Confessions

Following my sister's post listing 10 confessions (which I loved!), I decided to do one of my own.

1. I hate graters. Grating stuff is one of my least favorite cooking activities because it is scary and graters gives me the heebie-jeebies.

2. I still sometimes do the nun thing that I used to do when I was little where, when you're taking off your shirt, you leave it covering all your hair so you look like a nun. Jeran hates it.

3. I like to sing when I am bored and alone, like singing every nursery rhyme I can think of (I know a lot for some reason) or practice singing Row Row Row Your Boat with the notes offset by different amounts.

4. I hate the Waffle House but I have never been there and am determined never to go there. What do I hate most about it? The font they use on their sign.

5. There is something that I really like about cleaning out the sink drain after it gets clogged with hair and gunk, even though at the same time it is one of the grossest jobs I know of.

6. I love that initial feeling of getting into and sitting in a hot car with the windows rolled up.

7. I do not drink nearly enough water/liquids and some days I go without drinking anything. But I am determined to change that! I bought a new water bottle to inspire me and I'm going to try to drink at least 32 ounces a day.

8. I occasionally put headphones on and forget to turn on my iPod and son't realize it until hours later.

9. I sometimes get my p and b confused when writing words and have to sound it out aloud to figure out which letter I should write. "A.. buh.. surd."

10. For some reason, it took me A LOT longer than everyone else to figure out that drying off your entire body with a towel after a shower will really help you warm up a lot. My methods were always to curl up in a ball and wait to get warm or sit in front of a heater.

Wallpaper update

After working on the wallpaper twice (a total of about 5-6 hours probably), here is where I am at:

One sizable section done. The PaperTiger works pretty well, but the wallpaper remover stuff is indispensable. It still doesn't just jump right off the wall (I wish), but at least it comes off in slightly larger pieces.

Another thing that I did the other day was make this wreath. It was pretty fun and will brighten up our front door for spring.

I think it would be fun to take a flower arranging class.

Kitchen Wallpaper

Well, I am about to embark on a big task: Taking down all the wallpaper in the kitchen. There is A LOT of it. There aren't too many cupboards in our kitchen but it is a big room, which leaves lots of area for wallpaper. Also, annoyingly, it goes behind the splash guard on the countertops for quite a ways.

Isn't it just too cute?

No. it is coming off - all of it - and I'm starting today. I did some test peeling on one edge a while ago and it is going to be more stubborn than the wallpaper we took off from the bathroom. I have done a little reading online to decide what is the best way to go about this.

I purchased a Paper Tiger, which will poke a lot of shallow little holes in the wallpaper (and if used right, not in the drywall) to allow liquid to get behind more than just the edges. You gently roll it around in an area, then spray/wipe/roll it with wallpaper adhesive remover and wait for a while with fingers crossed. Then, I think you are supposed to be able to just peel and scrape the loosened wallpaper off. I am just really really really hoping it is that simple.

Well, I've got my supplies, my iPod, and Toby for company, and I've delayed starting by writing this, so here goes nothing! I'll keep y'all posted!

My Radius

So I was reading someone's blog - quick side note: I don't know her but her blog is quite entertaining - currently she has a series on Why You Should Have a Mormon Friend about food storage and designated drivers and such.

Anyways, I was reading her blog and she had a post about The Radius, that is, the circle around her house that she doesn't like to drive beyond. I really understood it and connected with that a lot because that is absolutely true with me! I have about a 10 minute driving radius that I usually travel in and any time I have to go somewhere outside this circle, I feel like it is a big ordeal and I need at least a few hours allocated for that trip.

Fortunately for me, there are a lot of things, basically everything I need within my small 10 minute radius. A big mall, Target, Michaels, lots of restaurants, at least 4 grocery stores, a hardware store and a Lowes, the post office, the bank, most friends' houses, the vet, and the library. Some things outside this circle that we go to are church (30 min), UNC (20 min), and a few random stores like JoAnns, Sam's Club, and Harbor Freight (tools).

My thing is that I get distressed planning an outing when I need to go to multiple places that are not in the same direction. Like today I need to go to the post office (east) and the bank (west) and I hate thinking about it! Why? I can't figure out exactly why. Maybe it is because it seems so inefficient and it is such a shame they aren't right next to each other or maybe I'm just crazy.

