Getting the Band Back Together

 

Last night was the first time my regular trivia team got together at our regular trivia night. We didn't get our regular table, and we're permanently missing one member (ALS, not COVID), but we had a few special guests (husband and young son of a teammate) and a decent waitress, so things were looking up. 

We were in first place at halftime and almost swept the second half. If we had written down one other Robert Downey Jr. movie on our answer slip instead of just on our brainstorming list, and if anyone on the team knew anything about The Handmaid's Tale, we could've had a perfect game, since I managed to figure out the "Name the Flick" question in the final round. 

It was nice to see everyone -- we had tried to play virtual trivia early in the pandemic, but eventually gave up.  Besides, even if we won at home, we didn't get any gift cards that we could transmute into tasty pizza for the table next week. 

Almost Back to What We Might Consider Normal

Had a lovely dinner tonight with eight other people from one of my OU alumni clubs. It was great not only to see them face to face, but also to sit shoulder to shoulder in a restaurant! The last time some of us saw each other was via Zoom around Christmas, and before that it was a socially distanced picnic in the early fall. 

Almost the first thing we mentioned as we said hello was our various vaccine statuses. I'm *just* on the edge of being officially fully vaccinated, since it will be two weeks tomorrow since I got my second dose. All of my dining companions are older than me, so they had their shots earlier than I did.

A few of them even did some traveling this year. There are a few snowbirds who tend to spend a few months each winter in Florida, as well as a world traveler who, it seems, is always headed somewhere interesting. I think one of her trips to Europe had to be cancelled during the pandemic, but I'm sure she's working on rescheduling.

Despite the recent rapid shift in the CDC's guidance on masks, we still had to wear them as we went to and from our table. Most of the other tables were full; I'm trying to decide if they were spaced six feet apart. I've never been to the restaurant before, so I don't have a mental floor plan from "the before times" to compare with tonight's setup. 

The whole reason for getting together was to plan out our group's activities for the next year. I think we basically decided to try again with all of the events we had planned for 2020-21 that had to be scrapped: blueberry picking in July, a community service project in October, and a book discussion in March. Here's hoping we get to do all of those things, and that we'll meet again next May to make more plans. 

 

Will Lightning Strike Twice?

My "memories" feed on Facebook lately has been chock-full of posts from pre-game, in-game, and post-game shenanigans related to attending the last 10+ years of Mid-American Conference basketball tournaments in downtown Cleveland. I can't go in person for the second year in a row (Thanks, COVID!) and it's really bumming me out to scroll through stuff like this: 

I've been listening to the radio call of the game by the regular OU broadcasters, so that's been exciting, I guess. Russ & Rob don't get to go to Cleveland to see the games in person either. They're in Athens, watching a video feed on the new jumbotron in the Convo and describing the action to those of us who refuse to log into ESPN+ or forget that the game is airing on CBS Sports Network until it's half over (read: me). (But also: I always prefer to listen to the radio broadcasts featuring the announcers for my favorite teams. My absolute favorite is when I turn the volume down on the national announcers, turn up the radio broadcast, and use the pause button on the DVR to get the words and the pictures to sync up just right.)  

The first two games of the 2021 MAC men's basketball tournament were practically blowout wins for the Bobcats, so they're going to be in the championship game tomorrow. The opponent? Buffalo. I feel as though I've seen this movie before . . . .

Even though I'll be listening from an easy chair at home instead of Standing Up and Cheering at the Q RoMoFiHo, I hope we get to paint this one green and white. Go Bobcats! 

Window Dressing

So, we got our windows replaced this week: nine new windows and two new storm doors.  I spent the day before the installation taking down curtains and moving furniture away from the windows. 

This massive hassle was compounded by having to double up on allergy pills (So! Much! Dust! because I am an exceedingly lazy housekeeper) and having to find a place to put all the stuff I moved out of the way of the workers. (Note to self: Go take the stuff I stashed in my car out of the trunk before it's time to get groceries tomorrow.) 

