Scatterbrained daydreams

Tripping through fictional fancies

2009-07-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. ~James Bryce

I know, I was a big fan of books when I was a kid. Mostly fantasy books, some historical books, and even some more modern fiction books. Long after I learned to read I would still pull out the old watch sue run, run sue run, book, just for nostalgia I guess, and read it cover to cover when I was supposed to be in bed. There were some great fiction books I remember loving, some that I only remember the title and liking the book, but from what I recall, if it was fiction, there wasn't a book I picked up that I didn't like. Perhaps that is why I tend to horde them now...
In any event, I want to know, what are some of the books that you really liked as a kid? My favorite book from the earliest I can remember was a pop up book about dinosaurs. Then I found the boxcar children, the bobsey twins, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and so on and so forth, finding my way from Narnia to Goosebumps. I think my favorite Narnian tales were the Magician's Nephew, and A Horse and his boy. Now I still prefer fiction, although I tend to lean more toward a narrative tale, and have the occasional romance novel lying somewhere out of sight. We love the stories but can't bear the embarrassment... I really do enjoy a good historical piece as well, like the Shadow of the wind, set in post civil war Barcelona. A beautiful book, and then there is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, brought me to tears. Ah books. *warm fuzzies*

Piloga my Yoga!

2009-07-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

I've been on a fitness kick for at least the past two months. My job as a nanny has been a big help for that, in that if the weather cooperates, I'll take little Mara for a walk in the stroller. Working as a nanny has really altered my perspective, well, maybe just enrichened. BJ likes to joke that when we have our first baby, I'm going to be a pro. Thank you Mara for teaching me how to take care of babies for more than a couple of hours. Seriously, I've gone with her parents for doctor's appointments, I've gone grocery shopping with them, for eight hours a day during the week, I get to be a mom. And I really really enjoy it. She's a great little baby, very calm and easy to please. And she makes me want to have one of my own, like yesterday!
So how does this baby conversation tie in with the fitness idea I just launched? It's all about preparation. I am overweight. Like a lot of people, I'm carrying around some extra poundage that I just don't need. Are you ready, I am about to shock you with this story. I am 6'2" and I know I am very overweight, although nobody else seems to think so. BJ's siblings Eric and Roxana were visiting one weekend and we were shopping in BJ's Wholesale. They found a weight scale and were taking turns weighing themselves. For those of you who are curious, Eric weighed 80 pounds. I won't tell you Roxana's, but suffice it to say she was still in the two digit area of the scale. I weighed myself, and then felt a little bit sick. 335 pounds, the heaviest I have been in my life! Now to look at me, you would not realize that I am all that heavy. I told my buddy Mary that I am a sneaky fat person, because I distribute all my extra weight well, she laughed and then there were several jokes about fat ninjas. I love that we have such similar senses of humor. The part that really got to me was BJ. He weighed himself too, and the stinker was only 270. We look pretty similar, so I was even surprised that our weights were that different.
Now, I want to have a baby relatively soon. Here's the kicker though, both my Dad, and my Grandma have diabetes. Women who are overweight when they get pregnant are almost guaranteed to get gestational diabetes, and women who are predispositioned toward it (like me) are more than likely to keep it after the baby is born. Not to mention there are all kinds of risks and developmental issues that can stem not only from gestational diabetes, but just being overweight while pregnant can cause all kinds of issues. I want our child to have the best advantages in life. Not to mention I want to be an active and healthy mom, so that hopefully the little Garmon will have a good body image and develop healthy eating habits because that's what he or she is exposed to.
I have to decided to give myself, at minimum, one year, to try and lose 100 pounds. This way it will be gradual, and safe, and less likely to rebound back on. I have bought a couple of things to help me out with this journey of mine. I went to Dick's sporting goods and picked up a good, thick pilates mat, and started doing some exercises I found on youtube. I looked into gym memberships, but to belong to the Y would cost almost $75 a month for me and BJ, and they only offer a pilates class one night a week. I looked into different pilates studios, but they were more like $20 a class, and that's just too expensive. I think that when I am pregnant, I will join a prenatal exercise class, because there will be more at stake than me just pulling a muscle, and that's well worth the cost. Until then, me, youtube, and the apartment complex fitness center are buddies.
I bought a book, called the Gabriel Method. What is interesting about the Gabriel method is that it's more about visualization than about counting calories. It talks about reasons your body may feel like it needs to be fat to protect itself, and how to get past those stumbling blocks. I, being a visual person, found the idea of imagining myself disliking certain things really interesting and decided to turn my cognitive powers on my number one foe. Coca-Cola.
For those of you who don't know, I have always been obsessed with Coca-Cola. Anytime my parents offered us a drink from the store or gas station, I was ready, 20oz of the black liquid in hand. Any time of day, morning or night, I would kick back with that red and white label, and feel my stress just melt away. After starting in on the Gabriel Method, I started thinking to myself, "Coke tastes really bad." And saw myself drinking coke and then making an icky face. After two days of this, I met BJ at a Chick-fil-A near his work, and bought, of course, a coke. Here's the interesting part, it tasted horrible to me. I couldn't believe that the idea could have worked after only two days, but I tried coke from another place and it tasted the same, icky. I had successfully turned myself off from something I had struggled with for a really long time. The next time we ate out, I ordered a sprite, no surprise here, it tasted icky. Apparently my visualization was so strong in my mind, I turned myself off from all soda products...whoa. Now I drink at least 8 bottles of water a day, if not more. I do kind of like lemonade, so I'm not at a complete loss when we eat out, but I don't want anything carbonated, and it feels, liberating.
As of last night, I weighed myself. The scale told me I weighed in at 319, and BJ is at 256. I feel pretty good about myself. Now, I just have to see if I can find a good exercise/ stability ball...

OMG, an update?!

2009-06-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

Heh heh heh...I've been baaaad. I mean I know it's been a long time since I updated my blog, but February...seriously! *slaps self on hand* I don't remember what I have shared and what I haven't, so please forgive any repeats. I am now 26, as of March 15th, BJ turned 27 in May. I quit working at the doggy daycare, it was just too darn hot, and I couldn't get the ac to work. You know it's too hot when the dogs don't want to play, they just want to sprawl out on the concrete to keep cool. I have my awesome nanny job, which has gone to three full days a week and two half days and I love working there. The only downside is that it makes me want to have babies, like NOW! but it's not time for babies yet, I keep telling myself, house first, house first, house first. But I can't stop myself from checking out the awesome baby stuff on target and babies R us online. I told my friend Mary what I was up to, and she flipped because she thought I was pregnant. AM NOT!!! House first, house first, enjoy being newlyweds, house first.... BJ and I have been looking at foreclosed homes in the Norcross area, looking to purchase with an FHA rehabilitation loan. I've been watching diy network online and was shocked to learn that making concrete countertops is a lot like making a puppet mold, meaning...I can totally do that! And I've learned all sorts of neat stuff and eyeballing tools that I would love to give a home, but will probably end up renting. Come on, who can really spend $1,600 on that awesome table saw at the drop of a checkbook? We have an awesome realtor helping us out in our home search. It seems like the biggest problem we are coming up against is the face that an fha loan closes in 45 days, and the houses that we have made offers on told us to pay another $10k over the asking price, or that they were going to wait for a lower cash offer because it would close faster. It's disheartening, some of the houses we have really, really wanted, but we'll find a house and make it home, eventually. There are a lot of great home buyer incentives in place, especially for first time homebuyers, that we want to take advantage of, including the tax incentives for updating your home. I still have to chat with the guy over at H&R Block to get some more concrete information on the energy star tax credits, but I have time. BJ and I watched the latest Star Trek movie for his birthday, it was awesome, it was one of those movies that when the credits roll, you want to clap because it was just that cool. And I'm not even all that interested in the original star trek. When I was little I was secretly in love with Captain Picard, but don't tell. I've been raiding the local library, and studying all sorts of home supply stores. If you live in the area, and we get a house, be prepared to be called to come perform manual labor services in exchange for pizza. If the kitchen is up to speed, it may even be homemade pizza. The whole, make your own concrete countertop is definitely messing with my brain. Now that I know the process is so simple, and similar to things I have done before, the possibilites are ENDLESS! I even proposed the idea of pouring concrete pavers to replace a driveway. :P My husband is so accomodating to my wild and exciting ideas. On the career front, Synchronicity's season has come to the summer break, so no more working for them until next August, although I may not have time to do so. I am working for Essential Theatre this summer as an ASM for one of their shows, and then after that, I have been asked to be the props designer for Aurora Theatre's prduction of Buy my house, Please! Aurora Theatre, incidentally, is BJ's new place of employment. He is working for them as their new TD, and their next show is a production of Kiss me Kate, and I am so excited! 'Brush up your Shakespeare...' is my favorite song in that play, next to Too Darn hot, which is much better in the staged version than in the movie, although Life that I once led is also stellar. Ooooo, can't wait. So yeah, that is how we say, sum up. It's Summer here in Georgia and we've been in the apartment pool a couple of times already. I love swimming, and it's also really good for my back. The only think I don't enjoy, is the drops of swimmer's ear after my post swimming shower, it burns! It burns us, precious!!

