Tuesday, December 14

So here we are, 10 days left until Christmas and I think I'm almost ready this year.  I only have a few odds and ends to pick up and then all my gifts are set.  I'm particularly proud that all my projects are completed except for one.  That in its ownself is like a Christmas Miracle around here.  I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to feel well rested for Christmas this year and not staying up weird hours to finish stuff.

Just in case you we were wondering, this blog is my 99th entry, so I really hope I can come up with something amazing for the 100th entry.

So, just to summarize the last 99--
   Lester, my fish is STILL alive.  I know, I'm amazed and Dog poo clean up still remains a hot topic among strangers.
  
The icon on my desk top tells me it's a balmy -9 degrees out this morning.  I guess winter doesn't wait for the calendar because in case you hadn't checked- it's still fall.

Thursday, December 9th

So i started seeing this new guy.  We'll call him Pete.  So in the course of anything new, there are always those get to know you conversations.  So I've seen him a few times and we're talking last night and he goes to me," What do you think about smoking?" and I think to myself, he's doesn't smoke, does he? I didn't think so but then I thought maybe he's one of those drink and smoke kind of people.  So I tell him, " I've dated smokers."
                  He says, " What did they smoke?"
                   Me: "Cigarettes"
                    Him: "No, I meant meat."

So we have a good laugh, we were both tired and ha ha so funny etc. So we talk about something else and like 5 minutes later I here, " So, seriously, what you think about smoked meat?"

LOL

Now, he's been warned that he is fodder for this post and is ok with it, because it really was quite comically.

And for the record, I'm ok with smoked meat.

Sunday, December 5th

So I've been taking these classes at night to try to finish up my bachelor's degree and although this isn't going to get done over night, it is going pretty quick.  So today, as a  special treat, I thought I would let you read my first paper of the semester, which of course, I got a perfect score on.  It was an introduction letter that was supposed to follow real essay format ( you know, introduction with thesis statement, supporting paragraphs and a conclusion)  So without further ado, here it is:

            The idea of starting a new class is always scary enough, but having your first assignment be to write an introduction about yourself can be a bit daunting because you want to make sure to not come across as a teacher’s pet, a moron or arrogant.  Hopefully, the information in this essay about how I came back to school, my writing and writing experience as well as my goals for this class will show I have none of the above mentioned annoying traits. 

            After losing my job in January and sitting home for a lot of days in a row in my jammies, I realized some interaction with other human beings in the same room, some feedback that I was doing something well and the challenge of learning something new might be exactly what I needed, so, since I had some time on my hands anyway, I started to look in what it would take to finally finish the bachelor’s degree I started 17 years ago.  I did some research and found that the business program at Upper Iowa would take a large amount of my credits from before and offered classes that would be useful to the new job I had just started.  So here I am, majoring in Business Management.

            Never been one to shy away from class that had an emphasis on writing, I have taken several classes along the way that were not traditional English classes, but required significant writing about topics like psychology, history and biology.  To date, my favorite project was a semester long biology research paper on hemispherectomies for the treatment of epilepsy because I found the topic just amazingly interesting and challenging.  Both my experiences with literature classes were at MATC where I took a class focused on Woman’s literature and one where we read classics such as Othello, Frankenstein and other works along those lines.

            Even though I like tell people I am a know-it-all, I realize that I really don’t know it all, especially because things keep changing.  I mean, when I learned to type, it was on a typewriter, now, having said that, I am hoping to get two things out of this class.  Knowing that conventions change over the years, I would like to make sure that I am up to date on the current rules of formatting written work, be it anything from formal correspondence I might initiate at work to research papers in an academic setting.  (I’m a little hazey if people even still use formal footnotes anymore at this point.)   

             So there is my formal introduction, which was much less painless than I originally anticipated.  Hopefully you will now have a better idea of what brought me back to school, my background as it applies to this class and my goals for this term.

