Name that tune...request edition

Now you're just getting spoiled with posts...

I asked a friend for suggestions on songs I should learn. This name that tune edition is from one of the suggestions. The song was released as a single in January 2012 off this artist's fourth album... which probably makes it the newest song I've ever used in name that tune. I just learned it tonight, so it's not the greatest playing.

Neat Things

For Christmas this year my mom gave me two really cool old blankets. The first one is one my great grandma made. It's made from fabric hexagons that are crocheted around the edges and then crocheted together. I saw one hanging at my aunt's house and thought it was super awesome. When I asked her about it, she told me where she got it and said my mom should have one too. When I went home and asked my mom she pulled hers out of her cedar chest. I think they're are really cool and want to try to make my own. As part of my Christmas present, my aunt gave me some cool wool to use for my blanket. I'll probably start mine once I finish my other hexagon project.

The other blanket she gave me is one her grandma's grandma gave her as a wedding gift. She said she thinks it's about 80 years old which I think is super awesome. The banked it pretty plan, but it does have an applique flower think on it. It's kind of tattered, but it is super heavy and I bet super warm. I don't want to use it because I want it to last, so I left it at Fairmont until I get a house I can display it in, but I did take a couple of photos
The blanket is so old and faded that you can look along the stitching and see the dark indigo-ish color the blanket used to be.

As far as the name that tune from last week, no one even had a guess as to what it was.....So....I guess I'll just tell you. It was White Blank Pages by Mumford and Sons. Here is a link to what the song actually sounds like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw-ko6aINI4

Merry Xmas

I'm so good at keeping my promises. I'm turning into a post-a-holic. That's not true, but you get an extra special surprise this month.

NAME THAT TUNE! It's back because I just bought a new (to me) guitar, and I thought I'd better take it for a test run. This song is off a band's first album. It was never released as a single. The album was released in 2009. The band is described as "indie folk" by wikipedia.

I bought the guitar off Craigslist because the one I have I'm not a big fan of. So far I really like this one.

The Reindeer Dash

The YWCA has a 5k called the Reindeer Dash each winter. I decided to run in it this year with a couple friends. For the race you are supposed to dress goofy and christmas-y. When Jess was 16 my mom made him a santa suit. I knew we still had it in the attic, so I dug it out and that is what I wore for the race. The pants were about five inches too long, so I had to roll them up and had to keep lifting them throughout the run. The legs were also really wide, so they were kind of awkward to run in. I toughed it out anyway.


A couple friends from work ran the race with me. Two others were going to, but one got sick and the other had family plans that came up. This is a picture of Holly and me. There were a few other people I work with that ran too. It was fun to see them all dressed up. We got our first bit of snow that stuck the night before, so the run was a little slick. I haven't ever run in the snow, but I managed not to fall. The slick street and the santa suit compromised my time, but the whole ordeal was pretty fun none the less. My time was right around 31 minutes. I'm not sure how much I will be running now that there is snow on the ground, but hopefully I can get out enough to keep my endurance up for when I can resume a normal running routine outside.

Oh xmas tree, oh xmas tree...

I "put up" my xmas tree last weekend. I don't really have any room for a real tree (real in this case meaning one that isn't a foot and a half tall, not natural vs fake), so I have the Charlie Brown xmas tree that Erin and Alli gave me a few years ago sitting out. I really did it up this year and added some extra ornaments to the tree. However it is too small and fragile to put all my ornaments on it, so the others are just dispersed throughout the apartment.

I still have a bit of shopping to do for the holidays. The sibs and I went in together to get my mom's gift, so I picked that up this week. Last week my mom, sister, and I went in together to get my brother a new recliner for xmas. We didn't want to get one he wouldn't like, so we took him to the store to pick it out. If I remember, I will make him let me take a picture of him sitting in it to share. I still have to find something for Meg, one more thing for my uncle who's name I have this year for the Farrow xmas, and then my dad and Annette. Justin didn't want to exchange gifts this year, so we're bypassing it. Which is ok I guess since I always have to think of gift ideas for him for the rest of the family in addition to thinking of my own ideas.

I've been really awful at posting lately on here, so I'm going to try to make up for it by posting four times in December! AND by making my banner more festive. So enjoy the decorations on my bait shop stand.

The Costumes

I wrote about the costumes I made for some coworker's children. One of the girls sent me some pictures of her daughter in the costume, so I thought I'd post them. This is Kiera in her grim reaper costume. She absolutely hated it, but her mom forced her into it and eventually she came around. I wasn't too offended since she hated the care bear costume she had too.

