Aug. 8: Linky goodness

This post is not so much “stuff Jen says,” but “stuff on which Jen thinks you should click.”

My niece created this site: I Live Here: PDX. It makes me wish I lived in the city because then she would profile me but-cept then the site would shut down of boredom and that would make her sad. Anyway, if you live in Portland, Erin is looking for you. Contact her through the I Live Here: PDX Facebook page. You’ll be faaaaamooooous!

This tutorial for making a super-cute T-shirt shrug has been all over Pinterest lately. People have posted pictures of their completed shrugs below the tutorial, which is kinda fun to see.

We saw our first Broadway in Portland show of the (our) season, Les Miz, yesterday. The kids and I did a lot of reading up beforehand so we’d know the characters and basic plot, and I think that helped, because it was frequently hard to hear the lyrics (stoopid Keller Auditorium). The show was so much better than I expected it to be. Even Jack didn’t totally hate it. He and I found this LEGO Les Miz video yesterday—it’s got terrible sound editing, but the LEGO part is good.

Here’s some help treating your laundry. Sherrice and I discovered the wonders of Dawn liquid years ago, but a lot of these other suggestions are new to me. And while you’re in list mode, here’s one for the types of glue that can/should be used for different materials.

If you like cucumbers, you’ll love this salad.

Ever picture The Office with a Dallas-like intro? Me neither, but there ya go. Here it is in a classic sitcom style—isn’t it weird to watch The Office with a laugh track? Here’s my favorite: The Office in Japan.

The new IKEA catalog came out last week! Mine is already marked up and dog-eared. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, here’s where you can request one.

Have a super-duper fantastic week, y’all.

Jul. 26: Where’s my AARP card?

You know what’s awesome about the Internet? It has everything. EVERYTHING. I can’t even begin to post links to all the cool stuff I find. Girl, you know it’s true.

But—sad face!—today a site that I love called me an old lady. This is worse than the gas station attendants calling me “ma’am” or my kids yelling downstairs to Vic, “She’s asleep in front of the TV again!” That’s right, The Oatmeal, one of the best things about the ‘net, suggested that 43-year-old women are “old ladies.” Technically, I won’t be 43 years old for… um… (quick consult at timeanddate.com because my brain is too decrepit to do math on the fly)… 54 more days.

I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter that I’m not one of the Farmville-playing old ladies; Pinterest is probably just as make-fun-of-able.

Young whipper snapper Internet comedians…

<Sob!>

Apr. 24: Catching up again

Here’s what kept me away from my blog most of this past week.

• Life got insane there for a while, with way too many ups and downs for my liking, so I’m taking today to relax and recuperate before I start another week. How will I do it, you ask? I’ve got Tina Fey’s new book, Bossypants. Good enough. Peace and quiet, except for my occasional LOL-ing at this very funny book, and I should be a happy, rested girl.
• I kind of really, really loved the spin on Rent’s Seasons of Love they did on The Office Thursday. Will Ferrell’s no Jesse L. Martin, but this was still all kinds of fun.
  
  
  
  Next week is Michael’s last show. Sad face.
• Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny day here in Portland. The four of us went downtown in search of fun, and found it along the Willamette—specifically, at Saturday Market. I couldn’t resist a beautiful handmade glass-and-metal spinner for the front porch. We got elephant ears, semi-highs on weed smoke, and best of all, sunshine. It was crowded and crazy but good weather after a way-too-long winter brings out the best in Portlanders, to be sure. We Manullangs thoroughly enjoyed our day. 
• There’s a new-ish iPhone app called Crackle that streams movies and TV shows for free, though there’s not a huge selection (yet). Last night I watched Reign Over Me, which is about a guy who reconnects with a friend who lost his family on 9/11. It was sad but sweet and I loved Don Cheadle in it. Adam Sandler wasn’t bad (better than his dramatic role in Punch-Drunk Love, IMO), but his voice got on my nerves after a while, as it was at its whiniest. Oh, and I’ve decided I do not love watching full-length movies on my iPhone. An iPad would be much better. Or… a TV!
• Here’s an amusing tumblr page featuring pictures of cats where they don’t belong.
• Please tell me my kids weren’t the only ones who ate chocolate for breakfast this morning. (And Happy Easter, by the way!)
• Do you read PostSecret? I thought one of today’s secrets was especially snicker-worthy:
  