Sunday, November 21

So very early Sunday morning, at like 6:15 am, I left my house to go to the laundromat. I normally just wait to do laundry until I can do it at some one's house (you know, when I house sit) or until I run out of comfortable underwear and am left with only the pair that consistently both rides up my ass and falls down at the same time. ( Don't be embarrassed, I know you have a pair like that too). I made a special trip this morning because I read on the internet I could wash my feather bed in a regular washer and I really thought it was time. ( In case you were wondering, no I didn't wet the bed.) So anyways, the people at the laundry always crack me up. 1. I found out this morning that my neighbor makes her husband do the laundry. 2. Also, some people are super paranoid.  There is this older lady here who is like my mom's age  and she keeps checking her stuff in the dryer by putting the back of her hand against the glass. Talk about a super power!  I mean, to be able to tell if you're laundry was dry by touching the glass. Amazing. I do suspect however, that she may have been aided by some device which she carried in purse. I say this because each time she walked the 8 steps to do this amazing feat, she put her fashionable nylon purse on her shoulder. Lesson 3 from this morning- there is no way in hell a full size feather bed dries on low in 30 minutes.  I guess this one time the internet was wrong.

Wednesday, November 17

So I'm on my way to the store yesterday and there a woman running on the sidewalk.
Normal enough.
She is running with a dog, again normal enough.
She is running with a dog, with a plastic bag with dog poo in it tucked in the back of her pants so it hits her each time she runs.  Hilarious.

Friday, November 12th

So last night after school, I stopped at the Walgreen's on Whitney Way about 9:30pm.
It should have been a routine stop, but it was one of those trips that just left you shaking your head.  
After I had decided what to purchase, I was standing in line waiting to check out.  Much to my delight, an additional cashier came over and opened a new line to wait on me.  So as he's scanning my stuff, this guy who has stoned or drunk or something comes up behind me, looks at the cashier guy and guy "buddy, can you help me out?".  The cashier looks at the guy and is like, what's up?  The stoned guy tells the cashier, "man, i dropped all my stuff in the garbage can. tell me you have the key."  the cashier tells the guy no and then stoned guy says, "well, i'm just going to pull the bag out then. "  The cashier is now completely confused because 1 - stoned guy wants the garbage key and wait for it - i paid with cash.  So he's trying to deal with the garbage can situation and is completely flustered because my change is 41 cents and he doesn't have any pennies.  So of course, he has to call a manager.  I tell him to forget about the penny and I leave.  I go to my car and get settled in and ready to leave.  As I leave, I drive past the garbage man and see stoned guy, the cashier and the manager all standing there.  I kind of chuckled.

Monday, November 8

So always trying to be thrifty, I'm a big fan of make it yourself beauty products.
Lately, it seems everyone is telling me that Elmer's glue makes a great face mask for cleaning pores, etc.  ( I seriously saw this on Today, OK, so maybe it was the 4th hour with Hoda and Kathie Lee, it was today none the less) So I dig out my Elmer's glue and smear it on my face and am careful to avoid the eyebrows and other potentially painful places.  So I've got this glue and my face and I am getting antsy so I start moving forward with the other parts of my bedtime routine.  I floss my teeth, brush them, gargle.  Glue still not dry.  So then I look at my nose and think that the glue is dry enough, I could use the Netti pot. ( in case you don't know, the Netti pot is thing you mix salt water in, put up one nostril and then the water comes out the other side.  it's awesome for sinus troubles)  So I do the one side and then it's time to blow my nose.  Well apparently the glue wasn't as dry as I thought it was and the Kleenex stuck to my nose.  So here I am, freaking paper machieing my nose.
Long story short - the glue does work nice.
The Netti pot works nice.
Just make sure you allow proper time in between the two activities.
LOL

Thursday, November 4

I'm not going to lie.  Sometimes, during the day, I watch TV if I'm home.  There are not a lot of options when you don't have cable but I make due.

