I know...

...I've been a bit quiet lately. It's just that there's a lot going on right now I can't tell you about. I think it'll all come to a head (where does that saying come from anyway, pimples??) in a month or two. I'll definitely let you know then. Let's just say there's a bit of good and bad mixed in and maybe even some exciting news.

Until then, I've been working on losing weight. Yep, I've lost 13 lbs in less than 2 months! Needless to say, I've been eating a lot better and I feel great. My back doesn't hurt when I'm standing up for long periods of time so I know my body is thanking me.

Oh, one other thing, if you're into yarn you may want to check out the new colorways introduced over at Hazel Knits. More than fingering weight, she's also offering DK weight, soy merino blend and kits later. I of course placed an order (I'm embarrassed to say how much I spent) right away. I can't help it, I'm a junkie.

Alright, back to the Chargers game. They're currently at 31 - 17 against Dallas. Yay!

More of the same

For the first time in almost two weeks, last night I successfully went to bed WITHOUT coughing, gagging or throwing up my dinner! Success! I still have a cough and am working through my 6th box of lotion coated tissue but I'm feeling a ton better. My voice is almost back too.

Unfortunately, to get to this point this means doing nothing but sitting at home while I get better. During my down time I've been knitting a Shetland Triangle shawl. Tonight discovered (after finishing my eighth repeat!) that I may have used needles that are too small. The lace pattern isn't that visible so I may rip it out and start over with larger needles. Sadness! I've put it aside, I'll decide tomorrow.

Avert your eyes...whining ahead

I'm tired of being sick! I feel like I'm doing something wrong and that's why I'm not getting better. Now when I get caught up in coughing, my whole back and legs kill me. It's like a million needles are poking me. I'm tired of being out of breath and hot and sweaty. I'M DONE. I GIVE UP!!

Yes, the answer is yes dammit!

For those of you who have questions about whether or not you have to file or pay taxes, here's a great website:

Why do I have to pay taxes?

Things that don't make sense

I finally succumbed and called in sick today after working three hours. I'd rather save my sick hours for something like, hm. Well, like a broken bone or something. I'm due a broken bone anyway. But I feel like crap and am happy that I have sick hours to use.

How does one "catch" a cold anyway? Which reminds me, how does one "let" herself go? Speaking of things that annoy me, what's up with the term "heavy-set?" Furthermore, why write something on your blog/forum/anywhere online and then put a line through it? Obviously you want us to see that you decided not to officially publish that part but obviously you want us to read it but only with great difficulty because of that stupid line!!

ARGH!

Feeling cranky

I finally caught Apollo's cold. I thought I would be able to avoid it but no luck. Not only this but one of my neighbor's is really annoying me with her gossiping and constantly examining my life. But, I finished the second baby sock today. So there's that.

...And I'm back! - the novel

So the past few weeks have been very eventful. First, I heard my Grandpa's health had deteriorated substantially, so I bought a couple tickets for myself and Apollo and we went up to Oregon to visit him. While we were visiting, he passed away. It was pretty emotional so I'll spare you the details.

Apollo and I didn't go to the funeral since I needed to get back to work. But it was more important that I see him in person and get to have some time to visit so I'm ok with that

The day we were supposed to fly out it snowed and all the major highways were closed due to white out, landslides or fallen tree's. After we got over the shock and disappointment of missing our flight, we went outside and enjoyed the scenery. It was absolutely beautiful! Once I can find my camera, I'll upload some photos.

That night we learned there was another storm coming in and since Aimee had to take a class the next day Or Else, we hopped in her Corolla and drove 10mph down Indian Creek Road and then took a long route through Some Other Town to get to Aimee's place. I'm guessing it was about a five hour drive. We spent the night and the next day managed to get a flight, at an additional fee, to San Diego. Sure, it took over five hours to get home (let's not forget the six hour lay over we had in LA on our way up) but at least we were home!

But when we got home we were in for a big surprise. See, we were supposed to get new carpet on the 8th and when our landlord heard about the storm, he started moving things out of the living room into the dining room. This made us nervous just due to the whole invasion of privacy thing, but we assured him we'd be home in time to clear everything else out. Well, when we got home at 12:30AM on the 8th, we walked in to discover everything had been moved into our dining room and on the patio minus our mattress and cushion-less couch. We couldn't find any blankets (everything was in black garbage bags on the patio) but made do with a sheet. The cats were in shock but happy to see us.

I worked the next day from Starbucks since I didn't have any clean clothes other than those I had worn in the snow and on the plane. I learned some bad news from Faythe and I can't even comfort her since I live so far away. The carpet was installed (apparently our other carpet was rotting from the bottom up) and we've started going through everything in boxes in bags. Happily, we we have consequently thrown out two bags of clothes and more.