  
  Thank the gods that my kids’ teachers have all had a decent grasp of our written language; I’ve never felt the need to do this. EVER. But I see a lot of other teachers’ notes home that really, really make me want to shake ‘em.
  
  Having said that, the other day I caught a typo on a memo I sent out to teachers a few months ago. Get this—I used “please” instead of “pleased.” Yes, I said, “we are please to tell you…” Can you believe that? Would it be weird if I re-wrote the entire memo with a huge apology-slash-retraction? Would that make it worse? Because, really? I. Want. To. Die.
• At last week’s PTO meeting we had nominations for next year’s new board members. My term is up, but I may be re-signing to co-president with Sunshine. That is, if people vote for us. There are rumors that they won’t. Watch for more on that in a future post because OMG, I can’t believe people sometimes.
• Friday is the Royal Wedding. Sure, William and Kate are getting married, but the REAL royal wedding is at Willamette Valley Vineyards. Kim F’n is going to be Kim F’n-W! It’s sure to be a fabulous time, EVEN THOUGH Kim didn’t ask me to perform the ceremony EVEN THOUGH I’m an ordained reverend. (I think she’s afraid I’d curse too much.)

In closing, I want to thank all of you who emailed or commented after my last post. You are so good to me. It was a rough week. I don’t know how these things snowball and finally end up in a blog post, but I’m working on controlling them a bit better. Regardless, I love you for letting me be me.

Jan. 17: Daybook

Today…

Outside my window... the sky is a bit blue and a bit bright, not the usual grey. My doctor suggested I may have seasonal depression—common in the northwest, or so I hear—and I should get more light. This morning I have the blinds open more than usual, and honestly, the light is kinda burning into my brain. How is that helpful? I think it’s making me stupid. I actually just typed an ‘e’ on the end of ‘brain.’ That is not good.

This weekend, I… shopped for prizes for the upcoming school carnival, read a little bit, napped some, did concessions at the school’s movie night, and tried to get the scent of theater popcorn off me. Two thorough showers later, and I swear I can still smell it.

I am thinking... about the happy news we got the other day: Victor’s sister and her family are moving back to the states! Over the past several years they’ve lived in Montreal, Yokohama, Brussels, Paris, and Shenzhen, and we’re thrilled that they’re finally coming home to Seattle.

I am thankful... that the forecasted snow never came last week. There was some freezing rain, but it wasn’t bad in Clackamas. I am not a fan of the super-cold weather, nor am I a fan of snow days, and the weather gods finally listened to me last week. ALL HAIL JEN, I believe was exactly what they said.

I am working on... my school carnival doodies and a big project at work. Bizzy bee.

Can I tell you something? I love this cereal box game—you can guess why. Thanks for sharing a pic, April!

I am going... to have to find a positive-thinking way of dealing with my port-flush. Every 4-6 weeks I’m supposed to go to the oncologist’s office and sit in the chemo room so a nurse can inject my port with saline. This is done to keep it clean and accessible, so as long as I have the port (which could be the rest of my life), I have to have it flushed regularly. Last week was my first time, and can I just tell you? I HATED being back in the chemo room. It was so depressing. Yes, it’s only for a few minutes at a time and much less often than the chemo schedule I was on, but I just want to be DONE with all things chemo, y’know? It’s not easy to put a positive spin on being in that room—I spent a year there that I sooo want to put behind me.

Around the house... it smells delicious! There’s a pot roast in the crock pot that’s surrounded by carrots, potatoes and mushrooms. It’s almost overflowing, in a totally good, this-is-gonna-last-several-meals way. Yum.

