15 Acres of Broken Glass

Look at what I've found :)

2011-11-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

I've recently begun teaching myself counted cross stitch. Thanks to an awesome how-to video Shawna sent me, it turns out, the hobby is actually pretty easy (and sort of relaxing, provided your cats don't see you doing it!). I was certain that I had my own embroidery hoop stashed away somewhere in a long-forgotten box, and after a short sort through various bins in the attic, I stumbled upon this forgotten storage tote...

I was about twelve or thirteen when I told Mom I wanted to do embroidery like she did. Not one to deny me my small ventures into feminine hobbies, Mom went to the Benjamin Franklin craft store that weekend and picked out a simple, printed-on counted cross stitch kit in what I considered to be the best pattern a mother could possibly pick for her daughter. Did I mention I had a slight cat obsession as a child? Mom bought me a green storage tote covered in "Self Esteem" stickers that had come with a pair of jeans she'd bought me a few weeks before, and packed up everything I'd need to teach myself to cross stitch while away at camp.

I was nowhere near as quick or as skilled as my mom, and I didn't make it far on my project before I had to leave at summer's end. I was surprised to look inside the tote and see everything still there... even the pink highlighter (now dry) I'd used to mark up the chart (as you can see, I crossed out "medium/light grey" on my chart with every intention of making an orange cat, but Mom talked me out of it because of color clash with the basket). Since then I've learned the value of photocopies of patterns in order to keep originals nice and pristine, but this was before the convenience of inexpensive, at-home, all-in-one copy/scanner/printers.

I never was much good at deciphering instructions... just look at the mess on the backside of this! That's some fantastic handiwork right there.

This is definitely not a design I would pick for myself today, but I'm still tempted to cut away the stitches and make another go at this pattern, just for the heck of it. Everyone loves a bit of continuity. I'll have to take a closer look at the holes I ripped in this with my tight, uneven stitching and see if it's capable of a second attempt.

A few home changes.

2011-11-18T08:53:00.001-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since I last updated. Roy and I wanted to make a few improvements to the house before winter - we built a new porch and installed two new windows in our living room. It's been snowing for the past few days, and the new windows have been amazing. The house is far warmer than it was last year and there are no longer any drafts around the windows.

Next summer, we plan on opening up our living room and expanding it into the office; that small office window to the right will be replaced with a bay window. We also hope to start on a garage/workshop for Roy and a garden in the back for me. Within the next five years, we'd like to save up enough money (and vacation leave) to add a second story onto our home... perhaps make room to expand our little family from two to three?

From Norway with Love Hat

2011-08-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

I wish I were better at knitting... this hat I found on Ravelry (and the matching gloves in the picture) are so cute! I'm a fingerless-mitten kinda girl, but still... that hat is fab. I love the colors.

*goes off to practice color changes in knitting*

A Happy Ending

2011-08-11T08:56:00.001-07:00

Some of you may recall the tale of this handsome little fellow from Facebook; a local, unaltered male stray who had decided to take up residence with us. To make a very, very long story short, the Humane Society contacted us and said that the supposed owners who had reported a similar cat missing hadn't answered any of their calls, and that, legally, after ten days, the cat was now ours.

Then came the tricky part; catching him. Trying to put him into a crate previously had resulted in several bites on my right hand, as well as scratches all over my chest and neck. I'd rented a humane, live-animal trap two weeks previously, but no matter how much I refused him his usual meal on the porch in place of setting it inside the trap (and feeling awful to do it), our Maine Coon simply refused to enter, for dry food, wet food, or even tuna fish. Even Roy, equipped with cat toys, treats, and a hefty pair of utility gloves to avoid bites, was unable to catch him after several attempts (although he did run off with a toy mouse!)

Yesterday, over a week after getting the all-clear from the Humane Society, I used tuna juice to create a trail leading into the trap. The poor guy was so ravenous that he was eating the strands of grass that the tuna had touched, but still refused to enter. My rental time for the trap was up, and I had given up; we were just going to have to deal with him and hope that, in the months that followed, our cats would stop fighting with him and eventually the amount of vet bills for draining abscesses (and for subsequent antibiotics) would dwindle as well (during fights, the stray is a biter!). I walked around the house to get the hose to clean the tuna-covered trigger, came back around the house... and there he was. Inside the now-locked trap, glaring at me.

It was like Christmas. I quickly called the couple who'd wanted him; they weren't home at the time, but said to go ahead and drop him off in the barn. Initially I was nervous; I honestly didn't know much about the couple, and for a long time I worried that I may be leaving him in a worse situation than he'd been in with us. Once we arrived, we headed toward the open barn. I opened the trap and he slowly came out, curious. A well-fed female calico ran out from under a tractor and began twirling around Roy's legs, purring happily. She saw the stray and purred even louder, eager to say hello. Despite the thousands of places for him to hide, rather than dashing off the moment he was free, the stray sat down quietly and looked around, almost as if thinking, "Well, this is actually sort of nice."

Seeing him sitting there in the barn with the obviously well-looked-after calico, and looking at the sheer amount of space he had to roam, I felt a lot better as I drove off and left him behind. Roy and I both agreed that we'll sort of miss him... but our own cats will sure be happy!

Stick a cupcake in my eye!

2011-08-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

I sure wish I knew how to cross-stitch, because this MLP cross-stitch kit on Etsy is the most awesome thing ever! And yes, this show turns me into an enormous five year old every time I see it.

Music from Your Past

2011-08-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

These are some of the first songs I can ever remember hearing. Can you remember some of the earlier songs from your childhood? Comment with a link!

I'm fairly certain that I heard this particular Amy Grant song about three million times during my first few years of life. At the time, I didn't realize that the term "baby" was a pet name -- I assumed she was just a mom singing to a baby. Which she was so glad was hers.

I can remember sitting in my dad's jeep hearing this song on the radio. At the time, many people speculated that Rick Astley was black. While the thought didn't cross my mind at that age, I do remember imagining the singer would be a big guy - imagine my surprise when I saw an actual picture of him!

Admittedly, this song didn't come out until 1994, so I would have been 9 by then. You'll have to forgive this enormous memory gap, but I still remember hearing it on the radio often (and thinking it was the coolest song ever... you can't imagine my face when I realized it was being used as the soundtrack for the 2010 online game Robot Unicorn Attack!)

My "This is Heartbreaking" of the Day: Damage

2011-08-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

Typically my blogs aren't reposts from other sources, but this truly broke my heart and I feel it's important to share this with my family and friends. Because it's important to understand that, no matter what your size or gender, if you're being abused, you shouldn't have to feel like you don't have the right to be affected by it.

xoxo

Miya

Damage

This is not my usual post. But it’s something I had to share. As you read this, imagine how your reaction would differ if this story were being told by a woman, talking about how her husband treated her.

I have been separated from my wife for over a year, though we continue to share a house. We live on separate floors. We share the house because we need to parent our son together, and because we can’t afford to maintain two households.

I’d like to tell you a story, illustrating one reason why I am divorcing her. This is an example of the treatment I have received over the past fourteen years.

This evening, while she was drinking her wine, my estranged wife took exception to the fact that I wanted to talk about how tense she’s been. She said she didn’t want to talk about it.

I left the room (so as to comply with her request).

I went upstairs to use our tiny guest bathroom. She began to yell and throw things around the kitchen, then eventually charged up the stairs and into the bathroom, just as I was finishing and getting ready to leave. She confronted me there, holding her half-full wine glass in her hand. Her voice got louder, her gestures wilder.

She complained that I had upset her by wanting to talk when she had told me she didn’t want to talk. As I began to feel uncomfortable, I said, “You’re saying it’s my fault you can’t express your emotions responsibly like an adult?”

She said, “Yes!! It’s because you want to go off and take a vacation with your girlfriend!” Then she threw the contents of her glass in my face and smashed it against my bare chest.

The results are pictured here.

I stood there, with shattered glass at my feet, glass shards sticking in my skin, bleeding, for five minutes or so. I asked her to move so that I could leave. She waved the broken stem of the glass in the air and said, “Leave!! Who’s stopping you?”

I told her she was standing between me and the door. I felt threatened.

She laughed and said, “You’re 6 foot 3 and 250 pounds! You can’t feel threatened by me!”

I said, “You just broke a glass on my chest and cut me. You’re standing there with the stem in your hands. Yes. I feel threatened.”

She said, “No, you don’t.”

I asked her to move out of the way and let me pass. I didn’t want her to think I was pushing her or threatening her.

She held her ground, waved the broken stem and shouted, “Go on! Leave! I’m not stopping you!”

After I asked her repeatedly, she finally moved a bit and I left, carefully stepping over the broken glass.

I have posted this here as evidence, and to help those who may think that size and gender make a difference when abuse is concerned. People who, like my estranged, think some have permission to feel threatened and some don’t.

Abusers come in all sizes and genders.

She and I went to a half dozen therapists over the years. At each initial session, every therapist took a look at me, then at her (5’4” 150 lbs.). Then he or she would gravely ask my wife, “Do you feel safe?”

None ever thought to ask me.

Thanks for listening.

The Silence of the Ants

2011-07-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

While ripping up our old porch, we discovered a nest of ants living beneath a board. I didn't want to use anything poisonous, so I decided to look for an alternative way to convince them to leave. I'd heard that crumbling eggshells on their nest would keep them away, but I didn't have any shells (or a need for that many eggs) at the time. A friend then suggested that I try cornmeal, and swore it worked like a charm.

I bought about a half cup of cornmeal at Winco and sprinkled it on the ground, while the ants were all carrying their pupae around. A few days later, I checked back, and sure enough, the ants were gone!

I asked my friend, "Will I need to sprinkle cornmeal around the yard periodically to dissuade them from coming back?" She looked at me oddly and said, "Um, the cornmeal expands in their stomaches after they eat it and they explode to death."

Apparently, I am an ant murderer.

Apples and Angels

2011-07-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I noticed that our little fuji apple tree was growing its very first apples! The tree hadn't been tended before we bought the house, so we were told it would likely never fruit. It may never actually grow to produce fully mature apples, but we were still excited to see the small progress it's made!

**********************

A friend of mine also made me this adorable little Castiel charm for my rearview mirror; a confused little angel to watch over me while I drive! I don't have a strap for it yet, but I'm substituting with leftover thread until then. I'm not a typically big fan of car decorations (I removed all of the factory window stickers and used even a heat gun to remove the "Outback Sport" logo off the back of my Subaru Impreza, "Ripley"), but I think it's pretty cute.

Mobile Templates for Blogger

2011-07-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I sure love browsing the internet on my iPhone! Especially places like Facebook and Blogger, so I can always check up and see how my family is doing. But did you guys know you can enable a mobile template for your blog that automatically detects when it's being accessed by a mobile device, and switches to a template that's easier to read/navigate?

The next time you're logged into your blog, go to Settings > Email & Mobile > and choose "Yes. Show mobile template on mobile devices."

It doesn't work for all custom templates, but most of the templates provided by Blogger will have a mobile version of the template.

TL;DR
Please enable this so I can read your blogs on my phone, because I'm too lazy to walk all the way to my computer.

Little Owlettes

2011-07-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

I found the pattern for these little cuties on ravelry.com! This is my first batch, so they aren't fantastic, but they're quick and easy to make with any leftover yarn or fabric scraps you have. Any of you guys on ravelry? I love the site, but only just found out how to add projects! My account is here, friend me if you'd like to keep an eye on each other's crafts!

Making a difference?

2010-11-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

An awkward and depressing thing happened today.

You see, there was this girl. I'll call her Ruby. I met Ruby during my sophomore year of high school, and I immediately liked her. She was shy and awkward, just like me in a lot of ways, and I was immediately drawn to that.

If there's one thing I've learned, though, it's that young girls can be especially cruel. Two girls in my church group were particularly mean to Ruby, and were constantly saying things about her behind her back, bursting into giggles whenever she spoke like she was the butt of some private joke. I felt awful for Ruby, and I made a point to sit next to her at seminary, talk with her on the ride to school, and to sit with her in the hallway. I could tell Ruby knew the other girls spoke behind her back, but I denied it, and told her she was imagining things. After all, those same two girls often spoke behind my back as well (I later became close friends with one, who apologized); I'd learned the only way to be happy was to try to ignore it and focus on the kind things people said. So I told Ruby that she was sweet and wonderful. I asked her how on earth could anyone speak poorly of her behind her back. In my mind, trying to outdo this lie by being her friend was the one thing that would help Ruby look back on high school as being a good experience in her life.

It was only a few months before Ruby moved away, and we never spoke after that, aside from a few singles activities where multiple wards came together, but she had new friends now, and she seemed happy.

It's been seven years since I last spoke to Ruby. One day, she looked me up on Facebook. I was excited to find out how things had been for her in the past seven years. But it turns out that Ruby wasn't interested in seeing how I was doing. Ruby was only interested in a statement I had made regarding equal human rights. She told me that we'd been so mean to her in high school, and spoken behind her back. She said it was unfair that I should be so open about my opinions on Facebook, when I'd mocked her for her opinions with all of the other girls.

I was heartbroken. Ruby had held onto those memories for seven years, and worst of all... somehow, she'd forgotten my role in her life, and had lumped me in with all of the other girls. It was incredibly depressing, not only because the things people had said had stuck with her for so long, but also because I realized that I had failed to make any sort of difference in her life at all.

I'd always thought that kindness was one of the most important gifts you could give. But in the long run, does it really make any difference at all?

OMG: Towels.

2010-09-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

My big brother and his wife got me a gift card for my birthday, which I immediately realized would be best spent on something I'd been wanting forever... new bath towels!

Roy and I went shopping together last night to pick out four towels to match our bathroom, and two hand-towels to replace the threadbare ones we used to have. After giving the towels their first wash and hanging two of them up for their trial run, Roy and I stood under the spray of the shower and had a very *ahem* grownup conversation.

"We get to try out new towels" he said. "I'm excited."

"I feel ridiculous," I said. "We shouldn't be this happy about something this stupid."

"Yeah, but how long has it been since we bought new towels? We haven't gotten any new ones since..."

"Since... well, I've actually never bought towels. My mom gave me the old ones in the cupboard when I moved out, and we'd already used those since I was a kid."

"Same with the ones I have. Holy crap, we've been living together for five years and we've never bought new towels. See? We're allowed to be excited about this!"

For the record, the towels were fantastic. Thanks, Yancy & Leah!

How far will you go to save someone you love?

2010-08-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I had the opportunity to play a phenomenal new game, the interactive drama Heavy Rain. Having been looking forward to it since the first trailer release, I was incredibly excited to finally purchase a copy.

Introductions to any story can be somewhat slow, but while becoming accustomed to the unique controls as you constantly interact with your environment and other non-playable characters to advance the story, my initial reaction was a sheer amazement at the beauty of both the environments and the protagonists; Heavy Rain cast real actors to supply not only voices, but also expression and motion capture. The sheer amount of in-game facial detail given to each character, such as birthmarks, facial hair, pores and blemishes makes them come alive in ways I've rarely seen a video game capture outside of cut-scenes.

The game revolves around the serial murders of the Origami Killer, a criminal who abducts young boys in the fall seasons and drowns then in rainwater, leaving their bodies in abandoned wastelands with an orchid and an origami animal figure.

There are four playable characters whom you control one at a time throughout the duration of the game; Ethan Mars, an architect who loses one son and is forced to go to incredible lengths to save the other from the Origami Killer; Madison Paige, a photojournalist and chronic insomniac who aids Ethan ; Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler investigating the murders while struggling with a drug addiction; and Scott Shelby, a retired police officer turned private investigator conducting his own investigation into the Origami murders.

While not entirely free-roaming, the environments are are both spacious and gorgeously rendered. The game is roughly ten hours in length, although there is easily over 30 hours of footage, and each play-through (and subsequent endings) can be vastly different depending on the paths you choose to take throughout the duration of the game. The lives (or deaths) of each character you play is entirely dependent upon the actions you choose to follow.

