Sunday, August 31, 2008

Another Month Gone

I can feel my heartbeat. Well, I suppose it's my "pulse" in this case, but that's the same dang thing, right? Anywho, my fingers are throbbing to the tune of my four-chambered pumper. I can feel the exposed skin screaming, and I want to scream. Thank goodness you don't use your pinky much when typing. Ironically, "p" is the only letter that I use my pinky finger for. Granted, there are symbols that one uses his or her pinky to type, but for the most part it's sticking up in the air like that one chunk of hair between your bangs and your mud flaps that just won't stay put when you have your hair up.

This pain is due to a lovely walk with the puppies that I just went on. We were going to take our normal route but decided to throw in an extra block for good measure on this nice, sunny day [SUNday!]. On this extra block was a black dog in a fenced side yard. Normally, the dogs would tug a little from curiosity and Murphy would yip once or twice and that would be it. This time, the dog in the yard barked ferociously and came running full speed toward the fence separating us from him [I assume it was a boy because I can't picture a girl dog being that mean! Sexist possibly, but you know, testosterone is more prominent in males than in females]. I'm not sure if it was some kind of dog diss in Canish [the official name for dog-language], but Moses and Murphy went ape shit.

And that's when it happened.

Ever try holding on to a leash when two dogs adding up to over a hundred pounds are attached to one end and running away from you at full speed? "Rope" burn is very well the result. And is very well what happened to me.

It has now been an hour since we got home, and the dogs are still in time out. Am I a little harsh? No way. They need to learn to behave, or else their balls will be snipped! Oh wait, that happens in three days. HA! Fun fact: Los Angeles requires that you have your dogs spayed/neutered and if they're not, "all intact dogs must have an intact dog license from the city" [source]. How odd!

I am blogging instead of napping after my second shift as an officially certified barista. Both shifts went by incredibly fast. Although getting up at 3:00am wasn't what I preferred to do, it wasn't too horrible, and after making a delicious drink at the beginning of each shift, I was alright. Both days had incredibly huge rushes where there were at least three cars at each window. Yesterday I made $60 in tips and today I made $48. Add those together and I have over $100 toward my camera.

My camera.


No big deal.

I am trying to wait until Andrew gets home to eat, but I don't think it's going to happen. I haven't eaten all day [it's now 4:35 in the afternoon] with the exception of a couple mochas, which is not healthy.

What is healthy is a fresh Caesar salad. ...and letting the dogs out of time out.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Surrounded by the Love

I'm loving life right now. I have a job that I am excited to go to on the days that I work, I have a boyfriend who is the absolute sweetest, nicest, most amazing person in the entire world, and I have nothing getting me down.

My job is pretty sweet so far. I've basically learned how to make every drink that we serve and it's not that hard! You just have to remember what to put in first, what goes with what kind of drink, what different kinds we have, how to make the drink hot, iced, or blended [yes, we can customize any of our drinks], and what to ring up for each drink. Pretty simple, pretty basic, pretty sweet.

Today I brought Andrew's stereo to work because the one there doesn't play CDs all that well. We listened to a couple of the manager's CDs, one of my mixes ["Musical Venom for Folding Denim" created when Tilt converted to Bullhead two summers ago], and then a mix that Andrew made for me with country songs that are cute and about loving that special someone.

I came home and Andrew and his truck were missing. His truck has been broken for a while, with a faulty spark plug that he hadn't been able to fix without a special tool. He pulled in as I made my way to the door. I was definitely impressed with all that he got done today. Hopefully soon he'll get tabs for the boat and trailer and we can take it out on a nice day before Autumn truly arrives.

Sad news came tonight when Andrew told me that his friend Jake and his girlfriend Megan's dog had to be put down. They were on a little mini-vacation at a lake and apparently the dog was playing and somehow pinched something in his back and ended up being paralyzed. The dog was around three years old. It hurts my heart to hear this news. Pets are like family and they loved that dog dearly. It'd just be like either Moses or Murphy having to be put down after knowing them for that long of a time. Even now, only knowing them for a little under half a year average, I would be devastated. I'm keeping Jake and Megan in my thoughts. I hope they're doing okay.

Andrew keeps getting texts messages four or five times instead of once. Thank goodness he has unlimited texting, but how annoying would that be to get every text four or five times? He just recently got a new phone, the LG LX400. It's pretty sweet looking and sends/receives messages much better than his old, broken, beat to crud silver phone, which is good because I love to text, but it's unfortunate that he is receiving them so oddly. Hmmm to that!

Why is it that I can always ALWAYS think of something to blog about, but when it comes time to type it up my mind goes blank? I guess that's just how it goes when you're enjoying everything and you have nothing to complain about. I suppose I will just kick back, take off my stinky socks, have a drink and some macaroni, watch a movie, and enjoy another relaxing night surrounded by the people and animals that I love.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

2 Out of 8 Ain't Bad!

Amazing. It's simply amazing that someone can rattle off gibberish at a window, and all these girls around me can take that gibberish and make a completely delicious, perfect drink and have it be exactly what that gibberish meant. I'll know how to do it soon, but it'll be kind of scary on my first shift by myself. What if I forget something? I'm going to look like a dummy! This morning I woke up thinking about what goes in what drink and how many shots are in what size.

I guess that's a good sign; studying while you sleep.

My first shift last night went pretty well. I filled out my W4 faster than I ever had before [with the experience of explaining every line to new hires at PacSun, I knew exactly what to write]. It's not difficult, don't get me wrong; it's just that government paperwork is sometimes hard to decipher. After this, I went through counting things [much like perpetuals at PacSun] and learned the basics on where everything is. I was in the way for the most part of the shift, so I started studying real hard on what goes into what drink. I'm not going to be actually making the drinks until tomorrow, I believe, but why not educate myself before I dive right in?

I made little fill-in-the-blanks this morning for what goes in certain drinks and during my shift tonight, if it's slow, I'll test myself. It's not too hard and I'm sure I'll get it down.

This morning, I watched the "Is it worth your life?" robbery safety video for work. It's funny how they are stressing this so much. I don't want to freak out about getting robbed all the time. Ick! It was kind of funny though. Not as funny as the food handler's permit video with a kid puking in a toilet because he got sick from food contamination.

I passed with flying colors, so tonight when I walk into work, I'll have all my paperwork filled out, a copy of my license [isn't it sweet to have a scanner / copier / printer all in one?? Definitely worth what we paid for it], and the food handler's permit all ready for my manager to file away. I hope she's surprised!