Plus, not having any curtains on the front windows meant there was no stopping the sunlight from reaching the kitchen and illuminating how much I have not been sweeping the floor or vacuuming the vents on the bottom of the fridge or wiping off the front of the oven. Ugh. 

I hate being in the house when any kind of repair people are there, so I made myself scarce soon after the work crew arrived. For the next seven hours, I . . . 

• Took some books back to the library
• Was complimented by the librarian on my "Talk Nerdy to Me" book bag
• Bought a replacement carafe for the coffee maker for only $10 less  -- and thirty minutes more -- than I could have completely replaced the coffee maker (Had to drive all the way across town to a place that had the carafe in stock, as opposed to getting the same machine --on sale! -- at a store five minutes away.)
• Got some ground coffee that I will probably not drink
• Got a mocha at Starbucks 
• Managed to spill some of my drink on my shirt
• Debated whether I needed to add either of these sweatshirts to my wardrobe








• Picked up some ground beef because I forgot to set out the ground beef in the freezer to defrost and I had plans to make magic chili for dinner (It was supposed to be 1 pound of ground beef + 1 can of diced tomatoes + 1 can of Chili Magic, but I didn't like the way it looked so I added another can of diced tomatoes and a small can of tomato sauce. Came out okay.)  
• Tried the new flavor of the week at Pav's (Verdict: Meh)
• Discovered that my phone's camera could focus on the ice cream cone or the sign listing the ice cream flavor but not both at once

Eventually the installation was complete and the living room curtains were rehung. However, the vertical blinds and curtains from the upstairs bedrooms (which had to be at least thirty-five, maybe forty years old) got pitched. (I'd been babying the blinds because every time I touched them some other brittle piece of plastic would fall off. They basically disintegrated as soon as I started taking them down. The curtains were still in one piece, but kind of grubby/dusty and I didn't feel like taking them to be cleaned. They had a good life, but it's over.) We also decided to pitch the (not nearly as old) blinds in the TV room. Despite knowing for weeks that we were getting new windows, I hadn't looked into getting any replacement curtains. . . doh!

During my rambling around while the windows were installed, I found some possibilities for the upstairs bedrooms. I didn't realize in the store how . . . polyester they were, though. When the morning light hit them, they really . . . glistened. You can't get a good sense of it in this photo that I sent to my sister because I took it later in the afternoon, but I'm glad I saved my receipt. 

 

I might look around at a few other stores tomorrow to see if I like anything else better. At the very least, I need to find something simple that I can put downstairs, because my vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bed sheet -- while hilarious -- is, at best, a temporary solution.  

Besides, I can't find my other TMNT sheet to use on the other window.

The Latest Snowpocalypse

 Welcome to northeast Ohio in February..... 

While not quite the frozen tundra of harsher climes, it has been pretty snowy and cold around here for the last few days, and conditions look to be the same for the coming week. I have no need to leave the house during the worst of it, thankfully, so I have plenty of time to look out the window, drink some hot tea, and then resume reading my latest library book.  

My mother has been updating me about the various weather people going bonkers over how cold and snowy it is in Texas. That makes me laugh, because I remember how people acted when I was in Austin for a friend's wedding in early December 2016. I thought it was pretty balmy that weekend (highs in low 50s / lows in high 30s) and thus I was fairly comfortable with a fleece sweatshirt as a jacket. However, a few of the locals would not shut up about how freezing cold it was as they yanked on their mittens, scarves, hats, and heavy coats. I guess that weekend was a little unseasonable for that time of year, because it warmed up a bit for the next few days as my sister and I did some sightseeing in the area:

Flipping through some of the photos from that trip, I realize that I still haven't finished the book I read on the plane:

I suppose I can add it to the stack of reading material to tackle as I'm snowbound. 

This Is Not the Smithsonian

Of all the annoyances and indignities that 2020 had to offer, the one that drove me over the edge was losing the WiFi connection on my iPhone. 

