Author: stenaros

New plan for old comforter

Readers with long memories and ample room in the brains for the smallest detail of my exciting life will recall that I bought the blue duvet cover to put on the much loved, though wearing out Holly Hobbie comforter from my childhood. Well, as time went on, it became more apparent that the full-sized duvet cover was too much duvet cover for my not-really-full-sized Holly Hobbie comforter. But I had paid all this money–actually spent a gift card, so not really– and I didn’t want the blue duvet cover to go to waste, so what to do?

Eventually, the solution came to me. For years I’ve had a full-sized duvet that I never got around to buying a cover for. In fact, said naked duvet has been on my bed all along. Eventually, I had the “Eurika!” moment wherein I realized I could put the blue, full-sized duvet cover on the naked full-sized duvet! Then, I would be free to buy a (much cheaper) twin sized duvet cover for Holly Hobbie and continue on with my placid life.

All of this came to pass, as you can see: naked duvet, covered, Holly Hobbie ensconced in a new solid square print twin-sized duvet cover, which fits much better.

Phew!

It’s even later in June and I’m still cold.

I’m tabling for Proud Ground at the farmers market and it is pouring. When I bought my new spring coat in April I thought to myself, “It’s a pretty heavy coat, I probably won’t get much use out of it this year because it will warm up soon.”

Oh how wrong I was. I was buttoned up to the collar and I wore the wool hat for most of the volunteer shift, too. Did I mention that school’s out for the year and it’s summer vacation?

Three sentence movie reviews: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix


Now David Yates is directing and things are happening. This was a first-view for this film and though it skipped some important parts of the novel I found it thankfully well paced and enjoyable. I think we’re through the worst of them–Chris Columbus, I’m looking at you!

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2007/harry_potter_and_the_order_of_the_phoenix_ver3.html

Three sentence movie reviews: XXX


I think the problem with this movie is that it wasn’t campy enough to be a campy send up and it was entirely too ridiculous to be accepted as an action flick. When your main character launches a dirt bike up over the drug cartel’s fence, pulls himself and the dirt bike into a horizontal position to avoid being skewered on the fence then pulls the dirt bike up and himself back on it to land with no injury even the most physics-adverse action fan must roll their eye. Still, I quite enjoyed it,* mostly because Vin Diesel smiled a lot, which he usually doesn’t get to do in his beefy, action flick rolls.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2002/xxx.html

*indeed, I had been in a funk all week and after the movie was over I found myself in a surprisingly cheerful mood. Can XXX cure depression?

20 MPDC 6/7/11

Wednesday 6/1/11
Nothing

Thursday 6/2/11
I priced things for 15 minutes tonight and made it through all the books on the bookshelf.

Friday 6/3/11
I made it through most of my chore list, but didn’t get to this.

Saturday 6/4/11
Due to yesterday’s neglect, I priced for 15 minutes today and have finished pricing everything in the bookshelf area.

Sunday 6/5/11
Nothing

Monday 6/6/11
Nothing

Tuesday 6/7/11
I rallied today and priced kitchen items for 15 minutes. I have a lot of kitchen items that fall into the category “use about once every year or two, but are so, so handy when I do use them, I just can’t get rid of them right now.” So there wasn’t much to price.

And with that, June busied itself up to a frothy state and I did no more 20MPDC. Alas. Another good idea gone by the wayside.

EMSWCD Naturescaping Tour

The MAunts and I attended the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District Naturescaping Tour which was a tour of several houses that have successfully “naturescaped” as defined here . Some photo highlights:

I liked this cinder block grill and work surface

It utilized the holes in the cinder blocks for herb growing.

I’m guessing they need pretty regular water, but I find this to be a grand idea.

Many people had rain barrels and I took a lot of pictures of the setup. I would like to start saving rainwater in a big way, but have yet to find the how-to reference to get me started.

This house was the house next door to the tour, but it had a front yard completely full of red clover. It was beautiful.

In one back yard was a pioneer-type cabin playhouse.

The MAunts gazing up at a large stand of Douglas fir.

Three sentence movie reviews: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire


I had only seen the DVD extras to this movie, so this was a new experience for me. The acting was okay, though I most enjoyed the costumes of the Yule Ball, especially the Durmstrang uniforms. All in all, this was not a bad entry in the Harry Potter Movie marathon.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2005/harry_potter_and_the_goblet_of_fire.html

The peeps return to their rightful home.

Witness the beauty of the bird food filled vase I constructed for my Aunt Pat’s birthday present. The vase is a fancy, heavy one–good for smashing on an intruder’s head. It also looks nice with flowers in it. I bought some seed at Fred Meyer and made pretty layers and it turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. I was left with a goodly amount of bird seed and realized this would be a perfect method for transporting the peeps back to their true home.

Witness “The Peeps”

“The Peeps” have been traveling back and forth between their rightful home, Aunt Pat’s and my own for several years now. There are no rules for moving the peeps, but they mostly have to be snuck into the house. I have the advantage here, as I go to my Aunt’s house much more often than she comes to mine, but she is quite sneaky. Once she packed me a bag of leftovers and upon unpacking at my home there sat the peeps in the bottom of the bag. Most recently she dropped off the quarter of beef in my freezer and threw in the peeps. I didn’t discover them for several months. I’ve added the cartoon to the peeps. The bubble says, “Jus‘ chillin‘ wif my peeps. Sup wichou?” But today, the peeps go back to their proper home.

I found a bucket and poured in part of the bird seed, dropped in the peeps and covered them with the rest of the seed.

I was so excited, I forgot to take an “in process” picture.

How can I tell you all this, without her finding out? She has no computer and does not read this blog. My mother does, but she will side with her only daughter and not reveal that the peeps have been transferred back. Right?

Catching up post.

Oops. I published the end of May posts before I finished some posts that came at the end of May. Make sure you haven’t missed the following:

Vancouver Lake Bike Ride, May 28.
Three sentence movie reviews: Hanna (a second viewing), May 29.
Early Morning Bike Ride, May 29.
Highlights from Dead Relatives Tour 2011, May 29.
Excepting vs. Accepting, May 29.
The picture-less and I’m giving up Catherine Creek post, May 30.