One of my favorite things... is the fabulosity of my friends. Yesterday Val texted me and insisted I get to her house right that instant. Of course, I did, because when Val says “JUMP!” I ask “How high?” Victor and the kids joined us, and later Val demanded Sunshine and her fam get over there too. The first thing Sunshine said to Val was “Why can’t I say ‘no’ to you?” (See, I’m not the only one!) We all ended up spending an impromptu many hours together. I L-O-V-E love those folk.

Plans for the rest of the week: Lots of work at school and lots of work at work. PTO meeting on Wednesday. Poker night on Saturday. In other words, all good things. Happy things.

Here’s a link I want to share: The Monkeys You Ordered. You remember the Seinfeld episode in which Elaine goes to the New Yorker, demanding to know why one of its comics is funny? That’s pretty much what this site is about. Here’s how Comics Alliance describes it:

Because science has determined that no more than 23% of New Yorker cartoons are comprehensible to humans, the good people at The Monkeys You Ordered have repurposed that unexplainable material into something more helpful and entertaining to everybody. Updating weekly, The Monkeys You Ordered studies the latest variously mystifying New Yorker cartoons and gleans through an algorithmic process the artwork's true meaning. From there, they simply caption the cartoon accordingly.

Have a great week, youse!

Want to blog your own Daybook? Here’s the info: The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Jan. 4: Some guy’s resolutions

Sherilee shared this little gem of a link on Facebook last night and since some of you are not her FB friend (and why the hell not, I should ask?), I decided to post it here so you don’t miss it. I really don’t want you to miss it. It’s a good one, especially if you’re like me and think resolutions are stupid and silly and why are you such a rotten person by the time December comes that you have to make so many changes in January, hm? Sheesh.

Wait For It… » New Year’s Resolutions

Some people only make one New Year’s resolution. That’s a lot of pressure to either succeed or fail. I make a ton of resolutions. That way, even if I forget what I resolved to do/not do, I’ll probably keep at least one or two of my New Year’s resolutions. Just through sheer luck. (It was actually my resolution last year to make more resolutions this year.)

Take a minute to read through more posts on this guy’s blog. I promise you’ll get a chuckle. OK, I don’t actually promise anything, but give it a chance. I did, and now my goal for today is to work the phrase “anti-chafing Juliamax™ technology” into a conversation. I’m also going to work, but my first priority? That phrase.

And I don’t mean to harp about it, but for reals, why aren’t you friends with Sherilee? She’s delightful. And totally not a leper.

Dec. 12: Sunday fun

I didn’t do my Friday post, and I didn’t make up for it yesterday with a Saturday post. I’m just not doing my blogging job very well right now. I’ve hardly spent any time on my computer over the past few days—too much holiday stuff to get done. I’m not complaining about being too busy, though, because right now everything is still Christmas-y and joyful and fun and until I get overwhelmed and whiny, you might just not find a lot to read here at Stuff Jen Says. How ‘bout this? I’m going to share some of the good stuff I’ve found on the ‘net in the past few weeks.

• If you’re not anti-hilarious-cartoon Loveliest Lori, you’ll enjoy this 3-D Perry the Platypus Christmas ornament. (I love you dearly, Lori, but you really should give Phineas & Ferb a chance.)
• Suspected terrorists vs. the average person. This made me chuckle.
• Not sure what to get for the man on your Christmas list? Here are some ideas that won’t help you even a tiny bit.
• See that box on the left that says “Twitters that made me LOL”? You should scroll through and read some of them beauties. There are some very funny people saying very funny things out there on Twitter.
• Sunshine shared this and I love it:

He’s charming as can be, no?

