table is glued!

This has to be THE most procrastinated goal on my list- #23 Glue table together. This task of doing the final gluing on a table that I made in a furniture design class at SCAD was 7 years in the making. Let me repeat, I avoided doing this simple project for 7 whole years! Once I had everything I needed (just wood glue and a securing mechanism) it took an entire 5 minutes to complete. For how easy it was, it seems so silly that I put it off now that it's over with.

The impetus for finally getting 'er done was the idea that I could use a ratchet strap to secure the pieces tightly together when the glue was drying. Up until this point I thought I had to get my hands on some clamps. However, even if I got clamps I was worried about using them for fear I would damage the diagonal corners on which all of the pressure would have to be placed for tightening. Thank goodness for moments of creative inspiration!

Turkey Trick!

Turkey learned how to go get his leash before going on a walk! #37- Check! (Modified from "Teach Turkey to jump over Storm." Storm doesn't trust Turkey, and I don't blame her.)

I'm an official geocache hider!

The way my luck was going I thought it would never happen. Back in Memphis, my first cache that I attempted to hide was discovered before I had even posted it online! Someone had to have been watching me hide it, because I went to check on it one more time before submitting it for review and the log had been signed. The handle, "MPD," was written and a handcuff key was attached. What? Was the Memphis Police Department messing with me?! I was a bit weirded out with that situation, so I just removed the cache and never posted it.

Fast forward to Hawaii. A couple weeks ago I came up with an idea for a puzzle cache based around the theme of the TV show, Breaking Bad, and a British explorer who mapped the Hawaiian Islands. Captain Cook was the name of the explorer and there is also a character on the show with the same name, hence, the link between the two. I was really excited about the cache idea and came up with a bunch of questions to solve the puzzle, an interesting write-up on the show, info on the Captain, the whole bit. I was really proud of it and thought it came together nicely.

My excitement turned into frustration though, when, after submitting the cache, the reviewer told me that it could not be posted because it was of a commercial nature. As in, I was trying to advertise for the show and force people to purchase cable to watch it. I was so bummed that I was on the brink of yet another cache failure! 

Well, I decided I wasn't going to roll over. I explained to the reviewer that I had no affiliation with the show, would in no way benefit monetarily, and on top of all that, I don't even have cable (let alone a TV) so it was silly to think I was trying to force people to buy cable just to solve the cache. Besides, I accounted for people who may not have seen the show by creating the puzzle so that it could be solved by just a few google searches if need be, anyway.

It took some more communication and involvement with the head geocaching regulation group, but in the end, I got approved! "Breaking Bad with Captain Cook" was posted July 17 at 5:12 PM and just over 2 and a half hours later it was found by GeoGerms. It turns out that GeoGerms is a power cacher here on the islands. He and his kids have found every single cache on the island of Oahu!! What?! I read his profile further and discovered that he also took a geocaching challenge which required that he find a series of caches on 4 separate islands, and he did it all in ONE DAY! This guy is a nut and I love it!

Breaking Bad with Captain Cook Cache

Anyway, that was the long-winded tale of my cache hiding adventures so far. This only completes a third of goal #17- Hide 3 geocaches, but now that I finally have one under my belt, I'm hoping the others will go more smoothly. :]  If you want to check out the cache you can click here.

mmmmm...thai food!

Crisp salad with special house peanut sauce, perfectly seasoned hot and sweet vegetable soup, and for the grand finale, spicy chicken gang deang with creamy coconut milk mixed in a medley of carrots, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, and fresh thai basil. Oh, Thai Bistro, how I've missed you!

This fine Memphis establishment was my lunchtime addiction. I probably should have sought out therapy, because, like a drug addict, almost every single Thursday I would shamelessly show up to get the above lunch special to go. (And it had to be Thursday, see, because that was hot and sweet vegetable soup day, which was by far the best.) I really am kind of embarrassed to say, but it got to the point where the owner, Ann, would expect my call. She would just pick up the phone and tell me right away that "my usual" would be ready in 15 minutes. Bad, right?! But so goooood, I couldn't help it! :)

my to go soup lid

Anyway, since being in Honolulu, I have tried to find something even remotely comparable at thai restaurants here. No such luck. As I was mourning this fact one day, between my whines and whimpers, Brian told me I just needed to try to make some on my own. A novel idea, but cooking curry seemed so foreign! It needs fish sauce?! I don't think I want to touch that. Well, with more encouragement from Brian, I finally decided to just give it a shot. It was one of my goals anyway (#66).