It's kind of cool that she knows how hard I am willing to work. I know, without any kind of conceitedness, that I am a great employee, and I think she sees that. I took the earlier of the two morning shifts she was hiring for [4am to noon on Sat and Sun], which was the harder shift to get covered. I told her I want a lot of hours and am willing to come in whenever because A.) I live five minutes away, B.) I'm saving up whatever tips I make for a camera, C.) I love working, and D.) all I do in my spare time is eat and watch movies [I didn't tell her that part]. She took a call from the Bellingham store manager and I heard her say that I was working really hard and was willing to cover shifts, "Which is really cool." I'm pretty sure I have 4 set days as of this moment: Sat and Sun 4am to noon, Mon 10am-4pm, and Thurs 11am-5pm. That's 28 hours there, which is the exact amount I need to work every week to pay my bills [not including tips]. Perfect, perfect, perfect!

I am very excited.

After getting my food handler's permit, I went to WalMart to get some more black tops. If I'm going to work eight days in a row [day two today!], then I have to be ready for it! I only had three shirts that made the cut for the dress code, so I needed more. After trying some on, I picked out two basic crew-neck tees, a v-neck tee, and a long-sleeve cowl neck top with the vertical lines that old ladies wear [you know exactly what I'm talking about]. I then snagged one of the basic crew-neck sweatshirts from the guys' department and checked out. The woman forgot to ring up one of the crew-neck tees and I realized it in the car. I got a sweet free t-shirt!

So I am pumped up, excited, prepared, and looking forward to my shift tonight. I have a little under two hours before I have to go, so I'm going to take the squirts [dogs] on a walk and possibly read a little bit more. Almost done with Harvest!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Snail Reincarnated

I woke up this morning from a dream where I was interviewing for another job because BigFoot didn't hire me. I was sitting in the food court of the mall interviewing for a position as a manager for one of the stores. The woman asked me a question and I started rattling on about product knowledge.

Thank God I woke up.

...but then I fell back asleep. Until 1:00. Before the main sleep, I managed to get up, move to the living room, and read another 70 pages of Harvest. If this book was a movie, it would be pretty sweet. It's kind of weird how when you read, you picture everything going on--the setting, what the people look like, how their voices sound, etc.--and someone else who reads the same words on the same pages will picture something entirely different. I think that's why watching a movie based on a book is so weird to me, because I see it through someone else's eyes.

Everyone is going ape shit over this Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It's really cool that people are interested in reading though. When a good series comes out, everyone gets really involved in the book business. Reading is good for your vocabulary, and you always learn something new. Movies these days are all the same. Sure, there'll be the occasional big hit that is totally different from other movies out there, but for the most part they are all the same. The music industry is basically covering all the old songs [and even some not-so-old songs, I.E. the Punk Goes Crunk or Pop stuff] and has no originality. Sam [roomie] bought all the books in the Twilight series day before yesterday [in chronological order: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn] and has been reading them non-stop. It appears she is 1/8 done with the second book and possibly will be late for work because she is caught up in the story.

I would choose to be late too if I had to do floorset tonight. Never again!

After a couple people read her copies, I'm going to give it a shot. The movie comes out in November but it didn't look all that great so I'm not sure if I'll see it. Depending on what IMDb.com has to say, I might rent it when it gets out on DVD. Which is also what I'm going to do with Sex and the City, which comes out late September, the 23rd to be exact.

Anywho, I slept in the recliner in the corner [called a "recliner" for a reason; it's basically a cushiony bed with arm rests] and dreamt a dream that I have dreamt before. I've had the dream maybe three other times. It is about a boy whose parents are killed and he gets kidnapped by the killers. The boy is played by Trevor Morgan. Each time I have the dream, he tries to escape and he fails every time. This time, with the help of roomie Sam, he escaped when he was supposed to bring a bowl of spaghetti to the dining room. From there, he stayed with a bunch of different people, like chapters in a book, or scenes from a movie [which makes sense due to an actor playing the role of the kid].

When I awoke, I had two dogs in my face. They wanted to go outside and play before the rain came so I let them out. And yes, the fence was still closed. Apparently while I was sleeping, the dogs were in my face whining. I felt kind of weird last night, which might explain why I slept so late today. Dogs know when something is wrong, and I think they were worried about why I was sleeping so much. After letting them back inside [before the long-awaited and typical Washington rain], I took a bath. Floating is absolutely the most relaxing thing anyone can do; I think it has to do with being in the womb or something. Either way, it's calming and I love it. I showered, dressed, and found myself not hungry but instead craving coffee [which I haven't made in over a month], so I made me some. I filled a mug to the brim, brought it to the living room, and instead of chancing a spill on any of the new furniture or the floor, I snagged a throw pillow and sat Asian-style on the floor by the table. With Sex and the City playing on the screen, my coffee beside me, and my laptop in front of me, I basically had everything I needed.

During a conversation with Laura, I decided that in the Winter after I get my camera, I'll get myself a new phone [seens how mine keeps resetting the wallpaper and ring tone randomly] with a QWERTY-keyboard and Internet connection so I can blog from wherever [work, maybe??]. I would just blog from my phone, send it to My Journal online, and copy/paste into my blog, but T-Mobile's online services are the least accessible I've ever experienced. I looked at the phones on T-Mobile.com and found the phone I want:

T-Mobile Dash™

Retailing at $299, the instant discount of $150 and a mail-in rebate of $50 price the phone at $99 if I wanted to buy it right now. The instant discount doesn't look like it'd apply to me, but if I waited for my upgrade, it'd be around the same price, if not cheaper due to it being a later time. It has a 1.3mp camera [what I have now, which isn't too bad and not too important because I'll have my sweet 12.2mp camera by then], Windows Media Player, web browsing, a memory card slot, myFaves [which I have], and Microsoft Outlook [which I love]. It also comes with a case [which I would need because I drop things all the time] and a USB cable [necessary these days, especially with T-Mobile's horrible online services].

Perfect phone.

I love my phone that I have now, but I need to really get with the times. And this'd be perfect at my new job, which I start tomorrow. I am so excited!

Can you guess what also excites me? I'll give you a hint: I mentioned Washington rain earlier. ...Do you know yet?




























I know, I know... they're just snails. But I can't get over how incredible they are! They move fast too:



AND they do weird things with their mouths:



Maybe I was a snail in a past life or something; snail reincarnated.

That Brand New < Clean and Old Car Smell

There's something therapeutic about cleaning. This morning, after taking the dogs on a big walk, I did a little bit of errand work [including getting myself a camera fund tin that is disguised as something else. No one will suspect a thing!], came home, and did some cleaning. I cleaned up the living room a bit [left overs from last night's dinner and snacking, dirty socks, sandals, etc.] and then did the dishes. I then made room for the folding cutting board on the counter, chopped up another head of Romaine lettuce [I went through that other one already! Go salads!], cleaned up the knife and cutting board, and headed outside to the smelly box that rolls.