• This isn’t funny or even all that interesting, but I love the new engagement photos of Prince William and Kate. His natural smile is so much like his momma’s.
• New York designers say these are the colors for the upcoming season. Who knew? (And Erin, I can’t believe you “swoon” over any one of them. They’re colors. Silly girl.)
• One of the reasons I dislike Céline Dion is that this parody is remarkably accurate in the way she behaves in interviews (here’s a short example of the real thing). Tracey Ullman is one of the most underrated actresses out there. For a real kick, watch some of her other videos on YouTube. So funny.

ha.

• We went to IKEA the other day, and I found the Christmas décor there kind of disappointing. A lot of it looks like 4th of July décor to me, which I think is weird because Scandinavians don’t celebrate the 4th of July like we do, right? They have some fun star ornaments, and I love their strings of lights, but there’s an awful lot of blue in most of their SNÖVITA line. Meh.
• Some people bug the hell out of me.
• (Wow, how’d that sneak in there? That has nothing to do with stuff I’ve found on the Internet at all. Hm.)
• Our niece, Presley, got a new kitty! She might just be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Meet Cookie:

• Sunshine told me there’s all this fancy wish list stuff on Etsy now, and you can see what your friends want and they can see what you want and OMG I can’t imagine what could be better except maybe if y’all buy me everything on my list twice.
• I was thinking that the new Jack Black/Jason Segel Christmas Jam would be a good last-minute addition to our Christmas CD, so I downloaded it and was all happy until I realized the mp3 has the same content as the video. In other words, there’s talking on the song, and I hate when people talk on songs. Bummer.
• Did you see Community this last week? Clever.

I’ve got a CD to finish, letter to edit, labels to print, gifts to make, soup on the stove, a HUGE etsy wish list to create, and an ornament exchange party to go to this evening. T’will be a good day.

Oct. 17: If movie titles were honest

Here are 35 movie posters “if movie titles were honest.” This one is, by far, the most true:

Sep. 3: IDCEAYWTPFriday

It’s Friday, and that means you get a post called I Don’t Care Enough About You to Write in Transitioning Paragraphs Friday.

• I’m tired. I got a big PTO mailing out this week and I think every last bit of my energy went into it. I’m completely exhausted and I need a really long nap.
• Katie’s been at Kathy’s in Colorado all week. They’ve both texted and emailed photos every day, which have made me more and more jealous because I want to be there too. I’m thrilled Katie’s having fun with her auntie, though. She’s coming home tomorrow and two of the three of us are very excited to have her back.
• I went into the school on Wednesday and was surprised at how nice it felt to be back there. Of course, PTO is a big social thing for me, so it *is* a blast—until I’m printing 4,257 letters and envelopes, in which case I’d really prefer not to speak of it again. Thanks.
• We’re not going to talk about how many times I ate frozen yogurt at Divine this week. But it’s okay! It’s non-fat!

• It appears that Mt. Ellis Academy is one of the winners in the Kohl’s Cares contest I wrote about yesterday. Looks like they even made it into the top ten. Hooray! If you voted, thanks; that $$ is really going to help the school.
• We’ve watched old episodes of Hawaii Five-O a couple times this week. Spike TV is showing it to hype the new version. It’s hilarious how bad the acting is, how hideous the clothes are, and how often they shoot guns straight up into the air to get bad guys’ attention. But the theme song brings back memories of watching the show with my dad, so I enjoy every minute of the awesome bad-ness of the show.
• I think I need this ketchup dispenser:

• Remember when you could only get Mickey ears at the Disney parks? It was kind of a big show-off thing to have them, because it either meant you had been to a Disney park or someone had gotten them for you when they were there. They’re available at the online Disney store; it has all sorts of styles. The biggest deal is that you can order them personalized now—that was the one thing you couldn’t do even after they started selling the ears outside the parks. My sneaky little request would have been much easier had this feature been available years ago.
  
  You’ve heard that story, right? When I asked a girl in the ear store to sew “Satan” on Mickey ears? It was all for my friend Ed, who hates all things Disney and had told me that was something he’d always wanted.
  
