Friday, December 30, 2005

Celebrate good times...

COME ON!

The 3-day work week rocks, but the 4 day weekend rocks harder!

So far today I've slept in, chatted with my bro about the wonderful world of SIMs, and now I'm off to make some killer pancakes. Today will be filled with baking a birthday cake for one of the best friends a girl can have (HAPPY BIRTHDAY Julie!), and then celebrating said birthday with all her friends. There may be a bit of SIMs play mixed in there, and if I'm really lucky, I'll get out of the house to the gym (since it's likely going to rain all day long).

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!


Post-Posting Note: The beautiful and very tasty cake in the pictures in not of my making. My minor creation will be had by the family tomorrow (Dec 31st).

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Today's Menu

Breakfast
Maple Bar Doughnut and Tea - MMMMMmmmmm
It's my Friday and the last work day of the year, and I found a free all-day parking spot, it's time to CELEBRATE

Lunch
Warm Cheve Salad - Mixed greens tossed with vinaigrette and topped with slices of pear, toasted pecans and warm goat cheese

Dinner
Cornmeal Crust Pizza (toppings TBD, but you better believe that CHEESE will be involved) & Ceasar Salad

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Game Over

Back to work
Back to the house that screams "FIX ME!"
Back to the carpet that is covered in cat puke
Back to trying to figure out what to do about my life
Back to waking up before the sun
Back to dreaming about hiking everyday, instead of doing it

But also back to normal schedules,
and lovey kitties,
and the gym,
and no tempation of an XBOX,
and warmer weather (still wet, but so much warmer!)
and my own kitchen toys.

Vacations are good, but home is nice too.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Vacationing with the SIMs

Days into the Vacation = 3
Days spent playing SIMs = 2

The last 2 days have been full of gorgeous sunshine, low winds, and beautiful sites. Too bad I spent them staring at my laptop playing SIMs. I have literally been staring at the screen for almost 2 full days. Besides the intermittent trips to the bathroom, breaks to play on the XBox with the family, and going out to eat, I've been totally engrossed in directing a family of simulated beings. If I can't run my life smoothly, I need to get that satisfaction somewhere else!

Friday, December 09, 2005

Attention loss

Today is a very hard day. Of course it is Friday so most people with M-F jobs or school would be full of joy and glee with the count down to the weekend. But no, not I. Nothing is holding my attention today. Nothing.

I do a little of this, then my mind wanders over to that, then I try to go back to this, just to inevitably end up somewhere else. Today is not a high accomplishment day.

If anyone finds my attention in their neck of the woods, let me know and I'll come over to get it right away. No really, it's no problem. I can come right away cause I've probably already lost interest in what I was doing anyway.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Doh!

Getting toothpaste in the eye really burns.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The New Toy and Those That Pay


I got myself an early present this year!
And guess who gets to be annoyed by the constant flashing that has not stopped in the last few days
(at least while I'm at home).











But how can I resist?

Monday, December 05, 2005

Post Office - Ho Ho Woes

I need stamps. Holiday Stamps. So I can send out greeting cards.... yea, thats why I haven't sent those out yet... yeah, thats the ticket. You just can't put the everyday Flag stamp on a Holiday Card. Oh no! You must make an extra trip to the Post Office to pick up different stamps to decorate that envelope that will not be noticed and will end up in the shredder or recycling bin within moments of its receipt.

There is a post office right across the street from my office, so its usually very handy to get things done there in the middle of the day when no one else is supposed to be there. Unfortunetly, the other 20+ people in the post office line today had that same idea. The line was already to the door when I entered the building, and continued to build behind me.

I noted the Automated Machine had a sign that said it had Holiday Stamps, so I stepped out of line to use that. YEAH, I can use the niffty machine and skip the line. But no, it wasn't working for purchases at the moment. So back in line I got (thank you to the person that let me back in at the same spot!). I stand there thinking, "I really hope they have them and I'm not waiting here just to not be working right now!", so I scan the walls for a sign saying they are sorry but they are out of holiday stamps. I've seen this on more then one occassion, and I'm usually irritated at the waste of time of the trip, but thankful for the sign.