The connection started going on the fritz in early December, perhaps coincidentally after I installed the latest software update. I tried all the "fixes" the Internet could suggest, with varying success, for about six weeks before the connection completely vanished, most likely never to return. 

During that time, I flirted with the idea of getting a new phone. All of the notices and alerts from the phone company suggesting that I was eligible to upgrade the devices on my account started to intrigue instead of irritate, although I did find it suspicious that something broke on the phone right as I paid the final installment on it. 

However, I decided that I was already paying for a data plan that I hardly ever used and I had three other devices with working WiFi connections, so it wasn't going to be an extreme hardship to be unable to immediately fulfill every whim via the small black box in my pocket.

Reader, I lasted about a week after I ran out of data. 

I suppose I could have adjusted some routines and preferences and carried on, but I had been adjusting routines and preferences and carrying on since March 12, 2020,* so my tolerance for this new bullshit was pretty low. 

Despite being sorely tempted by the iPhone 12 mini (It comes in green!), I decided it would be more practical (read: cheaper) to get the SE 2020. I compared the specs, and I wouldn't really use half of the fancy features on the 12 mini anyhow. Two days after I finally pulled the trigger and placed the order, I was unboxing the SE 2020 and accessories. (Because of course it's about a half-inch too tall to fit any of the other cases I have knocking around. Grrr!) 

After eliminating the bulk of the air bubbles that popped up no matter how carefully I applied the screen protector, I went through the usual setup process. The WiFi connected immediately, to my relief. The part I was dreading  — activating the phone service — did not go as smoothly. 

I'm sure that on some level I knew that the SIM card from the old phone needed to be inserted into the new phone, but it didn't really occur to me at the time to do that. So, I got super-frustrated when I kept getting error messages while trying to activate the new phone via the phone company's web site. Eventually a customer service chat window popped up; during the course of our conversation, the person on the other end shared that helpful hint about the SIM card switcheroo. Doh! 

Starting fresh (as opposed to installing the backup of my old phone) meant that the next few hours were spent happily downloading and installing my favorite, must-have apps as well as a few fun ones I had forgotten about over the years. (I was a bit giddy over the fact that now I have 128 GB instead of 32.)  I also selected which podcasts I still wanted to listen to (even recycled episodes of Car Talk are more interesting than doing the dishes in silence) and downloaded the recent episodes I'd missed. Then came the flurry of security notification emails, as every app I logged into had to let me know that someone using a new device logged into my account. 

Once I had everything fixed up mostly the way it was before, I had to face facts: I have too many exhibits in the Apple wing of my personal museum to outdated technology. I sent my sister this photo:

My collection of i-devices**

From left to right:

1. The just-out-of-the-delivery-box iPhone SE 2020
2. The iPhone SE (1st generation) with the broken WiFi antenna
3. The iPhone 5s with a loose screen
4. The iPod Touch with a broken display 
5. The iPod (3rd generation) that barely holds a charge  

If I were a different kind of nerd, I would figure out a way to Frankenstein items 2 and 3 into a device that has functioning WiFi and a screen that you can't peel back like the lid on a yogurt container. I would also be able to reattach whatever loose cable is making the display on item 4 into a grayish-white blur of horizontal lines. Instead, I've been able to use items 4 and 5 as digital jukeboxes by hooking them up to some clock-radios. (The setup in my bedroom involved leaving the oldest iPod constantly plugged in to a charger and connecting it to the clock-radio via the 3.5mm headphone jack. Then in the office/craft room/spare bedroom, I had the iPod Touch set up to play songs on "shuffle" whenever the clock-radio was turned on in iPod mode.) After some extensive brainstorming, I'm unable to come up with a scenario where items 2 and 3 can be of similar use. So, I'm probably going to start researching the best way to recycle them. 

