Amanda Takes Off...

Spring on the Farm

Mom and George live on a ranch. They call it a farm. The bed in the guest bedroom faces an east window. It woke me up one morning, so I headed out with Gus, their dog, and took some photos. Nature's sepia toning, the morning sun was.

Good Man and I went for a nice walk today. It was refreshing and very necessary. I slept half the weekend away, trying to stave off illness.

Good Man

Pink

Red

Yellow

Brown and...

White

Blue

Grey

And a possibly not-safe-for-work one (if your workplace is very conservative) on the next page...

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What in the heck is this thing on my car? This photo was taken from inside the car and whatever it was appeared to be empty. The whole thing was probably a little larger than a quarter. It was fairly large. It was also a translucent white color.

What is This?

Over coffee one morning last week in the presence of Mom and George...

"How can I fix my computer?" I whined to Good Man. "And don't tell me to wipe out the hard drive or buy a new one." Good Man loves reinstalling Windows.

Good Man was silent for a moment. "If you had a t-shirt, and it was worn out, you would buy a new t-shirt, right?"

George laughed and said, "You know the tricks, you know the tricks."

So Good Man decided to build me a desktop since I am basically killing my computer with all of my RAW shooting. Apparently I'm getting a terabyte of hard drive. I can't even wrap my head over how big that is. Good Man spent hundreds of dollars more than he said he would and waited for the UPS truck all day yesterday.

"I Hear the Truck!"

"I See the Truck!"

"He's Here!"

"Eeeeeeeeee!"

"Excellent."

And in more bug news, I found this on the underside of a leaf on my cayenne plant today.

* To make this easier to read I will use * for new info.

6/1/2009: Mailed AOS/EAD/AP to Chicago Lockbox
6/3/2009: USPS reports rec'd
6/9/2009: Green registered mail with return receipt postcard rec'd
6/10/2009: I-485 check cashed (with no readable receipt number on the back of the check!)
6/11/2009: I-130 check cashed (with no readable receipt number on the back of the check!)
6/12/2009: NOAs rec'd for petition (130), green card (485), employment authorization (765), and advance parole (131); we now have his A-number; rec'd date 6/3, notice date 6/8
6/13/2009: Biometrics appt rec'd for 7/1
* 7/1/2009: Biometrics appt, in and out in 15 minutes
* 7/17/2009: USCIS website says that AP/EAD approval notice sent (haven't rec'd yet)

I know that our case is moving quickly (they tell you it's 60-90 days for EAD/AP approval, and we got (but didn't receive) both within 50), but I am feeling frustrated by the fact that we can't plan anything because we're waiting for an interview date.

Vine

Unknown Flower I

Unknown Flower II
(I love this one!)

Clover

Pink

Cracked

Farmer and Pigs Statue

Pigs

Korean Mafia?
(We are very curious about this place.)

I found a basic oatmeal muffin recipe calling for quick oats, which I bought by accident months ago. We had two peaches going bad, so I decided to chop them up and mix them in. So delicious. I ran out of baking cups and dumped the remaining batter on the parchment paper to make muffin tops. I think this recipe as originally written would be rather bland and boring, but with my changes they were sweetly flavored. Still not a muffin the way those cake-like "muffin" monstrosities are made now, but a good muffin.

Easy Oatmeal Muffins
1 C milk
1 C quick-cooking oats
1 egg
1/4 C vegetable oil (I used 1/4 C applesauce, instead)
1 C all-purpose flour
1/4 C white sugar (I decreased this to 2 T)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 small peaches, chopped up (my addition, no fruit was in original recipe)

Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C). Grease or line muffin cups (or just get the silicone ones).

In a small bowl mix oats and water. Let soak for 15 mins.

Beat together egg and oil, stir in oatmeal mixture. In another bowl, mix remaining dry ingredients together. Stir dry ingreds into wet ingreds until just combined. Fold in fruit. Spoon into cups and made for 20-25 mins until a toothpick inserted in the muffins comes out clean.