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Gilligan's Cool Jazz Island
• Tuesday, August 30, 2005 • 12:06 AM
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Earlier this evening I was feeling really tired, but I wasn't quite ready to sleep yet. So, I thought I would watch a little bit of television. I was flipping through the channels in a sleepy stupor when I saw video of a jazz band playing on the steps of the Missouri capital building. I noticed that there appeared to be no one in the audience. Then, I also noticed, that they were playing a cool jazz version of the Gilligan's Island theme song. The trumpets were blasting out the "millionaire and his wife" part. The keyboardist tumbled into a very awkward solo; I changed the channel. While one question is answered, ten more mysteries remain. I think I'm going to bed.
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Yes!
• Monday, August 29, 2005 • 3:50 PM
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I just got the call: I'm employed!! I'm going to be working for Columbia College! It sounds like a great place to work. The people seem really nice, plus I'm going to get great benefits. Yay for having a job! I'm starting on the 6th. I'm really relieved. When I got the call, I had just gotten back from the vet where I dropped almost $50 on Mao.
In other news, I got new chicken feed today. The chicks are almost to egg laying age, so they need a food with a different nutritional balance. I went to a little feed store on the edge of town to pick up a bag. I paid inside and they guy at the register told me that someone would take it out to my car for me. So, I went outside to open my trunk. At about the same time, a confused looking guy came out carrying a sack of feed. When he saw no one else was in the parking lot except for me, he came up and asked if the feed was for me. When I said yes, he still looked confused and just kind of looked at me for a moment before setting it in the trunk. I said thank you, and he just kind of looked at me, then said I was welcome. I guess I don't look like the typical farm customer, especially with my pink t-shirt and blue skull sneakers on.
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I'm So Full
• 9:25 PM
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I had a great time cooking with Jessica tonight. We made the eggplant rice together, plus she brought a lot of delicious things with her. She brought some spicy samosas, naan bread, tea, mango chutney, special tangy yogurt, and a whole assortment of ice creams for dessert. Oh man, I'm sooo full.
Jessica is amazingly efficient at cutting up things, I suppose she gets a lot practice making sushi. I mostly mixed spices together and made rice, and such. She did all of the chopping and stirred the eggplant mixture while it was sauteing. She also mixed the yogurt in with a little cucumber, tomato, and some spices; oh man it turned out good. When it was all done, we had a table full of delicious food. After dinner, we had to wait a little while for dessert, since we were stuffed. We went outside to see the chickens. We fed them blueberries and watched them run around. We also spent some time playing with the cats and talking. After awhile, we decided it would be ok to try some dessert. My favorite was an ice cream with cashews and raisins in it, but we also had some very good mochi ice cream in red bean and chocolate flavors. What a fantastic way to spend a Saturday night, with a great friend and some great food.
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Yummy Stuff
• 11:17 AM
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I'm about to go to the grocery store to get things for making Indian food tonight. We are going to make eggplant rice. Sounds yummy! I'm trying to look at the ingredients to make my shopping list, but Mr.Mister wants attention and he is laying on top of and completely covering my cookbook.
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Now it's about 11pm and Mr.Mister is laying upside down with his legs all stretched out and he's snoring.
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Suspense!
• 1:02 AM
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The job interview this afternoon went well, I think. I was a little odd, though. I was really only asked one or two questions; the bulk of the interview consisted of my interviewers telling me about all of the benefits that employees receive, etc. They said that they would let me know early next week. But, they did ask me when I could start. So, I think things are hopeful? My former co-worker said that her boss told her that the interview with me went well. That's good, right?!
It was thunder storming a lot this morning. When I went to let the chickens out, Frieda and Lola just ran back inside. Sparky on the other hand, escaped from the pen and was running through puddles and mud. I had to chase her back inside and she was very reluctant; I think she was having fun playing in the rain... or maybe she was having fun leading me through muddy puddles, hehe.
I got a Dutch bulb catalog in the mail today and on the cover it had a coupon for $25 dollars off any order with no minimum. So, I decided to try it out. I ordered 75 crocus bulbs and it only cost me 94 cents, shipping and all! With any luck, my garden will be pretty next spring.
This evening, we finally used up our gift certificate that our friends Anna and Anthony gave us for a pottery painting place called the Mud Room. We each painted two little flower vases. The bf painted a solid colored one and a striped one. Mine had a leaf theme. On one, I outlined different kinds of leaves using dots. I suppose it's kind of hard to describe. We are supposed to pick them up next Tuesday (they have to be glazed and fired) so I'll try to remember to take a photo.
I'm excited about this weekend. Saturday, my friend Jessica is coming over and we are going to cook some yummy stuff together! She's an expert cook, so I bet I will learn some new techniques from her. She's even a sushi chef! How cool is that? On Sunday, we are going to a party with some of the department people. It's going to be fun!