Then I noticed something weird. The fish tank is hidden partially behind a dresser, cat tree, TV and some boxes. The light was on and everything seemed to be functioning normally, but I couldn't see any fish swimming. So I moved a box out of the way and saw all but one fish were dead! Their little fishy bodies were draped all over the bottom. I couldn't figure out what happened and thought maybe our landlord had added some city water straight from the tap after moving it. But then, I opened the lid and STEAM CAME OUT! That's right, STEAM!! We tried to turn down the thermostat but it seems to be stuck permanently on high. I'm guessing the thermostat sustained some damage while it was moved by my landlord.

SO. It appears my fish were boiled alive. One seems to have survived, I guess his tolerance to extremely high temperature is a bit higher then all the other fish. He's swimming around right now and I'm sure whatever brain cells he had have seriously been depleted. We'll see how he reacts when we buy him a buddy.

Meanwhile, we lost cable and Internet connection, possibly related to the landlord moving things around. When the cable guy came out to fix it, he left without fixing the Internet problem. After a series of phone calls and appointments that were missed by my cable company, and yet even more phone calls involving myself behaving highly inappropriate and consequently receiving a partial credit towards my account, they finally showed up today and fixed the problem. It seems the Internet problem was caused by the first cable guy failing to remove a protective piece of plastic from the cable cord.

Well, at least now I have access to my class assignments, websites I need to access to complete projects and I can work from home again. And no, Cox Cable, I am not going to upgrade to a business plan just so I can get immediate technical support and yet again pay for something I am not receiving. And yes, I work in customer support and I am on to your games of putting me on hold for 15 minutes when I ask for a supervisor and really, is that a supervisor or a teammate that has worked there longer and has more experience in calming down customers?

Anyway, now I have the blues.

Work

Work has been...interesting. I can't give many details but here's the basics: a major online event took place this weekend and the site went down just as it was to go live. And stayed that way for a long period of time.

Yeah.

Fun morning!

We were both up early this morning puking. There's nothing like puking in your hand because you can't make it to the bathroom. Good stuff. Then there's the whole, "I can't move my hair out of the way because I have puke in my hand" thing. About an hour later, Apollo joined in on the fun but he was lucky enough to make it to the bathroom.

At first I thought it was because I've been sick and I've been coughing too much or too hard. Then because Apollo had the same problem, I realized it may be due to the Taco Bell that we both ate. Surprise! There's an extra Grilled Stuft Burrito sitting in the fridge that I was hoping to eat today. Argh! Maybe it was their lemonade? (Wishful thinking)

A few odds and ends

Just a few miscellany things today. First I started on a new sock.

I'm not sure how I feel about the colors of the yarn mixing with the pattern. Is it distracting? Does it hide the pattern?

I saw this knit blanket in an Irish shop in Coronado. I'm not sure why I took this picture.

The boys are currently outside getting their ghetto on. Apparently, all you have to do is stand outside with music coming out of your trunk and people will show up, park their cars illegally, and drink out of plastic cups with you.

I'm soooo tired

This morning around 3am, one of my teammates called me with a question about a password. I guess I'm supposed to be available 24 hours or something crazy like that. Subsequently, I couldn't sleep for another hour. Today I worked 12 hours. I'm beat.

Oh, a few news items I learned today:

1) WWE wrestler Chris Benoit was found dead in his home along with his wife and 7 year old son in what is being ruled as a double murder-suicide.

2) American Idol auditions will be coming to San Diego this July.

3) American Idol's Jordin and Blake: dating?

News flash

I was promoted today!

Loving this weather

It's such a beautiful day today. Of course, I worked but at least I worked from home where I could open my windows and doors and listen to the wind blow through my bamboo windchime. The cats love staring through the screen at bits of leaves and other plant debris that seemingly crawl across the pavement and spark their imagination.

The plants are doing very well. As you can see, we have quite a few tomato plants. What can I say? We love tomatoes. The bell pepper plant is doing great too, but I'm unfamiliar with this type of plant so I'm not sure if it's as big as it should be. I had just finished watering them in this picture, usually there isn't any water on the ground.

We also have a few hanging planters on the fence. This year we decided to put a plant similar to an ice plant (but with tiny purple flowers) in them. Since the planters can't seem to hold water and every other plant we had in them died from dehydration, we figure these little guys should do really well. After all, they seem to thrive in this dry climate.

I'm loving this weather. Not too hot and not too cold at 75 degree's with a nice breeze - it's perfect!

