I’m feeling pretty self-satisfied this weekend, mostly because I did three things:
1. I mowed the lawn. For the first time ever. I haven’t had a lawn since I lived with my parents, and luckily I also had a brother, and that’s what brothers do. But in this new place, without Scott here yet, I managed to figure it out. Yay me. (Very lucky for me, the lawnmower that the landlord provided has an electric starter, because I already know I can’t pull start an engine to save my life.)
2. I innovated. I like to make my coffee at home in the morning and bring it to work with me. Now that I’m biking to the office, I wasn’t sure what to do. I can’t hold my travel mug. I tried to get up earlier and have my coffee at home but then I got to work and wanted to drink coffee while I was checking email. (There is a coffee maker, but I’m a coffee snob and like to drink my own brew.) So, instead, I fashioned my own cup holder for the basket of my bike. I knew I needed to keep the cup upright, and I figure some sort of shock absorption would be good. So I carved a big divot in a sponge and rigged a couple of bungee cords to do this:
(top view)
(side view)
I’ll see how it works on Monday!
3. Baking. Kathy and Vance are having some people over tonight for their Grizzly marathon. They’re showing Grizzly Man and The Grizzly Project. Grizzly Man is legendary with them. When they went to see it in the theater without knowing much about it, Vance thought it was a mock-umentary, and laughed his way through it. Anyway, we are having bear-themed food, and I decided to make Cub-cakes.
Get it?
Cub-cakes.
It’s a yellow cake cupcake, with strawberry buttercream frosting, chopped up trail mix, and a Teddy Graham.
Finding Fault 
July 19, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Good looking coffee rig, Amy. I use this doo-dad: http://www.somafab.com/morningrush.html
I kind of like yours better, though. Send my best to K&V.
Jesse
July 19, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Cub-cakes. That is brilliant.
I too love (and own) Grizzly Man. Other awesome documentaries like that (kind of): Word Wars, Spellbound, Word Play, Murderball. I own them all. Oh, and, of course, the Cane Toads Movie.
Good idea with the cup holder. Here’s another option you may or may not like: have your own coffee maker at work. I have a $10 Nascar coffee maker in my cube. (Believe it or not, it was on clearance at the hardware store. Actually, it sucks, but gets the job done and it’s $10.) I thought about covering up the Nascar logo, but figured I’d pull a sextuple deke:
1) maybe I like Nascar
2) but I don’t, so I must be hipster ironic
3) when in actuality it was just the cheapest thing to buy
4) but I am aware of the previous three, so I’m making a statement that means I’m above all that
5) but I’m clearly not
6) admitting I’m not makes me cool.
Yeah. Clearly I’m writing a thesis.
July 19, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Jesse – I think I like mine better too. It only cost me $5 (and I still have an extra bungee cord!), and strangely enough, it’s in my new school colors.
Ash – You are a complicated and mysterious man. But yeah, I know I could make my own coffee there, but since there are only 4 other people in the building, that might seem rude. Besides, inventing is more fun.
July 19, 2008 at 2:46 pm
My goto joke when pull starting an engine is that “it just takes a Big Jerk.” My jokes are a lot less complex, and not as funny as Ash’s. I’m saddened that I won’t get to tell the joke when mowing the lawn in Richmond.
The bungy cord coffee cup makes me think Amy is missing boat life. Bungy cords are the solution to many boat problems. Kind of duct tape and baling twine on land.
July 20, 2008 at 10:43 am
Hey it’s your bro.
Glad to discover you have learned to mow the lawn. Feel free to visit dad on the weekends so you can mow his!! You, Christi and Lara owe me like 30 yrs.
Just kidding 😉
But come visit anyways!!
July 20, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Boyfriend Scott – You can make any jokes you want while you’re mowing the lawn.
Brother Scotty – How about if I mow the lawn when I visit in October? (I thought this post might get you to comment.)
July 21, 2008 at 1:48 pm
G’ Day, Coffee rig looks good. What brand of coffee do you brew? The Sports FRan recently purchased a coffee maker that heats water for 1 cup of coffee, then brews it thru a cup of coffee (available in what ever brand you choose, tea is also available) really neat if two people have differing tasts. Cheers from the West UB sends
July 22, 2008 at 1:47 pm
The cubcakes were tasty. I have to confess, Amy, that while I was seeing everyone out to the cars, Vance turned his back and Griselda stole the last one. Vance points out that while she had her choice of anything on the table–including the big hunk of salmon!-she went for the cubcake. Consider yourself complimented by a baddog.
Bad bad dog.
July 22, 2008 at 5:51 pm
‘Brother Scotty – How about if I mow the lawn when I visit in October? (I thought this post might get you to comment.)’
Actually, the thing we do in October is called ‘Bag the Leaves’.
You can help me with that!!
July 24, 2008 at 4:37 pm
So…how did the coffee-cup-rigging-system work?
July 24, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Whoops, sorry to forget the update. It worked like a charm. I’ve made it to work all week with a full cup of coffee!
July 26, 2008 at 11:07 am
Amy (it’s still weird to call you that without your last name attached to it),
I do believe you are my hero.
That is all.
-Alicia
July 28, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I love your invention! I always knew you were a smart girl!
July 29, 2008 at 6:10 am
Hey Amy!
You should have been an engineer! Simple, efficient, cost effective, and if you ever need to, you can use the parts for something else. My kind of invention 😛
I finally figured out a fairly good way to stick the broken wheels back onto Ryan’s little cars this week. Basically, its a problem of a metal axle into a plastic wheel, the plastic gives and then you have a problem.. Glue and metal don’t often mix well, same for plastic, and triple for both together right? So I figured out that there is a tiny bit of room between the tire and the car, which is where the flange that breaks is.. Digging through the ‘junk drawer’, I came upon an ‘eye’ hook. Basically a metal ring with a screw attached to it.. Cut off the screw, file the edge so it isn’t sharp on the ring side, spread it a tiny bit if necessary, and press it around the collar with a pair of pliers.. Now you have metal into metal re-enforced plastic instead of just metal into plastic. So far, no glue necessary.. I have now created a receptacle specifically for eye hooks of different sizes, as this problem is re-occurring often not all wheels are the same size..
Lesson 1: Simple problems usually require simple solutions.
Lesson 2: Some toy cars that get stepped on by adults are actually fixable.
Lesson 3: The best simple solutions for simple problems seem a lot of time to be thought of while working on something more complex and completely exclusive of the little problem.
Lesson 4: A junk drawer is a good thing to have 😛
Good luck in the new house!
-Roy