I have a B in Chemistry, an A in Statistics and an A in Geography. That B in Chem and A in Stats is tentative though. Extremely tentative. I will be happy to have a B in each at the end of the semester.

Happy weekend people!