The moral decisions you are faced with, and their consequences, created such an enormous impact that I found myself unable to think of anything else for hours afterward. Even my husband, who had played the game a day before me while I was out of town, found himself near to tears at the game's close, and was insistent that he be with me while I played through the game (I'm such an emotional headcase, though... it doesn't take much to get me choked up!)

While capable of being emotionally taxing as well as displaying mature themes, I found Heavy Rain to be one of the most unique video gaming experiences I've had in the past several years. I would highly recommend this game to anyone with access to a Playstation 3. I can guarantee, this game will leave you both amazed and vexed as you struggle to ask yourself, how far would I go to save someone I love?

Proposition H8: A Woman's Shame from Silence

2010-08-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

After the recent uproar in the religious community regarding the overruling of the unconstitutional Proposition 8, I feel the need to repost the article I wrote for facebook here. I know most of the individuals who read my blog are very religious and have very strong feelings against homosexuality, and I understand that by publicly stating my firmly-held beliefs I run the risk of being seen in a negative light by my peers, family members, and childhood friends. But when you know in your heart what is right and what is wrong, I believe that idly standing by and allowing persecution to prevail is the worst course of action.

Photographer unknown.

I logged into my Facebook account one afternoon several days ago and was overcome with an overwhelming amount of sadness and shame when I saw just how many people on my friends list were upset about Proposition 8 being overruled, and how many people saw fit to accuse the judge who overruled the proposition of being an evil man abusing his power to overrule the will of the people. I've kept my feelings on this matter silent for nearly two years for fear of how my family and religious peers would react towards my beliefs, but today I am moved to speak from both my mind and from my heart.

I was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In times of emotional and physical hardships, it was explained to me through our church's teachings that all cruel and wicked things men inflict upon one another are the results of "free will". Free will was a gift given to man from God, and with that gift came the promise that it would never be taken away from us. We would always be free to make our own decisions, even if those decisions might be interpreted as "bad" or "wrong" to some.

So, naturally, in November if 2008, my heart was crushed when I realized that 10% of my income, that I had paid diligently to my church on the first Sunday of each month since I had been eight years old, had been used to aid in act of taking that sacred gift away from gay and lesbian couples who wanted to commit to one another through the act of marriage. This gift of free will, that God had promised would never be revoked, was being denied to a people whose only crimes were loving one another and wanting the same rights available to everyone else in our country. Over $40,000,000 dollars from the Mormon church was donated to "protect marriage" and aid in campaigns to support Proposition 8, and I was forced to accept that a religion that so bravely overcame persecution with its head held high had succumbed to the act of persecuting in turn.

John 3:16 claims that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, a Son who would eventually die for all of our sins. But in November of 2008, thousands of American voters chose refusal to recognize the love, commitment and emotional bonds between non-heterosexual couples and instead chose the path of scrutiny, intolerance and discrimination. The misguided belief that same-sex couples do not truly understand love or commitment (a belief you are fortunately entirely entitled to via your gift of free will) completely disregards the fact that our country was built on the promise that our fundamental rights as human beings would never be revoked or put to a vote.

I can't tell you what to believe; that's not my job, nor is it my aim. But I would ask that you all invoke your cognitive abilities of both consideration and deliberation, and take my words into account. And then I would ask that you open your hearts and think long and hard before answering that familiar cliche, "What would Jesus do?"

A Busy Week

2010-08-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I don't have much text to accompany this at the moment. I'm getting all my books ordered, appointments set, and commissions finished before the new semester begins! For now, these camera photos will have to do...

Notice something missing? And yes, it was worth it. Very much so.

Allenspark, Colorado. Does anyone know what sort of tree this is?

Roy in Allenspark, Colorado.

Arvada, Colorado
Top three: Nelle, me and Roy/Bottom four: Susan, Augh-Oh (Vincent), Don and Betty

Longmont, Colorado. Believe it or not, I did NOT throw up in that plane. Go me!

Another small step for America!

2010-08-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Proposition 8, an amendment to the Constitution refusing to recognize marriage between same-sex couples and was passed by California voters in November 2008, has been overturned!

While perusing through American history, it becomes apparent that we all seem to be caught in this odd cycle. We fear something new and take drastic measures, then several years later we feel awful about it and try to make amends, while simultaneously beginning something else just as stupid as the previous blunder (think about the Salem Witch Trials, slavery, interracial-marriage, etc.). Let's hope that sooner rather than later we'll all be overcome with the same guilt and we'll strive to make it right (and, hopefully, not trade our bigotry for something else as equally stupid).

Anonymous photograph licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

Wonderful

2010-06-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

Despite my horrible allergies due to the copious amounts of pollen and cottonwood floating around right now, things have been absolutely fantastic. Once the weather started looking up, I asked Roy if he would build a picnic table for us sometime this summer. A few days later, I had this:

You'll notice Evie in the background, hanging out in her new favorite tree . We have some very acrobatic squirrels who live here and she's obsessed with darting up the tree to watch them.

Also, Roy added this adorable little detail...

Last weekend, we decided we didn't have enough room for storage and Roy cut a small door into the attic from the outside (since boxes won't fit into the closet access!). Evie always has to be with her daddy, and when he does anything new she likes to sit on his shoulders so she can have a nice view for every step of the process... even when he's on the ladder!

Unfortunately she had to learn that it isn't a good time to take a nap on daddy's shoulders when he's busy...

In less exciting news, I have bangs now. I was sick of my weird, long and curly bangs from before. Of course, now that they're short, they're still weird and curly, so I have to straighten them every day... But it's a slight upgrade, so I can't complain too much.

One upside to my allergies keeping me indoors is that the past few weeks have given me a lot of time to work more on my freelance art. I've managed to finish several commissions and I was even contracted to do a book cover/illustration for author Susanne Saville for one of her upcoming historical novels. I've done some personal pieces for her in the past and I was incredibly flattered when she asked me if I was interested in doing some professional work for her. Not to mention, I finally get to do some realistic portraits... usually when people commission me it's for more cartoonish pieces, so it's always fun when I get to break free of that. Also, it encouraged me to finally get my website started... www.miyaedwards.com. It's still under construction, though!

Speaking of commissions... ever since people were sporting those t-shirts with my fanart on them to the JusInBello convention in Italy for Supernatural, I've actually been getting quite a few commissions specifically for cons! I guess part of the admission costs cover getting autographs from the actors of the show, and rather than bring in photographs of the actors for them to sign, a few people have been taking in artwork I've drawn of the characters instead! It's pretty much the biggest self-esteem boost ever. My only rule is that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES can they tell the actors my name/username or what my website is. When/if asked, they're only allowed to say "A friend drew it for me". I'd pretty much die of shame if any of them actually had access to all my ridiculous fanart sketches *faints*

Gah, my mouth is killing me right now... I had my braces tightened again today, and he really went overkill to make sure everything comes out perfect. The good news is, I get my braces off the day before Roy and I fly to Colorado! I'm ridiculously excited! Not only do I have straight teeth, but it feels so amazing to be able to close my mouth and my teeth just fit together without me having to wriggle my jaw around to try and find a decent fit whenever I chew. I know it sounds like a stupid thing to be happy about, but seriously... if you've gone your whole life and never had your teeth just fit together so well like this, obviously it's going to be a novelty!

It's not for lack of bread, like the Grateful Dead...

2010-05-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I sort of have this small problem...

If you don't know me, I've pretty much spent my entire life with short hair. I mean, really short. As in, being constantly mistaken for a little boy kind of short (okay I'll admit that wearing my big brother's clothes probably didn't help either) For the longest time, I just wanted to have long princess hair! Then I'd be a real girl! :D Unfortunately I'd get bored and do stupid things, like chopping it all off. But one day, I finally hid my scissors, managed to leave my scalp alone for a couple of years and nature kinda did it's thing. So yeah, now my dreams have all come true and I have girly hair. Yay.

The only problem now, is... I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I mean, it's not exactly as if I ever needed to do much else than rough it up with a towel before. Now, it actually requires *shudders* maintenance.

Not to mention the fact that it weighs like fifty pounds when it's wet. Seriously... does anyone know a cute cut I could go for to help with all the thickness and weight, but still keep it kinda princessy? The bangs elude me... they're about chin length and drive me insane; should I keep growing them out and hope they eventually GTFO of my face when they're even in length with the rest of my hair, or just chop them off?

I tried to get my hair to do something practical. Like storing scrapbooking supplies. WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN.

Unpacking my yarn, what joy.

2010-05-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

So Venture Bros. is pretty much my new favourite show ever. Which is hilarious, because I remember catching a few minutes of it the night before my high school graduation and saying, "Ooh, I can't watch this! It's inappropriate!"

In other news, I found my box of yarn! Is it pathetic how much I missed it? This little guy is soon to be a gift for one of my friends; he only took me three episodes of X-Files to make from start to finish! (yeah, okay, I'm a slow crocheter... but increasing/decreasing requires some mild level of math skills, which unfortunately I don't seem to possess) He sure takes a LOT of fiber fill, though...

Look what's for dinner!

2010-05-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

I couldn't get my camera out of the box in time to get a picture of Evie when she was actually curled up inside the oven :C Forgive the awful mess in our kitchen, we're still unpacking! But school will finally be over with in two weeks, so I'll have time to start organizing the house. With Roy working full time and me in school full time, I'm still amazed we managed to get out of our apartment.

Well, if you can't tell from the picture... we went appliance shopping! We bought a new fridge that should arrive next week (for $300 less than what we were planning on spending!) during the 30% off Energy Star products sale at Sears.

Roy really had his heart set on a specific glass-top convection oven he'd found online, and while we were at Sears, the salesman let us know that the oven Roy was drooling over was set to drop in price by $200 in a few days, and said that instead of us buying it then, he'd take our information down and bill us for it on the day it went on sale if we wanted it.

The price drop ended up making it just slightly more expensive than a non-convection oven, so in the end, we had enough money left over to buy a new microwave to install above the stove (which is fantastic, because our microwave was sort of on its last legs... and I love having a microwave! It makes soapmaking much easier... I do have a double boiler, but really, I only use it for candle making). Even then, we still had just enough left to buy a dual-flush toilet that's on sale at Home Depot! Hilariously enough, this was perfect because we found out a few days ago that the toilet we have now has one foot in the grave, but we had planned on replacing it from the beginning anyways. Plus, the new one will save us on our water bill.

Since everything is Energy Star compliant, we can also claim our purchases on our taxes at the end of the year! Now the only thing we have left to do is buy an electric lawnmower, and our list of "appliance needs" will be met! As for our "appliance wants"... we're still looking at our best option for a water heater. Right now ours isn't big enough to fill up the entire bathtub, so we have to shower together every morning if we want the water to be warm! But we should be getting our first-time buyers credit in a few months, so we can take care of the water heater then.

Seriously... when did everything turn around for us? For the longest time we'd spend our weekends sitting around the kitchen table discussing our finances and trying to figure out how to stop sinking deeper into a financial hole. Our life was pretty much like this:

Though, admittedly less cute.

Now we've paid off our debts (minus my student debt) and we have a house. A HOUSE. I honestly didn't think I'd ever have a home, much less before I hit 25!

Part of me is still wondering when we're going to wake up...

Appliances ashmiances!

2010-04-20T14:28:00.001-07:00

So I tried out the oven for the first time yesterday. It may be ugly, but it works! That's what's important, yeah? Sure, there was an enormous burn mark on the edge of the counter right next to the stove, but I'm sure that's just coincidence, you know? Something the previous tenant did or something.

It was a little harder to explain the cereal box sitting close to the stovetop that nearly caught fire.

Yeah. I think I realized just how bad it was when I finished baking, only to put my hand on the stovetop thirty minutes later to clean it and found it still scorching to the touch (none of the burners had even been on). Evie made the mistake of stepping on it, cried and leapt up on the fridge, and then had to yowl to be saved because there was no other way down than leaping onto the top of the stove again.

Good news for us is Sears is having a sale on all of their Energy Star appliances this Saturday! We desperately need a new refrigerator (this one is cracked, broken, and partially melted model from the 70's) and Roy's aunts sent us some money to buy a new one because they are awesome! We're going to be oven shopping while we're at it. We made a list of things that need to be updated and listed them in order of importance... right now, the oven and fridge are top priority since they are 'needs' rather than 'wants'.

As for wants, Roy found a deal on a new toilet, one of those dual-flush designs where you can use less water if you need to flush something less... well, you know. It'll save us massively on our water bill, anyhow!

We're almost finished moving! I know I've been promising pictures but... er... our place is filled with boxes right now!

Had a picnic with Roy in our front yard this morning, in the sun... having your own yard is the best thing ever!

Seriously... we're so happy right now. I even slammed my thumb in the door this morning because I was so distracted by being happy. Um, not that that's something to be proud of...

Random art update is random

2010-04-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

You guys, this is probably ~*~*the best thing*~*~ I've ever drawn in my entire life!

I used the tags for 'end sarcasm' but apparently blogspot thought I was trying to use bad html.

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Twilight Princess is probably the coolest Zelda game ever. I want to be a Zora. Yeahhh, chillin' in the lake all day, making bombs, holding a big stick.

Speaking of Zelda... can you believe some moron paid me six whole dollars to draw Happy!Link for her? HA! No wait, that was my little sister... uhhh I mean, you guys, a very lovely girl offered me six dollars to draw this amazing work of art! Seriously though, you can't draw stuff this happy without smiling your face off the entire time.

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Someone paid me to draw this. They paid me. Seriously, how awesome is that? I love my job!

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Take a wild guess what movie I just watched... and I'll give you a cookie!

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Okay Shawna is probably all crying at me now for that so I've saved some more cute stuff for last.

I have no idea what this is, but seriously, it's adorable and you darn well know it. I have an incurable addiction to cuteness. Hamsters, kittens and lemurs need to pretty much steer clear of me by about five square miles.

MY PRECIOUSSSESSSSS...

2010-04-19T01:13:00.001-07:00

I HAVE NO LIFE!

From Italy with love!

2010-04-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

So, today I've received messages from multiple sources via dA and Twitter letting me know that there have been at least three confirmed sitings so far of fans attending the Jus In Bello Supernatural convention in Italy wearing t-shirts with my Supernatural fanart on them!

Part of me is feeling like I could die of embarrassment. But the other half of me is pretty much doing this:

The House: Part IV

2010-04-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to update here for weeks now, but Roy and I have literally been spending nearly all of our free time trying to repair the house to pass inspection for the USDA loan. The city came out earlier this week to inspect the new electrical panel we had installed and we received a certificate for that. We took a freaking 8am - 5pm home-ownership course (long and tiring, but very insightful ...and required) and put at least two grand into the repairs (not to mention several thousands worth of labor... good thing we were doing repairs ourselves!) and let me tell you, we were nervous... what if we'd invested all of this time and money into a house we weren't going to actually get? Well, we met with our agent this morning at the house and went over all the paperwork, and she inspected the repairs... we passed! On Friday the 9th, we sign the closing documents. Next week, the house is ours!!!!

Here's some pictures I've been meaning to post... I didn't have my camera with me to take any pictures of Roy up on the roof cleaning it off and trimming trees, so you just get to see the boring interior shots of me trying to cover up the horrid color scheme.

Here's a photo of my finger being very upset over the awful Spackle job someone did all over the dang house. Said finger is also covered in Spackle, as there were many, many holes that needed filling. I had actually taken several photos of my angry finger pointing at bad Spackle jobs, but I will only subject you to this one :3

The color in this photo is a bit misleading... the bathroom is actually a very light lime green with a slightly desaturated-purple ceiling. I'll definitely be changing that soon... but there's a washer and dryer in there so I'm not complaining (that much)!

Also, this porch is terrifying. We're eventually going to rip it out and build a new one, but for the inspection, we needed to scrape, clean, and repaint it.

Here be the kitchen, yo. We've painted cream over the yellow and have begun scraping the blue off of the door and cupboards. That fridge is busted, but Roy's aunt is buying us a new one as a housewarming gift because she is made of awesome.