30 minutes passed until I got to the front of the line, when of course they had the changing of the guard, so I had to wait for the new lady to tiddy up her work space and sign in. She smiles and asks, "May I help you?"

I kindly ask for 4 packs of Holiday stamps, and she says they are out, and the supervisor is sick so they can't order more. HELLO, did I jinx myself?
She smiles and offers me flowers or love designs, and I thanked her, and said maybe they should put up a sign.

UGH!

So if no one gets a Holiday Card from me...there is my excuse! :-)

Happy holidays everyone!

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

I'm sick. be nice

Thanksgiving morning my mom called and said she had a pretty bad cold so she said that they would come shortly before dinner and not stay long. Of course it still ended up being about a 6 hour event.

By Saturday morning, my throat was scratchy, and by Sunday night, the cough had really set in. You know those Musinex commercials? The good old mucus monster was moving in.

Phlegm..yes
This morning it was yellow.

I absolutley have to go to school tonight so it'll likely be green by morning.

Joy!

Drugs good......

Monday, November 28, 2005

To School or Not to School.... cont.

I have decided to continue with my Sociology class. I really do enjoy the class, but still do not enjoy the paper writing. Which is why I'm now 4 papers in the hole and only a few more weeks of class left.

I don't know if I'm in some sort of funk or depressed or just plain tired. Neither Eric or I have any energy to do our school work, yet we seem to have the desire. Somehow we always fill our time with other activities and don't sit ourselves down to do the school work.

This last weekend we had 4 whole days off and we planned on getting all caught up. Somehow another weeknd went by with very little getting done. Between cooking, the gym, naps, TV, more naps, and some baking, I've had no time to sit infront of the computer and put together a well thought out paper. Its always easier to clean the toilet then to write a paper (I've found).

I did get the hardest part of my school work done while cooking and eating Thanksgiving dinner. I interviewed my father on ALL sorts of stuff my family just doesn't talk about. I learned a lot about my father that most people know by the time they are in their teens. And on Sunday I talked to my mom and got even more information on her family history. You see, my parents didn't really talk to thier parents and my parents don't really talk to us, so.... a Sociology Project on my family's history and how it has made me who I am, is really quite difficult.

I even had panic attacks when I would think about this project. I spent a whole therapy session talking about it, and dealing with the fear and the feeling that I could have made my family's relationships better. I told my teacher that I was really uncomfortable about this project and had a panic attack in front of him (which ended in me running out of the room crying). The next week he asked if I was doing better, and I told him that I would send him my therapist's bill. He laughed... I didn't.

I guess it didn't turn out so bad, but now I have to write the stupid paper. Damn! The one time in my life where I'd rather do an Oral Report then a written one.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Cream Top Sadness

Today I took BART in an effort to save some money (Bridge Toll + Gas + Parking). I was all chipper and excited despite my mile walk to the office and lengthened commute home, since I knew that I would be walking by Whole Foods. I would have the chance to stop in to stock up the work fridge with my new all time favorite treat, CREAM TOP yogurt (Brown Cow Dairy).

As I grabbed the cute little green plastic basket and skipped my way through the wine, and cheese sections, to get to the back of the store where they keep my treat at the perfect temperature, I smiled and almost giggled in anticipation of the smooth, creamy, fatty goodness.

I rounded the corner of the dairy section and I was struck by the site of a black hole where the shelf was supposed to be, and no sale signs in site. Yes, it is true. The sale was over AND they were completely wiped out of the delectable Cream Top Yogurt. Oh sure, they were stocked with the low fat version by the same dairy, but what’s the point of paying too much for a little tub of yogurt, if you don’t get the sinful CREAM TOP!

