R.I.P Daisy

This is, or rather was, Matt's Pontiac Sunfire named Daisy. Matt bought Daisy in 1998, when he was in college, before we even met. (And isn't he cute in this picture? He was working at the MTC then.) Anyway, Daisy had 130,000 miles and she needed a new transmission, which would have cost more than the car is worth. And we've been wanting something that gets better gas mileage, because although gas has finally dropped below $3/gallon, it's still painful, isn't it? I mean, I've bought gas for less than a dollar, and I am... not that old.

Anyway. So Matt took a day off from work and we went around to all the dealerships. We looked at everything from the Ford Focus to the Chevy Aveo to the Hyundai Accent (we considered one of those but the only one they had in stock was bright green... umm, no) but we settled on the Yaris because it gets ridiculous gas mileage. Like, 34 mpg city... the best you can get short of buying a hybrid. And since it's a Toyota, Betsy will probably drive this car when she's in high school.

It's kind of weird. We've never bought a brand new car before; we've actually had pretty good luck with low-mileage used. On the other hand, we also built a new house last year, so maybe we are becoming snobs? On the other hand, I bought a huge sack of clothes at Goodwill on Saturday, so maybe not.

Grams to moles, moles to moles, moles to grams

It's one of those things that's permanently burned into my brain!

Our old babysitter Pick-toria (I think her name is actually spelled with a V but not according to my kids) came over last night for some chemistry help before her final exam. I always think that it's funny how even though A) I have a chemistry degree and B) I work part-time as a tutor, I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually done chemistry tutoring. Mostly what I do is math. I don't think I even took any math classes in college... but being a science major means you at least have to be good with algebra. And if I was better with higher math, I probably would have gotten above a C-plus in P-Chem.

Anyway. Victoria was having some trouble with chemistry, especially the mathy bits, and I've done some tutoring for her family in the past so her mom called me up. And it was really interesting, being able to explain things that I know in a way that another person can understand. (I think I scared her a little, though; I'm probably the only person who gets excited about stoichiometry.) I still have my well-preserved notes from the excellent GenChem course I took freshman year. There were some of things I didn't even have to think about to remember because I actually used them during my (so brief) professional career - molarity, dilution, titrations, that sort of thing. And that reminded of me of how much I liked working in a lab. I still keep going back and forth about what I'm going to do when the kids are in school - and I've got a while, Porter's only two - but I think that I really, really want to do chemistry again someday.

so far, so good...

Well, it's the first of June so I thought I'd look back at my resolutions. Because I'm a dork, everything I vowed to do in 2007 has to do with scrapbooking. Let's see how I'm doing so far, shall we?

1. Seriously, it’s time to start using the stash. Buy no more than 3 new patterned papers + 2 embellishments a month! Use what I’ve got! Mmm... pretty much. I did blow the wad when I went to Scrap Etc. in March, but I actually spent the exact amount I had budgeted for myself. I think that 3 papers + 2 embellishments is a bit too restrictive, though. Some months I buy 5 patterned papers, other times I'll get 4 embellishments and 1 paper. As for using my stash? Still working on that.

2. Keep submitting to the magazines. Try out for a manufacturer’s design team as well. I'm still submitting like a crazy person. I did get my Thanksgiving layout picked up by Scrapbook Trends for their holiday idea book, so I'm pretty excited about that. As far as design teams... well, it's a total pipe dream, but I've heard that American Crafts gets a new DT every September...

3. Do a no photo layout. Not yet, but I have one in the works. Hey, does anyone know where I can find some clip art of a cardinal, a peony and an ear of corn?

4. Use more than 1 brand of patterned paper ON THE SAME PAGE! Yes, it happens occasionally...

5. Finish up my CK Hall of Fame entry. Though I don’t expect to win, I’ll have 8 awesome layouts that might not existed otherwise. I did enter HOF, and it was a really neat experience. I made some layouts I love and I bonded with some of my scrapbook buddies... what's not to like about that?

6. Get outside my ‘bubble’ and attend a crop. Not yet. I'm really quite antisocial when I scrap.

7. Use my handwriting more often. Actually, I'm doing this a lot, thanks to the Autumn Leaves journaling stamps I got at Hobby Lobby (half price!) Seriously, those things are great.

8. Try something ‘old’ (like clear stickers or die cuts) I did a page with Jolee's, for the first time in like five years.

9. Try something ‘new’: machine stitching, digital technique… There aren't a lot of things out there that I haven't done (short of getting 'I Scrap' tattooed on my bicep) but I do machine stitch on a lot of my pages. (Which has a lot to do with my no longer being terrified of sewing machines.) I still haven't done anything digital, despite Jenny's urging. I'm really just too attached (not to mention heavily invested) to paper, glue and stickers to go digi.

10. Take some more self portraits. (And no, these goofy ones don’t count!) I did take a bunch more pictures of myself... but I was making silly faces. (Don't worry: it's for a layout.) After Emily cuts my hair, then I will be so gorgeous I will just have to bust out with the camera timer.

Get your kicks

I've been sewing again! I spotted this fabric at JoAnn's last week (it's Alexander Henry, of course) and thought, Now what can I sew with that? Fortunately there had been a 99-cent pattern sale a month or two before, so I had several skirt patterns to choose from in my stash. This one is Simplicity 3841 and I love it. The only downside is that there's a zipper... well, it was time to stop delaying the inevitable. My machine doesn't take a zipper foot, so I hand-basted everything, and only did the topstitching by machine. The topstitching is crooked but when isn't my topstitching crooked? Anyway, it's not too noticeable, I think, and the zipper zips and unzips, so I'm calling it a victory.

(I wrote a pattern review here - I always have a lot to say about my projects.)

On a completely unrelated note, the Number of the Day yesterday was 7, and they actually played The Alligator King And His Seven Sons. I was shocked - it's been years since I've seen that anywhere besides YouTube. I always assumed that the reason for the omission was the reference to the 'perfume that smelled like cheap cigars' and of course, Sesame Street can't have anything even resembling an endorsement of smoking, because hundreds of thousands of kids will start lighting up, because don't you know Sesame Street has that kind of power? (*eyeroll*) Anyway, they have been bringing back some of their old stuff from the vault - Everybody Sleeps was always a favorite of mine, and those wacky pinball sequences - and they have some new sketches which are quite good as well (like the Grouch broadway musical 'Scramalot.')

It's Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween and the Fourth of July... in May!!

Despite having lived in Indiana for almost ten years, this was my first visit to Holiday World. Matt thought it would be a good dry run for Disneyworld, especially since our kids don't have the best track record with actually being willing to sleep in hotel beds. We were able to work out some of the kinks, such as, if you pack your toothbrush holder, don't forget to pack some sort of actual toothbrush inside of it (that was Matt, but I let him use mine. Lest you think I was on top of things, I forgot my pajamas.)

The first thing that impressed me at Holiday World was before we even got inside: Pat Koch (you know, the lady you see in the TV commercials) was standing outside the gates and greeting people as the came inside. I'm pretty sure the CEO of Disneyworld doesn't do that (probably too busy rolling on piles of money or something). Anyway, all that stuff they say in the commercials about being the cleanest and friendliest park in the world? Totally not an exaggeration. Lines were short (although we were there on a weekday so that may have helped), there weren't any guests milling about in obscene T shirts, smoking is limited to 2 small areas, and the restrooms are spotless (I should know, I took Betsy about seven times).

Holiday World has lots of kid rides, and they aren't all clustered in a single area of the park, either. Another thing that I like is that the kids' rides were mostly staffed by female park employees - seems trivial, but it's always a bit disconcerting when you go to the State Fair and some skeevy tattooed guy is putting your kid on the ride. And the park employees really were friendly - I spent a lot of time chatting with them while the kids were riding (and even while Betsy and I were waiting at the top of the log ride). And they really do have free unlimited soft drinks - there's about 10 or 12 stations throughout the park where you can get a refill - plus the prices on food are really reasonable. I think we probably won't ever go back to Kings Island or Kentucky Kingdom.

Betsy really surprised me: I had expected her to be freaked out by some of the 'scarier' rides but she actually LOVED them. She went on the family roller coaster EIGHT TIMES. It helps that there were no lines to speak of, so the ride operators often let us do things two or three times in a row. They'd say, "Do you want to go again?" and Betsy's little voice would pipe up, "Yes, please." She and Porter rode everything that they were big enough for. Porter really liked this canoe river ride that is seriously the tamest thing I have ever seen... but he couldn't get enough. And shockingly enough, Betsy ADORED the log ride. I thought she would be scared of the dark, dark tunnel and the big, big hill but she couldn't get enough. The first time we splashed down, the first words out of her mouth were, "That was funny!"

Yes, we did wear jackets on the log ride. The junior-high students that were in line behind us the first time were totally snickering, but I got the last laugh. There's no way I would have gone on that ride four times (Betsy went a total of six) without some protection. Man, we would have been SOAKED.

Porter, we found out, loves a water park. Betsy wasn't too thrilled. We never could get her to go down any of the tiny, mini water slides so we didn't stay for too long, but it was enough to cool off when the day was really hot.

Matt and I, independently of each other, came to a surprising conclusion: We just aren't roller coaster people anymore. Holiday World has some of the highest-rated wooden coasters in the country, and the lines were wicked short so we both had time to go on one or two. I rode on The Legend and the whole time I was like, "Is this over yet?" Something about all the jolting... I don't know, maybe my equilibrium has changed from having kids. All I know is that it gave me a really huge headache. Matt went on two coasters and he said the same thing (except for the part about having given birth). We're at a point in our lives now where most of our fun is centered around seeing our kids have fun... and that's okay.

Porter really liked the stroller coaster. Seriously, that boy was tuckered out. They both slept in until 8:30 the next morning. Now we keep seeing the commercials for Holiday World on TV and they get all excited. We asked Betsy what her favorite ride was and she said "The red one." (She was wearing a red shirt when we went, so everything had to match it. She would only go in the RED boats or the RED horses on the merry-go-round. Thank goodness the park wasn't crowded.) And I'm even more excited now for our trip to Disneyworld in the fall.