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Suuuuuuper!
• Friday, September 30, 2005 • 7:56 PM
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Here's my SuperDesk! HAHAHA, not too be too much of a braggart, but here's my double monitors! Bwahahahaha...
It was decided that this week we should decorate the office for fall. There was a decorating contest, though no one was ever declared the winner; it was decided that we were all awesome and we all ate candy and pumpkin bread. For my decoration, I made a garland of paper leaves and little tissue paper streamers. I tied them onto some funky yarn I got at target for $1. It has little squares in fall colors along the main thread. I traced leaves on different colors of origami paper (I used one of my old text books from when I took a plant taxonomy class to look up all different kinds leaf shapes). Then, I tied the leaves on with a orange fuzzy yarn. Lastly, I tied thin strips of tissue paper onto the garland. You can kind of see the whole thing in the SuperDesk picture. I love all of the fall colors. I also made a little arrangement type thing of these little glass beads on wire that I got at a craft store in a little yellow vase and brought in some candle cups.
 
The oak leaf on the right is my favorite. Though the maple leaves were fun to cut out, hehe.
We also had a little birthday party for a coworker this week. It seemed extra special with the office all decorated. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and brought a little bouquet from my garden. I promise pictures of the cookies later. I forgot to take some this afternoon. And don't worry, they won't all be eaten before I can get a picture. They are delicious, but I forgot that recipe makes 10 dozen cookies! Yikes! I was getting concerned when the bowl began filling up to the top with ingredients. The cookies are composed of only one teaspoon of dough each, so it took freaking forever just to get them scooped onto the baking sheets.
I was at target the day before yesterday, and they were having a great sale on stereos. Jenn and I had decided that we needed one for the office so that we could listen to cds and of course NPR. I found a really nice micro stereo for half off! It was too cheap to resist, so I bought it. It turned out to be much nicer than I had even suspected. It has a very nice and very slim remote. It also has a color changing display (ooooooo). We had a Jazz/Ella Fitzgerald fest today. YAY, it was fun.
Random note: Today my boyfriend found this in the yard. Thankfully it's plastic and it's not going to eat us.
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Dry Again
• Thursday, September 22, 2005 • 11:58 PM
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The basement situation is much improved. Despite all of the water that came in, most things seem to be ok. Miraculously, there wasn't much damage. We have tile floors, so it made mopping pretty easy. We have ordered another sump pump and plan on doing some other things to prevent this from happening again. It all seems to be under control now. I had set up fans and turned on the dehumidifier, so the floors are completely dry. I also made a little series of "clotheslines" to hang my boyfriend's sketches and a inked drawings on. They seemed to have been salvaged. They aren't in fantastic shape, but they are good enough that if he wants to, he could at least trace them.
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Psychic Powers
• 10:56 PM
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YAY Wilco was awesome. I was a huge dork and took some photos with my phone. However, my phone will not let me send them to my computer now. So, I will look at them on my tiny phone screen. And weep. Oh well, they are hilariously blurry anyway; Wilco is represented by tiny fuzzy dots.
I had a great time. I went with Neil and Eliana. Unfortunately, Alex had a cold and couldn't go. I hope that he feels better soon. :( The show was sold out; the extra ticket was much appreciated by Meghann, who went along in his place. My coworker, Jenn, and her roommate (also Megan) meet us there. The concert was downtown; they blocked off the street. There were people looking/hanging out of the windows of surrounding buildings. Wilco played for a solid two hours. The crowd was nearly equally entertaining. There were a lot of older gray guys and also a lot of kids. The older guys were rocking out the hardest of anyone. The guy in front of me had graying hair, Elvis Costello style glasses and a ringer tee. He was really rockin' out. There were also some younger, though equally enthusiastic fans, dancing like mad. Eliana and I noticed that it was mostly guys singing along, word for word. Usually, this is the girls, but not this time. There was a lot of beer to be had, though a lot of it appeared to be on my shoes. Ewww. Jenn got quite a bit of beer spilled on her head by random people. You'd think that you'd be more careful with a $4 beer.
