LolaGeek

Use 3M Hooks for Window Blind Cords: Duh! Why didn’t I think of this? For most of the blinds in our house I nailed the included little hook into the window frame to wind the cords. But there are a couple windows where I didn’t want to put the hooks up because I didn’t want something permanent in there, so this would be perfect!

Green: Makeup Brushes: I’m not currently in the market, but this will be my next set of makeup brushes. Bamboo handles, synthetic bristles, and recycled aluminum ferrule.

Slave to Target: This could potentially be me, if I had time to go to Target more often. Awesome blog with Target news and observations.

Cheese!: Um, this link is more for my own benefit - I want to go to this cheese shop! Just because it’s local and the owner went to my alma mater and it looks like they have a nice selection. GG and I love visiting cheese shops. (Okay, I might like them a little more, but I’m a bit more adventurous when it comes to trying cheeses. He’s more of a cheddar guy.)

Word Wise: Spaced Out: Please everybody, stop putting two spaces after a sentence when you’re typing! One of my biggest pet peeves (especially at work, where I have to go through and delete the extra spaces from things people enter in my database).

SomethingStore: Send them $10, they will send you… something. Ooh, mysterious.

OMG, Not Martha linked to one of my Ask.Metafilter questions! (It’s the one at the bottom about Curves gyms.) I almost feel like a celebrity!

Carpet was installed yesterday - well, most of it..! Update forthcoming, I just want to get the pictures off my camera.

I got up early this morning and took my dress down to the tailor. That woman is so sweet! She’s this little Asian lady (are all tailors/seamstresses little Asian women?) and when I came out of the dressing room in the dress she was like, “Oh, that dress so pretty! But I think everything look pretty on you, because you so pretty!” Anyway, she’s going to shorten the straps and take in the arm holes a little, and it should fit really nicely. She said to give her a week, so I might not have it back in time for Brandon and Brea’s wedding (that’s okay, I have another outfit I can wear), but I’ll definitely have it in time for Jess and Rob’s.

After stopping at the ATM, I took a back way to Julie’s apartment, picked her up, and headed into Phoenixville for the farmers’ market. It was the first one of the season, which was exciting. But, there was also some sort of Celtic festival in the middle of town, and there was a bridge out, so lots of roads were closed. We ended up driving all over the place before ending up at the market, where there was no parking, so we parked across the street. Anyway, the farmers’ market was nice, I got some cheese and a loaf of bread, and Julie got some desserts for the meal she’s making for Mothers Day tomorrow. I guess it’s really too early in the season for a lot of vegetables to be out yet, though there were a lot of herbs and leafy things for sale as well.

Then we went to the party store and got the cutest decorations for the urprise-say edding shower-way. While we were out, we stopped for lunch at the new Panera Bread in the same shopping center - it’s in what used to be a small movie theater, followed by a large brewing company restaurant, and I couldn’t imagine how big the new Panera must be. It was pretty big for a Panera restaurant, though Julie thought there was more space in there than what we could see. After lunch I took her back to her place, came home and took care of a couple things on the computer, and then had a nice nap with Ivan snuggled up against me.

Tonight I plan to start packing stuff up downstairs because the new carpet is being installed on Monday! And try to stay awake to see Saturday Night Live.

In burnt lip news, sometime while GG and I were out at the mall last night I realized that the small blister that had formed had opened up, and it looked like I had a really bad chapped lip. I finally talked to my mom last night, and she said to just keep it clean and maybe put a little ointment on it, so that’s what I’ve been trying to do. That whole area, the center of my bottom lip, still feels a little numb, which is kind of weird while eating, but doesn’t hurt otherwise.

This just in: The Duggars are expecting their 18th child! And they’re asking their fans to help name it! (Julianna and Jacob are currently the leading choices.) This is great news. I was worried, since we hadn’t heard anything about them for a while, that maybe Michelle’s uterus had finally fallen out and they just hadn’t announced it yet.

I burnt my lip pretty badly last night. I was cooking some pasta that was a curly tube shape, and I pulled one piece out of the pot to see if it was done. I blew on it, but there must have been some boiling water hiding out in the bend of the tube, because it poured out when I went to eat it and I got a big shock! I ran my lip under cold water immediately, and I held an ice compress on it for a while, but I still have a little blister right in the middle of my bottom lip. It doesn’t hurt so much anymore, and I’m keeping aloe lip balm on it. I read that you should avoid putting pressure on a burnt lip for about 10 days, but I have band practice 5 days from now and that will definitely be two hours of pressure on my bottom lip. So, we’ll see how it’s doing next week.

I continue to add things to my schedule… Luckily, we’re well into May now, so the list is a little shorter overall.

