Author: Sarah

I need sunlight. Desperately. I’m in such a blah mood lately, which is probably due to the fact that it’s been gray and icky here for the past week and a half. I don’t even care if it’s still cold, it just has to be sunny. I wonder how much airfare to someplace sunny would be right now?

Last night I finished one of the twin’s cross-stitches. Well, except for putting in the personalization. Now I just have the other to do (completely) in a month, along with finishing my master’s project. I won’t tell you how long the first one took, except to say it was more than a month. ;) I think I’d better learn how to cross-stitch with my eyes shut.

…well, everywhere but here. It’s cold this morning, and it couldn’t decide whether to rain or snow. Ick. Times like this, I kind of wish I lived elsewhere. Like Ireland. (As if it doesn’t get cold and rainy there!) Or maybe I could just find a warm place to vacation for a bit. :)

Speaking of spring, check out the Kodak Birdcam and see the project that kept me so busy last month. The falcons have returned, although there’s a bit of a soap-opera going on around here, seeing as the male falcon appears to be a different falcon than we’ve had for the past four years. We’re pretty sure it’s still the same female. Me? I’m just hoping they produce a family so the project isn’t cut short after all that work!

I was too tired after the party last night to blog. :) It was a fun party, though! Lots of food and drink was consumed by all. I didn’t think that many people would fit in my dining room at once – it’s a good thing I didn’t go out and buy my new dining room furniture yet! I think we ended up with more beer than we started with, despite the number of empty bottles – either more people brought beer than I remembered seeing, or it was multiplying under the table…

Molly was much calmer than I’d expected, probably due to the fact that she went the groomer’s on Saturday. Unfortunately, the little green bows were a little ragged by the party, but still cute. She was very happy when Denis managed to spill all of the juice from the corned beef (which consisted of brown sugar, Guinness, and corned beef, um, juice) all over the oven and the floor. We cleaned up best we could, but Molly spent the rest of the evening licking the floor and the oven door! Despite the fact that most of the alcohol had probably burned off, I’m guessing there was some left, as she was out like a light by 8 pm. I guess a dog named Molly Reilly ought to be able to handle a little Guinness, though.

Just sitting in the living room, surrounded by good friends, with the Irish music playing and sipping my coffee made me all sentimental. I have wonderful friends! Thanks to everyone who came by…this may have to be an annual event in the Reilly household!

…you’re in your window-less (yes, even my computer is window-less) office, but you know it’s going to rain soon because your old injuries start to ache. Ick. (Not that I’m old yet, but some days I just feel old.) I don’t think they’ve actually proven that low-pressure systems trigger aches and pains, but every time my wrist hurts (at least, the times I haven’t been over-playing piano or typing too much) I check weather.com and find that the barometric pressure is falling. Hmm.

OK, I’ve been mulling this over for a while, but I have to put it out there… Does no one else think it’s very strange that we now have a color-coded system of alerts?!? It makes me think of Star Trek, not terrorists. If Pres. Bush starts calling Cheney “Number 1”, I’m moving. :)

The car karma appears to be improving… Van Bortel agreed to fix our wagon. ;) The fender-bender will be a little more expensive to fix than we hoped, but it’s still not bad. We got the kitchen finished this weekend – just have a few pictures and things to re-hang. It’s very blue. Which is good – it’s a very nice blue! I finally got the hang of the semi-gloss paint, and managed to even paint the window above the sink without painting it shut – that’s an accomplishment for me. The only problem with the kitchen now is that the paint is much less gray than we expected, so our gray vertical blinds don’t look so great anymore…but they’ll do for now. And I’m re-thinking the burgandy dining room – I don’t think it will flow well from the kitchen. (Which is why I did the kitchen first, after all.) Which leaves me in a quandry, because I can’t really think of another color I want to paint it. I guess I’ll have to wait awhile – it’s a good thing I didn’t start stripping the wallpaper in there…. (Maybe I should rename this blog “Adventures in home ownership – or how to redecorate your entire life”.)

I may have improved my parking karma – I’m not sure, since I haven’t driven much since Tuesday – but my car karma in general has been very bad this week. Yesterday we had a fender-bender with the Jetta. While not good, that in itself doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re having bad car karma. But we’ve had a running problem with the used wagon we bought in December, which finally turns out to be…(insert scary music here)…the head gasket. Which is a very expensive repair. The thing is, we brought it back to the dealer during the 60-day lemon-law warranty because the check coolant light was on. They claimed the fuse was blown, replaced the fuse, and probably, for good measure, topped off the anti-freeze. Which explains why it didn’t come back on until today. Now we have to bring it back to them and try to argue that the head gasket was split when we brought it in the first time and they missed it. (Which our normal service guy, who found it, can’t quite understand.) Conspiracy? Or just bad service people? Either way, it would make me very hesitant to buy a used car from them in the future, which is too bad since they have a very good reputation. Heh. If they don’t resolve it, I’ll post their name. (As if enough local people read this to do harm to their business. :P )

Well, it’s done. I just registered for the final 5-credit project course. By the end of this quarter I have to finish my project, write a report on it, and defend it. My target defense date is May 6th. Which is only, what, 9 weeks away? Scary stuff…