  Going through with the request was one of my proudest and shameful moments of being a horrible, brave woman. Ed couldn’t believe I actually did it. I kind of still can’t believe it either.
  
  Victor was afraid to stand near me after that because he was sure I would be escorted out of Disneyland at any minute. That, or be struck by lightning. Neither happened. I’ve even returned without incident. So there.
• The next couple days will be all about preparing for school to start on Tuesday morning. Organizing carpools, picking out first week attire, filling out forms and setting alarm clocks… what fun! I’m looking forward to some of it. Just some.

Have a safe holiday weekend! xoxo

Jul. 30: IDCEAYWTPFriday

It’s Friday, and that means you get a post called I Don’t Care Enough About You to Write in Transitioning Paragraphs Friday.

• There’s a new, limited-edition Tillamook ice cream called Grandma’s Cake Batter and it. is. delicious. Like most cake batter-flavored ice creams, it tastes like cake batter and has sprinkles in it. But the Grandma’s Cake Batter also has cream cheese frosting ribbons through it—YUM!—and pieces of cake. Uh, I want to make sure you get that: PIECES OF CAKE. In the ice cream. Pieces of cake in the ice cream, yes. So good. So evil. When you browse the freezer full of Tillamook ice cream cartons at the grocery store, look for a red lid. The red means extry-tasty. (You locals can find it at New Seasons, not Albertsons.)
• Have you read Sarah Palin’s secret dictionary? It’s a good’n.
• I went in for the appointment with my doctor on Wednesday. The nurse fell all over herself with concern, but the doctor was fairly indifferent. When he asked how I was doing, I said, “Well, I have cancer…” but he didn’t take the opportunity to apologize or say “oops” or anything (not that I expected him to), and went right on to more questions. Overall he wasn’t a total jerk, but he wasn’t Dr. Super-Nice-Guy-Because-I-Nearly-Let-You-Die, either. And I handled it all grownup-like, without yelling or crying or flipping him off outside my head, so there’s that. I got my prescription refill and left with a stronger-than-ever resolve to find a new primary care physician. If you have any recommendations, please feel free to send them my way, because I really, really hate this doctor.
• If you like Zach Galifianakis and haven’t watched any of the Between Two Ferns shows at Funny or Die, you’re missing out. Be warned that they are not for little ears. The latest one is with Steve Carell:
  
  
  
• Yesterday was Vic’s birthday. He turned… older. We partied with much delicious food over at Darlene and Wellington’s, and were glad to have his sister Sonya and her family, as well as Sally and Presley (Daryl will be here in a few days) there to celebrate with us. We have such a good time when we’re all together. I married into a lovely family.
• I had chemo #12 on July 20 and still haven’t written about it. I will, though. Still needing to follow up on a small issue and then I’ll actually have something to say.
• This is weird: a dance studio in Scotland is offering pole dancing classes for kids. Now, we all know that pole dancing is a good way to fight cancer and look fabulous doing it, but I’m not sure how I feel about lessons for little ones. Whatevs.
• So now that I’m a big fan of Flight of the Conchords, I was excited to see Kristen Schaal (Mel) was on Letterman this week. She was quite charming and funny:
  
  
  
  
  
• Yesterday I shopped for Katie and Jack’s school supplies. I can’t believe it’s already time to start getting ready for a new school year. Yes, we still have a month of summer left, but there’s so much to do and I know the time will fly. Just thinking about it exhausts me. Dina, you threw a last day of school party; how ‘bout I throw a first day of school party? Five Lemon Drops for everyone!
• The almost-constant sun we’ve had for the past few weeks is making our garden grow and grow. I’ll close this week’s IDCEAYWTPFriday with pictures I took in our yard earlier this week.

 Our coneflowers finally bloomed!

 I think their big fat centers are so cool.

 This is one of the bellflower plants, and it’s beginning to wither.
It’s still got beautiful color, though, and lots more buds to enjoy.
What I love about these flowers are the centers. Take a closer look:

See how they’re all curly?
In the wider angle, you can see the shadows of some of the middles too.
I love these tiny little details.