On a related note, I sometimes get so impatient walking to and from the mailbox that I just have to run because it takes too long. According to Google Maps it is 0.1 miles each way.

On an unrelated note, why do we say miles for a quantity between 0 and 1? If it is less than 1 MILE it certainly isn't MILES. I'm confused.

Olympics

I am pretty excited for the Olympics. There is something great about finally having sporting events where basically our entire nation is rooting for the same team/individual instead of our intra-national NBA, NFL, NCAA, etc. I'm a little bummed today because we are probably going to miss the Opening Ceremonies, which are usually pretty amazing.

I can't decide which sport I am looking forward to most. There are so many exciting sports in the Winter Olympics! For me, the coolest are snowboarding, figure skating and freestyle skiing. The racing events are less exciting to watch than the events involving artistic form and routines. The lamest is curling. Obviously. But what even is Nordic Combined? I have no idea.

Anyways, I can never remember what all the Winter Olympics includes so here is a reminder of the medal events:

Alpine skiing - 10 events incl. downhill and slalom

Biathlon - 10 events of varying course lengths and team sizes

Bobsled - 3 events: 4 man, 2 man, 2 woman

Cross-country skiing - 12 events of varying course lengths and team sizes

Curling - 2 events: men's and women's

Figure skating - 4 events: Men's and women's singles, pairs, and ice dancing

Freestyle skiing - 6 events incl. moguls, aerials, and skicross

Ice hockey - 2 events: men's and women's tournaments

Luge - 3 events: 2 man, 1 man, 1 woman

Nordic combined - 3 events all individual of different courses

Short track speed skating - 8 events of varying course lengths and team sizes

Skeleton - 2 events: men's and women's

Ski jumping - 3 events: small hill, men's large hill, team large hill

Snowboarding - 6 events incl. slalom, half-pipe, and snowboard cross

Speed skating - 12 events of varying course lengths and team sizes

Also here is the TV schedule from NBC.

Go team USA!

I love reading

As one of my 2010 resolutions, I determined that this year I was going to read 24 books. I decided that they should be a great variety of lengths, genres, etc. without specifying how many of each and so far I think I am doing pretty well on both the variety and quantity.

In January, I read 4 books:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This novella was very short (50 pages) and different from the movie, which we saw a while ago. The book was interesting and was written more like "imagine this scenario" than an actual novel with a plot. Three stars.

Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

Having read all of the other Ender series books, I decided to finish out the series (assuming he is done writing these finally!) I was familiar with the story and this complemented the rest of the books quite well. It was a good read. Four stars.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is a very interesting book revolving around a girl in Germany during WWII. The beginning is somewhat confusing but once you stick with it for a little while, you figure out who the characters are. Five Stars

A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds

This is about a woman who tends the graveyard in a small town and is shunned by many of the townspeople because her face was burned when she was young. This was a pretty good book that in some ways reminded me of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It was entertaining and thought-provoking, although it had some bad language. Four stars.

In February so far (I know, only 1/3 of the way through it yet) I have read:

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

A well-written book about a girl in 15th century Florence whose life doesn't turn out at all like she thought it would. There is some material in this book that would make me hesitant to recommend it to others but it was still thought-provoking and interesting. Four stars.

Roots by Alex Haley

An excellent book. It has been a while since I read anything about early American history or Africa. This book is really quite amazing and has caused me to think a lot about slavery and seeing things from a new perspective. It is amazing to read how Alex Haley hunted down the facts about his genealogy and heritage. It made me want to talk to my elder relatives and find out the real details of their lives and where I came from. I highly recommend this book - don't be daunted by it's hugeness! Five stars.

I believe next on my list of things to read is Atlas Shrugged but after just finishing Roots (today) I may need a short little easy read before I jump into that. If anyone has any book recommendations for this year I would love to hear them. Thank you!

♫ I've Got the Whole World...

on my floor. ♫

This was from quite a while back but I just now found the pictures on our less-used camera. I was laying on the floor and was somewhat bored or restless. I ended up creating artwork using the carpet by brushing the fibers in different directions. Here is the result:

Tada!

Toby-zilla!

This one is supposed to be Jeran.