Getting rid of them is going against all my hoarder tendencies, but I need to borrow from my mom's new attitude of "This is not the Library of Congress. I don't need to clutter up my bookshelves by keeping every book I ever had just in case I might want to read it again sometime." Of course, she had to repress her hoarder tendencies and adopt this approach during her Great Purge of 2017 (Drink!), which is when my parents were packing up and moving out of their home of 40 years. I misremembered it as her saying "This is not the Smithsonian," though, so hence the title of this post. (Speaking of misremembering: See also this post.)

Speaking of this post, though: Sometime during the two days between ordering and receiving the new phone, I got the idea of counting up how many i-whatevers I have had and when. Part of my research involved skimming old blog posts (like this one) and thinking (a) I'm hilarious and (b) this is helpful documentation of when things happened and (c) maybe I should get back in the habit of posting again in 2021. We'll see.   

* I was supposed to go to Cleveland to cheer on my OHIO Bobcats in the second round of the Mid-American Conference men's basketball tournament, but it was cancelled. The first of many, many, many, many, many, many things on my calendar to disappear in a puff of respiratory droplets. Thanks, COVID.   

** Not pictured: My iPad Air (1st generation) that still connects to WiFI and has a functioning screen. Although I've probably jinxed that now. 

Alumni Leaders Conference 2017

So, I survived another ALC!

Matt and I have been going to these since 2006 ... which is why the alumni association staff asked us, along with other long-time volunteers, to be a part of some roundtable discussions on topics of interest. 

I finally took Ted's advice to cash in on/otherwise leverage the whole Jeopardy! thing and used that as part of my discussion topic:

"Can I have Alumni Engagement for $1000, Alex?"
Join longtime OHIO volunteer and onetime Jeopardy! contestant Amy  for answers to common questions about planning successful events, recruiting/retaining volunteers, and what Alex Trebek is really like. Discover the many tips and tricks she's gathered from other alumni leaders and explore ways to apply these best practices to your chapter or society. 

I was even inspired to carry the Jeopardy! theme onto one of my handouts:

The session went pretty well, I think. I essentially went through all of my old files and made a note of anything still relevant/useful. I compiled some pretty thick packets of handouts, with the understanding that it was something for people to take back and review with their chapter/society board members to determine what could be applied during the planning and execution of future events.

And, of course, I did give a quick recap of my Jeopardy! experience -- not quite as detailed as the one I gave to a friend-of-a-friend at the bar later, but with enough insider info to make it interesting. The consensus seemed to be that I definitely need to get cracking on those "Getting Salty with Alex!" t-shirts.

Oh, wait: Have I not mentioned that I've been on Jeopardy! on this blog? I suppose I should rectify that at some point.

Feeling Nostalgic

I'm listening to the audio version of Word by Word * and binge-watching  Detroiters via Comedy Central On Demand** and they're making me miss my old day job.

Kory Stamper describes the quiet hush of the editorial offices at Merriam-Webster, and I'm jealous that the marketing and sales staff are sequestered on a separate floor there. I remember the major shock to the system that occurred when those departments were added to the editorial and production departments' office space after the nuns retired and a new CEO came on board. Stamper also describes the antiquated technology and odd policies, especially with regard to coffee and to the procedure of circulating a memo instead of going over to speak with someone directly.  I remember my first months with the publishing company as being very similar.

I had another hit of déjà vu when I saw the office furnishings on Detroiters. One of the main characters has taken over his dad's advertising agency, and the office decor and amenities seem stuck in the '70s.... much like things at the Center when I first arrived. I would swear that the visitor chairs opposite the main desk (shown behind the characters in this GIF) are the same style and color as the visitor chairs in the front reception area where we were expected to take our morning and afternoon breaks from precisely 10 to 10:15 a.m. and 3 to 3:15 p.m.

@whoisJJSimmons pic.twitter.com/IuM0sFXCtQ

— Detroiters (@Detroiters) March 8, 2017

The credenza and some of the lamps in the background of this GIF also strike a chord.

