The Geeky Wives

I would like to take the opportunity, first to thank my co-bloggers for their input and support. Stacy, Kate, and Karen, I appreciate your input and friendship more than I can possibly express. It has been an honor to work on this project along with you over the past year. I am excited to see what life has in store for each of you, and thankful that you have let me be a part of your lives.

I would also like to thank my readers, who have stuck with us through well-thought posts and posts that were definitely written ten minutes before they were posted. I appreciate your loyalty and your feedback. It has been so much fun writing for you, and I hope that you have enjoyed our journey as well.

Last week, I mentioned that I am working on a new project of my own. I am pleased to say that it will be up soon – just not as soon as I had intended. Life has been a little stupidly busy this past few weeks, and I want to do this right.
My new website home will be leianajade.com – it’s probably not much of a surprise to those of you who stalk me around the internet, as it has been my gamer handle for a handful of years now. There’s nothing pretty there now, but I am aiming to have the site up and running around April 20th. I’ll toss up a post here when everything is up so that you don’t have to stalk the new site.

I am looking forward to new beginnings, but at the same time, this is rather bittersweet.

Thank you again for all of your support. Hopefully I’ll see most of you around the new site!

On behalf of geekywives Stacy, Kate and Karen,

Sarah

I’ve thought a lot about this final post since Sarah and I discussed stopping the blog. I didn’t really know how I would end it, and even as I’m writing this, I have no idea how I would end it.

I guess I’ll start by thanking Sarah for giving me the opportunity to share my life, rants and raves, favorite recipes, and opinions with you all. I’m really grateful to have had the chance to be a part of this really great idea she had. I’ve had so much fun writing for Geeky Wives, and will always miss this.

Next, I’ll thank you, the readers. Some of you I know, and some of you I don’t. But I hope that each and every one of you can muster the strength to go on without us. Ha! But if you feel like you need a “Stacy fix”, you can reach me at my not-so-recently-updated personal blog, “The Everyday”, at http://jsgriffiths.blogspot.com/ . Any baby news or future posts will end up there.

There’s one thing that I never resolved, and that’s my review of the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword game. That’s probably because I never finished the game…not really anyway. I made the horrible mistake of not stocking up on potions before heading toward the final battle. I thought I’d have more opportunities to do that. I was so wrong. And now every time I continue the game after a death I, only have four hearts to play with. This could take a while. So, not knowing the ending aside, I really enjoyed the game. It was challenging and fun. I’m sure that I’ll love the ending just as much…if I can ever get there.

So here’s what my post is really going to be about. I’ve decided to put every started (and not finished) post that I was going to write for Geeky Wives out there for you. All the titles, all the one-liner posts that I intended to finish and post, but never did, either because they were bad or because I thought of something better. Enjoy! Thanks again for reading.

Being Abroad

I’ve had to remind myself several times that Justin is here for work, and I am here for vacation. Before we left the States, I kept repeating to myself that I’d be fine on my own. I’ve had to do it before when I traveled to Ireland. While my friend was at work, I went out and walked around Dublin seeing what I could see and doing what I could do to experience foreign travel.

This time seems different. I’m not in a big city. I’m in a smaller town or village. To get anywhere that might offer some sort of activity besides walking, eating, and getting my hair cut costs money.

I knew before coming over here that Justin would have to work all the time. When he gets back to our hotel, his time is taken up with work. We do occasionally go out for dinner, but even though his work pays for any meals he has to eat, even something for just me can be quite expensive.

The one thing that worries me most is that I’ll have seen all of these places and different things and have absolutely no one to share my experiences with. Justin will listen to everything I have to tell him, I’m sure. But for now, my journal is the only thing with which I can share all of my experiences. And it can’t even talk back. It goes everywhere with me, but it isn’t human, and therefore can’t laugh at an inside joke, or guffaw at the outrageous prices of everything here.

Traveling is really great. I’ve always thought so. It can also be a bit scary. But factor in being alone, and it seems just…undesirable. I miss my family, I miss being home. I miss my pets. I miss everything about my life back in the US, and it’s only been a week. Four more to go.

But hey, I love Justin, and I’ve told him before that wherever he is is home to me. While I still feel that, I can’t help but think of the attachments I’ve made back in Michigan. For all its faults, it’s a really good state to live in. I recognize all the coins there, I am not the foreigner. That is my country of origin, and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

Say what you will, but the US is pretty amazing.