Those brown spots aren't a part of the carpet pattern. That's dirt and clay that's been worn into the carpet from people wearing their shoes in the house. We're eventually going to tear all the carpeting up and replace it with either laminate (since we can't afford to do hardwood) or, if we save up for awhile, we'd love to do bamboo.

And here you can see where the previous colorblind occupant decorated his and/or her bedroom in hunter green and lavender. The opposite wall is light grey. Lovely, no? Once we move in, we're going to replace the trim with a nicer white one and do molding on the ceiling in white, too. The walls look white, but when you see them with the other white trim in the house (that we're eventually going to replace, it wasn't done very well) you'll be able to see that it's actually cream.

Here is the living room, with gas fireplace, before and after.

I can't believe things are actually working out... and the mortgage payment is only going to be slightly higher than what we already pay in rent! SQUEE! There's still a tiny chance something might go wrong, so until next Friday... continue keeping your fingers crossed for us, guys! I'll try to get some outdoor shots soon, too.

The House: Part III

2010-02-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

There's a good reason you shouldn't check your texts in class. First of all, it's disrespectful and annoying to other students. Secondly, if it's really good news, there's a chance you may squeak out something explicit in front of everyone. Luckily for me, my Spanish partner thought it was more cute than offensive!

The other interested buyers also accepted the counteroffer from the seller, so we were starting to get a bit anxious. Last night, however, we received a forward of the actual list of things that needed repaired when the house was inspected in 2008 (it was on the market once before). Some of the terminology sounded a bit intimidating, but a lot of it was things Roy said he could do easily with my help. We accepted again... and apparently the list scared the other buyers off. Our offer was accepted!

We're going to schedule a time later this week for the home to be inspected. As I said before, we have been pre-approved for a loan, but USDA needs to actually make sure the house someone wants to buy is livable and doesn't need a ridiculous amount of work to meet code. Soooo, if the house passes inspection, and we take care of anything that doesn't, USDA will approve our loan and the house will be ours!

The House: Part II

2010-02-21T11:38:00.001-08:00

On Friday, Roy and I went in to ReMax to make an offer on the house and were met with a bit of bad news. Someone else had already made an offer on the house, but the good news was that it hadn't been accepted yet and if our offer was appealing, more than likely the seller would counteroffer to both of us instead of flat our rejecting us.

Roy and I talked about it for a long time and decided to go ahead and offer to buy the house at the full asking price. After all, even the full price was several grand less than what we'd managed to talk the seller of the other home down to before the deal fell through. However, due to a typo on the form, we actually ended up offering to pay $900 less than the asking price. We didn't figure it was a big deal or anything, but later that afternoon our offer was rejected but a counteroffer was given (and like Kathy suspected, the counteroffer was sent to both Roy and I and the other interested buyer).

We thought it was odd that just $900 less than asking price would be rejected, but the seller decided to allow us to know her circumstances; apparently, she doesn't have any assets other than the house, and she's already worried that a few things may need repairing to pass inspection for the USDA to approve the loan, and she's already freaking out about being able to afford the repairs while simultaneously trying to fix a few things herself that she promised to have done before the house was sold. I think she felt all these factors would dissuade us, but actually it gives us an advantage! After all, anything that isn't required to be installed by a licensed professional, Roy and I can do ourselves, so we agreed to her counteroffer and new terms, and included that the few repairs she was going to do herself weren't necessary and that we would be willing to do any minor repairs ourselves to pass inspection free of charge (hopefully, that will give us an edge over the competition... we really don't want to lose this place!)

Kathy was totally awesome and stopped by our apartment on Saturday to pick up our signed copies of the revised paperwork. We were going to actually meet face-to-face with Sara from USDA, but she ended up canceling her trip to see the house and said that her boss had swung by and already declared it structurally sound. If our offer is accepted over the other buyer's, then USDA will inspect the inside of the home and the attic before deciding whether or not to approve the loan we've applied for.

Roy and I are both keeping our fingers crossed; we've been looking at houses for the past three and a half years in Moscow, and so far, this has been the absolute best. Perhaps not in terms of, you know, a fancy place and all, but the privacy, location, and lot space are more than we could ask for!

Any of you who have your fingers crossed for us, would you mind crossing your toes as well? We'll keep everyone updated!

Here we go again!

2010-02-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

I talked with Dad a little bit the other day about the housing situation. He told me not to be disappointed and assured me that something better would come along, and of course I rolled my eyes and thought, in our price range? Not likely. At least not for several months.

So of course the universe would decide to go and prove my dad right. Not two days after I talked to him, a new house was listed on the market. The price was... well, it was pretty darn good. A few grand less than what we'd managed to talk the previous house's seller down to. I got permission to take a walk around the property and peek into the windows and I ended up doing that twice before we actually went inside to see it this morning.

It's small, just a few square feet larger than our apartment, but the house sits on about a half acre lot, so there's a huge fenced off yard with plenty of room for adding on, forwards or backwards. Plenty of mature trees, and it's on a short dead-end road so traffic is very light, and just a few blocks away from the elementary school (a few choice eggs snuggled in my ovaries are shouting, "Hooray! No wait, did you say school? BOOOOOO!" *rushes back up fallopian tubes*). The best bit is that you can't even see the house from the road; it's tucked into a private little corner.

The carpet is stained to hell, the fridge is from 1970 and needs replacing right away, and I'm pretty sure whoever painted the house was on something at the time (and by "on something", I don't mean linoleum... alternating pastel purple, blue, yellow, and green walls on the inside and denim [yes, denim] curtains) but those are all things that won't take too long to rectify now that we have a bit of money saved.

The only downside is that Nazi sympathizers used to rent the place and apparently had the house decked out in swastikas, but the other people on the street either don't know or if they do know, they also know that they don't live there anymore. I'm just paranoid, like moving into an old drug-house and having the possibility of a few random people showing up still thinking they can get crack there; I'm just worried some Nazis are gonna show up in the middle of the night and want to throw a Panzer Party or something. I'll have to order a life-sized cutout of Indiana Jones and put it at the foot of the driveway.

Anyway, back in reality: we were pre-approved for a mortgage, so we called our contact with USDA in Lewiston and are sending her the paperwork for the house. We actually had to tell her the price three times; she was surprised we were able to find something that affordable that wasn't a manufactured home, but considering that most people want a house that's much larger, I don't think we'll be up against too much competition. Tomorrow we're meeting with our real estate agent and making an offer on the house.

I know I've already asked, but if you guys could keep your fingers crossed for us again, we'd appreciate it!

The postal service strikes again!

2010-02-08T17:50:00.001-08:00

Awhile back I mentioned that one of the textbooks I sold and mailed out in December ended up becoming lost when it was opened for inspection. Inspections of Media Mail parcels are apparently more frequent now because people try using it for items that clearly don't fall under the guidelines necessary to use that service. They had me fill out a form to see if they could recover the lost item, but no luck thus far, and I issued a refund to the buyer. It sucked, but Roy told me not to worry; $40 is a lot to me, especially considering the price Roy pays for commuting and the cost of groceries, but it's not as if it would make or break us by any means.

Today, I received another letter... another one of the textbooks I mailed out in December also became lost during inspection at a facility on the other side of the coast from the first lost package. More paperwork to fill out... and another refund to issue. Almost $100 total lost because for some odd reason, USPS continues to open my packages for inspection and mislay the contents inside... even when I take the precaution of putting an additional packing slip inside each book!

Sigh... too many little negative things keep stacking up and together they're making me anxious and pessimistic. Thus far, 2010 does not seem to be my year... hopefully that will change.

In good news (because, come on, there HAS to be something good going on!) I got my results back from my first Spanish exam... I was praying to scrape by with a D at worst, but I made a B+! I'm doing so much better this semester. Also, since I'm finally beginning to balance out my school work and free time for drawing, I reopened art commissions last night... and have three (paid) already and two inquiries! Good thing I set the cap at five at a time... Don't want to get overwhelmed before I've even started! Roy says I'm not charging nearly as much as I ought to, but I love doing it. Well, within reason... if someone came along and requested something elaborate or with a dozen people in it I'd probably flip out!

House Update 2: Bad News

2010-02-06T15:50:00.001-08:00

Well, the house is a no-go.

The seller isn't interested in negotiating with us so we've been dropped. It also turns out we weren't pre-approved for an interest rate as low as we what we were quoted, and believe it or not, a meager 3% extra to what we were expecting really racks up the total each month. I knew this would be frustrating, but everything really seemed like it was falling into place, and it's been such a disappointment to see it fall short.

Such a shame, too... homes on the Palouse rarely fall within our price range.

House Update

2010-01-29T14:39:00.001-08:00

We went through all the necessary paperwork yesterday morning and are now in the process of negotiating the cost of the house. We've received a counteroffer, and tonight we're going to discuss it before we make any decisions (although the current price is still out of our range... but getting warmer).

I'll keep you guys in the loop!

This angel has a flavor! Tastes like pennies!

2010-01-29T14:07:00.000-08:00

Hurr. If that widdle angel face doesn't make you just want to squee, then you're a robot. That eats kittens. You should be ashamed of yourself *wags finger*.

What's my name again?

2010-01-21T14:03:00.001-08:00

My professor just called me "Maya Edwardson". I didn't bother to correct her (well, to correct her again I mean). After a lifetime of people getting my name wrong, I've developed an instinctual response to anything that sounds even remotely similar.

I'm a little bit bummed because one of the textbooks I sold never showed up to the woman who ordered it, and according to the tracking number, the post office never even scanned it in as being received. After a month of trying to figure out what had happened, I received the (empty) packaging in the mail yesterday. So, even though the tracking number states that the package never even made it from my hands to the post office, it somehow made it to Seattle, was opened for inspection, got lost (despite a packing slip inside the book), and the empty packaging found its way back to me a month later. *sigh* At least they returned it with some paperwork to see if they can locate the missing textbook.

I know $40 doesn't seem like a big loss in the grander scheme of things, but I'm still incredibly bummed. I think most of the anxiety over it has to do with the fact that I got the final bill from last year's emergency room visit and found out that my insurance was only willing to pay $70 of the cost. Considering that I was paying over $70 a month for the insurance at the time, it honestly felt like being insured at all was a complete waste of time. $600 just to spend two hours in a waiting room, three hours in an empty room waiting for someone to take a look at me, tell me I was fine, and then another hour and a half in the same empty room waiting for someone to discharge me.

Ouch.

Roy says not to worry, but I can't help but feel stupid and guilty about it.

With my skip ray, I would skip class every day...

2010-01-20T14:19:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a sort of mix-and-match entry. I've just been so busy lately, so I hope this post makes sense!

Looks like Jim has found us a better loan opportunity, so we're waiting to get a hold of someone from Lewiston to begin the application process. I was a bit anxious about starting all over again, but I looked over the details, and not only are we eligible, but it looks like we just might be able to pull it off as well. I suppose the wait will give me time to do our taxes if we can get our W2s soon. The good news is, at the moment we're the only people showing an interest in the house, so I don't think the wait on the application will hurt us too much. There is one other person who wants the place, but they want to tear the house down and put a business there and would need to have the area rezoned from residential to commercial, so I don't think we'll have too much to worry about just yet.

A week ago, all the bloggers in the online fandom communities on were pulling together to contribute a large donation towards UNICEF to aid the Haitians. A lot of us wanted to help, but didn't have any money to spare, so a solution was proposed: Create an online community where someone could offer up their talents or services (things like artwork, custom fiction, cookies, whatever) for auction until January 20th, and whoever wins your auction donates the winning bid to UNICEF. Sounded like a lot of fun, (not to mention completely awesome) and I really wanted to contribute in some way, so this weekend I put up an auction for custom artwork starting at $1. Right now, the bid is up to $50! Tomorrow I'll find out who won, confirm that the donation was made, and make sure I get the request done by Valentine's Day.

I'm just excited that I'm actually able to put my silly hobby to good use for once. Another round will go up in February, and I think I may do it again!

Why is it that I always seem to show up late to all the cool stuff? Over a year too late, and I've only just discovered Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I'd heard of it before, but had completely forgotten about it until I showed Lucie The Legend of Neil and she recognized Felicia Day. I got Dr. Horrible from Netflix and made Roy watch it with me. He rolled his eyes and gave me a look that just said, "Seriously?" during the first four minutes or so, but by the time all 42 minutes were up, he wanted to watch it again and has been singing "My Freeze Ray" to me all week. Which, if any of you have heard Roy sing, is actually pretty dang funny. I'll admit it, I practically cried at the end, but I should have known better than to expect it to end any differently than the way it did; curse you, Joss Whedon! Why must you be so awesome?? We ended up buying the soundtrack and Roy's been playing it constantly. My absolute favourite track is "My Eyes":

Must run, I need to finish reading Midsummer Night's Dream for tomorrow. I'm so ridiculously psyched that I get to take an entire semester of Shakespeare and NOT have to read Romeo and Juliet! No offense to anyone who enjoyed it, but I can't stand that play.

I'll follow you until you love me!

2010-01-12T17:09:00.000-08:00

Today is my last day of freedom! Okay, actually, I went ahead and spent the day getting a head start on the readings listed in my course syllabuses, but hey, technically I was still at home! Tomorrow school begins, and while a big part of me is clinging to the door frame screaming, "I don't wanna go, you can't make me go!" the other, much smaller part of me is donning her reading glasses, packing her lunchbox and is eager for some learnin'!

On Monday Roy and I had another appointment to view the house again. You guys... seriously. I'm so in love with this house. If you were to look at it, you'd probably raise an eyebrow and say, "Well...it's a house?". Yes, I know, I'm perfectly aware it's just a perfectly average house with an admittedly corny 60's interior, but when I walked through it again, it was so easy to close my eyes our future selves there, and so easy to see just where all our belongings would fit cozily inside. Heck, Roy and I were checking all the plumbing and knocking on walls and even making plans for the garage and the kitchen and we haven't even been approved for a mortgage yet! I know it's a bad idea for me to get so set on the idea of this house becoming our home, but at the same time I'm so excited by the prospect that I can't really help it.

Today I filled out a large portion of the paperwork (poor Roy and paperwork just don't mix, so when it comes to any form of bookkeeping, applications, or when tax time comes around, you can bet I'll be the one holding the pen!) and surprisingly enough, things look more hopeful than we had originally thought. The only real kicker is whether or not the amount of my student debt will be taken into account and subtracted from our assets. I'm really praying that they won't be, because if not, we may have a chance of being approved. Tomorrow when I go to school Roy will call Jim and get him to help finish the portions I didn't understand.

I found this video a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if any of you listen to Lady Gaga (I'm guessing it's probably just me and what I've pushed onto Lucie) but I thought this medley was really cool :)

Apparently, telling my husband he can use my computer (with webcam) and leaving my earrings lying around results in some interesting pictures ending up in Photo Booth. Looks like I need to Gagafy him!

My work here is done ;) (btw, that shirt says "math"...not "meth"!)

Things that make you go, "Why?"

2010-01-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

Our new neighbors have a dog.

This in itself does not make me ask myself "Why?" I happen to like dogs. If they're housebroken and at least somewhat obedient, then I'll welcome them into my home any day.

Dogs weren't previously allowed in the complex, but after a few months of empty apartments, it looks as if our landlords have been more lenient towards dogs of the smaller persuasion. One of these said dogs is a small, white fluffy thing. He is actually quite cute, although when left alone outside in the cold, he tends to cry, and with good reason.

What I don't like about this dog, however, is his habit of relieving himself several times each day in our garden. But what can you do, eh? I thought, next time I catch him getting ready to do his business in there, I'll go outside and move him somewhere else.

Wait for it... we're not quite to the "Why?" yet!

This morning, I went out to the garden to remove the tomato cages. When I pulled out the last one and was cleaning off the decaying bits of fruit and veg to help fertilize the ground for this spring, I saw the strangest thing. There, in the corner of the back garden box, was a stake in the ground connected to a leash.

Yes. The dog was doing his business in our garden because his owners specifically chain him in that spot, for the purpose of relieving himself.

...ready?

WHY????