That would be my car.

It's interesting how many of my cars I've seen around here lately. I've had my car for a couple years now and until about a month and a half ago, I hadn't seen as many as 10 other ones. Now they're all over! I'm not complaining; what's not to love about my sweet Sentra? I just wish my bumper looked as sexy as the immaculate ones that I pass on a daily basis. And how weird is it to be stopped at a light right beside a car that mirrors your own in make, model, year, and COLOR as well?? With Sapphire Blue being my car's shade, it's a rarity to see something like it. Makes me feel a little weird.

So my many plastic bags [from grocery shopping mostly; I've been doing pretty good about not buying things I don't need] and I went outside and started cleaning out the ol' vehicle. Would you believe that I had a bag of beef sticks from about 2 months ago on the floor behind my passenger seat, rotting and stinking up my car? That and about five Mocha flavored Starbucks Frappucino bottles, 20 pieces of dental floss, receipts up the pa-toot, Jack-in-the-Box bags from who knows when, and in the trunk a blanket with vomit on it from the ride home when we got Murphy...

...in late May.

I then got the shop vac out, plugged it in, and sucked the nasty out of my car. I pulled off the seat covers and steering wheel cover [saved them in case I need them in the future], and my car looked like a brand new one. I then used some Armor-all[?] on the dash and my door panels, Windexed the inside of the windows, and then washed the outside of the car.

Monday needs to hurry up and arrive, or else I'm going to start sweeping the roof.

While I was at GoodWill getting the tins for both me and my sister, I picked up two books; one was a book published in 1995 and is basically another episode that neither Andrew nor I have seen of... drum roll please... X-Files! Oh yeaaa! The other one is by Tess Gerritsen, a favourite author of mine. The title is Harvest. There were actually two copies of the book next to each other; one was the newer version with this cover:


The other was the original released copy with this cover:


I flipped through some pages and the wording was exactly the same. The only difference was the back cover's description. The older version was this:


And the newer version [a picture I cannot seem to find on the Internet] said basically the same thing with slightly different wording; the first sentence went something along the lines of, "Dr. Abby Matteo is elated when Boston's Bayside Hospital's elite cardiac transplant team taps her as a potential recruit." It's the same words basically, just a different order. And the newer one says "Abby Matteo" instead of "DiMatteo." I checked inside the newer print and the name inside is "DiMatteo." Odd that Amazon.com's listing of the book has the front cover of the newer version and the back cover of the older one. Interesting.

I started reading this after eating a nice salad [from the new Romaine]. I got about 80 pages through, surprisingly with the distraction of South Park and phone calls. For some reason, Murphy decided to sleep in his bed, in his pen, in the kitchen, all by himself. I got up, grabbed him, and moved to the old couch so that he could lay in my arms while I read my book. It was relaxing and comforting having him snuggle with me.

It was not comforting when he ran away though.

Andrew let the dogs out to go potty after his friend Charlie showed up. I realized that I might have forgotten to close the back yard gate after bringing the shop vac back to the shop area. After going outside, I confirmed my suspicions. I called for Moses and Murphy; Murphy came trotting back to me right away. Thank goodness he didn't go far. I closed the gate and told him to stay. After walking down the street a bit and back, I got the big flashlight, got in my car, and started driving around the block. I then got the idea that maybe he would take the same route that we take on our walks.

I was right.

There he was, sniffing around right around the area where the random stop sign is. We saw a dog there earlier [no leash, no fence, no nothing] and he was probably smelling its scent. I yelled his name through the window and he took off. I started driving home, hoping I would see him again [it's hard to see a black dog in the night] and I did. I called his name and he trotted next to the car and followed me home.

After Andrew put them in time out, we started watching Farce of the Penguins. Charlie fell asleep a couple times [I guess this isn't surprising] but I'm surprised that I didn't; it wasn't that great. I would have rather watched Planet Earth; which I should do anyway.

Because Planet Earth rules.

Friday, August 22, 2008

A Blogging Barista

It is so incredibly frustrating when your computer does not cooperate. Mine has been running slow for the last few days--so slow in fact, that I restored my operating system to see if that would help. Now my computer is back to basics [a completely refreshing feeling if I do say so myself] and I am still having a hard time with the speed that my programs are running. The Internet is running very slowly as well, but that isn't my computer's fault. It's just very time consuming getting all of my programs re-installed [PhotoShop, IE7, WMP11, Microsoft Office, Macromedia, etc.].

With my interview being about an hour away, I took the time to put PhotoShop back onto my computer as well as update my Internet Explorer. I cannot deal without Internet Tabs and I don't know why. Once you get used to something, it's hard to revert to older ways.

At least Notepad stays the same.

A bagel with strawberry flavored cream cheese and a banana mocha smoothie later, I got dressed up for my second interview. Nervous, I carefully placed Murphy in his pen so that his light and fine hairs wouldn't get stuck to my entirely black outfit. Considering that the manager told me that the dress code was black tops, the optional colored layer underneath, dark bottoms, and close-toed shoes, that's what I wore! Of course, I dressed it up a notch wearing dress pants, shiney flats, a v-neck thin long-sleeve "sweater," a pink sash around my waist, and a matching pink underlayer tank. It looked business-y with a little flair!

I drove to the stand and parked in the same spot I parked in for the first interview. I got there fifteen minutes early and waited for an opening at the drive-up window to ask if the manager was there yet. There wasn't an opening until noon on the dot when I went in. The manager from the Bellingham branch was there and the manager of that location was not. She basically sat me down, said she heard great things about me and wanted to meet with me, asked what my plans were and if I could be there at 4:00 on Monday.

I have a job!

It is minimum wage [$8.07/hr in Washington State] but tips on top of that might make up for my decrease in pay. The dress code is actually plain black tops, jeans, and black close-toed shoes [a memo hadn't been received at that branch so the other manager didn't know], so that's what I'm going to wear on my first day! I am so nervous.

I drove home, called a bunch of people to tell them the news, and then went to the mall to pick up two basic black tops and a pair of cheap black close-toed shoes. I do believe that was a little bit of a rhyme there. From here I picked up the dogs and went to my mom's house for a dog play-date and to visit for a bit. Goose and Cracker [her dogs] aren't too friendly. Cracker is a yapper and very territorial. Moses is a billion times his size and it's very intimidating, I imagine. Goose never used to be a brat, but I think she's just getting old and sick of everything. If Cracker gets to bark and be a brat, Goose can too. Why not? So Moses and Murphy wanted to play with them and they didn't want to play back. Cracker ended up freaking out on Moses, barking like CRAZY, and Murphy stood up for him. My little corgi standing up for an almost 4-year-old Newfie/Chow mix. Imagine that.

