I saw this:

So I looked closer.

Can you see it?

He’s kinda little.  Let me zoom in a bunch.  Here you go:

Lizard!

I’m not sure what he was doing, but he looked pretty happy.  It’s not like he’s going to cause any trouble, so I left him be.  It’s kinda chilly outside right now.  When it gets warmer, we’ll put the tree outside and let him run away, if he hasn’t done so already.  I haven’t seen him since we moved the Christmas tree out of the house and moved the ficus back closer to the door.

Things you will need:

Coffee cup and spoon, coffee dripper, coffee, filters (this dripper uses #2), some way to measure out the water, and boiling water (not shown).

Put the filter in the dripper.

Put the coffee in the filter.  I’m using 3 teaspoons for this cup.

Put the dripper on top of the coffee cup.

Wait for the hot water to boil.

Measure out the water for your coffee.  You can do this by using another coffee cup the same size or by only boiling as much water as you’ll need, but I found that this coffee cup uses just about 1 1/3 cups of water and I need something with a spout on it so I don’t end up with water all over the place.   So!  Measuring cup it is.

Pour hot water over the coffee grounds.  Make sure to get them all moistened.

Coffee will drip out of the bottom of the dripper and into your cup.  I lifted it up here to show, but this usually just stays resting on the top of the coffee cup.  And it sits very securely.  I haven’t been at all worried about it falling over.

Keep pouring water over the coffee grounds until you run out of water.  This is why I measured out the water first — there’s no way to see when the coffee is near the top of the cup without picking up the dripper and checking the cup.  It’s easier just to know ahead of time how much to use.

It starts to get sluggish toward the last of the water. I’m impatient and squish it around with a spoon, but I’m not sure it really helps at all.  It just gives me something to do.

Eventually there is no more water left in the dripper.

Remove the dripper and you can see a beautiful cup of coffee.

Sweeten to taste and enjoy!

The filter and grounds go into the garbage and the dripper goes into the sink for a quick wash.  It doesn’t take up any space on the counter, which is good because we don’t have any left.  And I get to go enjoy some coffee!  Total time it took to make this cup, with taking time to take pictures, was 10 minutes.  So it’s not something I have time to do while getting ready for work in the morning, but I get free coffee at my new building anyway.  This is for weekends when I’m at home and craving coffee.  And it’s awesome!

Well, it’s one of many things that keep me sane during these dark months.  I’ll probably be writing about the other things that keep me sane over the next couple months just so I keep them in the front of my mind.

Anyway.  Work is crazy.  The guy in charge of my “pod” doesn’t know where I’m at with the job thing — I’ve been told not to talk about it with him — and he keeps trying to present things that might make me consider staying.  I think that’s what he’s trying to do, anyway.  It’s not working very well because it mostly makes me think about the reasons why I don’t like my current job.  Counter-effective?  Ooooooh, yeah.  Plus it’s just crazy because of how the schedule has stacked up and that’s just the way it’s going to be for a little while.

Enough about work!

I had a lot of fun decorating for Halloween and I’ve been thinking of ways that I could decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I did felt leaves last year and I still like the look of those.

Here’s a picture of the ones I did last year — not my picture, though.  It’s from the post where I got the idea:  HERE.

I found this picture recently, though:

And now I’m trying to figure out if I can do that kind of thing.  I’m not sure where I got the picture from, but I think it’s of something someone’s selling on Etsy.  But working with wire isn’t something I’m very good at doing.

Then, too, I’d also really love to do something along the lines of these:

But I have no idea how I’d go about bending forks into a nice loop so I could use them as napkin rings.  But aren’t they cute?!!!  I WANT.  And I want for cheap, like with the unused set of silverware sitting in the office closet.  One of these days I’m going to take out a fork and a pliers and just see how bendy they really are.  And probably end up with two pieces of one fork.  But hey!  Then I’ll know.

How about you?  Got any crafty plans for November?

Justin is sick.  He caught something Sunday and has been down for the count Monday and today.  Which means he’s slept most of the day, up for about 3 hours during the day, and then he’s up in the evening for a while.  The sheets are in the washing machine as I type this.  They were smelling distinctly “slept in,” if you know what I mean.

I’m having one of those weeks at work where I wonder why I’m doing what I’m doing instead of something that actually might make a difference, like massage therapy.  Or teaching yoga.  Or running a book store.  Something that has a feeling of accomplishment involved, instead of this repeated frustration of doing the same task for every project that has to be checked off the list of requirements but that no one really cares to look through except me.  I’m getting really tired of it.  And I work for a good company that treats the employees well, with good pay and great benefits and I can’t complain that there’s any hardship involved with what I do at all.  It’s just that the whole points of what I’m doing for the company doesn’t seem to make a lick of difference and I’m tired of spending 40 hours a week doing something that doesn’t matter.

And that’s all nothing but grumpiness.

I’ve been really wanting to decorate the house for fall (even though it’s still really hot here) so here are a couple pictures of ideas I saw and liked.