  Here’s a close-up of one of our tiny little sea thrifts.
The blossoms don’t last long on these flowers, but they bloom for months and months, so I don’t mind.

  I was so glad to see our agapanthus finally started to open up last week.
The ones we planted last spring froze during the winter; this is a new one and much smaller.
If it lasts through next winter we’ll have a nice big one next spring.
Keep your fingers crossed for us.
Muy importante.

I gotta say, I’m glad to see this week finally end. It was a rough one for me. It shouldn’t have been, with the kids at Grandpa and Grandma’s almost all week, but it was. I’m not sure what triggered the slide down down down, but I was exhausted in every way. I look forward to a peaceful weekend and having Victor home for a couple days. (I kinda like him.) Y’all have a good weekend too! Smooches—

Jul. 23: IDCEAYWTPFriday

It’s Friday, and that means you get a post called I Don’t Care Enough About You to Write in Transitioning Paragraphs Friday.

• On Wednesday, I finally thought to call and cancel the service on our dead TiVo. The customer service rep told me that that very day, July 21, was my six-year anniversary as a TiVo customer. Hooray! I love TiVo! Surprisingly, no balloons or giant checks were offered, and there was no freaky TiVo mascot thingie at my door—OK, I gotta kinda THANK BUDDHA for that. We were offered a replacement box for super-cheap and free service through November, and that’ll do just fine by me.
• I’m absolutely in love with this blog I ran across: Issa Sarza. Tons of fun, easy craft-y things, printables, and all sorts of homey goodies. I think the monster tissue holder is especially goofy-cute.
• My big re-organizing project is nearing completion, at least for now. These tasks are never really done, are they? I’m quite proud of how many storage boxes I’ve managed to empty, and the very large, clear space on the garage floor. Seeing fewer “go through this stuff” piles around the house is good too. Katie still won’t let me go in her room, but the rest of the house has improved dramatically.
• I doubt I’ll see this movie, but the trailer is pretty funny:
  
  
  Vampires Suck Trailer
  
• Do you like your orange juice pulp-free or with extra pulp? Sometimes I think the pulp-free is too much like Tang; on the other hand, the extra pulp variety can get awfully chewy. There are so many options these days, huh?
  
   
• Did you hear that Plinky is back? It is! I was so disappointed when its developers decided to focus on another project, but thrilled to hear another group recently bought it. However, it’s kinda lame right now. Like, stupid-questions-lame. I’m going to give it a chance, though—its feed is back in my reader. Back in the day, Plinky prompts were frequently awesome.
• Sherilee sent me the link to this fab collection of mojito recipes. Suddenly I’m so, so thirsty.
• I’m totally bummed out after watching Deadliest Catch this week. Y’know, I knew back in February that Captain Phil died, but seeing his friends, family, crew, and the rest of the fleet get the news was just heartbreaking all over again. The season finale is next week and I gotta say, I’m kinda relieved it’ll be over for a few months.
• I absolutely love this quote:

Have a great weekend, folks. Ours will be busy. I’ll try to post again soon.

Jul. 16: IDCEAYWTPFriday

It’s Friday, and that means you get a post called I Don’t Care Enough About You to Write in Transitioning Paragraphs Friday.