2009-02-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

I think this may result in the longest and most boring game of fetch, ever...It's very cute and inventive, as are many of the pics on icanhascheezburger.com I just polished off a tasty lunch of peanut butter and jelly and a glass of milk. Mmmm, nothing like washing down peanut butter with ice cold milk. I think I will have another glass!! Yummy! I know that most of you would expect me to be sucking down coca-cola like it's going out of production, but an impasse has been presented. BJ suggested that if I were to give up my coke addiction, we could try to pay the subscription fees for wow. Of course I have a case of coke relaxing next to the kitchen, with one out of the 32 being gone, I must ration it out to wean myself off this sweet and tasty beverage. Of course I leapt at the chance to get back into the virtual world of azeroth. I'm so happy to be playing world of warcraft again. I love playing with my newest character, the death knight. She can just keep on swinging! Now I am back to the evils of system maitenance. The world server is down for extended maitenance until, at least 3 pm. I already downloaded the latest patch on my computer and must load it onto BJ's, so that we can terrorize the computer monsters after he gets home from work. Because I work on the weekends we have decided to relocate our valentine celebrations to this Thursday. We are going to go to the movies! I'm very excited. I haven't been to the movies since I went with Mom to see Bolt in 3D when she visited before Christmas. Huzzah!!!

Poor unloved blog

2009-02-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

I have been seriously neglecting my blog lately. And, as it seems to be one of those days to just chill out in front of a tv or computer, I might as well make something useful out of it. It's cold here in Georgia, and in a effort to save money on our gas bill, we are keeping the thermostat at a brisk 64 degrees. In attempts to stay warm and moderately comfortable, I have stripped the blanket off the bed and cocooned myself in it with a space heater occasionally running at my feet. A space heater, you may say, defeats the entire idea of saving money because you are just spending it elsewhere. Well, yes and no, we are spending money on the electricity to run the space heater, but the space heater only has to make us warm, not the whole apartment. And I frequently turn it off once I am comfortable, thus saving more money! Woot!
In other news, I have discovered that Blizzard is being very very sneaky. You can try out their latest expansion on a ten day trial if you already have an account. BJ and I both have inactive accounts because, in another heroic effort to save money, we cancelled our subscriptions and save about $30 a month. So for me, the wow junkie who has not played in about 6 months, the ten day trial = heaven!!! From what I have seen of Northrend, and all the various new things that have come out, I am mightily impressed with Blizzard. This xpac is ten to twenty times better than the old burning crusade xpac, which, while new and interesting, definitely has its flaws. So yeah...the restart should be just about finished...Catch you later!

Huzzah for Pizza!!!

2009-01-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

I like the idea of having one set night of the week for homemade pizza. I can't decide what night it ought to be, but I'm playing with the idea at the moment. BJ and I decided we want to have one night of the week to stay in with our future children and play board games or watch a movie together. And we figured to keep from conflicting with inevitable activities, it would be during the week like a Wednesday or Thursday. So maybe that would be a good pizza night!! Last night's creation had bacon, egg, and spinach pesto. It was pretty good, but the spinach and feta pizza is still my absolute favorite.

Best Interview Ever

2009-01-21T11:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, aside from getting to tour the Center for Puppetry Arts and seeing one of the skeksis from The Dark Crystal, I had one of the coooooolest interviews today. I interviewed for a job with a doggy daycare and the interview involved me wandering the yard with all the doggys on both sides, the small dog side and the big dog side. I had so much fun! I picked up poop and I was enjoying myself. I've got my fingers crossed in hopes of getting it, they should let me know next week. Here's to hoping!

This may sound odd but,...mmm, fermentation

2009-01-17T12:20:00.000-08:00

Although the word fermentation used to bring a certain past roommate's hockey bag to mind, I'm reassessing how I feel about the term. Although I am not a big wine person, fermentation is the process by which many fine drinks are created. Also, the growing of yeast in delicious bread dough is considered a fermentation process. And today, yes, today, I have a new thing for fermentation. Sitting on a warm heating pad was a pot of milk and active cultures, and I have made plain YOGURT!!! Although I have yet to taste it, the thought of slurping up hot, tart yogurt is not high on my list of favorite things, it smells delicious!! Updates will come after eating said yogurt to see if this will be a process worth repeating. I certainly hope so. I've got about 8 cups of the stuff cooling off in the fridge. Made from scratch cooks unite!!!!

Yummy yummy pizza!

2009-01-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

This one was a little different, whole wheat flour with the bread flour, and it was pretty good. It needed a little more water, but it was good. I also sprinkled mozzarella on the crust so it crisped in the oven. OOO, it was good. Spinach and artichoke with feta and mozzarella = tasty.

I heart my wii

2009-01-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R98qC0fd_1w&eurl=http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com/index.php?p=3&feature=player_embedded

Go there, watch it, laugh as hard as I did, and pay attention to the song lyrics.

Oooo I made a tasty pizza!

2009-01-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

Many of you know I have a great love of pizza. I'm talking huge love of pizza. And gourmet pizzas are not only fabulously expensive, but they are also fabulously tasty. So, in my attempts to be a better housewife and cook more interesting things, I have made a delicious and tasty spinach and feta pizza. I already know what I am going to fiddle with for the next time I make this delightful dish, and I am really excited! Yummy pizza!!

Furniture and fresh bread totally go hand in hand

2009-01-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

BJ and I got really lucky the other day with the free section on craigslist, as you all know. We had been keeping our clothes in some very functional, and very plastic, drawers we had gotten from Wal mart. As I promised pictures of the new furniture, even though it has yet to be refinished, here you are!!! The most exciting aspect of the furniture has to be the fact that it is solid wood. So, when there is time and warm weather, a possible stain may be applied, and we're definitely getting some new hardware. In other news I accomplished a new baking feat last night. I made a loaf of honey oatmeal bread. As far as I can tell the only bad choice I made was not checking it before time. It is a little bit scorched on the outside, but just a wee. It really didn't need a full 40 minutes to cook in our oven. But, it is delicious. The husband and I chowed down on it last night while it was still warm, and it tasted heavenly. It's no surprise we ate half the loaf before we stopped and enjoyed the warm glowy feeling of good food. Yummy. I promised Kelso that I would share the recipe with her, and by the way this came from a library book called, the weekend baker. I made this in my stand mixer, but I'm putting in the make by hand instructions for others benefit. Enjoy!Honey oatmeal bread, makes 1 loaf

1 1/4 cups whole milk (I used 1 % and I don't think it suffered)
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, not instant
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon melted for glazing, optional
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1/3 cup honey
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I love using king arthur organic flour)
1 packet instant yeast

1. Pour the milk into a small saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Stir in the oats, the 3 TBS of butter and the salt. Cover and set aside, stirring frequently until the oatmeal is soft. (Now, I thought it would actually make oatmeal from these instructions, but the whole point is just to soften up those rolled oats. Don't despair, it takes about 20 minutes for it to soften up.) Then stir in the honey. (I have an electric kettle, so I will frequently heat some water and then pour it over my honey container to heat up and soften the honey. It makes it easier to pour and mix if it's already hot.)

2. In a large bowl combine the flour and yeast. Stir with a wooden spoon until well blended. (Officially out of my territory. I used my stand mixer from here on in, but I will try to provide insight when possible.)

3. Check the temperature of the oatmeal, it should register about 120 degrees on an instant read thermometer. (I used a meat thermometer to check mine.) In order for the yeast to grow, the liquid needs to be between 115 and 125 degrees. Add the warm oatmeal to the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until a rough, shaggy dough forms. Lightly dust a work surface with a little flour. Dump the dough onto the surface. (It really does look a little shaggy. It clings to the sides of the bowl as it mixes and almost looks like shaggy hair.)

4. Knead the dough with your hands. It will be sticky at first, but resist the urge to add more flour. First, gather the dough together. Next, using the heel of one hand, push the top part of the dough away from you. Fold that piece over the dough nearest you. Give the dough a quarter turn clockwise and repeat. Keep on kneading until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky, about 10 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. (It took 10 minutes in my stand mixer and then really wasn't all that sticky, it was kind of cool.)

5. Lightly grease a bowl and pop the dough into it. Cover the top securely with plastic wrap. The author likes to use a big rubber band to secure it to the bowl. Let the covered dough rise in a warm spot until doubled in size. About 45 minutes. (All right, back to my experience realm, I grease the bowl with a tablespoon or two of canola oil. Other bread recipes I have made have asked for it specifically. I roll it around the bowl until it coats the sides and then plop the dough in, rolling it over to coat it in the oil. Other recipes have told me to do this with bread dough, I think it helps keep the heat in for the yeast to grow or something. I just cover the bowl with plastic wrap and don't worry about making it super tight, just as long as it holds is fine in my book. I ran the microwave for a minute with nothing in it and then put the bowl in there, so it was nice and warm. There are alternatives though, I did something different when I had to let it rise a second time. I have heard another person sets up a heating pad on high and puts it under the bowl. Something I would love to try, but I have no heating pad. I just set a timer for 45 minutes thinking if it got a little bigger than that, it wouldn't be much of an issue.)