West Coast, are you locked in?! #Detroiters is on right...NOW. pic.twitter.com/dfu4EWWJ6s

— Detroiters (@Detroiters) February 8, 2017

I'm sorry that I missed Stamper on her book tour, — the closest she got to me was Columbus earlier this month. She'll be in Pittsburgh in a few days, but I've got a trivia championship game that day, so I'm probably not going to make the road trip. Instead, I'll just do some discreet online stalking and catch up with news articles/radio appearances/her Twitter feed, etc.  The TV show has been renewed for a second season, so I guess I can look forward to more "I used to have one of those in my office!" moments next year sometime.




* It's read by the author, which I love in an audiobook.
** Not simultaneously. I multi-task, but not that much.

Hoarding Pays Off

I broke down and finished my taxes early — early for me, anyway; especially since the official deadline isn't until April 18 this year — and in the course of rummaging around in my various financial records, I came across a batch of savings bonds that I received as a kid.

Turns out some of them have matured (unlike the recipient, lol)  so I may as well cash them in . . . but not before admiring the artwork  — note the Bicentennial label and the punch-card holes!

I also have the original gift envelopes.

I'm probably going to hang on to those for a while, on the off chance that I can figure out how to use them in a future papercrafting project.

This Week in Hoarding

Despite today's last gasp of winter -- Exhibit A being this photo I took on my way out to the car:

-- I actually got dressed and left the house before 9:30 this morning. Mostly because I had a gift card for a free breakfast at a fast-food establishment whose owner's politics I despise with all my heart but whose tasty chicken sandwiches I love with all my stomach and it was burning a hole in my pocket. Plus, the 50% off coupon for an item at Michael's in my morning e-mail reminded me that I had been thinking about getting a water brush ever since I used one at a card-making class I took the other weekend. (I mean, I usually use my Dove blender with my watercolor pencils, and I have a bunch of el cheapo paintbrushes that would be totally adequate for the rare times I use this technique, but ... a new tool! And for half off!)

Once I got there, I spent a good hour going up and down pretty much every aisle, gazing with unfettered desire at all the things I wanted but that I ultimately forced myself not to buy once I recalled the inverse relationship between the amount of crafting gear I already own and the amount of time I spend actually using said gear for its intended purpose (as opposed to, say, "gathering dust" or "taking up all the room in the closet"). Quite proud of myself for buying only what I came in there for . . . well, okay, plus five things from the dollar bin . . . I hit the office supply store in the adjacent plaza for another exercise in self-restraint.

Thus, I spent another happy hour examining all of the porous point and needle tip options on the wall of pens, then drooling over the wall of three-ring binders and divider tabs. I coveted some notebooks and organizers/calendars -- going so far as to fondle a few and carry them around the store, again looking at every aisle, before I made myself put most of it back. I did buy two notepads, a mini-clipboard, and a five-subject spiral notebook that has not only built-in color-coordinated divider tabs with pockets but also a clear pouch at the back. (Swoon!) but that all came to less than $10. Again, I reminded myself that I have all kinds of office supplies and notebooks and binders still in boxes from my move, and I should really go home and rummage through that stuff before I go crazy buying new things.

So, I picked a box at random off of the shelf in the garage and found all sorts of fun things, like this Statue of Liberty notebook from the mid-1980s.

It's in near-mint condition -- hardly a page is missing -- but I did write "This belongs to" and my name on the inside front cover in my ten-year-old self's crummy cursive. (I'm assuming I got this in 1985 -- I remember that the Statue of Liberty renovation was a big deal when I was in sixth grade, which was 1985-86.)

This little denim change purse is probably from about the same time. My name is written inside that, too -- but neatly printed with a Sharpie in handwriting that might not be mine.

Of a somewhat more recent vintage are these labels for 3.5-inch floppy disks and random assortment of postage stamps.