(I actually did these candles last year and they turned out super cute.)

So!  You get before and after photos.  (Ignore that I haven’t lost any weight and . . . do I always have those bags under my eyes?)

Front view: before the haircut

Back view: before the haircut

Front view: after the haircut

Back view: after the haircut

It’s kinda hard to tell, but she took off about 4 inches at the longest part, and obviously  much more than that along the front.  It’s not showing it great, but there’s feathering along the front from starting under my chin down the length of the front, and then there’s a long layer in the back.  I love it!  I love the feathering in the front and that the ends are nice and smooth.  And it all still pulls back into a ponytail, though I’m sure I’m going to find some hairstyles that I’m used to doing that will suddenly have nice framing locks hanging loose.

And Justin’s haircut was the same one he normally gets — just cutting off all the long bits so it’s not so fluffy anymore.  :)  We’re both very excited about our cuts!

2. We took my ring in to get the setting tightened before the sapphire fell out.  The jeweler also smoothed off the prongs so they won’t snag things so often.

3. Another friend gave me her old guitar so I can learn how to play!

So the cheese is fantastic and I’m looking forward to nibbling on that.  And I’m thrilled to be able to wear my ring again.  But I am most excited about the guitar.  I’ve wanted to learn how to play, but there was no way I was going to be able to shell out money for an instrument.  It just wasn’t going to happen. 

On a whim, I asked Facebook if anyone knew where I could get one, and this friend offered up her old one for free!  It has a couple cracks, and she just bought a really beautiful new one, so she was just going to toss the old one in the trash.  It took me six months to get up to her house to collect it (things got busy, she had a baby, life happened), but I drove up on Saturday to bring it home.  I have no idea what I’m doing, really, but I’ve been working on chromatic scales and just getting my hands used to the feel of the instrument.  I’ve got to work up calluses on my fingers and my friend showed me how I should position my left thumb so I’ve been working to keep that set the right way.  Mostly, I’ve just been plucking things out:  playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and short bits of other songs as I find them.  And scales.  Lots of scales.  I haven’t got a clue how to play any chords yet.

But it’s great!  I’m having a lot of fun.  The cracks make the sound a little more muted and mellow, I think.  My friend played for me on both guitars so I could hear the difference.  Her new one is much brighter and louder; it’s a beautiful instrument.  But having one that’s quieter isn’t a bad thing for me right now.  It’s less likely to drive Justin crazy when I’m sitting downstairs making nonsensical noise.

Crack below the bridge

Blemish on the back

My fingertips are sore this morning and I think it’s fantastic!  Does anybody have any beginner tips?

So, here you go.  Late and kind of brief, but this is what we did for Memorial Day weekend:

Hey Nunnie Nunnie made me laugh so hard I started to cry and nearly fell off my seat!

Friday:  We ran a couple errands in town before driving up to a small town near Athens, GA, to spend the afternoon/evening with friends.  I got to have Thai food for dinner.  We ended up talking for hours while Justin’s sister worked on homework.  It was so much fun!  And then we drove to Fairburn, GA, (about 80 minutes) to our hotel for the evening.

Jayna Lee's aerial acrobatics: She climbed up the blue silk ribbons with a bowling ball in a baby carrier, flipped over, and dropped the ball on her partner, who was sandwiched between two beds of nails, hitting a plate that was resting on his chest. We didn't see him at the faire the next day....

Saturday:  Woke up slowly after being up so late and got ready to head to the GA Renaissance Festival.  Wandered around the faire, stopping to watch a couple shows and get hit on by jewelers.  Wore a necklace around all day because the vendor wanted me to buy it ($48), but traded it in at the end of the day and bought one not even half as expensive.  Met up with our friends from Friday partially through the day, but then they got stuck in a place trying to buy lunch for more than an hour while we continued to wander around the faire.  Went out to dinner afterward, but to a pizza place instead of the planned-on Mexican place since it apparently went out of business since our last visit.  And then went back to the hotel to meet up with a couple more friends (from the Beaufort area in town for the faire) and played Munchkin for a couple hours before the Athens area friends had to head home.

The queen is firing mini marshmellows from a mini catapault at kids lined up at the back who are trying to catch them in their mouths.

Sunday:  Justin’s sister and I got out of bed earlier to get breakfast and meet up with the Beaufort area friends and head to the faire.  Justin stayed behind to pack up the room and check us out of the hotel and then met up with us later.  We wandered around some more, watching a couple shows and listening to musicians.  And then we had to head out around 3:00 in order to get back home at a reasonable hour for Justin’s sister to drive back to her dorm.

Barely Balanced Acrobats: Big holding Small upside-down between his knees and she's not holding on at all, while Medium stands on Big's arms and spins a hula hoop.

Monday:  Slept.  Read a book.  Poked at computers.  Played a video game.  Ordered pizza.  Relaxed.  Got a little tipsy on wine.  Went back to bed.

Celtic Ties traditional Irish musicians