6. Lightly grease a loaf pan, 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches. (I use a silicon loaf pan, so no greasing for me!) Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface, there is no need to flour, the dough is soft but not sticky, and press down gently to deflate it. (I got oil all over my counter, so be prepared to clean up. I think it kept the dough from sticking though, so no complaints here. You're really just trying to squish out the extra air, so be gentle and lightly press down with steady pressure.)
Press the dough into a 7-by-10 inch rectangle. Starting at the short side, roll up like a jelly roll. Pinch the bottom and side seams closed. Place the dough on the counter, seam side down, and perpendicular to you. Using the outside edge of your slightly curved palms, press gently but firmly on the bottom seam until the dough forms a smooth rectangle 8 inches long with a rounded, taut skinned top. (I realize now I should have taken more pictures.) Place the dough, seam side down into the prepared pan. Press the dough to flatten and fill the pan in an even layer.

7. Cover the pan loosely, to allow for rising, with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm spot until almost doubled in size, about 45 minutes. The center of the dough will rise about 1 1/2 inches above the rim of the pan. (I ran my oven for a couple of minutes on warm and then turned it off. I put the loaf in covered with the same plastic wrap I had used on the bowl, lightly as it says to keep it from compressing your rising loaf. I just set a timer again for 45 minutes and let it run.)

8. When ready to bake, position an oven rack on the middle rung. (I did this before since I wanted it to rise in the oven.) Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the plastic and, using a very sharp knife or razor blade, cut a slit about 1/2 inch deep down the center of the loaf traveling it's length. (This will give it that heart shape on the top.) Bake until the loaf is puffed and browned, about 40 minutes. (Check it, mine was burned at 40 minutes) Transfer the pan to a rack and brush the top with the melted butter, if using. This will keep the top soft and especially buttery. (I totally did the butter glaze and it tastes really really good.) Tip the cooked loaf onto a rack and remove the pan. Set the loaf on its side and let cool completely. (I enjoyed mine by schmearing it with butter. Yum!)

Mmmm, food blog makes me drool.

2009-01-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

Aspiring baker / chef that I am, I've been oogling some food blogs today. You'll find some linked down on the side, and others, oh the others...I want to eat my computer screen, seriously.

Oh bagel I cooked in my toaster, why are you not as good as panera?

2009-01-09T06:01:00.001-08:00

Lately I find myself fighting my consumerist nature. I want everything to be mine! I want to go to panera and buy bagel, and go to starbucks and but chocolatey coffee drinks, and buy new games to play on my ds, and buy books, lots of books! *Hyperventilating... I don't know what brought on this rash feeling of, buy buy buy, but I am holding back as much as I can. I bought some cinnamon bagels while I was at BJ's, they just can't taste as good as panera bagels, with their tasty hazelnut cream cheese...*sigh I am still hunting the job market. I got really excited when the store manager of woodcraft said to come in and fill out an application. What he didn't bother telling me is that they don't need any help right now. They're going to hold on to my application in case they need help in the future. Deep sadness and disappointment affliction. I imagine they will file it away, maybe in the drawer marked to be shredded. I did actually end up getting a new game for my DS. BJ suggested I find a fun ds game that I would be cool with playing for a few hours at a time while he plays final fantasy, which is a one player, on the PS2. Hoo boy does my thumb ache after last night's fun. I got Super Mario brothers for the DS and it...is...AWESOME! I love it. It combines classic mario play with outstanding graphics, and nostalgic little nods back to the original mario brothers. At the end of each level you jump on a flag pole, and go in a wee little castle, and when they shoot off fireworks, it's the same sound effect from the original game. OH I LOVE MY DS!!!! I am reminding myself, a lot, that the whole point of buying that game was for me to play it when BJ is playing a one player so we can still hang out. Because otherwise, I would be playing it, right...now.
In other news I have to go to the hardware store today. BJ and I struck gold on craigslist and picked up a solid wood dresser and two night stands. Although we will not be sanding and refinishing them for a while, think next relocation move, they have excellent potential, and aside from a few cosmetic defects, are in excellent shape. Some of the joints are coming apart on the drawers, so I must get some wood glue and clamp them while they dry, but all the drawer tracks are in great shape, we have real wood furniture, not laminate and particle board, and did I mention they were free? I may have to wander into the drawer and cabinet pull aisle once I pick up some wood glue. Although we won't be replacing the hardware for a while, a girl can dream, right?

Ravelry...weeeeee

2009-01-06T18:12:00.000-08:00

Tonight I made a gateau breton, or otherwise known as a Brittany butter cake. It came out much like I think it was suppossed too, so it was a success! It's very much a cross between a cake and a pastry. It's a little dry for cake, but a little dense for pastry. It's nice and crumbly on the outside, which makes it perfect with vanilla ice cream and strawberries. Yum! I joined a knitting community known as ravelry and decided to pick a more daring project than just a scarf. I am going to make...Mitts!!! Hopefully. I picked up my dpn's (double point needles) at the local hobby lobby, and decided to do some web sluething. I have since joined an atlanta area knitting group and learned of several, very cool, independent knitting shops I have in easy driving distance. I love living so close to Atlanta. One of which I must investigate is Knitch...it's got a really cool web site, so google it and be jealous! I'm trying to decide if I am really interested in spinning in that whole, hey I could totally do that kind of way, or the hey, that's really cool to look at kind of way...*sigh. I have also determined I want to make another list of 2009, of movies I will be watching whether they be on tv, at home on disc, or in movie theatres. Bwahahahaha...now, how do I start this whole knitting in the round thing again...

What an interesting idea!

2009-01-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

My friend Kelso mentioned something she did when she was younger at her mother's request. She told her to keep track of all the books she read in a year. I think this is a wonderful idea! And, without further ado, I plan to keep a running list on the sidebar of all the books I read this year. We'll see how this goes, but I am excited! I wonder if I started the book in 2008, can I still claim it on the 2009 list? Hmmm. In other news, my case of the plauge has receeded a good bit. I bow before the goodness of medicinal tea as the other medecines were just making me feel worse. I heart my yogi tea, and I heart my gypsy cold care. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New year's resolutions!!!

2008-12-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to my blog and a very merry Christmas to you all. I had an excellent holiday, with my most exciting present of a lovely red nintendo ds lite. It's all mine!!! *evil laugh. With additional gifts, like an awesome carrying case, and a totally sweet game, My Japanese Coach, and I having a great time with my Christmas presents. This pic was taken at my parents' home when we visited them a couple weeks before the holiday. Aren't we cute? I've been following my friend's blog and wondered to myself, "Why is her blog so much cooler than mine?" Thus I am becoming more involved with the options presented by blogger and experimenting with a few things. The pic at the top of the page is of my husband...well, his hands, on our wedding day. I gave him a pocket watch as a happy wedding present. The back of it was engraved, "For my love, on our wedding day." He likes it a lot. And I love the awesome picture that was taken of it. It's like art!
As the new year approaches, I feel like making a resolution. No, I will not do the I resolve myself to accomplish all the things I've always wanted to do just to crash and burn in a couple weeks from overexerting myself. I would like to make a different resolution. I would like to remember everyone I care about on their birthday, and I need your help. If you think I should need to remember the date, and chances are very high that I do, shoot me an email with the day and month of your birth. If all goes according to plan, this can become a habit and I can feel good knowing I remembered people on their birthdays. Wish me luck! I'm going to go play my ds now, it looks lonely.

I just saw this and thought it was really cool.

2008-12-22T05:39:00.001-08:00

I just saw this online and thought it was really neat. That's a pit bull on the end, for those of you who don't know. One of the most misunderstood breeds, and discriminated against, that I know of. There are actually laws barring you from owning a pit bull of any variety, in certain cities or counties. What most people don't understand are the owners of the pits are usually at fault for overly aggressive dogs, and they would still have attacked and bitten someone whether they had been a pit, or german shepard, or a vicious pomeranian. There was an article a few years ago when a pomeranian mauled and killed an infant that is was left with in a room, the article then continued to talk about how dangerous pit bulls are, even though they were completely unrelated to what was going on. In most studies it is found that golden retrievers bite more often that pits do, but still...I could go on, but I do have to leave, and I would take forever talking about this.

OOO I made a fancy cake!

2008-12-22T05:23:00.000-08:00

I made a fancy cake from the library cookbook I got called,
"How to be a domestic goddess." The cake I am holding is made with Nutella, and other cakey ingredients, like ground hazelnuts. I made the icing with heavy cream and chocolate, and those are whole, roasted hazelnuts, aka Filberts, on the top. It was delicious! However, I think the next time I make it, I will substitute Semi sweet chocolate for the dark chocolate. The bitterness was pretty subtle in the cake itself, but in the icing it was really strong. Like my pretty glass cake plate? That was a wedding gift. It has a sweet cover to go on top and looks really nice, and it keeps the cake really well too. Mom had a slice and said it was better than a sleeping pill, chocolate makes her sleepy, which is kind of funny considering I'm the only person I know who passes out when taking Pamprin. Eh...go figure. I had a good visit with my Mom this weekend. Yesterday we went and watched the snow queen. It was neat seeing it this far into the run, as things were more finished, and as always my puppets look awesome. Mom wanted some pictures of the pigeons after the show, the actresses who manipulated them brought them out for meet and greet. I got closer with the camera and as soon as they saw me, they turned both pigeons toward me and yelled, "Mommy, Mommy!!!" It was awesome. Now off to the movies! Woot!

C'mon baby make it hurt so good

2008-12-18T06:40:00.001-08:00

For those of you who are not aware, I love the sound of a violin, specifically in those really complicated celtic fiddle pieces. Hearing the devil went down to Georgia in elementary school started my lifelong adoration of this amazing instrument. My parents got me a violin for Christmas when I was in...high school? I think? Possibly a bit younger, and I took lessons with a friend of my mom's who had played for like 15 years. I never was very proficient. I was young enough to get easily frustrated with simple roadblocks, like keeping time and reading music. I had this method when I had to learn a new piece of music. I would memorize all the notes and parts to play so that when it came time to play for my teacher, I could just do it all from memory without really having to look at the music. My sight reading is terrible. And then she brought out the dreaded metronome. So I stopped trying for a while, always remembering how awesome the violin can sound in other people's hands. I never parted ways with my violin. It stayed in it's case, just waiting for the day when I would decide, ok, let's try this again. Ladies and gentlemen, that day is here. It occurs to me that as BJ and I want to settle ourselves here in Georgia, I have a much more stable living environment than I have had previously. Meaning I could get an actual teacher who is brave enough to offer lessons to adults, and keep that teacher until he or she retired! For someone who moves around frequently, this is a very exciting concept. I have been looking at the different music centers in the area and comparing rates. I'm looking for someone who has a lot of teaching experience, not just a lot of performance, who won't charge what they are probably worth to teach me to play the violin. In the meantime, as lessons cannot and will not take place until after I have secured employment and developed some sort of schedule, I have been researching what is available, for free, on the greatness that is, the internet. I found this awesome series by this teacher on youtube. He emphasizes frequently and often that his videos are just for clarification of technique, and should not replace a real teacher. http://www.youtube.com/user/professorV I feel like, at this point, I don't "really" need to start over from scratch, so for now, clarification works very well for me! I was playing along to the video when I realized my violin had slipped out of tune, again. I got this handy little pitch pipe just for the violin, but I think it is a wee bit flat, at least on the D note. But that's ok, because I found a free violin tuner online where it will play the note that you click until you tell it to stop. See, I don't have to have a piano to tune my violin too! This morning I moved my chin rest to try and see how this different position feels. I like it much better because there is a lot less strain, but I am also remembering how much the violin hurts. My fingertips of my left hand are red, and a wee bit tender. You may think I've been playing too many video games, but it's all from pressing down strings on the fingerboard. Also my arm and shoulder are really tired from holding the violin up. *sigh, this will take some getting used to again. So, I sally forth, venturing into some aches and pains as I build up muscles, and learn new songs. I'm going to go play the twinkle off that little star! Charge!!!

Artistic meltdown...watch out!!

2008-12-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

I have just been cruising right along since the snow queen opened getting chores done, cleaning up the apartment, cooking actual meals with sides, doing the dishes in the sink, laundry, and now the bomb has been dropped. Clint, the awesome director for the snow queen gave my contact information to Michael, who heads the XPT over at the CPA. For those that don't speak acronym, allow me to explain. XPT = experimental puppet theatre. CPA = Center for Puppetry Arts. I have been invited to submit a proposal for a piece of puppetry performance lasting ten minutes or less. My brain has turned to jelly. The icky kind with strange unidentifiable chunks of fruit amorphously floating through space. It's not that I don't have time, the proposals aren't due until February, and the show isn't until May. The question is, how do I, Brittany, push the boundaries on contemporary puppet theatre, and make a show that's more about heart and meaning than pretty things moving. Please exscuse me, although I am exstatically excited, I must go find a paper bag to hyperventilate into.

Crossing tasks off my list! Woot!

2008-12-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

First Christams hurdle has been crossed, well, I guess that was decorating, check, then there was shopping, check, then there was wrapping presents, double check, and finally the stockings. You may recall that I was making our Christmas stockings this year. I bought plain red felt stockings and embellished them with pieces of felt that I stitched down by hand. They look very cool. Next item of business, Christmas cards. I'm off!!!

Donation time!

2008-12-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

BJ and I like to be charitable when we can, so this year we are making a Christmas tradition. I think, once a year at Christmas time, we will pick a charity to donate too. This year was toys for tots. The year before I pick Make a Wish, and next year, who knows? Maybe someone will get smart like the barnes and noble in Massachusetts. They had little christmas trees with ornaments on them. On each ornament was the name and age of a child in the state foster care system, along with what kind of things they liked. Mary and I picked out some kids, I picked one, she picked one, and then we picked a third to share. I was visiting her at the time, I think this was two or three years ago. When we checked out we got to sign bookplates to go into the books for the kids we picked out. I think that was one of the best Christmas oriented charities I have participated in, and I really enjoyed it. Another way to donate is of the body. BJ is always very good about going to the red cross to donate whenever he becomes eligible again. They just can't get enough of his O+ blood. I go along with him for moral support. I am not allowed to donate my blood because we lived in Germany during the restricted years. It's all those exotic german diseases I picked up, I am sure...like scarlet fever, yes very dangerous. Anyway it makes me a little sad. My blood is O- which is actually not as common as it could be. You could be any blood type at all and need a transfusion, and they could safely give you O-. My blood can go to anyone woo! I figured out a very strange phenomenon as well. As I watched them stick the large straw that they call a needle into my husband's arm, I felt a bit dizzy and kind of faint. This is odd because whenever I get shots or have blood drawn for tests, I am fine. I can watch the needle go in and everything. So if I feel faint at the sight of my husband getting stuck with a needle, imagine how I will feel when we have babies getting their immunizations. Sorry future children, future mommy may be passed out on the floor while you are crying.

The Snow Queen Opening

2008-12-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

The Snow Queen opened last night and it was really fun for BJ and I to be back in an actual theatre, watching an actual play, even if it was children's theatre. It was GOOD children's theatre. And Clint, the best director I have worked for ever, gave me a sweet little goody bag as an opening night present with Lindt truffles in it...Love that man! I am enjoying the melty sweetness at this very moment. My puppets looked totally awesome. I need to get a copy of the publicity shots that were taken, but I did get this one of the reindeer during rehearsal. It looks pretty sweet I think. I really liked hanging out in the lobby after the show listening to different people talking. Here is how one of the conversations went...
"the crow was really nice, but I think the reindeer was my favorite."
"oh, but did you see the pigeons??" I giggled a bit. : ) BJ votes the deer as his favorite, and I am leaning that way. The pigeons are really cool, but I am also a big fan of my buddy the crow, so it's hard to pick. They're all my babies!!!

O Christmas tree, o christmas tree...how little are your branches

2008-12-04T13:32:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting phenomenon that happens when you get married in November. Your brain just kind of skips over the fact that there is still a holiday and you get uber excited about Christmas. BJ and I went to Target a while back and got a wee little faux tree which is actually really cute. It's about 3 feet high if you count the pointy bit at the top, but we are considering trimming that back. It looks a little silly. See, we even got our christmas presents all bought and wrapped and prettyfied. : ) I am still sewing away on our stockings, but mine is all done and it looks pretty sweet. In other news that puzzle that BJ and I got before the wedding and then barely paid attention to? We finished it. Yesterday. WOOT!
That is a coaster in the background, so you get some idea of how big it actually ended up being. We thought about taking it apart and putting it back into the box, but in the interest of self preservation, I think we are going to glue it all together and hang it somewhere so it can look pretty. Maybe in the bathroom...That might be kind of nice. We also have to hang up the pictures from the wedding and the guest plates which all look great. And yes, I still have to put together my wedding album. I don't have all of the pictures yet, but maybe I will just put it together and add in a page or two when I get the rest. Yeah, I think that will do it.

Thanksgiving was awesome!

2008-11-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

As the header says, Thanksgiving was awesome! My brother in law got to be home with his family for the holiday and is feeling better, I made an awesome sweet potato casserole, and we had a lot of fun at BJ's mom's house. It feels wierd to think of her as the mother in law. She was making Thanksgiving lunch for all the people's in her house, so BJ and I came too and brought the sweet potato casserole and a bottle of champagne. If you got to try the sweet bubbly at my wedding, it was the same thing. I like that particular brand. And, unlike wine, I can drink a whole glass without losing all cognitive thought. Wine goes straight to my head after a few sips. I was the camera monster for the holiday. I realized how many awesome and amazing pictures I have from the wedding and am putting together a sweet scrapbook of all the pics. So I decided to take pictures and make other scrapbooks too, sort of to chronicle our lives together now that we are married. I don't have a lot of pictures from before the wedding. I think it comes from a combination of being camera shy and lazy. *sorry Mom* I took over 60 pictures. I'm trying to figure out how my sister Nicki does it. She's very unobtrusive and she takes some really awesome pictures. She gave me a couple right after the wedding which were awesome, and I'm waiting...patiently I swear...to see the rest. : ) Anyhows...Check these pictures out.

I took this one in the car while I was waiting for BJ to come back out. We had to turn around and go back because we forgot the champagne.
BJ and Roxana lauging at Eric's joke.
Eric lauging at BJ's joke.
Vanessa, Roxana, and Eric being a smart alec in the background...stinker.
I watched a Thanksgiving special episode on take home chef where he showed everyone how to carve a bird so as to leave behind as little meat as possible. So when Sonya yelled out, "Who wants to carve the turkey!?" I volunteered and tested my television education. It worked remarkably well, I was very happy and impressed by it. The meat pulled away from the bone and all I left behind me were the bones! GO ME!
Now I am working on my holiday projects. Since it is our first Christmas as married folk, and BJ and I don't have any stockings, I am making our stockings! They will be very americana craft / homemade look in their design. I promise there will be pictures when I am finished. I am fine tuning the puppets for the snow queen now. Add a feather here, glue a bit of felt there. We open on Friday!!!! Production shots of the sweet puppets I built are to come, promise!

No really, I still blog...in my mind!

2008-11-20T10:03:00.000-08:00

I promise I did not abandon my blog. I just pushed down the hold button and promised to come back to it, eventually...Get ready for some loading time because I got some pictures to show you. See there ---> That is my spiffy new haircut, I like it a lot, it's very flattering, but also very different. It's been a while since my hair has been this short, so I think it may take some readjusting to my new "look." I've been busy busy busy with The Snow Queen and her puppets, plus writing my thank you notes, I've got one more to finish and then I am DONE! Woot! Here is a cool shot of the reindeer just chilling on the couch.
Isn't he just the cutest little reindeer headdress thingamajig? The four pigeons also came out really nicely, but I still have to take a picture of them. I really need to remember, the camera is my friend, the camera is my friend, the camera...hm, I want cocoa. Please excuse me!

Married woman, that's me

2008-11-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

Well everybody, this weekend, I got married to the most wonderful husband in the world. It still feels a little funny to say, hi I'm Brittany Garmon, I keep thinking I'm saying something wrong, like it's someone else's name, but I like it. : ) BJ and I went to the store and used our gift money on new plates and the like, and now we have a lot of sweet towels. Therefore if you come to visit, you do not have to pack a towel anymore. WooHoo! And, the best present of all, aside from the awesome dragon and gargoyle stuff and the skull cookie jar, my brand spanking new kitchenaid stand mixer *hug!* I got some really cool stuff, hung out with a lot of awesome people, and realized once more just how AWESOME our friends are. The whole weekend people were just finding me or BJ "What can I do?" I loved every bit of it, well, except for the florist. I didn't love the florist. *Sigh, I must go vote, and then build puppets, and then if I am really really good later, I can play with some more of the awesome wedding pictures that people have already sent to me. Pictures to come!!!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Brittany J. Garmon

Picture of awesome!

2008-10-26T17:10:00.000-07:00

I loved seeing this picture. It made my day!

Mental Meltdown

2008-10-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

AHHHHHHHHH!!! It is a week and two days until BJ and I get married. I'm tearing around, cleaning in preparation of visitors, finishing last minute details, attempting to corral my florist, and making sure everyone get paid, and BJ is a marvelous help. I am so happy and so proud of the man I am going to marry. *happy contented sigh... And I am losing all processes of cognitive thought. Please forgive!!!! I must go do something weddingish...or possibly play with a puzzle, whichever happens first.

Mmmm cardboard cereal

2008-10-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

Ta da!! New Post! I have this cereal, Heart to Heart by Kashi, and I think it's awesome. It has fiber to help reduce cholesterol, it has antioxidants to help support healthy arteries, it has nothing artificial, and low sodium to promote healthy blood pressure, and it's made with both green and white tea extracts. It's a cruncy cereal, very lightly sweetened, and I will often chow down on a bowl as a tasty snack. At $3 for a 12 oz box, it's kind of expensive for daily chow dowingness. I really like the subtlety of the flavor, and I tried to share this tasty cereal with my friend Mary. She promptly informed me it tasted like cardboard. I say, yum yum cardboard! Kix is another one of those cereals with a certain cardboardy taste and just a little sugar, and I like that one too. If it had any nutritional benefit, maybe I could eat cardboard. In the meantime though, I'm going to stick with my tasty cereal. I love my kashi. *Hugging the box

FLASHBACK!

2008-10-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

I present to you, flashback of the day!!! I found seasons 1-3 and I am so excited. I always liked Gummi Bears when I was a little kid. Not to sound like an old lady, but I always liked the stories of the old cartoons. Gargoyles, Gummi Bears, Tail Spin, even Rainbow Bright followed a progressive story line. A lot of cartoons now seem to have stand alone episodes, which is good if you miss a day, but it also is easy to lose interest. Oh the good old days... LOL

How to bond with a 10 year old

2008-10-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

BJ has been really really busy over at the Halloween store, and we both felt like Eric needed to get his hair trimmed sooner rather than later. So, on Saturday I went over and picked Eric up and took him to have his hair cut. After promising that I would not let the lady cut off all his hair, which I had to promise many times, he allowed his hair to be cut. She took off an inch or two and put in some layers, so now he has a nice, skater boy look rather than the mullet he was trying to grow out earlier. I can tell he's happy with it. As a reward we went to Chik-fil-a for lunch, yum! I have always found it harder to talk to a kid who is a little shy. The conversation feels forced. The usual, "how was school?" get the usual shrug. But this time, I was feeling inspired. I asked him what he did in gym class. He looked at me for a second, like this was an extremely odd topic of conversation and told me he did a lot of running. I told him about my favorite times in gym when I was a kid, playing with the giant parachute on rainy days when we had to stay inside, and suddenly he was really engaged in conversation. He was asking questions, he was answering in full sentences and expanding on answers, it was awesome. We came home and played Wii Sports. I whipped him at baseball and then he won golf, tennis...boxing...well, you get the idea. We had a really good time together. Then we watched I am Legend, awesome movie that it is. He liked it, but some of the more subtle things he didn't understand, and he wasn't afraid to ask me. Then we watched IRON MAN, which is, of course, an awesome, awesome movie. I love it!!! I had a really good weekend. I am mostly over my cold, and I got some good bonding time with my soon to be brother in law. Oh, and the hairdresser, totally thought I was Eric's mom. We both thought that was funny.

Stuff to do...lots of stuff to do!!!

2008-10-01T05:21:00.000-07:00

Ah Wednesday, my favorite day of the week. Tonight there will be a new episode of Bones and I will be happy for a little while until I am waiting and wishing for next Wednesday. I used to look forward to Monday when House came on on Mondays, but now House is on Tuesday along with Eureka, which has decided to take a mid season break...I am very unhappy about the midseason break. Eureka is in season number 3, and for those of you that don't watch Eureka, start with the pilot in season 1 and work your way up. It's a great show. My to do list is piling up. I have a lot of errands to go run today, like ordering the wedding cake, and cookies, get my florist on the phone, which might be difficult. She has not emailed, called, returned any of my calls or messages, or answered the phone, in a couple of months. Now that we are OFFICIALLY ONE MONTH FROM THE WEDDING...I'm a little concerned. While it would be disappointing to go to a grocery store and build my own bouquet from their selection of flowers, I am not afraid to do it. I just wish she would freaking answer the phone and stop stressing me out! *deep breath... I feel kinda like static cling cat.
Hee hee hee, statik kling cat... BJ has recently picked up a seasonal job working in a Halloween store. He started off just as a regular sales associate, and while helping set up a store in Roswell, was promoted to first assistant manager. Now the store manager has a family emergency, and BJ has been put in charge of the store by the district manager until the store manager is able to come back to work. And this is his very first job in retail...I'm so proud. I am not, however, a big fan of his having to be at work at 8am, because that means he has to get up at 7am, and for some reason I have been finding it impossible to go back to sleep after he leaves for work. I frequently call him just after his truck pulls away from the apartment and we chat on his drive to work. Today, I closed my eyes after I got my goodbye kiss, and when I opened them again, it was almost 8am. I had finally gone back to sleep!!! So I called BJ, because it wasn't yet 8 o'clock, and we talked while he walked around the store looking at the merchandise he still needed to unpack. He was the first one there this morning. And he says, "hm, that was either a rat or a squirrel..." and I go "What??" He saw something small and furry dash behind a pile of boxes and wasn't sure if it was a rat or a squirrel. He said he thought it had a squirrel tail, but he wasn't entirely sure. Brave and valiant man he is, he decided to investigate. It turned out to be a very small, and very frightened baby squirrel. I'd be scared too if I had gotten locked in a Halloween store overnight. They have to leave the doors to the store open while they are working on account of there is no air conditioning...Ewww. BJ tried to steer it toward the open doors, but it was just running back and forth trying to evade the giant man thing chasing it. He left it to find it's way out, and I suggested he warn the other girls working with him of the newest employee. Hee hee. So, it's 8:37 where I am. I am a little sluggish but not enough to go back to bed, and there's stuff to do!! I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!

Worst day EVER

2008-09-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today is Friday. Normally I would be like, "yeah Friday woo hoo, we get to watch a new stargate atlantis!" But not today. Today I have to go into Atlanta to measure an actor for the Snow Queen. I have the same actor playing both the crow and the reindeer = terribly convenient. I'm not entirely sure what is changing in the script to allow this as both the reindeer and the crow are in the same room at one point, but we shall see. One fun factoid I found out about...It is illegal to purchase and part of a migratory bird. So when I tried to google crow feathers to see if I could buy actual crow feathers, I found all these pages telling me how illegal it is. Sadness. I did however find some very nice looking rooster feathers that have already been dyed, so they should do rather well. And talking about puppets is making me feel better...irony of life.
I go out to my car to drop off BJ's paperwork and see the state of my vehicle. One problem with the way people are around this building, they like to drive their cars, on the grass, so they can unload groceries in front of the door instead of in the parking lot which is only 15 feet away. There are children who like to run and play kickball and throw dirt at each other. Thus all the grass is dead and the red georgia clay has turned into a fine layer of dusty dirt and completely coated my car. I have thought, many times, of washing my car, but knew it would be just as dirty in a matter of hours parked at my apartment. So, you can imagine my dismay, when some of the aforementioned children decided to DRAW in the dirt on my hood. No they did not draw rainbows, or flowers, or happy faces, or even the typical "wash me" that seems to befall many many vehicles. They drew words. Word like Fu** and A** and bicth. Yes, they spelled it bicth. Thus I know it was children. Plus the handwriting was indicative of a young child. While this was both hurtful and upsetting, I also know it was nothing personal. The a**hole little children are unsupervised by overworked parents and probably did it for the great fun they had. The only problem with children being children, is when you draw in the dirt on someone's car, there are very fine little pieces of rock in the dirt on someone's car. You might as well just key the damn car and be done with it. So, I took a napkin, knowing that these obscenities were already scratched into my hood, and rubbed over them. I would rather have a squigly mess than swear words. I took my car to a car wash, and had it cleaned. I can still see the swear words, because I know where they were I can pick them out, but it's definitely going to stay a part of my car until I have it traded, or repainted.
And then...oh yes, there's more...I went to Duluth and dropped of BJ's paperwork. I had a quarter tank of gas left and decided on my way toward home, I would stop and fill up. I preceeded to drive around, with the help of my handy GPS looking for gas, to more than 15 different gas stations. They were all bone dry. At least some of them would take down the price numbers, because then you could tell from the road that they were out of gas. Some of them left their numbers up and put brightly colored bags over their pumps. Some of them said they were out of gas on small pieces of paper taped to the pumps, and one said they were out of premium and mid grade. It turns out that station was also out of regular. After driving for more than an hour and a half, from Duluth into Norcross, I found a station flooded with cars and got in line. I finally got to a pump that only had regular, which my car will be angry about because she requires mid grade at minimum, and saw a nice little paper sign, NO CREDIT, CASH ONLY. Thank God I had $30 in my wallet. Otherwise I would have had to push my car home. So now, I'm home, I'm cranky, I have obscenities scratched into the hood of my car, and it's not even 2:30pm. Maybe I should go back to talking about the snow queen...Hopefully this will be my only post of the day, because if I post again, I may just have to kill something...

The Snow Queen!

2008-09-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

My apologies at my recent lack of posting and stuff. I got a call a couple of days ago asking if I might be interested in designing and building the PUPPETS for the Snow Queen to be put on by a theatre here in Atlanta. My response...OH YEAH!!! So I have been feverishly doodling and watching youtube videos and googling research. I love it. I am building a very realistic crow, 4 pigeons, and 1 reindeer head piece that will be kind of like a sculpture. You know what this means, right? My blog will be consumed by all things puppety and snow queenie and stuff! I am very excited and very happy to be doing this project. Stay tuned for process shots. I still have to be buying materials, but as soon as I get them, WATCH OUT! Cause there will be puppets invading your movie screen. WOO!!!

Watch it, love it, have a Coke!

2008-09-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Today is, Thursday. The youtube video of the day can be found by going to icanhascheezburger.com and looking for the video of ninjacat. Seriously, it made me laugh. I just wish they could have added sound, then it would have been awesome! I determined recently that, since my friend is learning Japanese I will also learn Japanese and we can help each other. I am currently playing with the Pimsleur system, and it's pretty cool. I'm talking in Japanese and asking my computer how it's doing. : )

Tuesday Movie Madness Extravaganza Thing!

2008-09-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

Today is Tuesday...bombombom!!! BJ and I have been kicked back watching movies allllllllllllll day, except for that one episode of Lois and Clark we watched with breakfast this morning. We watched some scary movies, some creepy movies, some funny movies, and a lousy movie that was suppossed to be really scarey. I wanted to blog and tell you about the ones that I liked, and even the one that I didn't. Please exscuse the vocabulary and sentence structure, my brain feels a little squishy after watching the tv all day.

Batman: The Dark Knight : Very good flick. Very LONG flick. Although it felt like they were not in a rush to tell the story, it was definitely one of "those" movies where you could tell the passage of time. Don't get me wrong. I am a big LOTR fan of those movies. They always had the unique ability to absorb my full attention so that I didn't even know I had just sat there for 3 and a 1/2 hours straight. All in all, good film, but the pacing felt a wee bit off.

Open Water : Based on a true story about a couple who was left behind in the ocean. You can believe I am never going scuba diving after watching this one. I might consider snorkeling given the appropriate stimulii, but with my intense fear of sharks, I would be better off just going to the aquarium. Very well made movie on the shoestring of a budget. I have no idea how they did some of the very complicated filming and I am highly impressed. And never going scuba diving...ever. (at least not without a waterproof sattelite phone, a bottle of water, and a compass.)

Be Kind Rewind : Suprisingly fun and engaging. Not a whole lot of emphasis on Jack Black in this one, so his tendency to act "Jack Black" is somewhat diluted with the other folks in the film. Check it out, it's really cute. And it made me mad at Sigourney Weaver. After seeing her in baby mama it's got me wondering where she'll pop up next. Kudos to her working in big films again, but she was always my favorite in the aliens movie facing down the queen.

Day of the Dead : A remake of the Romero original, which I have not seen, but I am cool with. I just can't seem to find a zombie movie as poignant or strikingly terrifying as Dawn of the Dead. Of course the 28 days later and 28 weeks later rank incredibly high on list of fav. zombie films. End result, watch it if you feel like getting creeped out by zombies doing the "zombie thing," but don't get your hopes up for superb quality of zombie lore.

Seed : This one got two thumbs, and two big toes, DOWN! Anytime I feel like rolling over and going to sleep during a horror movie, there is something seriously wrong. I mean seriously! The logic the good guys were using made absolutely no sense. There was a lot of blood and gore, but effects don't always carry the movie when you introduce a confusing rag tag team of characters who plotted against the serial killer, get me confused as to who exactly is being killed because I know I have seen that character but I just can't recall who he is, and making very little linear sense. BLECH!!!

Some flicks we watched yesterday or very recently...

Mr Brooks : Oh this movie was just beautiful. It was funny, there was death involved. Kevin Costner was positively brilliant. Gotta say, the daughter was completely transparent to me, and I am not always swift on the uptake. I had sneaking suspicions about her that were confirmed waaaaaaaay into the movie. If you feel like watching a guy kill people who hates himself for doing it but just can't bring himself to stop, check this one out, it was sweet. I wasn't sold on Demi Moore's character struggle, but I don't think they developed it enough. It ended up feeling like to conflicting plotlines uncomfortably squeezed into the same space. You know, like construction where the lane narrows and you're stuck behind a slow driver, sandwiched uncomfortably between a semi and a concrete barrier. That being said, Kevin Costner and William Hurt were impeccable.

3:10 to Yuma : A little slow starting out. I felt the awkwardness between the characters and felt it settle as their relationships developed. It was just beautiful at the end. 500 points for this one!

There were others that we watched, but none of them were exciting enough to win a place in this blog. To Nim's Island, Kung Fu Panda, and the others, don't hate me, you were just fine. Seed was just bad enough to get in here so I could talk about how bad it was. Ta ta for now! I think we are going to watch Stargate Continuum. Maybe...

Japanese Candy, Adsense, and Assasin's Creed

2008-09-15T09:37:00.001-07:00

What do these three things have in common? ME!!! BJ and I took his younger siblings over to Super H Mart to check out the hello kitty fun stuff, and I decided to try a new and exciting Japanese Candy. Ta DAH! I have no idea what it is called, but it is very tasty. Creamy strawberry taste on top with a nice chocolate layer on the bottom. There are a couple of them in front of the box right there. Off to the left you may see those peppermints hanging out, they are normal size, so that should give you some sense of scale.
Adsense is this nifty program I use that puts those little ads you see on the right side of the page. By clicking on them, adsense gives me a very small amount of money each time. So click those ads people! If you don't mind. : ) They are safe, according to google, and I had to promise not to click on my own ads, because that is cheating.
Assasin's creed is this awesome game I've been eyeballing at Gamestop since it was released. Well, I got it, and it's awesome. BJ is a little disappointed because his processor doesn't meet the minimum requirements, while mine totally does. He may be experiencing a little computer envy, but don't tell him I said so. Love you honey! (He reads my blog too.) So the idea of this game is you are delving into the genetic memory of this old school assasin's decendent. There are Templar Knights running around, and we all know that they were kind of jerks. The people who developed the memory machine are trying to find something. I don't know what yet, but they are convinced it can be found by tapping into the stored memories and it's pretty sweet. So, now you know what my day has been like. And I am kind of avoiding the whole foreign language debate until I get a clearer idea of what I want. I know I want to be a polygot (person who speaks multiple languages) but the question is where to start. Ah well, back to my game, and looking sady at my empty candy box.

Oh, Indecision, release me from thy bonds!

2008-09-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

Dramatic posting title, I know! But I am feeling dramatic, so I feel it suits my purposes. I love foreign languages. I love english, I love books. I love to read. The thought of reading books in other languages, especially the really poetic ones, makes me tremble with barely suppressed delight. Here then is the problem.
I used to be good at Spanish. I mean really really good. I could walk by hispanic people at the store and completely understand what they were talking about. This was at least 4 or so years ago. Now I don't know that I can really put together much of a sentence.
I love German. I lived in Germany as a little girl for four years with my parents, and when I hear German spoken to me, a lot of the time I can kind of figure out what is being said. I really liked a lot of the trips we took in Germany and would someday like to go back. The classes I took in German longsword were amazing, and mostly taken from the really really old GERMAN texts by the swordmasters.
I really like Japanese. I love manga and watching anime, and the fact that I could get japanese manga and understand what is going on is just mind boggling. One of my best gal pals is currently teaching herself Japanese, so how convenient would it be to try and learn at the same time, bouncing things off one another? I want to be able to write kanji in a notebook because I think they are beautiful, and should I get the option to learn Japanese calligraphy, that would just be sweet.
I love opera. The sweeping arias, the throaty baritones, the music filling the space in my head and heart as romantic tragedies befall our heroes. Many operas are written in Italian. One of my favorite foreign films, Life is Beautiful, in Italian. Do you see where I am going with this?
So the question becomes...do I relearn Spanish? What do I learn after that? Can I handle knowing multiple languages? Am I just wasting time? Will I ever get a nintendo ds lite in electric blue...*sigh
I think the game systems that UBIsoft is coming out with are brilliant. My spanish coach, my japanese coach, my word coach, my sat coach (not that I need that particular one.) I want a ds, bad. I want some of these awesome coach games but they don't have a lot of selection yet. The titles currently or soon to be available cover, English, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, and French. I keep hoping they will make German and Italian coaches, but I still have that quandry of what to learn first. HELP!!! Comment on what you think! German, Spanish, Japanese, Italian?

Hair on TRIAL!!!!

2008-09-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

Today I had the fun adventure of going to a hair trial. I am going to try really really hard not to make this a post about how the wedding industry is ripping off brides at what should be one of the happiest times of their lives. Really. My hair came out very pretty, but I didn't get a hold of my camera until about six hours after the fact. A lot of the curls have stretched a bit, but a lot of them are also still holding their shape. Behold the pretty pictures!!
Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go talk to someone else about the fact that I had to pay someone $60 to do this very simple style, and how she was the most reasonable.

Just Blowing Hot Air

2008-09-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

I have decently long hair. It's nothing overly strenuous for me to deal with my hair. I wash it, I let it dry, I put it in a ponytail and we are both happy until the next shampoo. Unfortunately, my hair looks really really good when I blow dry it. You may wonder why that is unfortunate? It takes at least 30 minutes to do it right, and as someone who doesn't feel like putting products in my hair or on my face every single day, that is a long time. Plus, I get sweaty when I blow dry my hair. Maybe it's just the passage of hot air and the fact that I just got out of the shower, but I just feel a little unclean, which totally defeats the purpose of the shower I JUST TOOK. *Sigh If my hair only looked, eh, when I dried it, this wouldn't be much of an issue. But I got one of those whopdedo ionizing hair dryers and my hair comes out nice and straight with a little body but not too much. You try getting used to dealing with your hair down when 90% of the time it's in a ponytail. I'm thinking that after the wedding, I may be due for a trim. After all, if I can find a nice, not so long hair style then it wouldn't take so long to dry, and I might actually like drying my hair. Or I may just fall back into the viscious cycle of putting it in a ponytail.

New type of book...food memoir?

2008-09-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

So I have become a little over interested in Japanese food, and bento, and sticky rice, and onigiri, and if I had a deep frier, I would have tried to make egg rolls by now too. I want to make myself bento style luches, and I thought if I get good at it, I can make them for future children. But then I was thinking, how is a kid going to feel about a japanese packed lunch when they are totally not Japanese? I got this book from the library. It's considered a food memoir. I have never read a food memoir before, unless Chocolat counts, but I am pretty sure that it does not. This girl is explaining her childhood mostly by the impact of food and eating habits. It's pretty darn cool. At the end of each chapter, it provides a recipe for some food dish that played a major role in that chapter; just what I need to try some new things out!! Bento Box in the Heartland My Japanese Girlhood in Whitebread America by Linda Furiya. It's pretty cool. Check it out, but be warned, it will make you HUNGRY!

Curses on Nickelodeon too!

2008-09-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

I've been watching this show, Avatar the last airbender. It's on Nickelodeon and I'm not entirely sure if Nickelodeon makes it or if they bought it from an anime company. The episodes are on Nickelodeon, and it's a really freaking good show! SPOILER ALERT! So Apa, the flying byson, gets separated from Ang, the avatar. I'm feeling for the avatar who has lost his companion pet, and it made me really freaking sad. Then they had an episode of what happened to Apa while they were apart was really intense. I teared up, I know I'm a sap when it comes to sad stuff, but I just couldn't help it. The older I get the more sentimental I become about sad things. I used to not cry at all. I watched Lion King in movie theaters as a kid, not even a sniffle when Mufasa died. Myabe it's because the older I get the more experiences I can relate to personally. No, I have never had a flying bison get kidnapped by sand bandits, but who can't relate to the loss of a pet, or a loved one for that matter. This is a very poignant show, especially for a cartoon. I miss having pets, but pets just aren't all that suited to apartment life. Oh well, back to more Avatar. Eventually they'll find Apa, I'm sure of it. How many tissues I'll burn through in the meantime is another matter completely.

Please Sir, May I have some ice cream?

2008-09-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

I think the hardest part of being sick is what you are not allowed to eat. I am totally a dairy girl. I love milk, cheese, yogurt, you get the picture. Unfortunately when you are sick, dairy = phlegm. And really, no one wants to encourage the growth of that nasty stuff. Plus I must applaud the use of a humidifier. I definitely think it helped with the vicks vapomist added in. Although, buyer beware, when it stops running about 4am, I tend to wake up due to the lack of sound. However, that might just be solved by getting a larger capacity humidifier, or I could just learn to accept it. I think it's early onset maternal instincts developing. My mom once told me she always knew when we were doing something bad, because it would get so quiet. : ) I don't care if you think it looks silly, I love this awesome little unit that looks like a dragon...kinda. Isn't it just the cutest little humidifier ever?! I just might have to get one of these. You know, when I have time for fun and frivolous things. Ta ta for now! I've got stuff to do!!

