Save Ferris!

I'd known for a while that this apartment is close to where Ferris Bueller's best friend Cameron's house was. So, we walked there today. I'm a big fan of the movie - kind of a little known fact about me I suppose. Right now, the house is actually up for sale.

I'm going to post two pictures - one to show the actual house and the other to show the garage, which is actually not attached to the house at all but is almost entirely suspended over the ravine (the area isn't called Ravinia for nothing) while the house is only partially suspended. Here's the garage:

And, of course, to complement the walk, we watched the movie. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but I catch new things every time - this time it was the license plates, which refer to movies made by the director - MMOM (Mr. Mom), TBC (The Breakfast Club), 4FBDO (For Ferris Bueller's Day Off), VCATION (National Lampoon's Vacation) ...

In case you were wondering, a walk to Ferris' house won't be happening anytime soon - that place is in California. But I'm sure I could make a point to take pictures of the school and some locations downtown Chicago such as "Chez Luis." We'll see.

On the way back, I tried to think up a good "bread mith" with Colin but it's quite clear that neither of us are ever going to be a published novelist. Things like "Breadmas" and "bread miss" and aliens and the science of breadmaking and a mischievous baker's child and a grandpa who can't hear properly were all suggested but nothing made both of us jump for joy. If you're at all interested in any of these ideas, I could try to elaborate but I won't make you suffer through a story you don't want to read.

Bread mith

I started coughing/choking last night and had lots more congestion to deal with than earlier in the week. Strange how my body just waited for the weekend like that. So I didn't feel great today and ended up taking a nap early afternoon. However, I still managed a walk; Colin and I ordered a pizza take-out from a place downtown Highland Park and we walked around while waiting. It's a high-end shopping area (including a Saks Fifth Avenue) and parking is a hassle but there were still a couple fun things to snap pictures of. This one, of a sign that is supposed to read "breadsmith," is my favorite:

Colin suggested making a "bread mith" to go along with this picture but I'm just not sure what ... but I don't think I'm up to writing whatever it might be just now. It's possible I'll take a stab at it tomorrow. :)

A guy walking his dogs while driving his car ...

Just so there's a picture from the actual walk:

I'll get to the good stuff at the end, but first I am going to talk about the rest of my day.

Today was a combination of frustrations and achievements.

First - I have health insurance! Yay! It's short term and won't cover the prescriptions I currently get but it's nice to know I'm okay for the cruise (yes, supposed to work in that area) and any disastrous situations in the next 3 months. Definitely not as expensive as I thought it would be and it was automatic instant approval. If you're interested, I can give you more details via email.

Not so important now: I got the application back for another insurance company because I'd switched two of the digits in the P.O. Box number. I'd wondered why I hadn't heard from them and so I faxed it via a free email to fax service, then had to resend using coupon code (still free) because there were too many pages the first time. I tried another insurance option which was a dead end because it wasn't available for unemployed people. Only after that did I go to the insurance application site and look around at short term insurance plans and unexpectedly got accepted to one.

Second - I got my second earmold replacement today and will get yet another replacement mold soon for the other ear. They need to make it just a little shorter since it seems to sometimes irritate inside my ear. For those of you who have never gotten earmolds (most if not all of you), the process usually only takes two weeks from getting an imprint of the ear and having the earmolds, but sometimes they don't fit quite right and so a new imprint or adjustments to the new earmold may have to be made.

Third - I finally ordered the new Elizabeth Gilbert book "Committed." I've wanted to read it since I heard about it at the ALA midwinter (from the author herself actually) but was going back and forth between whether to get it at the library and pay the $2 new book fee (and probably be waitlisted) or just buying the book. I came close to buying it in the store today but right when I was sitting and doing Caribbean research in B&N, I got an email reminding me that I had 15% off coupon for one item bought online still valid. So I waited until I got home to buy it. Not only was the book 39% off, I am a B&N member which shaved off a bit more (even though it advertises right now that everyone gets membership discounts), I could use the 15% off coupon, AND 4% rebate through mrrebates.com. Grand total: 13.17. Yay again!

