The Blogging Experience

I was not a blogger prior to this class, nor did I read many other blogs. But now I find myself checking the posts of my classmates, and I've stumbled upon other blogs of personal interest while searching the web. I think I'm going to keep publishing on my blog after this class, so stay tuned!

The Garden Club

If you or anyone you know is in a Garden Club, I apologize in advance for what I am about to say.

Now that I got that out of the way, I feel comfortable ranting and raving about the intruders we had at our school yesterday. We are fortunate to have some beautiful spaces on campus for special events and often times, groups from around the area rent the space for their personal use. Well, the Hardy Garden Club were our guests yesterday, although they acted as if they owned the joint. They were holding an interpretive flower arranging contest inspired by classic books. One woman had four flower arrangements on display which depicted the story of Little Women. How do you arrange flowers to reflect a plot? Well these women did. I must admit the arrangements were gorgeous, but the women were unreal. I was walking around taking in the beauty of the flora when I was approached by a nun/librarian/scary old neighbor-looking woman. She said, "Excuse me, you can't be in here. We are judging right now. Do you work here?" Do I work here? I was getting more upset by the minute. Then she said, "If you are a teacher, you can come back around 1:30." Listen Old Maid, you are our guest, we are not yours. I just walked away because I knew I was going to get belligerent. I wanted to snap off a bloom from one of the arrangements, but I took the high road.

In summary, I'm not a huge fan of garden clubs. It seems to be a bunch of snobby women with nothing better to do than cut peonies, roses, and lilies.

Become Your Own Detective

It's amazing what you can find on the web. We've all heard that phrase enough times, but it's true! If you are looking for a home or if you are getting ready to sell, check out this website I recently found:


http://www.dat.state.md.us/sdatweb/real.html

This site allows you to look up real estate prices in Maryland. Type in the address of the property you are scoping, and you can see who currently owns it, how much they paid for it, and how much land they have. Or if you want to know what that pretentious, self-centered couple from down the street paid for their home, you can find that too!

Party in the Lab

I went to the graphics lab last night to do my dreaded iMovie, and it was like a Words & Images reunion. Our class poured into the room to take a reluctant seat at the computer with the knowledge they would be in front of it for at least 3-4 hours. I have to say, this iMovie experience was much better than the first. I figured out that the computer I used for my first iMovie had a different version of the program which caused me to cuss at it. Caroline used that same computer last night and had to switch machines just so she could change the timing of her clips. I know this software if free, but for shit's sake! Let's get some consistency here, please.

Two more weeks, just two more weeks. Lunch on Sunday anyone?

Catalogs

I walk into my apartment building after work and I check the mail. Half of the mail is credit card offers. The other half is CATALOGS! I get more catalogs than anyone else in the building...why is that?!?! I did not sign up for most of them, but I get J. Crew, Red Envelope, Storehouse Furniture, Domino (which I subscribe to, so it's excused), Reader's Digest (which was a gift, also excused), L.L. Bean, White House Black Market, Hecht's, Lands' End, Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel...the list is endless. I flip through most of them as a way to relax after work, but I should really just toss them. But no, I put them in the magazine rack in my bedroom to collect dust and take up room!

Baked Ziti in a Toaster?

For the process show and tell, I brought in the manual for my toaster oven. I had no idea I could be confused when trying to operate a kitchen appliance with only two knobs to turn, but the manual taught me otherwise. The manual is split into the "operations" section and the "recipe" section. I can toast a piece of bread from light (setting 1) to dark (setting 10). I can broil a chicken breast or a flank steak. I can make mexican bean dip, sea bass, and who knew, BAKED ZITI in my toaster. It's an amazing piece of machinery. I highly recommend the it if you are ready to give your microwave or oven a break.