Does this sound right to you?

I've had this aching tooth for some time and I could tell I was just about ready to reach "Angry Troll Under the Bridge" aka Red Alert, so I decided to schedule an appointment with a dentist. My insurance helped me pick out a dentist for sissy's and I was lucky enough to get in on Wednesday. Well, they decided I needed a root canal. Fortunately, they had a time slot for me Thursday. Despite there being some swelling in the area of the roots, the dentist said it was OK to go ahead with the root canal. Coo'. The dirty deed was done. Well, it's Saturday and despite the high dose of antibiotics I'm taking each day, the swelling isn't going away. In fact, it seems to be getting worse. I'm concerned. And I'm sweating penicillin. Is this normal? I'm swishing salt water right now. Oh, and if certain coworkers keep getting on my nerves, they will know the pain I'm in.

PS, these are some flowers on my patio. I don't know what the plant is called, but they're beautiful.

I just want to relax

Zoe looked like I felt by the time I made it home after work today. I've been allowing myself to get a little worked over little things.

A bad week

I try not to talk about work but here goes. I'm getting tired of the lack of communication and the disrespect that's going on. It's not just within my department either. People with their pretentious attitudes, I guess I'm done. It's been bringing me down for a long time, I don't think I can keep up the facade any longer of everything being OK. And let's not talk about the customers I have to talk to every day who are so rude and take their problems out on me. I'm going to start looking for another job. I've also been wanting to move and haven't because I really want to have some paralegal experience under my belt before I move on up to Oregon. But now I'm not so sure if that's the plan I want to follow any more. I don't have any family or friends down here (except you Jen and you're so far away), I'm lonely. Anyway. This crappy week finally ended.

A busy night

Sometime last week, we were watching the news when we learned a car had driven right through a building not even a block away from our complex. So, we put on our shoes and walked over to see what's going on.

Yes, we have no life. Plus, Apollo said he knows the owner (he knows everyone...more on that later).

Apparently someone had a "medical situation" and passed out, or something, and drove her car right through the big glass windows of a futon store. The owner had video footage of it too. The driver woke up after driving in (apparently all the furniture stopped her), drove home and called police. In this day and age, it's a bit surprising that someone would call the police after doing something like this. Kudos to her!

A couple different news camera men were there taking footage shots. We also got to meet NBC San Diego's crew, they were nice people too.

The reporter from NBC, Tony Shin, had the whitest teeth I've ever seen! I don't even remember what he said to me, I kept staring at his white teeth. Since I met him, I've noticed that most actors, actresses and news staff on TV have incredibly white teeth. You can tell their teeth are whitened cause their eyes will look dingy.

Back to Apollo and his knowing everyone, we met this guy who was walking by and stopped to see what all the commotion was about. Turns out he was from Detroit. This lead to a long conversation between the two of them. Apollo then introduced him to me as "my brother from Detroit." I'm sure when they meet again (it will happen), they will be the best of friends and will somehow give each other a deal on something like a free meal, tickets to a show, etc. This always happens to Apollo.

On our way back to the apartment, Apollo and I took a shortcut through the alley to discover the homeless people have gone buck wild with their loot all over the place behind our apartment complex!

We even interrupted a non-homeless person sorting through their stuff, STEALING from the homeless! People are shameless! The next day Apollo scooped all this stuff up with a shovel and put it in the dumpster. Last I heard, the cops came by and got rid of the baskets and the homeless have moved on. I'm sure they'll be back. Especially with all the new construction around town, they're moving around trying to find a permanent spot. Well, I guess that's life in the city!

Pet food recall info

I'm still a bit paranoid about the pet food recall, even though my cats don't eat any of the foods that have been recalled. If you're like me and like to check the list periodically for updates, just to be sure... here's the list of cat food that's been recalled, click on the brand name for a clear description on the exact recalled product.

Here's the list of dog food. How scary for all pet owners! There's a FAQ for the pet food recall too.

My neighbor gave this to me today

My infertility must be staring her in the face.

Green goodness! Like an apple!

Yay!! I'm so excited, Apollo got me an iPod Shuffle!! I researched it to bits and decided that while the Nano is cool and allows categorization, etc, the Shuffle would suit my workout needs better.


And Apollo listened! Today he came home from shopping and handed me a small pizza box saying, "I got you a slice of pizza." I was surprised since we had eaten lunch just a few hours earlier. Well, I opened it and surprise! The green Shuffle! He also got me a set of headphones too since we've heard so many bad things about the iPod earbuds. I'm so happy...I can't wait to start downloading music!!


:D