Fourth - the hike. One place I had on my list of places to hike was at Turnbull Woods conveniently close by and on the way home from Colin's office. So I went there today. The first thing that happened was a guy was walking his dogs. From his car. They were small yappy dogs and not well trained. He would coast for a bit and then stop for the dog to catch up. I tried taking a picture from my cell without being obvious. Then a UPS driver stopped to use the porta-potty. It turns out that these two activities are the only ones you can do at the woods during the winter, especially if you've only got regular shoes instead of boots on. I walked on the sidewalk along the perimeter of the woods, hoping to see a path. Instead, I found a sign saying an entry was closed. So I just walked further, turned down a street that dead ended, reached a big puddle, and turned back. As a result, no exciting or picturesque ... er ... pictures. I took some with my camera on the walk but none of them had subjects as awesome as the guy "walking" dog (he walked one then the other). I made it extra big so you can actually see them. Yes, it's from the inside of my car.

Noon + snow + sun = BRIGHT

Today I finally went for a hike in the middle of the day. Some snow had fallen overnight but most of it had been cleared from the roads even by noon. I took a random walk before meeting up with Colin and really had no idea what I'd find. Dogs barking at me from inside their houses was mostly it, but then I found hope of spring! Promising indeed.

Not much got done today unfortunately ... it was starting to get worrisome that we couldn't find Colin's passport so I tried to figure out what our options were (how fast and expensive it'd take to get a new one, how to minimize the time he'd have to spend downtown, and which islands he'd actually need it for). Meanwhile, he was having a stressful day at work which didn't help me any, especially since it was only afterwards that I realized how much I was stressing about it.

Colin came home and while I cleaned every single dish in the apartment, he searched some more for the passport. Et voila! He found it! Right where he swore it was all along ... just hidden in a manila folder not clearly visible in his file box. *sigh* Perhaps *tomorrow* I can lessen the stress, be gentle with myself, and just focus on getting things done that need getting done - without getting overwhelmed with thinking about everything I should do. Here's hoping things are quite so hectic and out of control tomorrow ...

Thinking about "Polar Express"

It was the coldest walk so far - wished I'd worn my long underwear under my jeans. One of the downsides to walking right when the sun is setting (at the "late" hour of about 5) is that some things just don't show up in pictures. I'd seen a house that I wanted to take a picture of but it simply doesn't show up behind the trees, so hopefully a brighter setting will help. Taking a picture of a grey squirrel on a tree trunk was likewise unsuccessful. However! I am quite pleased with how this one turned out:

I had noticed how neat the train created billowing clouds of snow and was trying to snap a good picture of it by using the multi-photo/hold-down-button feature but it didn't really work for where I was (it was for the trains right at the stop that didn't have to slow down and stop). I was quite pleased to see that I got this shot though.

It's been a while since I've spent over $30 on groceries in one day but it was a big "stock up on canned goods and a huge bag of potatoes, all of which is on sale" trip. Plus, make-up doesn't technically count as groceries but I decided it was probably a good idea, what with the strict formal dinner dress codes for the cruise. I've used so little in the past (yes, I have actually dabbed and smeared stuff on my face before) they always have to get thrown out before I use much. However, perhaps with the cruise and the hopefully soonish employment I use it more often. I don't think I'm completely clueless, but I knew it was time to just leave the aisle when I realized I was staring at something and realizing I had no idea how it was supposed to be used (lips? eyes? cheeks? no idea). I got very natural-look stuff; it doesn't matter what I wear, I am always self-conscious of it and uncomfortable with it on. Definitely have to test it out before the cruise and also go through and try on my sad little pile of slinky dresses (Firefly reference).

No exciting culinary adventures planned for tonight - got plenty of delicious leftovers, including cooked veggies and chicken ! I've finally finished "My Life in France" and have started "Fieldwork" by Mischa Berlinski. I *have* to finish my job application tomorrow - and make chicken stock in the afternoon (it takes 4-6 hours and I don't want to have to leave mid-way through for lunch with Colin - that is, if his bosses let him out for lunch for once). I also got iron pills to start taking ... Dad takes them regularly but his iron is still a bit low and I know I'm the same way.