Physical Touch

Does anyone else notice the lack of hugging between people these days? I can understand if someone has an issue with touching and being touched, but do you think that we have gotten away from being physically affectionate with one another? I have.

I remember a time in high school where I would always greet and say “good-bye” to friends with hugs, or at least a high five. Now that my generation has grown into adulthood, there is a lot less hugging and touching in general going on. We don’t shake hands, place a friendly hand on someone’s arm, etc…

Why is this? Are we afraid of disease or germs? Are we afraid that people will misinterpret said affection? Touching is sort of like the next step in a friendship. You’ve established that you connect with one another, and then comes the hugging. Hugging is the like the first kiss…and once you start doing it, it’s difficult to stop. You’ve crossed a boundary that can’t be uncrossed. Why should it be that we don’t hug anymore? Maybe there isn’t anyone worth hugging. “You don’t deserve a hug from me. We’re not there yet.”

New Girl

So have you guys seen this show? I’ve been watching this show since it started a few weeks ago, and I have to tell you that at first, I

Plans

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the plans I made for my life, and how they’ve changed and panned out (or not) as I’ve grown up. In grade school I wanted to have three kids (like my parents), marry a man like my dad, and live in a house in a suburban setting. What actually happened is that I (currently) have no children, married a man very much unlike my father, and live in a house on two lots of city land. I wanted to have this big career doing whatever would make me the most money, and instead I work retail making barely enough to pay the phone bill.

The Help

This book has been a bestseller for a while now, and I just recently read it. Leave it to me to wait until a book is a hit movie to get it in my hands (or on my NookColor). At least I can say that I’ve read the book before watching it on the silver screen.

Did you all know that Katheryn Stockett received 60 rejections from literary agents before someone agreed to represent her?

I’ve always heard nothing but good things about the book, but one customer who was purchasing a copy for a friend told me that that it was “the most important book” she’s read in a long time After having read it, I tend to disagree.

I found this recipe in the Better Homes cookbook. They turned out pretty fantastic! I would highly recommend the recipe. My *only* complaint was that one pan ended up on the ‘almost burnt’ side – and I took them out four minutes under the minimum time! I’m not sure if it’s my oven or the recipe, but keep an eye on them.

Roll dough:
4 cups flour

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup milk

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

Filling:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/3 cup butter or margarine

Icing:
3 oz softened cream cheese

2 tbsp softened butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3-5 tsps milk

In a large bowl,  combine 2 cups of the flour and the yeast, set aside. In a small saucepan, heat and stir milk, sugar, salt and butter until just warm and butter almost melts. Add to flour mixture along with eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape bowl. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining 2 cups flour as you can.

Place dough on a floured surface, knead in a little flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (takes 3-5 minutes). Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of the dough. Cover – let rise in a warm place until doubles in size. (1 – 1.5 hours)

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Lightly grease two 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 pans and set aside.

Prepare the filling. Stir together the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in the 1/3 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Roll each dough half into a 12×8 rectangle. Sprinkle filling over dough, leaving 1 inch unfilled along one of the long sides. Roll up each rectangle, starting from the filled long side. Pinch dough to seal seams. Slice each rolled rectangle into 12 equal pieces. Arrange in pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until nearly double in size.

Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 20-25 minutes (I did 16) or until golden. Cool about 5 minutes, remove from pans. Spread with icing.

While in oven, prepare icing:
In a small bowl, mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, until smooth. Beat in milk, 1 tsp at a time, to reach spreading consistency.

I’d like to take a little bit to talk to you all about my future plans. I was going to wait until I had something to show you, but I’m too excited.

Geekywives as a community project has been great – but I don’t feel that the site can fit the scope of things that I would like to share. I have a personal site that I wanted to fit the things that weren’t for geekywives, but I haven’t had the time to develop it. Consequently, my personal site is something of a sporadic mess.

I want a site that I feel fits all of me. A place where I can share my writing, both creative and personal. Where I can rant about the endings to video games. And post my design ideas, and pictures of paintings. Talk about exercise and give you share my plans. Maybe have a page where I let you buy the things I make and one that lets you know that I am a photographer. A little bit of everything, all in one spot, one that feels like my little internet home.

I’m really excited about this. The best part is that I’ve spent so long thinking about this that putting it together isn’t going to take so long. I plan on having it up and ready (in some format, anyway) on the 14th.

