There's a hole in this cake!

Have you ever made Angel food cake before?

Sure! At least I think so... how hard could it be? I know you need a special pan,  and I'm pretty sure Betty Crocker knows how to do the rest of it ;)

But this cake has a hole in it!

That's okay,  I fixed it!

The progression of delicious awesomeness... One

Two...

Yum!

My little window ledge garden

Look! From the tiny little sprouts they started out as a month ago, they have grown up so nicely! The cool thing is, it really hasn't taken that much work... and now I have fresh basil at my fingertips!!

Such a great Easter gift :D

Under pressure thanks to network reset commands

For short periods of time I think I work better under pressure...

I just got my old laptop cleaned off, and connecting to the internet again *proud smile* it is chugging away installing the multitude of security patches and updates it missed while it was in timeout.

While I am not entirely sure what exactly fixed my problem *ticks off on fingers* multiple reboots, various malware scans in safe mode, cleaning of temp files, more reboots, eliciting the equivalent relief of a big dump by deleting and uninstalling various programs and files that I didn't need anymore... but I would like to give a shout out to this post I stumbled across which lists the commands for resetting the tcp/ip stack as well as winsock.

It's an older post, and you need to run the cmd window in administrator mode now, but I credit it with being nicely written and more importantly being the that which I most recently poked at and got my laptop connected.

On sleep patterns...

My friend said she didn't fall asleep until 4am this morning... I commented about her being on Tokyo time (remembering this C&H strip)

Her response made me giggle:

No, I’m on rebellious time!

When an alarm goes off I get tired... Maybe I should set my alarm to go off when I want to go to sleep!

~The Little Ninja

Blood, sweat and tears...

Check two out of three, and I'm pretty sure that constitutes quality bonding time with your bike.

You know what the first rule of flying is? Love. 

You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as a turnin' of the worlds.

Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens.

Makes her a home.

~Captain Malcom Reynolds - Firefly

Well, after this afternoon, I'd say I'm feeling about a hundred 'n fifty percent more love for this bike than I did this morning. Nothing but love in fact! Alright, I'm not gonna lie... I'm feeling something, and it stings a bit.

Leave it to me wipe out in the middle of the damn city. I'm not even entirely sure what happened... somewhere between uneven sidewalk, bad weight distribution and alternating bright sun and dark shadows I confirmed that my body hasn't forgotten how to tuck and roll. Must be kind of like... riding a bike.

There's nothing like a little road rash to remind you that you aren't invincible, and nothing like a good backpack to take a little of the hurt off. Thanks MEC for making good gear, and thanks Dad for always making sure I had good gear :)

I guess since I haven't actually posted this yet... it isn't an update so much as a continuation. 

I was trying to figure out when I became such a wuss, I mean my hip was hurting like I'd shredded it up, but there wasn't even a scratch there... Then the bruise came in, I know why I'm stiff, and I don't feel so bad now that there's something to show for it ;)

Idle thoughts on the road

I thought it would be a bit of a demotion using a single speed bike after always have SO MANY GEARS TO CHOOSE FROM!!

Actually it's not so bad, in fact now that I have the right size cog on it's pretty awesome!

For the most part it's a pretty casual ride, it's pretty much flat between my place and work so there's no real reason that I *need* to be able to change gears, and if I want to go faster, I just do what I've always done regardless of my gearing options... stand up and pedal my little legs off!!!!

Boys will be boys will be boys...

Boys in the back of the classroom slapping each other with rulers. I walk up to them: "Is it my turn to smack with you with those rulers? *raised eyebrow*

Boys: Sure!

Big girl bike

I bought this bike from a co-worker of mine who got it because he figured no-one would want to steal it... (except me apparently) I can't even explain how so super excited I was to find out it was my *favorite* colour blue!

So, I rode to work the other day... all the way, all by myself! 

It took me 45 mins to get there... which isn't bad considering it's a single speed. The ride home though, felt like I was going WAY faster, and indeed I made it back in a mere 41 mins ;)

The best part of being down in the US though is that I biked 14.44 miles... not bad, but when you say it in Canadian... I biked 23.23 kilometers!! Doesn't it just sound way better that way!?!?!

-_-

I over-glucosinated my caffeinated beverage this morning... I'm pretty sure nothing good can come of this.

Breaking news

If there was every any doubt as to whether or not I have everything under control, this should confirm things once and for all...

I am the disruption.

Sitting in the corner cubical with the atomic hiccups, that can probably be heard by everyone on the floor, and felt by everyone in the building.

Don't worry though, I have successfully mitigated the situation by holding my breath and drinking a large volume of water.

Why this works, I have no idea... but there are some things you just shouldn't question.

Just let them work.

Judging your character by your actions... and the instrument you play

*sorting papers*

...and of course I'm missing the baritone saxophone piece...

me: Why, is that the one you need?

*disparaging sigh* No, that's just the one that's ALWAYS missing, because bari-saxophone players are bad kids, bad children, just BAD!

*pause*

...terrible, terrible children! They use their music, they never turn it back in, and because of them parts are always incomplete!

*mutters* bad bad children...