Tonight there's another episode of "Faces of America" which I'm looking forward to! It's on at 8 pm (CST) on WTTW (channel 11) if you're interested. I think it's on at 8 pm EST on PBS for most places. Also have rented Inglorious Basterds :)

Theme: Snow!

Today I felt a lot better and ended up not having much of a "second sick day" like Colin did. Still I took it easy - most of the day, by just doing genealogy research online, before going on a short walk, doing laundry, and making dinner. Though the walk was short, the snow was beautiful. Colin had almost convinced me yesterday to head out anyway because he thought it was beautiful but I'd already posted and I still felt pretty icky. So I took a bunch of pictures of the snow. This one, of the snow falling from the power lines straight above in clumps, is my favorite:

Destination: Chicken Noodle

Unfortunately, I've come down with whatever Colin has so this is a picture of the furthest I'm ever going to get from bed today:

This was made from a can as part of an attempt to be lazy today. Unfortunately, I had to do dishes since we were simply all out of clean pots, bowls, and spoons. I hope I don't have to make many "well, I walked to the stove and took a picture of some food ..." posts because despite the legitimate reason I still feel guilty.

We're getting a huge dump of snow right now

We made oatmeal with apples for the Alworths before they left to make their way (safely) home. Spent most of the day just lounging around but while Colin was taking a nap (he's got some bug) I took a walk on the trail south of here before looping back and picking up some eggs to finally make some banana nut bread.

There were some cute snow men but since I'd posted snow men yesterday I felt they'd be too repetitive. This bench caught my eye, with the pink paper taped to it. A close up photo doesn't show what it says any better since the letters have faded over time. I could still just make it out and it said:

"Did you leave you glasses here? I have them. Call (number). :)"

It was very well taped on so who knows how long the sign has been there. However, I'm guessing the person who lost the glasses never saw the note and called. 

It's been a pain in the butt trying to get this together (I kept having to log in and out because I couldn't get pictures to load) and I'm just plain worn out. So it's good night now.

Today was a walk back to the lakeside but with the Alworth family. Rachel decided this one is the bestest picture from the walk. There wasn't as much ice and the water was calmer today. The excitement came from going up and down a steep hill to peer into the locked lighthouse. New snow + old leaves + everything else found on the forest floor made the climb exciting - but we found a teepee I also finally discovered a thrift shop in the area I wouldn't mind revisiting, which is very exciting. Got some storage boxes and really warm mittens that can actually be used while driving. 

It snowed some overnight but there's a storm front on the way across the country which will hit the area tomorrow evening and linger for about 24 hours, leaving us a predicted foot of snow. The Duluthians will be on their way early tomorrow so it shouldn't affect them. Right now we're sitting around it the apartment drinking coffee and trying not to suffocate from the oil that got in the oven from the roast chicken adventure; Colin just made a wonderful loaf of bread!

A Day at the Aquarium with the Alworths

Even though it wasn't technically outdoors, I did walk all day at the Shedd Aquarium which was packed with people since it was a free admission week. Lots of toddlers, armies of strollers, and groups of kids running all over the place. I didn't intend to take many pictures but I had my real camera with me and so of course ended up with over 100 pictures. This was one of the more coherent ones including an Alworth (Colin's dad) and some aquatic creatures. A lot of them I would describe as "artistic" - including ones where the trail of bubbles from a penguin is the clearest part of the picture.

And now Colin is distracting me with cute puppy dog pictures on the internet so any more posting is hopeless tonight.

#3

I was trying to find the entrance to the other section across the road but nobody apparently has hiked the connecting trail and I really didn't feel like leaping dirty snow piles into four lanes of traffic. So I just followed these old xski tracks until I came across this sign then turned around (I didn't feel like walking alongside the highway) and followed a bit more of a different path until I headed back to my car. I walked over to the map (I'd had directions how to get across the road from where I'd parked) and the map didn't show the trail I'd wanted. Not a big surprise - the land across the road is run by a different organization or something. I'd had a quite a workout walking in the snow - had to unzip partway through the hike and then take off my coat when I got to the car.

