One lucky girl

This weekend has been pretty dang awesome. Josh and I took Friday off (for fun) and hit some garage sales, looked at houses, and went to lunch. We didn't find much at the garage sales (other than a Ballerina book for Tori). We wondered how people held onto junk for so long and how they could have no clue what their junk was really worth. Seriously, some stuff you could buy brand new for cheaper than the prices we saw. We looked at houses and dreamed too. We've been on a pool kick lately. We really, really want to buy a house with a pool. We think it will take some work but overall, it will be an investment in our health and provide great entertaining opportunities. Oh, and we're not ready to buy a house, but like to pretend :) For lunch we went to Sumo's because when else could we go to Sumo's for lunch? It was good, but not as good as Sal's. Friday night ended with us making s'mores over the stove and watching the last of Supernatural Season 3. Saturday, Mom and I did some shopping. I bought some new sandals and some toys for the girls room. Later that evening, Josh and I started moving some of his stuff over -- because after 4 weeks of testing and trials, it looks like we like each other enough to live together...and the girls seem pretty happy with it too. We brought over his king-size bed and it barely fit up the steps. It actually didn't fit up the steps so Josh had to use his BIG muscles and make it fit. And now my bedroom looks like a comfy oasis of bed and pillows which is alright with me! This morning Josh informed me he was naming the day Girlfriend's Day and he had suprises for me. It started with a card and breakfast from Panera. Later he gave me a lime green owl necklace from Lucinda's, I love it! Then we went antiquing as I have been looking for a vintage retro buffet/dresser to restore. I found one at the mall on W Kellogg and it was 20% off. I bought it, of course, and love it as well. This evening we had shimp po'boys for dinner and Josh suprised me with a chocolate chip cookie cake. I love cookie cakes and he got me one that said I Love You on it in honor of the day. Finally, we headed out to see Away We Go. This movie is seriously good and has an awesome soundtrack. I'll probably have to buy it! Overall, one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. I know I'm corny, but I really am one lucky girl.

A Life List

I've had so much going on lately and in order to avoid skipping over something, I'm going to list it all out:



1) Concerts: Currently in my possesion are 2 tickets for U2, Heart, and Huey Lewis & the News. Heart & Huey Lewis are both in September. U2 is in October. We're planning on seeing Truckstop Honeymoon on the 4th and I think we may be going to see Collective Soul in a couple weeks as well. So many concerts, so little time.



2) Sewing: I decided to try making sun dresses for the girls. It's been years since I sewed and I wanted to give it a shot. Tori picked out the fabric. I started out strong with cutting out the patterns and fabric but now the true sewing part is taking me a bit to get started on.



3) Anniversary: Josh and I made to one year! It seems like so long ago but time still feels like it's gone so quickly. We had Tori and Penny so we ended up just going to Red Robin with the girls and exchanging cards & gifts. Josh got me the Bunny Girl wallet (previously mentioned) and made me a mixed cd with a personalized insert. I got him the Huey Lewis tickets.



4) Working out: Josh has motivated me to work out in the mornings before work. We started going to the Y in the morning at 6:15. I hope to keep it up and lose some weight and tone. He, on the other hand, has turned into a work out junkie and has been going at lunch too.



5) Family: My sister and her fiancee will be here in a couple weeks. They got engaged a few weeks back and we are going to go to KC to look at wedding dresses one of the days that she is here.



6) Summer School: started a few weeks ago. My Social Psychology class doesn't require attendance and can be done online. I'm opting for the online version and it's pretty easy. My Oceanography class doesn't start till July. Overall I think summer school is going to be pretty easy.



7) Work: I finished my bank migration project and have about wrapped up phase one of my current project. I got my raise (finally). I'm ok with it for now.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

All this talking about strawberry patches made me hungry for some homemade strawberry jam so that's what I decided to make this last weekend. I've never made jam before but recently I discovered that Ball makes a freezer jam pectin that doesn't require cooking the jam at all. It's as easy as buying the freezer plastic containers and a package of this stuff -- which I found at Dillons. I bought 4 lb of strawberries and used maybe a quarter of them and they produced 4 jars of jam.

Strawberry Freezer Jam :

Mix 1 1/2 c. sugar with a package of pectin.

Crush 11/2 lb of strawberries. I chose to crush them in my food processor because I don't like chunky jam.

Once the strawberries are crushed, mix them with the sugar-pectin mix for 3 min.

Scoop the jam into the 4 plastic containers and allow them to sit for 30 minutes.

The strawberry mixture will sit up and become jam.

Freeze the containers and pull one down the fridge as you need it.