• Saturday 5/10 - Feed in-laws’ cats, take dress to tailor, go to farmers’ market and party supply shopping with Julie
• Sunday 5/11 - Pack up and move furniture from living room and dining room
• Monday 5/12 - New carpet installed
• Wednesday 5/14 - Band practice
• Friday 5/16 - Another surprise wedding shower at work
• Saturday 5/17 - Brandon & Brea’s wedding
• Wednesday 5/21 - Band practice
• Wednesday 5/28 - Band practice
• Saturday 5/31 - Jess & Rob’s wedding

In lieu of Linky Thursday this week, I’m posting this list of things I’m liking right now. (Which is pretty much the same as a Linky Thursday, just more retail-oriented and a little wordier.)

RuMe Reusable Totes: I posted these in a recent Linky Thursday, but now I can speak from experience because I am now the proud owner of a six-pack of these great bags. They’re very strong you can fit a ton of stuff in them, and you can fit the straps over your shoulder! They definitely feel well-made, and they’re easy to fold back up into a tiny packet you can fit in your purse.

Delight.com: Actually, I love just about everything on this web site! Tons of eco-friendly, well-designed items. In addition to those RuMe bags, I just bought Mothers’ Day gifts for my mom and grandmother on here! I love that they go beyond the brief description of each item, and pretty much write a whole blog post about it.

For Goodness Face Antioxidant Skin Moisturizing Lotion: Avon’s mark line is marketed to teens mostly, but I love so much of the stuff! This lotion is great - not only is it SPF 30, it keeps my face feeling moisturized all day without feeling greasy at all. The only things I don’t like about it: it smells like sunscreen (you’d think with blueberry and dark chocolate ingredients, they could’ve made it smell a little tastier), and the container is this strange kind of dispenser where you press down on the top and the lotion kind of erupts out, which seems like a gunky mess waiting to happen if you don’t wipe it clean every time.

Petal by Cynthia Rowley: Speaking of Avon products, I am totally digging this perfume. It’s designed to be the “child” counterpart to Flower, but I really like it for myself! Very light and a little sweet, they says it’s lily of the valley but GG and I think it smells exactly like honeysuckle.

Cynthia Rowley’s Whim line for Target: Pretty much this entire collection is adorable. I got this cooler yesterday, and I might go back for some of the dishes and serving pieces (like, this tray I’ve pretty much decided I need to own).

I spent yesterday evening shopping for a dress to wear for weddings this summer. At least to Jess and Rob’s wedding, since it’s black tie-ish, so I figured I should fancy it up a little bit. I’d seen some cute ones in the window of Dress Barn, and even though I try to avoid shopping places with Barn, Hut, Shack, etc. in the name of the store, I went to try some on. Of course, nothing fit. One dress kind of fit and looked pretty cute, and then as I went to take it off I heard “rrrriiiiippp,” and a seam had torn open. I don’t think because of anything I really did, but just because it wasn’t made that well. Oh well. At least it happened there and not after I’d bought it. I just left everything in the dressing room and kind of slinked out of the store…

Then later I went to Ross, and found a cute Nine West dress for $49.99 (retails for $134!). I can’t find a picture of it online, but it’s kind of a tea-length dress with a black and white flower pattern (kind of angular, starburst shaped flowers) with a wide strip of black across the bottom, sleeveless with a v-shaped neckline in the front and the back, with a kind of poofy round skirt and a black belt. The only thing is that it’s a size 14 (!), but I can fit the girls into it… so I just need to get it taken in a little around the arm holes. I know the seamstress can do that, I’ve had it done to dresses before. (On my way into Ross I ran into Steve! I think this is the first time I’ve seen him since college - even though we live so close to each other. It was good seeing you!)

Also, I got us a new iron because GG destroyed our old one by melting a pair of pants onto it - I can’t get the black stuff off, and the more I scrub, the more the nonstick coating comes off. The new one is a digital iron, which hopefully will help GG because instead of just turning the knob all the way up to “high,” you have to actually select digitally what type of fabric you’re ironing. Also it has a stainless steel soleplate, which glides nicely. I used it this morning and it works great!

My band concert was yesterday afternoon. It absorbed pretty much my whole day, between getting ready, arriving early, performing, counting money and ticket stubs afterwards, then going out to dinner. But it was fun. The concert went really well, all those little things we’ve been having problems with (up until an hour before the performance!) went perfectly. Of course, there were a couple other problems we noticed, but I don’t think the audience could tell at all. We always close with Stars and Stripes Forever as an encore, so we pretty much have it memorized and are sick of it, but everyone agreed that this was like the most amazing we have ever played that piece. The audience went nuts over it!

I went back to the President’s house afterwards to count stuff and… something apparently went wrong somewhere. The auditorium was pretty full (it holds over 400 people I think), yet we had a lot of unsold tickets left. Maybe not everyone who went in actually got a ticket? Maybe not all the stubs were collected? I don’t know, but I think for the next concert we should consider writing up instructions for the volunteers who are selling tickets, and for the ones who collect them at the door. Because nobody seemed sure exactly what to do, and now that we’re counting everything up, we don’t really know what they did. Oh well, every time we get a little more organized and a little more accurate. One of these times we’ll know exactly how many people attended the concert.