I’ll give you a domain name next week.

1. Doloris Petunia

I don’t think I need to describe to you why I love her stuff. The pictures say it all. The only problem is that everything in her shop is (I won’t say overpriced) not for those with a limited budget for unnecessary items. For me to buy anything from her shop would be the ultimate frivolous act, and really to justify spending 500+ dollars on one of her crystal cuff bracelets I’d have to wear it every day for the rest of my life. But if I had to do my wedding all over again, I would spend all of my dress money on anything from her shop. I love her super chunky colorful necklaces, and her wedding collection is to die for. You can check her stuff out at her shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/DolorisPetunia But try to not drool on your keyboards.

2. Rose gold rings from EidelPrecious

I don’t know why but rose gold has really been appealing to me these days. I fell in love with the rings that EidelPrecious makes one day while randomly browsing etsy.com. They are simple but really pretty. I especially love the rose gold rings with the champagne sapphires in the center. As with many of the things I covet, they’re way beyond my budget, but if I ever won the lottery, this would be one of the things I splurge on first. Check out the rest of their wares at http://www.etsy.com/shop/EidelPrecious

3. 150 Carat all diamond ring

This one is the unobtainable thing that I can only ever dream about. Weighing in at 150 glorious carats, this puppy, made by Shawish Jewelry, costs around 70 million dollars. Even getting the chance to wear this ring for a minute would make my list of 5 things I want to do before I die. Some people would travel to super exotic locations, I would drape myself in diamonds.

What do you covet?

Last month, I made a couple of baby/child sized hats. I’m largely self-taught when it comes to crocheting. I prefer trial and error to trying to follow patterns and learning actual stitches.

But those only go so far, particularly when said item needs to fit a child’s head. Since I don’t have children around to test sizes, patterns are pretty much a necessity. I learned last summer that I am not a very good judge of child size.

The first hat I made was a monkey hat. The baby I made it for is due this month, and I wasn’t sure how the weather would be, and I figure it will be warming up for the summer soon, anyway. So I used the six to twelve month size, hoping that it will fit properly come fall/winter.

The other hat I made was really on a whim – I didn’t have a particular occasion in mind. It’s a little cupcake hat, and turned out super adorable, I think. I gave it to my bowling partner for her daughter, who is about to turn six. It’s still pretty big on her, but the size was child to pre-teen, so it’s got some room.

It has been a lot of fun experimenting while having some structure to go by. I’d like to try different patterns, I just haven’t decided what to make next…There are only so many children that I can make hats for.

The hats I made can be found on this website. It’s not pretty, but boy … does it have a lot of hats!

Crochet Pattern Central

Not so very long ago, I was convinced that e-readers were the worst thing ever to come into humanity’s existence.

Well, maybe not quite that bad, but I really didn’t like them. I was sure that they were going to spell the end of bookstores – and I absolutely love bookstores. I love books. I love the covers, the texture of the pages, even the very smell of books.

What led me down the path to getting an e-reader, then? There were a few different reasons.

- I wanted a way to edit my writing without having to print out 120 pages every round of edits. Not terribly good for the environment – but there’s nothing quite like the cat knocking fifty pages off the coffee table to make you look for a different solution. When I first started looking into them, I found that the Nook color could be hacked to do what I wanted, but I was uncomfortable with subverting technology. Yeah, I know. I was also the kid in school who reminded the teacher that homework was due.

- Matt and I both love books. We also live in an apartment with limited room. Also, we’re always considering moving, and books are a terrible pain to move. We were getting to a point where we both wanted to try out new authors/series, but wouldn’t because we knew we couldn’t invest the space if we ended up loving it.

- Matt and I also spend quite a bit of time on the treadmill. We’ve both lamented that it can get boring on there, even with headphones. Re-arranging things such that we could see a tv wasn’t an option. A tablet + netflix though was a lucrative idea. Matt started using his iPod to watch netflix on the treadmill, but found that the screen was just a bit too small to do it comfortably.

So after much angst, I ended up purchasing a Nook Tablet. The specs are nearly identical to the Kindle Fire, but the Nook has expandable memory. Even after all of the research I did, I am still really surprised at how much I love my tablet and use it. It isn’t the fleshed out monstrosity that is the iPad, but I primarily wanted an e-reader and iPads are still cost prohibitive.