There is a hood on the costume as well, but she would not let it go up. I think she looks absolutely hilarious in the costume. Her mom made her the scythe to do with it. The costume got really mixed reviews though. A lot of people thought it was awesome, but a lot of others didn't seem to care for it (mostly the older generations). Apparently little girls are supposed to dress and fairies and princesses, not grim reapers.  I'll add a picture of the costume laid out as well so you can see the hood.

The other girl never gave me any picture of her son in his costume, so I'll just have to post the photo I took. Apparently he was scared of the costume too at first, but then once he got it on he loved it . I had to make both costumes without patterns, but in the end I think they turned out pretty well.

The 5k

I wrote some about my stupid foot and how I might not be able to run in any of the races like I'd planned.  Well this weekend was race weekend, and I was able to run in the 5k. I wanted to do the 10k, but I wasn't confident enough that my foot would behave, and still could use a little more training.

The entry fee was $40, but I won this "lottery" thing at work that reimbursed my fee. Mayo was one of the main sponsors for the race so they were given 6 entry fee reimbursements to divvy out. I was one of the lucky winners!

The race was at 4pm yesterday. It was a little chilly out, but it was still pretty good weather for running. There were about 500 people in the race. My official "chip time" was 27:30 which is the actual time it took to cross the starting line and cross the finish line. The "gun time" was 28:03, but I ignore that one because it was a huge cluster of 500 people trying to run through a starting chute that was about 15 feet across. I think overall I came in 176 of 501 based on the chip time and 75 of 312 or so for the females. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I'm looking forward to running another race in the future. I am also hoping to run a 10k in the future. I bought some good running shoes so hopefully that will help my foot issues and make it all more possible.

Two friends came to cheer me on. They made me signs and greeted me at the finish line. This is Alli and me after the race. She calls me Rollie Pollie. Erin wrote my nickname wrong on the sign, but I was too thrilled to have a cheering section to notice. Today was the Marathon and half Marathon. I went with Erin to cheer on some of the runners. All the little kids cheering me on yesterday made me think that it was worth devoting some time to encouraging the people running the big race. 

Running. Part 2?

So here is the update on the running situation. I ended up signing up for the 5k in the Mankato Marathon. I've been running about half as much as I was before my foot started bothering me. I have plantar faciitis. It's a lot better than it was when it first starting hurting, but I still can't run as much as I'd like. I ran 3.5 miles and at the very end my foot started to hurt. A couple days later I ran 5.5 and it was fine the whole time. A couple days after that I ran 3.5 and it hurt again. Then I ran 2.5 and it really hurt. Today I ran 3.5 and it was basically ok. I haven't figured out exactly if there is something in particular that makes it hurt during the run. I've run different routes with different shoes at different times with different amounts of rest time between the runs. I can't find any correlation, so I think I just need to keep doing the stretches the doc told me to do and take it easy. But I figured since I can run the distance, I might as well sign up for the 5k. Come cheer me on if you want. I don't anticipate finishing with any impressive time. I'm just doing it for fun. But a cheer squad would be neat.

In other news, my motorcycle is presenting me with another opportunity to learn how to fix something. A couple days ago my odometer and speedometer stopped working. I've done a little research, but haven't been able to pinpoint exactly what I will need to fix/replace to make it work again. In the meantime I don't really want to ride it because I want to keep the mileage on the odometer accurate. I'm not too worried about the speed limit stuff since I could just follow traffic and use the tachometer as a reference, but I'd really prefer to keep the mileage accurate for when I sell the bike and don't want to feel like I'm lying about how many miles are on it. Hopefully I can figure it out how to fix it without too much hassle or cost.

Food and Running

Recently I've been on a kick where I have actually been making my self some real meals. I kind of got lazy when I moved into my new place and didn't have a kitchen for a couple weeks. I had to make microwavable meals and sandwiches for a couple weeks and I just sort of stayed there. This past week I started making big kids meals. It's been kind of nice, but except for the part where I eat the same things for three days because I haven't figured out how to cook for one yet.

I started with and Asian cashew chicken sort of meal. Basically I just cooked some chicken, added garlic, cashews, carrots, broccoli, green pepper, soy sauce, and teryaki sauce. Add some rice and an egg roll on the side. I made this a week later for a couple friends because it was so yummy.