I'm always amazed when I catch bits of shows like Maury.  Inevitably,  somebody is always getting a DNA to see who the baby daddy is.  And just as inevitably, about a good 50% of the time, the guy they swore up and down was the baby daddy's was not.  What I am always amazed by is not the fact they have no idea who fathered their child or that they have tried to bamboozle someone into being the father, but the way they carry on when Maury tells the poor sucker he is not the baby daddy.  I mean, most of these girls run from the stage and throw a hysterical fit.  Just a thought here, but maybe they should be a little more careful with their overlaps in the future.  And you would think that all the people who have done this on the show, someone would have watched this whole drama before and learned from it.  ARGH.

 

Sunday, October 31

Over the past summer, my dad had a really big garden that produced no less than several shit tons of produce.  Well eventually you run out of space to store your preserved goods and ways to save them.  So it was at this point, I decided to "sun dry" tomatoes in my oven.  Long story short, I found directions on the internet and my project that was supposed to take 12 hours ended up taking 28.  But some of them turned out ok.  So again this fall I was faced with a large quantity of produce, namely apples this time and again, I was not sure how to preserve them all, so I again turned to the internet and found directions on how to dry them.  It actually turned out pretty well but through both projects I learned one thing, your oven drying only goes as well as the aluminum foil you use.  It's amazing what a difference a little Pam makes on some actual Reynolds wrap.
Anybody want a pile of dried apples?

Friday, October 29th

So this week I started attending school in the evenings at one of the accelerated adult learning schools.  I am taking 2 classes, stats and an English comp class.  Just like every other class I have ever taken, each class has someone very annoying in that you would like to punch.  But here comes the amazing part, in each class, the teacher smacked them down when they threw a temper tantrum.  I have never seen that before.  It was amazing.  In one case, the teacher went so far as to tell the woman that this was an accelerated class and that things were going to move fast and there would be lots of homework. She further suggested if the woman didn't feel she could keep up, she should drop the class and take the semester long version at the local tech school.  It was awesome.

Thursday, October 28th

So i was thinking, often the most popular stories on the news are when they revisit past stories.
Now i certainly don't consider this a news source, but I thought some follow up on previous topics might be appreciated.  Also, as J-HO pointed out, it's best I starting ending each post with some actual "key to living"  ( look at the web address if that statement confuses you)

So today I would like to give you a follow up on Lester.  In case you don't remember, Lester is a blue and pink beta fish I bought back in March.  Much to my surprise, the little guy is still alive.  I say surprise because for a quite a spell there he didn't look so good and often when I woke up in the morning, he would be laying on his side.  Not belly up, but close enough.  One tell I was telling one of my friends about this and he asked how often I was feeding the fish and I told him,  a couple times a day.  Every time I turned on the kitchen light, he would come up to the feeding spot and I thought he wanted to eat.  Turns out I was overfeeding my fish and he was constipated.  WHO KNEW you could constipate a fish????? So now I only feed him every couple days and guess what?? He's back to swimming around no longer laying on his side.

So you might ask yourself what is the lesson here??? Well let me tell you -- the lesson is, should you "accidentally" get a bunch of fish gravel down the drain and it clogs the garbage disposer in your apartment, you're going to want to throw a couple big vegetable pieces down there to disguise it.  :)
 

