Thursday, April 30, 2009

141/365




I got my hair cut today by my good friend Colleen. It's about time! It's been at least six months since I cut it last, into a really cute bob. But I'm not the type of girl who has the patience to blow dry my hair straight for a half hour before I leave the house every day. So it's back to choppy layers for me! I missed my wavy hair. Let's see if I can get it to look this good tomorrow...

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

139/365



I've had this Christmas Cactus for over five years now, and it has never bloomed before this past Christmas. All of the sudden, there were a handful of buds on it at the beginning of December. I was amazed! And the strangest thing is that it is still blooming at the end of April! I guess it likes it here in the kitchen window, even if the birds do chew on it all the time. I decided to repot it today, and I'm glad I did. It was so rootbound! It should bloom even more now that it has room to stretch its legs.

Monday, April 27, 2009

138/365



Today I finally attempted to make Rob's mother's famous meatloaf Florentine with mushroom cream sauce, and here it is. This is one of two recipes that she wrote down for us and I had never made it before. It turned out pretty good! I baked it in a muffin tin so it would cook faster, and make cute little bite sized portions. I hope I lived up to her cooking, I know Rob liked it. : )

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Saturday, April 25, 2009

136/365



My mom surprised me today by coming up with a car-full of plants! I thought she was going to come up and look at my yard to see what I should do about all the dead shrubs and stuff in the gardens. But she was one step ahead of me! Her and I spent the day digging up the old, dead shrubs and planting new ones. Some were from her yard, like the yellow-green one behind her in the photo, and some were new. It was hard work, but we got one side of the front garden done today. Thanks Mom!

Friday, April 24, 2009

135/365



I am awesome.

Yes folks, it's true. I have officially beat Super Mario Bros. 3! I don't care if I've been playing this game for the past 19 years (on and off of course, I don't suck that bad!), I'm super excited that I beat it. Finally!!! Hahaha take that Bowser, you bastard!

BTW, Princess Peach really needs to take some self-defense courses, I'm sick of saving her ass.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

134/364



Since we're gearing up for my first race of the season next weekend, we've been trying to finish the CRX by this Sunday so I can get in one last practice session at the track. While Rob was fixing my control arms the other day, he noticed that one of the important bolts in there was too short. I'm glad he caught that because it would be very bad if it snapped while driving at 100+ mph! Today he replaced it with the correct bolt, so I should be good to go. Thanks for looking out for me honey!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

133/365



Happy Earth Day!!!

I figured that I should take a picture of something eco-friendly today (I HATE the term "green" with a passion, it's sooooo overused!) and so here is one of the bags of paper recycling for the week. We get so much junk mail and newspapers, plus boxes from food
and stuff, that it's no problem to fill up at least two big paper bags each week. Strawberry 100-calorie cupcakes rock, by the way! We try to recycle as much as possible and to reuse some things again before throwing them away. Just doing our part...yay Earth!!! : )

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Monday, April 20, 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

130/365



What a wonderful day! We all took the T into Boston today. Our first stop was to the Aquarium to see the seals out front. Then, we walked over to Fanuil Hall and walked through Quincy Market. We all got an ice cream, then walked around the many carts and stalls. We ended up going into the Build-A-Bear Workshop and made stuffed animals. Brandon made a koala bear with a Navy uniform. Meghan made a pink monkey with a Boston cheerleading costume. And I made a Hello Kitty! :) It's so cute, thanks Mom! We had a great day, but it was time to go home. Back on the T, and then to Mom's house. We ended up meeting Rob and going to Misono for some Japanese food at 8:30. Then Rob went home, and I stayed at Mom's until almost midnight. I hated to say goodbye, but I was tired! The Cotes will leave tomorrow to make the four hour trip back to Vermont, and we'll have to wait a few more months before we see them again. Love you all!!!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

129/365



Mmmmmm...homemade chocolate cake, and a visit from the Cotes. Sounds like a great Saturday night to me! They drove down from Vermont today for a weekend visit and are staying at Mom's house. Mom made this cake and her yummy mac 'n cheese for dinner, and we stayed up late talking and enjoying the Cote's company. We don't get to see them very often, only a few times a year now. I miss them very much and LOVE the time we get to spend together. This is Meghan, age 7, and Brandon, age 11.