I then came home and started working on a little project. Danielle [now ex-coworker] said she would pay me to fix up her MySpace. She told me what she was looking for design-wise and I told her I would play around with stuff if she found the right pictures. I also said that she should sketch out what she wanted, scan it, and send it to me so I could get it exactly how she wants it. I just came home and played around with Photoshop, some pictures online, and her profile.

This is her old profile. And this is her newly re-designed one. I hope she likes it. If she doesn't, that's alright. I think it's pretty cool; much more reader-friendly than the other busy layout.

And now I'm going to watch some more Sex and the City because I have the night off. Andrew should be home in an hour and a half, so the time should go by fairly quickly.

My first blog as a hired barista. Sweet!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Day The Living Room Stood Still

I heard the rumbling around 11:25 in the morning. After showering a long and hot shower, I was helping Andrew make a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. It has been proven that his scrambled eggs are the best in the entire world [proven by word of mouth, of course]. He also makes the best food with cheese; no matter what it is, if it has cheese in it or on it, his version will be better than anyone else's. Back to the point, I heard the rumbling while I was spreading the peanut butter and jelly on Andrew's toast. He didn't hear what I heard but noticed that Moses was barking outside. While I remained in the kitchen, finishing up the toast, Andrew pulled up the projector screen to see the delivery truck with United Furniture Warehouse along the side.

Our couch and chair have arrived.

And you better believe that I am reclined in the sectional right about now. I'm pretty sure my back is in heaven; this is a much better blogging center than the previous couch where I would sit with my feet under me, knees sideways, and my laptop on my thighs with my spine twisted and my neck kinked.

Anyway, the couch arrived in its five pieces, all packaged up in a cloth covering and plastic over the top, and the recliner came in two pieces in plastic wrap. We took the recliner pieces out of the wrapping and slid them together; the pieces literally slid together, like a puzzle with only two pieces. With the help of felt foot stick-ems, we slid the recliner to its final place in the corner of the room.

The sectional took a little bit longer to assemble. We moved the black couch that we still have into the hallway, unpackaged the five pieces, added the felt stick-ems to the feet [only one short with the package we got, and that's okay!], and assembled the sectional, which was like a five-piece horizontal puzzle. It slid to its final position and magically was centered underneath the black cabinet we mounted without measuring.

It was meant to be.

The black couch was then positioned in its original spot against the wall that adjoins to the door-wall. With the rugs in place, the furniture ready to sit everyone, and the sweet cabinet in place, everything looks amazing.



The chair...



Don't mind the mess on the table. :-(


With the house looking amazing, I started getting grumpy knowing that the sink was overflowing with dirty dishes. Instead of doing them, I wanted to get out of the house and get some fresh air and some exercise. So Andrew, Moses, Murphy, and I all headed out for a walk. We went the same route but flipped directions around the block, walking toward the random stop sign from the back. On the way, we walked over a sewer grate with slits. I told Murphy to watch his paws and he literally pulled a ninja move and jumped, tapped the curb beside it, and landed on the other side of the grate.

Not lying.

Then it was off to the dump. Let me tell you, it was one stinky trip. Gross gross gross! We pulled into the bay and Andrew's friend pulled into the bay next to us. This means I didn't have to get out and help! Not lazy, just a little sore from bending over the day before getting tack strips and staples up out of the floor. Apparently everything in the truck bed slid right out; we laid Ashley's old mattress into the bed first, the box spring next, and all the carpeting and the carpet padding last. The box spring slid right off with everything on top. Good times!

We came home and I was still grumpy. I'm pretty sure it was because A.) I was sore, B.) the stack of dishes in the sink were so high, C.) the fact that I don't have a job, D.) wondering why I have to do a second interview at BigFoot Java [who does a second interview now-a-days, especially a coffee stand?? I'm bringing a change of clothes in case they want me to start working instead of doing an interview; maybe she got her wording wrong and instead of "interview" she meant "training"], D.) worrying that I won't do good at the interview and that I'll be out of luck with a job again, E.) knowing what camera I want, seeing it everywhere, and not being able to have it yet, especially without a job to help pay it off, and F.) knowing that Murphy can't come cuddle with me in the new couch or the new recliner.

But it's amazing how much doing the dishes can make you un-grumpy. It's a productive chore and although no one likes doing the dishes, it's comforting knowing that all the dishes were clean, the counters were wiped off, and the kitchen looked semi-decent, matching the new living room and dining room.

After the dishes were done, we went to Fred Meyer and picked up some curtains for the dining room. We wanted some tan/brown ones that block lots of light because that window light makes the projector screen hard to see, so we got them. It's crazy how expensive house stuff can be! We needed two curtains and each was $30. Ah! We also got some croutons because I was running low. And I needs my salad.

I needs it.

And now here I am, burger in my tummy, feet up, kickin back, listening to Andrew visit with his mom with a chirp from Sam every now and then. Tonight is about a relaxing time watching Reality Bites with Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. Anything with Janeane is fine by me.

She rocks.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Hardwood Floors 1; Carpet 0

Today was the day of the dog's de-balling. After waking up bright and early, Andrew, Moses, Murphy, and I headed over to the vet clinic on Cedardale. Turns out, there are two vet clinics within a block of each other and the one I made the appointment at was the wrong one. So we made an appointment at the other one for September 3. This place charges $110 for both dogs to get done, while the other place required an exam for each before they could get done, costing around $200. Ugh!

After this we went to Home Depot and snagged two trim pry bars. Then we went to Hollywood Video to return Field of Dreams and pick up a new movie. We went to go inside and it was locked. How weird was it that we were out and about getting chores done before most businesses even open? In the parking lot, three policemen and an Animal Control were leaving. What happened?! Ah!

We then went home and started pulling up the trim and carpets of the hallway and dining room. We borrowed Andrew's friend's truck, packed up the reclining couch, and brought it up to Bellingham. After trudging up to the second floor of an apartment building, we went to Fred Meyer and got some rugs. We then came home, made some food, and watched some South Park before working on the living room.

If people don't start living off of Caesar salads, I think I am going to go on a killing rampage.


Honestly. With my recent tries to stop eating all the time, a huge Caesar salad at lunch ties me over basically all day. It's pretty amazing.

Before:


And now presenting our new place:




How productive!! It looks really really good!