Thursday, October 14

So as many of you know, in many ways, I've led a fairly sheltered life.  Today was one of those days I got try something new and get out and experience a whole new adventure.  If you've been keeping up, you know now that I am working with a brand new company formed by some people I used to work with. It just so happens they live in colorado and as much as I want to think my home office is the nerve center of it all, colorado is really where the action is.  So after putting it off as long as I could, an airplane ticket in my name was purchased. I spent the two weeks between the purchase and the trip memorizing everything about trip including, but not limited to, the airplane lay out, the airlines website, and the layouts of both airports. Because there was nothing I hate more than looking like an idiot.  So airplane day finally came and after a few rounds of hyperventilating, I made it to the airport several hours early. I got in the plane, got to my awesome seat (1f) and settled in.  Imagine my good fortune that got to sit right by the flight attendant who was the nicest lady ever named ashley.  She talked me through take off, offered an adult beverage which I took of course, and overall made the experience top notch. I am definitely writing frontier a letter about her. She was genuinely nice, not fake.  I wasn't sure what to expect with the take off but it was amazing. The flight left about  7 and it just after sunset so you saw all the city lights and the sunset, it amazing. At one point, we were in the clouds and you could see the sunset glowing. That's something you don't see every day. So as we are flying west, we are flying into the sunset and watching stars come out. Oh and the plane banking isn't even freaking me out anymore.  So long story short, I'm a flyer now.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Tuesday, October 12th

So it's breast cancer awareness month.  I can hardly wait for it to be over and here's why:

I am so very aware of breast cancer because of recent events with my mom.  While many people have their heart in the right place, there are so many pink products out there, it almost like a brand new retail holiday.  It's ridiculous, I was at the grocery store this morning and ruffles were in a special pink bag, there are special pink chip clips etc.  


Sometimes it's just too much.  Some people like to deal with things privately.  Imagine just having been diagnosed with breast cancer and you try to go to the grocery and it's everywhere.  

I think it's time for marketers to try something they are not well known for: Tact.


And why do you have to mail the special pink Yoplait lids in for them to donate the money?  Why can't the just give it and make a note on the pink lids that by buying that carton, people are help donate whatever the amount is?  But no, you have to clean your labels, put them in an envelope, stamp them up and try to find a mail box to send them off in  ( which are getting harder to find by the way).  It's all just a marketing ploy.  It's a bunch of bull shit.

Saturday, October 2

Side View of Bridge

So after the stop for custard, we started working our way south and heading home but not with out a stop in Sturgeon Bay.

Sturgeon Bay is a bigger port than I expected and I was able to get some neat pictures there of some large ships. I also saw where they build Palmer Johnson yachts.

Bridge in Sturgeon Bay in open position.  Currently under repair.

Boats docked in Sturgeon Bay

One of the boats we saw there was the American Courage.  I found some interesting information about it on the internet.  


http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/amcourage.htm

Overall dimensions
Length	636'00"
Beam	68'00"
Depth	40'00"
Capacity (tons)	23,800
Diesel engine horsepower (2 combined)	7,200

The American Courage

After a stop in the port, we then Visited the Maritime Museum where there were some more cool things to see.  

Maritime Museum

Propeller from John Purves

 After all of this excitement, there was really nothing left to do except to gas up and head home.

And really, it was quite a day for a drive.....
 

Friday, October 1

So after leaving the lighthouse and enjoying a nice snack of chex mix in the car, we headed back to Ephriam on the way to Penisula Park and I got some more neat pictures.

View from above Ephriam

More from Ephriam

Penisula County Park is huge and a lot pretty than I could have imagined.

Pretty

These stupid ladies saw me trying to take the picture and wouldn't move. What a bunch of HO's!

Neat little island by the peninsula and view where we lunched.

Not licked yet

Our next stop was for some custard in Fish Creek at a neat little place.  They had all these chairs set up by the water so you could relax and enjoy your treat.  It had the neatest name.

Next stop... Sturgeon Bay

Thursday, September 30

So it's finally Sunday morning and the rain has stopped.  My tennies, however are still wet from yesterday, so after a nice tumble in the dryer, we head back out for another day of exploring the Cape Cod of the Midwest.

Our morning consisting of some driving, with stopping for me to take pictures.

Moonlight Bay

More Moonlight Bay

 We then headed to Cana Island Lighthouse.  It was my first lighthouse and there were some neat things there to see there.  It was part museum and part park.

Sign in the kitchen

Lighthouse from beach

Sweet bathrooms

There were so many neat things to see and photograph here.  Next stop...more scenic pictures.