A live in chef
A housekeeper/maid
A personal shopper
A trainer
A stylist
A makeup and hair artist
A bookkeeper
A decorator
A organizational specialist
Outsourcing my job description!
Showing posts with label Random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
My Dilbert-esque thoughts for today
When I see a powerpoint slide that is too busy, I have two simultaneous and conflicting responses... 1) to go cross eyed and run away, 2) to start at one corner and read every single freaking word...
There is no way to be zen on the freeway. It's like trying to go to your happy place while enduring water torture.
If you bring your lunch to work and it requires heating, expect to eat it before 10:45am or after 1:30pm; the other times of day the microwave is a small war zone.
There is no way to be zen on the freeway. It's like trying to go to your happy place while enduring water torture.
If you bring your lunch to work and it requires heating, expect to eat it before 10:45am or after 1:30pm; the other times of day the microwave is a small war zone.
Monday, May 16, 2011
more random observations
Watching surfers drinking a pina colada is pretty much the best thing ever.
If I were a bartender I would bartend in hawaii. I could put up with tourists and working nights if my days where like this!
It's hard to describe the color of the water here. Its a rainbow of blue!!
I'm reminded that I have "assets" that become far more obvious when wearing a bathing suite as opposed to the 5 layers of clothes I normally have to wear at home. :)
Everything here is mild. The breeze, the water, the drivers, I think I understand why people like it here!
If I were a bartender I would bartend in hawaii. I could put up with tourists and working nights if my days where like this!
It's hard to describe the color of the water here. Its a rainbow of blue!!
I'm reminded that I have "assets" that become far more obvious when wearing a bathing suite as opposed to the 5 layers of clothes I normally have to wear at home. :)
Everything here is mild. The breeze, the water, the drivers, I think I understand why people like it here!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Spiders are evil incarnate
I'm beginning to think that spiders are hunting me.
Everywhere I turn...there is another one. Creepy crawling. On my car. On my door. In my entryway. Big huge ugly spiders making big huge sticky webs for me to walk into.
BLECK!!!!
I'm so creeped out this time of year. No wonder Halloween is all about spiders and creepy crawlys. Uck. not ok.
Charlotte's Web? Total crap.
Everywhere I turn...there is another one. Creepy crawling. On my car. On my door. In my entryway. Big huge ugly spiders making big huge sticky webs for me to walk into.
BLECK!!!!
I'm so creeped out this time of year. No wonder Halloween is all about spiders and creepy crawlys. Uck. not ok.
Charlotte's Web? Total crap.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Blue Angels
Swiftly dancing in the air
Tight circles, flying everywhere
Here with a boom
Gone with a rumble
Shaking high towers
Hope they don’t crumble :)
Tight circles, flying everywhere
Here with a boom
Gone with a rumble
Shaking high towers
Hope they don’t crumble :)
Thursday, July 29, 2010
She's coming to eat you!
Warning: this blog can probably be considered both insensitive and not PC.
Picture this:
You are walking down the streets of downtown Seattle. There is a moderate amount of foot traffic around.
You notice a lady standing in the sidewalk. She doesn’t look like a business person, but perhaps a tourist.
Little do you know…she is…
crazy lady.
She starts walking ahead of you at a normal pace, but you sense that something isn’t quite right.
Then you realize, she is staring at you. In a mirror. That she is holding in front of her face.
You glance at the mirror. She is literally staring right at you in her little mirror as she walks in front of you. Creepy.
You try to pretend like you didn’t see anything. The best thing to do with crazies is generally to ignore them. Under no circumstances should you let them know that you are paying attention to them because this will either 1) freak them out and make them think that you are stalking them or judging them or going to kill them, or 2) encourage them to do more crazy things because now they have an audience for their antics.
But this doesn’t seem to work. She just keeps staring at you.
As you walk along, your pace is slightly faster than her’s, so you are catching up with her. Now you notice the murmuring. Bad sign. And she’s still staring at you.
You pick up your pace more in order to pass her and hopefully escape.
Just as you are about to make the move to pass, she stops in her tracks turns toward you and proceeds to run into you all the while exclaiming with wild gesticulations of the mirror in her hand,
“This isn’t the direction I was supposed to go!”
She bumbles past you and goes a different direction. You don’t watch where because you are checking your purse to make sure you didn’t just get pick-pocketed.
All the contents of your purse are fine, so you breathe a sigh of relief and continue moving on down the street to do your errands. You think you’ve escaped.
You are wrong.
On the return trip, you think, “I’ll take a different route to go back,” since there were so many particularly unsavory characters on the street you had taken before (other than the crazy woman).
Crazy woman has almost left your mind.
You approach a cross walk, and think, “I know that parka.”
Crazy lady.
She is standing in the direction you want to go. And she’s staring at you again!
At this point you’re a little freaked out and think “Holy Crap, I think she’s stalking ME!” You quickly maneuver in order to try and avoid coming anywhere near crazy lady. She somehow outmaneuvers you and ends up having the loudest sneeze, right on your shoes. The sneeze is so loud and unexpected that it scares the living daylights out of you and now all you want to do is run away!
But you can’t because you are in heels.
So you settle for trying to place as many people between you and her lumbering stride. That’s right she’s following you.
