Mr. Bento & Me

Mr. Bento

Originally uploaded by C.M.Cowen.

Is everyone sitting down? I have some, well…some shocking news. Please don’t pass this on to Dan, Hobie or R2-D2, but there is a new love in my life. I’ve tried to keep it to myself. I’ve tried to deny my feelings. Still, it cannot be denied. There is nothing for it but to shout it from the virtual rooftop. So, without further ado, picture me standing on the prow of the Titanic:

I LOVE MR. BENTO!!!!

[Steps down from the railing]

Wow. It’s amazing how much better I feel after getting that out in the open. In my defense, Dan and I have already discussed my love of the Bento man. Hobie and R2, however, they’re still in the dark and I’d like to keep it that way. Come to think about it, I’m not even sure R2 and Hobie even know about each OTHER! Er, so…don’t tell them about this email at ALL!

What a tangled web we weave…[Go on, Mom, finish the sentence, you know you want to!]

Edited to add: In case it was too vague, Mr. Bento is pictured at the beginning of the blog.

Miles to go...

My ginormous education exam (the AEPA exam) is thankfully over with. Now I just have to wait for the results. But there will be more about that in my Student Teaching blog. I’m now ready to begin making plans and scheduling the refurbishing of my house and yard. I’ll start with cleaning up the yard to get ready for planting in the spring. Here’s my list of things I need to get done in my backyard:

1. Remove grapefruit tree - I hate grapefruit, why would I keep the dumb thing.
2. Put lights out in the yard, especially under the orange tree.
3. Clean out dead plants - This will be a huuuuuuge job. It won’t get done in one weekend. It won’t get done in two weekends.
4. Dig a hole for a tree to replace the Ash that died (From old age, I didn’t kill it!).
5. Pick out a tree to put in the hole.
6. Remove rocks from around the pool and clean out the weeds. I should probably spray those areas with Round Up, too.
7. Remove dead oranges from under the tree.
8. Trim back lemon tree.
9. Trim back hibiscus (at least the parts that froze during the last cold snap).
10. Figure out how the drip system works
11. Figure out what to do with the compost area - which Dan affectionately calls the nuclear waste corner.
12. Clean up raised bed to prepare for small vegetable garden.
13. Design a layout for new plants and flowers - I’m thinking of blending Asian and Western ideas.
14. Put rock/fountain feature where grapefruit tree used to be.
15. Cut cat’s claw back from slide.
16. Trim orange tree.

Sheesh. And that’s only the backyard. I didn’t even get into the front yard. I plan to start with just a little bit a day. Work my way up to harder stuff.

State of the Union

This one goes out to Mike - my political discussion cohort.

Did I just hear that correctly? Did I hear President Bush say that they were working on reducing gasoline usage in this country by 20%? Was that the caribou I just heard high-fiving each other? Er, maybe not. (First of all, caribou don’t have five [fingers] to “high” anyway.) Still, he wants to reduce this usage by 20% in the next 10 years. I’m not gonna argue too much with that.

“Our citizens don’t much care which side of the aisle we sit on, as long as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done.”

I also agree with this statement. I don’t care if they’re Republican or Democrat, I care that they do what they say they will. I care that they faithfully represent their constituents. Oh, alright, I also care that they don’t lie, cheat, murder or commit any other foul crimes, too.
One last couple of things that I noted from the State of the Union. Was it just me or did Dick Cheney look like he was going to start laughing during the “oil” part of the speech. Don’t know why, but it bothered me. And those people who don’t stand and clap? Are they the Democrats or just tired and cranky? Ah, just got a better look, I think they are the Supreme Court Justices. Are they too good to stand up?

Meet Alan & Zeddie

So, I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve been sick for most of my vacation. Which, I think we can agree, really sucks. Recently I have been begun to feel almost up to par again. For awhile there I didn’t believe I would ever get to feeling good, so “almost up to par” is a minor miracle for me.

Last night, while lying awake (which I do a lot), I realized that I was feeling restless. Of course, 2:00 in the morning is not a good time to get up and go somewhere, especially when it’s below freezing outside. While lying there listening to Dan wheeze sickly in his sleep (since he has now caught what I had apparently), I hatched a plan to go somewhere today. I really wanted to try out my new camera, but my backyard is just not very photo ready yet. In fact, it’s a disaster area that I’ve yet to have the guts to face.

Since there’s not much in my neighborhood worth taking pictures of, I decided to find a nice park to walk around. Something not too far, as I didn’t want to use a lot of gas, but something that could pass for pretty. Where I live might have its charms (nice weather, etc.) but it’s not very scenic. It’s suburban sprawl at its worst. It doesn’t have the city charm of a big city like San Francisco or New York or Chicago. It also doesn’t have the green lushness sported by the suburbs of Los Angeles. It’s pretty much just city and desert.

I chose to go to a park called Kiwanis Park, which is very convenient to my house. It has a nice little lake and a walking path that I thought would be good. As I’ve said, it’s been cold out the last few days - very cold for Phoenix. After dressing appropriately, I gathered my camera and Jack ( my iPod) and left for the park. The park was fairly desolate, the grass is all brown right now, but I’m sure it’s very pretty in the spring and summer when the grass is green. Still, there were plenty of ducks to photograph, so I practice taking photos of ducks in the lake.

