Sane, saner, sanest?

One of these days I'm going to have to write out a conversation that occurs between two people. Or should I say one person and a cat that is using a human interpreter. They are quite amusing (at least to us) and lend an entirely new perspective to the human cat relationship. Either that or my sister and I are crazier than the Mad Hatter played by Johnny Depp.

Life has been rather cranky lately. Methinks that the hot weather has brought out all of my temper and angst issues. Be grateful that Sister is understanding and has not tried to kill me just yet. I'm in a better mood today but then again, the weather is at a much more reasonable temperature. Work is still my major source of angst and there really isn't a good reason for it. Little things that don't really matter have greatly been pissing me off and making me feel like a bad person. Even the slightly larger paycheck didn't make me smile (I had worked an extra day in that pay period). I have to work one more day then I get a couple off. Very needed and since I'll be visiting the craziness that is the Healy ranch, I'm sure to have a couple of good days off and be able to come back to Mankato in a better frame of mind. There will be ponies, good food and people that I really enjoy being around.

I've yet to really talk about knitting on this blog so I shall mention it now. I knit. I'm a nerd. End of story...... I shall blame my sister-in-law for this latest expensive hobby, just like I blame Jekka for the pony addiction ;-) I'm really not that good yet but I've managed to put together a few scarves and some socks. I recently finished a pair of socks that turned out pretty well. I made them for a friend so I don't know whether or not they fit. Here's hoping that they will. Now, I'm working on another scarf but this one looks more like lace. The beginning was a bit rocky because the pattern was all sorts of messed up. Really, the pattern was messed up. I had nothing to do with it. I'm not completely incompetent. Anyway, I made a few small changes after having 3 false starts and not the scarf is almost halfway done. Pretty good for starting it only about 1.5 weeks ago, no? And one of these days, I might get around to posting a picture but I'm feeling lazy at the moment and I will probably forget about it.

Another fun thing to happen to me is that I actually won something. Actually, I won a couple of somethings. I frequent some blogs that deal with herbs and the nice things that you can make with them (ie soaps, deodorants, lip balms). All homemade, natural products that I wish I could buy but really can't afford. Anywho.... there have been some contests where you leave a comment and are entered for a chance to win whatever they have put up. Folks, this week I've won on two different sites. Maybe my family's notorious bad luck has skipped me. No wait, pretty sure that I have the bad luck. I was the only one to enter one of the contests and had a 1/20 chance on the other one. Plus, the ONE time I played the Powerball, I won jack diddly squat. Nevermind, I am continuing in the tradition of being a bad luck carrier. Be glad that I don't have children. This afflication should not be passed onto the next generation. Sorry, W and O! Hopefully your mommy's luck is enough to overcome you daddy's ;-P

Oh yeah, apparently 26 years ago I was born...

So, happy birthday to me. A big thank you to all of you who called, emailed or Facebooked. Those one liners meant a lot to me and remind me that I do have a lot to be thankful for, even when I whinge a bit. I am reminded that while I may not be rich in the monetary sense (yay students loans and Discover card!), I am very rich in friends. I have people that I can friend on three different continents. People that I don't see very often but when I do, it like we had seen each other yesterday. No, I don't hear from all of you every day but that doesn't matter. To be a friend, you don't have to be in constant contact.

I regret very little in my short 26 years here on earth. About the only thing that I do regret is my inability to manage money. And I'm working on that. I have goals that can only be reached by saving money and paying down the debt that I do owe but it will be done. Just give me about 20 years in which to do it.

I don't regret what I've studied or the places I've gone because they have made me into the person that I am today. I think that I'm ok and other people seem to think so too. I've been dealt some hard knocks but I'm working on them and eventually, I'll be where I want to be in life. I don't have grand monetary goals but I would like enough money to travel often, to have a pony or two and to have a bit of land to call my own. So while in some ways, I am a far different person than who I was when I was a young, Iowa farmgirl, in other ways I haven't changed at all. I guess that my parents done raised me but good.

Do you hear what I hear?

That sound you hear, it's my sister.


She's screaming, because I left her a few dishes to do.


And by a few, I mean.....






What?!?! Doesn't anybody else do this to their sisters on a regular basis?

Dinero in mi pocketo

How's that for Spanglish? As of today, I am $5.16 dollars richer in my pocket. How does that work? Well, as I'm bopping about at work I usually stumble upon loose change. Usually, I give a little squeal of joy, clap my hands and run to pick of that penny that NO ONE ELSE cares to pick up. Hey man, those pennies and other bits have added up for me. You don't notice it at the beginning but down the road.... Then, I have 3 rooms that I clean that generally give me tips. Again it's a dollar here or there but since I usually get about $3 a week, it adds up. The loose change goes into my wallet to be used but the tips I have started to save for my eventual move. Baby steps will get me to where I want to be in life. Hopefully I don't die before I get to where I wish to be.



Pita bread turned out fabulously last night and I have the pictures to prove it. Again, it was a little bit of work and a lot of waiting but definitely worth it. Both Sister and I enjoyed our gyros. Aren't you just a tiny bit jealous that I live with Sister and not you? See, I like cooking and really enjoy doing stuff like this. Not every day but frequently.

Meh...

Sorry that my life is boring at the moment so that I have nothing to write about? I shall have to fix that by going on a drunken rampage or moving to yet another foreign country so that you all may laugh at my antics. So what can I write about?