You look back and see her coming, so you really pick up the pace. You manage to reach a cross walk just as the red hand is blinking, so you run across in order to make the light. You dash up the steps to your building and quickly glance behind you.
But crazy lady is gone.
Picture this:
You are walking down the streets of downtown Seattle. There is a moderate amount of foot traffic around.
You notice a lady standing in the sidewalk. She doesn’t look like a business person, but perhaps a tourist.
Little do you know…she is…
crazy lady.
She starts walking ahead of you at a normal pace, but you sense that something isn’t quite right.
Then you realize, she is staring at you. In a mirror. That she is holding in front of her face.
You glance at the mirror. She is literally staring right at you in her little mirror as she walks in front of you. Creepy.
You try to pretend like you didn’t see anything. The best thing to do with crazies is generally to ignore them. Under no circumstances should you let them know that you are paying attention to them because this will either 1) freak them out and make them think that you are stalking them or judging them or going to kill them, or 2) encourage them to do more crazy things because now they have an audience for their antics.
But this doesn’t seem to work. She just keeps staring at you.
As you walk along, your pace is slightly faster than her’s, so you are catching up with her. Now you notice the murmuring. Bad sign. And she’s still staring at you.
You pick up your pace more in order to pass her and hopefully escape.
Just as you are about to make the move to pass, she stops in her tracks turns toward you and proceeds to run into you all the while exclaiming with wild gesticulations of the mirror in her hand,
“This isn’t the direction I was supposed to go!”
She bumbles past you and goes a different direction. You don’t watch where because you are checking your purse to make sure you didn’t just get pick-pocketed.
All the contents of your purse are fine, so you breathe a sigh of relief and continue moving on down the street to do your errands. You think you’ve escaped.
You are wrong.
On the return trip, you think, “I’ll take a different route to go back,” since there were so many particularly unsavory characters on the street you had taken before (other than the crazy woman).
Crazy woman has almost left your mind.
You approach a cross walk, and think, “I know that parka.”
Crazy lady.
She is standing in the direction you want to go. And she’s staring at you again!
At this point you’re a little freaked out and think “Holy Crap, I think she’s stalking ME!” You quickly maneuver in order to try and avoid coming anywhere near crazy lady. She somehow outmaneuvers you and ends up having the loudest sneeze, right on your shoes. The sneeze is so loud and unexpected that it scares the living daylights out of you and now all you want to do is run away!
But you can’t because you are in heels.
So you settle for trying to place as many people between you and her lumbering stride. That’s right she’s following you.
You look back and see her coming, so you really pick up the pace. You manage to reach a cross walk just as the red hand is blinking, so you run across in order to make the light. You dash up the steps to your building and quickly glance behind you.
But crazy lady is gone.
Friday, July 23, 2010
My immortal cell phone
My phone will never die.
It will never get lost. It will never break. It will never do anything to give me a legitimate excuse to go buy a new phone.
Let me explain.
I’ve had this phone since 2005. It was the free model back then. I’ve thrown it. Dropped it. Not treated it well at all. Pretty much the only thing I haven’t done is drop it in water. Yesterday, I left it at a restaurant. The thought struck me this morning walking to the bus.
“Oh crap! I left my phone at the restaurant. I’LL NEVER GET IT BACK!” ADRENALINE!!! PANIC!!!
I checked my purse. It definitely wasn’t there. I ran back home to see if maybe I had left it on my dresser or night stand or something, even though I knew I hadn’t taken it out, I thought just maybe it might be sitting there happily, and I will walk in and go, “Oh thank God!” and hug it and then the world would be good. But it wasn’t there.
I sped back to the bus stop and hopped the bus to work thinking I would run to the restaurant and see if just maybe they have it, but also thinking that they likely wouldn’t have it because things just seem to disappear whenever they are left at restaurants and then I would have lost all my phone numbers and pictures and all those special text messages from my family and boyfriend, and CRAP CRAP CRAP why does this happen to ME! That was pretty much my thought process.
As the bus went along to work, the adrenaline subsided and the rational thought process resumed in my brain and I realized that, wait… If I’ve lost my phone (which I’ve had forever ANYWAY)…I would HAVE to get a new phone…
SWEET!!!!
Now I start thinking, “Oooo I can get a blackberry! Or…maybe…an iphone? I can go play with phones this weekend!” It was frightening how quickly losing my phone became a good thing.
The bus pulls up to my stop. I ran to the restaurant where we ate the night before, totally confused about whether I should hope that they have my phone or that they don’t.
“I think I may have left my phone here last night” I tell a gal cleaning the windows of the restaurant. She goes into this back room and comes out looking very apologetic, “No, no one left a phone in the lost and found last night that fits your description. I’m sorry.”
It looked like the pendulum might be swinging towards a new phone!
Hostess continues, “but let me check around…” as she starts looking around the hostess podium, “sometimes people just stash stuff in here…oh look! Here it is!”
ARG.
No new phone.
But I managed to still keep all of my phone numbers and pictures. Now I just have to come up with the will power to go buy a new phone, while still having one that functions.
I blame this inability to buy something new when you have an old one that still works on my mother.
My mom has a microwave that is older than me. Why? Because it still works.
I’m cursed.
My phone just laughs at me. “I will never DIE! You will have to use my inferior camera and 10 key texting forever!!! HAHAHAHAHA”
It will never get lost. It will never break. It will never do anything to give me a legitimate excuse to go buy a new phone.