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YAY for Today!
• Thursday, August 25, 2005 • 2:40 PM
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YAY! Today is a pretty good day. First of all, I got lots of mail. I love getting mail. I got a letter from my great grandma, a letter from Spencer and Megan, and I even got my Netflix DVD that I had been waiting for. I got up this morning and made scrabbled eggs for the bf and myself. Yum. After he went off to classes, I went to the New Beginnings consignment shop. We've started calling it the "consigamentory" to make ourselves laugh. I love that place. Earlier this summer I took some clothes there and quite a few had sold! They were also having a great sale, lots of things were half price, on account of the changing season. I ended up getting two gap tops for $5 total. One is a basic black shell and the other is a gray top that I intend to work out in.
I went back home and was catching up on email, etc. when the phone rang and it was the college that I want to work for (the job I was excited about on Monday). And... THEY OFFERED ME AN INTERVIEW!!! YAY!!! I'm super excited, not that you can tell or anything. My interview is tomorrow. I also heard from a former coworker today that recently got a job there herself. She had put in a good word for me to her boss. So, I'm sure that has certainly helped me a lot, especially considering that was only yesterday that she did that. She also says that is a great place to work and that she really likes it. Plus, I'd be doing the same job as her and working directly with her and she is a very nice person. I'm really hopeful about this one.
After all the excitement, I decided to go to Target and get toilet paper (wow!). I also picked up a new rug to put in the living room in front of the door. And much to my amazement, they had the cat collar that I had been trying to get for Mao for several weeks. They'd always been out of stock before. I was beginning to think it had been discontinued. Yay for Target!
When I got home from Target, the saga of the musical toilet continued. The sound has stopped, but the toilet was still running all the time, wasting lots of water. :( After school, the bf got a new replacement part which seems to have fixed it for good. And as much as I hate to admit it, the replacement part package was enough to make me laugh:
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My Toilet's Gone Platinum
• 12:07 AM
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Nothing overly exciting happened today. I didn't even have to work; after my two days of money making bliss, I'm without a job again. We did go to Lowe's to by a toilet part though! WOWzA! Our toilet started singing to us. It's song went like this: OOOOOOooooooOOOOooooo. So, the bf replaced a seal on it, and it seems to have stopped serenading us. The cats were really quite terrified, so I'm sure they are glad. See how exciting my life is? Really, really exciting.
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Voyeuristic Chickens
• Wednesday, August 24, 2005 • 10:19 PM
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Yesterday I let the chickens out in the back yard, but then went inside for awhile. I looked out of the family room window and when the chickens saw me looking at them, one of them jumped on a patio chair so that she could look inside at me, too. Today they came out of their pen and ate many bugs. They even discovered a delectable ant hill. Luca came outside, too, and was also chasing bugs. It was going fine until Sparky and Luca accidentally chased after the same bug. They were both very confused, and alas, the bug escaped.
Here's a picture of the girls; they sure have gotten big! They should start laying eggs any time now.
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Kinda Strange...
• Monday, August 22, 2005 • 9:10 AM
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Today is the first day of classes for the fall semester, and I'm not going! It's a little strange to be graduated, I have to admit. It's nice not to have to worry about the stress of classes, but then, there's the stress of finding a job. But, I'm optimistic about that today. I'm turning in an application and cover letter this afternoon for a job I'm excited about. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please! I'm also actually at work right now, my temporary summer job helping students get registered for classes got extended a little. How lucky am I?
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Cover letters: Uggggg
• Thursday, August 18, 2005 • 8:06 PM
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Now that I'm back in town, it's back to trying to find a job. Tonight I've been working on revamping my cover letter. I have to write a generic one in order to apply for university jobs here. They will only accept one cover letter for all of the jobs you would like to apply for. So, it can't be too specific. I'm not a big fan of cover letters. It's really hard for me, but hopefully in the end I'll come up with something that will get me a few interviews! I really need a job. Then, I can pay all of my newly earned money to the vet. It's funny 'cause it's true. Or it's not funny -- but not because it's false. Ah-haha. Ok, got to get done with this cover letter stuff before I lose the rest of my sanity.
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I'm Back!
• Wednesday, August 17, 2005 • 12:41 AM
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I'm officially back now. I got back from San Diego exactly a week ago. But, I was only home for one night. I drove to Kansas City to be in my best friend Spencer's wedding as the best man. The wedding was great and I had a lot of fun. Beforehand, I was busy with all sorts of stuff, including getting all the stuff together to decorate Spencer and Megan's car and write a toast. The best part of the prep was getting a manicure and pedicure, hehe. Nice. My feet really needed some pampering; I had foolishly decided to rollerblade several miles without socks on.