I mean, come on... is there really any way for that to NOT seem, I don't know, rude? I spent all morning contemplating this, and the answer is no. No, there is no way anyone could tie there dog in someone elses garden to do his dirty work without knowing that what they are doing is incredibly disrespectful.

Fortunately for me, Roy knows I'm a first-rate coward and told me not to worry about it, he'll talk to them next time he gets a chance.

It's a new year.

2010-01-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve. This week has been a busy one, we've looked at a few homes and Roy has been helping a friend fix her washer and dryer, but we've had a lot of time to hang out together and it's definitely been a great break for us.

After Roy got home Wednesday night, we watched District 9 together. It was actually really hard to watch. Don't get me wrong, it was a fantastic film and we both loved it, but it was depressing beyond belief. I don't want to offend anyone by saying this, but the amount of crying I did during this film was pretty much on par with the amount of crying I did over Schindler's List. It was wonderful, but all the same, I'm not sure who I could recommend it to. It was definitely unlike any other science fiction film I've ever seen. The only other person I've met who liked it as much as I did was my Native American Lit professor, and she liked it, I quote, "for obvious reasons."

On Thursday, Roy took me to see Sherlock Holmes. To show just how blind we were going in, neither of us even knew it was a Guy Ritchie film. Had we known, we probably would have been there on opening night! It was a really fun film, definitely something I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. It was snowing pretty bad, so Roy did all the driving. On the way home we stopped by Suchada's, since we hadn't been there in over two years, and it was even better than we remembered! I love Thai food, and the servers there are always so nice. Not to mention, the food is excellent! If you're ever in the area and in a position to splurge $10 a dish on some great food, I highly suggest this place. It'd been ages since Roy and I had been on a proper date, so it was a great night.

We also went to view two houses on Thursday. We had picked out the two lowest-priced homes currently on the market, one of which was a foreclosure. The realtor couldn't even get the door open on that home. She eventually asked Roy to kick in the door (which I thought would be quite manly!) but Roy was far too polite...he used his shoulder instead. Darn. When we got inside, the entire interior of the house was coated in condensation and the place smelled of mold and excrement. It was disgusting. Water was dripping from the ceiling and eating through the wood floors and the carpets were completely waterlogged. Let's just say we probably spent a whole of 40 seconds in that place, and most of that was spent trying to get the door back open! Turns out the realtor hadn't shown the place since summer and didn't know about the condition. I guess it was lucky we decided to go house hunting in winter!

We were pretty disappointed, and I assumed the second house wouldn't be much to talk about, but we were definitely in for a surprise! While not much for aesthetics, the second house was perfect. The kitchen is far bigger than ours, there is a garage that can be converted into another bedroom since a two-car carport had been added to the house (Roy can finally start working on his Karmann Ghia again!), there was a nice backyard for our cats right next to the creek, two bedrooms, plenty of storage space... basically anything that needed to be fixed would either be for aesthetic reasons or in order to expand, but it's current state is 100% livable (unlike what we've looked at so far in our price range) with an unlimited amount of potential.

Roy and I were both pretty starstruck. We've been going over our finances since then, trying to see if there's anything we've got now that we can do without, and seeing if we can somehow obtain a mortgage that isn't too much higher than what we currently pay in rent. We're not sure if it's going to work out, since the banks typically want to see a two-year working history and Roy's only had his job a few months (not to mention we don't have much saved up by way of a down payment because our savings went towards supporting us during the few months of unemployment), but we're both praying things will somehow fall into place. We both would really love a home. I know Roy is always itching to make improvements on the apartment, but we can't make any changes because it's not ours. Being able to build the garden out back was a big accomplishment (although our landlords loved it, so it's pretty much going to be a selling point if we move out!)

School will be back in session next week... part of me doesn't mind going back, but the other part of me loves being home! Whenever a semester is in session, Roy and I barely see each other. I'm up and off to class before he wakes us, and he's gone when I get home. Because I have to get up so early, I can't stay up until he gets off work like I did over the holidays. His shift makes things a bit difficult, but I know he likes his coworkers and the extra pay for working that shift is too helpful to give up. It looks like my schedule this semester won't be so bad, though. All of my classes are in the same building (yessss!) and the wait time between periods is only fifteen minutes. I'll be going 7 days a week this semester, but I'll have the entire evening off instead of having to stay until dark! As for my books, I decided to look into older editions for Psych. After a bit of research, I was able to determine that both editions 8 and 9 are essentially the same as 10; the differences aren't content, just chapter placement. This was great news for me, and I was able to get a $100 textbook for just $13. So it turns out, selling my textbooks from last semester paid for this semester's books in full. Not bad!

End of semester update.

2009-12-29T14:23:00.000-08:00

Grades were finally posted, and I'm happy to say I did pretty well last semester. All A's and B's, and my GPA is doing fine, which means I'll be alright in terms of academic standing and therefore my student loan for Spring 2010.

My only exception was Spanish, and I had a sneaking suspicion I wouldn't do so well in that course. For all the other classes, you can get a C and still pass the course, but for some reason, it's different with foreign language courses. I feel a bit stupid about that; I only missed two days of class (when I was sick), I always did all of my homework (and got mostly A's on it), but the coursework only accounts for 10% of the grade. The tests and quizzes are what make up the rest, and anyone who knows me well knows that I'm an awful test-taker. No matter how hard I study beforehand, I always seem to completely blank when the time actually comes (the only exception is literature exams...because I'm memorizing characters, stories, and concepts...not facts!) I cannot, for the life of me, remember how to conjugate different verbs based on the context of their usage, or remember the names of all the different tenses.

So, much to my dismay, I will need to retake the course again next semester. Hopefully I will do better the second time around (if I don't, my code for the course will expire and I'll have to pay a very hefty fee to take it a third time, but I don't think it'll come to that). As for my other courses for next semester, I wasn't able to get into most of my required courses because (since they are degree requirements), they were filled almost immidiately by senior students, who get first pick. But, as luck would have it, I was able to get into several courses that would help satisfy my upper-division-course-credit requirements (anything above a 300 or 400 level), so it's not going to be a wasted semester after all!

I've almost finished buying my books for next semester, with the exception of my Human Sexuality textbook. I'm hoping I can find a decent copy for under $80 before the semester begins. But I was able to sell four of my textbooks from last semester this week, and that ended up paying for all of my books for this semester (again, with the exception of the psychology book mentioned above). So, even though I've really been enjoying my break from school, I feel ready when the new semester begins!

Roy is still loving his job, which is awesome. He has a four-day weekend coming up, and we're really excited. It's been ages since we went on a date, and he's taking me to see Sherlock Holmes.

Lately we've also started looking into buying our first home. It's been far more complicated that we thought, especially since, even with the decent amount of homes for sale, the pickings in our price range are decidedly slim. We found one home in our price range, but it was in a bad neighborhood and needed too much work. We found another house very close to ours for a really great price, but it's smaller than our apartment is now and has almost no land, so not only would we be unable to fit all of our current belongings there, but we wouldn't be able to expand or have children (also it's right on the highway, which isn't exactly child or cat friendly). We're going to check up on another house sometime this weekend that's for-sale-by-owner...it's a bit above our price range, but if we like it, we're hoping we can work something out.

I'm just amazed that we can even consider mortgaging a home. It feels so strange to go from barely making it check-to-check to actually having Roy working a steady job with benefits and the ability to finally begin saving. As corny as it sounds, this job has been such a blessing for us, and if we can stay on our current monthly spending-limit (we're still paying off the debt we accumulated while Roy was unemployed), when I graduate in a year and a half and begin working, we can put my entire income towards paying off my student loans.

I know there's plenty of ifs and maybes, and plenty of things that can go wrong (not to mention plenty of things that have gone wrong) but, for once, we're both able to look to the future and not be so worried!

Name My Lemur

2009-12-25T21:32:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope everyone's day was absolutely fantastic. I sure know mine was!

Roy begged to open gifts after midnight (talk about impatient!) so we opened all of our gifts a bit early. Each year we always say that we're only going to get each other one thing... but then, both of us always ends up having an extra gift and pretend one is from Evie and another from Ringo, so that notion pretty much goes right out the window.

Ringo got me a package of Dark Chocolate Raisinettes (keep your opinions to yourself, Lucie!) and Evie got me the latest P!nk album (well, an I.O.U. for one, anyways...turns out the shop "she" ordered it from accidentally received the censored version, and Evie knows her mama doesn't approve of censorship!). Roy ended up buying me Animal Crossing and RE: Darkside Chronicles and I just about squeed (what am I saying, I did squee. Loudly!). This was actually the first year since we met that Roy's been able to get me a gift without accidentally spoiling the surprise. It felt nice to be surprised! Lucie, RE:DC is a hundred times more fun than Umbrella Chronicles... the next time you come down, we're finishing RE:UC and playing all the way through RE:DC if it kills us!

I will admit to a little self-indulgence... anytime I get Roy a gift from Thinkgeek, I always have to get a little something for myself as well with the Geek Points I accumulate after each order...check out my new Dalek phone charm! It spins whenever I get a call or a text! He also lights up, but I'm thinking of removing the LED...it's blue, and sometimes if my phone tries to connect to the network in the middle of the night, it goes off and Roy wakes up thinking we're at a disco.

Roy got me something else I totally didn't expect either... this little stuffed lemur! (Don't worry Lucie, he and The Kitty had drinks last night and now they are totally BFFs. They were singing "When You're the Best of Friends" from the Fox and the Hound all night)

SRSLY, it's the cutest dang thing ever, and soft and squishy! But now we need a name for it. I thought "Shakespeare" would be cute but Roy was like "Nuh-uh", but didn't have any other names to add to the poll. So, yeah. Suggest some names for my lemur. Ready? Go.

the majestik moose is no stranger to love

2009-12-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

It all started like any normal day. Went grocery shopping, watched some X Files while finishing up last-minute Christmas gifts, and decided to clean the kitchen.

I have a habit of singing to myself when I'm home alone, and today was no exception. Wrist-deep in sudsy water, I badly belted out Lady Gaga tunes and gave a greasy pan a good scrub down. Then, in the middle of the song, smack dab in the center of a chorus line, my subconscious decided it was tired of my music of choice and my lips suddenly formed themselves around the words, "We're no strangers to loo-ooove… you know the rules, and so do I…."

Somehow, I've managed to rickroll myself.

Note to self: Two items is too complicated. Next time? Send a list.

2009-12-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Ah, husbands. You send them to the shop to pick up a gallon of milk and a hen, and they manage to come home with half a dozen bags of groceries... none of which contain milk or a hen.

Roy says he's lucky I'm the type of girl who just laughs hysterically and stuff like that. How can you get mad at someone that stinking adorable? I totally made him go back and get me that milk and hen, though. It's either that or he just gets veggies for dinner >:)

Starting to get the hang of this...

2009-12-02T01:17:00.000-08:00

About two weeks ago, I was browsing through some of my older entries when I came across this monstrosity that I'd made almost two years ago. This was before I had a Wacom, back when I was using a tablet PC. I had been experimenting with some new brushes in Photoshop and thought it was a wonderful opportunity to do some Firefly fanart. River is pretty awesome, and I loved her dancing in the episode Safe, so I figured I'd do a picture of her.

Yeah. It's bad.

Well, this simply wouldn't do. I couldn't have garbage like this floating around on my blog without some sort of restitution for my bruised ego. I vowed to redo the piece, and this time, it wouldn't be awful!

It took me a week before I was able to begin, and with the entertaining sounds of Lucie enthusiastically button-mashing her way through Prince of Persia in the background, I managed to crank out the new version.

Not as good as it could be, I had some time constraints, but certainly an improvement! I'm really starting to love drawing again. I haven't felt this way since high school. It's a wonderful feeling :3

START THE ACOCKALYPSE

2009-11-17T17:18:00.000-08:00

I totally did not come up with "acockalypse", but boy I wish I had. I couldn't help but use this background again. I freaking love it.

This took forever. Comments make me a very happy girl.

Fran & Bailey are © me.

Heck yes, yams! Mm mmm good!

2009-11-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

Well, the test run for Thanksgiving has gone incredibly well. The initial setup didn't go too smoothly...too many recipes use "sweet potatoes" and "yams" interchangeably, and as a totaly newb in the kitchen, my first try at onion-baked sweet potatoes was disgusting. But for the second run, I opted for the orange sweet potatoes over the yellow ones (heck, I didn't even see the orange ones there the last time) and decided to try my hand at the candied yams recipe (without those nasty marshmallows) while I was at it and let Roy decide which dish would win for the yammy portion of our dinner.

I prepared myself for the possibility of neither, perhaps even a declaration that Thanksgiving was off on account of the chef's inability to cook whatsoever, so the verdict surprised me...Roy loved both. So I tried it too. Heck, even I loved both, and I hate my own cooking! So it looks like we're doing both this year, which certainly will be awesomer than last year's offering of just turkey and mashed potatoes. Or the year before, when Roy and I just did pizza for Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving shall rock!

I believe in unicorns n' stuff.

2009-11-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

Full view or baby Jesus will raise an army of undead in time for Sunday brunch.

The Date

2009-11-07T12:15:00.001-08:00

At 11:15pm I manage to block the cats from escaping, lock the door to my apartment and begin the tedious process of defogging my car. For a Friday night, the streets are unusually clear. The streetlights are already blinking red for the night as I make my way through town and onto the highway that leads me to Pullman. I pop in a bit of Nightmare of You and crank up the stereo to keep myself awake and alert.

In ten minutes, I've crossed the state line from Idaho to Washington. Moscow may be dead quiet, but my destination appears to be a different story altogether. As I pull into the parking lot of the local Denny's, I manage to snipe the last available parking space. The lot (and restaurant) is packed, which I certainly hadn't been expecting at this hour. I scan the booths as I walk past the windows, but my date is nowhere in sight. I do a slight double-take of the parking lot, just to be sure. Did he stand me up? Better not have! But no, his truck is there, just beyond the reach of the streetlamp. He's definitely here. Crap, how long has he been waiting?

I feel a tad giddy as I tug absentmindedly on one braided pigtail, smooth out my knit sweater, and step inside. Warm air rushes out to greet me and there he is, dress-shirt untucked, looking calm, composed and gorgeous. And waiting for me, of all people! He sees me and stands, plants a very chaste kiss on my cheek, and puts an arm around my waist to pull me in close. I'm still trying to figure out how on earth this man has been waiting here to have dinner with me. He grins when he sees my face, and in embarrassment I realize that, despite my attempts to dress up for the occasion, I've forgotten to take off my Pokeball earrings. Frak...I'm such a nerd.

Regardless of the long wait and the lack of service (it is a busy night, after all), dinner is wonderful. He tells me about his week, how wonderful things have been, and how bright our future looks. Butterflies stir up briefly in my stomach when he says our future. Not to be outdone, I tell him about classes, my plans for the rest of the fall and the coming spring. I fold my arms in front of me and absentmindedly run my tongue across my teeth, self-conscious about the braces that still have a few months more to go before I can finally be rid of them. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him mirror my movements. Every time he lays a hand on the table, it gets closer and closer to mine, and I start blushing like mad. He totally likes me.

It's ridiculously hot in here. I feel like such a damn teenager. I'm out of water; my mouth is unusually dry, and I can't stop licking my lips. When the waitress never comes by to refill my glass, he slides his in front of me. Am I that obvious? I smile my thanks and take a sip, pushing it back to him. Dental preservation be damned, he chews on a piece of ice and grins at me.

It's getting late. Despite the sub-par service, he tips the waitress generously and wishes her a wonderful morning (by now, it is morning). He walks me to my car and opens the door for me, planting another kiss on my lips before he says he loves me and shuts the door. He walks back to his own car and waits until I've pulled out safely before leaving the lot himself. It's been a good night; I crank up the stereo and sing along. I feel so uncharacteristically happy. He loves me! I sing louder and louder until it can't even be called singing anymore; it's akin to some poor homeless bastard's drunken solo, and I giggle uncontrollably as I again cross the state line back into Idaho.