Just as I was leaving the park to go home, I came upon Alan and Zeddie. They were just entering the park for a stroll. Zeddie was so rambunctious and cute that I stopped to talk with them for awhile. Jack’s headphones were a possible casualty of the encounter considering Zeddie pulled them off me. I actually haven’t checked to see if they still work, I’m sure they’re okay. Zeddie is a brindled bull dog and full of life. Alan tells me that she is great with children and special needs children and I can believe it. She was very playful.

I’m starting to see how much of a positive effect this camera could have on my little introverted life. If I hadn’t gone to the park to take pictures, I wouldn’t have made a new friend today. And if I hadn’t taken the camera, I wouldn’t have a picture to mark the moment. Best purchase I’ve made in a long time, I think. I hope to return when the grass is greener and maybe see Alan and Zeddie there again.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside (for AZ)

It’s really cold here today, at least for Arizona. Well, rather, it’s cold for Phoenix. And yes, we’re all bundling up and whining like babies about the “frigid” temperatures. I found this forecast on AZ Central.com - what I really appreciate about it is that apparently it’s gonna be REALLY cold on Friday! Zero! Well, at least it will be sunny. Sorry for the lame and short post, but I’m cold - gotta go find some long johns.

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A Rainy Day

It doesn’t happen often, but it’s raining here in Arizona. That’s one of the things I love about January, it seems to rain a lot during this month. My sweet Hobie (pictured above) and I managed to get home from our walk just in time to avoid the heavier rain. I’ll never understand why he (and every other dog I’ve ever had) likes to drink the water that builds up in the grooves of the cool deck by the pool.

It’s also nice and cool today, which has made for good weather to get things done. I was quite productive today, if I can toot my own horn. Dan is still not feeling well, so after he came home from work I bundled him into the bedroom to sleep. My husband can be a sweet man, but he (by his own admission) can be a rotten, cranky sick person. To his credit, he’s tried hard to not be that way to me and during this particular sick time, he’s been okay.

I went to Fry’s Food today to pick up stuff for lunches next week. I had ordered a Japanese Bento Box (a Japanese lunch box) which should arrive on Monday, so I needed to get stuff to put in it! That is, assuming UPS delivers on Martin Luther King day. Anyhow, when I went to Fry’s I ended up picking up a lot of Japanese food to put in it. Today for lunch I made myself some Miso soup, it was great. I also treated myself to some London Broil to put in my lunch. If anyone has any good spring roll recipes, send them my way!

As you can probably tell, I’m really enjoying my camera. Okay, the rain picture isn’t much to speak of, but it serves as proof that water does sometimes fall from the sky here. Hobie, however, is probably tired of me stalking him with my camera. Someone from Eukanuba emailed me about entering one of my pictures of Hobie into a Beautiful Breeds contest. Maybe he’ll be famous!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, tomorrow anyway! My brain is a little fried as I haven’t been sleeping well lately. No, not because I’m partying or staying up late. This is more sickness related. This stupid sinus thing just WILL NOT go away. And, let me tell you, I’m so tired of being sick. This has dragged on for almost two solid weeks now.

But, I digress, I didn’t mean to spend this blog bitching about how lousy I’ve felt. I meant to introduce the world to my new baby, which should be arriving tomorrow. I know I was gonna get the Cannon S3, but I decided to go with the S2, because it was only 1 mega pixel less and that saved me about $100. Sweet, huh?!

The Mothership Has Landed!

Words just cannot convey how excited I am with what I just found on The Force.net. Imagine, if you will, my ultimate technology gadget dream. What would it be? What wonders would it entail? Hmmm…I think that whoever invented the following shiniest of the Shinies, must have connected themselves somehow to my brain and pulled together my fondest dreams. Without further ado, behold the wonder:

Introduce yourselves to the R2-D2 projector. But not just any old projector (which would still be rockin’ cool) but so much more. You will note by the first picture that you insert the DVD or CD where Leia put the plans and I assume he projects out the eye.

Also note the remote control, so he might roll (or it could just be for the DVD player)! In addition, he can play mp3, mp4, and jpg. Okay, so far, you’re thinking…yeah, I can see where she would totally dig this. But it gets better!

This picture shows that he is capable of projecting an 80 inch picture on a ceiling or a wall. We’ll just agree that the ceiling projection looks a bit uncomfortable.

More features:

His head swivels!

Memory card and USB input!

For cryin’ out loud! Check out the iPod dock! There’s even a place for Jack (previously Jim, before the memory wipe) in this wondrous thing of beauty!

I don’t think I ever imagined that anyone would be this creative! That anyone would take my beloved droid and put him to such good use!

I don’t even have pictured the Millennium Falcon shaped remote control (complete with sound effects) pictured here, but believe me, he has it.

What I don’t know, is how much this sweet baby costs. I’m trying not to imagine it, because I’m sure that he’s out of my budget. Which. Just. Sucks!!! If anyone ever deserved this God given creation, it’s me! ME, I tell you!

Check out the website for more while I go weep openly…