Neil really wanted to hear Casino Queen. Eliana and I used our psychic powers to influence Wilco to play it for him, which involved a lot of arm-waving and oooglyoooooCASINOQUEEN chanting. The weirdest part is that they actually played it. It was the very last song they played. Hmm... what should we use our newfound powers for next? Bwaha! (ooglyooo)
Tonight we hung out with the some of the anthro crowd from the department. They've started having a "happy hour" on thursday night. There was a lot of misc. grilling at Neil and Eliana's house . Eliana made fantastic fried plantains. Oh man, I love plantains. I ate them a lot while I was in Peru. My boyfriend and Neil are both doctoral students; they were commiserating about their comps exams this semester. I was eating tofurkey bratwurst. And eating plantains.
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Aarrg!
• Monday, September 19, 2005 • 9:00 PM
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Oh yeah, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrr me scurvy friend, me basement is a-floodin'. Arrrrrr.
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Water-logged
• 8:11 PM
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So, um, our basement is flooding. We have a finished basement, so it super sucks. Water is pouring in the windows. I heard something like a crash downstairs and I went down to discover water rushing in. I called for my boyfriend to come downstairs. When he came down, he saw Mao staring at the water. Further investigation revealed Luca, terrified and stranded atop the litter box. She was very glad to be rescued. Upstairs, I held poor damp luca; she was very relieved and started purring. Mr. Mister, completely oblivious to the situation, walked down the stairs. When he got to the last step, he stopped, meowed, and quickly went back upstairs. This whole thing was so weird. We've never had water in our basement before. We were confident enough to have our office down there. A little waterfall was cascading down over the printer. At the time, I was trying to print my Wilco tickets. The red printer light blinked pitifully. My dad is making a special trip to help us. Will we ever be glad to see him; we have no idea what to do, other than poke at the drain and make faces at the mucky water. At least we aren't perched on the litter box. We thought about getting out the wet-vac, but my dad had a good point: where would we put the vacuumed water? We had some ideas. Campus mail. Driving it out to the woods and releasing it. Yeah. We're just waiting for him to get here.
Ironically, when the storm started, the chickens were out there playing in the rain. It started raining much harder. Frieda and Lola ran under a bush, but Sparky was still running around; she seemed to be enjoying herself despite the crashing thunder. Finally, I was too worried about them and ran out there to shoo them into their house. I picked up Frieda and tucked her into my jacket. She seemed grateful for the rescue. I put her in the coop and she was content. Sparky, though, just ran back out into the rain. I shut the gate to the pen and eventually she got tired of being out there alone and went inside with the others.
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Getting Paid is Delicious
• Friday, September 16, 2005 • 12:06 AM
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I got my paycheck today. Well, it is automatically deposited to my account, so I just get a printed "deposit advice". Which is good, because Mr. Mister took a bite out of my deposit advice. There's a nice little bite sized chunk missing. At least he's eating now...
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Egg-travaganza
• Thursday, September 15, 2005 • 12:36 PM
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The chickens laid another egg today, slightly larger than the last one. The last one was pretty small by the way. I put it in an egg carton with some store-bought eggs. It's dwarfed by other eggs, not to mention it kind of wobbles around in it's little cubby.
Egg-stravaganza. Ah-ha-ha... ha... ha. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered with the new skating helmet; I think the damage is already done.
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I <3 My Job
• 12:23 PM
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Week two of my new job is coming to a close and I still love my job. I can't believe how nice people seem to be around here. I went to a State of the College address today given by the college president, which made me love where I work even more. It was an insightful and thoughtful speech which our whole office attended. Man, how'd I get this lucky?