Oh, and I called the girl from BigFoot Java and she said she was just about to call me to see if I was available for an interview on Friday at noon with her and the manager of the Bellingham location. Interesting...

Oh, oh, and it started raining insanely and we had some more visitors:












Yea, one of them is pooping. Gross.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Jenna Fisher is Dead?!

How is it that during the day I can think of a billion things to blog about, but when I wait until the end of the day to blog about them, they seem so trite and unimportant?

----------//----------

This morning I woke up after having an interesting dream. I was shopping at a mall with an entire school of people. We went into this store that was literally taking up half of the mall and it had absolutely everything you could imagine in it. I was very short tempered and upset that there were so many people all around me that anything anyone said to me pissed me off and I ended up screaming bloody murder at anyone that so much as looked my way. I don't know how, but I ended up outside of a butterfly hutch and I watched a butterfly come out of its cocoon. It was pretty cool, but when I went to walk away, there was a basket full of clothes and groceries that someone picked out and gave to me to buy. I got super pissed and started throwing everything all over the store and breaking all the fixtures and hurting people.

It was about ten minutes until the mall closed and people were still shopping, but they had finally left me alone. I walked looking at clothes. I found a cool grey top that sat off the shoulders with a built in top that kept it from falling down. It wasn't one of those tank tops inside; it was different. Anyway, I grabbed my size in that and started finding some more cool clothes that I liked. Turns out, everyone got $600 to spend today and when the mall closed, we were rushed out and I only got to spend around $40. I was super pissed that I was such a two-year-old brat and I missed out on spending over $500 on sweet clothes. The cashier felt bad for me [who would?] and gave me the difference on a gift card for the mall. We all then got onto a bus and started driving home.

The next day I talked my folks into driving all the way to this mall [a few hours away from our town] so I could use my gift card. We got there, split up, and started looking around. I met an older man who was pushing a metal cart; he offered to pay me to help him for an hour or so. I agreed [we were spending the whole day at the mall; who wouldn't agree to help out a strange old man pushing a metal cart?] and we pushed the cart out of the mall, across the parking lot, and into the building of an old folks' home. He explained to me that he delivers the food to the residents and needed help because that day was hamburger day and they were running low on supplies.

We took the cart into the basement, loaded it up with buns, meat, and condiments, and headed down to the other end of the wing. I didn't realize it until we were there, but it was the morgue. He loaded up two dead chopped up bodies [one was Jenna Fisher from "The Office"] onto the cart, and we started walking back toward the elevator. I was freaking out at this time [who wouldn't?!] and was trying to figure out a way to get back to the mall safely. We went up to the ground level, went outside, and started rolling the cart up the hill where the barbecues were. I was pushing the cart and the man was pulling it. We stopped because an old black man resident wanted something to eat. I handed the creepy man a plate with three patties on it and a bun and when he was handing it to the black man, I started running down the hill. He threw things at me to try and get me to stop, but I managed to get back to the mall.

----------//----------

After a mighty breakfast of a plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese and a mocha frappe around 11:00, I took the dogs for a walk. It was the same route we took before with the same odd stop sign. This time, we encountered a woman and a black dog. She "pulled off" into a driveway to let me and the two dogs pass. I thought it would be a pleasant passing, but the dogs barked and wanted to sniff each other incredibly bad. I had to tug and tug to get them focused. They did very well, other than this bit of excitement.

Then I cleaned the kitchen and living room. In the kitchen I put away the clean dishes, did the dirty ones, cleaned the counters [both the visible spaces and those underneath and behind the deep frier, microwave, and toaster], the stove top, and then underneath the cupboards where the sweat of grease and cooking oil rises and sticks. Then I swept and mopped. Although you can't really tell that I cleaned the kitchen floor, it smelled a lot different [I.E. ammonia city!]. I let the dogs outside for a bit while the smell seeped out through open windows. I then cleaned off the couches, the table tops, and windexed the glass. I also took pictures of the couch and chair set we might put up on Craigslist as well as the set of tables with the glass top.

I picked up A Beautiful Mind and went to Hollywood Video to make a trade [originally going for Million Dollar Baby at #133/250, I picked up Field of Dreams instead, forgetting what I had gone there for]. After this I went to Target and did an amazing job of only getting what I went for [razor heads, glass cleaner, and a trim remover for the carpets].

I came home and around 3:45 [24 hours after my interview!] made myself an absolutely ginormous Caesar salad. Getting the head of romaine really paid off. It tastes delicious! I watched what I didn't watch of Fargo and played around with my MySpace.

Sam came home from work and announced that the BigFoot scandal was a hoax. I'm hoping that the coffee stand isn't that way as well, because they have yet to call and it's 10:00. If she doesn't call by 6:00 or 7:00 tomorrow, I'm calling her cell phone number [like she told me to]. I want to know! If I'm not going to get it, I have to start pushing super hard at other places. Ah! I need a job. I need money.

And I need this Canon camera. It would be perfect if I worked at the coffee stand because I would save my tips in a jar labeled "Camera fund."

Here I go again, getting my hopes up.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Getting 'em Up Again

I wanted to take the dogs for a walk this morning, but a welcomed change in the weather prevented me from doing so. The trickling of a misty and hardly noticeable Washington rain dissuaded me from getting the small bit of walking exercise that the dogs and I needed. Instead of walking, I got myself ready for the day; this means I actually got dressed, brushed [wow!] and straightened my hair, and put make-up on. My goal was to apply at more places because it is getting ridiculous how much money I am going to take out of my savings to pay for bills and my out-of-control spending habits [not so out-of-control when I have a job to support it], and I had to look presentable.

With gas prices as high as they are [even after a slight dip], why waste it driving around and asking if places are hiring and look like a fool if they're not? I called a bunch of places, all of which were not hiring but "always accepting applications" [a line I programmed into my auto-response function at PacSun when job inquiries came]... all of which until I dialed BigFoot Java's number.

Is it because BigFoot's body has allegedly been found? Is it because of this that fate had me dial the number? I applied a long while ago [last October!] and being as it is a coffee stand [tips = compensation for pay decrease from a position of management to the bottom position in a new company], I was still interested. It was about 1:30 and the girl who answered the phone passed it on to the manager [who wasn't supposed to be there at the time... fate again?] who asked if I could come in for an interview at 3:45. Literally, this one phone call got me an interview two hours and fifteen minutes later.