Two bits of annoying news I don't want to get into but feel that they should be mentioned:

1. I got a parking ticket yesterday for parking in my parking lot. The one I buy two separate passes so I don't get tickets - an overnight and a commuter for the day. It's for the train stop and it's the only parking available to those who live in my building. I went to the police station and ended up talking to the policeman who had issued my ticket and he explained that half of the lot was overnight and 2-hour-free-during-the-day ONLY, another quarter of the lot was for E (employee) parking only, leaving only a quarter of the lot where I should never have to get a ticket. I was unaware that the C permit wasn't good for 75% of the lot. I went ahead and paid the ticket but I told him I suggested that there be clearer signs, especially saying something like "C and E permits are not valid in this half of the lot." I refuse to rant; I let off steam yesterday with the dishes. It's just one more reason I won't be sad to move when the lease is up.

2. Applying for health insurance sucks. I got the letter for why I was refused one plan and even though I was annoyed, Colin made it make sense why they refused me. It makes sense from their POV but in the bigger scheme, I just want to say, it really doesn't seem cool. Hopefully plan B will produce better results.

Colin's parents and his youngest sister are in town so a bit more apartment spiffing up is in order before going to hang out with them. Thai restaurant for dinner!

1st real Lent post, 2nd real photo-hike post

I was wondering what I might find that would show up in a picture (since everything is so white) but I think I need to learn to stop worrying about making sure I find a subject and just let it happen. I had a couple of pictures but they wouldn't have worked (hard to see what's in them) and then I came across this very noisy energetic dog who kept running the length of the fence facing the trail. I love dogs and I'm not afraid of them (been bitten a fair amount but rarely by vicious strange dogs) but I was glad this one was fenced in because it definitely was telling me to go away. Never noticed it before even though I've hiked on this rail trail a handful of times. It's not hard to believe it greets everyone on the trail just as I was.

Update on roast chicken: The stuffing and the veggies were all set to go - but the darn chicken just wouldn't thaw, despite being pulled out of the freezer and into the fridge since before lunch and put in the microwave to defrost a bunch. Finally I just put in a small pizza I'd gotten as back up and put all the chicken stuff in the fridge. It should be thawed and ready tonight, right? I know meat takes forever to thaw but I've never dealt with whole chickens before so it's a learning process. However, I apparently need a roast pan. When I was preparing the recipe yesterday I took this to just mean a regular pan but now that I've read the directions more thoroughly I see it means "a fancy pan with a rack inside of it." So, back to the store to get yet another thing (yesterday I got a meat thermometer and then had to ask Colin to stop and get a baster on his way home). Whitney - I don't remember you using all these things ... perhaps I could steal the recipe with oven temp and cooking time from you?

Big News of the Day: The Peek has arrived! For those of you unfamiliar with what the device is, it's simply an email device that uses cell phone towers. There's a lot of options, but we got this one used for about 200 bucks AND it's set for life. No more fees ever - can get and send emails and text messages. The person we bought it from also sent another one that doesn't work (it seems to have signal and works until you try to set it up to get email) so that we have an extra battery ... but I'm definitely itching to see if I can get it working. Probably would have to pay for the service (either monthly, quarterly, annually, or for life). If you want to see more about Peeks the website is http://www.getpeek.com/. For clarification, it's actually the Peek Pronto not just the Classic.

I ran into this last week while looking for internet services for deaf people and we thought it'd be good for Colin to have since I have texting on my phone but he doesn't. Plus, we love playing with new tech toys. I get to play with it today and show Colin all about it this weekend. Sure, it's limited and we'll probably just get some kind of smartphones in the future that would make this a redundant device for us, but it's a good basic alternative especially since both of us are still locked into our family cell phone plans for at least another few months. It would also be especially valuable for me if I can get a Google Voice account - text messages, emails, and transcribed voicemails would then end up on the peek and I could call people back using WebCapTel. I'd still need a voice plan of some sort but am calculating and trying to judge how actively I actually use voice and when so that I can figure out exactly what I'll need in the future. I don't mind carrying around two devices and I might just leave my cell at home except for bigger trips.

All right, got lots to do today and I should get to it instead of just gushing about silly toys.

Prelude to Lent

So I've decided on a simple Lent activity: go for a walk, take a picture, and post it in blog. I decided to go ahead and start it today even though Lent doesn't officially start until tomorrow. I did go on a walk Sunday but didn't take a picture and was feeling really under the weather yesterday so the real start is today. For now, I'll ignore the Sundays off idea. This will mean 45 walks, 45 pictures posted.