The porch light turns on as I reach the front steps and unlock the door. I set the mail on the counter, feed the cat, and slip into my pajamas. I pick up a ball of yarn and continue crocheting where I'd left off earlier that evening. Within a few minutes, I hear the front door open as he lets himself in.

"We should do this every week" he says, donning a pair of slippers and flopping onto the couch next to me. Who knew dating your husband could be so much fun?

Irresponsible Consumerism

2009-10-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

Seriously, people...please dispose of your trash where it belongs...in the garbage, not wherever you happen to be at the time.

Back to Normal

2009-10-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Monday and things are back to being busy. I've got a slot of time between classes so I decided to update my blog a bit.

Friday was my first trip driving to Spokane by myself. Roy looked ready to crap a brick when I left, but in actuality, it was far easier driving alone than with Roy...I think because his backseat driving makes me anxious. The only downside is that for some reason, driving always makes me incredibly sleepy...which means that I had to have the windows down so that it was freezing and I was blaring music as loud as I could (which, unfortunately, also entailed singing as loud as I could...if you could call it singing). I did see the passenger of another car break out into laughter at one point while passing me...although I can't really blame them, considering they had just witnessed me fist-banging the air and screeching, "You gotta fight for your right to PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTAY!

It was a fun weekend. Lucie, Sammy, Shawna and I all went out for Hawaiian food and then went to see a late showing of Where The Wild Things Are. The next morning was a quilt show at the Fairgrounds (which Lucie had purposely kept secret from me for fear that I wouldn't come down had I known that stop was on the itinerary...). I mean, quilting is cool and all, and holy crap I wouldn't have the patience for it, but I just couldn't bring myself to give each and every one the critique it probably deserved. Our time there mostly consisted of Lucie and I giving each one a quick once-over and finding something ridiculous or funny to say about it before running off hand-in-hand and giggling like a pair of hyena pups. We split some fish and chips and a pumpkin shake before sitting outside in the rain listening to our iPods until everyone else had finished up. Yeah, we're such party poopers, ha...although we did meet an older woman outside who said the three of us were like soul-mates and kept ending all of her sentences with "eh?". She was actually sort of awesome. And we did get a kick out of ending all of our sentences with eh? for the next few hours.

The next spot was what I almost suspected was a porn shop. Out of the way, plain white building, no windows...I opened up expecting to flash my ID and walk past a row of late 90's erotic DVDs and mannequins sporting a dusty collection of lingerie, and instead was met with rows and rows of yarn. It may as well have been porn though, because I love yarn way more than a girl probably should.

It had rained a bit more and I wasn't sure what the weather would look like that evening, and since I was already getting tired, I decided to stay another night in Spokane instead of driving back home. So we decided to try and convince Shawna to join in on the fandom for my latest obsession, Supernatural. Sammy owns seasons 2 and 3, so we watched two or three random episodes. It was actually the last time I came down to Spokane that I saw her watching it and I asked her about it. I had never heard of the show before, but it seemed like something I'd enjoy so I thought I'd give it a try... fast forward about two months and I now own all four seasons on DVD. Yeah, pathetic, I know. But season four is by far my favourite, partly because the story becomes far more interesting with the impending apocalypse and whatnot, but also because it's the first season to introduce new characters that I haven't ended up hating.

After we called it a night, Roy called me around midnight and we ended up talking on the phone for two hours. It was actually sort of fun...something we hadn't done since we first got together nearly five years ago. We're hardly ever apart, so we missed each other like crazy. Today is the two-year anniversary of our wedding, but since Roy was starting his first day at Schweitzer and I was going to be on campus all day (still here, btw) we decided that we wouldn't do anything. But after spending all weekend apart, I didn't feel right coming home empty handed. But I also had no idea what to get as a gift for Roy...when we first got together, he had no new shirts, so each holiday or occasion, I'd get him one. Now he has a crap load of them and doesn't need any more. After that I progressed to interesting little tools and safety kits, but now he's got plenty of that too. It wasn't until I was getting ready to leave Spokane that I realized I knew of at least one thing that he would love! So I drove Sammy out to drop her off at work and Lucie and I headed to Borders, where I found the perfect gift... Watchmen on Bluray. When I got home, Roy was still out, and there was a ton of paperwork to go through and fill out in time for Roy's first day. It was hectic, since our first moments back involved trying to finish paperwork, but we managed to end the evening with some delicious pizza from Papa Murphy's, the latest episode of Supernatural on the CW website, and then lots and lots of cuddles. D'awwww!

Anyways, I'm getting ready to head to a cultural conference on tribal media for a paper I need to write...I'm already wiped out though, so wish me luck.

Everybody Wants My Husband

2009-10-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

After several weeks of stretching what was leftover from this semester's student loan, things were looking sort of financially hopeless for Roy and I. While his interview with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories had gone incredibly well, the position was for a future opening that could possibly be weeks or even a few months in the future, and there was no guarantee that he would get an offer when the time came. We desperately needed something to fill in the "if" time in between. I was already contemplating dropping out of school for the rest of the year to work full-time, and Roy had even begun applying for fast food and thrift store gigs.

On Monday, he got the call...not from SEL, but for a temporary position from Goodwill. It was a surprise, since he had interviewed there two days previous and had been told they'd get back to him in two weeks. And since beggars can't be choosers, Roy accepted and started his new job in the electronics department right away. I breathed a sigh of relief and threw out my drop course papers.

Fast forward two more days. SEL gives Roy a call and offers him the position we had both been hoping for...which, obviously, he accepts. Cue immense relief!

The only downside is that Roy will be working the swing shift, and with my school schedule, during the week we will be going from seeing each other every day to only seeing each other when the other is sleeping. (Yes, cue the sappy music and creepy "Watching you while you sleep" scenarios) But the end result will be worth it. I feel bad about dropping Goodwill so quickly, but it was a job that simply couldn't offer Roy any security regarding permanence or room for advancement within the company, nor could it even come close to applying and developing the skills that Roy was bringing to the job. And with Roy's know-how and friendly social demeanor, I know that he'll be able to develop a good rapport within SEL and eventually move up to a position he can be comfortable working in for the extremely long-term :)

Nobody hurts my kittehs and gets away with it!

2009-09-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a bad week for us all.

Last Sunday, Ringo came home with his tail completely limp. Now, we've had Ringo since he was five weeks old, and he never, I repeat, never fails to have his tail held high and straight. He walked to the kitchen and it was dragging on the ground. I took a quick look and it was swollen near the base. We both agreed that it looked like a sprain from when he'd fallen out of the closet the night before, but we wanted to be absolutely sure. Our finances are incredibly slippery right now and my hours at the University are slim to nearly none, but this was an expense we simply couldn't forgo.

No veterinarians in our area are open on Sundays, so first thing Monday morning we called and made an appointment with our vet for a checkup. They couldn't see him until Tuesday morning. Roy dropped him off and after I was done with classes for the day, the vet gave me a call and told me it was a good thing we decided to bring Ringo in. Turns out, the swelling wasn't from a sprain at all...it was from a bite. Ringo had been badly by either a very large cat or a small dog, and the bite was infected and had become a gigantic abscess. The assistant said they'd lanced it and fluid had just poured out, it was so full. Immediately after it had been drained, his tail was held high and moving around again just as it did before. If we hadn't brought him in, chances are high that he would have lost the tail and possibly even died from the abscess.

The entire trip was $150, which was actually far less expensive than I thought the entire procedure would be, and definitely worth it. Poor Ringo got to come home a few hours later high on painkillers, with updated shots and a bottle of antibiotics, and proceeded to spend the next four hours vigorously licking his tail. Unfortunately, when I called the vet back to see if this was acceptable or not, and she suggested we purchase a cone. We spent the next two hours taking shifts to watch his every move and tell him no every time he attempted to lick the spot. I had so much homework that it was getting too frustrating to study while constantly following him as he ran from room to room trying to get away from my watchful eye... The consequences of Ringo's incessant licking finally resulted in...

THE CONE.

He was not a happy camper. And to make matters worse, he whined about it all night and neither of us got any sleep...which totally sucked, considering Roy had a skills test and interview the following morning. He still did great though :)

Ringo is finally doing better and no longer has to wear the cone, but the trouble didn't stop there. There's been a big orange cat with no collar roaming around our place lately. Our cats tend to be very non-aggressive and avoid other cats they don't know (we're guessing that Ringo was bitten while defending Evie, since moments like those are the only times we've witnessed him fighting), but this cat has constantly been lurking around and watching Evie for the past few weeks. While we're not 100% sure that this cat is the one who bit Ringo, last night we heard the cats hissing right outside the window and Roy went to go have a look. Ringo was hissing at the orange cat who had Evie backed up against the lawn chair we use as their step-up to the cat door. The cat ran away when Roy came outside, and we assumed that was the end of it.

This morning I got up and was surprised to find Evie curled up tightly against me, fast asleep. I got up and went to the kitchen to wash my hands before making breakfast. It was then I noticed two streaks of blood on my arm. I asked Roy if he had been scratched or had bled at all that morning and he said no, so I quickly headed back to the bedroom to check on Evie. Sure enough, her right ear was matted with blood and flecks of it had gotten all over her face, neck and head. I hadn't noticed when I had woken up because she had had her back to me, with her right ear resting on my arm. Roy went to check outside and found more blood on the chair where he'd seen her cowering while the orange cat was harassing her.

Let's just say I'm absolutely furious. First of all, whoever owns this cat not only hasn't bothered to place a collar on him, but has also allowed him to roam around outside knowing that he has an extremely aggressive personality. Evie wouldn't hurt a fly...well, she would, she loves flies, but she certainly wouldn't provoke a fight.

I'm not sure what to do. I don't even know if the orange cat has an owner, although he certainly seems well fed. We have a no-kill shelter right down the street from us. I know I wouldn't want someone carting off my kitties just because I didn't like their attitude (although we have microchips just in case someone does), but this cat is incredibly aggressive and has no collar. I don't want to immidiately assume he isn't owned by someone, but I don't want to have to deal with his aggression either. Any suggestions?

It's been awhile.

2009-09-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

Things have been busy lately, so I don't have a lot to say. But since it's Friday, here's a video of Roy sharing some of his pizza with Evie. Yes, we're sick, sick people.

From Mom, with love.

2009-08-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

No one is looking...

2009-08-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Art is therapy (plus, it helps you learn to draw hands).
When I first sketched this outfit, I went "OMGWTF no one in their right mind would even consider that." I wish I could pull off short shorts with leg warmers.

Before screenshots:

After screenshots:

Finished piece: Please full view, or baby Jesus will cry. Because he wants an air guitar.

Sudden Interjection! D:

2009-08-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

Forgive my awful sweaty face...it's the middle of summer and yet I'm already preparing for winter.

Here's the red hat I compromised for (over the bright blue, if you remember) with the yellow gloves.

I pretend to be cool, in my dreams and all.

Once my job starts again at the end of the month and I have a few extra dollars for another skein or two of yarn, I'm going to make myself another bright blue hat just for fun. You can never own too many warm hats if you live in northern Idaho.

Crochet the Day Away!

2009-08-07T13:44:00.001-07:00

Digging through a wicker basket of unfinished projects last night, I came across a scarf I began for myself almost a year ago and never quite finished. There wasn't much to do really, other than add a few tassels. I had a small ball of both blue and brown left over, but not enough of either to make a set of gloves in one color. So I decided to improvise, although I'm not certain how I feel about the outcome.

The story of my life

2009-08-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

This is getting tiresome...

How To: Blueberry Muffin melt-and-pour soap

2009-07-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

X-Posted from my Sweet Tangerine Soap blog.

Summer vacation is nearing it's end, but before my life falls back into its strict college routine, I may as well make myself plenty of deliciously scented soaps to get me through the semester! Today I'd like to share my recipe for making one of my most popular "Bakery-Sweets Soaps", Blueberry Muffin.

Ingredients you will need:

1 oz. clear soap
5 oz. white soap (shea and goats milk are also fine substitutes)
a non-bleeding blue colorant
your favorite Blueberry Muffin fragrance oil

Tools:

digital scale
small mouth-wide container (such as a glass measuring cup)
knife or soap cutter
two 3 oz. soap molds in any shape you prefer
eyedropper
spray bottle of rubbing alcohol
spoon or other mixing utensil

Hint: make sure all of your tools and work area are clean and dry before beginning!

Step 1
Using your digital scale, measure out 1 oz of clear soap for the "blueberries". Using your soap cutter, slice the soap into smaller cubes (this will help it melt faster and more evenly) and place the cubes into your container.

Step 2
Place your container in the microwave and melt for about 10-15 seconds. Do not allow the soap to boil. Always keep an eye on your soap when it's in the microwave! If you finish nuking and there are still a few small unmelted pieces, don't worry; just stir very gently and the heat of the melted soap will melt the remaining chunks.

Step 3
Once all your soap has melted, add 1-2 drops of a non-bleeding blue colorant (Brambleberry has an assortment of non-bleeding colors. If you don't use a non-bleeding color, after a few weeks the blue color will leech into the white and you'll end up with an ugly [albiet still awesome smelling] bar of soap!) Proceed to add 2-4 drops of your fragrance oil. Gently mix with a spoon and pour into your mold. Spritz your rubbing alcohol over the surface to evaporate any bubbles. Now it's just a matter of waiting for this soap to harden before we move to the next step (depending on the temperature of your workspace, this can take 15-30 minutes). Blow gently on the surface of the soap to tell if it has begun to set. If it doesn't move, you can always gently poke a corner of the soap. If it bends inward at all, it's not hardened enough!)

Hint: While you're waiting for your blue soap to harden, begin preparation for the next step: weigh out 5 oz of white soap and place it in your container (make sure you have cleaned it since using it for the clear soap!!!) and have it ready and sitting next to the microwave.

Step 4
Unmold. If you have trouble unmolding the soap, try popping the mold into the freezer for 30-60 seconds. Press your thumbs gently on either side of the mold and try to get an air pocket to form between the mold and the soap. Once you've succeeded in this, the soap should pop right out. If you have soar thumbs at the end of the day, don't come crying to me! SOAP = SERIOUS BUSINESS!

Step 5
Proceed to chop your soap into small "blueberries" and desperse between your two 3 oz. molds. Before adding your white soap, you will need to gently spritz the "blueberries" with rubbing alcohol. This will help to adhere the layers so the blue chunks won't fall out of your soap while bathing!

Step 6
Remember how I hinted that you should have your 5 oz. white soap weighed out, chopped, and ready for nuking? Pop your container into the microwave and melt for 20-30 seconds. Add 4-5 drops of your Blueberry Muffin fragrance oil and mix gently. Once the soap and fragrance have been thoroughly mixed, slowly pour your white soap over the "blueberries". Spritz surface with rubbing alcohol to eliminate any bubbles.

Hint: Make sure your soap is not too hot before pouring!!! As you can see, I was too focused on getting a picture that I forgot to check the temperature before pouring. As a result, the white soap ended up melting a portion of the blueberries. While this does look pretty, it's not the look we were aiming for. Luckily I have two molds to work with, so you can see the consequences of not paying attention! Test the soap with your fingertip before pouring; if it feels too hot for your finger, it is too hot to pour! Allow the soap to cool slightly before pouring, and stir gently and frequently to prevent any skin from forming on the surface.

Step 7
Unmold, and eureka! You've just made a bar of gorgeous, delicious-smelling soap!

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial :)

Ghita

2009-07-21T23:38:00.001-07:00

I was having such a rotten day today until I came across this. It's a shame there's only twenty-two minutes left until tomorrow begins.

2009-07-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

What else is there?

2009-07-10T22:55:00.000-07:00

My original post spanned over several pages in TextEdit. After staring blankly at my computer screen for several hours, I realized that it was simply too intimate, and too soon. What should have been a few paragraphs about a family tragedy looked more like the early works of a short story, and I began to feel that the prose my thoughts and feelings had turned into were just too... Detached? I don't know. But it just felt like, in order to cope, I had taken a tragic experience and attempted to pass it off as just another piece of writing, and I know that the road to acceptance isn't through attempting to convince myself that my life is a piece of fiction.

