whitney and the washer

As of today, I am officially a handy person to have around the house. I was working on getting the apartment cleaned up and back in order. One of the things on my list was to do a few loads of laundry. I don't think I've written about it here on the blog, but we now have a washer and dryer. Thank you to Will and Christian. When they moved into their apartment (in the same complex as us) there was one left behind. Since they already have one, they asked us if we'd like them. HECK YES! Wow, I love them... both Will and Christian and the washer and dryer.
Anyway, Today I started a load of laundry, shut the door, and started tackling (folding) the largest basket of socks on the face of the earth. I hate socks. Still not the point of this story. When I went into the laundry room 30 minutes later, and the washer still hadn't filled up. What's going on? I didn't know what to do, so I emailed Blake and also called upon my good friend, Google for some help. I was seriously hoping that we wouldn't have to call a repair man, but feared that we would. It should also be noted that all of my clothes that actually fit me currently were wet and soaked in soap... not fun. Long (and not that exciting) story short, all I had to do was pull the drain hose out of the wall some to stop the siphoning and ta-da, it was fixed! I really felt like Mrs. Fix-it after I figured that one out.
On a side note, we had Carrie and Jay stay with us this weekend. We haven't seen them in a while, and it was great to catch up with my old roommate. We also played Raving Rabbids and looked thoroughly stupid doing it. Carrie, I miss you already! Come back!

proof...

Bo asked me to post these as proof that he went out in the boat. One of the Apple guys that went to Monterey Bay with us took these.

But do you really want to do the minimum?

Whitney found this facebook app (or was sent it by my sister and Christian Humble) that she then sent on to me. I say sent on to me, but she bombarded me with buttons (called Flair in homage of Chotchkie's in Office Space) until there was nothing I could do but respond. It is a kind of fun little facebook app, that lets you send and receive "flair" and then organize it on your profile to your liking and present it. It sounds kind of geekish, but it is kind of fun and adds individuality. For example, Whitney went for the generalist approach, while I aimed more for he minimalist look, focusing on what can only be seen as the most true statement on television.
I do want to point out, that while looking at this and adding them to your facebook account may not be too geeky, there is a level of geekdom that has rarely been seen this side of the internet Mississippi. There are actually people who make it their daily goal to make these buttons, and put their mark on your account. Think about that the next time you walk into a Best Buy. That "Where's Waldo" button could have been made by the kid that sells you that microwave that knows just a little too much about the rotation speed of the kenmore versus the sharp.

Blake's Flair:

Whitney's Flair:

finding out if dogs swim

the answer.... yes, but we didn't test that one today. We did, however take a little kayaking trip down to Monterey Bay with some apple people. We thought it might be fun to take Bo along instead of leaving him home all day alone, so we got him a little life jacket and along he came. It was fun! Blake and I took a 2 person kayak and Bo rode on my lap. He really did great except for the few minutes after he realized how far we were from shore, but he calmed down soon enough. The water was freezing. Both Blake and I were wearing wet-suits and a paddling jacket as you can see in the pictures, so we stayed warm except for walking out into the water to get into the boat and getting out of the boat to come back on shore.
We don't have any way to keep any of our cameras dry, so we just took these few photos on the beach after the trip, but a few of Blake's friends had waterproof cameras, so maybe they will share some of the photos taken while we were paddling and of the wildlife that we saw. There were otters, seals, pelicans, and all sorts of birds that dove under the water. They would swim right up close to the boat just to check the people out. Cool!
Anyway, enjoy a few pictures...These were a few of blake's friends before they came back to shore.

To Steve and Becky

To Steve and Becky, I saw this tonight and it made me think of you guys... and mmmmmmmm it was good too! Miss you guys!

What to do when you can't serve your mom (on Mother's Day)

Today Whitney and I went to help out at a long term care facility in the Village with our Community Group. We took cabs up to the Baily House right after church with our group and got to work. Well, Whitney got to work and I went to find some Tylenol Sinus as to today was the day my allergies decided that it is Spring in the city, which is to say that they gave me as much trouble as a crazy business woman on a crowded subway carrying a live chicken from Canal Street to 86th and Lexington on a train that is destined to fail, and me with a dead iPod.

When I got back, jobs were being done and food was being made. As I am not much of a cooker, more of a watcher and smart answer giver, I helped with the cutting of vegetables. I should point out that the last time I was asked to do extensive cutting in a group setting was in Boy Scouts, for Pine Wood Derby's, and mine ended up pretty much like the block of wood it started out as, and my fingers all ended up in Band-aid brand adhesive bandages. I did successfully chop zucchini, jalapenos, and green onions for a salad that needed no cooking, with minimal poking of the fingers and surprisingly no blood.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen... Whitney and Kenny (one of the Pastors of our church) were building a cake for dessert. Whitney has never necessarily prided herself as an expert chef, but has always said she was better than me. Now, everyone knows that there are some ingredients you cannot leave out of a cake. Eggs, milk, flour and sugar. Those are the building blocks, even I know that one. Well, Whitney and Kenny add a bunch of ingredients in a bowl and mixed them in an industrial mixer, buttered and filled 2 cake pans and heated the oven. Kenny looked back at the counter at this point, and then looked and saw... an entire bag of unopened sugar. They had forgotten to add it! They poured the entire concoction into the big bowl again and hand kneaded the sugar into the dough. Then re-buttered and re-poured and then put the 2 cake pans into the oven. That was almost a disaster.

When the food was ready, we got it all together and served about 30 to 35 people our 6 days after Cinco de Mayo, Mexican Mother's Day Tex-Mex meal. It was good, and the people there really seemed to enjoy it, some of them even took seconds. I say took seconds, because they didn't eat them, they wrapped them up and took them back to their rooms. The day went really well, and it was something we enjoyed doing. Thanks to Becky for finding all the foods for us to make, and then direct us in the way of the preparation. You did great!

Notice the "nice" hair net. Stylish...

The beautiful finished cakes.

What a cutie!

This weekend, we had the pleasure of getting to see Will, Christian, and Baby William. We had a ton of fun! In the half-hour before they left we decided to snap a few photos of William, so I thought I would share the results... If you want to see more, check out this link... www.sawyerphotostudio.com/williamhumble

Fun Times

Blake and I went out and had some fun tonight!  We went down and saw our friend, Tom LoSchiavo, play at Arlene's Grocery.  It was great!  Here are a few photos from the concert, or go to http://www.live.sawyerphotostudio.com/tom to see more that I took!