I'll probably keep those, along with the various pads of Post-it Notes and a pair of Field Notes notebooks chronicling some of the monthly Pub Quizzes from 2008 and 2009. I am willing to part with the following ticket stub and exploded batteries, however, so I suppose I do draw the line somewhere.

Doing It Because I Want To, Not Because You Tell Me To

So, I was texting with a pal the other night, and we got to talking about blogging, which led to the following exchange...

I am on said Chromebook now -- after blogging a few times about how much I wanted one (cf. I Totally Want This: Chromebook and I Still Totally Want This: Chromebook), I decided to get myself one as a birthday gift in 2014. It is just as awesome as I always imagined, and yet I still tend to spend way too much time on my iPad.


This year, as an early birthday gift to myself, I got a bike.

I haven't had a bike in about fifteen years, and I thought a lot about getting one last summer since I'm pretty near to a lot of segments of the Towpath Trail. So far, I've biked from around Summit Lake to the Stark County line in bits and pieces. I don't know if I'll start working my way north, or just stick to the parts I've already done. Further bulletins as events warrant, I suppose.

Anyhow: It wouldn't kill me to get back in the habit of posting things here, but we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I'm going to have some (belated) blogiversary cake.

Limbo

Hey there --

After five fun-filled months in Athens doing Bobcat things, I'm back in Akron doing slightly fewer Bobcat things and not really sure what's going to be happening next.

I should probably resume regular blogging, just to give myself some kind of structure. I mean,  I have months' worth of Pub Quizzes to document! However, it's much easier to be super-lazy and just post to Facebook. Part of it is that I'm on mobile devices more -- as opposed to having to sit at a computer with full keyboard for 8 hours a day -- and part of it is that there's other fun stuff to do on FB. (If by fun you mean "looking at the photos of random friends-of-friends for a few hours," because again: Sorta stuck in neutral.)  I guess I could do some digging to figure out the code for making blog posts appear on FB or vice versa, because I'm pretty sure I know some other people who make that magic happen, but ... yeah.

Anyhow: This week is the MAC tournament and St. Pat's in the Flats. I'm going to tonight's OU-Akron game, since I had to miss last night's win over Miami due to a freak blizzard. Watching it on the giant big screen TV at home was better than being stuck in a traffic backup, I guess.

I was reading some old posts about my tournament experiences, and it was kind of fun to look back. I've been doing a lot of looking back, because I'm trying to organize elements from the OU Women's Club's archives into a coherent display for the club's 75th anniversary celebration at the historic Silver Grille at the Higbee Building downtown. I really need to quit slacking on that, because there are a lot of other moving pieces that I'm in charge of, or in charge of finding other people to be in charge of. I'm still kind of worn out from all the craziness of my last two weeks in Athens (see FB for mildly incriminating photos!), but I've had a week at the 'rents (aka the best vacation spot ever, according to my almost-BIL) to kind of rest up and recuperate, so I'm running out of excuses to not get my rear in gear.

Meanwhile, I'm way behind on my TV watching. I've been having some nutty dreams again, which is what usually happens when I don't dull my senses with enough pablum from the idiot box. I'm trying to keep up with American Idol, although none of the contestants really seem to be grabbing me this season. Then again, there are two or three that I would be sorry to see go, but they're not super-impressive at this early stage. I am enjoying the new judging panel and reduced (on-screen) role of Randy Jackson, though, so it's not all bad.

I'm also behind on my spring training games. I listened to maybe half of Indians game using my MLB At Bat app, and I'm missing out on all the winning going on. I know the games don't really mean anything, but when it's going from 57 to, like, 7 degrees within a few hours, it's nice to hear Hammy call some home runs.

Pinch Me

So, last week I started living the dream: Back in Athens, working for the alumni office.

It's only on an interim basis, but there's the possibility of making it more permanent if I get my act together and fill out an online application within the next few days.

I'm still adjusting to having to get up early, find something presentable to wear, drive for a while, show up somewhere on time, and do actual work for a while, but I think I'll manage.