Reasons: I was spurred into thinking up something when Tom mentioned he was going to attempt veganism for Lent. I've been a big fan of adding rather than subtracting for Lent - instead of depriving myself of something, I'd *do* something. Even religiously, I still think it's appropriate since it's a way to mark the occasion and remind myself what it is every day. I promise not to get really "preachy" but this passage says it all:

"Lent is a time of stripping down to essentials, as each Christian focuses on his or her individual relationship with God. It is a time when Christians remember our baptisms, when Jesus washed away our sins, giving us newness of life to celebrate in the triumph of Palm Sunday and the glory of Easter." (http://www.sundayschoollessons.com/lent.htm)

It doesn't matter if I say anything else and there are times when I'm not going to be able to post it on the very day (such as on the cruise) but this will hopefully prove to be fruitful and fun. At the very least, it will be a way to initiate a post everyday and push me to go on walks more.

Today's photo was taking of the turning around point, Lake Michigan:

It was a damp cold (just below freezing) but strangely very little wind that I noticed only on the way back. I only saw a woman with a dog on the way there and on the way back (different pair each time). Most of the sidewalk was covered in snow (left from last week's storm) with patches of ice and bare pavement and I had to walk in the road for the last block. Since the sun was setting somewhere behind me with clouds in most of the sky except to the north, the lighting was neat when I was taking the picture but I only had my cellphone. The ice is kind of ugly with the brown tint but it was still cool to watch the water and ice. Now I'm off to prepare for my very first chicken roast!

Hodgepodge Entry featuring Aardvark, Snowman, Earthquake, Captel, Manuscripple, and Faces of America

Becca was here last weekend - definitely had good times, even (including?) getting lost driving in downtown Chicago. Went to the Lincoln Park Zoo on Friday where the highlight was Aardvark in a Barrel. Aardvarks! Who has seen an aardvark before? Did you know they can be incredibly cute?! We watched while this aardvark played with his blue barrel before curling up in it. I just had to upload the video I took to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIk0sm07l1w so you can see for yourself.

Saturday was a second visit to Brookfield Zoo (first for Colin) which happily turned out to be free admission for the day. It was colder and we ended up with only a couple hours to see things but the monkeys and apes were definitely a highlight. Then we bummed at a Caribou reading and sipping hot drinks until we went to meet up with the awesome Lenya for dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant. Then, all too soon, Becca had to leave to go back to her crazy busyness.

Apparently an earthquake started about 30 miles from here at 4 in the morning Tuesday, but everyone was so tired dealing with the load of snow (something like a foot?) that got dumped Monday that nobody noticed it. And it wasn't wimpy - 3.8 magnitude. Personally, I welcome the snow - it means people actually pay attention to their driving and don't get quite as impatient when you don't gun it the split second before the light turns green. Still had some idiots on the roads and everyone seems to be back to their normal driving habits now.

I've discovered a technology I wasn't aware of that is turning out to be quite useful. It's called web captel. Similar to TTY (which I've never used) except I get to talk out loud to the person on the other end and both read and hear what they say. Captions for telephones! It's not perfect - if you've ever been to live event or watched live news with captions you would have probably notice they lag a bit behind the speaking and sometimes have weird word combinations that are phonetically related to the word that was actually said. But it's still useful. I've only used Hamilton Web Captel but I'm going to try Sprint's since I've read that people like it better.

It's free and very simple to use, as long as you have a phone and a computer (with a web browser and internet connection). Go to https://web.hamiltoncaptel.com/index.asp. You have to sign in (easy signing up) and then put in your telephone number and the telephone number of the person you want to call then click "Call." It will dial you first then the other number and then you can look at the captions on the screen while talking. So far, you need an additional device (laptop or you can buy an additional special device to carry around with you) with one exception: you can call and read the captions on an iPhone.