I sadly scanned the prices for the cheapest counterpart, and found nothing less then 79 cents. Feeling defeated, I put a few flavors of the 79 cent variety in my stupid basket and made my way to the check out. To make my trip worth it I stopped at the bakery to get a scone (which ended up tasting like it was FAT FREE and therefore FLAVOR FREE).

Sigh.

The Ultimate Student Question

To drop or not to drop.

Only 4 more weeks left of school, and this Friday is the deadline to drop classes and get a W. I have one project that is 4 weeks late, 2 extra credit papers that I haven’t done the research on yet, and a final project that I am dreading because it involves interviewing family members and finding out all of that information that my family doesn’t talk about.

This is THE class of my dreams, as far as the topic goes, but I can’t seem to get myself to do any of the class work. I participate in discussions, I answer questions, I share my experiences and my dreams. I am fascinated by the lectures and want to continue the discussions with my friends. But I just can’t seem to dedicate any of my time outside of class.

Am I scared?
Am I overloaded?
Am I not dedicated?
Do I really want to be in school?
How can I be so into this class, but not do ANY work for it?

Tests suck

Tests suck when you don’t read the chapters that the test is based on.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Cream Top

I went to Whole Foods the other day to stock the fridge at the office with some yogurt so I wouldn't have to remember to bring one everyday. Well, since I usually go to Safeway and get the Lucerne Fat Free stuff, I forgot what real yogurt could be like.

Being at Whole Foods there is of course no Lucerne. So I was going to have to get one the FOOFY "Natural" brands, that cost sooo much more. Brown Cow yogurt was on sale so I picked up a few. I noted the "Cream Top" and figured that since the fruit is on the bottom, this was just the Marketing Depts way of making a selling point of the fact that all the fruity goodness is on the bottom, and the boring cream was ontop. BOY WAS I WRONG!

Cream Top... means a LAYER OF CREAM (as I knew from Cream Top Milk), but who ever thought that Cream Top Yogurt meant there was a layer of Yogurt made from CREAM on the top. Not I!

Oh it is heavanly. It's like a thin layer of Mascarpone, which is like a richer, but not as flavorful cream cheese. I know there are people like myself that are perfectly happy with a knife and a block of cream cheese for dinner (maybe with a few crackers scattered about, so you don't totally gross out the neighbors as they walk by and see you on your couch in front of the TV chowing down on a brick of fat). So this was quite a happy finding as I sat down to my ho hum breakfast of yogurt and tea.

This discovery makes my dinner even more exciting. Especially since I'm stuck working until about 11pm tonight and all I have here is Yogurt and Cheerios. YEA for me, for planning ahead and buying multiple days of yogurt.

(note to self: buy more yogurt tomorrow)

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

To School or not to School?

Why am I trying to fit school into my life right now?
Do I really care about the end goal?
Although I love my current class, I can’t seem to do any of the work outside of the class, yet I go to the lecture every week.
I know I won’t give a rat’s ass about the other GE classes I will be forced to take in order to transfer, so how will I stay motivated to attend those classes?
It feels like it’s just a big weight and stress that hangs on me and drags me down.
I have quit school every time I randomly become motivated to go back. This has happened almost every semester since 1992.

I’m bitter at work.
I’m bitter at school.
And honestly, its causing me to be short, tired and bitter at home too.

This weekend I hung out with friends, and took a nap with a very cute, and snuggly baby. Then I went home and ate, worked some then napped, and then woke up just to get ready for bed, and then went back to sleep. The next day I woke up late, worked a little more, ate, napped, went to the gym for 30 minutes, then stared at the TV and then worked until 1am, and then went to bed.

Lots of sleeping this weekend, and somehow I completely avoided the 2 papers that were due 2 weeks ago, and will now not be accepted. So basically…I’ve now failed the class. I may have gotten lots of sleep this weekend, but its only Tuesday and all I want to do is go home and sleep.