Happy Things

I got tired of seeing that crazy girl covered in bees (shudder) every time I looked at my blog.  So, here's some pretty things that make me happy.

I love butterflies.  Something about them just makes me happy.

Who doesn't love rainbows?

And the beach.  I heart the beach.  I wish I was there right now.....

I hate bees.

This girl is crazy.

I am unreasonably terrified of bees.  I'm not allergic to them.  I just hate them.  (At least I recognize that it's an unreasonable fear, right?)

Today, while I was working in my office a bee landed on my computer.  I immediately proceeded to freak out.  I froze and yelled for Connor to come and save me for the potentially dangerous creature.  He didn't respond, so I called him on his cell phone.  He answered after a few rings and I said quickly "There's-a-bee-on-my-computer-and-I-need-you-to-come-get-it!"  He said, "What?"  I said "Just come here!"  Sensing the panic in my voice, I could hear him running down the hallway.  By this time the beastly bee had flown off of my computer and to the window.  Connor got rid of it by putting a cup over it and covering it with a piece of paper, and then throwing out the window.  My hero.

Look at the little menace.

What a Pane! (hahaha I'm so clever!)

Yesterday it was really windy.  At some point in the afternoon I went into the kitchen and noticed dirt all over the stove and counter.  There's a really strange glass window above the stove/kitchen sink.  I figured that the wind had blown so much against that window that a lot of dirt had come through the cracks and settled onto my stove.  The building we live in is 100+ years old so anything is possible, right?

Well it wasn't until Connor got home and I was telling him about the dirt everywhere that he noticed that one of the window panes was actually missing.  The wind had blown it out.  That explains all the dirt, and it makes more sense than my previous theory.  Connor went outside to look at the damage, and amazingly the glass was still in one piece!  So he caulked it back into place, and we sterilized the kitchen.  (It needed a good cleaning anyway.)

It's kind of a blurry picture, but you can see the broken pane at the bottom left of the window.  There's dirt all over, but it's hard to see.  (I had already cleaned up some of it.)  Our poor kitchen.  

Before we moved in one of the radiator pipes broke in our kitchen and flooded the chapel below us.  (We live above a funeral home.  There's a chapel.)  They had to rip out all of our counters, and they didn't do the greatest job putting everything back together.  Hence the backwash, or lack thereof.  But, hey, it's free and you can't beat that!

Torn

Apparently I tore my medial meniscus.  Yay me!  I have no clue how I did it, but a couple of months ago my knee started cracking really loudly when I would go up stairs or squat or lunge or whatever.  At first it didn't bug me, but then it started hurting.

Today I went to the doctor to see what was going on.  They took some x-rays and everything looks okay there.  Then Dr. Cooley pushed on this one place on the side of my knee and man did that hurt!  Like blinding pain.  So, yeah.  I tore some cartilage.

It's been getting a little better on its own so if it keeps going that way then I don't need to do anything with it.  But if it gets worse again, I will probably have to have surgery to fix it.  Blech.

Revelations of a Needle

A friend of mine is pregnant with her 5th kid.  Yesterday she posted in her blog about the needle trick.  It supposedly predicts the amount of pregnancies that you'll have, gender of the baby, and the order that they will come.

Here's how it works.  You get about 20 inches of thread, put a sewing needle on it, and knot the two ends together.  Hold the knot in your right hand, hold out your left hand with your palm flat, and tap the needle 3 times in the crease between your thumb and finger.  Then flip your left hand over with your palm still flat, and hold the needle over it.  Make sure there aren't any fans or ventilation in the room that can affect your needle.

With the needle over your left hand (keep your right hand still) the needle will start to move.  If it circles, the baby is a girl.  If it makes a straight line, it's a boy.  It will start with your first pregnancy and move, and then stop, and then start moving again, and then stop and do that through all of your pregnancies.

I figured I'd give it a shot (I'm not prego, but I thought it'd be fun).  According to the needle, Connor and I will be having 4 kids -- girl, boy, girl, boy.  When I flipped my hand over the needle started to move in a circle, then it stopped.  Then it started to move back and forth in a line, then it stopped.  Then a circle again, then a line.  Then it was done for good.

I've tried this multiple times and it's given me the same results each time.  Only time will tell how accurate it is (give us about 10 years).  I had Connor try it and the needle didn't move at all.  My friend who tried it on her blog posted a video of it and it predicted all 4 of her kids accurately, but she still doesn't know what her 5th is(that's right Heather, I'm talking about you!).

Anyway, I just thought this was fun.  Give it a shot if you're prego or not.  If you're done having kids, see if it's accurate about what you had.  I'm curious to see the results that others get.  It's a fun little game.

If my instructions were confusing, here's a video that might explain it a little better.

Swagbucks

In September of last year I joined Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is a website where you earn (appropriately named) swagbucks when you do various things.  You can earn them by doing searches, taking polls, surveys, or purchasing things through their links.  I like to buy Groupon/Living Social deals through Swagbucks.  So whenever I do, I receive X amount of Swagbucks.  With your swagbucks you can purchase things.  There's thousands of things that can be purchased, but I always go with a $5 Amazon Gift Card.  450 Swagbucks buys 1 gift card.

Like I said, I joined in September of last year.  To date, I have received 16 $5 amazon gift cards.  So basically I've received $80 all for using their website.  I also have 2 gift cards on the way, so that will bring my total to $90.

I recently purchased Lego Harry Potter for the Wii (which is now my new favorite game), and it was all covered with gift cards that I got from swagbucks.

Anyway, if you're interested, you can go here to sign up.  It's good stuff.  Who doesn't like getting free stuff?

Pigeons!

I hate strongly dislike pigeons.  I have heard them described as "rats with wings," which I would say is pretty accurate.  :)

Here's the reasoning behind my strong dislike of pigeons.  In our apartment, there's a window in our living room.  It's kind of like a bay window, and above it there's a little overhang.  Well, apparently this space between the top of the bay window and the overhang is an ideal living location for pigeons.  And so they live there, and breed there, and poop there. All over our window.  Connor spent a very good amount of time last year cleaning the window, repainting, and trying to make this space very undesirable to pigeons.

Don't they look gross?

Well, unfortunately it didn't work.  The  pigeons are back, clearly very unconcerned with the great efforts that were put in to deter them from returning.  (Perhaps they even welcomed the clean window and new white paint!)  We can hear the little babies outside the window chirping away during feeding time, and the older ones cooing (or whatever it is that they do).  Blasted pigeons.  

Well, we can always try again this year.  But I have a feeling that the pigeons will be here much longer than we are.  

This is the only kind of pigeon that I do like.