The jars will stay good in the fridge for 3 weeks and up to a year in the freezer.

Bunny Girl

I was in LuCinda's Friday night before going to the Brickyard to listen to a pretty terrible band. The whole evening would have been a bust had I not discovered the most wonderful item. Behold the Bunny Girl Wallet:

Must. Have. Now.

Truckstop Honeymoon and dream

In Portland is this place called Kruger's Farm Market. I've never been there, or to Portland for that matter, but I wish Wichita had something similiar. Kruger's is a farm where you can pick your own strawberries, tomatoes, flowers, pumpkins, etc. It's a beautiful place (based on the pictures, of course) but what makes this place extraordinary, in my opinion, is the summer concerts that they host on Thursday evenings. People are invited to bring their lawnchairs and blankets and enjoy an evening of live music. In my dreams, I imagine listening to a band like Old Crow Medecine Show at the farm, wearing a cotton sundress (I know, me in a dress! This is why it's a dream...) and hanging out in a lawnchair drinking a summer beer. It sounds so lovely, like a perfect summer evening. The thing I find particulary frustrating about my dream is that I am sitting in Wichita, KS -- home many, many fruit stands, farms, and markets --there are so many places that would be ideal to host concerts like these. Unfortunately, the City of Wichita finds it necessary for us to compete with bigger cities and create an upscale redneck-version of this -- the outdoor concert series at Bradley Fair Shopping Center. I say redneck because the people who go are those who see and want to be seen and Wichita is always fighting to stay trendy. If you ask me, it's not about the music either. Seriously? Smooth jazz? It's like Wichita is trying to re-create KC's Plaza experience yet we don't have near the options for shopping, dining, or entertainment. Oh, and KC also has the City Market which does host concerts so they cover more than the hoity-toity population that needs to "be seen." I'm also disappointed with Wichita's Waterwalk Project... this is not the downtown that I want for Wichita. Old Town has come so far in the last few years with some decent bars, the Final Friday crawl, the new First Friday crawl, some great coffe shops, etc. Even the shopping has improved! And now we are going to get another mini-Plaza that will come up short. Gander Mountain already set the vibe for this location-- why does a mega-sports store need to be downtown? As far as concerts go, I'm pretty lucky that Josh loves music as much as me and is always up for a roadtrip to see a band but I wish we didn't always have to travel so far. There are so many great concerts coming near Wichita but hardly anything in Wichita this summer. I've been preparing my concert list, which includes: Collective Soul (the one band coming to Wichita -- but of course I've seen them before), Heart, Huey Lewis & the News, DMB, Blondie, Jackson Browne, Aerosmith, Tilly & the Wall, Green Day... of course we won't be going to all of these concerts (traveling to KC or OKC involves using vacation time, getting hotel rooms, etc.) but I'd sure like to. U2 is coming to Oklahoma in October and I already bought tickets for it because it's U2 and tickets were more than reasonable. I also found that Truckstop Honeymoon is going to be playing a free concert in Lawrence on July 4th, which could be a lovely way to spend the evening. If you haven't checked out Truckstop Honeymoon you should. They are a fantastic band out of LA that have a bluegrass-rockabilly vibe. Go listen to them now!

Things I'm angry about

I normally don't blog about things that frustrate me, that's what twitter is for, right? Today was one of THOSE days. One of those days that makes me so angry I could cry. Well, I'm not crying... yet. But I'm venting. Here are the things I'm angry about:

1) Jerks that I work with - specifically a woman in Canada that requires a monthly ass kissing just to get her to do her job. Most of the time, I just let it go. Today we had an urgent issue and a contractor requested that I make a change for him in our "ticket" system. I did and she flipped a lid because I didn't do it "right", with a nasty email to boot. I thought about everything that I could say to her and then I took the high road. I emailed her, explained that I was obviously causing her upset and requested that she direct me to a documented procedure so I wouldn't have such confusion. She'll never reply, I already know this. Because there is no procedure. She comes up with procedures and policies on a whim and will never, ever write it down.

2) School - I met with my advisor today. She kept me waiting. She didn't have my stuff together. She told me I probably couldn't graduate in December but she didn't have time to verify. She wants to me come back for an hour meeting when she has time.... WTF? I took off work for this? It was a complete waste of time, she'd hardly looked at my transcripts. I'm seriously pissed off.

3) Dr. Tiller's death and Reason 5,898,374 that I hate living in Wichita. I am so tired of living in a state where people are such extremist and full of hate. I could rant and rave about everything that has happened but it would do no good, especially here. I get so tired of feeling like I'm a sell out because of where I choose to live and work.