I have to say it turned out better than I expected. And, surprisingly, the actual cooking process wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be. However, something definitely wasn't quite right, and I think that was because I made some compromises with the ingredients. For instance, I used regular basil, not thai basil, and because of my fear of the fish sauce, I don't think I put in enough. I've tried to make the dish twice since then, and I'm getting better! Brian picked up some thai basil from the farmer's market and that makes a world of difference! I still don't think I'll ever reach the pinnacle that is Thai Bistro, but I'm just glad I have an alternative to the so-so thai restaurants we're finding here.

pet paintings

Stormie had a vet appointment a couple days ago to get her yearly shots. The trip to the vet was kind of a mini appointment for me too, because I presented a flyer to them. I've been thinking that I might be able to get some work painting portraits of pets, so I figured what better place than a vet's office to advertise my services. Hence, I asked if they would be interested in displaying the following flyer in their waiting room (#19).

The receptionist said she needed to get the doctor's approval, understandably, so I'm waiting to hear back to see if it's ok. I think I'll try to hit up a couple other vets, too, to try to get more visibility.

LinkedIn

I signed up on LinkedIn because I thought I was supposed to for my career, not because I really wanted to or thought it was interesting. However, if I have a profile page and all that is listed is my name, picture, and the meager basics, then what's the point, right? So, I figured if I was going to be on there, I might as well at least fake like I think it's important. Hence, goal #90- Update my LinkedIn Profile.

Obviously, now that I'm on the job hunt, LinkedIn might actually be of service to me. So, I think that's why I finally got around to doing it. Here's my page with the updates. I really wouldn't waste your time visiting it, unless you get your giggles from reading resumes. It's terribly boring and braggy in typical resume fashion, so you can just trust me on this one ;)

Here's a profile that you should actually check out: Art Flater

portraits

I had two opportunities come up recently where I was able to accomplish goal #21- Start practicing taking portraits of friends. This is something I really want to get better at, so what better way than practice, right?! I hadn't really busted out my cam cam since the honeymoon, so it was about durn time!

The first shoot I had was with Brian's friends from from work, Kate and Adam. The reason for taking the pictures was because Kate was 9 months preggers! I had never taken pictures before of someone who was pregnant, so I was just kind of making it up as I went. A couple of shots had a bit of a blur that I wasn't happy about, but overall I was fairly pleased with the results!

Their first baby Lana :]

And Kate had her baby, Kyden, on the 9th, so now I get to take pictures of him! Super excited! Shooting Kate and Adam was a good warm-up for a paid job that I found off of craigslist to capture a guy, Dan, proposing to his girlfriend, Mary, on the beach of Waikiki. Shooting Kate and Adam was very relaxed, and not even really planned, but a proposal?! Sheesh, I was nervous! 

Luckily, it turned out that Dan was very easy going too, AND as it turned out, an industrial designer! We got along well. When it was "go time", I did make a rookie mistake and didn't get the the ideal action shots that I wanted, but the pictures worked out nonetheless. Thankfully, the pressure was off after the surprise and the portraits session went more smoothly. Here are my favorites:

 

She said YES!

I think I want to follow in Lexi's footsteps and do more of this!

my muse was Muse!

I've always been curious about web design. My appetite was whetted back in my senior year of college when we spent two sessions in my rendering class on Image Ready, a sister software to Photoshop which was used for web design. Obviously, just two classes worth of information didn't make me a pro, but it was just enough to make me realize that I had the tools to make a website on my own! This was very exciting!

The first thing I tried to make was a portfolio website, and nicolemoody.com was born! Following soon after was the infamous moodymoovies.com. This site was my real baby, and I loved spending time on it. However, it got to the point where the novelty of having websites wore off, and I realized that it was kind of a royal pain to update information on them, because the software I was using was archaic.

Fast forward to 2012, seven years since my first site, and the technology has obviously gotten much better. I had my eyes on Flash and/or Dreamweaver, so goal #86 was to learn one of these pieces of software. However, Adobe decided to flip the script and it created a new website-building software just for me! Muse! It's perfect for someone who wants to dabble in the web world, but doesn't want to learn code or complex programs like Flash or Dreamweaver. There was a seminar on Muse at the University of Hawaii a couple months ago, so I went and learned the basics of the program for half a day. I got excited about web design again and I dove right into updating moodymoovies.com (#9) after a LONG hiatus. Check it out!

It still needs some work done on it (I think I want to bring back the family pictures), but it was very satisfying to do an update and try something new. Like my last post, this goal got a twist, but it still accomplished the idea.

sewing project

When I updated my list the other day I realized I was quite behind on getting posts written for completed goals. One of these was #61- Sew Turkey's bed. For awhile there, Turkey was chewing on anything he could get his little paws on. Did I say little? I meant beastly. He especially liked to get a hold of the zippers on his beds and chew them off to get to the stuffing. Awesome.

