Electricity is slowly returning to the region. My workplace got power back around 7:30PM last night. Sadly, that meant I had to drive into the office today. I was hoping to make it an entire week without having to drive in! And there is another, smaller, snowstorm on its way. Winter is fun. My daughter has her first regional competition for her middle school's TSA (Technology Student Association) club. She has two categories she is competing in. Her group category is Water Infrastructure and her second category is a Problem Solving team event with one other person. Meanwhile, both my husband and I will be judges for some of the high school categories. He is judging Video Game Development and I have Career Preparation. Since this is our first year, I'm not quite sure what to expect. I just hope the weather holds out long enough to get home safely after it is over.
Good Mythical Morning
Yes, the weather here still sucks. An ice storm rolled Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, which made everything much more awesome. A lot of places, including my workplace, has no power. Luckily, our house has not lost power. But it means that I haven't really left my house all week. The only time I left my house was when I had to take my daughter to dance class Tuesday night. (Before the ice came, of course.) It's a little good and a little bad.
On one hand, I haven't had to put up with my normal morning hour-long commute. But it's also pretty frustrating that I can't actually get any work done. I like working from home but this may be a little too much. Since my work phone is forwarded to my home phone, I'm still tied to my desk so there isn't much I can accomplish at home either. It's like the worst of both worlds.
At least I still have YouTube to keep me company. Here is Good Mythical Morning, one of my favorite YouTube shows.
What A Snow
I am not a big fan of winter. If I had a nemesis, it would be Cold. The worst part of winter, besides the cold itself, is the freaking snow. Today is the first of three storms we are supposed to be getting this week. The snow started at about 4AM and, as of 1PM, it is still falling pretty hard. We're up to approximately 7 inches of the stuff so far. And the new reports are saying there is still another 2 - 4 hours to go. Another storm is supposed to come sometime tomorrow, which will be dropping ice on us. As a result, our satellite dish has been out of commission all day. Luckily, we have a ChromeCast that allows us to stream YouTube videos (and other videos that can run in Chrome) to our television. We may have to change over to Netflix soon. I think I'm actually running out of YouTube videos to watch. Any recommendations?
A Few Things About Me...
Welcome to the new Geek Within. To start this off right, I will tell you a bit about myself: Right now, I am 37 years old, which makes me feel absolutely ancient. I have been married to my wonderful husband for 12 years and together we have an 11 year old daughter. The three of us adore animals. We have three dogs, one cat, two chinchillas, a bird, and quite a few fish - both saltwater and freshwater. It can get quite crazy at times!
I love crafting. My newest obsession is jewelry made out of toys. I enjoy science fiction and fantasy stuff. Some of my favorite shows are Haven, The Originals (I'm kinda falling out of love with The Vampire Diaries but I really loved the books), Supernatural, both Elementary and Sherlock, and Psych. I watch way too many shows on YouTube. And I am way too busy for someone so lazy.
That is me in a nutshell. Want to know more? Feel free to ask!
Hello Again
It's been a very long time since I've really blogged here. So I'm going to start over. Sorta. Some things have changed around here. I decided to stop doing paid blog posts. Not only were the assignments very repetitive, they were also very boring. I'm glad I got the opportunity to do it and I was able to make some decent pocket change to allow me to do some other things in my personal life but now it is time to move on.
I've also printed out some prompts to get the writing juices going again. Since tomorrow is the start of a new month, tomorrow will also be the official start of the new Geek Within.
Let me know if there is anything you'd like me to bring back. TV reviews, Favorite Friday, whatever. Tell me what you want to read in the comments and I'll do my best.
Excited!
I don't normally get excited about going to amusement parks. My daughter doesn't really like regular rides so it seems like a waste of money most of the time. This time.... Over on Facebook, I am a member of a bunch of yard sale groups. Most of the time people are offering junk. Yesterday, a local woman was offering some tickets to Hershey Park for only $20 each. It turns out that they are Return Visit Vouchers - tickets you get when your visit to the park is rained out. She couldn't use them so I bought them!
Even if my daughter hates most of the rides, it's not a bad deal considering these three tickets cost almost the same as one regular price ticket. I can't wait!
Summer is for laziness
I must be the busiest lazy person ever. Even though I don't ever feel like doing anything, I find myself doing all sorts of things. My family participated in the annual Road Rally in Pottstown. (That is like a scavenger hunt in your car. So fun!) I've also been making a ton of necklaces. I have some chalkboards waiting to be painted but the weather hasn't been cooperating. And I keep traveling back to my hometown to help my father with some personal things. It feels like I don't ever have time to just kick back and relax. School starts in a little over a month! Everything is crazy! I hope you are having an awesomely busy summer as well.
Just a staycation for me
Every summer I wish we could afford to go away for vacation. Two summers ago, we did go to Williamsburg, Virginia. Last year, we stayed at home and hit up some local amusement parks. That is, once again, the plan for this year. While all of us really go enjoy going to Camelbeach, it would be nice to get away from home for a few days. It doesn't have to be a particularly difficult to plan trip either. There are some awesome waterparks in the United States that I'm sure my daughter would love. (My daughter prefers waterparks to amusement parks. For some reason, she just doesn't enjoy most rides.) Typhoon Lagoon in Florida is one of the parks on our water bucket list. There's also a park in Santa Claus, Indiana that I would like to visit. (After all, how can you miss a city called Santa Claus?!) My daughter would be perfectly happy just hanging out at waterparks all summer.
I'd also like to visit some other countries. I hear that London is an inexpensive trip. I'm sure we could find some good hotels in London that wouldn't break the bank. And since my daughter has recently gotten into watching BBC shows like Doctor Who and Sherlock, she might love seeing some of the locales from the series. Unfortunately, the flight itself might be a little too costly for us. (It's too expensive for us to fly to Florida for a week. I can't imagine what London would cost.)
Maybe one day we'll be able to afford a really nice vacation to someplace different. Until then, we'll be visiting all of the waterparks in Pennsylvania that we can.
It's been awhile
I have had so much going on over the past few weeks. My father was admitted to the hospital, my daughter had her annual dance recital, then I had surgery for a mass on the side of my neck. Everything is going pretty well, even though my father is still in the hospital. Oh, I have also opened an etsy store for the necklaces I have been making. You can find it here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ACraftySituation. I still have quite a few necklaces to make and I'm thinking about learning how to make chainmail jewelry as well. But first I have to finish recovering from my surgery. I am feeling well enough to be on my computer but not really well enough to do much. Since I dislike my house so much, I've been looking at duck homes in North Carolina. I did enjoy living in North Carolina when I was there many, many years ago. Perhaps, once my daughter is finished with school, we can think about moving down there. It might be nice.
I'm crafty!
I started making custom chalkboards recently. My daughter has a large pink one, I made an orange and white Clemson one for her teacher, and my husband's co-worker's daughter will be receiving a medium-sized pink one soon. (We just have to give it to her.) I never thought I'd have so much fun making them. Once I get a few more paint colors in, I'll be selling my chalkboards on etsy. I'm also going to start making some necklaces. I found a tutorial to make your own pendants so I will be making a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic necklace for my daughter once all of my supplies arrive. I can't wait!
The only down side of all this crafting is that I don't actually have space to work. Most of my work is done at my computer desk. The painting is done outside on my deck. I really need a crafting room so I have a lot of space to move around. Maybe one day.