Speaking of hearing-related technologies I've just tried, watching Sherlocke Holmes in the theatre last month was the first time I'd ever been able to utilize a captioning device in the theatres. They don't do it for all movies; apparently only one at any time ("It's Complicated" is captioned right now) but definitely a step up from any other theatre I've been to. It was harder to watch in the theatre than on the TV with captions since the captions are not right on the screen. You have wrestle with the mirror device so you can see the captions and then whenever you want to shift your position you have to move the device again. I felt like I missed quite a bit more of the actual visual parts of the movie but being able to follow along greatly made up for it.

And speaking of movies and TV, we watched "Faces of America" last night - PBS show following the genealogy of a handful of famous Americans including Yo-yo Ma, Meryl Streep, and Stephen Colbert. It was quite interesting; although there was nothing on how the information was actually found, it was a great way to hear stories connected to historical events such as the Holocaust and the Japanese Internment. Can't wait to see the next episode!

Still doing my personal genealogy research. Started looking at a branch that was in Michigan as early as 1850 but that we know little about. Definitely not as easy as looking for the Scandinavian roots when I found and connected with a cousin of my dad's who has done tons of research and there's a very active tree on geni.com (kind of like facebook for families).

A couple of silly things:

I'm still making my way through Julia Child's "My Life in France" and I run into words like "manuscripple" that I've never seen before but their meanings are clear. I searched for "manuscripple" using google and only found one hit - for an online copy of her book. She made this word up and it didn't catch on?? Imagine what would have happened if Shakespeare had used it. So now, here's to hoping google picks this entry up and displays it as the second result for "manuscripple."

There was an attempt to build a snowman today. Shaheli, Mike, and Fazal (some of Colin's coworkers) were corralled into this activity. However, the snow was too fluffy to actually pack into snowballs let alone roll into bigger balls. So we threw snow in a pile and patted it down, trying to make a mountain resemble a snowman. Then I snapped a picture (Fazal and Shaheli are on the left) with my phone before we went to get coffee and hot chocolate. Probably will get knocked down but oh well.

Look! I made a fail!

I noticed it in the local monthly newsletter last night and was excited to finally have something I could submit to fail (and it wasn't something stupid I'd done!).

link: http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=3169583616

Drawing hollow circles on pictures using GIMP

I rarely use the image editing tool automatically available in most flavors of Linux but I wanted to draw a circle on a photograph. Trying to figure out how to do this was tricky; GIMP is very powerful but it takes some real know-how and not just fiddling around to achieve specific results. It is a fun way to waste time and to see what crazy things you can do with a photo. Yet I figured, "How hard can it be to just draw a circle?"

Very hard, it turns out. I don't have a steady enough hand to draw a perfect circle using a mouse. So I tried the ellipse selection tool but was completely stumped on how to make the shimmering ellipse into a real circle with color. So it's off to Google to find instructions.
I tried all kinds of search terms - "circle" just told me how to make filled in circles; "bubble" told me how to make speech bubbles but were still filled in circles; "hollow" anything didn't help. I finally got help with "circle outline" from http://hubpages.com/hub/Creating-a-Rectangle-or-Rounded-Rectangle-Using-The-Gimp. And after I successfully created my circle thingy on my fail blog submission, I decided these instructions needed to be easier to find for anyone else who uses GIMP infrequently. Here is a quick guide for making a simple hollow circle.

*Note: Many mistakes can be undone by pressing ctrl + x. Deleting the layer will erase all the editing. If you're really stuck, try exiting Gimp without saving.*

1. Create a layer (Layer -> New Layer). For this task there's no need to adjust the layer settings but it would help to name the layer to something easy to recognize, such as "Circle." Having a layer will make it easy to delete any bad circles by just deleting the layer. Think of it like putting a sheet of glass over your image.
2. Click on the ellipse select tool in the toolbox (second from left in the top row).
3. Inside the image, drag the mouse to have the shimmering ellipse tool covering the desired area on the image - you can adjust the boundaries by hovering over any corner until the cursor becomes L-shaped and then dragging to resize.
4. Before you actually draw a line, click on the foreground color box in the toolbox to change it to whatever color you want the circle line to be.
5. Go to (Edit -> Stroke selection).
6. Here's where my instructions really differ from the link's. Leave it selected to "Stroke Line"; this allows you to decide how thick the line is (I find 15 to 20 pixels to be a good width).
7. Your hollow circle/ring/bubble should be visible on the photo!
8. If you try to leave it at that and save, you'll get error messages and it will ask to export. To avoid this, go to (Image -> Flatten Image). Carrying the glass sheet overlay metaphor further, flattening will seal or put anything that's on the layer right onto the image. You will now be able to save the image without the error messages or having to export anything.