*more muttering* Alto saxophone players too, sometimes they don't turn in their music as well... and those percussionists.

*shuffles papers*

And that my friends, is why you should always turn your music back in when you're done with it... Lest you risk the wrath of a music teacher, taking your name in vain, along with everyone else who plays the same instrument ;)

The power of imagination

I'm afraid I don't have a picture for you, so we're going to have to do this the old fashioned way.  You're going to have to use your imagination.

Picture this... one of those old dark blue milk crates, securely fastened to the front of the handlebars on my "new" BMX bike, which is juuuuuust about the right size for a chihuahua.

Are you with me so far? No? Hmmmm...

Think back, waaaay back, remember E.T.? Yeah that's right *head nod* you got it, that's how awesome it looks in my head too *grins*

Anyways we went for a little bike ride today, and despite ending up on the wrong side of the road for like 30 seconds, during which we were passed by the Sheriffs police cruiser?!? *gulp* we managed not to get pulled over...

We did however garner many well deserved double-takes and other such looks... ranging from "Awwww" through "OMG there's a DOG in that basket!!!" and "WTF?!?" to the *huge reminiscent smiles* of "That. is. awesome." which totally made it all worth it.

I think today we did Kermit proud, and made people smile.

To tell if dinner is too hot for your mouth...

Test it with one of these!

Yep, it's still too hot.

--

The story of my life http://scubajunk.blogspot.com

Samantha Vincent about.me/samantha.vincent

Not to alarm anyone...

But my chai latte has a hint of hot-dog flavor... It is mildly disconcerting, however it did not prevent me from finishing said latte.

I think it's going to be a weird day...

Greening my thumbs and blackening my nails...

No, I didn't miss with the hammer... I'm attempting to grow things in my apartment window!

I got basil seeds for Easter, and they all sprouted :D and I got this poor plumeria as a house warming gift that has been sitting in plastic wrap for faaaar too long... and I finally got soil and planted/repotted them today!

Pardon me sir, but do you have a bucket for my brains?

I made it to the bike store, mostly before it closed the other day...

I was casually chatting with the guy working in the store and offhandedly commented that it was great they were open till 7, when he said "No it's not. It's 7:20!" and proceeded to show me.

Boy did I feel silly, I'm really not sure where that time went... sheepishly I stopped thinking about it and just bought the damn helmet.

guy: "You riding that little BMX bike out there?"

me: "Yes, I think it's a little small for me, but I got a good deal on it at the swap meet!"

He gives me a semi-non believing inquisitive look...

me: "$35"

guy: "Damn girl! No wonder you ridin' BMX, I would be too!"

While paying for my purchase we continued to chit-chat and hearing a story about a girl who had recently been hit and cracked her skull without a helmet, which likely would have been a much less severe concussion with a helmet, re-affirmed the necessity of protecting my own bwains.

I am now the proud owner of helmet that costs almost as much as my bike... but that's not really important, because the contents it will be protecting are priceless.

Hmmm overshot the bike shop?

So I decided to venture out and attempt to obtain a brain bucket... and somewhere in the chaos of shoulder checking, and successfully navigating intersections without getting forcibly ejected into the future I realized that it felt like I'd gone a lot further than I thought I should have to...

Then I started thinking that looking at things on Google maps can be deceiving because when you aren't zoomed in all the way it still only shows the major streets... so maybe it's the *next* the major intersection...

A couple intersections later, I decided I'd like to call a friend.

me: "Hello?" *intersection noise*

friend: "Dude, where are you?"

me: "Out... Are you uh, anywhere near a computer?"

friend: "My phone is *like* a computer, why?"

me: "Would you go to Google maps and tell me if Magliocco is before or *after* Hamilton if you're going *up* Winchester?"

friend: "Are you lost?"

me: "No, I know how to get home... I'm just not sure where the bike shop is!"

I gave up and went home sans helmet, with a five mile bike ride to show for it.  Of course this would be yet another reminder, as to why I normally put the name of the next "you've gone too far" street on my directions...

Time of death: 10:29am Friday May 9th, 2014...

Four years ago a wonderful friend of mine Shazam gave me a set of pens (red, green, blue and black) and a little black book with skulls all over it to document my sailing adventures with my father.

The green pen died today.

That's not to say that I didn't use the green pen as much as the other pens... it just lasted a really really REALLY long time... and somehow despite my trip and multiple moves since returning I managed not to lose it.

It's just a pen, but it's been there through a lot with me.

I've drawn and doodled with it, twirled it around my fingers, and kept it tucked close at hand for notes... but most importantly I've written about moments that changed my life, things I saw that touched me in some way.

Things I want to remember.

Thank you green pen, I hope you are content knowing you served your purpose to the utmost and will always be remembered fondly when I flip back through my own pages of memories.

This little piggy...

Just discovered that these seats on the bus recline... so not doing anything all the way home ;)

--
The story of my life http://scubajunk.blogspot.com
http://about.me/samantha.vincent

May the fourth be with you...

In honor of Star Wars day I bought a new t-shirt, and I'm rocking "the Luke" haircut... or lack thereof.

In fact I like my new shirt so much I wore it for "Revenge of the fifth" as well!