Belated Birthday Post

My 26th birthday was quite a doozy!
My husbear, who is sweet, but never good with the whole gift giving thing, bought me a top of the line mac book pro!  My old laptop has been dying slowly for the past year, and I've taken to playing games of minesweeper in between the loading of pages.  This thing is fast.  Very fast.  And it's my first mac product ever.
On sunday, We went to Quarry Park with two of our friends and our puppy, hiked to the nature preserve, and went off the beaten trail to hike around the woods for a few hours.  That was awesome.  I took pictures until Teddy got snow all over the camera, at which point I put it away so it would hopefully dry in peace.
On the way home we picked up some firewood from some really nice folks that live near us, and after some nourishment, Andy assembled the fire pit we got for Christmas.  It was bigger than we thought it would be, and after setting it up on the shoveled out patio, had a nice large fire :D  My dad even came over, and we roasted hotdogs and made s'mores.  It was awesome.
Tuesday, for my actual birthday, we did the traditional Mexican Village (steak fajitas, heck yes!) family meal, only without my mom or youngest brother, because they were, and still are, down at my Grandma's place helping her clean up the neighborhood after a tornado ripped through.  Her house wasn't hit directly, but there was damage, and her RV was totaled.  At least she was okay.  She wasn't even at home at the time.
I'll add pictures later, when I have time to upload and organize them.  I'm feeling lazy right now :P

Meds, take two

Yeah, the internet sucks royally.  I wrote out everything all eloquently, but then it got deleted because of an outage.  So yeah, you now get the crazier, me trying to remember what I wrote, and typed up hastier version.
The meds that I wrote about last time worked for a while, but then I realized I was gaining an amazing amount of weight.  It was causing even worse, constant paralyzing panic attacks, and I didn't want anyone to see me, ever.  I was also changing my diet for the better and starting to work out in my home, so I should have at least been staying even for weight.  But no.  So the doctor gave me a new prescription, and everything would have been fine, except that it's expensive, so I freaked out over the price, and didn't get it for too long, and went without any meds for a while... It got really bad.  I finally just said that we had to, and gave up seeing the chiropractor to get them.
They seem to be working pretty good.  I've been feeling better, and am getting through the holidays with happy feelings.  It's nice.  I even got a camera for christmas (early) so I'll write about more cheerful things like presents and post pics soon.
I want to do stuff with people, but probably won't make the first contact for fear of, well, people.  Friends, and people who want to get to know me better, I'm not always this crazy, and I'm getting better, so I apologize for the crazy/ lack of communication.  But just initiate something, and I'll do it.
Your friend, even through the silence,
Jenny

Fiber, Games, Family

First, an apology for being so negative and grumpy in the last post.  I just can't seem to figure out computer-y things like most people.  Sorry :(
The last month and a half have been pretty eventful for me.  My family's yearly vacation actually got split up into two parts, and I was lucky enough that I was able to go for all of it.  My grandparents have a small lake home on Lake Carlos that they so generously share with the family every year.  Many, many thanks to them (not that they would ever touch a computer, which I respect) for making my summer, every year.  And the fall.  Nothing beats watching my family members do their own polar bear plunge.  Anyway, our vacation always lines up with the Tour de Fleece.  This year only part of it lined up with it, so I brought my spinning wheel along for the ride.  It was awesome, and I got a lot done, considering all the other things we did.  I ended up spinning about 12 oz. and getting about 8 oz. plied up before the end.

I am happy with what I got done.

I just got back laaaaate wednesday night (technically thursday) from the second leg of the family vacation.  It was almost two weeks, and it was the BEST.  Lots of sun and water for swimming and tubing, lots of games with the family, especially shanghai (possibly my favorite card game), lots of movies for the nighttime (which gave me lots of time to spin!) and even a bit of wine from Carlos Creek Winery.  I actually have some color on my skin, and a smile on my face. 
I have to de-jungle-ize my garden, and clean the house majorly because the puppies stayed at our house and my husband had to come home a couple times for work, but it's worth it.  And he appreciates my cooking and cleaning even more :)

peanutbuster's photostream

peanutbuster's photostream on Flickr.

Art, food, camera

Hmm.  It's been a while.  Well, I told you (kinda) how hard it is for me to write.  Lack of bravery and all that.
At school, I got to take part in running the giant gas kiln for the first time.  The thing is, the gas kiln had been rebuilt, changing how it runs, so we were kind of flying blind.  We had a sheet of temperatures and such to follow, but no real guide.  ...To get to the right temps, we had to run the kiln longer than it was supposed to.  Much longer.  We found out later that we were using too much gas, causing the flames to loop, and stuff like that.  Some stuff sagged from the cooking, some cracked, some glazes dripped, and a lot of the colors didn't turn out like they were supposed to.  Oh well, chalk it up to a learning experience, and the teacher needing guinea pigs. Meh.  I still got some cool stuff out of it.
I do not own a camera.  So, every time I need one, I have to beg to borrow one from my family.  My brother owns a camera that he got for his birthday that he used once to take about three photos at a concert.  I actually used his camera, and in using it, got a mark on it.  He got mad, and won't let me use it anymore.  My mom has a really nice camera, but only lets me borrow it for tiny amounts of time, about once a year.  I understand, it's her baby.  I take what photos I can, when I can.  I want to get my own, but that costs money, and the money that I could have used on a camera got spent on something I consider to be much, MUCH more worth it: a spinning wheel.
My spinning wheel is amazing. She's big and powerful, but can still spin delicate soooooper tiny lace.  I like to spin on her whenever I can.  The only downside is that the lace I'm spinning could be likened to thread, and is taking forever.  I want more bobbins.  I have been spinning some stuff on the other bobbins that I already have.  I'd like to think they are pretty good.  If you want to find me on Ravelry, here I am: peanutbuster
Since the very beginning of January, I have started a babysitting job.  I watch a little six month old baby named Jeremy.  He's adorable.  The bee's knees.  Spiffarific.  And helps me with my baby urges.
I've also been taking advantage of my free time to cook like crazy.  I make bread nearly every day, and come up with lots of meal-type things.  My current favorite veggie is a leek.  So nummy.
So I've been being domestic, and working on some traditional women's art.  A nice start to the year.