I hope these instructions helped. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or comments.

This is pretty much how my mornings go

Got an email from Dad, saying that the site I found that had a picture of my grandpa with his dad and brothers was "neat." Also got an email from a relative I just found last night who invited me to be part of the family tree on geni.com. Yay! Then I got an email from Dad with some documents I have to print off and sign and got side-tracked from genealogy ...

Looked up suggestions on where the best place to use printing services would be and noticed that none of the stores list prices for individual prints. Found some other people complaining about this but no real suggestions except it usually starts at 10 cents a page for black and white. Then I decided I would just go to the library this afternoon and print what I needed for 10 cents a page. This is my default for printing from now on as long as it proves a good experience. I'll figure out what to do with color and other types of printing when it comes to that. Meanwhile, any of you have suggestions?

Following the "keeping cents of things" (just made that up for "saving money"), I checked to see what deals I could get on non-instant oatmeal which we need more of. Colin made an awesome multi-grain bread in the goodwill bread machine which uses oats this weekend and we definitely plan on making more. I found a coupon for 1 dollar off each 42 oz quaker oats I buy - and it's currently 1.39 each when I get five a jewel osco. So .39 cents each is really cool. Yippee!

coupon's here for one dollar off quaker, 42 oz oats or instant: http://www.quakeroats.com/DollarOffCouponBanner/default.aspx

I am not consistent in my coupon clipping, bargain hunting. I have noticed a strong correlation with how much else is going on in my life. But I only recently figured out some neat online "tricks." One is registering your Jewel Osco preferred card for ecoupons which are tailored to what you've bought in the past and if you buy that certain item you automatically get the savings at checkout. Didn't seem to work completely when I tried it last week - one item was deducted but another was not.

While doing a bit more searching for deals online, I found a neat list for deciding how to prioritize organic foods: http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php. This is determined by how much toxic stuff they can suck up while growing, from what I understand. For someone who is often torn between bargains and being nice to the earth, this is great.

Major annoyance: "Coupon printing is not supported on Linux ..." at coupons.com and so many other sites. This is NOT COOL. But since I don't have a printer at home, I'll just save the links and open them at the library to print them. This will also help me only print ones I think are really worth the hassle anyway.

Then I started browsing my neglected rss feeds and in the process found some fun things that I wanted to share (the things one learns from comics can be useful in such strange ways):

http://www.johnnywander.com/comics/140 spider plants are weird but cool

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123018405 - about the discovery of dino feathers and their colors! This is a link I found from another Johnny Wander comic.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon (If any of you don't already read The Oatmeal, now's a good time to start!)

Nasa on twitter: "Feb 1st is 7th anniversary of the Columbia accident."

Favorite postsecret: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwl7tUjQdDVwDttciNJ8RX9yq4bKrhw35qo6ACs1C1ssHKnIewb1itAQAPrFHaKKUl0GWVier9laI4ea4jyroG4FZwjhIGJytIYLHR6ltqSYe7PuBreMHLbb4qX1OqqLSwS-wxrCoxovf4/s400/spock2.jpg
In case you can't see it, the text reads: "After I shower and wrap a towel around my hair, and my eyebrows get pulled back, I like to pretend I'm a Vulcan." I honestly wonder if this is anyone I know ...

Bill Watterson on the 15th anniversary of the last Calvin and Hobbes strip:

Q: How soon after the U.S. Postal Service issues the Calvin stamp will you send a letter with one on the envelope?
A: Immediately. I'm going to get in my horse and buggy and snail-mail a check for my newspaper subscription.
http://www.cleveland.com/living/index.ssf/2010/02/bill_watterson_creator_of_belo.html

Even though we ate a big breakfast and I'm not feeling hungry, we need to go get lunch now that it's already 1:30 pm ... need to finish making sure I've got all the docs I need to print on the usb drive and go get Colin.