I stayed for a few days after the wedding to spend some time with my Mom and Dad. We went our favorite cheap antique mall. My favorite booth is stuffed with vintage linens. My mom got me some cute napkins; they are a pale green bamboo print. We also had to check out all the local thrift stores. My dad had a weekend pez dispenser binge. He bought two batman pez and one with a chicken hatching from an egg for the neighborhood kids.
So, that's what I've been up to while I've been a bad, blog-negligent person.
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Parachute Ninjas
• Monday, August 08, 2005 • 1:32 AM
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We cashed in our tickets we collected over the last few weeks at the nickel arcade. Oh yeah, all those games of skeeball really paid off. Check out all the terrific stuff we got:
A top, an army guy (pointing rather dramatically), a parachuting ninja (Why would a ninja of feudal Japan have a parachute?) and lastly a foam glider in the shape of a fighter jet. Now I'm imagining how I can use all of these items together...
Besides cashing in our *valuable* arcade tickets, we went to the Wild Animal Park here in San Diego. It was a lot of fun, as well as a lot of walking. My favorite part was feeding the lorikeets.
After the Wild Animal Park, we went to a Chinese restaraunt and had a really good dinner. My boyfriend and his family ate duck and I ate tofu. Yum!
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Not Much
• Friday, August 05, 2005 • 12:42 AM
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We've been taking it easy since the bus trip. We haven't been up to too much; we went to the arcade tonight (we played Paper Boy) and rollerbladed a little bit. I also printed a few pictures from our bus trip at Target. But that's about it. It's been relaxing.
Yesterday my boyfriend was working in the garage when a cat showed up. He called for me to come and see. The cat was a big fat furry cat. I petted him and he started purring and rolling around on the driveway. It made me miss my own kitties even more. Vacation is a lot of fun, but I will be glad to be back home.
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Kathy's Bus Adventure
• Thursday, August 04, 2005 • 6:34 PM
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Hey! Here's a really long commentary about my bus trip...
We got back from our bus trip late Monday night. It was a lot of fun! My boyfriend's parents got us the tickets, which was really nice. They read about the tour in the Chinese newspaper. It was funny though; being a very European looking blonde person, I really stood out on a bus of about 50 Chinese people. And I also don't speak Cantonese, so I didn't get to talk to many people. The tour guide also thought my name was Kathy Chan. She was checking everyone in on her clipboard list, and she started shouting, "Kathy? Kathy!". Since that isn't my name, I didn't answer. But, when we pointed out who we were on the list, she said, "Oh, Kathy!". So I was Kathy from then on.
The first stop on the tour was a "Danish" town called Solvang. It was pretty surreal, emerging from the bus, surrounded by Chinese tourists and windmills. I purchased some cheese-tastic postcards. There were a lot of tourist trap shops. Every store we passed had faded "sale!" signs in their windows. One store was right to the point and called itself "75% off Candles". Hahaha. As suspected, the store was full of candles with $30.00 price tags scratched out to say $7.50. And they had an entire section devoted to glow in the dark candles. After about two hours of confused wandering in Solvang, we all piled back on the bus and drove to Hearst Castle, the once home of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. I have to say that I'm fascinated with Hearst Castle. I've been there before, but I was still entertained. The bf was a little confused when we got there; he thought we were going to the Winchester Mansion. Bwahahah. And that was pretty much all for day one.
 
Whoooohooo! 75% off candles!!! And also: Windmills.
 
I snapped a quick shot of Hearst Castle. On the second day of the trip, we suddenly stopped at this tourist trap fruit stand. They had a lot of colorful fruit. And strange "country" nicknacks.
Day two began with a visit to Yosemite. It was very beautiful. While on the bus, we saw a large brown bear. It looked like it was digging up something. No one else on the bus seemed to notice. Once out of the bus, we saw a lot of tiny squirrels grazing on grass. They were really cute. We finally got to San Francisco, where we left the tour and wandered around to find a BART station. We finally found one and got on the train to Oakland to visit my boyfriend's former college roommates. They were really nice and we had a lot of fun together. My boyfriend and I walked around Berkeley, looking at the campus and the little shops downtown. He bought some comics and I got some shoes at the Goodwill. Then we met back up the the roommates and went to get something to eat and they were super nice and drove us to the hotel the tour was staying at.
 
Yay! Yosemite! Yay! Tiny adorable squirrels!
The last day was mostly just driving. The bf and I made our own set of auto bingo cards. We put stuff on them like "faux classical statuary", "obvious tourist trap", and "something that looks like it would be really stinky". He won with two bingos. We also played, like, 50 rounds of rock paper scissors.
 
Here's a picture of San Francisco featuring the TransAmerica building. And this is a shot of a tree on the Berkeley campus that I particularly liked.
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