Impatientgirl

Wiggin' Out

2006-10-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Alice (with the purple hair) had a great themed birthday party - wigs! Chris went with me and we had a blast!

Hooray Friends!

2006-09-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

Our friends, Kera and Carolyn, who we met when we lived in DC, came to visit us over Labor Day weekend!

Of course we had to take them to Saturday Market, where you can get any number of handmade hippie treasures.

We also made sure to have them pose with the famous Umbrella Man at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

The heat got to us about that time, so we had to cool off a bit. What? That's not how lemonade usually cools people off?

We had dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant in Vancouver, Tiger's Garden, with (L to R in the pic) Carolyn, Dodd, Trevor, Kera, and Chris.

Carolyn & I are so coordinated that we can bonk heads on cue!

After dinner we smelled cars. But we couldn't keep that up too late because Kera had to make pico de gallo for the upcoming Labor Day Cookout! You'll have to read up on the next post to hear how that went.

Workers of the World, Untie!

2006-09-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, the title is on purpose.

We had a fabulous party this Labor Day weekend!

Carolyn and I were prepping up a storm before the party. She made yummy brownie bites and I made halibut fish-kabobs.

As you can tell, Chris helped a lot with the cooking. Although I admit, he did most of the cleaning prep!

The party was so much fun that we only got these two pictures of early on. We had about 20 people show up, just the right amount to visit with. We did have a bit of a bench mishap when someone got left on the end, but it didn't cause injury, just lots of laughing!

When it got dark, we got a fire going in the firepit. That was so warm and cozy. However, we ended up burning all the small logs and just had fenceposts left. Not to be intimidated, we just propped up the post on a chair and kept moving into the fire as it burned shorter!

To give an idea of how much fun we had, here's a couple pics of the carnage left the next morning. I have to say, I was so glad I didn't have to get on a plane like Kera and Carolyn did. I pretty much spent the day in bed recovering.
But they were amazing troopers! We'll have to do just as well when we visit them. :-)

Rafting Wonderland

2006-07-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went rafting on the Deschutes in Oregon and had a blast! Although this year was a bit scarier than last year. The water level was very low, so there were a lot of rocks closer to the surface. And our raft completely flipped over right at the beginning of the day. We were fine, but I didn't really want it to happen again! Me and another girl, Amanda, got swept downstream and had to be picked up by another raft. I wouldn't have been quite as scared, but my sandals got pulled off my toes (still attached to my ankles, so I didn't lose them altogether) and kept dragging my feet down and made it very hard to kick to get back into the raft. They were like extra floppy feet, totally useless!

So the other raft rescuing me and Amanda threw her a rope because she was further out. Well, first the rope smacked me on the head, then they totally clotheslined me while pulling her in! I was holding on to the side of the raft and they were trying to get me in (made more difficult by my useless extra floppy feet) when all of a sudden the guide shouts "Get her in, get her in NOW!!" I'm like what, is there a rock coming up behind me? Is there a SHARK? What is it!!!

But it all turned out fine and in a few minutes my original raft showed up with Chris and the 3 other people in it. That was quite a relief because I hadn't seen him since the flipover. I wish they had gotten pictures because I bet it looked spectacular, but apparently we flipped on a pretty easy rapid. We must have been special! :-)

Later, on the most difficult rapid, our raft was the only one that didn't have anyone bounce out! I think our guide knew that we didn't really want to have another involuntary swim, so he had us all paddle really hard right up to the little waterfall, then hold on and crouch down in the bottom of the boat as we went over, and then paddle out as hard as we could. We did awesome and it worked perfectly! None of the other rafts did that, so they all had a few swimmers. And one raft had the best swamping caught on camera! You can see the people's faces all determined at the top of the fall, then change to AAAHHH as they go over, then a lot of arms and legs in the air, then lots of people in the water, then some great shots as they pull everyone back in.

In all, I'm terribly sore, but it was so much fun even with the scary parts, that I'm glad we went and we'll go again next year!

Fashionable Miki

2006-07-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

Miki is so fashionable, he insists on wearing his boa. What? In the fashion world a boa isn't really a snake? Whoops!

Hooray for sun!

2006-07-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

I know I don't usually get excited about the sun, especially since I'm allergic to it, but my roses love it, so I guess I love it too! The roses are absolutely beautiful right now, so I thought I'd share them with you all.

Hope you are all having a great summer!

X Men 3 Sexism - CONTAINS SPOILERS

2006-05-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

So DON'T READ THIS if you haven't seen the movie yet.

Okay, since my opinions have already spawned 200-something posts of discussion on RPG.net thanks to my husband, I won't rant too much.

HOWEVER, as much as I love the X Men and even though I was not expecting much of a movie at all, I have to say I was quite disgusted with how this movie handled its supposedly strong female characters.

In reality, all the main female characters were written to act in stereotypically weak fashion. Here's some examples, in no particular order and not a complete list:

1.) Rogue's very difficult situation of being deprived of human contact is changed into petty jealousy of Kitty.

2.) Storm is supposed to be a leader, but she is railroaded over by Wolverine on most decisions; essentially being deprived of any leadership power except that deemed traditional - motherly school-marm.

3.) Mystique is one of the smartest and powerfully versatile female characters, and her powers are literally stripped from her; with her subsequent actions jovially dismissed with "hell hath no fury", again implying that women are simply petty and vengeful. Ack, the gall!

4.) Dark Phoenix/Jean. Okay, I admit she is my favorite X-Men character ever, so I did take this portrayal quite hard. I know what happened in the comic, my problem is what happened in the movie. Phoenix/Jean was written in such a way that her only two options were: a) Phoenix-so powerful but randomly violent ("hysterical" perhaps?) she couldn't possibly be allowed to live, or b) Jean-so wimpy she couldn't figure out how to control her dark personality or even figure out how to kill herself, but had to have a man fix it for her. AARRGGHH!!

All of the powerful women in this movie had their powers taken away by someone else. And to make it worse, the men who had their powers taken (Magneto, Xavier) were given a second chance! But no, not those dangerous uppity women.

It's sad to see that our society really hasn't come along very far when these antiquated stereotypes still make it into a movie that should be able to set a better example. Even the comic set a better example! How hard would it be to hmmm, use the comic book events when making a movie about a comic! So there, I've gotten it out. Whew! I feel better now.

In case anyone is interested, my frustration with this movie's ideas was much more eloquently expressed by Ragnell in this RPG.net thread (the first post and then further down on the page). You'll probably have to search for her other posts, but it's quite worth it. (She's the one that brought up the Storm being supplanted by Wolverine issue)

I think I like gardening

2006-05-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

The peonies finally exploded! They are just so pretty. Unfortunately, it rained for a week straight right when they were blooming, so they got a bit waterlogged and broke a few stems. But we've had 2 days of sun since then, so I thought I'd show you all what they look like.

This is the best view I could get of all of them, but you can really only see 2 plants. There is another one behind the pink peonies.

These are my favorites! Not quite as huge, but with 3 layers of petals. First the dark pink wide petals, then some feathery white ones, then the center is fluffy pinky-cream. They're amazing!

The third plant has lighter pink flowers. They are just so awesomely ruffly. And I don't usually like girly things, but these are fun.

The rain did quite a doozy on the roses. They are not happy at all. But I did manage to find one that wasn't too bad.

This weekend I also planted dahlias (quite an experiment, we'll have to see if I did it right - I'll keep you posted) and some ornamental grasses in yellow and black along our entry sidewalk. I'm waiting until we get some pretty mulch around them to show them off.

2006-05-17T05:50:00.000-07:00

Yay! the Queen of Crochet didn't forget about her little sis. And I love your gardening pics and flowers! And your new kitchen!

Shake your little tush!

2006-05-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Although being only one month old might be a bit young to shake one's tushie. But that's not the point!

My sister Cheri was also a famous crocheted-fashion model! But as you can see, at first she was not at all happy to be in the limelight.

But she calmed down when Mom (on the left) showed up.

And a bit of hand to chew on can help a lot. Isn't she cute?!

2006-05-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

Oh oh oh! such a sexy poncho! But did thou forgettest thou's equally sexy sister modeling (methinks in the saaaame catalogue) the crocheted christening gown? Although resembling a pune faced and crabby garden grub wrapped in lace, methinks me might have contributed just a weeee bit to the crocheting craze too!

I'm too sexy for my...poncho?

2006-05-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

At least the pressure is off. I don't have to worry about missing my chance. I've already had my 15 minutes of fame!

My wonderful Grandma Cloninger just sent me something she's saved since 1976.

So what? you say. Well, let me tell you, in 1976 everybody wanted to knit or crochet these beauties for their children. Why? Because of the cuties modeling them!

Who wouldn't want the lovely 3-Piece Ombre Suit? Especially when modeled with such sassiness!

The one that tops all others is, of course, the fabulous Hooded Poncho. Guaranteed to make your cutie pie look like a Smurf!

I learn more about gardening

2006-05-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

So last year I learned about roses, how and when to trim them, feed them, water them without splashing, etc. I'm feeling reasonably confident about the roses this year. Oh and the peonies look great too. I think they're fine this year (almost ready to explode, I mean bloom), but I'm going to have to read up on whether they need dividing or not. They're getting pretty wide bases where all the stems come up.

This year, I learned about tulips. As in, they are not weeds, so don't pull them. It turns out, we have several beautiful tulips. All we had to do was leave them alone!

We also fixed up our front yard entry area. When we moved in there was a horrible giant blobby bush that blocked the view to and from our front door. I got rid of that last year, but hadn't put anything pretty there yet.

So Chris planted some pretty new plants: a fuschia, a little dogwood tree, another camellia, and some white flowery things (hey, I'm still learning).

I took charge of the planter barrel. I planted a red heuchera, a red and green variegated heuchera, a couple of boy-girl plants (they have both pink and blue flowers; I think they're also called lungwort), and some pretty trailing groundcovers with blue and periwinkle flowers. There already was a fern in the middle for height, but I'm not sure that's going to make it.

The camellia is doing quite well with beautiful flowers. I'm not sure if they will all bloom, because they're quite crowded. I think we're going to have to thin out the middle next winter.

I'll keep you posted on further adventures in gardening!

The Great Kitchen Remodel - Part 1

2006-05-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

So my current big project is a kitchen remodel. I thought it would be just a small thing, get a few handymen in to tear out some cabinets, get a new countertop, voila! Well, as usual, it was a bit bigger and more expensive. And still not done.

First, of course, I kept wanting to replace more things. Originally, it was just the countertops. Then, I needed a new ventilation fan once the stove hood was removed. Since that involved an electrician, I might as well have all the lights in the kitchen and the dining room chandelier replaced while the electrian was there. Oh, and how about a new sink with hot water dispenser? Great!

So here's a few pics of the first part of the process:

Here's what it looked like before. It wasn't terrible, just much too country for our taste.

Here's Chris displaying pride of home ownership as we strip wallpaper.

This was the old El Cheapo sink and faucet. It was looking pretty worn.

Everything had to be moved out off of the countertops and out of the cabinets that were removed. They ended up in the dining room. Lucky us. But besides that, I really do like what we've done with the dining room (except for the chandelier, that's getting replaced).

I found out that remodels are messy!

Almost done with counters. That cabinet/hood by the guy's head is the part we're having torn out to make the kitchen and family rooms feel more like one big room.

I love the new countertop! It's laminate with a slate look.

It's looking better already!

We decided to save money by plumbing the new sink ourselves. It took 1.5 days and 10 trips to the hardware store. We learned an important lesson: ALWAYS ALWAYS connect the sink hardware (faucet etc.) BEFORE you glue the sink to the counter. We didn't, and spent a lot of extra time connecting and re-connecting the pieces before they fit right. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!

But we got it done, despite all the cursing.

My fantabulous new sink. It even has dishes in it but you can't tell because it's so deep!

Stay tuned for The Great Kitchen Remodel, Part 2!

Hello!

2006-05-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

I'm hoping to keep in touch with all my friends across the country. So sign on up!