Disconnect...

What would happen to the world if everyone disconnected for a week? I don't know about you, but I secretly like it when I go up North or go on vacation and don't have phone or internet service. It's not so much the internet, but how the internet is being used that's getting to me... Social Media has gotten Out Of Hand. You can't go anywhere or do anything without seeing a "like us on Facebook", "follow us on Twitter" or one of those funky looking barcodes to scan and get more (more than likely useless) information. I really want to know how businesses survived, or for that matter, how the world spun without these lame, 'I have to know what you are doing at every single waking moment of your life', sites.

As probably many do, I do my daily Monday-Friday getting ready for work routine with the news on in the background...my morning news of choice is KARE11. No reason really, I just like the gang they have giving me my daily news. Anyway, KARE has this contest going on right now...I haven't really heard the details, but I know it's something about the "Fan of the Day". OK, great. In my mind, we have to tell you why we think we are KARE's biggest fan and you will pick the winner based on whatever. Here's the part that bugs me. "Go to our Facebook page and tell us why you are KARE's biggest fan." So you are telling me that not only do I have to have internet access to join your stupid contest, but I also have to sign up for Facebook??? I could be some 15 year old kid who doesn't know who's President but just happened to hear about this contest and joined because they have nothing better to do than sit on Facebook all day, but the 82 year old widow next door who gets up at 5:00 am everyday to watch all four half-hours of your recycled newscasts can't win because she doesn't have Facebook page, let alone internet access?? What is wrong with this picture? I would love for a company to run a contest where there was NO web or email address, NO "follow us on Twitter", or No Facebook users allowed, and to top it off, "Only calls from Land Lines will be accepted". I wonder how many contestants they would get then.

As you saw from my post last week, I recently got my first 'smart phone'. I was hesitant to get one in the first place, but I knew it was inevitable at some point in my near future and the opportunity kind of landed in my lap. The kid who sold me the phone was talking up how you can 'connect to Facebook super easy' and 'check in' with the touch of a button. Excuse me,? "Check in"? Yeah, like I want to get someplace and 'check in' on my phone so not only does my entire list of so-called 'friends' know that I am out someplace and my house is vacant, but strangers can later come up to me and discuss how my trip to Target was. 'Oh yeah it was just fabulous, I got toilet paper and toothpaste, why?'
Needless to say, I will not be one of those people that has a permanent glow lighting their face from checking or updating their Facebook account constantly while out in public with their Human version of 'Friends'.

I know it's what the world is coming to and I know it makes businesses grow, and a lot of the time can be for a good cause, blah, blah, blah,...but I wish we could have a "No Social Media" week in America. Let's go back to good ol' fashioned face-to-face conversations. I bet a lot of people would actually be relieved. They wouldn't feel stressed when they see ten emails in their inbox telling them that So and So commented on Jane's Status, only to be disappointed when they see something totally boring like "Jane is making sandwiches". Well Jane, sorry to say, but you are actually "typing on Facebook", not 'making sandwiches', because it's virtually impossible to do both at the same time.

Pot luck

Why is the term Pot Luck so weird? Since when does "Pot" and "Luck" mean "let's bring in food and pig out"? A good coworker and even better friend of mine left our company yesterday to move onto greener pastures. He will be missed to say the least. He is also an avid STBA reader and claims to be the biggest fan--hopefully my blog address will follow him to his next company and I will be the first "favorite" he puts on his new web browser :)

Back to the subject at hand....Pot Lucks... we had a good bye Pot Luck yesterday at work for my friend and it was great. It's so funny though to me that no matter what the time of day, if there is a pot luck at work, anything goes. Meatballs and little wieners in BBQ sauce at 8:30 in the morning, why not?! Do you want some of this olive oil based pasta salad?..It's really good, you should try it. ..... Sure, just cram it onto my small paper plate next to the watermelon who's juice has run into my chocolate brownie, which has already been saturated in ranch flavored veggie dip.
And why is it you get so excited to see something at the pot luck that you see almost every single time you walk down the junk food isle at Cub or could possibly already have sitting stale and half-gone in your cupboard at home? The thoughts run through your head....oh my gosh!, I didn't see those Sour Cream & Onion chips sitting there at the end of the counter.... hmm....my plate is already full but I really want the chips....I will just take a few and sprinkle them on top of everything else already covering every single inch of my 8 inch plate.
Maybe the "luck" part of it means that if you are lucky, you will leave the pot luck without any BBQ sauce on your shirt and you will go back to your desk, look into your little mirror and realize you were successful at frantically (and discreetly) trying to get all of the debris out of your teeth with that tongue/sucking method while making small talk with unfamiliar coworkers.