In related news:

I'm still kicking myself for not using my old student ID photo on my new employee ID. I went to get my employee parking pass on Monday, and the student processing my request asked me if I used to be a student there. I'm like, "Yeah, once upon a time," and she laughed. I didn't really know what prompted her question until I went to get my employee e-mail and ID and the tech there asked if I wanted to use the photo on file. "There's a photo on file??" I looked at her screen, and there's nineteen-year-old me looking back from spring quarter junior year. I was tempted to use it, but I went ahead and had a new one taken.

Going Retro

So: During my temporary lull in gainful employment, I agreed to do my parents a favor and stay over at my grandma's to keep an eye on her. She's been on her own for about four years since my grandpa died, and things were kind of getting out of hand.

I've been on a two-week cleaning binge (My new boyfriend: Mr. Clean) and have things somewhat under control. Karma's a bitch: All the housework I never did at my apartment for years and years, I'm having to do at her house all the time. This leaves me feeling very much like a 1950s housewife with a toddler, because she's acting like a three-year-old these days and I'm always making something for her to eat, cleaning up after eating, coming up with something to keep her occupied, answering the same dozen questions she asks over and over, telling her to do this or not do that, blah blah blah. It's exhausting.

Plus, my love of all things vintage is taking a bit of a hit from living in a house where everything is vintage. Some of it was judged manky and yuck, thrown out immediately, and replaced with brand new versions; some of it was boxed up and put elsewhere while I got out my newer/cleaner version for us to use; some of it was scrubbed thoroughly with Clorox and returned to active duty.

A few random things I found around the house ...

A souvenir dish from the Circleville Pumpkin Festival
(Been there!)

An "Akron: Rubber Capitol of World" bottle opener
(which needs editing; they mean "Rubber Capital ")

A bear lamp that my dad wants back
(Not pictured: The owl lamp in the other bedroom that my mom wants back)

Other fun finds: 

• Photos of some intergenerational family game night circa 1986
  
  My parents, sister, uncle, and grandparents were playing Trivial Pursuit at the dining room table. In one picture, I must have just missed a question because I'm clearly ticked and my sister thinks it's hi-larious. 

• A notebook documenting mileage, tolls, gas, and lodging expenses for the many road trips my grandparents took in the mid-1980s
  
  In September 1986, they spent $374.29 on gas and $120 on campgrounds during a 5,110-mile trip out west. Stops included Mitchell, S.D. (home of the Corn Palace!); Wall, S.D. (home of Wall Drug!); and Keystone, S.D. (adjacent to Mount Rushmore!). I've been to all of those places, actually, during the Hollis Vacation to end all Hollis Vacations: The Great West Road Trip of 1985. (My mom made a terrific scrapbook of that trip. I should scan all those pages and send a copy to my sister.)

• Birth announcements for me and my sister
  
  My sister just turned 35, so my dad and I decided to mail her announcement to her as a belated birthday gift, ha ha.

Oh Hai

Yeah, so . . . I had this fantasy that I was going to blog more in 2013. I was going to get back to doing regular Pub Quiz recaps, plus weekly book reports and movie reviews about whatever I've been reading/watching.

But then then the winter blahs kicked in, and for pretty much all of January I didn't feel like doing anything that required actual effort. I still went to Pub Quiz and read books and watched TV/movies, but I didn't feel like taking the extra step of documenting all of that online. I also didn't follow through on my other wacky ideas, like teaching myself the ukulele and learning Italian. It's only February, though, so there's still time.

Anyhow: I did take some crummy iPod Touch photos of some cards I made while I was on winter vacation at my parents' house, so you can enjoy those, I guess. The vague shadows at the bottom are me looming over the cards, because I didn't care enough about proper lighting and whatnot — I just wanted some quick snaps for my project scrapbook (yeah, right —  like I'm actually diligently keeping one of those ... )