School update:

Never finished the application to MSU so that school is definitely out. Of the other two, Pennsylvania is topping my list at the moment BUT I'm still waiting to hear from UNI before making that decision. This could take a bit since I got an email late last week from them telling me that they still didn't have my letters of recommendation. What?!?! Pretty sure that those were mailed to you but here, let me bother my recommenders YET AGAIN so that you may have those every so important pieces of paper. That's all sorted now so I should be hearing from them in 2-3 weeks. Yay, for procrastinating which will leave me absolutely no time to register for classes, get financial aid sorted out and hopefully, I can still get into the on-campus apartments because I sure as hell can't afford to live in an apartment. Does anybody know of a couch that I can live at in Cedar Falls in a pinch? Seriously, need to start thinking of a back-up plan just in case I can't live on campus (and I refuse to live in a dormitory with freshmen).

Work update:

The boss knows that I will be leaving so he's starting to nag me about when I'm going to have my last day. I dunno... sometime in August? Trust me, I'll let you know as soon as I can. I'm not that rude. Plus, the annoying co-worker's father-in-law past away so I worked an extra 8 hours this week. I was really hoping for overtime but.... I'll take what I can get. Hopefully, she still takes the two days off next week so that I can get an extra 12 hours in next week. Need money.... unfortunately, that requires work. Now, if only I could convince them to take even more time off of work.... then we may be getting somewhere.

Food update:

Didn't do much cooking last week since I spent some money on yarn. Not an excessive amount but still enough to put me over budget. However, on Saturday I rolled up my culinary sleeves and prepared a true Iowan recipe. Pork chops? Sweet corn? A casserole? Nope, compliments of Chef Paul Prudhomme, I made Iowa Blue Satin Soup. A true Iowan recipe as it uses Maytag blue cheese. The result? Meh, good but nothing fantastic. Still, it was fun experimenting and I will eventually make all 4 recipes from Iowa that are in his Seasoned America cookbook. Because I'm a dork like that.

And now I'm off to bake my homemade pita bread because tonight....we'ze having gyros :-D

Laundry Day in the Apartment

Going along with the idea that waste is a bad thing and saving money a good thing, Sister and I have been washing our clothes by hand for a number of months now. Or rather, I've been washing the clothes by hand and Sister has been more of a spectator. I suppose this is logical because I (surprisingly) and more of a homemaker and she does work 40 hours a week whereas I work 28. Moot point and I digress. 

It hasn't been too hard to do and I find it rather soothing most days. We use a couple of 5-gallon buckets, one for wash the other for rinse, and nothing but my own two hands for the entire process. I usually soak the clothes for a bit before agitating them for about 5 minutes. Then I squeeze as much soapy water out of the clothes that I can, toss it into the rinse bucket and repeat. It only takes me about an hour to do all the laundry that has accumulated during the week. The clothes are then placed on a couple of drying racks and by the next day, the clothes are usually dry and ready to wear. 

Yes, it does take a bit more work than just throwing it in the washer/dryer BUT I figure that I'm using roughly 1/3 of the water and absolutely nothing for electricity. I only wish that we could hang the clothes outside so that they would have that nice, outdoorsy smell. And this is much better than hauling the clothes down 3 flights of stairs, putting them in the car, driving to the laundromat, doing the clothes, putting them back in the car, hauling them BACK UP 3 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS and then putting them away. And there's the added bonus that this saves us $10.00 every week since laundromats are so freaking expensive. 

Innocent bunny wabbit?

Ahh, the innocent cottontail. So cute, so fluffy AND














So deadly for my poor garden. In a matter of days, almost all of those green sprouts have been destroyed by those bundles of cuteness. So sad, especially for my wallet. They even ate the eggplant down so far that I could hardly find the location where I had planted it.

What do I do now? Take out my AK 47 and blast the little suckers to the underworld where they belong? Buy a viscous attack dog that chases both them and the poor unsuspecting residents of Keystone all over tarnation?

Nah, I just bought 50 feet of chicken wire so the I could double wrap a layer of protection around my little garden so that it now looks like the bunny version of Fort Knox, except that it's meant to keep the wabbits out, not it. I also said a tearful goodbye to those plants that had bit the dust. But may this be a warning to future bunny wabbits who are eying my peppers with delight, should you succeed in eating my peppers again, retribution shall be in the form of pepper spray. Mwuah hah hah.................. (evil laughter)


PS For all of you who care, the concussion has tamed down and do longer gives me dizzy moments although I've had a series of rather nasty headaches all week :-(

Only special people can do this

It was my weekend to work so that meant that on Sunday, I had the privilege of hauling out the big, battery operated floor vacuum. I actually don't mind pushing the 40-pound bohemouth up and down the 3-storied building that is Keystone but you do tend to get a bit of a workout. Anyway once I was done, I took it down to the basement to clean it out. I reach down to get something, stand up rather quicKly, and WHAM! My head hits the side-bar that's attached to the dumpster so that the garbage truck can pick it up. I put my hand to my head, no blood. This is good. I have a bit of a headache but nothing majorly wrong so I go back about my business.

Skip to later on that night. I'd been at the library then cooking so I hadn't had a lot of time to sit down but once I did, the nausea set in. Whoa, dude... what's wrong with me? I asked. Told my sister about the knock on the head, she promptly googled something and voila! Priognosis is that I managed to give myself a (very) mild concussion complete with nausea, headache and a we bit of dizziness when I stood.

So I felt like crap most of the evening but you'll be happy to find out that other than a really large bump on my head, I feel just peachy keen this morning. *Note to self: dumpsters are made out of metal, not fluffy pillows.