Now what was I going to do to pass the time without passing the interview time? I grabbed the video from last night, swung by my folks' house, picked up two of the movies there, went to Hollywood Video, returned the three movies, and picked out a movie with the MVP deal for free [I grabbed A Beautiful Mind. Although Russell Crowe is heinous to look at, he was good in Gladiator and the movie won best picture in 2001, so why not? It has the dad from Stepmom, the girl from Requiem for a Dream and the kid from Rent, Adventures in Babysitting, and I just now see an episode of "The X-Files" and my favourite movie, Twister].

From here I went to the mall to Ritz Camera to learn some more about SLR digital cameras [the big fancy ones with the removable lenses]. The employee told me about the good ones to start out with, and I'm thinking I want a Canon EOS Digital SLR Camera with at least 10.1 megapixels [12+ would be amazing!] with the basic 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 image stabilizer lens to start out with, getting a 28-300 mm f/3.5-6.3 IS lens later on, a flash, and a tripod when the time and funds came. This'll be kind of spendy.

I then went to PacSun to visit people and see my old manager and see how things were going. I was basically ignored and rushed out. I'm not quite sure if that's how it was meant to go, but I don't really feel welcome in there anymore, and I guess I can see why: I got out and they're still stuck in the bullshit that is PacSun.

Then, I drove to BigFoot Java, parked, and waited until the drive-up window was empty. I walked up, resume in hand, and asked for Kiara [I remembered cause it sounded like "tiara" but with a "k"; how juvenile]. She wasn't there, so I waited inside the stand. Inside. I saw everything from the employee's location; let me tell you, it looked super fun and super organized. When she arrived, I went around the corner to the manager's room and had a brief chat with Kiara, the manager. She was 22, not even two years older than me, and seemed super nice. We ended up chatting about her vacation she had just gotten back from as well as how things run at the stand. She said I would find out either tonight or in the next couple days whether or not I got the job. So basically it went extremely well and I'm getting my hopes up, like I always do.

I then came home, made a delicious salad from my recently chopped up romaine head, ate some pizza and some cheesy bread wheel slices, drank a soda, and watched about five episodes of Sex and the City.

What else can I do to distract myself from staring at my phone like a creep?

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Happy Berfday

I figured that if I waited a couple days before blogging, it would be more interesting. I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Friday was the day we decided on our furniture. The couch is the same as in the previous blog. Here is a website for the sectional. It basically has the same picture I had posted but it also shows the optional ottoman [which we opted out of because it was another $200+]. It is called the Galini Sectional by Primo International. The recliner is called the Romulus. I have a lame phone picture along with an online photo [in the non "clamshell" color]:




I sent the photo of the recliner to My T-Mobile Album and once again, it is taking forever to load. Although my phone is absolutely amazing, I wish that there were easily available covers for it [I drop mine more than any other human being on the planet] as well as an upgraded online experience. This blows.

Back to the furniture... we put an ad on Craigslist for the main couch we sit on [$300 obo] and Andrew is working on possibly selling the other couch + chair set back to his sister. The new tan furniture will be delivered on Thursday, and Andrew is pretty set on delivering our couch [already sold from the ad!] to a guy in Bellingham on Wednesday, leaving just enough time for a Thursday morning delivery. How exciting!!

Today is Andrew's birthday; he turned 25. I was really excited for the presents I gave him, which meant I couldn't post this until after he opened them because I didn't want to give anything away. I did one of our family's traditions [The Sticky Note Game! 25 different notes hidden around the house with instructions on each how to get to the next one] to get to where the presents are. My mom and I went to Costco around 11:00 yesterday morning [A.) because the gifts wouldn't fit in my car, and B.) even if they could, Andrew took my car to work], picked up some things [presents for him from me as well as from my mom and dad, groceries my folks needed, etc.], stopped by Target for wrapping utensils, went to Party City for better wrapping utensils, and then came back to my place. After wrapping the easy presents, we went outside and wrapped the huge and heavy one. After I hid the "sticky" notes in their appropriate places, my mom left. She is literally an amazing gift wrapper:




She wants her own wrapping room [like Aaron Spelling has!] and someday she will get it because she deserves it and she's good at it.

I'm typing this from the black leather[?] chair in the corner of the room. I grabbed a Snapple to drink and couldn't find a convenient spot to put it while I typed. I don't think that'll be a problem on Thursday with our new couch! But this will be the location of our new recliner. It looks kind of corny from the picture I took [like a poof ball] but it is amazingly comfortable, leans back really far [which the couch recliners don't do as intensely], and it swivels! I'm sure it would be easy to move to view the screen if we had a lot of company over. I wouldn't be the one to move it though; the last time I tried moving a swivel recliner, I dropped it on my big toe and it basically demolished what was once a toe nail. It has been disgusting ever since, but recently I started using a nail fungus treatment [started after I dropped the chair and the nail got infected or something] and it has been working miraculously. I am not putting up pictures [like I mentioned before], but the nails are looking super healthy and super shiny [with the help of my nail buffer!].

I see both Murphy and Moses laying on our carpeted floors, enjoying the coldness that is our air conditioning. It has been ferociously hot outside lately [up to the 100s even, I believe] and although it is great Summer weather, it is not for me. I enjoy the cold weather much more than the hot. I would rather wear jeans and a sweatshirt or coat than shorts and a tank top. I just recently got into wearing tank tops in public [I felt that they were too revealing] so the heat isn't keeping me inside, but I choose to be because it is more tolerable. Will the house stay cooler when we take up the carpets and just have hardwood floors? I hope so, but I also hope that I can find some sweet slippers like I had before [but ended up getting so thin that I had to call it quits].

Andrew decided he wanted to open presents at 12:01 am so we did everything we could to make the time pass. We watched Requiem for a Dream [amazing! Rated #62 on the top 250 movies on IMDb.com] and Shutter [an alright movie with an overused plot line, pretty poor acting, Roy from "The Office," a kind of cool/weird ending, but a 4.8/10 rating]. After this we farted around, ate a bit, and put in Fargo [#115/250]. I fell asleep not even a fifth of the way into the movie [Ugh! I love that movie too!] and when I woke, the end credits were beginning to roll, Andrew was smiling in my face, I looked at my phone, and it was 12:15 am, the precise minute he was born 25 years ago. I sent him a text saying, "Happy Birthday! ...Look behind the toaster." The scavenger hunt began:

