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!

Happy May 5th!

Somehow it doesn't have the same ring as Cinco de Mayo. One sounds like a great celebration, and the other like a crazy person telling you what day it is. Amazing how a different language can make its sound so much more cool.

For those of you who might not know, Cinco de Mayo is the date the Mexican army defeated the French. (Not Mexico's Independence Day.)

To make this holiday even more absurd....its not even really celebrated in Mexico (at least not nationally-there are some regional little parties). Its mostly celebrated here in the US.

All that aside....Happy Cinco de Mayo! Just like St. Patrick's Day (where everyone is Irish), everyone is Mexican today. So grab a taco, and a margarita the size of your head, because I certainly will. Its time to Fiesta!

I wanna rock and roll all night...

And on with more fun stuff from me.

Today's scent trial is Snake Oil. Its supposed to be exotic spices and vanilla. And on the reviews for it were fantastic. However, on me its merely ok. It smells nice, but not something I'm overly excited about. I'll use up my sample size of it, but probably won't buy a larger bottle. Unless it changes a lot. (Rumor has it, that if you leave it sit for about 6 months or so, it gets different. So that's what I'll be doing.)

Last night saw me at happy hour. Unfortunately for me, I had just eaten salad for lunch and didn't have a good base for my drinking. After two beers, I was really feeling it, so I had some dinner there, and drank another two. Hee hee! Good thing I had someone along to give me a ride home, and then a ride back to my car. At least I didn't end up spending a big chunk of money to do that. Yay!

I've also been working my way through SeaQuest. Perhaps you remember it, a rather campy and lame submarine show from the 90s? I loved it at the time it was on, and felt like revisiting it. In this case, it started off pretty good...not as crappy as I thought it would be. But quickly turned south. By the end of Season 1, it was downright ridiculous. I'm through the first couple disks of Season 2 and it just keeps getting worse. But not so bad that I won't watch it. Though, I am glad that Netflix only has Season 3 available as a watch it online sort of thing. Without internet at home, I'll just have to miss out on it. Darn.

Let's do the Time Warp again...

My lack of remembering to blog skills have won again!

Rather than try to cover the last few months...I'll just pretend there wasn't a big time lapse here. Yay me!

On Friday I went to a new-to-me restaurant. Smalley's Carribean BBQ in Stillwater. Its awesome. Not only is it decorated in a carribean pirate motif, but the food is good too (the mac 'n cheddar-loaded with bacon and chilies was fantastic). And then there's the drinks. Mind-blowingly awesome. The best drinks I've ever had in my life. It was pure heaven. So I'm going to be dragging everyone who visits me there for quite a while now. Starting tonight. And I'll be back there again Friday. Mmmm....tasty drinks and food for me!

I've been trying out different oils from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs lately. So I'm going to share my thoughts on them too. Ha ha! You will read them and like it! I never thought I was a perfume sort of person. Turns out I just needed to find the right stuff.

Today's Scent is Black Rose (found in Rappaccini's Garden). I'm not a big fan of flowery smells. But this isn't a little old lady perfume. Its smells like an evil rose, corrupted and a bit sinister...without being overpowering. There may be a bigger bottle in my future of this one.

Check me out! I can type!

I hadn't realized how long I've gone without posting anything.

Apparently I've been busier than I thought or something. Yay! Or maybe it was all the beer I've been drinking.

Today, I'm sporting some shiny hair. Got it dyed and trimmed last night. And I look fantastic! Yay me! Talk about an ego boost. Everytime I get it freshly dyed, I have everyone at work telling me how good it looks. I always think it looks like My Little Pony hair. Which it does. Good thing I like ponies.

I had time last night to run into a Barnes and Noble and pick up a couple of new books. I immediately read one when I got home. Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book. If you haven't read it yet, go buy it, or get it from a library. Its so good. Really the best thing I've read in a really long. I knew it would be good, all his work is...and I really knew it would be good with its shiny Newberry Award. But, even with all that it still completely blew me away. I didn't get home until late-ish last night, so it was close to my bedtime when I started reading it. And I just couldn't put it down. At least not until my eyes started crossing. So I took a little nap-and woke up to finish it before work. I don't think I could have come into work without knowing what happened to Bod.

Yay for Mr. Gaiman! I really need to make an effort to buy the rest of his books that I don't have. His books are always so very well written and make me think. For the most part, I read a book and toss it aside-and could read it a year later and not remember anything about it. His, I remember. I find myself thinking about them.

I've been making progress in getting back some skill at piano. I only had a couple of bad times with my hands hurting. (The last round of it-last week-was bad enough that I'm being careful.) Its hard to make myself stop when I want to keep playing. And I want to keep playing because I'm getting into the "fun" songs again. Rather than the easy-peasy ones. Still have a lot of wrong notes, and stopping to find the right ones, but its coming along. Yay!

I was a bad girl and ventured into the gardening section in the store...and as a result I have two new plants to kill. Yay! So far neither one has shown signs of death...so perhaps I've run into some more that enjoy my particular brand of neglect. (I picked up an orchid and a palm.) To go along with that-I was in my spare room yesterday, and saw my Christmas cactus actually has blossoms started! Yippeeee! It has never bloomed since I bought it, in fact I thought it looked like it was dying-leaves have been falling off. I'm definately ready for spring to come, and I can plant my outside boxes. I'm looking forward to more tomatoes than I can possibly eat, and perhaps some nice fresh herbs or peppers. Yummy yum! Not to mention all the pretty flowers.

Look out! Its the Evil Tonsil of Swollen Ouchiness!

Run! Run for your lives!

So far its just one that horridly swollen...the other should be following along soon. Yippee. And just in time for my learn how to use the new software training trip that starts on Monday. (Unless I manage to drown the germs with the mint tea I'm shoving down my throat-when I get home I'll see if a mouthful of Drambuie will help out.) Timing is everything. =P Oh well, at least its Cincinnati I'm going to, and not somewhere super sunny and full of fun things to do. I won't be missing a whole lot if I end up holing up in the hotel room.

On to more exciting things. Did a second trial with my waffle maker. Only this time used one of those mixes. They tasted ok, but the batter was Way too runny. Next time I won't add all the water they say too.

Yesterday I finally watched Talledega Nights, or something to that effect...the Will Ferrell NASCAR movie. I wasn't really wanting to watch it, but I won it in a Christmas party game. I'm generally not a big fan of his...so I went into this movie thinking it would be a big crap fest. Going into with that mind set seemed to have helped. It wasn't completely awful. It wasn't a great movie or anything like, but was fairly amusing...a bit stupid...but that's what it was supposed to be. It might have been the fever...but it even made me laugh a couple of times. I'll have to give him another chance. Or at least watch him when I don't feel good.

I also started watching the BBC adaption of The Buccaneers (which is Not about pirates-I didn't think it was, but figured I should clarify that here). I never read the book, but so far the show is quite good. Looks like there isn't going to be a happy ending, but if I remember correctly Edith Warton wrote that book, and she wasn't a fan of happily ever after. I should have the second (last) disc of it tomorrow. And like most BBC stuff, its a beautiful show.

I'm so glad that Netflix has a lot of BBC available. Its so consistently better made (and better stories) than most American television. I also really like how they don't just keep dragging shows out so much further than they need to be, just because its popular. More of the miniseries sort of stuff there. Which is nice.

Oh, and Happy New Year!