Is it just people such as myself who are...less then thrilled...with their jobs that count down every minute of the day on Friday, or is that just the nature of the 5 day workweek? Either way, no matter what my weekend plans are, I sit at my desk every Friday like a kid on Christmas eve.
I don't have anything too exciting planned for this weekend, but as always I am looking forward to relaxing and obviously...not going to work. The goal is not not be completely lazy which has been known to happen from time to time. Last week I got a box of 10 plain black frames at Kohl's on sale and I want to make a black and white picture wall in my hallway...we shall see how that works out. One of the other things I want to start doing this weekend is working on my senior year of college scrapbook. Right after I graduated I printed a bunch of pictures and bought some new supplies then completly lost my motivation. I used to love scrapbooking and think getting back into it would be a good creative outlet. Again...we shall see how it goes.
My lunch break is almost over...back to counting down the minutes.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Love for "Big Love"
Maybe I am wrong but I feel like a lot of people don't know about "Big Love." I have always been a HBO tv show fan but have never actually had HBO, leading me to own a lot of shows on dvd. The third season has just started on HBO so if you can watch it now...I am jealous of you. To hold me over until season 3 comes out (this summer maybe?) on dvd, I just bought season 1 which I had seen but K hadn't. We started watching it together last night. If your tv repertoire needs to be spiced up...check it out...it's very different then anything that is on right now. And let me know what you think!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Bag That Almost Was...and may be again
K's grandparents gave us each Land's End gift cards for Christmas this year which included a free shipping offer if you ordered before January 30th. I had taken some time looking on the website and picking out what I wanted (gloves...I am in desperate need) but K hadn't. Since the 30th is fast approaching last night we went on the website to place our orders. Just my luck, the gloves were no longer there so I had to look for other options and found this:
So cute right? Especially with the navy monogram I was going to add for just $6. I was so excited about this bag and the joy were would share together this summer at the pool and the beach. Plus I had enough left on my gift card for a pair of slipper-socks...to hold me over until the beach.
I proceeded to the checkout happily...then began the attempt of redeeming the gift cards. 20 minutes later and no luck...I decided to chat with the "live help."
Me: I am trying to redeem a gift card and it isn't working!
Sally: Good Evening Ms. Cee, is this a L.L. Bean gift card?
Me: Yes, of course it is!
Of course I pay no attention to the fact that "Sally" just said L.L. Bean...until K looks over my shoulder and pointed out that our gift cards were in fact Land's End...why I hadn't realized this while I was shopping and checking out OR why I went to L.L. Bean in the first place I do not know. It does explain why the gloves I had picked out were not there. I quickly told "Sally" nevermind and closed out of the site and headed over to the far inferior Land's End.
I ended up with two pairs of gloves, which was what I originally wanted and needed, but after discovering the beach bag the gloves just didn't do it for me anymore. Who cares about warm hands when you have a new beach bag.
And now I am deliberating on if I should go back and buy it...some how I find it hard to justify spending money on a beach bag when there was a quarter of an inch of ice on my car this morning. Oh well, maybe it will go on sale.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Fire
Here are a couple of pictures we took of the fire (I was waiting for one of my friends to send them to me since they were on her camera) which is why they were not in the original post. The house in these pictures was completely gone the next morning.
Monday, January 26, 2009
We came, We ate, We called 911
I arrived home safely yesterday from my trip to visit K.T. Just as I predicted we had an awesome time. Most of the weekend was spent hanging out in our sweats, drinking box wine and champagne punch, watching "Greek" on DVD and of course eating. K.T. is very domestic and she kept making us tons of yummy food. In fact I think I have to starve myself this week to lose the 5 pounds I gained this weekend.
One of the things I love most about my friends is that we don't have to "do" anything to have fun. Some of my best memories are of the times when were just sitting around talking. My sophomore year four of us lived in a suite on campus and everyday after class and before we went to dinner we would sit around and have "do nothing time," it was always the best part of the day. I miss having them around all the time so much.
So all in all it was a pretty chill weekend, however we did have some excitement on Saturday night. We were all in K.T.'s living room when I happened to see something out the window, the blinds were down so I am not sure how I even saw it but I jumped up, threw up the blinds and saw that a house on the street over was on fire! We called 911 and found out from them that 2 houses were on fire and they were on there way. We watched for several hours as the flames overtook the neighboring homes. We found out the next morning that 15 home were affected in total. Luckily, no one was injured but I can't imagine the devastation you would feel if you lost your home and what those families are going through today.
The scary thing is that the fires were set by gang members, none of who have not been caught. The town has been having a lot of arson due to this gang in the past few months and Saturday's incident was the worst so far. It even ended up on the national news.
I have to that I have never seen a fire that close before, and I was in awe of the firefighters, it is a small town so they are probably volunteers, but they were there all night working to put out the fires and save the homes. It was crazy to see them up on the roof of a burning building and walking around a house that could have collapsed at any second. They have such dedication and thank God none of them were hurt either.
So that was pretty exciting and really put into perspective what I was creeped out about on Friday...which was...sleeping in a funeral home. Yes, K.T. is a funeral director, or at least in the process of becoming one, and is taking over her family's funeral home. She lives in an apartment over the funeral home, which is a huge old house. I had been to her funeral home before when I visited her during college, but we had slept in her parents house which is a few minutes away. So my overactive imagination was going crazy on the drive there as I planned out how I would slay a zombie if the need arose (K.T. assures me they have never had a zombie attack.) But, after witnessing the other events of the weekend, logically speaking, gang related arson is much scarier then sleeping in a house a morgue in the basement.
One of the things I love most about my friends is that we don't have to "do" anything to have fun. Some of my best memories are of the times when were just sitting around talking. My sophomore year four of us lived in a suite on campus and everyday after class and before we went to dinner we would sit around and have "do nothing time," it was always the best part of the day. I miss having them around all the time so much.
So all in all it was a pretty chill weekend, however we did have some excitement on Saturday night. We were all in K.T.'s living room when I happened to see something out the window, the blinds were down so I am not sure how I even saw it but I jumped up, threw up the blinds and saw that a house on the street over was on fire! We called 911 and found out from them that 2 houses were on fire and they were on there way. We watched for several hours as the flames overtook the neighboring homes. We found out the next morning that 15 home were affected in total. Luckily, no one was injured but I can't imagine the devastation you would feel if you lost your home and what those families are going through today.
The scary thing is that the fires were set by gang members, none of who have not been caught. The town has been having a lot of arson due to this gang in the past few months and Saturday's incident was the worst so far. It even ended up on the national news.
I have to that I have never seen a fire that close before, and I was in awe of the firefighters, it is a small town so they are probably volunteers, but they were there all night working to put out the fires and save the homes. It was crazy to see them up on the roof of a burning building and walking around a house that could have collapsed at any second. They have such dedication and thank God none of them were hurt either.
So that was pretty exciting and really put into perspective what I was creeped out about on Friday...which was...sleeping in a funeral home. Yes, K.T. is a funeral director, or at least in the process of becoming one, and is taking over her family's funeral home. She lives in an apartment over the funeral home, which is a huge old house. I had been to her funeral home before when I visited her during college, but we had slept in her parents house which is a few minutes away. So my overactive imagination was going crazy on the drive there as I planned out how I would slay a zombie if the need arose (K.T. assures me they have never had a zombie attack.) But, after witnessing the other events of the weekend, logically speaking, gang related arson is much scarier then sleeping in a house a morgue in the basement.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Off to Pennsylvania
Right after work today I am driving Pennsylvania for a girls weekend at my friend K.T.'s. I am super excited to see all of my best friends. We went to college together in Pennsylvania and now are all scattered around. Usually when we plan something one or two of us can't come but as far as I know we will all be there this weekend and I know it will be a great time. I am a little creeped out to be spending the night in K.T.'s apartment...any guesses why?
In other news I started a new book last night, Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. It's very good so far...I didn't want to stop reading and go to sleep (decided being exhausted all day today and this weekend would probably be a bad idea though.) I have always been interested in World War II and it deals with a horrifying situation during the French occupation called the Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv, a raid aimed at sending thousands of French Jews to Auschwitz in 1942. I had never heard of this "round-up" before and apparently it is an area of French history that has been somewhat glossed over. Anyways, not to be depressing...I will let you know more about the book when I finish it.
If you have any guesses as to why K.T.'s apartment is creepy leave me a comment!
In other news I started a new book last night, Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. It's very good so far...I didn't want to stop reading and go to sleep (decided being exhausted all day today and this weekend would probably be a bad idea though.) I have always been interested in World War II and it deals with a horrifying situation during the French occupation called the Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv, a raid aimed at sending thousands of French Jews to Auschwitz in 1942. I had never heard of this "round-up" before and apparently it is an area of French history that has been somewhat glossed over. Anyways, not to be depressing...I will let you know more about the book when I finish it.
If you have any guesses as to why K.T.'s apartment is creepy leave me a comment!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Stuffed Green Pepper Soup
Since it has been so cold lately I decided to defrost what was left of a batch of this awesome soup I had made in the fall, for dinner last night. I got the recipe from my mom, who actually got it at a Weight Watchers meeting. It is only 1.5 WW points per cup when made with extra lean ground beef and probably more like 1 point when made with turkey (how I made it...of course I ate more then 1 cup...so it was probably a few more points!)
Here is how you make it:
Brown 1 lb ground turkey (or beef) with 1 cup diced onion
Cook brown rice (remember brown rice takes about 45 minutes to cook so you might want to do this first.)
Mix 1 cup of cooked rice and turkey/onion mixture with:
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz.)
2 cups chopped green peppers (make sure you chop them pretty fine since it is going in a soup)
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz)
3 cups of water
1 tbsp. beef bouillon
Place in a crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or simmer in a pot for 1 hour.
Yields 12 cups
I am obsessed with Parmesan cheese so I sprinkled some on when I served it! Enjoy!
Here is how you make it:
Brown 1 lb ground turkey (or beef) with 1 cup diced onion
Cook brown rice (remember brown rice takes about 45 minutes to cook so you might want to do this first.)
Mix 1 cup of cooked rice and turkey/onion mixture with:
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz.)
2 cups chopped green peppers (make sure you chop them pretty fine since it is going in a soup)
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz)
3 cups of water
1 tbsp. beef bouillon
Place in a crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or simmer in a pot for 1 hour.
Yields 12 cups
I am obsessed with Parmesan cheese so I sprinkled some on when I served it! Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
"She's a Nutjob"
I'll admit it. I am a HUGE "Real Housewives" fan. Yes, of course, all of these vapid women get on my nerves at times, but the new one...Lynne...has bothered me from her first appearance on the "silver screen." Last night she just pushed me over the edge. I am not even going to touch her parenting and her completely illogical behavior regarding Gretchen asking Jeff about his estate plans...because I could rant for hours about that. I think Vicki summarized it nicely: "She's a Nutjob." Amen Vicki, amen.
That all being said, what really sparked my interest was Lynne's business venture..."Cuff Love" (hmm ironic that sounds a lot like what her children need...oh wait not going there today.) Now I am all for creativity and if you feel good whipping out the hot glue, pleather and beads and making some bracelets more power to you. But when I saw the price of $275-$375 I thought it was a joke! Would..and do... people actually spend that much on a cuff bracelet that Lynne threw together at her kitchen table? Would you?
I decided to do some research this morning and found out yes, Lynne's business is real, and so are the hefty price tags.
Then I popped over to her website to see her 2009 collection. Ok--- so some of of the cuffs are semi-cute, or at least would be if paired with the right outfit. But I just can't see spending that much for them, especially in this economic climate.
Finally, we have several options like this one, from Urban Outfitters, all for only $20.
That all being said, what really sparked my interest was Lynne's business venture..."Cuff Love" (hmm ironic that sounds a lot like what her children need...oh wait not going there today.) Now I am all for creativity and if you feel good whipping out the hot glue, pleather and beads and making some bracelets more power to you. But when I saw the price of $275-$375 I thought it was a joke! Would..and do... people actually spend that much on a cuff bracelet that Lynne threw together at her kitchen table? Would you?
I decided to do some research this morning and found out yes, Lynne's business is real, and so are the hefty price tags.
Then I popped over to her website to see her 2009 collection. Ok--- so some of of the cuffs are semi-cute, or at least would be if paired with the right outfit. But I just can't see spending that much for them, especially in this economic climate.
This cute cuff is only $34.00 here.
This one by Dolce & Gabbana ( a slightly more well known name then Lynne) is $99.99 at Overstock.com
Finally, we have several options like this one, from Urban Outfitters, all for only $20.At these prices you can have your cuff and use the money you save to contribute to an IRA...or buy multiple cuffs...whatever cause you deem worthy. Happy Cuffing!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Happy Inauguration Day!
No matter the differences in our beliefs I hope we can come together as Americans and support our new president.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Creature Feature
(alternative title: things that go scratch in the walls)
The otherwise lazy three day weekend did have some excitement for K and I...
K was doing some work in our second bedroom/office on Saturday morning and I was out in the living room watching TV when he came out and told me he heard a dog running around upstairs. There were two small problems with this statement: 1)The people above us don't have a dog (well I guess they could have gotten one so that might not actually be a problem) and 2)All of the apartments are carpeted so if a dog was scratching around we probably wouldn't be able to hear it. We rarely can even hear people walking around, let alone dogs,
Upon a closer listen we determined that the scratching, skittering, banging noise was actually coming from the wall that separates our laundry room from the office. Yes, there was an animal of some kind trapped in our wall.
We decided to let it go for Saturday in the hopes that it (K thought bat, I thought rat) would go out the way it came in. Needless to say it didn't and on Sunday we called the apartment management office. Of course the maintenance guys aren't there on Sundays...so it would have to wait until Monday.
This morning I didn't hear anything so I assumed that our visitor had either escaped...or more likely..perished in the night.
But when the maintenance guys arrived and opened up our dryer vent they discovered that our creature was actually a bird, a very much alive bird. Apparently he had been drawn to the warmth of the dryer vent outside and went in. Unfortunately, neither K nor I were home to witness this rescue..so hopefully the bird was released back into the suburban wilds and this tale ended happily.
I would recommend our friend head south to get warm rather then entering potentially hazardous dryer vents in the future. I-95 is just a few miles away and goes straight to Miami.
The otherwise lazy three day weekend did have some excitement for K and I...
K was doing some work in our second bedroom/office on Saturday morning and I was out in the living room watching TV when he came out and told me he heard a dog running around upstairs. There were two small problems with this statement: 1)The people above us don't have a dog (well I guess they could have gotten one so that might not actually be a problem) and 2)All of the apartments are carpeted so if a dog was scratching around we probably wouldn't be able to hear it. We rarely can even hear people walking around, let alone dogs,
Upon a closer listen we determined that the scratching, skittering, banging noise was actually coming from the wall that separates our laundry room from the office. Yes, there was an animal of some kind trapped in our wall.
We decided to let it go for Saturday in the hopes that it (K thought bat, I thought rat) would go out the way it came in. Needless to say it didn't and on Sunday we called the apartment management office. Of course the maintenance guys aren't there on Sundays...so it would have to wait until Monday.
This morning I didn't hear anything so I assumed that our visitor had either escaped...or more likely..perished in the night.
But when the maintenance guys arrived and opened up our dryer vent they discovered that our creature was actually a bird, a very much alive bird. Apparently he had been drawn to the warmth of the dryer vent outside and went in. Unfortunately, neither K nor I were home to witness this rescue..so hopefully the bird was released back into the suburban wilds and this tale ended happily.
I would recommend our friend head south to get warm rather then entering potentially hazardous dryer vents in the future. I-95 is just a few miles away and goes straight to Miami.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Lazy Weekend
Lucky me I unexpectedly got a three day weekend when my office decided to close for MLK day, however I haven't really made the most of my time so far. Sad to say most of this morning has been sent on the couch watching "Moving Up" on TLC, and trying to get motivated to clean my apartment. But it is educational...I just saw someone make an "effect" on their floor by dropping fritos on cement. The oil smudged out then they vagued up the fritos with a shop-vac. Creative. Plus you can enjoy a snack while renovating your home.
Last night my boyfriend, K, and I went to one of my favorite chain restaurants. If you haven't been to one I highly recommend it. The Miso Seafood Salad is ah-maz-ing. I had been craving one for awhile and convinced K to go (he had the Sweet & Spicy Italian Sausage pizza.) We were going to go to a movie after but I wasn't dying to see anything that was showing so we came home and watched "Stepbrothers" on On Demand. Not Will Ferrell's finest performance but it had a few funny parts.
If I ever get my cleaning done we are going to go over to my parents house to watch football tonight. I am not a big sports fan so I won't be paying much attention but since they are the hometown team...Go Ravens!
(Plus if they go to the Super Bowl I am sure there will be a lot of sales and specials around here that even non-sports fans like myself can take advantage of.)
Last night my boyfriend, K, and I went to one of my favorite chain restaurants. If you haven't been to one I highly recommend it. The Miso Seafood Salad is ah-maz-ing. I had been craving one for awhile and convinced K to go (he had the Sweet & Spicy Italian Sausage pizza.) We were going to go to a movie after but I wasn't dying to see anything that was showing so we came home and watched "Stepbrothers" on On Demand. Not Will Ferrell's finest performance but it had a few funny parts.
If I ever get my cleaning done we are going to go over to my parents house to watch football tonight. I am not a big sports fan so I won't be paying much attention but since they are the hometown team...Go Ravens!
(Plus if they go to the Super Bowl I am sure there will be a lot of sales and specials around here that even non-sports fans like myself can take advantage of.)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Beginning
Here we go...to be completely honest I never thought I would ever in a million years have a blog. So why am I sitting here on blogger...blogging? How did I get here? Throughout high school and college I was pretty sure that blogs were for emo kids or something, then one of my friends got a blogging internship (pretty sure that wasn't the job title) on a political site before our senior year. Since we were both working in NYC that summer I heard a lot about blogging which led me to think that blogs were for pundits and yuppies. But I didn't put that much thought into it since she preferred to talk about the crush she had on her boss rather then the blogging.
I probably would have gone my whole life without any really concept of blogs until I got my first job after college. Needless to say it wasn't very exciting and yet I was faced with a lot of extra time in front of a computer screen...say 8 hours each day.
Somehow I stumbled across the Celebrity Baby Blog (I like celebrities and I like babies so I guess it was a natural progression) and from there I found Bring in the Rain (if you have never heard of it, check it out, it is inspiring.) And that was it. I was stuck on blogs.
I have a lot of different interests and I am also kind of nosey so learning about all these different people, families, and just random nonsense every day fits me perfectly, and after more then a year of lurking around I am trying it for myself.
Here we go...this is the beginning.
I probably would have gone my whole life without any really concept of blogs until I got my first job after college. Needless to say it wasn't very exciting and yet I was faced with a lot of extra time in front of a computer screen...say 8 hours each day.
Somehow I stumbled across the Celebrity Baby Blog (I like celebrities and I like babies so I guess it was a natural progression) and from there I found Bring in the Rain (if you have never heard of it, check it out, it is inspiring.) And that was it. I was stuck on blogs.
I have a lot of different interests and I am also kind of nosey so learning about all these different people, families, and just random nonsense every day fits me perfectly, and after more then a year of lurking around I am trying it for myself.
Here we go...this is the beginning.
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