Then I made something along the lines of a Sante Fe chicken pasta. I got this lawry's marinade which is where the Santa Fe part comes in. Pasta sauce, tomatoes, penne noodles, garlic, crushed red peppers, and Parmesan cheese.

Then I made some goulash which I think is relatively self explainable.  Today I made some corn pancakes. I got the recipe for this from a cooking magazine (the rest were all just random stuff I threw together myself). It basically consisted of flour, corn, corn meal, milk, and eggs. They were a little weird, but not bad. The original recipe called for salmon to go on top, but I didn't want to pay that much and I don't like sea food. They could have done with some sort of meat though. Just plain corn pancakes were a little boring.... also, I'm not sure why this stupid picture won't face the right direction.

In other news, I was thinking about signing up to run either the 5k or the 10k OR BOTH for the Mankato Marathon weekend thing. Unfortunately my foot is being ridiculous and stupid and painful, so I'm not sure what my running abilities will be like this next few days/weeks/(god forbid) months. I'm hoping it's a fluke thing that will magically feel better tomorrow, but I'm not super optimist about it. I bought some gel inserts and have been taking ibuprofen for anti-inflammatory purposes, and have been icing and massaging it a lot. The past month or so I've been pretty consistently running 3.5 miles 5-6 times a week. I ran 5 miles yesterday and never had any problems with my foot/heel hurting. Then I got up after watching some TV several hours after the run and my heel throbbed with every step. Hopefully a couple more days of rest, icing, and massage will cure it. Because dammit, I want to run those races.

Fixing Things

Last week I took my motorcycle for a cruise. On the way home, just as I was getting off 169, the throttle cable snapped. I couldn't give my bike any gas an I had to coast to a stop about 3/10ths of a mile from my apartment. I ended up having to push the bike home because I was on a busy street with no parking. It was rather tiring, but at least it didn't happen when I was miles from home.

I ordered a new cable and got it today. I was able to replace it on my own in about an hour. The part was only $18, so overall it was a pretty easy fix. I've had some experience messing with the cable because I had to remove it from the carbs last winter when I took them off, so that helped a lot. I think the most time consuming part was draining the gas so I could raise the tank to access the area I needed.

About a month ago my Ipod died on me. I decided to attempt to fix that myself too. It didn't go quite as well. Based on some research I did, it seemed like I just would need to replace the battery. I ordered a new one for less than $5, but realized that in order to swap it out I would need to desolder the old one and solder the new on in it's place. So I had to buy a soldering iron and desoldering braid which cost $15. In the process of disassembling it, I broke the cable for the click wheel and had to order a new on of those which cost $4.

Once I finally got all the pieces I needed and put everything back together, the click wheel seems to still be broken, and the battery is doing the same thing as before--says it's charged, but doesn't actually hold a charge. I'll probably tinker with it a bit more, but I'm starting to think it's a lost cause. It sucked at first getting used to running without music, but I've gotten pretty used to it now. I think I'd still like to replace the ipod, but I'm not 100% sure yet when I will and what I'll replace it with. I don't really like the new ipod nano style, but don't know if I want to spring for a touch or classic. It sucks that I wasn't able to fix it on my own, but I had fun learning how it works and goes together. And who knows, maybe there is just one small wire loose that I'll find when I mess with it a little more.

The Fam

This Friday I went golfing with my uncle Scott. I had a really fun time hanging out with him and I golfed really well considering how long it had been since I'd played. Afterwards we went out to eat at the Olive Garden and I had this magnificent breaded eggplant with spaghetti. I'm also playing a round with my aunt Mandy in Fairmont this week. I'm hoping I hit as well then as I did on Friday.

On Saturday I went to the wedding of a friend from work with some other people from work. It was in Winona so we had a bit of a drive to get there.  The wedding was outside, and despite raining beforehand, it turned out to be a great day for it.  We stayed for the reception, but headed back early since we had a 2.5 hour drive home.

On Sunday I headed down to Fairmont to help celebrate my dad and Annette's 10 year anniversary and to see my grandparents. They live in the Quad Cities in Iowa so I don't get to see them very often.

I rode my motorcycle down and we grilled burgers and brats and ate on the deck. We spent the afternoon catching up on each others' lives and took the boat out on the lake. We stayed out until nearly 7, so when we got back to my dad's house I had to stuff my face with supper and head back up to Mankato so I wouldn't have to ride in the dark. The ride home was fantastic. All in all I was one of the best weekends I've had so far this summer.

