Sewing Project – New Curtains!

I finally took the plunge and bought a sewing machine.  I hemmed and hawed about it a bit because I just wasn’t SURE I would use it.  I was gathering patters, and material for projects, but I was so afraid that I would buy it and then I would find out I don’t like to sew and would just let it sit and collect dust.  But I decided last Friday that three months of wanting qualified as  thinking it over enough and so I went to Target and got the little Singer Esteem II.

I have to admit that I had to call in a friend who sews to help me figure out how to get the bottom thread to come up and meet my needle, but once I got that figured out, I was ready to sew, but where to start?  I decided that the material I had begged my mother to cut up for me while she was here 3 months ago was as good a place as any to start, and here they are!

Not perfect, I know, but really not too terrible either.   My original plan had been to just put a simple once inch seam all the way around and hang them clip hooks, but my DH didn’t think that looked very good and is pretty partial to these ones that stick up on top.  Lucky for him I was feeling up to the challenge and so while he was the engineer, I was the worker.  We make a pretty good team, right?!

I think my next project will be a simple full length apron, since I have looking at thos too for about a year now.  Or maybe it will be a new summer shirt for myself.  I offered to make something for DD, but she informed me that she will NOT be wearing any homemade items because they all look so “cheesy.”  I can’t wait to use one of my new patterns and some fun fabric to prove her wrong.  Or maybe I will prove her right and love my unique design anyway.  Either way, I can’t do worse than the crap they are peddling in the stores now days.  One wash and most of that stuff is useless.  I am quite anxious to try my hand at making something more unique and lasting.  I did alright with my curtains, maybe I will fashion something out of curtains next.  Watch out Julie Andrews!

Time Off – Playing on the Wii

Our Band - Looks Just Like Us!

I took some time off from blogging the past couple of weeks due to a big project at work, and find that I miss it dearly, so I am back.

I have been either working or spending time with my kids playing the Wii over the past couple of weeks, and I have to tell you that I LOVE Rock Band 2!  It is the perfect game for those of us who remember the 80’s and also for the kids.  They love the loud music and we adults enjoy going back down memory lane. . .to a time that seemed easier and less crazy somehow.  Not to mention the fact that both DH and I are rock stars anyway, if only in our own minds.  I am amazed at how good the kids are already at the game.  It really has been fun bonding with the kids and geeking out a bit.

If you have been putting off getting a Wii, don’t!  It is wonderful for kids and adults.  I can’t wait to get my parents to my house for a game of bowling!

Read-A-Thon Update – I am a slow reader

I must be a slow reader.  I have been reading the same book since I started and am still not finished.  I am still reading The Loop by Nicholas Evans and I am somewhere in chapter 25.  I have had interupptions (including that 10 minutes it took me to run a bath, what a joy this read-a-thon has been so far) so maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on myself.  I wonder if I could read quicker if I kicked DS out of the room, as the TV does tend to distract just a bit. . .

Read-A-Thon Update – New Book

Well, I didn’t get hooked on the last book, so I quickly switched to the book I was in the middle of yesterday, The Loop by Nicholas Evans.  I do like this book, and while it seems very similar to his more popuar The Horse Whisperer, it is an easy read.  I also am injoying the setting of this one. . .the wide open West!

I am off to finish. . .have slowly read 4 chapters while entertaining parents. . .what a host!

Last Day for Free Book

Just a reminder that today is the last day for the free book giveaway.  All you need to do is comment on my original post to be entered in the drawing.

Finally Friday Fun – Road Trip

I am taking a road trip home today.  I am packing up DD and DS and we are headed to Michigan.  I have been anticipating our trip all week and can’t wait to stop by The Stray Dog tonight for dinner.  As I have mentioned before, DD and I have been there recently, but DS has not yet and he will love it.

Along the road home are some other sites and fun things, and since I am thinking about them all, I thought I would blog about them in case you ever happen upon the road from Chicago to Michigan.

There are a few fun little wineries springing up along the Michigan West Coast that I think are fun to try.  Of the three I have tried; FennValley, Tabor Hill, and St. Julian, I like Tabor Hill the best.  It is no California, but for a nice little weekend trip I recommend you reserve a seat on one of the tours at either FennValley or Tabor Hill.

Another fun place to stop along the road from Chicago to Michigan is The Chocolate Garden.  As their website states, they have been featured a few times now on the Food Network, so you know it has to be good.  This time, since Mother’s Day is right around the corner and I need some gifts, I can justify a visit.

Kalamazoo is also along this road home, and it hosts a few attractions that are worth noticing.  First, there is Wings Statdium, home to the K Wings.  If you are more of a history buff than a sports fan, there is the Air Zoo that looks absolutely amazing.  Like the outdoors better?  How about a trip to the Binder Park Zoo?

All this between here and there, I just can’t wait to get on the road!

Ah yes, the weekend is coming, and I am preparing for it ahead of time. It has been a very long week both at work and at home, and I have been thinking all morning about some of the fun Christmas Cocktails I have seen and how I can’t wait to try them.

Before the mad cow kicks in (yes, I am a closet Boston Legal fan, and I know it is a terrible show but it is just so darned entertaining and impertinent that I LOVE it) I thought I better jot a couple of these down.