Friday, April 17, 2009

128/365



Another Friday, another night of racing for me. We went up to New England Dragway and met up with Rob, the owner of our race team, and Brendan, another team member for some practice runs. Rob managed a quick 11.7 seconds in his turbo RSX, while I got fairly consistant 13.4s. Our friend Chris fixed the stock pully for my CRX and that helped with the voltage problems I was having last week. With Brendan's encouragement, I signed up for King of the Hill, which is basically a bracket race. Except I was running against points cars, guys who have a lot more experience racing than I do! Plus their cars, mostly muscle cars, were about three to five seconds faster than me. Whatever, that's the beauty of bracket racing. I was paired up with a guy in a new Corvette with a 12.6 second time. My time was 13.5 seconds. I ended up crossing the finish line with a 13.501 second run, but still lost! Unfortunately, I was nervous about getting a red light, so my reaction time wasn't very good, a .128, which was my worst of the night for me. He got a .003 light, which ment he had me from the starting line. Oh well, I was just thrilled that I ran so close to my number!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

125/365



I passed this windmill during my drive to Newburyport today. I was delivering some car parts to a garage in the area and saw this big windmill. I know it doesn't seem large in this picture, but trust me, it is HUGE! There are a few of these in MA now, and I hope to see more in the future. I'm glad that the power companies are finally starting to warm up to alternative, and eco-friendly, power sources.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sunday, April 12, 2009

123/365


Happy Easter!

We went to Rob's dad's house for Easter this year. I think my mom was a little sad that we didn't come to her house, but I wanted to experience the infamous Easter egg hunt that I've heard so much about! It was fun, with good food and good family, but the egg hunt was a bit of a let down. No shenanagans happened this year, but the kids did have a great time hunting down the eggs. It was very cold though, only about 40 degrees with a biting wind. We didn't stay out very long!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

122/365


I went down to Westford, MA today to a stamping store called Ink About It. There, I took a free stamping class and made some really pretty projects. I learned how to use chalks to color in stamped images (baby), how to use multicolored inks on a single stamp (tag), and also how to emboss using a heat gun and use a water-filled paintbrush and an inkpad to color in the image (bird). It was a fun class and I have a new appreciation for the stamps I own. I hope to use some of these techniques on cards and scrapbook pages soon!

Friday, April 10, 2009

121/365



Rob and I went to the track again tonight. I need to get in some more practice before my first race during the first weekend of May in New Jersey. The car was running ok tonight, but not great. The voltage is on the low side, so that slows the car down about a half second. We'll have to fix that voltage problem before May.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

120/365



While running errands down in MA today, I passed by my old house in Peabody. I haven't lived there since I was 22 years old. It looks a lot smaller than I remember, and kind of sad. My mother's flowers are all gone and the lawn is brown and patchy. The garden and lawn were her pride and joy, and it was one of the prettiest on the block. It was nice to drive by the old neighborhood though, remembering all of the good things that happened during the almost ten years we lived there.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Monday, April 6, 2009

117/365



Oh no, Molly!

She got scared by something today and fell into the recycling bag next to the computer desk. Poor thing! Then she couldn't get out. She looked so sad that I had to take a picture. "Mom! Pick me up!"

Sunday, April 5, 2009

116/365



YAY!!! I went to the track today! It is the first weekend that it's been open for the '09 season, and it felt sooooo good to go fast! It's been six months since I've driven my CRX down the drag strip, and I had a lot of fun. I took the tarp/car cover off her (yes, it's a "her") on Thursday, and after a quick jumpstart, she started right up! With just a few adjustments and an overnight battery charge, she was ready to roll. I got about ten runs in today, which is fantastic! The only problem we had is that we forgot to bring a connector for the laptop, so we couldn't datalog during my runs. But other than that, and the gale-force winds whipping across the pits, the day went very well. I got my fastest time yet, a 13.26 at 105.8 mph. I also had very consistant runs, getting between .04 to .08 reaction times all day. My times were between 13.2 to 13.7, pretty good for the first day back. She felt strong and quick. I'm hoping that this great day will be a good omen for the rest of the season. I'm looking for some wins this year, no more second place for me!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

115/365



I had to take this picture today. I was driving in my work truck (I deliver parts for Autopart International part-time) and passed this little CRX on a trailer. There's nothing like towing home a new project car!

Friday, April 3, 2009

114/365



Ahhhhhhh...a nice, clean kitchen table. Maybe we will actually be able to eat on it like normal people!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

113/365



Yummy treats! Ty is enjoying a mangled grape and some pineapple juice today.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

112/365

April Fools!