My Very First Parking Ticket

I rode my motorcycle to work on Wednesday and since it was supposed to be nice on Thursday I just parked it in the street so I could ride it to work the next day.

The on Thursday when I went out to start it........nothing. The motor wouldn't turn over, the starter solenoid wouldn't click. I had no clue what the problem was since it was perfectly fine the night before. I was parked in front of my place which has 2 hour parking from 8-5 pm, but I didn't have time to move my bike and wasn't sure if I could even move it on my own since I had a ways to push it and it weighs 5 times more than I do.

So I had to leave it there and go to work. I took a long lunch and went back home to try to move it. When I got there I had a parking ticket, which I was expecting but which still annoyed me. It was only for $15 at least. I tried to start the bike again and this time it at least clicked and the RPMs jumped up (without the engine trying to turn over). I worked up all my strength and was able to get it moved to a non-restricted parking area without tipping it over.

I talked to a few people to get ideas about what the issue might be and was thinking it might be the starter motor which would cost me $200 to get a new one not including work to change it out. When I went out to work on my bike later that night this random guy that lives at my place came up to me and said the tail light and license plate light were on all night. This completely baffled me because the key was out and there isn't a switch like on a car that can accidentally be left on.

After some research I learned what had happened. My bike has a feature where if you turn the handle bars all the way to the left and then turn the key to the left the handle bars will lock to prevent theft. I use this when I park on the street just to be safe. However, if you turn the handlebars to the left and the key to the left but not 100% to the left the handlebars still lock, but the rear lights also stay on. I have no idea why a person would ever need this feature, but that's what happened. I didn't notice the lights on since it was 5 pm when i parked. The lights drained the battery overnight so it wouldn't start. Throughout the day the battery built back up enough of a charge to engage the solenoid, but not to start it. I jumped the motorcycle with my car and drove it back to my parking stall. At some point I'll either have to ride it to charge the battery or pull it out and charge it with a regular charger.

I was relieved that it turned out to just me that battery, but was was a little annoyed that somehow it took three years to learn about this mysterious feature on my bike. Oh well. A $15 ticket is much preferred to a $250 repair job.

Leech Lake 2.012

June 9th-16th was the annual cabin vacation. This year was a little different because I didn't have anyone to accompany me and meg brought her boyfriend. I was a little unsure of how things would go since I wouldn't have someone to constantly occupy me and I had to share a room with a SNORER.

However, I brought some ear plugs and had a really great time. I got to know Meg's boyfriend pretty well which was nice but also kind of sad since they've been dating for 5 ish years...maybe should have happened a little bit sooner.

On the first day of vacation (saturday) I caught a 28 inch northern. This was the biggest fish of the week up until Wednesday when Annette caught a 30 inch one. Overall this wasn't the most impressive fishing trip. We caught a ton of rock bass and perch, and a few Northerns, but none were really all that big besides the two. There were also only a couple walleye caught this year. It was a good trip either way.

While I was up there I went on a few jogs. It was nice since I'm used to jogging in Mankato with nothing neat to look at, and up there I was on a forest lined highway.

I went to the casino for the first time on this trip and decided I'd much rather keep my money. I lost $30 playing the slot machines. I guess beginners luck failed me this time.

Since I was going to be gone for a week, a coworker and I decided to mess with some of the nurses and make them think I quit. Apparently it caused quite the ruckus and kind of freaked out my boss since I forgot to give her a heads up that rumors might be flying....I had a lot of good laughs reading text messages from my conspirator over the reaction from this little prank.

Baby Quilt

A couple weeks ago a friend asked me to make a baby quilt for one of his coworkers. He sang at the baptism and wanted to incorporate the songs into the quilt. I did some research on how to print onto fabric and made up the design for the quilt. The printing turned out to be a giant pain in the butt. The first few pieces wen through just fine, but then the printer kept jamming up the paper/fabric and ruining the sheets. It took several tries, but I was finally able to get all the blocks printed.

I think the quilt turned out pretty well, but I really have a difficult time getting everything to lay flat so that it doesn't bunch up when I do the top quilting. That was the one part of this quilt that I'm really not happy with. The back has some bunching and gathering that should definitely not be there. The guy was really happy with how the quilt turned out anyway. He's going to give it to his coworker this week, so hopefully they like it too.

