Jennifer's 365 Project

Apparently when you try to download a lot of updates you can crash SpringBoard and it will reboot into Safe Mode on a jailbroken iPod touch.

First time that's every happened since jailbreaking it and a simple restart fixed it.

Complete with virtual joystick! Pac-Man, courtesy of the Amazon android app store and running on my Coby Kyros 7015 tablet.

A few months ago I read about the GR Tag Tour, which is essentially QR codes placed around downtown Grand Rapids where you can go, scan them with your smart phone, and read about the place online. It's essentially a self-guided tour of the downtown area.

At the time I thought it would be an interesting way to spend a lunch break sometime in the summer. So today I finally noticed one of the tags up at Rosa Park Circle. I'm not sure how long it's been there but perhaps one day soon I'll play around with them. While I'm pretty familiar with all the stops, it's a good excuse to walk around and get some exercise on a nice day.

By 9am it was already over 70 degrees out and incredibly muggy thanks to the storms yesterday. So we went out early and walked a few miles before it got much worse out.

Totally worth it.

Plus, that left the morning and afternoon to do bunches of reading! After tearing through several trade paperbacks yesterday today it was time to blow through The Caves of Steel by Asimov today.

Inspired by a tweet yesterday, I went out last night and purchased provisions to make strawberry shortcake today. It started out as a really good idea (fueled by a hunger for tasty strawberries). So I set to making the shortcake after we got back from our morning stroll.
Once the shortcake was in the oven I sliced up a bunch of strawberries (munching on them as I went, since I'd purchased far more than the recipe called for). The freakishly large ones you buy at the grocery store aren't as tasty as normal size wild strawberries, but they would have to do. Strawberries aren't yet in season, so picking some up at the farmers market was out.
Once the shortcake was done it was time to slice it in half and start piling strawberries on. That's where I encountered the first snag. I'm pretty sure the unlabeled cake pan I used was 9" instead of 8", which meant the shortbread wasn't really thick enough to slice in half. But as you can see...I tried.

Then I set to making the whipped cream in the mixer. Blargh. I had a tub of cool whip in the fridge I should have just used because I wasn't getting anywhere whipping the heavy cream. In the end it got a little stiff, but not as much as I think it should have and it ended up being runny on the strawberries.
So I ended up with some layers of shortcake and strawberry, but for the most part it was a mess. Chris called it right when he said it was less of a cake and more of a pile of ingredients. Still, it's tasty! And it isn't nearly as much of a disaster as my attempt at a Green Lantern fondant cake last year for Chris's birthday.

If it has to be pretty, I do not have the patience to do it. I'm no better at it now than I was as a child. I have no idea how my mom or grandmother ever even managed to decorate with frosting. God that stuff is a nightmare. Not sure why I try things even harder than that.

The grocery store by us is remodeling, so every time we pop in things are moved around in a slightly different order. They're getting close to being done but some of their refrigerated areas are still under construction. I guess that's why there was a massive sections of double-row watermelons on display.

BTW, I love watermelon. Seriously, this photo is so tasty to me.

Due to the holiday weekend Friday was a slightly shorter work day for both of us. After work I swung over to Chris's work, picked him up, and we hit up Alpine to check Toys R Us for some Green Lantern figures.

While we were out there we decided to swing over to Olive Garden and have dinner. They serve massive portions. Combined with free bread sticks and soup, meals from there can last days and days. I guess always make sure you like what you're ordering...cause you'll probably be left with a ton.

I don't get a lot of mail that isn't postage-paid junk mail, so I always take notice of the personal letters and cards I receive. It's always interesting to see the different types of stamps that find their way to you. Sometimes I lament that I don't see more, like I used to see as a child. Though I don't know that I miss having to lick the stamps back then...

I didn't really eat much outside of some cucumber for lunch and as the afternoon wore on I became hungrier and hungrier. After finally getting home the prospect of cooking dinner seemed like too much effort and Chris wasn't really hungry. That meant devouring a few bowls of cereal and reading some of my book!

In retrospect, may have ate too much. ugh.

What better way to spend lunch than in sunshine and surrounded by green grass?

Thanks to the upcoming holiday and wedding, Chris and I have several weeks in a row of four-day work weeks. Determined to enjoy the extra day and be productive, Chris and I set out to get some errands done. First up was picking up the marriage license. Who knew there were so many copies involved? After that we dropped of his friend Chris's tuxedo measurements (since Chris lives in China), did some grocery shopping, and headed home.

The time I spent playing pokemon on my DSi spilled over and I carted that little device with me, popping it open at stop lights to take a turn during battle (since I get motion sick if the car is moving). It's a great little device for times when you have to wait (in line, at the doctors office, etc).
The clouds overhead broke and the sun was shining in the afternoon, so we took a long stroll down Kent Trails enjoying a nice breeze and warm weather. There's been a chance of rain all day, but somehow we keep missing the little rain showers.

I originally adopted Dinah around May of 2004 to be a companion for another parakeet, Alice. Oddly enough, I had adopted Alice to be a companion to Anastasia, an unhappy parakeet that loathed humans. And while Alice was friendly enough, I was in college and working so I decided to get her a cage-mate. And along came Dinah.
We've had our ups and downs, Dinah and I. Not a strong flyer or a fan of me, she enjoyed life with a cage that was almost always open and a steady supply of pellets and toys. When I came home with Leki, life did change a little but she always had her own room away from Leki where she could relax and sing.
Things really started to change when I met Chris and moved in with him. Dinah was so much happier. She sang to him, demanded to be let out to spend time with him, and even groomed him. She adored him. She even got her own away cage, which she loved to hang out in out and about in the rest of the apartment (and safe from an excitable cat).