A new day

Tomorrow, May 1st, I'm going to start a new project. I plan to use a pedometer and keep track of my daily walking and then average it out. I'm supposed to have at least 30 minutes if continuous walking but sometimes it is hard or too tiring to find the time.

So I want to number off the days and each blog entry where I'll be recording the daily numbers. Anyone have suggestions for what I should call the entries? Let's see, one I have is: Walk the Talk & Talk the Walk, Day 1. But that's kind of long. Post your ideas!

Many thanks to Ann and Arnoldo for contributing more furniture and things to my apartment (& then helping me get it all here)!

Vegetable Lasagna photo 4

The first tasting.

Vegetable Lasagna photo 3

After oven.

Vegetable Lasagna photo 2

Ready for the oven.

Vegetable Lasagna photo 1

I shredded/grated zucchini and yellow squash with carrots. I sautéed onions and bell peppers and then added these to marinara sauce. Mixed ricotta cheese, milk, fancy grated cheeses and some nutmeg. Then it was layer time.

What is in Grammie's sleeve???

Something yummy!

Cuddled on my lap

Oliver and Dove. I hope they stay small sized.

Maggie, my new kitty friend???

She really knows how to make me feel special. I'll be cat-sitting her and her big sister, Sophie. Fun times ahead.

New Duvet comforter

Bday gift from dad and mom. I love it!!!!!

a California girl's Clothing Conundrum

I'm so tired,
I don't care what I wear

BUT
I care what I wear
So
I stare.

Jeffra

Sent from my iPhone

A lovely view

From my apartment complex pathway. I tried to send a video from my iPhone to post on the blog the other day but I guess it did not post. Boo.

I love movies!!!!

Why is that???

Netflix and all it's numerous streaming movies = very lazy Jeffra.

Sent from my iPhone

The Moon at 5:25pm or so

Using the fancy HDR feature of the iPhone, this is the best I could do.

A Tuckered Tucker

Bark in the Park was crazy busy this year, and seemed even more so because we volunteered in the Registration booth this time. I always wanted to volunteer in the registration but I gotta say it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. At least there is good friends and a yummy dinner after it all.

She Said It!

"I'm feeling a little Big-Bang-Theory-ed out." Danielle A. Kane at 8:17pm today.

Going down in the record books.

y or ie

Why is it 'movie' and not 'movy' ???
Some people spell 'aunty' and others 'auntie' - why?

English is such a messy (or is it messie) language!

Sent from my iPhone

Testing from the iPhone

This is a photo from visiting cousins (Erik and Mikey), Uncle Brian, and Aunty Lora near Corpus Christi, Texas. I love them all dearly.

Batman Forever (or perhaps not?)

Moving down the line in soundtrack CDs, I come to Batman Forever. Now take a moment to remember what you thought the first time you saw this movie. Was it in the theaters? Or later, on VHS? Or perhaps only recently, on a NetFlix DVD? Very cartoony, in fact, not far away from the campy style of Batman from the 60s. Very much a contrast to Batman Begins.

Anyway, about the music. Not my favorite. I believe I received the CD with a VHS copy of the movie as part of the birthday gift. I'm going to try to do this review by what is memorable. Songs 1-7, I mostly like. After that, I tend to lose interest in listening. It begins with a U2 song that's fairly good. Next is "Where are you now?" by Brandy (do remember her? Whatever happened to her?). Of course, Seal croons the "A Kiss from a Rose," which was/is my favorite song on the album. Tracks 5-7 are sung by female artists and I can tell you that after listening to Track 5 "The Hunter Gets Captured By the Prey," I end up singing it for a bit. And that is all that I care for on this soundtrack CD. So while Amazon users gave it an average 4.5 stars, I can only give it 2 stars.

Driving thru Soundtracks

Since my car still plays CDs, I've decided to do a drive thru of my soundtracks. I will be progressing alphabetically through them. To start off, I began with Anastasia (an animated non-Disney movie that came out in the 1990s). I thought it was a decent film (Disney does better artwork, no doubt) but at the time I really liked the song, "Once Upon A December." I believe this is what motivated me to buy the soundtrack on CD. So I expected that I would play about 2-3 times and then done with it. But not so much. Turns out I very much enjoyed the soundtrack, all of it. I have no special skills with music, playing it or explaining it, but I believe this music was well-written, well-played, and well-sung. Even the evil bad dude Rasputin's song, "In the Dark of the Night" gets me bouncing around and singing along. After the movie's musical numbers, a couple of pop artists join the mix. My favorite being Richard Marx dueting with Donna Lewis on "At the Beginning." The also last 6 songs are the actual orchestra music from the movie. Within these you can hear Angela Lansbury (aka Jessica B. Fletcher) sing a tiny bit of "Once Upon A December." Finally, it ends with a Spanish version of "Journey to the Past," which is fine for me.

Anyhoo, I agree with a majority of the Amazon reviewers in giving this soundtrack 5 stars (out of 5). Splendid.

Curtain Call

I have been deliberating for some time on whether or not to get curtains in my room. PRO: more purple in room always good; darken room for better sleeping; visually aesthetically pleasing (one hopes). CON: cost (one curtain is often over $40); not easy to install; have to buy rods.

When I was out at a Bed, Bath, & Beyond, they had a nifty curtain rod for only $20 (black brushed metal with square/cube nobby ends). And with my 20% off coupon, I felt compelled to buy it. This purchase topped the waffling list and meant I was not committed to buying curtains. However, all the purple curtains I saw were still quite costly. Well, one fortunate day in a walk to Old Navy (why drive when you can make a 10 minute walk there), I passed a TJ Max store. Its crazy store with lots of random things for very good prices. Seemed like the perfect place to find cheap curtains. And I was right! In the chaotic pile of rejected and unsold curtains, I found two matching purple curtains, each for $10. However, they are not opaque, instead being a very see-through material. So then I thought about returning them to find light-blocking curtains. Actually, TJ Max had a matching pair of these, but they were mossy green, which were not hideous, but certainly not purple.

I felt inspired to quickly put up one curtain and test it out. Here is my test attempt. Held up by one rod hook and about 5 pushpins.

I continued to wonder was it really worth it to have curtains up if they did not actually block out the light? Then Danielle, my roommate, had a great idea. I could buy some cloth and attach it to the backside of the curtain either with a cloth tape or some other method. Especially sweet because I have a gift certificate to Joannas. Perfect!

This convinced me and last Sunday, I went all out (while watching Cinderella). Screwed in the six screws for the three rod hooks by using my elbow muscle while standing on my bouncy bed (super sore the next day because of this). Fiddled with rod itself to get it all lined up right and the curtains had to be on it before all of its screws could be put in proper place. And then up it went on the wall. Below are some photos. They are not great quality because I used my iPhone, which just doesn't handle indoors and dark lighting well.

All in all, it was a good experience and I am very glad that I did it.


P.S. I would like to note, that nearly every time I wrote curtains above, I first misspelled it as curatins. *sigh*