I really like the colors of the fabric. I was going to just do a sold blue on the back, but then I found the striped fabric in the clearance section for $4 a yard and it matched the quilt way too well not to use it. 

I had a fun time making the quilt. I really should finish the one that I started at the quilt retreat so I can have a second set of bedding for my bed. I probably need to get a bit more fabric to finish it up though, so we'll see if I ever get it finished.

Planty Plants

I used to name all my plants, but they kept dying on me so I fell out of the habit since I was running out of names. Lately it seems like all my plants are thriving, so I decided I should pick the habit back up. In no particular order (keep in mind that some of these names are simple so that I can easily remember them): The aloe plant- Alleyna.  The light-colored philodendron: Phil- he's been around for awhile. The new, darker colored philodendron (featured in the first photo) is Betty. I just got her from work. Then there is the dieffenbachia named Earl. He was named a couple years ago when I got him. Next is Vern. I have no idea what he is, but I got him from a friend of a friend who was moving. Then there is this fern like thing I have that I thing might be called a croton (he's on the left in the second photo.) I named him Carlos. Lastly there is the Orchid which I've named Victoria since she makes a v shape.

This past weekend I took the motorcycle safety course. I am now officially a licensed motorcyclist. (I have been riding on a permit for the past three years.) Now I can officially and legally give rides to passengers, ride at night, ride on the highway and ride without a helmet (though I don't plan on doing this last one). It was a long weekend, but it was fun scooting around on the tiny 250cc bikes since I was so used to my bigger, 750cc bike.

The New Place 2.0

Last Thursday I (sort of) officially had my kitchen finished. They started the install on Monday and had a bunch of issues with it. So the installation that was supposed to only take two days ended up taking 4. The electrician still needed to come in to put an up to code electrical plate in on the sockets, and the jerks didn't clean up their sawdust mess, so I had to do that. But I think it's all done now. The only other things I need to complete my home are the closet doors whose eta is unknown, and a toilet paper holder for the cabinet in the bathroom.

It's been so nice to finally be able to cook normal meals, do the dishes in a real sink, and not have to dig through boxes to find a fork or tupperware.. I've already made bread and granola, and I might make some cookies soon too.

In other good news, my motorcycle is fixed. It has actually been done for a few weeks. I just haven't written about it yet. I got it all put back together and have taken it out a couple times. It seems to run really well and doesn't have the power issues and topping out crap that it was doing before. So apparently my attempt at being a mechanic worked out well which was a nice boost for the ego.

The New Place

Last weekend I moved into my new apartment. I had a lot of help from my friend Erin and my brother Jess. Thanks guys.

So far things have been going well, and I'm pretty happy with the place. In my last post I said there was an annoying incident that went along with the move. Here is what happened: I came to see the place at the end of February, and the apartment was ok but rather outdated. The manager told me that they had plans to renovate so the apartment wouldn't be available until april 1st. I was fine with that so I gave her the deposit. The plan was to repaint all the walls, get new carpet and linoleum, new lighting fixtures, and new sinks and cabinets for the bathroom and kitchen. About a 10 days before I was supposed to move in, the manager called and said the owner forgot to order the cabinets for my unit. Everything else was done but that, so they wanted me to move into a unit on the basement level for a month until my place was completed. I asked if I could just live without the kitchen for a few days, but she thought it would be too long for that having only running water in the bathtub. A couple days later she called and said the cabinets would be in a little sooner and they took the bathroom sink and cabinet from a different unit they were working on, so if I wanted to live without the kitchen finished for awhile, I could move in as planned. In an effort to make up for their giant mistake, they gave me the first month's rent free, and I demanded free parking for three months (it's an extra $20 a month for off street parking).
So I'm all settled in except for the kitchen which has several boxes of stuff waiting to be unpacked. The cabinets have been shipped now, so the kitchen should be done by Tuesday. (I'm also missing closet doors but assume those will be coming with the cabinets). I'll post more picture when it is completely finished.
I think my favorite things about the apartment are the nook for me sewing corner and all the windows with ledges for my plants. I get great afternoon sun and have room for a craft nook despite the place only being a one bedroom.

The Retreat

Last weekend I went on my very first quilt retreat. I was invited by Jan whom I have various odd connections to. There were fourteen of us total and the retreat was held in a renovated church in Granada. I was a little nervous because I'd never been on a retreat and didn't know most of the people there, but I ended up having a really good time.