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Yay for Wilco
• Tuesday, September 13, 2005 • 11:59 PM
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Oh yeah, I guess last night didn't totally suck. I got tickets to see Wilco! YAYAY! They are blocking off the street in front of a small local venue. Sounds awesome. I got 4 tickets, three for good friends. My coworker, Jenn, is also going, so it should be lots of fun.
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Wipe Out
• 11:24 PM
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Well, I had plans to post yesterday, but last night sucked and I ended up not getting home until about 1 a.m. and so I just went to sleep. I decided to go rollerblading on the quad to try out my crazy new helmet:
 
I haven't worn a helmet for years, but I decided that maybe I should. I also got some new work out clothing, but unfortunately, my new pants don't have pockets. So, I foolishly tied the car key to my skate. It got flung off of my skate somewhere.
Right after I lost my key, I managed to wipe out into an evergreen shrub. I came around a corner, and to avoid a pedestrian I skated on the edge of the walkway which was bordered by bricks. I got my foot got caught in one of the cracks between the bricks and flew into the shrub. Then, I had some weird allergic reaction to the evergreen shrub. My arm looked really weird. It didn't really hurt or anything though. It just looked scary. Also, the pedestrian lady looked pretty freaked out.
Luckily, one of the campus buildings was open and I found a free phone to call my boyfriend to come and get me. When he arrived, he said that he couldn't find the spare key, so we had to look all over for the one I lost. We never did find it. We ended up finding the spare key at home in the end though. All in all, it just sucked.
Today was a lot better though. It rained, so I wasn't even tempted to try to blade again. Which is probably good for now. Mr. Mister also got to come home from the vet yesterday. He seems to be feeling a lot better. He also seems very glad to be home. He's been purring a lot and he's actually eating on his own now. They had to force feed him at the vet.
Wipe Out Update:
I told my co-worker about my skating wipeout today and I made her laugh really hard. I'm glad that I can make people laugh hysterically. Really. I am. That's my contribution to the world. I also admitted that I dance on my skates, which led to a conversation about dancing/singing in store isles. Apparently, we've both been caught singing and/or dancing while grocery shopping. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
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Egg!
• 11:12 PM
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Sparky laid an egg for the first time today! Here's her and her egg:
 
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Weekend Report
• Sunday, September 11, 2005 • 4:24 PM
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Yay, it's the weekend!
Poor Mr.Mister is stuck at the vet though. He is very sick and not eating. He's had to stay there since his visit on Thursday. As soon as he is able to eat he can come back home. I'm hoping that by Tuesday, he'll get released. Mao and Luca seem to miss him. Mao has been spending a lot of time inside the cat carrier that he traveled in. I went to visit him on my lunch break Friday, and stopped by home afterwards. Both Mao and Luca sniffed my hands very thoroughly.
Yesterday I didn't do too much. I swept and tidied the patio. Mao and Luca came outside with us. They both ended up having ironically similar misadventures. First, Mao was stalking a squirrel. The little squirrel came all the way down from our walnut tree and was on the ground, just a couple of feet from Mao. Then, it suddenly decided to run up the tree. Mao, who has never climbed a tree in her life, ran up after the squirrel, only to realize that she was stuck. She suddenly became aware that she was higher than she had ever been and was terrified of jumping down. My boyfriend and I took turns climbing up on our tiny, inadequate ladder, trying to reach her. We could reach her by teetering on the very top of the ladder, marked "NOT A STEP". She wanted us to get her down, but she did not approve of this method, and held onto the branch with all her might. Finally, we lifted the ladder up to her, she climbed on and jumped down the rungs and made one big leap onto the ground. Whew! But, meanwhile, Luca got scared up a tree by a neighbor dog. She had climbed much higher; she was quite a ways above the roof of our house. Luca, on the other hand, loves climbing and came down on her own (with a little coaxing). The bf got her favorite treats and shook the container. She literally ran down the tree once she realized what he had in his hand. So, that all worked out well.
Mao in the tree looking down at us.