• All day yesterday I kept thinking it was Friday. It felt like a Friday to me, and I had to keep reminding myself it was Thursday. And even then, when I went to bed last night I thought, “Hm, I’m surprised Sherilee didn’t post her Friday Night Grateful Moment tonight.” Of course, there’s nothing wrong with there being TWO Fridays in one week, so that’s what I’m doing today: enjoying my second Friday.
• (I know, I make no sense at all.)
• I had the weirdest dream last night. It involved my grandma, Debi and Deanna, an ex from college (he was running the college cafeteria in my dream!), my mom doing some weird medical treatment that required her to wear prairie skirts so the IV bags wouldn’t show, and me. The odd thing was that it seemed REALLY real; nothing was so far beyond normal that it was unbelievable. Dreams like that are always a bit disturbing to me, and this was no exception… well, one exception: Jim Nabors was Grandma’s doctor. That wasn’t disturbing, it was just funny. To me. I don’t think having Gomer Pyle as one’s physician would be anything BUT disturbing.
• A new iPhone/Droid app that I really love is Springpad. It lets you keep all kinds of different lists, notes, etc. and, ideally, will replace all those loose notes you keep. You can make reminders by taking a photo or scanning a barcode—that’s one of my favorite features—and create notes about restaurants, various products, books, movies, music, etc. that you want to try. It automatically syncs with your online account, so you have access (and a backup) to your lists wherever you are.
  
  Here’s an example of how it can be used: Yesterday Sherilee posted a yummy recipe on her blog, so I copied it into a note, grabbed the accompanying photo, and now when I decide to make it, I have a shopping list all ready to go.
  
  Even better? Springpad’s phone app and its online version are free. Even if you don’t use the phone app, you can use the online version and you should. So says I.
• Our Internet service is back on at home. I don’t know how long the modem was unplugged, but with the recent office move, I shouldn’t be surprised that things didn’t go back exactly the way they should have. I still can’t get the kids’ desktop to connect. I don’t know what the deal is, and right now I really don’t even care. I’m just relieved to be able to use a non-iPhone Internet connection.
• By the way, Starbucks’ wi-fi is waaay convenient.
• I watched Season 1 of Flight of the Conchords this week. Loveliest Lori got me interested when it first started airing on HBO, and Debi let me listen to a soundtrack when we hung out last month. I knew I needed to fill in all the gaps by watching the whole series. Thank goodness there are only two seasons—I spent a LOT of time with the DVDs this week. The show is hilarious—very quirky and fun.
• Funny how everyone’s making such a big deal about this Mel Gibson thing. We all knew he was a jackass, didn’t we? Why is this news?
• You know what’s awesome about Almond Joy bars? They’re totally health food! Coconut, with all its fruitiness and fiber and vitamins, and an almond, bursting forth with protein and whatever else makes nuts good to eat. See? Health food. So says Dr. Jen, the overweight nutritionist.
• I was getting warnings that my hard drive was full, and I needed to do some cleanup. Last week I used Duplicate Cleaner to free up nearly six gigs of hard drive space. The program finds any duplicate files and then lists them all; you can then select which ones to delete, or set criteria that will select them automatically. I was able to compare my hard drive contents to my external drive (which I primarily use for backup) and it took a long, long time, but it did the job. Overall it was a tremendous time-saver and space-restorer for me. Git it.
• Talking Carl, one of the iPhone’s top selling apps, is all just super silly fun. Our favorite thing is to make Carl burp, because he opens his mouth HUGE and then just a squeak comes out. Anyway, this video made me LOL.
  
  
  
  
  
• We’re doing the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life this weekend. It goes from 10 am Saturday to 10 am Sunday and is supposed to be quite the party all night long. I got the schedule today and found that Victor and I weren’t assigned to any time slots, so maybe we’re not really participating after all. I need to make some phone calls, huh? Not that I’m so eager about staying up all night…
• Last night we watched Deadliest Catch from Tuesday. It was the episode when Captain Phil dies. They’ve been leading up to it for the last few weeks, but the way it finally happened at the end of the episode was truly heartbreaking to me. Phil’s oldest son called to tell the younger one that their dad had died. That’s exactly how it went when our dad died—Kathy called me. She doesn’t remember much of the phone conversation, but I remember every word, where I was standing, what time it was, what I did right after we hung up… It was a moment I’ll never forget. As horrible as it all was, there was something very special about having my big sister give me the news, rather than Dad’s wife or someone that cared even less about Dad.
  