I haven't exactly had the clearest head for the past several days. My mind has been a blur of anger, joy, relief, sadness, and shame; sometimes one after the other, sometimes all at once. I just don't think I'm ready to dump that on the internet. So, the highly abridged version:

On July 8th, at 6:06 in the evening, my mom passed away. She wasn't alone; Dad and I were with her. She just stopped breathing, and a few moments later, her heart stopped as well.

That's all I can say right now. My heart is full of so many unsaid thoughts, but I just can't bring myself to let them go yet. I'm sure I will eventually; but not today.

What now?

2009-07-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a little over a week since I dropped all of my plans and projects, haphazardly packed a duffel bag full of whatever rumpled, filthy clothing was nearest to me, and headed off to my hometown of Sandpoint, Idaho.

Crossing the Long Bridge and merging awkwardly into traffic, I'm reminded of just how much I have grown to hate this town over the last few years. Not even all the happy childhood memories in the world could make me consider loving it here. The mingled scent of car exhaust, sweaty bodies doused in suntan lotion, a hint of dead fish, and commerce invade my nostrils and I hold my breath as I pass through town and head out towards Kootenai. As I leave the main portion of town behind, the streets and landmarks become more and more unchanging, the scenery more consistent with the memories I still harbor.

But I am not here for nostalgia's sake. I'm here because my mother has finally succumbed to the doctor's predictions; she's dying, although admittedly a year and a half later than expected.

When I see her, she's seated in a wheelchair before the large picture window overlooking what used to be fields of wheat; it has since been cultivated into custom beach-front summer homes for the moderately well-to-do. “Hello, Mama” I venture. She doesn't look at me. I take her hand and wait. At long length, she opens her mouth and all that comes out is gibberish, her breath tinged with the scent of slightly rotten fruit left too long in the sun.

Her false coral eye (a souvenir from the first of what would become several battles with melanoma) has sunken somewhat into the left socket on her narrow face, but she swivels her good one in my general direction and again mumbles a few m's and h's. I still don't understand, and before I know it, I'm already spilling tears. She squeezes my hand, and with a laboured movement that seems to take forever, she lifts it to her lips and kisses it. I suppose that's what she'd meant to say.

I spend the day with her to give Dad and the boys an opportunity to rip up the rotting back deck. With some help, I wheel her hospital bed outside onto the back cement patio my father poured after I'd left for college, and move her under the shade. “Isn't it a beautiful day, Mama?” I ask. She only moans, and I try not to cry as I drag my crochet needles out of my purse and begin to work. Mom eventually falls asleep, her oxygen hookup hissing softly as her mouth hangs open, reminding me of a zombie. I curse myself for my recent survival-horror fixation and turn my attention back to my simple stitches. Three useless washcloths help me pass the time. Mom continues to sleep, her breathes coming out in all-too-familiar moans of pain. By the time I reach seven washcloths, my nerves have me leaning towards the urge to stab myself in the neck with one of those crochet hooks.

The most frustrating bit is wanting to make her as comfortable as possible, and not knowing how. Listening to her mumble and moan and not knowing what she wants or needs. Feeding her a yogurt morphine cocktail, or water, or Diet Coke through a syringe and fighting off horrible flashbacks of Bean, the newborn mouse who lived in my bedside dresser, whose death resulted in accidental drowning from my own careless feeding barely two weeks prior.

The third morning passes uneventfully, and in her restlessness I hear an incredibly clear sentence. “Where are my boys?” she asks, a tear rolling from her blue coral eye. I stall for a moment, surprised, since I hadn't know the tear duct in that eye still functioned, and I am suddenly filled with incredible anger towards the two biological sons she had been referring to, who should be here at her side when she so obviously needs them. The day passes and she does not speak again.

She has taken on an empty stare when I look at her, and her gaze always passes straight through me. When I move my head, her eyes don't follow. After several hours of this, I need to leave. I march a few times back and forth through the house to calm myself. “Hi Mama” I say as I return to the bedroom. To my surprise, she looks up at me and one side of her mouth attempts to smile. “Hi Sweetheart” she whispers, barely audible, before her gaze clouds again. I cry.

Once every few days a random nurse comes to check on her, each commenting that they would be surprised to see her last through another week. So far she's lasted through two.

I don't really know where we go from here.

We're Going To Be Friends: Part II

2009-06-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

Feeling Pathetic

2009-06-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

Bean died this morning. When I chirped to wake him for his midnight feeding, I noticed he was no longer crawling on his belly. When I picked him up, I saw that the front paw where he'd had the cut had swelled up and looked like a sausage and he couldn't walk on it anymore. I knew then he wasn't going to last much longer, and I told myself to prepare to wake up to a dead mouse.

I knew this was strictly a hospice situation, and I had prepared myself for his death. But what happened is different, because it was my fault. This isn't a false sense of humility; it literally was my fault. Maybe he would have eventually died tonight anyway, or tomorrow. It was inevitable. But it happened today, and it was my fault.

I slept through the alarm for Bean's 5am feeding and didn't wake up until just before 8am. I went to heat up some formula and then chirped for him to wake up. He did, and I could tell the little guy was pretty hungry. I held him and started to feed him bit by bit. When I pulled the syringe away, he started squeaking hungrily and trying to move towards it. I could tell he was really hungry, so I wasn't feeding him as slowly as usual. He was swallowing formula when I saw a drop of it come out of his nose and I knew I had given him too much too quick, that some of the formula had gone into his lungs. I wiped his face clean and tried to stroke his ribs with the washcloth, hoping I had been quick enough and that not too much had gotten in, or that maybe he could cough it up, but he stopped breathing evenly and started gulping loudly. Within ten seconds (I know it's cliche, but it felt like an hour), he was dead.

I killed him. I knew he was going to die, and rather than leave him outside I had wanted to ensure that he'd pass away in a nice warm bed. Instead he drowned to death right in my hands because I was so careless. I think waking up to find him gone would have been simpler. But staring at his little body as he died and knowing that I had killed him broke my heart.

I feel so pathetic for feeling this way over a stupid mouse. I couldn't even bring myself to just chuck him in the dumpster. I asked Roy if we could bury him, his little body still in my hand. I was crying so hard that Roy had to literally pry him from my fingers and wrap him in a towel himself. Roy ended up burying him; I just sat there crying and blathering like an idiot. I went to bed curled up with Evie and slept in until eleven. I feel horrible; I had only wanted to help, and instead, it's like he would have been better off if I had just chucked him into the bushes the minute I'd found him.

36 Hours and Counting

2009-06-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

You can imagine my surprise when I woke up for this morning's feeding and Bean was still alive. Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to name the mouse because I didn't want to get attached to it, but... I am.

Feeding has been a bit hard since I only have an eyedropper and the tip is too large for Bean's tiny mouth, so formula ends up all over him; every meal time ends up being bath time too (and this has to be done every four to five hours! GAH!) But he's been going potty after each meal without any problems. I tried going all over Moscow and Pullman looking for an oral syringe with a teensy tip to make feedings easier, but I haven't succeeded yet.

I'm looking forward to when he finally opens his eyes and can begin weening off the formula on bits of cooked white rice and apple. But I have to keep reminding myself that in all likelyhood, he's still going to pass away before it comes to that. Every four hours that goes by is a surprise to find him still alive and wanting to be fed. I added some toilet paper to his box since it cooled off in the afternoon today and he's burrowed under there right now :3

The Orphan

2009-06-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

I know it's ridiculous, but I just can't help but get all soft and jellylike when it comes to animals. So when I woke up to head to the Farmer's Market only to encounter what appeared to be a 1-to-2-week-old mouse pup being circled by a gang of cats (which, I'm ashamed to say, included my Evie and Ringo), all my plans for the day literally melted at the sight of him.

I had no idea where to find his mum, and after calling around town in hopes of finding someone with a nursing rodent of their own that would adopt him (to no avail), I decided I had to take care of him myself. Upon closer inspection, I discovered not only that he was a boy, but also succeeded in confirming my fears...a near microscopic cut on his wrist and nose, almost certainly from a cat. My hopes came crashing down; I had rescued this adorable little baby, only to discover that within hours, he would most certainly die from his kitty-infected wounds.

When he started suckling the creases of my hand, knowing he would die couldn't move me to chuck him out, though I think it would have made my day far easier. I made him a warm bed in a tiny box and put him in the drawer next to my bed, and rushed to the pet store to buy puppy formula. I've been feeding him a few drops of formula from an eyedropper every few hours and then wiping his tummy with a wet washcloth until he uses the bathroom. I cried when he let me clean him up and then curled up in the palm of my hand to fall asleep. Am I pathetic or what?

I haven't named him. It's not that I don't want to, it's just I know that if I do it'll be that much harder when I wake up tomorrow and find him gone. But at least I have the comfort of knowing he'll die in a nice, warm, soft bed with a full tummy.

Nameless Faces (Online Anonymity≈Not so nice comments)

2009-06-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

Let me preface by saying that this situation is entirely ridiculous, and I recognize that. I'm a grown woman who ought to be above being hurt by the equivalent of playground taunts. But sometimes the only way to get things off my chest is to rant. So bear with me, please.

Once in a blue moon, when my website traffic peaks, I like to take a look at where the pageviews are coming from. This helps me to see what forms of advertising are worthwhile in pursuing, and what additional audiences I ought to be reaching out to.

Occasionally, though, it turns out the traffic isn't coming because someone heard something nice about my work. Sometimes, it's the exact opposite...traffic peaks because someone on some random forum refers to my work as crap, poorly done, unnaturally posed, or "a blatant ripoff". The traffic is a result of viewers intending to see this crap for themselves so that they, too, may join in, offering up their own negative comments and opinions towards my sub-par artwork.

Everyone has their own likes and dislikes. I can respect this. There will always be people who enjoy my art, and others who dislike it, and those with no opinion who ignore it completely. That's fine. But what isn't so fine is when someone decides to take a piece of my work and openly discuss with another group of people that I have never met "how much it sucks", to be blunt. No helpful critique, mind you, no advice on how I can make it better... just blatant dislike, presumably under the impression that I won't physically come across their words myself.

I could childishly retort, "Well, let's see you do better!" but let's face it...a lot of people probably would. But, the fact is, I love art, and I always have. I love to see it, and I love to make it. It saddens me that some think I ought to give up and quit rather than practice and better myself. But what would be the point in living if we all gave up doing what we love simply because not everyone thinks it's good enough? I can look back over my own drawings and can literally see the levels of improvement that have come with repeated practice over the last two years. If I were to give up now, that improvement would stop, and without practice, would eventually dwindle down to nothing. If I can see the improvement, why would I want to stop? Just because some nameless face on the internet said I ought to?

I'm sorry, nameless face. But that's just not a good enough reason for me.

2009-06-10T15:45:00.001-07:00

I'll have to ask forgiveness for my recent and ongoing seclusion. It's nothing personal. I've reached a very strange point in my life, and it seems difficult for people to understand that every once in awhile, being alone is good for the soul. I'm not against socializing; I'm just at a stage where I'm not instigating it. So please forgive the phone calls that never come, or the visits that never take place. It's nothing personal. I'm just not in the mood to reach out.

People cast their sweet smiles, their pitying looks and firm pats on the back, and ask what they can do to help. But I can't stand the momentary disgust that passes over their faces when I tell them that the best thing they can do for me is to stop trying to coax me into talking about it. It's like purposefully wanting to keep myself switched off is the most outrageous taboo to them. Some mistakenly take it for cynicism. But look at it through my eyes: I've had a long time to talk about it, and even longer to think about it. You can only scream obscenities into a pillow so long before you realize that everything you needed to let out is already out and gone. The only thing left is to plug up the hole and take whatever means necessary to get yourself back on track.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

2009-06-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

The familiar sounds of Akira Yamaoka's hauntingly beautiful score easily sets the atmosphere of psychological isolation in Konami's latest installment to the Silent Hill series, Shattered Memories. While the release is still a ways off, I'm increasingly anxious to see this Wii "remake" of the classic game that had me perpetually on the verge of bolting from my seat not so many years ago.

From what I can tell from the latest trailer, it's clear this isn't going to be the same experience we had with the original Silent Hill. While we once again play as Harry Mason searching the town of Silent Hill for his daughter, Cheryl, the first most evident thing that sticks out to me is the lack of... weaponry. I'm a hardcore fan of the rusty pipe myself (although a crowbar makes a handy substitute) but from what I can tell, it looks like our protagonist is equipped mainly with a flashlight, a camera cell-phone, and...legs? I have yet to see actual fighting taking place in the game; rather, it appears that running away is your main means of eluding the monsters in this game. I've also yet to see more than one particular type of monster. Apparently, Silent Hill's alternate dimension in this game, far from the rotted grating of the original, appears to be the town encased in... ice. Yes, ice. It's safe to say that I'm intrigued, but apprehensive nonetheless.

Admittedly, I'm very interested in the opening psychological evaluation you receive for this game, as well as in-game monitoring of your decisions to alter aspects of the game (and characters) based on your own traits and personality. And not silly inquisitions as to your favourite color, but rather personal questions to mold the psychological torment "in your favor" (for lack of a better phrase).

To be fair, I'm withholding my judgement on this game until, you know, I actually get to play it.

So, in closing.... Dahlia? WTF????

We're Going To Be Friends

2009-05-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

Nope, that cat on the top level isn't ours. He's our new neighbors' kitty, Cheeto. It seems that our house is the party place for all the cats in this neighborhood... a con of having a cat door. I take it this guy is not exactly the wilderness type... when he gets shut out at night, he'll actually come into our apartment to use the litter box. Can't the little stinker just poo in the volleyball court like all the other cats in this neighborhood? LOL.

After a bit of a rocky start (well, let's face it...the fur was flying!) Cheeto and Evie seem to have formed quite the bond. He constantly comes through our cat door to find her so they can play together (even in the wee hours of the morning, but after throwing this guy back out twenty times in one day, I've completely given up on even trying to get him to stay outside). When she gets tired of playing she hisses a bit (heck, you should see how she treats Ringo when she's tired of him!), but other than that, they seem pretty chummy to me.

I can't help but hum the White Stripes song "We're Going To Be Friends" whenever I see them curled up on the cat post together :3

Speedycakes! :D

2009-05-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Roy and I went for a bike ride last night, up the bike path towards the University. I was flying past joggers on the trail at twenty miles per hour, shooting up hills with ease. I think I swallowed three bugs.

No, I didn't magically grow intense muscles. I was testing out Roy's latest prototype... an electric cruiser!

There's a throttle near the righthand break. It can ride just like a normal bicycle, but if you want to cruise or you need a little "oomph" to help you get up those hills... vroom vroom, baby!

Now if only I could get Roy to wear a white labcoat. That would be hawt. *nosebleed* :D

"Royyyyy...?"

"Not now, honey, I'm doing SCIENCE!"

Happy Mothers Day

2009-05-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Today has definitely not been the relaxing day I was envisioning. Finals begin tomorrow, and on Tuesday I have a formal report due for my Business class. I showered, got into gear, and plowed ahead.

7 pages later, I knew that if I didn't play some relaxing music, my head was going to explode. But I have trouble focusing when listening to music with lyrics. No bother... I have the perfect playlist for times like this. Yes, as odd as it sounds, when I need to relax, I listen to... the Silent Hill soundtrack. For a survival horror series, they sure do have some beautiful music.

There's a particular track, I think from the first or third game in the series, called Tears of Pain. This is an incredibly beautiful song, and I remember listening to it over and over again when my Mom first found out how sick she was. I remember even using it as her ringtone for several months. It's one of those songs that makes you cry at first because it feels like everything good around you is melting away, but once the song progresses, you feel like something new is taking its place. It makes you realize that when you love something, it never really leaves. The same way that an expanse of burnt forest ash gives nutrients for the wildflowers that will inevitably be reborn, my Mom will always by my Mom, no matter where she is :)

This song is for you, Mom. Happy Mothers Day.

Sweet Tangerine Update!

2009-05-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

You heard me! Go check it out!!!! -----> (CLICK MEEEEE!!!)