2.) Look in the DVD case for “Yoga for Beginners”
3.) Look on the inside of the bottom toilet paper roll in the cupboard above the toilet
4.) Look behind the picture of you smiling really big by the front door
5.) Look on the underside of the wooden bowl that is under the ClearWire stand and router
6.) Eject the tape in my VHS player in my room
7.) Unscrew the lightbulb that is burnt out in the living room
8.) Look on the bottom of the smallest candy container jar on the kitchen counter
9.) Look under the bottom thing of Q-Tips in the cupboard above the toilet
10.) Look behind the pig picture
11.) Look on the underside of the full laundry detergent container [the kind that we usually use]
12.) Open up the United Furniture Warehouse umbrella and look inside
13.) Unscrew my lightswitch cover
14.) Look on the inside of the Ritz box
15.) Look behind the VCR in the living room cabinet
16.) Look under Murphy’s food dish
17.) Feel underneath your drum seat / chair
18.) Look on the inside of the picture of Cracker on the zebra blanket
19.) Look in the VHS case for Memento
20.) Look in my ceramic frog’s mouth on my shelf by my beads
21.) Look in the left-most colorful mug on the top shelf of the right-side cupboard
22.) Look on the back of one of the Jackelope’s ears
23.) Look inside the fireplace
24.) Look in my left DC black sneaker in my closet
25.) Open the bus in the backyard

...and in the bus were my two wrapped presents. We used the flashlight because it was really dark outside. One present was a steel shelving fixture [that he already has two of and wanted more] and the other was a 34-piece painting set that hooks on to an air compressor. I'm not sure how the latter works really, but he does and was really excited about it.

We then came inside, opened up the card and gifts from my parents, and called it a night.




This morning we woke up and took the dogs for a morning walk before the hot hot sun arrives full force. We usually walk the dogs just around our little block but feeling a little bit un-exercising lately [aka "lazy and getting fat"], I suggested it be a different route. We walked maybe a little under a mile round trip, but it was worth it. The dogs got some exercise, we got some exercise, and we got to check out more of the neighborhood, including the most random stop sign ever:


Honestly... why? It is such a slow neighborhood and there are a few other of the exact same intersections without stop signs. How random!

From there I went to Haggen, picked up some groceries, came home, and we all sat down and watched Grandma's Boy [yet another stoner movie to add to our recently viewed category]. I felt hungry but decided to give myself a time when I could eat because I knew I was just bored and falling into the habit of eating junk when we watch movies. 3:30 was my time and I had two and a half hours to go. After the movie I had 45 more minutes so I started making some No Bake cookies and some fudge.








The first picture looks like vomit in a pot, but I assure you it's not [rhyme]. It is the prequel to no-bakes, which kind of defeats the name because I had to boil the stuff first. I didn't think it would actually boil, with so much dry ingredients. I went to a bunch of websites to try and find the recipe [here!]. And the fudge didn't fit all that well in the rectangular tray, but it called for a square tray anyway. I called my gramma and she didn't have the precise measurements with her. She told me the ingredients and I found one website and copied down their stuff. Similar to this website, but I mixed up the URLs for the fudge, so don't quote me. The last picture has both desserts I made as well as the cake that Sam made a few days ago. I then chopped up the head of romaine lettuce I got at the store:




I totally scored! This whole thing was $1.50! I just had to chop it up myself. I hope it's just as good. If not, I'm going to get the huge bag of chopped romaine I saw for $3.99 [and asked myself why I wasn't getting that before]. We'll see! Andrew, Sam, and I went to Fred Meyer to get some gallon-size zip-lock bags for the lettuce [so it will preserve longer], Alfy's [for some birthday stuffed crust pepperoni pizza], Papa Murphy's [cheesy bread wheels], and Hollywood Video [to rent Shawshank Redemption -- #1 on IMDb.com's Top 250, by the way].

After the food and movie [absolutely amazing], Andrew moved our two Scott Mutter posters from one wall to either side of the new wooden cabinet. It looks really good! With Andrew possibly bringing the other couch up to Bellingham on Wednesday [after we bring the dogs to the vet -- sad day], we will have room for the new couch and it will look amazing with the posters, cabinet, and future hardwood floor!

I'm going to go spend time with the birthday boy.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Productive

I was determined to give Moses a bath. I meant to yesterday but the sun set a lot faster than I had anticipated and after watching three movies, I made it my personal goal to have him washed first thing after getting up.

...and I did. I hooked up the hose and sprayer outside and in the 85°+ weather, it made me want to hook up the sprinkler instead. With some resistance I hosed him down, lathered him with Perfect Coat, and rinsed him off. He did pretty well, considering he did NOT want to be bathed. While I did this, Andrew mowed the front lawn.

After this, I put away the clean dishes and cleaned the dirty ones. Andrew vacuumed the living room. I'm pretty sure we were extremely productive.

A little bit of non-productivity was spent at a cool blog [Photoshop Disasters] where people let the author know about media publications of pictures with Photoshop mess-ups. We spent a little under an hour looking at these oddities. Lots of fun though!

Sam came home from being out and about with a billion bags of groceries. I'm not joking when I tell you that the freezer in the garage is full. Overflowing. Ah!

After this, Andrew and I decided to look at furniture at stores to see what was out there. Andrew has been wanting to rip up the carpet, get rid of the leather couches and chair, paint the walls, and get new furniture. So we went to Ashley Furniture and checked out the selection there.

And there was none.

From there we went to Furniture City and found a pretty sweet couch with a chase. The coloring was kind of off [black with dark olive / forest green cushions and multi-colored throw pillows] but next to that couch was another one that was amazingly comfortable.

From there we walked to United Furniture Warehouse and found the couch:






How sweet is this?? It's only $899 and we found a matching recliner for $369. We were very very excited, got some information, and went to Fred Meyer. We looked at the couch that Andrew had been thinking about for a long while. It's a dark brown couch with a chase and tan cushions and backing. It's very nice but was on sale for about $1,100. Deciding that the theatre seat layout was the way we were going to go, we looked at a few things and picked up a cool cabinet for the projector and game consoles.

With no room for it in my car, we drove to my folks' house, picked up my mom's Durango, filled it with all my home stuff, went to Fred Meyer, got the cabinet, went to Costco, returned my Rachel Ray pots and pans [although it was a 10-piece Hard Anodized Aluminum set which is absolutely AMAZING, the orange handles didn't go too well with anything], returned my glassware at WalMart, and went to our house to drop everything off.

I switched cars while Andrew set up the cabinet. He finished while I finished unpacking my dinnerware and glassware, finished packing up Andrew's dinnerware, and stacked up all my other house stuff by the bar.

Now we're watching South Park on the projector with no shadows from the ceiling fan because of its position in the cabinet.

I feel as if our day was extremely productive. But I'm not going to be productive now because I'm going to watch the show now.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Not Meant To Be

I was woken this morning with a phone call from the branch manager of Washington Federal Savings:

"We're going to offer the position to another one of the five candidates we interviewed."