Let me explain.
I’ve had this phone since 2005. It was the free model back then. I’ve thrown it. Dropped it. Not treated it well at all. Pretty much the only thing I haven’t done is drop it in water. Yesterday, I left it at a restaurant. The thought struck me this morning walking to the bus.
“Oh crap! I left my phone at the restaurant. I’LL NEVER GET IT BACK!” ADRENALINE!!! PANIC!!!
I checked my purse. It definitely wasn’t there. I ran back home to see if maybe I had left it on my dresser or night stand or something, even though I knew I hadn’t taken it out, I thought just maybe it might be sitting there happily, and I will walk in and go, “Oh thank God!” and hug it and then the world would be good. But it wasn’t there.
I sped back to the bus stop and hopped the bus to work thinking I would run to the restaurant and see if just maybe they have it, but also thinking that they likely wouldn’t have it because things just seem to disappear whenever they are left at restaurants and then I would have lost all my phone numbers and pictures and all those special text messages from my family and boyfriend, and CRAP CRAP CRAP why does this happen to ME! That was pretty much my thought process.
As the bus went along to work, the adrenaline subsided and the rational thought process resumed in my brain and I realized that, wait… If I’ve lost my phone (which I’ve had forever ANYWAY)…I would HAVE to get a new phone…
SWEET!!!!
Now I start thinking, “Oooo I can get a blackberry! Or…maybe…an iphone? I can go play with phones this weekend!” It was frightening how quickly losing my phone became a good thing.
The bus pulls up to my stop. I ran to the restaurant where we ate the night before, totally confused about whether I should hope that they have my phone or that they don’t.
“I think I may have left my phone here last night” I tell a gal cleaning the windows of the restaurant. She goes into this back room and comes out looking very apologetic, “No, no one left a phone in the lost and found last night that fits your description. I’m sorry.”
It looked like the pendulum might be swinging towards a new phone!
Hostess continues, “but let me check around…” as she starts looking around the hostess podium, “sometimes people just stash stuff in here…oh look! Here it is!”
ARG.
No new phone.
But I managed to still keep all of my phone numbers and pictures. Now I just have to come up with the will power to go buy a new phone, while still having one that functions.
I blame this inability to buy something new when you have an old one that still works on my mother.
My mom has a microwave that is older than me. Why? Because it still works.
I’m cursed.
My phone just laughs at me. “I will never DIE! You will have to use my inferior camera and 10 key texting forever!!! HAHAHAHAHA”
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Lately
Lately, I've had some rough hits to my life. A childhood friend is gone and my special guy is back across the sea. I've lost some friends, gained some others, and rekindled some friendships that I realize now are so precious. So with these dark days have also come some rays of sunshine. I've been doing very well at work, getting lots of compliments on what I've done, and my money situation is relatively sorted out.
Nowadays I have some goals I'm hoping to make some progress on:
Learn some basic Swedish
Get back into my CPA studies
Workout more often
Cook at home as much as possible
Finish the book I've been reading now since June. :s
The biggest challenge is just staying motivated to do these things. It's way too easy to come home from work and do nothing.
So I'm starting today. I'm going to go out and have a walk since it is beautiful today, which for Seattle these days will become few and far between. I'm going to precook some food for this week. I'm going to do a half hour of Swedish, and then read my book. CPA studies start tomorrow. After all, it is still my weekend. :)
Nowadays I have some goals I'm hoping to make some progress on:
Learn some basic Swedish
Get back into my CPA studies
Workout more often
Cook at home as much as possible
Finish the book I've been reading now since June. :s
The biggest challenge is just staying motivated to do these things. It's way too easy to come home from work and do nothing.
So I'm starting today. I'm going to go out and have a walk since it is beautiful today, which for Seattle these days will become few and far between. I'm going to precook some food for this week. I'm going to do a half hour of Swedish, and then read my book. CPA studies start tomorrow. After all, it is still my weekend. :)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A view of the new place.
Here is a video of my new place that is mostly done. I brought home a new load of stuff to squeeze in places, but it shouldn't be too hard. It's so cute and it's nice to have a place that's MINE!!!
Boat race weekend was great. The boats went roundy roundy, and the sun went scorchy scorchy, and my skin got reddy reddy. Alas, I did get a sun burn, but just my knees and my arms...not to bad. It stayed under 100 degrees, which was awesome (and almost unheard of) and my pick won the unlimiteds (Yay O'Boy Oberto!).
Drove back to Seattle today with my last load of crap from my parent's house. It's amazing how much I can cram into that little car. And the weather that greeted me was cloudy and rain. *sadface* I'm hoping it will get nice again soon. I want to go to the beach!
Boat race weekend was great. The boats went roundy roundy, and the sun went scorchy scorchy, and my skin got reddy reddy. Alas, I did get a sun burn, but just my knees and my arms...not to bad. It stayed under 100 degrees, which was awesome (and almost unheard of) and my pick won the unlimiteds (Yay O'Boy Oberto!).
Drove back to Seattle today with my last load of crap from my parent's house. It's amazing how much I can cram into that little car. And the weather that greeted me was cloudy and rain. *sadface* I'm hoping it will get nice again soon. I want to go to the beach!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Blog #50
So the moving process is complete!
The unpacking, however, is far from it...
The kitchen is almost complete, thanks to my wonderful dishwasher which is now working. The bathroom is a work in progress, but the room is far from done. I'm gladly looking at a slowly growing pile of empty boxes.
This weekend I'm heading back home to enjoy the intense heat of the Tricity's boat races, and I have every intention of NOT BURNING. Whether or not that will happen??...I've been successful some years...
Daddy is doing the rescue diving again so we again get the special passes and sweet views. Mom and Dad are already there, and I'm excited to go.
K and I are reading a book together to try and breach the drastic distance we are from each other, and I am very far behind. He's had a little more free time than I, so I gotta get on it.
The unpacking, however, is far from it...
The kitchen is almost complete, thanks to my wonderful dishwasher which is now working. The bathroom is a work in progress, but the room is far from done. I'm gladly looking at a slowly growing pile of empty boxes.
This weekend I'm heading back home to enjoy the intense heat of the Tricity's boat races, and I have every intention of NOT BURNING. Whether or not that will happen??...I've been successful some years...
Daddy is doing the rescue diving again so we again get the special passes and sweet views. Mom and Dad are already there, and I'm excited to go.
K and I are reading a book together to try and breach the drastic distance we are from each other, and I am very far behind. He's had a little more free time than I, so I gotta get on it.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Bored Ramblings
I've been extremely lax on keeping up with this blog site. Since I've been home, there has been lots of people to share the mundane details of my daily life with, so I haven't felt the need to journal them. But as uneventful as I feel my life is right now, some fun things have been happening...
The wedding of my friend Jessica was really fun. Cassy, Katie, and I really enjoyed ourselves (if I can speak for the other two), and Jessica was absolutely glowing the whole evening. Even with the tears that appeared, there was genuine happiness through the evening and I think it went off quite well. The one downer was that I had borrowed my mom's camera, mine had been acting funny since our canada trip, and it ended up missing by the end of the evening. I left it at our table my friends and I had been sitting at, after I had filled the memory card, and when we went to leave it was gone. I was so upset because I had some really great pictures, but not only that, my mom had pictures from our vacation that she hadn't copied yet... :( Sad sad day. It still hasn't turned up...but I'm still hopeful someone will find it amongst their stuff and have the decency to return it. Anyway, that part sucked, but the rest of the night was fun. Cassy, Katie, and I went out to a casino afterwards and reveled in our perspective singledoms.
Onward in time: last week, I spent a day with my grandmother working on the awesome quilt that she's making for me of my sorority and college t-shirts. We finished getting the t-shirts all cut up into perfect little squares, and now its just a matter of her putting it together. I can't help much with that part because of my sadly underdeveloped sewing skills. I can stitch a mean patch and sew up a hole, but the sewing machine scares me a little...
This weekend my brother, his girlfriend and I (yes, I love being the third wheel) saw the new Disney movie WALL-E, which I think is FANTASTIC! For those of you who may not know, I am a total freak when it comes to musicals. I love many of them and like most of them, and there are only a few that I sincerely cannot find any redeeming qualities in. That being said, when the opening montage of the movie featured the uniquely recognizable voice of Michael Crawford singing "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello Dolly, I just about fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard! My brother was laughing quite hard as well. Our family has a unique relationship with that musical, since both my parents were involved in a local production of it where my dad played Barnaby Tucker and my mom played Minnie Fay. So that started the show off on a fantastic note and it just got better. It was so good that all three of us went to see it again on Sunday with my parents. My mom also got a huge kick out of the opening scene. Moral: GO SEE IT! It's really awesome, even if you don't know Hello Dolly, and if you do it's just that much better!
Saturday was spent studying for me (as most days are), but that evening we went to Hermiston to watch my brother race the race car he and my dad and papa have been working on (and working on...and working on.....). He did pretty good in the races, and it was quite fun to watch him go round and round. He even spun out once, which added some excitement (and took a year off my poor mom's life). The car doesn't have a lot of "umph" to it, so he didn't place very high, but he stuck in there, didn't get lapped by the much faster cars, and the car itself ran pretty good. Over all, a successful night for Wall Racing (we even have our own t-shirts!).
But as I said before, these have been the highlights of my days. Mostly I'm just studying my brains out...literally...I have to pick them up off the floor sometimes. :) I do a lot of studying at the S-bux in the town next to mine. Today I was doing my usual thing, and this guy walks up to me and asks if he can interview me for the Yakima Herald. They are doing some kind of Fourth of July special thingy and each reporter is interviewing lots of folks. So I said sure, and ended up talking a lot about my friends who've been in Iraq, my time abroad and how that affected my patriotism, and the European perspectives on the US that I came in contact with. Who knows if the article will turn out any good, or if they even run mine, but it was fun to be asked.
Well this blog came to you courtesy of the fact that the rest of my family has gone to bed, and I'm sick of television, so this felt like a semi-constructive thing to do. But now its time for bed I think. T-minus one week to go for my exams and then it's FREEDOM! At least until work starts, but I can dream...
The wedding of my friend Jessica was really fun. Cassy, Katie, and I really enjoyed ourselves (if I can speak for the other two), and Jessica was absolutely glowing the whole evening. Even with the tears that appeared, there was genuine happiness through the evening and I think it went off quite well. The one downer was that I had borrowed my mom's camera, mine had been acting funny since our canada trip, and it ended up missing by the end of the evening. I left it at our table my friends and I had been sitting at, after I had filled the memory card, and when we went to leave it was gone. I was so upset because I had some really great pictures, but not only that, my mom had pictures from our vacation that she hadn't copied yet... :( Sad sad day. It still hasn't turned up...but I'm still hopeful someone will find it amongst their stuff and have the decency to return it. Anyway, that part sucked, but the rest of the night was fun. Cassy, Katie, and I went out to a casino afterwards and reveled in our perspective singledoms.
Onward in time: last week, I spent a day with my grandmother working on the awesome quilt that she's making for me of my sorority and college t-shirts. We finished getting the t-shirts all cut up into perfect little squares, and now its just a matter of her putting it together. I can't help much with that part because of my sadly underdeveloped sewing skills. I can stitch a mean patch and sew up a hole, but the sewing machine scares me a little...
This weekend my brother, his girlfriend and I (yes, I love being the third wheel) saw the new Disney movie WALL-E, which I think is FANTASTIC! For those of you who may not know, I am a total freak when it comes to musicals. I love many of them and like most of them, and there are only a few that I sincerely cannot find any redeeming qualities in. That being said, when the opening montage of the movie featured the uniquely recognizable voice of Michael Crawford singing "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello Dolly, I just about fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard! My brother was laughing quite hard as well. Our family has a unique relationship with that musical, since both my parents were involved in a local production of it where my dad played Barnaby Tucker and my mom played Minnie Fay. So that started the show off on a fantastic note and it just got better. It was so good that all three of us went to see it again on Sunday with my parents. My mom also got a huge kick out of the opening scene. Moral: GO SEE IT! It's really awesome, even if you don't know Hello Dolly, and if you do it's just that much better!
Saturday was spent studying for me (as most days are), but that evening we went to Hermiston to watch my brother race the race car he and my dad and papa have been working on (and working on...and working on.....). He did pretty good in the races, and it was quite fun to watch him go round and round. He even spun out once, which added some excitement (and took a year off my poor mom's life). The car doesn't have a lot of "umph" to it, so he didn't place very high, but he stuck in there, didn't get lapped by the much faster cars, and the car itself ran pretty good. Over all, a successful night for Wall Racing (we even have our own t-shirts!).
But as I said before, these have been the highlights of my days. Mostly I'm just studying my brains out...literally...I have to pick them up off the floor sometimes. :) I do a lot of studying at the S-bux in the town next to mine. Today I was doing my usual thing, and this guy walks up to me and asks if he can interview me for the Yakima Herald. They are doing some kind of Fourth of July special thingy and each reporter is interviewing lots of folks. So I said sure, and ended up talking a lot about my friends who've been in Iraq, my time abroad and how that affected my patriotism, and the European perspectives on the US that I came in contact with. Who knows if the article will turn out any good, or if they even run mine, but it was fun to be asked.
Well this blog came to you courtesy of the fact that the rest of my family has gone to bed, and I'm sick of television, so this felt like a semi-constructive thing to do. But now its time for bed I think. T-minus one week to go for my exams and then it's FREEDOM! At least until work starts, but I can dream...
Friday, June 27, 2008
Playing with Helium
To celebrate the death of my brother's birthday balloons, I present the following videos for your entertainment.
First we scared the dog...
Then the chipmunks came to visit...
As you can tell, we enjoy killing our brain cells. :)
First we scared the dog...
Then the chipmunks came to visit...
As you can tell, we enjoy killing our brain cells. :)
Monday, June 2, 2008
It's My Birthday
It's now officially my birthday.
Woo hoo 23!
I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. I think I may have a better idea tomorrow. Right now I'm just stressing out again about my cpa exams and wondering if I'm going to be prepared for these next ones.
I don't have any major plans really for my birthday. I'll be going with my mom to get my first pedicure ever tomorrow morning, but other than that....nothing. I've always wanted a big crazy party, but that's hard to do when my birthday has fallen during finals for the last 4 years and then this year I'm living 200 miles away from all of my friends. :( Ah well. Maybe next year I'll have a big sh-bang.
Other than that, I'm just back in g-view these days. I made it home ok from my trip, was jet lagged for about a week, and had SO much fun wine tasting at my friend Jessica's bachelorette party this last weekend. I already feel like I've been home for so long but it's only been 2 weeks! I'm still hoping to get up a narrative on our Turkey trip. There was so much fun stuff! Its really more for me than for anyone else (kind of the way this whole blog is), so I'd love to get it written down.
I miss Europe. I want to go back. And I REALLY miss public transportation with gas at 4 bucks a gallon. That was a shocker when I came home. Even though I read about oil prices rising it was crazy to come home and actually see those prices. Just so everyone remembers, in February (when I left) prices were still around $3.20. BUT it is SO nice to be back where food is more reasonably priced and the produce is BIG. :)
Anyway, this week my family and I will be heading up to Canada for our cave diving adventure. I'm really looking forward to that and I think it will be comforting to be doing some traveling again. I have a severe case of wander lust mixed with cabin fever because I don't want to drive with these stupid gas prices and should be studying anyway.
I'll get up the pictures from the bachelorette party soon, I hope, so be checking my pictures for that!
Woo hoo 23!
I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. I think I may have a better idea tomorrow. Right now I'm just stressing out again about my cpa exams and wondering if I'm going to be prepared for these next ones.
I don't have any major plans really for my birthday. I'll be going with my mom to get my first pedicure ever tomorrow morning, but other than that....nothing. I've always wanted a big crazy party, but that's hard to do when my birthday has fallen during finals for the last 4 years and then this year I'm living 200 miles away from all of my friends. :( Ah well. Maybe next year I'll have a big sh-bang.
Other than that, I'm just back in g-view these days. I made it home ok from my trip, was jet lagged for about a week, and had SO much fun wine tasting at my friend Jessica's bachelorette party this last weekend. I already feel like I've been home for so long but it's only been 2 weeks! I'm still hoping to get up a narrative on our Turkey trip. There was so much fun stuff! Its really more for me than for anyone else (kind of the way this whole blog is), so I'd love to get it written down.
I miss Europe. I want to go back. And I REALLY miss public transportation with gas at 4 bucks a gallon. That was a shocker when I came home. Even though I read about oil prices rising it was crazy to come home and actually see those prices. Just so everyone remembers, in February (when I left) prices were still around $3.20. BUT it is SO nice to be back where food is more reasonably priced and the produce is BIG. :)
Anyway, this week my family and I will be heading up to Canada for our cave diving adventure. I'm really looking forward to that and I think it will be comforting to be doing some traveling again. I have a severe case of wander lust mixed with cabin fever because I don't want to drive with these stupid gas prices and should be studying anyway.
I'll get up the pictures from the bachelorette party soon, I hope, so be checking my pictures for that!
Friday, May 2, 2008
I have a new respect for outlet malls...
Today was a shopping adventure...really, a failed shopping adventure...
I had the idea that today was the day! I was going to go out and do some Shopping, with a capital S! I wanted to get some stuff for the people back home, and maybe find some clothes or fun stuff for myself. So I headed out.
As I was walking down the street towards the shopping district, I realized that there were a lot of stores that were closed...on a Friday...that's weird. Now granted, most everything is closed on Sundays and most stores close early compared to American standards, but usually things are open on Fridays. Then it dawns on me. Yesterday was labor day for Europe. And unlike in the US, labor day is not a consumer focused holiday. In other words, I'm guessing that many stores closed on May 1st and intended to stay closed for the weekend. Strike one.
But I figured, I'm on my way, I'm sure some stores will be open. And yes, some were. Many were not. I checked out every clothes store that was open.
Next was the size issue. I had forgotten/spaced/not realized that they size totally different in Europe. So when looking at dresses and pants, was I a 24? 38? 42? Strike two. I eventually found a store that had these fantastic tags that told what size the clothes were in something like 10 different countries! Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, UK, Australia (?!?), and the US (!) as well as some others. I figured out I was about a 38-40. Ok!
So now that I know what size I am, I start seriously looking for clothes. I eventually come to the realization that if its not in a teeny-bopper store, shirts start at around 25 Euro, pants and skirts at about 35 Euro, and I didn't see any dress under 60. Now those prices look reasonable if they were in dollars! But with the all mighty dollar running about $1.55 to 1 Euro, the word I'm looking for is "ouch!" Strike three.
Keep in mind that I haven't been seriously shopping for myself in a long time, so I was kinda flustered with the whole sizing thing in the first place. Add in the sticker shock and I was pretty much done. I spent about an hour and a half walking around to different stores and didn't find anything that I could bring myself to buy.
Now I know by this point my mom is probably either laughing at me or frustrated that I didn't buy anything, or both, but fear not! I haven't totally given up. I'm going to bring in the big guns next time. If there is anyone who knows how to spend money on clothes, it's Kristoffer. So the strategy next time? Bring the man.
And as a last note: Happy Birthday Grandpa! Thinking of you today!
I had the idea that today was the day! I was going to go out and do some Shopping, with a capital S! I wanted to get some stuff for the people back home, and maybe find some clothes or fun stuff for myself. So I headed out.
As I was walking down the street towards the shopping district, I realized that there were a lot of stores that were closed...on a Friday...that's weird. Now granted, most everything is closed on Sundays and most stores close early compared to American standards, but usually things are open on Fridays. Then it dawns on me. Yesterday was labor day for Europe. And unlike in the US, labor day is not a consumer focused holiday. In other words, I'm guessing that many stores closed on May 1st and intended to stay closed for the weekend. Strike one.
But I figured, I'm on my way, I'm sure some stores will be open. And yes, some were. Many were not. I checked out every clothes store that was open.
Next was the size issue. I had forgotten/spaced/not realized that they size totally different in Europe. So when looking at dresses and pants, was I a 24? 38? 42? Strike two. I eventually found a store that had these fantastic tags that told what size the clothes were in something like 10 different countries! Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, UK, Australia (?!?), and the US (!) as well as some others. I figured out I was about a 38-40. Ok!
So now that I know what size I am, I start seriously looking for clothes. I eventually come to the realization that if its not in a teeny-bopper store, shirts start at around 25 Euro, pants and skirts at about 35 Euro, and I didn't see any dress under 60. Now those prices look reasonable if they were in dollars! But with the all mighty dollar running about $1.55 to 1 Euro, the word I'm looking for is "ouch!" Strike three.
Keep in mind that I haven't been seriously shopping for myself in a long time, so I was kinda flustered with the whole sizing thing in the first place. Add in the sticker shock and I was pretty much done. I spent about an hour and a half walking around to different stores and didn't find anything that I could bring myself to buy.
Now I know by this point my mom is probably either laughing at me or frustrated that I didn't buy anything, or both, but fear not! I haven't totally given up. I'm going to bring in the big guns next time. If there is anyone who knows how to spend money on clothes, it's Kristoffer. So the strategy next time? Bring the man.
And as a last note: Happy Birthday Grandpa! Thinking of you today!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Home alone...and enjoying it?
So Kristoffer is off in Stockholm this week. I didn't feel like I could afford another trip to Stockholm since we're going to Turkey next week. Plus I needed to be studying. And while staying in a hotel for free is a nice prospect, it's not so conducive to studying.
Speaking of studying, for those who are keeping tabs...I've decided to move my two CPA exams I was going to take at the end of May to the beginning of July (you can't test in June, for those of you wondering). I don't feel like I am prepared or can become prepared by the end of May, so I've pushed it back as far as I can. Better to pass these two and wait to retake the other two sometime after I start working.
So other than that, it's been pretty quite around here. This weekend we spent a lovely Friday night out. We were trying to go to a nice restaurant that was featured in my guidebooks, but everywhere we went the menus were ridiculous (ie. ~$75 for just a main dish). So we tried to find a more moderately priced place, and ended up at the most touristy restaurant imaginable. It was recommended in my top 10 guidebook, but it must have changed since they wrote it. It
wasn't that great. Kristoffer ordered a "seafood platter," and that's pretty much exactly what he got. :) A huge tray filled with ice and oisters, clams, mussels, prawns, and crayfish displayed on top. He was expecting some kind of potatoes or bread or something to go along with it, but nope! Just a bunch of seafood. I had a much safer (and cheaper) dish that was pretty good. It's called Flemish Carbonnades (pictured right), and it's just basically a really good stew. So anyway, the dinner was interesting, but just way to touristy a place.
After that we had hot chocolate in the Grand Place which is really beautiful at night, all lit up (pictured left). Plus the weather here has gotten gorgeous, so it's pleasantly warm during the days and stays warm far into the evening. It was a beautiful night.
Something to note about Belgian hot chocolate is that it is literally chocolate melted in hot milk. Sometimes they melt it for you, but sometimes they bring you hot milk and hunk of chocolate or a bowl of chocolate pieces to put in the milk yourself. It's REALLY good, and oh so rich. Yummm....
Saturday we did some errands that we'd been needing to do, like buying light bulbs for all the burnt out lights in the apartment. :) And that night we went out with Kristoffer's friend Aron and a bunch of Swedish friends to celebrate Aron's birthday. We went out to a Latin club called Havana, which played some really great music, and we got our dance on! It was lots of fun, but we left early (and by early I mean 2am) because we had to get K ready for his trip Sunday. (Most clubs are open and populated until 5-6am, so everyone else was still dancing away when we left.)
After K left on Sunday, I've just been doing my thing: studying, relaxing, watching West Wing, avoiding the dishes... I think I have also solidified the fact that I want my own place when I get back. It's fun having a home to yourself. :)
Speaking of studying, for those who are keeping tabs...I've decided to move my two CPA exams I was going to take at the end of May to the beginning of July (you can't test in June, for those of you wondering). I don't feel like I am prepared or can become prepared by the end of May, so I've pushed it back as far as I can. Better to pass these two and wait to retake the other two sometime after I start working.
So other than that, it's been pretty quite around here. This weekend we spent a lovely Friday night out. We were trying to go to a nice restaurant that was featured in my guidebooks, but everywhere we went the menus were ridiculous (ie. ~$75 for just a main dish). So we tried to find a more moderately priced place, and ended up at the most touristy restaurant imaginable. It was recommended in my top 10 guidebook, but it must have changed since they wrote it. It
wasn't that great. Kristoffer ordered a "seafood platter," and that's pretty much exactly what he got. :) A huge tray filled with ice and oisters, clams, mussels, prawns, and crayfish displayed on top. He was expecting some kind of potatoes or bread or something to go along with it, but nope! Just a bunch of seafood. I had a much safer (and cheaper) dish that was pretty good. It's called Flemish Carbonnades (pictured right), and it's just basically a really good stew. So anyway, the dinner was interesting, but just way to touristy a place.
After that we had hot chocolate in the Grand Place which is really beautiful at night, all lit up (pictured left). Plus the weather here has gotten gorgeous, so it's pleasantly warm during the days and stays warm far into the evening. It was a beautiful night.
Something to note about Belgian hot chocolate is that it is literally chocolate melted in hot milk. Sometimes they melt it for you, but sometimes they bring you hot milk and hunk of chocolate or a bowl of chocolate pieces to put in the milk yourself. It's REALLY good, and oh so rich. Yummm....
Saturday we did some errands that we'd been needing to do, like buying light bulbs for all the burnt out lights in the apartment. :) And that night we went out with Kristoffer's friend Aron and a bunch of Swedish friends to celebrate Aron's birthday. We went out to a Latin club called Havana, which played some really great music, and we got our dance on! It was lots of fun, but we left early (and by early I mean 2am) because we had to get K ready for his trip Sunday. (Most clubs are open and populated until 5-6am, so everyone else was still dancing away when we left.)
After K left on Sunday, I've just been doing my thing: studying, relaxing, watching West Wing, avoiding the dishes... I think I have also solidified the fact that I want my own place when I get back. It's fun having a home to yourself. :)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
New pictures have been uploaded!
Today I have infiltrated the European Parliament building and am using their fantastic internet to upload my pictures from this last week. I am also getting to use a great big wonderful desk to study on and a big comfy chair to sit on. Since the parliament is in session in Strausburg, France this week, everyone is gone and I was able to get a three day pass to bum around the parliament! Sweet. There is nothing like having connections. :) I can't wait till I have a desk like this!
So a new slide show is now being featured of our trip to Paris. Click on the slide show to get to my albums to see the Paris and Brussels pics from this last week, as well as my other pictures from past trips. Some of them are mine and some of them are Katie's. If you have any problems accessing the pictures let me know.
So a new slide show is now being featured of our trip to Paris. Click on the slide show to get to my albums to see the Paris and Brussels pics from this last week, as well as my other pictures from past trips. Some of them are mine and some of them are Katie's. If you have any problems accessing the pictures let me know.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Tip of the day...
...Don't leave your wallet at home.
I'm walking out the door to go study at my cafe. Keys? Check. Books? Check. Pen and highlighter? Check. Cell phone? Check. Have a nice two hour study session. Go to pay for coffee and a bottle of wine for this evening...NO WALLET!!! Luckily, this is my favorite cafe, so I've only been in there just about every other day. So, they know me. Plus we've bought bread and stuff from them before. I ask if I can leave my camera (yes, I had my CAMERA in my purse, but NOT my wallet, oye) while explaining that I live just around the corner. He says, no problem, waving away my proffered camera. I race home, I'm sure beet red, and there's my wallet sitting on the table. Right where I knew I'd left it. Race back. Pay.
It's nice to be a regular.
I'm walking out the door to go study at my cafe. Keys? Check. Books? Check. Pen and highlighter? Check. Cell phone? Check. Have a nice two hour study session. Go to pay for coffee and a bottle of wine for this evening...NO WALLET!!! Luckily, this is my favorite cafe, so I've only been in there just about every other day. So, they know me. Plus we've bought bread and stuff from them before. I ask if I can leave my camera (yes, I had my CAMERA in my purse, but NOT my wallet, oye) while explaining that I live just around the corner. He says, no problem, waving away my proffered camera. I race home, I'm sure beet red, and there's my wallet sitting on the table. Right where I knew I'd left it. Race back. Pay.
It's nice to be a regular.
And then the internet started working...
I have finally manged to get a slide show up and running! You can click on the slide show to go to the picture site where the pictures are bigger and include my captions. Currently showing are my pictures from Waterloo. Unfortunately, they are not as fantastic as I would have liked. Circumstances as they were, it was difficult to take very good pictures. That and I was often so into looking at things that I forgot to take pictures of them at all! Grr... Oh well, I'll just have to go back. :)
Well, its 11:45am. I'm still in my pj's. I need to study. Time to get dressed.
Looking forward to Swedish Trivial Pursuit tonight, and a free dinner! Whoo hoo!
Well, its 11:45am. I'm still in my pj's. I need to study. Time to get dressed.
Looking forward to Swedish Trivial Pursuit tonight, and a free dinner! Whoo hoo!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
My cafe
I have a new friend! Her name is Dodi and she lives right next to my favorite cafe. She is always so happy to see me when I stop into the cafe, and she has fur, four paws and a little wagging stump.Yes, Dodi is a dog. She belongs to the owners of my favorite cafe. One of the first days I was in the cafe, Dodi came over to say hello, so I pet her for a long time. Now, every time her owners walk her through the cafe, or if she manages to escape from the back room, she has to come over and say hi.
This cafe is just around the corner from our place and they serve fantastic coffee. Plus, when you order you get this neat little tray that includes your sugar, cream, a chocolate, and a glass of water. All for much cheaper than some of the other cafes that only give you coffee. Maison Renardy is owned by a family and they make their own chocolates, candies, bread, pastries, and desserts. It's a great place to study, or to just have my daily coffee fix. It's so fantastic. Plus, the people who own it are very kind and friendly, much more than at other places. I just love it!
There is just something really fantastic about European Coffee. I think it's the fact that it's always espresso. You never get drip coffee. It's really strong, with thick milk, and you almost always get a little chocolate with it.
Besides spending my days studying and drinking coffee, not much else is going on. We're going to a party on Friday hosted by Kristoffer's boss Paula. It's a dinner and Trivial Pursuit night. Swedish TP of course! So, this will be my third time playing Swedish TP, and I think I've only ever played the English version once! Oye. These Swedes and their trivial pursuit.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
The Quest
This song has been running through my head all day. This is from the musical "The Man of La Mancha" and is so poignant. As I dream about my days ahead of me, the fun of the unknown, and the wonder of the future, this song keeps popping up.
"It is the mission of each true knight...
His duty... nay, his privilege!
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go;
To right the unrightable wrong.
"To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!
"This is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!
"And I know, if I'll only be true
To this glorious Quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest.
"And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!"
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