Happy (early) Birthday, Lucie!

2009-05-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, my baby sister is finally turning 12 19!!! Congrats Lucie, and for your present, here's a picture of us fighting off hordes of zombies:
Okay, just kidding. This was actually just the first draft of your birthday picture. Unfortunately while working on the actual sketch for said awesome picture, Roy kept playing the Hollywood Undead album over and over again, and one of the songs ~~inspired me to~~ made me end up with a far less, er, action-packed image called *ahem* Let's Watch It Burn.

(from City by Hollywood Undead)

Let's watch this city burn
From the sky over top the world
Til there's nothing left of her
Let's watch this city burn the world

Basically, we're both members of Raccoon City's S.T.A.R.S and escape the city to watch it get nuked (obviously from a somewhat safe distance!). I can't draw guns worth poo so the huge shotgun and machine gun I had planned on us lugging around turned into much smaller Samurai Edge handguns...which are still badass, don't get me wrong. Why is Roy not in this picture? Well, because he'd obviously be an evil Umbrella researcher and we'd totally have to kick his butt. That and he'd totally get jealous when Leon and Wesker come along and Lucie and I both go all fangirly and tackle them (while we totally pretend that our strangely-attractive S.T.A.R.S. Captain *ahem* isn't a dirty triple-crosser!)

Progression - 4 years

2009-05-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

I was looking at a post Lucie had made on her dA blog about how her art is progressing. I found myself a bit jealous and thinking how it was unfair that I hadn't been able to progress at all since high school.

Well, that was what I thought until I saw some of the old work that Roy had saved of mine. YIKES! Click for a larger view.

The first image is the very first picture I ever colored using Photoshop, and at the time, I thought I was ridiculously badass. It was Christmas of 2004, back when I was dating one of Roy's roommates, and my friends had all chipped in to buy me a scanner (now Lucie's scanner) and encouraged me to learn to color my work digitally. (While I'm no longer in touch with any of them, I'm still thankful for that gift, since without it, I'm not sure I would have ever made the jump to digital art at all!) I made Roy this portrait as a gift, using a scanned image and the mouse tool to color. OMG it's awful, but he loved it to pieces and still loves the dang thing.

After Roy and I got together and moved to Moscow in the late Spring of 2005, I made the second image for him as a birthday gift. I still didn't have a tablet (or a mouse! I did this all using a laptop trackpad) and had done this image after laborously teaching myself to use the pen tool.

The third image is what was on all of your 2008 Christmas cards this year, made from scratch in Photoshop using a wacom.

Yeah. I'd definitely have to say it's a bit of an improvement.

(ps) I'm actually hoping to get back into working on paper again a bit, since the traditional paper and pencil is a medium I haven't used in so long!

(pss) HA! Here's another fantastic example... the self-portrait!

Somewhere I Belong

2009-05-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

How awesome is it to hear an old song on the radio that you had always feared would perfectly define you for the rest of your life, only to realize (despite the expectations you had for yourself) that it no longer applies to you?

Pretty awesome, in case you were wondering.

Resident Evil 5! (Spoilers)

2009-04-28T18:03:00.001-07:00

Roy and I finished RE5 the other night and unlocked Professional mode, so we're playing it again. I wish we had more games with Co-op... I'm thinking about buying Umbrella Chronicles again since it's probably really cheap now (we bought it with Hastings credit when it first came out and then traded it back in for the same price, since we don't often play a game again for awhile after we beat it. Did the same with Silent Hill 5... it's a good way for video-game obsessed college kids to save some $ and still get to play their games, and then you just buy it back when the price drops down past 50%)

Anyways... Here are some of my thoughts on the game:

[SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER]

It was just too darn short.
Roy and I went back and beat this on normal in under 5 hours to unlock the infinite rocket launcher. I was hoping for something a little more in-depth, and in my limited gaming experience, that usually falls along the lines of at least 20+ hours.

Wasn't this series in the survival-horror genre?
While RE5 was definitely a great action game with some absolutely breathtaking graphics, it completely lacked the horror the series has previously been known for. I never really found myself backed into a corner and near to pissing myself at any points in the game. I mean, sure, Lickers are hard to beat and whatnot, but not really all that terrifying. In RE4, whenever I so much as heard an Iron Maiden breathing somewhere in the dark, I was practically in tears of terror.

Chris:
W....t....f? His arms the size of small continents. I'm sorry to complain over such a "small" (no pun intended) detail, but freaking A! What the hell sort of "supplements" have you been pumping yourself full of for the past ten years??? I just have this strange dislike of guys with ridiculously insane bulging muscles, I'm sorry. And the goodie-goodie routine does get a bit annoying at times, even for a protagonist. I'm just sayin'...

Sheva:
When playing coop mode, I actually have no qualms with the latest female counterpart in the series. But as an AI? She freaking stinks. She just stands there while I'm being overrun with zombies and when I ask for help she usually just says "No way! Forget it! You can't be serious!" over and over again.

Irving:
Was anyone else just waiting for him to say, "Meowth, that's right!" Okay, maybe I play too much Pokemon. I actually thought he was pretty dang funny, although you can only stand a voice like that for so long before tearing out your own eyelashes.

Excella:
Meh. I'm assuming Ada was either on holiday or fired. I guess the script just called for a female villian so devoted to the antagonist that it bordered the line of stupidity and Ada wouldn't work for that. But I think my favourite ever description of Excella comes from "PracticalAl" on deviantArt: "GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF WESKER AND STOP CALLING HIM BY HIS FIRST NAME, WHOREBAG. HE'S ALREADY IN A COMMITTED RELATIONSHIP, WITH HIMSELF. >:C" (Her comics are pretty hilarious by the way, you can check out her dA page here: http://practicalal.deviantart.com/)

Wesker:
Minus my qualms with new bits of backstory (that I'm still trying to piece together) and my pouty-ness the fact that he *SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER* FREAKING DIES, I was pretty sure Wesker couldn't possibly get any any more badass after Umbrella Chronicles, but he was freaking made of awesome in RE5. 100% bright, sparkly awesome. How can you just not love a guy who reeks of pure evil?? (Don't worry Lucie, I still love Leon way way more... but come on... two zombie-butt-kicking blondes? I'll bet you can totally guess what perverted fantasies I'm thinking about right now!)

Minus the zombies of course. Or not, if that's your thing. Zombies are totally optional.

New soap update: Iced Vanilla Chai Soap!

2009-04-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

You know you want to read about it. Check it out >>here<<

New shop, random ramblings.

2009-04-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

I have to prefice by saying that my power chain is giving my teeth absolute hell right now, so I'm not sure how coherent this post will be!

I've finally decided to branch out and create an entirely new etsy shop to accommodate my soap. I've felt a little too "mixed-media" lately and I didn't really feel that nursethalia had any real definition to it. That never bothered me at first, but after searching a few shops for a specific items for birthday gifts last weekend, I realized that shops with a jumble of unrelated categories are annoying to navigate! I realized it was the same for my shop, and I needed to make a change.

At first I didn't want to entertain the thought of opening a new shop... I've identified myself under the alias "nursethalia" for over four years. While I'm no longer in school to be a nurse and it's been ages since anyone publicly called me Thalia, it was still hard to think of letting go of the alias that I felt had defined me for so long (would you believe that at one point Roy and I planned on having Ender & Thalia on our wedding announcements? Yeah, glad that didn't happen!) I just didn't think I'd ever feel right managing business under a name that wasn't mine. I'm not the type of person who mulls over a list of potential names before picking one. If it doesn't jump out and grab me instantly, then I don't want it. I may warm up to alternatives eventually, but by then it's usually too late. As of this point, nothing I had thought of as the name for a soap shop had grabbed my attention.

After a particularly bad day of classes, while sitting on the bus and waiting to get home, I decided to try listening to a new album I had bought on sale the day before from a recommendation of Lucie's, "Like Vines" by The Hush Sound. I hadn't had a chance to listen to anything on the album other than the song "Wine Red" (which she had originally recommended, and had later popped up on Pandora before I decided to try out the entire album). I popped in my earbuds and put the album on random. Two blocks from my house, the song "Sweet Tangerine" began to play.

I'll admit, the song is actually quite creepy (Think The Police and "Every Step You Take", only add a verse about sneaking in through her window and hiding under her bed at the end. Now you've got it!) But the name immidiately jumped out and hit me. Obviously "SweetTangerine" would be taken everywhere (domains, usernames, etc) but I thought that with a little bit of luck, I would be able to use the name if I added the word "soap" at the end! I actually ran off the bus and rushed to my computer to register the name SweetTangerineSoap for a new etsy shop, a new blog, and a domain name (www.SweetTangerineSoap.com will actually forward you to the new etsy shop). After I moved all my soap items from nursethalia to Sweet Tangerine, I even made up a quick, simple design for a business card that could be easily printed myself on cardstock, which is shown above (Shawna, let me know what you think. Any suggestions?)

I also decided to set aside some of my melt and pour base for personal use rather than commercial. I've been getting base from Michaels lately, but the quality is nowhere near the samples I've gotten elsewhere. Michaels' stock tends to sweat like crazy, which means that if it isn't used within a few weeks of wrapping, it's no longer sellable due to it looking icky. So this morning I put in an order for two cases of base from Bramble Berry. I've bought oils and molds from them in the past, and they are absolutely great. They're from Washington, so packages get to Moscow quickly, and their customer service is great. I think I got the wrong mold from them last time, and contacting them was easy; they responded quickly and immidiately shipped out the proper mold. They even let me keep the one they'd sent me! I've done business with Peak Candles and Wholesale Supplies Plus, and Bramble Berry is definitely my favorite of the three!

So long story short ("TOO LATE!"), I will no longer be posting updates regarding my soaping adventures on my main blog. Those will now be posted over at http://SweetTangerineSoap.blogspot.com/. Roy is pestering me to eventually rent a booth at the Renaissance Fair or Farmer's Market, but I'll definitely be waiting until I get much, much better before I even think of that!

Sweet Sugary Goodness Soap!

2009-04-14T18:48:00.001-07:00

Lucky for me, after my exam I had the rest of the day off. After getting sick of "frogging" and reworking squares of my first afghan, I decided to pop in Finding Nemo (to block out the soundtrack of Mary Poppins, which oddly has been stuck in my head all day despite the fact that I haven't seen it in over a decade) and make some soap!

I've been ridiculously bored lately with my single colored soaps and really wanted to play around and get creative. To be honest, I love how everything turned out! I did make a fresh batch of the Calming Blend and Down By the Sea soap which gets sent out in the mail tomorrow, as well as a few brand new creations...

Firstly, Frosted Carrot Cake.

Okay, how delicious is that?? I mean, who doesn't love sweet, succulent, sugary, evil carrot cake? (Shawna, don't lick the screen! Yep, this stuff is the same scent as that lotion I sent you). I'm really happy with the layers. At first I was worried it wasn't orange enough, but once I came back into the kitchen for another peek, I felt it looked more natural the way it turned out.

Secondly, we have a fruity, citrus-smelling little mix I have decided to call Fruit Salad. It's like a mix of oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, ripe melon, peaches, and of course, a bit of kiwi as well. One whiff of these babies as they popped out of the mold made me ready for summer!

And last but not least, Cinnamon Buns. This is a scent I tried once before and loved, but the presentation wasn't impressive whatsoever. I had a plain square bar of shea butter with brown pigment and I sprinkled some oatmeal in it. It smelled great, but it was just an ugly bar of soap. I really wanted to be able to come up with something adorable for this soap, and I knew I wanted the look of gooey cream cheese frosting dribbling down this baby. I did end up making a mess, but the end result was worth it!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, everyone! To my family, I'm sorry about not calling on this fine day to wish you all a fantastic Easter Sunday. I've been spending my weekend off cleaning the apartment, writing an incredibly long literature essay, and studying for two exams this week... but that doesn't mean I don't love you! I did find a few old photos while cleaning though. For your viewing pleasure and a trip down memory lane, here's a 2004 picture of me from my banishment to Utah (*cough cough* I mean, my lovely six-month vacation as college freshman at BYU!) being totally disrespectful at the front gates of the SLC temple. Yes, I am fully aware that I make a horrible blonde. And that my shirt was a little too small...

Roy recently bought Delicious Library for his computer, and he's been spending hours upon hours scanning and archiving all of our books, CDs, movies, and games. He's such a nerd. I'll throw in an old 2004 shot of him as well. see? Uber nerd! (hawt!)

I'm hoping that there may be a day this week that I have time to make a few fresh batches of soap... there are still have plenty of scents in my fragrance oils drawer that I have yet to try!

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Evie y Ringo!

2009-04-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, today is a very special day! Today is the day that Evie and Ringo turn two years old! Aw, my little babies are growing up!

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Cake Disaster! A Tale of Early Birthdays

2009-04-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

Typically, I am a pretty darn decent cook. Especially when it comes to desserts! Need proof? Look no further than these pretties, my famous Strawberry Chocolate Fudge Cake (which takes three hours to make, and my roommate told me it looked like someone had jizzed all over it...despite this, he ended up eating an awful lot of it!) and my organic Homemade Peach Pie...another one I save for special occasions, since the peaches alone can cost up to $10. I'm not an organic snob, but nothing, NOTHING compares to the sweet, juicy peaches from the Moscow Co-op!

See? SEE? Them babies is downright SHINY! So when Roy came home with a Pokemon cakepan he'd bought from Goodwill for 99¢ and said he wanted a Pikachu cake for the birthday party we would be throwing, I figured I could make that cake pretty darn good looking.

You see, April 2nd will be Evie and Ringo's 2nd birthday, and April 6th will be Roy's 23rd. And with Lucie in college now, we figured that after her Spring Break is over, we probably wouldn't actually see her on her 19th birthday in May. So, we figured, let's have a party for all four birthdays! (Yeah, boy did I feel like the odd one out...lol).

So the request is chocolate, and I bake the cake before we head over to a friend's house for a turkey dinner. The cake cools at home while we nom said turkey. When we came home, Pikachu seemed to have formed a giant crack down his body, like a horribly botched decapitation attempt had taken place while we were out. We attempted to fill his sorry wounds with cream cheese frosting when I realized that the only real food coloring I had was yellow...so, being pretty tired (it was late, after all!) I decided to outline the cake in white, microwave the rest of it with yellow coloring, and just drizzle the rest on over the cake with the outline to stop the flow! Sounds good, right?

WRONG!

I mean, just look at this poor girl! She's completely heartbroken over this massive pile of crap I'm trying to pass off as a birthday cake! She's practically in tears!!!

It didn't take long for me to tuck my tail between my legs and give in to the temptation to simply slather Pikachu in normal white frosting and forget the decorating all together. The end result looked pretty ugly, but admittedly still smelled delicious. However, my troubles were far from over... I had forgotten candles for the birthday cake! OH NOES!

Luckily, I had a massive bag of tea lights in a drawer to add insult to injury. Thankfully, Roy and Lucie were very forgiving over my tasty monstrosity.

(Ryuk loves chocolate cake!)

Zombie Pikachu!!!!

In the end, things worked out fine. As ugly as he turned out to be, Pikachu was indeed delicious.

As for Evie and Ringo...well, Ringo did manage to swipe a bite of cake. But for their own special treat, they had a plate of Mariner's Catch pâté, garnished with Purina kitty treats and just a dash of dried organic catnip! But I wasn't quick enough to catch a picture of that!

Because I Can

2009-03-29T23:36:00.001-07:00

Photo Mosaic Fun:

Flickr Search: http://www.flickr.com/
Using only the first page, pick an image.
Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s Mosaic Maker (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php).
Save the image and blog it (but only if you want to).

What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What is your favorite color?
What would be your favorite drink?
What is your dream vacation?
What would you say is your favorite hobby?
What you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
What is one word which describes you?

And, of course, credit where credit is due.

