October 31, 2009 by kim.

For your scary Halloween entertainment, a video featuring yours truly (video created by the husband of yours truly):

Photography by Ann Brown – www.annbrownphotography.com

Boo!

Posted in Entertainment, Holiday, Art | No Comments »

October 29, 2009 by kim.

MONTH
National Model Railroad Month - http://www.piedmont-div.org/pilgrimage/

Peanut Butter Lovers Month - http://www.irish-cream.com/peanutbutter.html

DAYS
November 5 - Gunpowder (Guy Fawkes) Day - http://www.gunpowder-plot.org/samhaim.asp

November 13 - World Kindness Day - http://www.kindness.com.au/world_kindness_day.htm

November 16 - Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day -
http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/cleanoutyourrefrigeratorday

November 21 - World Hello Day - http://www.worldhelloday.org/

Posted in Holiday | No Comments »

October 26, 2009 by kim.

That is the sound I hear in my half-asleep state when someone (I’m not naming names) gets up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and drops the toilet lid before flushing. It sounds like a cannon going off.

BOOM!

Truth be told, this someone isn’t intending to give me heart palpitations. It just seems that I am very sensitive to noise when I haven’t fully woken up. I’ve tried to get to the bottom of it. I’ve even had this person give me a demonstration of how the lid is put down. It is only dropped from a height of less than half an inch. Not enough to really make the noise that it does. How do I stop this cacophony? Do I get one of those plastic squishy seats or put a cover on the lid like my grandparents did? Do I make this person leave the toilet seat up at night?

I don’t think so.

This morning after I began fuming about the unbearable sound (it happened again, you see), I figured it out.

The problem is the lid itself.

We didn’t seem to have the same issue in the last apartment we lived in. That lid was light and plastic. You couldn’t make a noise with it if you tried. The lid we have now seems to be some sort of heavy ceramic platter that could cause damage if you tore it off the seat and threw it at somebody. Is that really necessary? No.

What is my solution other than moving?

Buy a new lid.

Posted in Observation, Annoyance | No Comments »

October 22, 2009 by kim.

That is the price it will cost to have MY OWN medical records sent to ME. Actually, that is just the handling charge. Handling charge? Are my records radioactive? Does someone need to put on a special suit just to get my records off of a shelf? What kind of a scam is THAT?

That’s not all, folks. Copying up to 25 pages of records will cost $0.89 per page. If I have more in the file, say 26-50 pages, it will cost $0.59 per page. If I exceed 50 pages of medical records (I’d better not), it is an additional $0.30 per page. I thought the woman on the phone was kidding when she told me the price. I looked online and found this list from all states showing how much they can charge for records. I clicked on the link to the IL State Comptroller site, and found this:

Lucky for me, I’m saving $0.02 off of the handling charge. Whoopee.

Let’s do the math based on fifty pages, shall we?

For that price - I don’t need to know.

Posted in Annoyance | No Comments »

October 19, 2009 by kim.

I haven’t posted much due to moving and setting up the apartment, but here is something I noticed at the grocery store last week:

Did you see it?

Yeah …

Posted in Observation | No Comments »

October 13, 2009 by kim.

One weekend before we moved to Jersey, Chris and I went to the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary in Chicago. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Peaceful. I wish I could hang out there every day, all day. I got so swept up taking pictures that I was able to block out the city completely. Chris took a couple of shots of the skyline, but I focused mostly on foliage and insects.

Sign

Prairie

Flower

Trees

Bee

Black wasp

Grasshoppers

Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars

Skyline

Simply sublime!

Posted in Nature, Insects, Happy, Observation | No Comments »

October 6, 2009 by kim.

We moved into our new place in Jersey on Thursday. It is now Tuesday, and we’re still working on unpacking. That’s what you get when you move from a 3-bedroom to a 1 bedroom-ish apartment. We had to hit IKEA to make the place inhabitable.

We spent most of today assembling the various items we bought. I put together a space saver for the bathroom (from Bed Bath & Beyond), coffee table, and bookcase. We also bought a dresser which I let Chris take care of. He was thrilled.

I always find IKEA’s directions for putting together furniture rather interesting:

Picture 1: Here are the tools you will need, but use a marker instead of a pencil, a rubber mallet instead of a hammer unless you want to destroy what you are working on, and an electric drill because screwing this stuff together by hand is a pain in the butt.

Picture 2: Don’t do this job by yourself when you can con your friend into helping you.

Picture 3: Don’t break your furniture on a hardwood floor. Put it on a rug and be sure to fuse your hand to the board.

Picture 4: Seriously? Are the pictures not clear enough? Fine. Go ahead and call the store so they can send someone out to assemble it for you.

It only took us a few hours to put everything together, but it would have gone faster if I didn’t keep jumping up to eat M&Ms and spy on the neighbor. What does he look like? Is he moving? He had a notice on his door. Is he being evicted? I hear boxes being pushed around. Is the maintenance guy changing the lock?

Really – do I have nothing better to do?

Posted in Observation | No Comments »

October 4, 2009 by kim.

Chris and I were headed to pick up some lunch when we saw him:

The Green Squirrel!

As you may recall from my post on September 9th, we saw this poor squirrel in the neighborhood coated in what looked like green paint. We were concerned about his well-being, thinking that he might die from the toxic chemicals in his fur. Imagine our surprise when we saw him alive and well!

I’m going to guess that he licked all the fur off his body, as he seemed too quick for someone to actually catch him and clean him up. We were very happy to see that he was scampering up and around the trees like any normal, healthy squirrel would do.

He may look like a skinned rat, but he’s still cute!

Posted in Animals | No Comments »