So I started off my day on the wrong foot. Now I don't know quite what to do job-wise. I will have to go through, apply at more places [that aren't hiring], go through more interviews, and face the fact that I may get rejected for the job yet again. I guess this job just wasn't meant to be.

After getting up, I called a Mount Vernon vet clinic to set up exams and neutering of both the dogs. It'll be a sad day come Wednesday. Sad sad day.

At 1:40, Andrew and I snuck some Jack-in-the-Box into the theatre and saw Pineapple Express. It was pretty funny. Not the best movie in the world, but another one of Seth Rogen's funny roles. I'd probably rate it a 7.3/10. IMDb.com has it as an 8.0. Andrew gave it an 8.2.

After this, we went to the pawn shop because we wanted to pick up a couple movies [Butterfly Effect, 300, and Gladiator]. 300 was there but the other ones weren't. The movies are $3.99 each or six for $20.00. We picked out 300, Wedding Crashers, Girl, Interrupted, Cinderella Man, Black Sheep, and The Mexican. We picked out all the movies and were walking up to purchase them when all of a sudden, the power shut off. Apparently a Draper Valley Chicken Truck hit some power line and all the power to most of Mount Vernon was shut off for a little over a half hour. Wal-Mart too was turning away customers! There was an article on the Skagit Valley Herald website about it too. So we're locked in a pawn shop, can't buy our DVDs, and don't want to waste time waiting around for who knows how long. It just wasn't meant to be.

After they unlocked the door for us, we left and went to K-Mart [which sucked], Fred Meyer [found Butterfly Effect and Gladiator], and then home again. We watched Gladiator [extremely good movie], I brushed both Moses and Murphy, and then gave Murphy a bath.

Now we're watching Butterfly Effect and I'm going to cut it short because it's an extremely good movie.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

It's A Wrap!

The last couple days have mostly been focused on finishing my dad's birthday present. I tried not to blog about it because I didn't want him finding out exactly what I was making, even though I put up some pictures of Brittany earlier and mentioned frames, I think. Anyway, I used a frame from Ross to make a collage of sorts with seven pictures each of Brit, Kels, and myself, and eight pictures of Sam to fill all the spaces. I also had four 5" x 7" frames from Wal-Mart to put a picture of each of us girls in. Here are the ones I chose for the 5" x 7" frames:








Here are Brit's seven chosen shots:














Kels's seven:














Sam's eight:
















...and my seven:














...this is going to be a long [actual length, not word count] blog. Anyway, I finished all the pictures by about 4:30 today, giving me an hour and a half to get everything printed, set up, wrapped, and over to my folks' house.

This morning, Andrew and I put the pictures that we had [all but Kels's] into the montage frame. The dimensions given for each picture hole weren't for the picture needed; they were for the actual hole itself. So when I printed out the pictures at the correct dimensions, they ended up having some spaces showing on the sides. I figured that we could flip the backing around so that instead of the cardboard brown side facing inward and the black matching the back facing outward, black would be facing in and take away from all the spaces and it wouldn't matter about the back view because no one looks at the back anyway. It was a good idea. But also, for each picture hole, there wasn't a nesting space for the picture. So Andrew [so kind to put up with my frustration] taped them onto the plastic covering between the frame and the pictures while I laid underneath the glass table and told him which way to scoot the picture before taping.

No wait, it gets better.

After taking Kels's pictures in the afternoon, I realized that I had forgotten to get wrapping paper and a card at Wal-Mart earlier when we got more photo paper and a color ink cartridge. I asked my mom if I could use some of hers because she had extra and she said that I could. Looking at the selection, it was nothing but small rolls. I decided to go to Fred Meyer and get a big roll and just use that for other presents when the time comes [Andrew's birthday is coming up as well as Sam's]. At Fred Meyer, I picked up a shirt for my dad to go along with the picture gifts, a funny card [the front said something along the lines of "I wanted to give you the sun and the stars..." and the inside said "...but I decided to give you the moon instead!" and it had a picture of a cartoon man pulling down his pants. Of course, I taped a picture of my head on this guy's body. No big deal], and 2 rolls of silver wrapping paper [to go along with some bows I snagged from my mom]. When I got home I undid the plastic around the wrapping paper of one of the rolls and started unraveling the next layer of plastic. I thought to myself, "When does the wrapping paper start?" and realized what had happened:

They used a silver roll on the inside for clear wrapping material for gift baskets.

Of course this would happen. I call Kels and ask her to bring me a roll of my mom's stuff that she just bought. She does and it ends up being literally one tiny piece of wrapping paper [on an un-opened roll, no less] that barely covered one side of the photo montage frame. I decided that it wasn't meant to be, so I grabbed some boxes from the garage, put the frames in a Cheez-It box and the shirt in a food chopper box, put a bow on each, taped the wrapping paper sheet to the front of the montage frame, put a bow on the top, and called it good. At least the card had the proper "wrap job." Here are my presents mixed in with some others:


Don't be jealous of my skills. After my dad got home, we started up on the food.




Don't be jealous of my dad's cooking skills. Okay, you can a little bit. Although I didn't eat much [ate a muffin and some pizza earlier in the day], it was delicious!

From here we took a whack at the piƱata that Sam picked out of a Barbie.


After it was decapitated, my mom tossed out candy, first tossing a large bag of Reese's Pieces to my dad.




While everyone headed inside, B-Ray checked out Barbie's head and SCORED!




Then we did gifts, and here's my dad [new du-rag in place] opening my presents that he loved:




Here's a semi-distorted final version of the collage thing:


After receiving many sweet presents and sweets themselves, we sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew out the 41 candles:




The brownie cake was very VERY rich but very VERY good! Then people began making their way to their cars and my folks turned on the television. This is when I called it a night because honestly, all there is on cable these days is reality shows. My mom told me tonight about some show called "G's to Gents" where some gang member G-thugs are transformed into gentlemen. How honestly stupid are the minds of this country to actually want to watch this? Is this show getting good ratings? I am not even going to waste any part of my life Googling it [is that an official verb yet?]. I am so glad we don't have cable. I don't care about thugs turning into gentlemen. I am kind of looking forward to hearing about the next idiotic reality show so that I can get a good laugh and maybe a paragraph or two of a blog out of it.

Murphy is tossing and turning next to me. I'm going to let Jewel lull him to sleep. Not "LOL," which is by the way the all time most annoying thing in the entire history of anything. End this please, as well as the stupid <333093985730984752 thing, the =] smileys, using more than one comma at a time for no apparent reason, and the stupid [HxC] crap. You are not "hardcore" if you say you are. It's like when you're young and adults say, "That's cool!" and it's so not because they say it is. Thx [which is NOT annoying].