Smart phone

Here is my attempt at using my new and first smart phone to post on my blog. Welcome to 2011, leiann!

The Situation

My blogs have been pretty few and far between lately--I can't find much to write about that's interesting--but I came across this funny/weird story on my daily readings of celeb gossip and actually thought it was quite funny. 
Apparently the clothing store I haven't shopped at since high school is going to pay Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino to STOP wearing their clothes.  Does anyone else find this ridiculous??  Read the below article and decide for yourselves.

The Situation, or "Sitch", as I call him from his Dancing With the Stars Days, is right around my age, so I do actually find it kind of weird that he is still supporting the Abercrombie clothes--I thought they were reserved for tweens and preppy high school kids but maybe *tings are differnt out daya in Jersey, ya know?* <--lame attempt at typing a New Jersey accent--
Apparently Abercrombie has an issue with him, but I say A., did they watch when he was on Dancing?  He was the sweetest kid and probably wouldn't hurt a fly in real life.  B. isn't the old saying  "there's no such thing as bad press" true anymore?  and C.  "damage to your image"??  Please!  I would re-think your whole "let's put half naked models wearing basically nothing but Santa hats outside our store during the Christmas season" idea.  I am sure the mom polishing off her Cinnabun before going into the store to get a shirt for her son doesn't appreciate the semi-naked, stick-skinny 16 year old girl asking if she's tried the latest Abercrombie scent.

close, but no cigar...

Working in Dakota County, the water-cooler has been buzzing this morning (ok, that's an exaggeration...we don't actually have a water-cooler and I have only heard a few rumblings) because the winning Powerball ticket for last night's drawing was bought in Dakota County.  As far as I know, the winner of $228 mil. hasn't stepped forward yet and when I heard this news, I thought about my brother and sister-in-law who buy tickets all the time.  For a minute, I had high hopes that they were the winners and I would soon be getting rich from being the good sister + in law that I am.
Turns out, they didn't get tickets for last nights drawing so I am still the 'working hard for my money' person that I was last night.  I'm not saying that if they had bought tickets they would have won, but it obviously would give you more hope...Think of it, the winning ticket sold in your own backyard. 
How much do you want to bet that lottery sales for Minnesota will be a tad higher this week in hopes that luck will strike twice in one place?  I know I will opting not to 'pay at pump' today when I fill up on gas.  "Pump 7 and two Powerballs please".  And, "yes, I have cash for the Powerballs".

article from KSTP.com

That Smell

Why is it that when you eat at certain places, you can be in the restaurant for five minutes and come out smelling like the grease bucket outside of the Cheese Curd stand at the State Fair?  Then you can eat at other places and you can be there for hours, and the only evidence that you were there is the small amount of buffalo wing sauce still wedged underneath your thumbnail.
As mentioned before, I worked at a restaurant for a long time--at the end of my shift I would come home and my mom would tell me that I reeked and that I had to throw my clothes in the wash.  I never noticed the smell until I stopped working there and now I can smell that smell a mile away.
I ate at a restaurant over lunch today and now here I am at my desk, sitting in my own stench.  I really hope nobody comes over and talks to me--if they do, you know I will apologize in advance for my smell!
I've always avoided it in the past, but I may have to make my way over to the little shelf in the women's bathroom where people dump their unwanted lotions and perfumes and lather up to disguise my grease infested clothes.

you complete me kitchen, matey

Remember this post from January?...I told you I was re-rero-fying my kitchen?  Well this is a little late, but better late than never (plus, I finally got the ultimate finishing touch I was looking for), so I am here to present you my new/old kitchen.
It's been a long process, but not as long as it seems.  The paint preparation took the longest.  See in this first collage below, the huge 'paint spot' next to the back door (upper left photo)?  Well, that's not a paint spot my friends, that is a massive chunk of plaster wall that was basically peeling away from the plaster wall underneath it.  That's right, a couple of my kitchen walls looked like the surface of the moon.  I debated on painting a sign on a wall and nicknaming my kitchen the Crater Cafe.  Needless to say, the prep took a lot of time.  After weeks of peeling, scraping, sanding, massive amounts of powder and some cute puppy prints followed by a friend who gladly came over and re-mudded the wall by the back door for me, the Crater Cafe was read for paint.