When I eventually get my micro-sd card, I’ll be able to use stuff like evernote, and keep ideas synched.

The Nook store is pretty fleshed out and constantly expanding. There’s loads of stuff to be found for free, if you’re willing to search for it. I think I spent the first three or four days just scrolling through the store, not buying anything.

I don’t find reading on a tablet to be as awkward as I thought it would be. When I’m reading paper books, I DO love flipping the pages, but I don’t really miss it with the tablet. My biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to focus with it, like when I’m trying to read a lengthy article on the computer. I haven’t had this problem though. The different brightness and font settings make reading easy in any situation – even sitting outside. I’m super impressed.

Oddly enough, the thing I use it for most isn’t something I thought much of beforehand – magazines. Subscriptions are insanely cheap and easy with the Nook. Most subscriptions range between $1-2 a month, whereas the cover price is $3.99+. Managing the subscriptions is super easy, too. I’ve had hassle in the past trying to cancel print subscriptions, and that’s ultimately why I stopped bothering. But this? I just go to the magazine section of my nook account and manage them accordingly. Plus, every magazine comes with a free 14 day trial. I’ve gotten to try several magazines that I wouldn’t have bothered to pick up in a store and found some new favorites. But I love, love that there is nothing laying around. Nothing for the cat to knock on the floor, nothing to get stepped on.

I absolutely love my Nook Tablet. I may not have wanted to jump on the e-reader thing before, but now I am so glad that I did.

I love Pinterest. It’s really become my newest obsession. I’ve included it into my “internet routine” of sites I always check out when I’m on the computer. Apart from the fact that there is so much to see (an all diamond ring!!!!) there are also many links for excellent recipes.

The recipe for these cookies came from a blog called Scraps of Life, and they got it from a Gooseberry Patch cookbook called “Best Ever Cookies”. They sounded good and I heard they were really soft so I decided to give them a try. I hate crunchy cookies! These turned out really great, and I highly recommend giving them a shot. I’ll include the frosting recipe, but I didn’t try it. I heard it was good too.

Brown Sugar Cookies

2/3 c. butter, softened
1-1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
2-1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sour cream

Blend together butter and brown sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time; blend well.  Add vanilla; beat until light.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with sour cream; mix well.  Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto non-stick or lightly greased baking sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack; cool.  Frost with Browned Butter Frosting.  Makes 2 dozen

 Browned Butter Frosting

1/4 c. butter
1-1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 T. Milk

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat until it turns golden.  Watch carefully as this will happen quickly. Remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and enough milk to make a spreading consistency.

Yum!!

Long story short: GeekyWives is closing up shop.

This is a decision that I’ve struggled with for a while now. I absolutely love blogging here, and I’ve had the honor of meeting some incredible people and having great conversations. I’ve also had the honor of blogging alongside three of my dearest friends and getting to share in their lives.

But this site was always meant to be a community project. My idea was to use this site as a launching point for everyone. With our unique interests and talents, we could each do a little and together we could succeed where it might be too much for one person. By no means do I consider this project a failure, but I have had to recognize that the site is quickly becoming unsustainable. While there is some sadness for me in this announcement, I want you to know that this site is unsustainable for the best of reasons…

Karen has a job that keeps her super busy and is looking into grad school in the future.
Kate is in grad school, has a young daughter, and is looking for internship opportunities.
Stacy is expecting a little girl this summer, is working, and also has a side business selling handmade flowers.

So you can see my problem! I can’t possibly be upset that things are working out so well for these women – because I love them to pieces and I always will. At the same time, I know that I can’t give this site the time, energy and attention it needs to be what I envisioned.

There will be more about this later on. But for now, this is what you need to know:

The last post will go up on April 12th, but the site will remain ‘up’ for the foreseeable future.

Don’t be sad, there is new stuff coming! Just … not under the geekywives name.

Future_of_mass_effect

This audio contains my thoughts on the Mass Effect as an art and what that entails. I also talk a little bit about why I don’t think the comparison of Mass Effect to books and movies is quite accurate – why RPG is a better way of thinking of it. Then I touch on the recent statement from Bioware Co-Founder Ray Muzyka, and what all this means for Mass Effect and the industry at large.

You’re welcome to disagree with me on any or all of it, but I ask that you be respectful! It’s really all just opinion, anyway.

Hey, this time I have a player. Maybe next time, music?