I worked from home on Friday because we got our new glass block basement windows installed! The guys were great, they arrived on time and finished in about three hours, and the windows look fantastic. Here’s before and after photos of our front window, and you can see more (all three windows, before and after, from inside and outside) on Flickr.

front window before

front window after

Yesterday I drove out to MU for some PSP Alumni events. There was supposed to be a ceremony at 1 PM, then a softball game, then a picnic, and then a party. Then I got an e-mail on Friday night that the party was canceled “due to lack of interest.” Oh well, that was actually fine because I’d planned not to stay too late anyway. I left at 11:30, and it usually takes me about an hour to get out there, so I figured I’d have plenty of time. But traffic was so slow, and I actually arrived at like 1:01 and ran into the place where the ceremony was. I just made it! If I’d been about five minutes later I would’ve missed the whole thing, because the Alumni Ritual is quick! Julia was the only other “old” Alumni there. Then the Brothers who are graduating this semester did their Senior Send-offs, which were cute. Then we got changed and headed over to the park. We ended up doing the picnic first - they grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, and had salad and chips and veggies and stuff. A couple other Alumni showed up and it was nice to see them. Then most people went off to play softball and since we weren’t planning on playing anyway, Julia and I figured that would be a good time to head out. The drive home was as slow as the drive out, and I think I spent more hours driving than I did at the actual events of the day. Oh well.

I thought maybe I’d use my unexpected free hours on Saturday night to do some other chores, but actually I had the most horrible headache (I blame it on sitting outside in the high barometric pressure for a couple hours), so I pretty much just slept until 3 AM, then got up and went to bed.

In a couple hours I’ll be leaving for my Spring Concert. Should be a good one! There will be dancing, and a Dixieland combo, and a bunch of cool stuff I think. GG is in Harlem (he and a friend played guitar at some party there last night), but he should be showing up at some point, and my mom and grandmother are coming. And then afterwards, I get to go back to the President’s house and count money and ticket stubs! Whee, the glamorous life of the band Secretary!

Internet Anagram Server: Try it with your name! I’m “Dangle Online.”

RuMe Reusable Bags: I am totally getting a set of these (in the Silicon Valley color scheme, though there is also the more colorful Spring in New York). I might have mentioned Envirosax here before, but these seem even better - check Not Martha for some reviews and comparisons, and a discount code for 15% off through May 15! I think with these plus some of those Kootsac bags, I will be totally stylin’ at the store.

GREENHOUSE Eneplug: I need one of these, too. I would probably charge my MP3 player a lot more often if I didn’t have to remember to have it and the cord and a computer with me all at the same time. (Oh, but it is almost $50.)

Our internet went out last night, thanks Verizon, though it seems to be back on this morning (based on the lights on the modem, I didn’t actually try to use the computer). I just realized we have a bill due tomorrow and I’m not sure if it covers the couple weeks recently where we had such slow connection speeds over the weekends that it was pretty much futile to try to do anything. I think those weeks might be on our next bill. Whenever it is, I’m going to call them up and try to get a discount of some sort.

They just replaced the arms on my desk chair, which is great because one of them was all torn up and it hurt to rest my arm on it, and I was just dealing with it, but then the other day our VP was like, “What happened to your chair?!” So I figured maybe I should call and get it fixed. Also, we’re having that April birthday party this afternoon that I’m hosting - I didn’t really have anything planned, but somehow yesterday afternoon threw together a nice menu of veggie tray, crackers and cheese, ice cream with a couple toppings, and a tray of brownies (that I baked!) with buttercream frosting and red sugar sprinkles. Whew!

My to-do list (updated since yesterday):

• Tuesday 4/29 - Department birthday party at work, print band concert programs after work, move stuff in basement so windows can be reached
• Wednesday 4/30 - Band practice
• Thursday 5/1 - Band dress rehearsal
• Friday 5/2 - Work from home, basement windows installed (and try to catch up on The Office and Lost online!)
• Saturday 5/3 - PSP Alumni events at MU
• Sunday 5/4 - Band concert
• Monday 5/5 - Buy ketchup, mustard, and relish for a wedding shower at work
• Tuesday 5/6 - Wedding shower at work
• Wednesday 5/7 - Band practice
• Thursday 5/8 - Meet with financial planner
• Wednesday 5/14 - Band practice
• Friday 5/16 - Another surprise wedding shower at work
• Saturday 5/17 - Brandon & Brea’s wedding
• Wednesday 5/21 - Band practice
• Wednesday 5/28 - Band practice
• Saturday 5/31 - Jess & Rob’s wedding

Also, I have to shop for food and decorations for the surprise wedding shower we’re throwing, and we might be getting carpet installed somewhere in there. And before we meet with the financial planner on 5/8 I have to finish reading that book he told me to read so I have all my questions ready for him (I was taking notes and writing down thoughts and questions, which does not lend itself to bedtime reading, and since that’s really the only place I read books anymore, I kind of stopped reading it).