1. baby Miya, 2. Mexican food (20080120 #27), 3. Choose your blue..., 4. Mochalicious, 5. forest path to the ocean, 6. creative reading, 7. Writer's Block, 8. roy's motel. amboy, ca. 2007., 9. Un contre Un

Sick Day

2009-03-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday pretty much stunk. But lucky for me, it was only one of those 24-hour bugs. I still feel a bit like garbage today, but my fever is gone and, at the moment, my stomach cramps have dwindled from the feeling of having swallowed three spiked tennis balls to just having swallowed maybe 2/3 of a ping-pong ball. No spikes. Definitely an improvement! By tomorrow, I'm sure to be as good as new.

"The Bike Ride"

2009-03-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure most of you know by now, I've been on a quest to become more active. In addition to making use of the school gymnasium, I've made a mild attempt at outdoor jogging and tonight, Roy and I decided it was lovely weather for a bike ride.

Rather than ride the bike path up towards Troy, I wanted to bike out behind the old Tidyman's and see what was going on over there. It's only about a mile away from our house, and we hadn't actually gone back there in the years we've lived here, so I thought it was time for an adventure (in the mildest interpretation of the word). There were several parcels of land for sale, and lots of construction equipment lying around.

We started goofing off and riding through the bits of mud that had spilled out over the sidewalk. Unfortunately, knowing my luck, I was halfway into a nice squishy bit of mud when my front tire sunk and stuck. I put one foot on the ground to push myself backwards, and that got stuck, too... I jumped off the bike and tried again to push it back onto the sidewalk. And only succeeded in getting my other foot stuck.

Roy reached out to help pull me out of the mud when we both realized that I had sunk in nice and deep. Roy managed to pull me out.... *schhhhuck!* ...minus my shoes. I stood on the sidewalk while Roy leaned awkwardly over the pile of muck and pulled my shoes out, which eventually gave in, but not without a fight!

So we biked home, me in my socks and whatnot, but not before I got stuck in another bit of mud that filled my socks with mud. Ah, what a squishy ride! (Those socks now belong to Mr. Trashcan, and good riddance to them!) To be honest, I was giggling hysterically all the way home, and especially glad that Roy wasn't too annoyed with the trouble I had gotten myself into! I'm sure that annoyance didn't really settle in until we got home and he began the messy task of cleaning up after me!

Ah, I love my Roy. He takes care of me, makes me french toast, buys me tampons, scratches my back... and hoses the mud off my clothing when necessary.

In honor of FAILBlog...

2009-03-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

We were strolling through the mall earlier and stopped by Ross to look at kitchenwear. I excused myself to the back to get a drink from the fountain. I definitely couldn't help snapping a shot off with my iPhone when I saw this wonderful, immaculate FAIL.

Lovely, isn't it?

Huff Puff! "The Jog"...Part 1?

2009-03-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

I never really saw myself as one to attempt outdoor jogging. And I especially never saw myself as becoming the type of girl who would engage in "couple jogs"...jogging with my husband. How oh how did I let myself get talked into this???

Yesterday, Roy was complaining about the tiny, microscopic belly that he's acquired over the years (which is probably equivalent to the amount of fat I've gained solely in one upper arm!), and said he wanted to get back into running again. Having been familiarizing myself with the foreign concept of *gulp* jogging on the treadmill, I thought it would do me good to attempt an outdoor jog for myself.

...let me tell you right here and now. Jogging outdoors on pavement in nothing like having a nice little jog on the treadmill. First of all...people can see you. Yes, that's right. They see you constantly pulling your running pants up over your sweaty muffin tops at the end of each block. You're being passed left and right by skinny girls running 6mph in itty bitty shorts who haven't even broken into a sweat yet. And the shins...oh, the shins! How they ache with each impact! Your balance is completely different...no handles to cling to here, mate. No spot on the wall to focus your attention on. Being the clumsy bugger I am, I was weaving all over the place. It was ridiculous.

I swear Roy must have been fighting off just leaving me there in a cloud of dust, but he was very chivalrous and slowed (or stopped completely) whenever I asked him to. When we finally made it back home about 70 minutes later, I was about ready to fall over and puke my guts up all over the front steps. I drank about a gallon of water and spent the afternoon fighting off nausea and the urge to faint.

It was fantastic. Perhaps this story shall be continued if I can convince Roy to let me tag along again?

Spring Break!

2009-03-15T13:54:00.001-07:00

Would you believe it that, two days in, the gap between my two front teeth is already smaller? I'm excited, but boy does that power chain HURT! Roy wanted to go on a date since it's been ages since we've gone out together, so he took me to Denny's so I could nom on some nice, soft pancakes. Awwww.

For those of you who are Such Rubbish fans, good news...spring break is here! That's right, there will be an SR update this week! I've got the script finished and will start the lineart on Monday, so be on the lookout this week!

It's safe to say that Ringo has been thoroughly enjoying his weekend...Roy had enough credit at VGH to pick up the latest Resident Evil game and Ringo has taken it upon himself to play on co-op mode with his Daddy and keep a lookout for his health stats and when to reload and whatnot. What a handsome duo! Surveillance footage shows my boys having a right good time:

Ringo momentarily takes his eyes off the stats to make sure that the zombies aren't scaring his mummykins!

Rings tells Dad that it's a good time to reload!

New Soap for Spring

2009-03-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

Made a new batch of soap this week using the conch shell mold (I love it, by the way. Pretty to look at, easy to grip, and very easy to unmold!) using a scent I've never used before: Ocean.

I've already used two bars from my own stock of this stuff. It smells just like the bay down in Grayland where Roy and I went on our (albeit several months after the wedding... but better late than never!) honeymoon. It's got a fresh, salty sort scent. It's absolutely lovely.

While I wouldn't quite say it rivals the Calming Blend,but it certainly comes close! :) Also for today, I crocheted and lined my first purse.

Well, it's not a purse I would use (I'm a bit too old for that color...but I may do another in green for myself) so I've got it up on etsy at the moment. I've been loving teaching myself to sew! And I found a gorgeous vintage looking calico print at Joann's today after class.

I've done another purse that's bigger and a blend of soft purples (the same stuff I used for Susan's Christmas scarf, great material) that I'll be lining and listing this weekend. Admittedly I was considerring keeping it since it's such a gorgeous yarn, but it's not as if I can't make another. I'll be sure to post pictures when I get the lining in! Also I have to give a big thanks to the blog While They Play, which provided a free tutorial for lining crochet bags.

Felting Disaster!

2009-03-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

My kitchen stinks.

You see, I thought I'd crochet a nice brown book cover from a Paton acrylic/wool blend (which I read would work just fine, but don't believe everything you read!), felt it, and then take some cardboard, paper and glue and make a blank little journal, slip it inside the felted book cover, and voila! A gorgeous felted journal. Unfortunately, when I took the piece out of the washing machine, it didn't so much resemble the book cover I had originally crocheted as much as a steaming pile of crap. With holes in it.

No worries, thinks I, for I'll simply throw it into a pot of boiling water, agitate it, and then I'll have the gorgeous felted journal cover I'd been envisioning! Well, not exactly. More like more worn looking crap, admittedly slightly more worn and stringy...only this time my kitchen smells pretty much how the "felted" piece looks. I think I give up.

In other news, it's gift basket making time! A friend of mine is having a hysterectomy this week and I decided to put together a few handmade and store bought goodies. But being the idiot I sometimes am, I threw in a sea sponge and two bars of fresh soap without stopping to think that someone who's recently had a hysterectomy probably can't freaking use the bathtub. So I scrambled to add a few other goodies as well...some ginger tea, sage and lemongrass shea butter hand lotion, a crocheted book cover (including a copy of Watership Down), and, of course, a stuffed kitty for the final "get well" touch :)

Not exactly the finest or most elegant of gifts, but I'm happy with it. I'm actually quite pleased with how the book turned out, since it was my second attempt at the pattern and my first had been...well, the felted disaster that's festering in my garbage at the moment.

Dandyapple: My latest etsy rave.

2009-02-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

Alright, I simply have to rave about my latest etsy purchase.

Excuse my Quasimodo-esque posture in this picture, por favor!

Typically, I tend to be a tad on the tightfisted side when it comes to spending my (measly) paycheck, unless it's something that a) I need (or want real real real bad) and b) I have done extensive research on. As you can see, this doesn't leave much room for random pretties.

While I have seen many items on etsy that I favourite and then spend a few minutes each morning drooling over, it's not often that I find something that I feel so irresistibly compelled to purchase (since, you know, the bottom of my wallet usually just holds lint and cat hair.)

Even more shocking? The items in question that I felt so compelled to buy? It was...wait for it... jewelry! GASP! WHEEZE! I know! From the girl who spent her young school years wearing her big brother's hand-me-downs and considered herself a bona fide tomboy, (and in high school my poor mum constantly having to remind me to make myself up before I went out) I've girlied up aplenty these past few years (much to Roy's delight. Heck, I finally stopped wearing sports bras a week ago and upgraded to real ones and he's been a happy camper all week! ...TMI?). Anyways, enough talk! The items in question:

Firstly, the hair pins. Choose any two colors you please from her stock, and WHOOSH! Instant girlification!

Secondly, the necklace! A gorgeous vintage looking piece. The second image belongs to the seller, not me. I want you to be able to see it in colour.

No, I'm NOT pouting... it's my stupid braces.

While the pretties look awful nice and shiny online, I was genuinely surprised when I opened the package and saw them in true light. I think it took me approximately ten seconds to discover that the necklace was my new favourite piece of jewelry :)

All my girl readers (and boys who happen to be wondering where they can find a gift to impress their lady friends), I can image you are all wondering where on earth you can find such shiny pieces for yourselves! Wonder no more! Click the banner below and off you go!

Nice Day For A White Wedding

2009-02-26T14:45:00.000-08:00

White Wedding: Literal Video Version - watch more funny videos

The music video for Billy Idol's White Wedding, only with lyrics that actually go along with the video :) I saw this over at Funny or Die and couldn't stop giggling. It starts out a little corny, but once it gets going it's hilarious! Safe for work.

<3

2009-02-22T13:33:00.001-08:00

Hitchens at the Wazzu

2009-02-11T12:28:00.000-08:00

Last night I had the honor of attending a speech by renowned journalist and foreign correspondent Christopher Hitchens on Religion and Politics: The Place for Religion on Public Life on the WSU campus with Roy.

To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what the subject matter would be... Roy and I had been invited (and had seats reserved) by our good friends Tim and Michéle. Not having seen so much as a brochure before the event (and, sadly, being what I would call entirely ignorant of who Hitchens actually was), I had originally thought the speech might be about Castro.

I found myself absolutely enthralled by the performance (although I won't relay the majority of my thoughts here, since the majority of my blog readers wouldn't be interested). While incredibly controversial in topic, Hitchens demonstrated not only brilliance , but complete civility throughout the speech and into the Q&A session afterward. Taking a few glances into the seats behind us, it was apparent on the faces of members of the audience that some were offended by the remarks that were made (although, sadly, I believe that some attended with the actual intent to become offended) however I found myself unable to find a single statement to be offended by. (Then again, I'm not exactly what you would call easily annoyed... I just finished reading The Davinci Code by Dan Brown two weekends back and I'm still attempting to lay a finger on what exactly had everyone's panties in a bunch). I even found myself increasingly suspicious that a few attendants had hoped to cause up a stir, but had aborted their attempts in witnessing the downright courteousness in which audience statements were countered with. (Or, as I found myself putting it far less poetically during dinner over fish and chips, everyone's balls had simultaneously shriveled up and dropped off).

After the speech (which was far too short!) there was a book signing in the lobby. I immidiately wheeled Roy into line and were quickly joined by our friends. Counting up our pennies, Roy and I had just enough to make the purchase (I only had fifteen dollars in my purse, coupled with bits of small change. As luck would have it, Roy found a ten dollar bill hidden in the back of his wallet which saved the night!). When we got to the head of the line, Hitchen was a bit taken aback that we requested to have our book personalized to the both of us. Apparently very few people choose that option, since the resell value essentially plummets to zero. I had intended to tell Hitchens that I had absolutely no intention of flogging his work, rather I was actually intending to read it cover to cover, but I think all that came out was a bit of a peep made inaudible through newly installed braces as our group headed off for fish and chips at Dupus Boomer's.

On a side note...OMGWTFBBQ water-saving flush valves! WSU, why are you so freaking awesome?

Everything Floats.

2009-02-04T10:17:00.001-08:00

I took the long way home yesterday along the bike path so I wouldn't have to deal with traffic and excess noise. I just wanted a nice stroll with enough solitude to sort through my thoughts.

I was keeping close by the stream and at one point, it diverted into a culvert under the street. I was following the stream's path with my eyes, and wtf? Just at the mouth of the culvert, flying above the water, are balloons.

Realistically, I knew they had flown off from the car dealership a few blocks up the road, but I still booked it out of there like like I was about to be eaten by Tim Curry in red pompoms and size fifteen shoes!

It's official!

2009-01-27T14:51:00.001-08:00

It's official 'cause it's on my calendar :)

On Monday morning, February the 9th, I will be driving down to Lewiston and getting those braces I've been wanting for the past 15 years!

Brace Face 2

2009-01-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

Well, we've cracked out our calculators and done some discussions. I do have enough for a down payment on the orthodontic work (essentially, 1/3 of the entire cost) left over from my student loan this semester that I was initially going to cancel disbersment of, and work study should be able to take care of the 16 monthly payments after that.

But, before making our final decision, we're going to give Roy's aunt (she's a dentist, took care of all my fillings two Christmases back when we visited her in Denver and she saved me $3k, God bless her!) a ring and ask her about the dentist/ortho that Roy went to for braces when he was a kid. If he still does orthodontics, I'll see if she can get me a reference and we can also have a consultation with him as well and see what he has to say. I'd like a second opinion. Admittedly it'd be a long drive, since I'd be going to Coeur d'Alene rather than Lewiston, but as Roy says, an extra two hour there-and-back trip every six weeks will be far more worth it if the price is better (and, since the doc there did Roy's teeth, he trusts him).

So until we book a consult with the other doctor, we're putting the Braces Debate on hold.

Brace Face

2009-01-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I had the orthodontic visit today. Nope, not a candidate for Invisalign Express, as it turns out. Since I got that abscess in my senior year of high school (I was in awful pain for two years, didn't have dental insurance or know what was causing the pain in the first place. Finally ended up in so much pain that Roy forced me to go to the dentist and had to have a root canal), my two front lower teeth have jutted out, which means that my upper teeth won't have any room to move back and close the upper gaps.

Well, it is possible to close the gaps without dealing with the lower teeth, but it will only result in my upper frontal gaps being closed and the gaps behind my canines getting bigger and slapping some vineers on them (vineers are what we had wanted to initially avoid) since there isn't enough space to move my uppers back or else they'll hit and scrape my lowers.

So in order to really solve the issue fully, I'm going to need traditional metal braces on the lowers so they can be realigned as well as lowered, but I can get clear braces on top, and once the lowers are fixed I can have any and all gaps on top completely closed. Sounds good, but it's going to run us $4000. The good news is, if they do all the work for 12-16 months and it ends up costing more than that, they'll still stick to their original promised price of four grand. The bad news is...well, is my self esteem worth that much? Four grand is two semesters in college. Not to mention we were hoping to save up to buy land so we could build a house and have a baby. I know the cost doesn't seem like much, but for two broke college kids it's almost half a year's worth of rent. Roy says he wants whatever will make me happy, and that we can use our savings to cover it. I've wanted to get braces since I was eight (when my dentist first said I needed them) but is it really fair on my husband to want to spend our savings on fixing my teeth?

Jellybean, you'll never comprehend the intellect of her mind!

2009-01-07T11:06:00.000-08:00

Battlestar Galactica will be back on the air soon! Roy just stumbled upon the new webisodes that were uploaded to Hulu last month and we watched them together. Tell me we're not the only ones who squeed in happiness for Gaeta and Hoshi's quick smooch!

Well, Roy didn't exactly "squee" with me. It was more like laughing and saying, "Gaeta? More like GAYta!" And no laughing at the quality, it took me like fifteen minutes to get that darn screenshot! I just watched webisode 9 this morning and am clinging to the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen.