Eeep!

I just realized that National Novel Writing Month is coming up again. Now I'm torn....last year was a miserable failure. Do I attempt it again, knowing that its very unlikely I'll get anywhere in it?

Of course that means I will attempt. After all, I learned where I failed last year, right? So that means I can pick something that's easier for me. I do ok with short stories. Perhaps if I have them all be connected, it would work as a novel? That would be more realistic in terms of not losing interest.

Then again, I have been reading quite a few bodice rippers lately. Its not that I'd have to write something good, or something I'd ever let anyone see.

Hmm....looks like I'll be attempting something! Yay! Or boo! It will definately put me into a huge time crunch. Arrrrghhhh! If only I didn't have to do this crazy work thing. Too bad that I'm accustomed to eating and having a place to live.

My car is still fantastic, even though the knob for the radio just fell off. I can glue it back on. Yay for glue!

This weekend will be a grand time with my Pumpkin Carving Party (there may be 15 people and a few kidlets in my apartment for it-should be loads of fun). I'm going to make an attempt at dressing up this year, off to look for costume pieces tonight.

I've been a bad girl lately in terms of ordering perfume oils. There's just been too many limited edition scents that I really "need" to have. Naughty, wicked Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs, how dare you tempt me so much! Oh well, at least its something I'll use.

Beep beep!

I've had my spiffy new car for almost a week now, and it gets to go on its first road trip this weekend. Yay!

(For anyone who doesn't know, the spiffy new car is a '98 Hyundai Tiberon. Its silver and cute and in such nice shape!)

Pizza from a gas station is evil. At least the Chicken Alfredo pizza I had yesterday from the gas station wasn't good.

I like cookies. Lots of cookies. With chocolate chips. I ate enough of them this morning that I'm not really hungry for lunch. Not my fault...they were by the printer, and I had lots to print out today.

Yummy Yummy Snacky Time!

One of the guys at work has gone to Japan a few times for work-and he brought in snacks from Japan today. (I've been trading green tea samples with him lately.) Here's the low-down on the "treats" they like over there:

• First, I tried the dried soybeans. I liked them quite a bit, if I could find them in the grocery store here, I'd buy them. They were a bit like wasabi peas, minus the wasabi.
• Next up was candied kelp. They have a strange idea of candy there...and this was Not Good. I couldn't chew it up-it was salty and gross and extra kelpy.
• After that I decided to branch out into the fish variaty. I took a small bit of something that looked like little squid. It wasn't bad. Kinda like fish leather. I wouldn't go out of my way to eat more, but I didn't spit it out.
• There were also some sort of deep fried looking centipedes. I wouldn't try it, after seeing the look on the face of someone who did. (Though another guy said it was better than the kelp.)
• Along with were some little dried minnows. I didn't try one of those either. Though I heard they didn't really taste like much of anything.
• Next on the tasting plate...dried fish pieces, with what appeared to be sesame seeds on it. Very fishy and salty. Not a bad flavor...but the aftertaste wasn't so great.
• After that, I bravely tried a little taste of what was being called "fruit rollup". Granted, the packaging made it look like a fruit rollup. It wasn't. In fact, it was nasty-fishy and something else. We decided it was their version of a meal replacement bar.
• Then to clear out my mouth I ate some wasabi peas I had in my desk drawer. I couldn't even taste the wasabi on them. All I could taste was "fish rollup".
• After that, I took a piece of clear hard candy. I know what you're all thinking...that it would taste like fish. But you'd be wrong. It tasted like nothing. I could taste some sweet, but it did get rid of the fish taste. Maybe their version of a tic tac?
• I have a wrapped up piece of some jelly candy to try later-I heard its supposed to be some sort of ginger candy, but mostly tastes like nothing.
• No one would try the kelp gum. Craig (the guy who brought the stuff in) said it was the most disgusting thing ever.

And that's been my adventure in food today!

Ride 'em Cowboy

Went to my very first rodeo last weekend. Along with some people from work, Brad's mom and her boyfriend. It was a little town rodeo, but rather fun. I'm not a huge fan of the bull riding-too much potential for injury there. The barrel racing rocked, steer wrestling was pretty funny too-only two of the guys managed to wrestle their steer down. The little clown skits between events were incredibly lame, but that made them funny. Especially when their little airplane car thing got stuck and they had to get some cowboys to help them push it off the grounds. The best part though, was the little kids mutton wrangling. They let little kids from the audience sign up to ride a sheep. Hilarious!

Sunday was a bunch of garage sailing with Brad and his mom. (Her boyfriend had to leave.) I was hoping to find a "new" tv at one of them, but no luck yet. Mine died several weeks ago-but I have a loaner until I can find one. I'm hopefully going to get to an estate sale on Friday, maybe they'll have one there I can get. (I'm cheap and refuse to buy a brand new expensive one.)

Still no car yet-Brad's just been making it too easy to be without one. I haven't been inconvenienced much by being carless. And he's not bothered by driving me around. (At least that's what he says.)

Then Saturday is the Twins-Tigers baseball game with Mom and Dad. Yay! Should be a lot of fun.

Bye-bye car

Its finally happened. My car died a glorious and smoke filled death. It didn't go silently either. I think it wanted to end this way, it was tired. (I'm just glad I didn't drive to the camping party of the week before. A car with a destroyed engine wouldn't have been a good thing-not on a longish drive like that.) After I got home, I had it towed and its going to be living in a junkyard with other little worn-out cars to keep it company.

So, for the moment, I'm without a car. It won't be too bad though. Fortunately for me, Brad and I work at the same place...so I can have him give me rides to work, and I don't even feel bad for asking. (Boyfriends are good that way.)

Then later this week, I'll be off to the bank to see if I can get a loan. My credit isn't perfect, so I'm hoping its good enough. I don't want a huge amount, so that'll be helpful. I haven't looked at cars yet-but want to see what I can get, and find something in that price range. If the bank won't give me money, I'm sure I can find a car dealership that will. I know they're kinda hurting for sales right now, so its totally a buyers market. I'm not going to get a brand new car though-I don't want to spend that much on one. I'm crossing my fingers that I can get something in the $5000-$6000 range though. That would give me something nice. Yay! (Though I can't complain about my last car-under $2000 and it lasted a little over 5 years.)

What a wonderfully bad thing!

I just got sent a link to Pandora. And I'm hooked. Its the most fantastic thing ever! No more hauling my ipod and its charger to work. I can just type in whoever I feel like listening to, and it'll play them and all sorts of other artists for me. My wishlist of cds is growing at a frightening rate. Yay! If you haven't check Pandora out yet, try it. Very very cool.

And speaking of cds, I got the 9 cds I ordered to use up my free ones saved up from BMG (they're shutting down and moving to some other sort of cd club thing). Putting them on my computer is a whole lot harder now that I can't just have iTunes pull up the playlist. All that typing. Boo!

Sad thing...I've run out of storage room for my cds now. I've been stacking them on top of the tower thing. Funny part...I didn't think I'd ever fill it up. =) I think I'm going to purge some of my books, and fill a piece of a bookcase with overflow cds. Either that or I have to buy more furniture, and my apartment is getting full.

I've decided on tacos for my Saturday party. Yay! I'm going to be a complete nut, and make up some party cds for it. A nice mix of various Latin stuff, goes so well with tacos.

Brrrrr....

Last Saturday was Mel's 30th birthday party (I gave her a hatchet for her birthday). Camping. In Northern Minnesota. And while I can't complain too much, it was a bit colder and windier than I would have liked. (I can't complain because my parents and brother were also camping-in Wisconsin-and they got snowed on.)

It was a lovely party though. Lots of fire, and there was plenty of fire-poking opportunities. Yay! Along with a beautiful, soft, and friendly doggy to play with. And stuff to eat.

Fortunately for me, I didn't drive. So I was able to sleep on the way home. Then go home and sleep some more. And later, a little more sleep.

I still haven't unpacked, and my apartment is getting really bad. (Since I haven't put things away from my trip to Green Bay for scrapbooking fun the weekend before.) It has to be done though. I can't stand looking at it...just need to force myself to be home and all by myself and pick things up. Especially because I'm having a party on Saturday. Wheeee! Its a good thing I volunteer for things like that-it really makes me force myself to clean up a bit.

Now I just need to decide what to do for this party. I'm thinking taco bar of some sort. Rather than grilling-more prep work, but less work when the party is happening. And I like tacos. I'll have to look through my cook books, maybe there's a better something to do also. But first clean. Blargh!