  Anyway, this video is the sweetest moment between Phil and Josh, his oldest son. It’s kind of a killer, but as tender as they come. I don’t know for sure when it was filmed, but they showed it as though it was the day before Phil died.
• If you have a new bathroom rug and you wash it with your towels, you should expect to find the rug fluff on your body for many hours after you’ve dried off using your clean towels, even during a meeting later that day with an important client. Don’t ask me how I know this, and on a totally unrelated note, do you have a lint roller I can borrow?
• In case you didn’t notice, I’m feeling kinda bossy today. It’s just that I’m so full of it! And by “it,” of course, I mean GOOD IDEAS. It would be disgraceful of you to suggest otherwise.

Jack and I are going to see Despicable Me today. Smell ya later, losers. Um, I mean, people who aren’t going with us.

Jul. 9: IDCEAYWTPFriday

It’s Friday, and that means you get a post called I Don’t Care Enough About You to Write in Transitioning Paragraphs Friday.

• Summer has definitely arrived in the Northwest. It’s been near 100° here in Portland for several days now. I’m not complaining (because we have air conditioning) but it’s strange after our long Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad spring. I have to get used to getting all sweaty every time I go outdoors. And YES, I had to tell you that.
• Jack has been at my mom’s since Monday. The house is so quiet without all his heavy sighs of “I’m bored!” and the constant bickering between him and Katie and their friends. Jack will come back tomorrow, and then Katie will be gone for a week.
• Katie and I saw Toy Story 3 the other day. We liked it. Did you know that Sid—that bratty neighbor kid in the first movie—is the garbage man in #3? There are all sorts of hidden things like that in the movie. Here’s a nice, long list of them.
• We were hoping to get started on dismantling the playroom and setting up our office this week—it always seems easier with fewer people in the house; why is that?—but Victor was working a late shift and with the heat, neither of us had the energy to do much in the evenings. The only important thing we got done was the one thing we’d promised Jack would happen while he was away: we took down his loft bed and gave him a regular bed again. That ought to make him happier than seeing our new office anyway.
• Katie came home with these shirts after a shopping trip with Grandma yesterday:
  
   
  
  I know, I know… Sunshine and Dina are probably laughing their asses off about the werewolves one. I curse that damn Justice store and all their graphic tees! And I might possibly have to curse my mother-in-law for purchasing these two. Bieber Fever. Gah.
• Last week Sherilee linked to a hilarious site called Catalog Living—“a look into the exciting lives of the people who live in your catalogs.” You gotta read through it a little to get the gist, but everything I’ve seen so far is chuckle-worthy.
• You know what I’m tired of eating? Leftover party food. Thank goodness it’s almost gone.
• I need this print for my kitchen. I do. I have the perfect place for it.
  
  
• Here are the top 50 iPhone apps for moms, according to The iPhone Mom. Less than half of her favorite apps are useful to me, but I’m giving some of her recommendations a try. Of the ones she likes best, I already had iRewardChart, which I love, and Red Laser, which is sometimes handy, plus a few others here and there. I’m so glad Potty Predictor isn’t something I need. So, so glad.
• Here is something I love:
  
   
• And this is something I do not love: I’m going to a funeral tomorrow. I hate funerals, especially the ones for people who were too young to die. A friend’s brother passed away last week after fighting liver cancer two separate times. For those of you who went to WWC/U and remember Aser, Kary was his brother-in-law.
• Yikes. I don’t want to end my IDCEAYWTPFriday post on that bummer of a note. Let’s see… okay, here’s something. I took pictures of the birds who came to drink at our fountain yesterday, and I took pictures of some of our flowers too. Here’s one of our bellflower plants that is LOVING the sun these days:
  
  
  Those are some sea thrift blossoms peeking in behind. I like those too; they bloom for months and months. We have lots of color in the front yard right now, and when the sun shines right on it, it really comes alive. So cheery.

Victor is home (on call) today, so we’re going to enjoy the day together. Buh-bye, and have a great weekend, friends!