MiniPlu Milestones and three words
Recent events:
MiniPlu turned 17 on Saturday. SEVENTEEN. After spending much of the week cleaning the house and doing other party prep, her party thankfully came off without a hitch, despite several friends being unable to attend last minute. We just put out a pile of snacks on our picnic table, a bunch of chairs and lit the fire pit as darkness approached, and let the girls just hang out and chatter all evening.
She got her driver's license today! Normally the appointment is made to coincide exactly with a kid's 17th birthday, but since her birthday was a Saturday, MiniPlu had to wait until Monday for this. Although she was initially disappointed, she later admitted it was probably just as well that she didn't have to spend over two hours on her birthday waiting in lines at the DMV. (Didn't have to wait at all for the road test - in fact, they took her immediately, even though we were 10 mins early. It was the rest of the process that took forever.)
I keep waiting for my life to get less hectic. It's summer now! Aren't I supposed to have loads more free time??
Finished reading the first Outlander book (at the DMV, in fact). I liked it a lot, and despite it being enormous, I felt the pages flew by pretty quickly. I've only seen the first half of S1 of the show, so halfway through the book everything was new to me. However, having gotten a brief synopses of some upcoming events, I'm not sure if I feel like pursuing subsequent books (once I finish the zillions of books I got for my birthday, anyway). Has anyone else read the series?
Trump's "go back to your own country" tweets are making me almost physically ill. Well, ill-er. I. just. can't.
And, finally, the three-word thing going around. thesmallhobbit kindly gave me the following three words:
lily of the valley: One of my favorite flowers, as they are the literal translation of my great-grandparents' last name. Every woman from that branch of the family has carried lily of the valley in their bridal bouquets. Because my wedding was in the fall, I couldn't have real ones, but I had the florist tuck some artificial ones in with the real flowers. I hot-glued some artificial lily of the valley into a pre-made floral wreath we have currently hanging on our front door - it has roses for my SIL, and now it also has lotv for me. :D I had transplanted some lotv from my in-laws' home to our front yard when we lived in PA, but there isn't a good place for me to plant any here in NJ. The plants like shade, and the only place with shade is in the back yard. However, the plant is also poisonous, so I can't plant it where the dog might get at it. No more fresh lotv for me. :(
mountains: Mountains are gorgeous! Growing up in CA, I lived in the shadow of a small ~1000m mountain and its foothills, and when I was in college/uni, I lived in the shadow of a ~3000m mountain. I've been on vacation/holiday at Lake Tahoe, in the midst of the Sierras (local peaks 2500-3300m), several times. The Austrian alps? Stunning. I'm not much of an outdoorsman (outdoorswoman?) so I'm not much one for hiking or backpacking through mountains, but I think they are absolutely gorgeous to be in.
astronomy: I consider myself an armchair astronomer - definitely not anywhere near as well-informed as a professional, but I do know a fair bit for a civilian anyway. I've always been fascinated by space; Saturn is my favorite local planet because of the stunning rings, but I've also been fascinated by the ideas of comets, big bangs, black holes, supernovas, how looking at faraway galaxies is looking back in time, the rest of our solar system, exoplanets, and so much more. I did actually think about being an astronomer when I was younger, but thought I'd have to be awake all night in order to do the job. I'm glad I abandoned the idea long before I found out how much calculus I would have had to take, but I love having a friend who IS an astrophysicist, because she can tell me cool stuff. :D
MiniPlu turned 17 on Saturday. SEVENTEEN. After spending much of the week cleaning the house and doing other party prep, her party thankfully came off without a hitch, despite several friends being unable to attend last minute. We just put out a pile of snacks on our picnic table, a bunch of chairs and lit the fire pit as darkness approached, and let the girls just hang out and chatter all evening.
She got her driver's license today! Normally the appointment is made to coincide exactly with a kid's 17th birthday, but since her birthday was a Saturday, MiniPlu had to wait until Monday for this. Although she was initially disappointed, she later admitted it was probably just as well that she didn't have to spend over two hours on her birthday waiting in lines at the DMV. (Didn't have to wait at all for the road test - in fact, they took her immediately, even though we were 10 mins early. It was the rest of the process that took forever.)
I keep waiting for my life to get less hectic. It's summer now! Aren't I supposed to have loads more free time??
Finished reading the first Outlander book (at the DMV, in fact). I liked it a lot, and despite it being enormous, I felt the pages flew by pretty quickly. I've only seen the first half of S1 of the show, so halfway through the book everything was new to me. However, having gotten a brief synopses of some upcoming events, I'm not sure if I feel like pursuing subsequent books (once I finish the zillions of books I got for my birthday, anyway). Has anyone else read the series?
Trump's "go back to your own country" tweets are making me almost physically ill. Well, ill-er. I. just. can't.
And, finally, the three-word thing going around. thesmallhobbit kindly gave me the following three words:
lily of the valley: One of my favorite flowers, as they are the literal translation of my great-grandparents' last name. Every woman from that branch of the family has carried lily of the valley in their bridal bouquets. Because my wedding was in the fall, I couldn't have real ones, but I had the florist tuck some artificial ones in with the real flowers. I hot-glued some artificial lily of the valley into a pre-made floral wreath we have currently hanging on our front door - it has roses for my SIL, and now it also has lotv for me. :D I had transplanted some lotv from my in-laws' home to our front yard when we lived in PA, but there isn't a good place for me to plant any here in NJ. The plants like shade, and the only place with shade is in the back yard. However, the plant is also poisonous, so I can't plant it where the dog might get at it. No more fresh lotv for me. :(
mountains: Mountains are gorgeous! Growing up in CA, I lived in the shadow of a small ~1000m mountain and its foothills, and when I was in college/uni, I lived in the shadow of a ~3000m mountain. I've been on vacation/holiday at Lake Tahoe, in the midst of the Sierras (local peaks 2500-3300m), several times. The Austrian alps? Stunning. I'm not much of an outdoorsman (outdoorswoman?) so I'm not much one for hiking or backpacking through mountains, but I think they are absolutely gorgeous to be in.
astronomy: I consider myself an armchair astronomer - definitely not anywhere near as well-informed as a professional, but I do know a fair bit for a civilian anyway. I've always been fascinated by space; Saturn is my favorite local planet because of the stunning rings, but I've also been fascinated by the ideas of comets, big bangs, black holes, supernovas, how looking at faraway galaxies is looking back in time, the rest of our solar system, exoplanets, and so much more. I did actually think about being an astronomer when I was younger, but thought I'd have to be awake all night in order to do the job. I'm glad I abandoned the idea long before I found out how much calculus I would have had to take, but I love having a friend who IS an astrophysicist, because she can tell me cool stuff. :D