1. I first want to try a Candy Cane Martini. I found this yummy sounding recipe at my new favorite Christmas website; CandyCaneMartini.com. Combine the following: 3/4 oz Peppermint Schnapps, 3/4 oz Creme de Cacao, 1/4 oz Grenadine, 1/4 oz Half & Half, and a splash of 7-up.

2. How about a White Christmas? This recipe comes from the folks over at Fine Living: combine 4 oz of Eggnog, 1/2 oz of White Chocolate Liqueur, and 1 oz of Southern Comfort.

3. Next, I may have to try Emeril’s Candy Cane recipe. To make this, add the following ingredients to a large bowl filled with ice cubes: 3 candy canes, crushed , 1/2 bottle vodka, 1 1/2 cups cranberry vodka, 1/4 cup Grand Marnier, 2 cups macerated cherries, 2 quarts cranberry juice, and 2 tablespoons grenadine.

4. My Grandpa used to make Grasshopper parfaits for all the adults at Christmas when I was a kid, but I had to settle for the fudge parfait instead. This recipe for a Frozen Grasshopper will no doubt be good, and also bring back childhood memories. You blend the following ingredients: 3/4 oz green creme de menthe, 3/4 oz white creme de cacao, and 2 cups vanilla ice cream.

5. And just in case it is as cold by you as it is by me these days, I thought I should add at least one hot drink. How about a Hot Nuts: pour 1 oz of Amaretto almond liqueur and 1 oz of Frangelico hazelnut liqueur in a coffee mug, then fill with hot chocolate. Top with whipped cream and pour 1/8 oz of Cherry Brandy carefully over the whipped cream. Top with a cherry.

Career Counseling

In a former job, I had college students reporting to me, and I have stayed in touch with many of them, and it distresses me to see so many of them struggling with indecision now that they have their degrees.

 I can relate to this, as I too wonder what could have been if I had been forced to think about what I wanted to do with my life more in high school.

I want to encourage parents to help their kids think through this, so I will post some links below that may be helpful.  If you have or know someone who will be going to college, or is in college, and they don’t know what to do with their lives, please encourage them to really put some time and effort into this and make a plan. 

I love the Wall Street Journal’s site CareerJournal.  It has some really great articles, including some interviews with people about their jobs.

Another great site is MSN’s Collage Grad site. 

And another good idea for all high school aged students is to look through some current job postings to get a feel for what jobs and skills employers are looking for.  I got my last job through a posting on CareerBuilder, so I recommend that one here.

Google Tips, FSMO Roles, Vista command line, and Server Config Tips

Google Tip for Sys Admins
There was an article published 07/07/07 at the Internet Storm Center that gave a couple of “defensive googling” tips to search for compromised sites on your network.

site:myorg.org porn and
site:myorg.org cialis buy

FSMO Roles
It all started with a check of one of my favorite blogs, Daily Cup of Tech. I was checking it for the first time in a couple of weeks, as things have been busy here, and realized that the author is in the middle of a really good series. It seems he had some server trouble recently and has been kind enough to document some fo the lessons learned there. Lesson #3 is really about riding AD of a failed DC, and while beginning that reading, he mentioned FSMO roles, which believe it or not I have never heard of. So, not wanting to waste a perfectly good opportunity to learn more, I jumped to this very informative site on wikipedia. Flexible single master operation roles (there are 5, 3 Domain-wide roles and 2 Forest-wide roles) or Fiz-mo roles are basically specialized domain controller tasks.


VISTA Command Line
I wanted to flush my local dns cache today, and realized that I would need elevated status in VISTA in order to do this. As it was the first time I needed to do this via the command line, I had to do a quick search to come up with the correct command, so here it is for next time:

runas /u:Administrator “ipconfig /flushdns”
the command to display the cache, by the way, follows here: ipconfig /displaydns


Server Configuration Tips
I am still on the Daily Cup of Tech blog site reading about his server failures and have come across another tip that I very much appreciate and want to remember. He says:

“I generally build my domain controllers with five drives. Two in a mirrored configuration for the OS and three in a RAID 5 configuration for the data. The nice thing about this is that the OS and data are separated. I have experienced three systems now where the OS container on the RAID system corrupted and left all of the data completely in tact. Had I not configured these systems this way, I believe that I would have lost some or all of my data.”

AD Replication and Career Advice

AD Replication
I read a fantastic article in Windows IT Pro today and don’t want to forget where I read it and what I need to do. . so here goes. Sean Deuby wrote a really great article on troubleshooting ad replication, and what made it so great was that even a newbe admin like me understood most of what he had to say. Here are the steps I need to take to make sure AD is replicating here at our location:

1. Check the OS on the server (DC server that is)
2. Check the health of the directory service.
3. Check the communication between other DCs
4. Verify protocol of direcotry services and determine whether the DCs are authenticating correctly.

For all the details, check out “Troubleshoot AD Replication: Magic wand no required” in the June, 2007 edition of Windows IT Pro.

Career Advice Worth Noting

In that same edition of WITP, there was another really good article, this time one on getting ahead in the career game. Ben Smith breaks career advancement into 5 easy steps, some I am doing and others are goals. Really good take-aways for me are:

1. Find mentors and have them make suggestions on goals
2. Go after jobs to develop needed skill sets, like budgeting and management
3. Track and Qualify Achievements; Make list of accomplishments