Needless to say, I had enough of buying new beds, so I decided that I would just make my own, sans zippers. I bought the fabric and was ready to go, but then a different project came up that the fabric was perfect for, so I switched gears. I decided to make Lexi a purse camera bag! Her birthday was coming up and I had seen her express interest in this site on facebook, but I'm too cheap to shell out $150+ for a purse no matter how cute. So, I thought I would make her one instead!

I googled DIY purse camera bag, and found quite a few good tutorials. This one seemed like my speed, so I gave it a shot. I found a cute purse at Marshalls, got some velcro, and pulled out some old packaging materials I had saved to reuse. After whipping out my sewing machine, I went to town! Here are the results:

before 

after!

made a new friend(?)

We've been in Hawaii almost 3 months now. Crazy! Thankfully, I'm finally to the point where I don't have to have Siri help me find where I'm going every freaking time I leave the house. Another nice thing, is that we've slowly figured out the best places to take the dogs for exercise. Turns out there is a great park just a short walk from our house where we can let them off leash. Turkey loves it because he can really pick up some major speed in games of chase and Storm likes it for all the lizards that she tries to hunt down.

Here are few instagram pics from the park:

So, the reason I'm going on about the park is because it leads me to goal #49, make a new friend. I think it was the very first time we came to the park that we met Linda and her old, but sprightly dog, Pete. Linda was quite chatty, so we covered a lot of ground in getting to know each other right away. After about 30 minutes, it was clear that we had a lot in common in regards to interest in outdoor activities. She offered to take us out on a hike sometime, so we exchanged numbers before we left so that we could set something up. I was excited to be introduced to new places by a local.

It took a week or two (and the hiking got put on the back burner), but eventually Linda and I got together to go swimming instead. She knew of a good place to go out in the ocean where there was a windsock as a target. It turned out to be a lovely swim, and we even saw some fish. Linda was very personable and easy going. We planned to do it again.

I have to say that even though it was an enjoyable experience, something felt weird about it, and I think it was our age difference. I'd like to think I could be friends with anybody, but I guess a 28 year old and a 47(?) year old, because of different life experiences, eventually run out of things to talk about? Luckily when swimming you don't have to do much talking, so we went out again, but after that we quit calling each other, because I think we both felt the weirdness. 

Oh well, I'm kind of giving myself credit for this goal anyways, because we were friends for a couple weeks. Unfortunately, it just didn't last, but luckily I've found a new swimming buddy in Bonnie! (my old friend from high school who lives here now) We're going to train for a 2.348 mile roughwater swim! yikes!

goals update

Ok, so as you know, we moved to Hawaii. This causes a bit of a problem for the goals which are Memphis specific. I'm not going to fly back just to take a picture of a water tower, right? So, because of this, I'm swapping the Memphis area items with some fresh ones. You can see them in blue below:


1 paint the dining room chairs>We didn't move any of our big items, because we shipped all of our things by parcel post, so the chairs went to the dumpster. Sadly, even if we were still in Memphis, I don't think I would have spent time on them. Turkey had chewed on every one, so they were in rough shape and not really worth sprucing up. 
Replacement goal: Learn to surf
2 refinish the dining room table> Same reason as chairs, except this one I was able to give to Gb. 
Replacement goal: Make the Wired table  
3 make chaz' wine>This is one I feel really guilty about. This sweet brother of mine, gave me a super cool wine making kit as a gift a couple Christmases ago. I was genuinely interested in it and told all of my friends/coworkers about it, but I just never got it going. I got the kit out a few times to start it, but I was intimidated by the science and precision it required and I didn't want to mess it up, so I'd put it off. By trying to avoid messing it up, I royally messed up in that when it came time to pack I decided to leave it behind. (ok, confession time... I didn't just "leave it behind" I sold it at our garage sale. Terrible right?!)
Replacement goal: Buy a new kit and actually make it!
4 finish the chain painting
5 go camping> We sold our tent :( I'm kind of bummed about it now, because it does seem like there are opportunites for camping here. Well, maybe we could borrow one? If that doesn't work...
Replacement goal: Get a haircut with bangs!
6 run a marathon (started training!)
7 skydive
8 make boxing video
9 update moodymoovies
10 travel to Europe> Now that we're closer to Asia, I have my eyes on Thailand. I guess I'll just tweak this one.
Replacement goal: Travel out of the country
11 renovate my bathroom 
12 run with turkey at least once a week (Turkey is a half marathon runner! He's been training too :)
13 learn some of the magic tricks in my kit 
14 learn handwriting analysis 
15 document mjg & rents stories 
16 geocache in 5 new states/countries (3 out of 5)
17 hide 3 geocaches 
18 get new glasses 
19 make sign for camp bow wow to paint pet portraits 
20 print grid pictures/frame > I had 9 frames that I had bought from the Target dollar spot, which I had visions of hanging in a 3x3 grid on the wall. I wanted to print 1 image and then cut it up into 9 pieces, one for each frame. I also sold these frames at the garage sale, and don't really have room for the project in our tiny place here. 
Replacement goal: Go to a luau
21 start practicing taking portraits of friends 
22 get into regular volunteering (coaching?, flower guild?, food bank?) 
23 glue table together for the love of Pete! 
24 go to Hawaii 
25 go geocaching with chelsea
26 mail letters to family members 2x a year 
27 go to San Fran 
28 take pictures with lex
29 upload pics/music to cloud 
30 try to save small hard drive info 
31 fix button on jeans 
32 paint ceiling medallion
33 do a project with my spoons
34 send chaz & jenny a humidifier 
35 get mom and dad tstats and install (brought one to Phoenix, but ran out of time to install)
36 teach Turkey names of his toys 
37 teach Turkey to jump over Storm (this did happen once, but don't know if it will ever again, haha)
38 practice fushigi 
39 find out what's rattling in the trunk
40 shorten bathroom blind
41 make faceted mirror
42 say a prayer every night for 2 months 
43 take portraits of kyle's fam> Joe and Jannell's friend, Kyle, had expressed interest in having some family portraits shot. Again, I was nervous about doing it and messing it up. (This blog exercise is like therapy. I'm realizing I have issues. It's like perfectionist paralysis?)  So frustrating, because I really did want to do it.
Replacement goal: Rent or Borrow a D800
44 go to civil rights museum
45 go to rock n soul museum> It would have been cool to go here to learn some music history. I heard it was well done.
Replacement goal: Go to the Bishop Museum. Bonus: Try Poi  
46 read stack of books on nightstand 
47 drive to watch 3 sunsets (2 out of 3)
48 watch 1 sunrise over water
49 make a new friend 
50 donate clothes I haven't worn in closet every spring (did for year 1)
51 do a painting right away next time inspiration strikes
52 do 3 more car wash shoots (2 out of 3)
53 try to find more roller rinks
54 buy fertilizer for house plants
55 start a new garden 
56 experiment with HDR
57 shoot water tower/yellow tower> These were interesting sites that I used to drive by every day on my way to Hunter. I thought it would be fun to stop and shoot them, but I ran out of time!
Replacement goal: Shoot 2 interesting architectural structures here  
58 clean dash/vacuum when get car washed 
59 buy 700
60 keep in touch/visit JnJ
61 sew turkey's bed 
62 fly kites 
63 post onesies on etsy shop 
64 make Indian fry bread 
65 make cinnamon bread 
66 make 3 dishes from thai book 
67 try chickpea spinach curry
68 throw 1 pizza party a year 
69 mini triathalon
70 take brian to gatlinburg > Brian and I's first trip we took together was to Gatlinburg, so it was a special place to us. Also, Brian would talk about the mountains a lot, so I thought it would be fun to go back. Again, I think we would have eventually, but unfortunately, we ran out of time.
Replacement goal: Take a spontaneous, adventure lap around the island 
71 send post cards to friends 
72 see Chandra dance (so close!)
73 do a backflip on a trampoline 
74 make wine bottle glasses 
75 make string/yarn baskets 
76 make Martha Stewart flower pots
77 redesign Memphis geocaching logo
78 glue PVC chair
79 stay on top of filing
80 join tennis league 
81 hike south mountain w/ mom
82 golf with dad 
83 visit mrs. anderson 
84 golf a really nice course 
85 make family country music vid 
86 learn flash/dreamweaver 
87 repair cracks in the ceiling> This was a task that I was not looking forward to, so I'm kind of glad I don't have to do it now. :) 
Replacement goal: Jump off of the super high cliff at Maunawili Falls 
88 invite jessica to dinner> Jessica was my neighbor in the condos. We were always friendly, but never really friends even though I think we both thought we should be. I thought I would venture across the awkward barrier of "we enjoy each other's company, but we never hang out" and just invite her over for dinner. I was nervous about it though, kind of how I feel a guy and girl would be who've spent their childhoods together as friends, and then they both feel the chemistry to date when they're older, but they're nervous about acting on it, because what if the other person doesn't feel the same! Kind of like that.
Replacement goal: Scan some of the family circus pictures  
89 do yoga with brian 
90 update linked in profile 
91 update coroflot portfolio 
92 go to the shooting hole with dad 
93 recycle cans & glass (bought a second bin just for recyclables!)
94 make inspiration pin board (does Pinterest count? :)
95 do something with pictures in boxes in closet 
96 go to a geocaching event 
97 stay at an airbnb place 
98 make cd storage more organized/usable 
99 documentary parties 3x year (only did 1, oops)
100 check off all on my places to eat list (maybe half way through the list?)
101 blog this


 I'm excited about these! Updating is energizing! :]