Today, the kitties are staying inside, haha. I've been doing uninteresting house chores. Like laundry, vacuuming, etc. I opened up the closet to get out the vacuum and I found 5 little toy mice that had presumably slipped under the door. Luca was very glad to have them back. I'm pretty much done with the chores now. Yay! Next, I'll be heading off to the grocery store and to Target.
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Day Three
• Thursday, September 08, 2005 • 11:56 AM
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Well, it's day three of my spiff-tastic job. YAY! I DO have a sweet desk. It's a huge "L" shaped thing. And I have two flatscreen computer monitors. Now if only my computer had a little plug in thing for my headphones so that I could listen to cds. Not that I'm complaining, becasuse my desk is sweet!
In less fantastic news, Mr.Mister is sick. He wouldn't eat last night, but instead was languishing under the kitchen table. He wouldn't eat breakfast this morning either. He's usually the one who wakes me up at 6 am to feed him. Since I have to work today, my boyfriend is kindly taking him to the vet this afternoon. I hope he starts feeling better soon.
So, right now I'm on a lunch break. I packed some yogurt and an apple today, which is proving to be delicous. My afore mentioned sandwich was also yummy yesterday. I really would like to keep working though. I'm a really fast eater, so lunch takes about 5 minutes. I have an hour. I guess I could do other things, but right now I can't think of any. Well, except for blogging.
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New Job Starts Tomorrow
• Monday, September 05, 2005 • 10:50 PM
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I guess it's been awhile since my last post. I lost track of time. I start my new job tomorrow. Yay! I'm really excited. Right now I am making some lunch for tomorrow afternoon. I'm making rice for a Japanese bento-esque lunch to take in my plastic bento box.
This is what my bento box looks like. I like green a lot, apparently.
I'm going to mix some seasoning into the rice. I also sliced up some cucumber, avocado, and spinach to wrap with with the seasoned rice in some little squares of dried seaweed. Wednesday, I plan on having a more "American" lunch. Just a sandwich. I think I'll use up the rest of the avocado on the sandwich, plus add a little rice cheese. I'm still not used to eating "real" cheese made from cow milk, so I'm using cheese made with rice milk instead. It's good, really! Anyway, I hope that work goes well tomorrow. I also hope I get a sweet desk. Haha.
My parents visited us Saturday. It was a lot of fun. I made tapioca pudding for my dad to thank him for all of the things he's fixed in our house. It was yummy; we had fun eating it together. My mom found a lot of cool stuff at the thrift store back where she lives and brought it to me. I needed a few more skirts and dressy things for work. At the Salvation Army where my mom lives, all of the skirts were on sale for 50 cents. Oh man, was that a deal. She found several from The Limited and other spiffy places. Those skirts were probably $60 or more originally. And they are in great shape, too. How lucky! Also, she got me a jacket that was so small looking that they thought it was a kid's size and charged her only 30 cents. My dad also fixed our toilet once and for all. Now it's awesome. I never thought I would say that a toilet is awesome, but ours is. Yeah!
I've also started a new knitting project. I have a bunch of orange yarn that I got for $1 a skein at Target. Man, that's more than half what that stuff usually costs. I can't believe what a good deal it is. And it's selling out fast. I'm not a super expert knitter, so I'm just making a scarf. Though really, I can't think of much else that I would like to make other than scarves.
That's about it I guess. I've mostly been relaxing the last few days, living it up before I start working.
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Vases
• Thursday, September 01, 2005 • 12:42 AM
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Here's some photos of the vases we painted last Friday, as promised. They came out really good. I thought I wouldn't like the ultra-shiny glaze, but actually, it looks nice.
 
On the left, here's my two vases. I went with a leaf theme. And on the right, here's my boyfriend's two vases. The green one features a tiny red bug, and the other some bold stripes.
YAY! Plus, I got my sterling silver ring back that left there. I had taken it off to paint and forgot to put it back on. I'm a little absent minded, but in this case it turned out just fine.
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