One of the ladies there was actually and old high school teacher and another was the wife of a high school teacher. We had a lot of really good food, fun conversations, and a lot of sewing. There was even a st patrick's day visit to the local water hole where a fellow quilter bought me a beer.

I worked a lot on a quilt and got a decent portion of it done. I'm not sure how big I want to make it and since i'm about to move, it's sitting in quilt limbo. There is one spot where I messed up that pattern laying the pieces out, but I fixed when I sewed it all together.

Regarding the moving....yes, I'm moving....again. There is a whole story involved, but the cliff's notes version is that Andy is an asshole, we broke up, and I'm moving into a one bedroom apartment. I'll post some pictures once I get settled and share some info about an annoying situation regarding the place I'm moving into, but that will have to wait for another day.

The peeps.

So I guess my mystery cupboard game wasn't such a mystery and my guess concurred with what three other people thought. I said I would tell a story involving the first person to give me the answer or to come up with the most entertaining idea...but since there were three responses all agreeing on what it was, I will tell three little stories.

Jan - The very first quilt show I went to was the DVQ's (the guild i belong to) show last March. I figured the only people that I would know there would be people from the guild itself. Little did I know that Jan was there and she came and found me at the check-in desk to say hi. She said she specifically looked for my challenge project so she could vote for it. It made me happy to know that A) real people read this blog! B) real people read this blog and care about what I write about! C) Jan was going to vote for my project! I kind of felt like a schmuck for not submitting the piece, but it was still neat to know I would have gotten one vote. Thanks Jan!

Emily - In Fairmont there was this store called EZ Own that had this giant check list on the front window. It had three big boxes with check marks showing they had electronics, furniture, and appliances. One night Emily and I snuck to the store and added one more big box (with one of those washable window markers), but we left off the check mark and wrote "pick up dry cleaning" next to it. We are such vandals. This other time I forgot all my memories of Emily ever existing in my life and she got mad at me. Love ya Em.

Shanna - The closest my life ever came to seeming like a musical was when I was working at the mortuary with Shanna. She, myself and two other employees were working in the prep room with the radio on one day. Queen's "Under Pressure" came on and everyone started signing along. It was one of the most fun times I had working at the mortuary.

How Obnoxious.

This is the second time I've started a post with the intention of putting on a new Name that Tune video. However, my blog only lets me put on videos under 100 mb and my fancy new camera recording in High Def makes 30 second videos 110 mb. Sigh (and hence the name of this post). This is also the reason there was not a second post for the month of January. When my video didn't work, I got mad and didn't feel like writing anymore.

I've been selling some of the stuff i've crocheted to people at work. I made a couple scarves for my boss and one of the nurses and some mittens. These mittens are super small (about the length of my middle finger) and ridiculously cute. They are for my co-worker's one-year-old daughter. I made her (the mom) a pair and had some leftover yarn. I was going to make her a matching hat, but there wasn't quite enough yarn left so I decided to make the mini-gloves instead. Now they can have mommy-daughter matching gloves. Plus the kid likes to suck on her fingers so now she has finger access without her hand getting cold. Everybody wins!

There is this cupboard in the kitchen that has a mysterious metal thing in it. My goal for you is to tell me (or guess as to) what it is. I have no idea. It is on a roller thing so it can slide in and out of the cupboard, but it's is on of the cupboards against the wall and facing the "dining room" part of the kitchen, so besides oddly placed towel holder, i'm at a loss as to what it is. Whoever tells me accurately what it is (or makes the most entertaining guess) will get their name featured in the next post with whatever story comes to mind involving me and said person. I can't decided if that's a good prize or not, but it's all I can think of to award.

Mmmmbread.

I got a bread maker for Christmas. The very first loaf I made turned out like crap. It didn't rise at all, so it was basically a solid ball of flour. The second loaf, however, turned out quite nice (as did the third). So nice in fact that I took a picture...but it's not downloaded to my computer so you don't get to see it. I have been using homemade bread to make the sandwiches I eat at work. I want to find the perfect recipe for a whole grain bread. The one I used last was a whole wheat, honey oat bread. It is pretty good, but not the best.

I've been tinkering with my new camera. I think it's grown on me some. I took advantage of the big moon and the frozen river when it was nice out this past weekend. I'm glad I did because now it's too damn cold. I need to get a tripod if I intend to keep taking nighttime photos because the shutter stays open for a long time and i am bad at holding the camera steady and there aren't usually level things to set it on. I can get one for pretty cheap, but I haven't decided if it's worth it yet.