I decided on two shades of green for the walls--a darker shade for above the cabinets and a lighter shade for the main walls--and a fresh coat of white for the ceiling.
Thanks to my mom who helped (and taught me how to paint a ceiling!), the two coats of paint was put on in the span of about a week--having to work all day and the short amount of daylight left in the winter when you get home really puts a damper on you getting your projects done around the house, doesn't it??

After the paint was applied, I was finally able to put my birthday present from my parents (the giant Fork and Spoon from Pier 1) to use!  No, I didn't eat with them, but I did hang them!

I had bought the clock earlier, knowing I would be wanting a retro looking clock.  I found the metal cafe at a local antique store, along with the owl whoo whoo (read it again, you'll get it) watches over me while I cook.  My dad found the bread-box for me at a swap meet and the spice rack that I have wanted since I moved into my house was at the right price and the right place at the right time.  It was quite possibly the find of the year.  All's it needed was a little cleaning.  Everything about it was pretty much perfect and it added just the right touch.  I had to have it.
As Ross said to Rachel: "you complete me kitchen, matey".

Mulch to blog about...

Last year when I decided to uproot the perennial flowers (that looked like weeds when not in bloom) that lined the front of my house and replace them with four different kinds of bushes, I did not expect to find the mess that was waiting to show it's face to the outside world.
Much to my surprise, the concrete foundation had been painted white years ago.  Then painted again.  And again.  "Big deal" you say, right?  No.  Wait, actually, Yes; it was a big deal.  The previous owner (bless their hearts, they took excellent care of the house) obviously didn't know what they were doing when it came to 'fixing' peeling paint on a concrete foundation.  They thought it would be OK to paint over the chipping spots without fixing the base of the problem.  I guess when it got so bad, they decided to cover it up all together *insert the weedy looking flowers* and wait for the next person *insert me* to fix it.
So after ignoring the problem for the last half of the summer last year, letting the 20 inches of snow sit against it for 6 months and letting the warm spring air do it's job and melt the snow, I was presented with this ugly eye sore once again.  It was time to take some serious action.  I was going to fix this ugly-ness and I was going to do it right.
A big part of me knew it wasn't going to get fixed without some hard work, but a small part of me wanted to believe it that it was.  Well, the bigger part of me won.  After A LOT of swearing, a few tears and a calming down talk from my Dad, I went at it full force.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to take the easy way out if I wanted it done right.

I tested some different methods of removing that nasty paint and after little to no success with a power washer and no success at all with a sand blaster, I decided that good ol' fashioned paint stripper, some rubber gloves and a putty knife was going to work best.

Left: nasty, ugly chipping paint.  Center: tools used to tackle paint.  Right: new paint; hopefully never to chip.

After approximately 20 hours of scraping loose paint, applying stripper, stripping paint away, brushing the paint boogers off and re-painting with some hopefully awesome paint that will never chip as long as I live here, I was done with the front of my house.  I will eventually move onto the other sides but I wanted to get the main view done as quickly as possible.  I am so pleased with the way it turned out.  Whoever said that hard work pays off is totally right.  I am so glad I listened to my wise dad and did it right.  Cross your fingers that this paint is true to its label and won't peel again.  The true test will probably be next summer after the wet snow has had a chance to party with the paint for six months.  We'll see if they turn against me or not.

Left: yours truly painting the trim.  Center: tools for painting success.  Right: before and after.

Since I was so happy with the way it turned out, I rewarded myself with a trip to my favorite store (Menards of course!) and got new mulch to replace the icky wood-chips that I put down last year.  They were already thinning out and ended up practically everywhere but where they were supposed to be after any amount of rain or whenever the lawn mower got within 5 feet of them.

Left: yours truly opening mulch.  Center:  yours truly laying mulch.  Right: pearly white foundation.