Curses upon ye pitiful exscuses for antibodies

2008-09-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

It's official. I have caught BJ's cold. I feel icky. We borrowed a humidifier from BJ's mom and ran it last night. It does not last 10-14 hours like it claimed; more like 7. But, it is very effective when you add in the Vick's Vaposteam. Tonight we'll be putting it to work again. Please excuse me. I must go find a tissue...*AchOO

Ladies and Gentlemen, you are entering the Twilight Zone

2008-08-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

Cue scary music...do do do do do do do do...You have entered the Twilight Zone. You may have noticed I was on a bit of a roll there for a couple days, blogging daily even! Woot! I unfortunately missed yesterday, for which I will explain, but feel it is necessary to share the strangeness that has befallen our humble apartment. BJ...is...sick. Some of you may not understand the enormity of such a statement. My fiance', with the immune system of steel, is sick. Coughing, sneezing, runny nose, fever; and I....*knock on wood* feel fine. Normally BJ's immune system mocks the presence of germs, while mine shuts down the store at the drop of a hat. And, I feel fine. This is SO weird! In our almost 3 years together, he has barely had more than the sniffles twice. And now my poor baby is sick. : (
So, yesterday I sat on the couch and played Okami on the Wii for several hours. I am a total of 15 hours of gameplay into it, and I still have yet to learn all the different brushstrokes. It's such an awesome game. In other exciting news I went grocery shopping at Super Target, yes, we are so cool we have Super Target. I found a two tier bamboo steamer, on clearance, 10" diameter, for $9.98. WOOHOO! I've got some sticky rice soaking as I blog. We shall see how this turns out. Onigiri photos to come!!!! *Hopefully.

Chkersht

2008-08-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Chkersht...nothing sounds quite as refreshing as that sound when you crack open a can of coca-cola. Some may prefer the hiss of a soda bottle, but I know, the taste from an aluminum can cannot be rivaled by any, except maybe a glass bottle. Ahh...I deserve it too. BJ and I have been pulling up rotten planks from his Grandma's porch and replacing them with new ones. I didn't even work this hard at Busch Gardens, so this is very tiring work. Don't believe me? You try pulling 15 plus year old wood with rusty nails out. By the way, it's rotten wood because it never got sealed after it was pressure washed a few years ago, and because of the position of the shade trees, if it rains, the water just sits there. Icky. Why would I divert myself in the summer sun you may ask? Well, she is being very kind and paying not only for materials, but also paying us for work. Now I think she might want us to re-roof her shed. We'll see how that goes.
Last night brought about the fun and exciting experiment with the sweet / sticky rice. Ta dah!!! I made an onigiri! It stuck together really really well, but there was a whole lot of pasty starch type stuff, so I think maybe I should soak the rice before I cook it. Plus I think the customary cooking method for sticky rice may be to steam it, but I am not terribly sure. I didn't get brave enough to add some seaweed to it though. I was to make sure I am cooking the rice correctly before I up and change things around. It was fun! But it didn't really taste all that great, another reason I don't think I cooked it right. By the way, they don't call it sticky rice for nothing! Now I have to figure out if I am willing to buy one of those awesome rice cookers by Zojurishi
that has a built in timer and clock setting. So instead of waking up to the smell of coffee, I could wake up to a fresh breakfast of rice, or porridge. I wonder what porridge tastes like anyway. I've never had it...This may call for another food experiment. Watch out world I'm feeling adventurous! Maybe I should get some sort of costume for my alter ego, adventurous food lady!

My Asian Market Adventure

2008-08-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of international chocolate...my heart weeps for you. Yesterday I found some addresses for Asian markets in our little area of Georgia. We couldn't find the first store, it was a sushi bar instead, so maybe that address was not so current. We then went to the international farmers' market, which looked kind of abandoned. A lot of the shelves were empty, even in the cooler section. But, as we got toward the back, there were some more products. A lot of them were random, and there were lots of preserved duck eggs in the Japanese section. I, unfortunately, was looking for quail eggs in a can. So, we left empty-handed. Then we went to the Atlanta Chinatown mall; surely I would find a bento there. Nope. We did find a neat grocery store though. I got some chocolate pocky, and BJ got some strawberry pocky. Hence the fun pictures. I also bought a sheet of seaweed to try. See, bento makes me want to try new things! The grocery store was really packed full, but I didn't like the vibe; I felt kind of like an invader. So we went to our fourth and final Asian market, Super H Mart. It was really cool in there. Everything was nicely laid out, I could find things because they had both English and Japanese on the signs. This was where I found quail eggs in a can and some bento sets, but I didn't really like the selection. At last, success! It was a nice store and also the people working there were friendly. I even saw some more white invaders like myself buying some stuff. It was both fun and exciting. And the candy selection...! It was really cool. There were so many different things to choose from. BJ picked up a baby ruth, but I had to be adventurous, so I got some new Japanese chocolaty stuff. See, I took a picture for you.
They are really shaped like fun little mushrooms, and it's the same kind of thing as the pocky. The stem is that semisweet cracker biscuit type thing, but the top is like a mixture between chocolate with just a little bit of caramel. It's lovely. You can see the little color division on the box and on the candy to let you know there is a little something extra in there. One of the things I like about the Japanese chocolate I have had is that the taste is always very subtle, not very "in your face with chocolaty goodness!" And of course, I imagine all of you are just waiting with baited breath to see just what quail eggs in a can actually look like. Ta dah! That is a nickel on the right next to
one of the quail eggs. I opened up the container and dumped it into a glad container that I could keep in the fridge. I read on a website even though they are already hardboiled, you can chuck them back in boiling water for five minutes to enhance the flavor. I tried one cold last night and it was pretty good. It was actually a lot like a boiled egg; the taste was just slightly different. So I can't wait to see what these suckers taste like actually cooked. I know many of you are checking to see if you have a fever as my willingness to try new things must be a delusion brought on by serious illness. Another thing that I was looking for was something called sticky rice. Apparently it's the best kind of rice to use to make onigiri, aka rice balls, and I couldn't find anything that said sticky rice. BJ and I decided to try it with something called sweet rice, and after a happy internet search I found an alternate name for sticky rice is...SWEET RICE! I am thrilled. The basmati rice I tried it with the other day was a total bust, so now I just need to try the sweet and see how it goes. We also saw this awesome BLACK rice at the supermarket. It's also referred to as forbidden rice *convenient ominous laugh.* It has a black-brown color uncooked and darkens to a purple black when cooked and can be use to make...ONIGIRI! Stay posted. On our next episode of Scatterbrained daydreams, I just might have some onigiri photos. Or maybe the post after that...I might get busy... Later!

Bento vs. Bridezilla...Tokyo Smash!!

2008-08-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

I've been watching this super cute, warm fuzzy anime lately. Aishteruze Baby! http://www.animecrazy.net/category/completed-anime-shows/aishiteruze-baby/ You can watch it for free at anime crazy, just follow the link. It's a story about this lady with this super cute 5 year old daughter. After her husband dies (unexpectedly) she finds she just doesn't have the courage to grieve for her husband and still be able to raise her daughter, Yuzuyu. So she leaves her, and another family member takes Yuzu over to the Katakura house, the mother's side of that family. Kippei, the high schooler, is charged with taking care of Yuzu, which means packing her a lunch, or Bento, everyday for Kindergarten. You can blame this show for getting me so interested in Bento, or the Japanese Packed Lunch. It would show the whole room of Kindergartners' with all their different bentos, and most of them were beautifully packed with kid friendly foods in very fun shapes. The brilliance struck me instantly. I was an incredibly picky eater, and sometimes revert to that obstinate side of myself, and it was almost impossible for my parents to get me to eat anything except peanut butter and jelly without a lot of fussing and tears. The bento shapes all the different foods into fun faces or shapes like stars, and I am now fascinated with the idea of making onigiri and attaching uemboshi. There are some foods that I don't particularly like, but because of the presentation, I am interested enough to try them again. I want to make bento for myself, and BJ if he would be willing to eat it (might think the whole thing is just silly), and I want to practice making lunch cute! Why would I want to practice, you might ask? Well, with BJ and I getting married, we're having random discussions like, how do you want our future children to be raised? BJ and I both agree we do not want them to have picky eating habits like I did. So the idea of arranging bento for our future children is really a fun idea. So, I've got to practice. I'd rather experiment on myself than my future hapless child. And BJ will make an excellent vict...guinea pig. I've been doing a lot of research and hopefully today BJ and I are going to go to some of the Asian markets so I can pick up some sticky rice, quail eggs, and hopefully some bento stuff.
I like this one...

but I would rather buy one from a store than wait for international shipping from ebay. Thus we must investigate the asian markets here in Atlanta and see how it goes.
Another part of life that demands a great deal of my attention involves *insert fanfare* the wedding. BJ and I are chasing down the various folks who didn't remember to RSVP. About half our guest list is unable to attend. Which, I totally understand, gas prices are terrible and plane tickets are expensive and some people can't get away from work. So BJ and I will probably end up with about 45-ish people there, and we're still happy with the size so it works well for us. And then I'm realizing that people need to me to make hotel reservations, or find them somewhere to squeeze in at the hiker hostel, which is also fine, but there is a limited amount of space, so it's hard to decide who gets to be there and who has to stay elsewhere and figuring out how to say that without hurting anyone's feelings, hence STRESS. But, BJ keeps me calm, and Mary is a big help too. Our Maids of Honor and Best Men are really being supportive and offering to help out, which I love. #1 tip for brides, take deep breaths often, and watch some cartoons, or anime. And please, don't go smashing Tokyo.

Dinosaurs are living above me

2008-08-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

I believe that dinosaurs are alive and well in Norcross, Georgia, and I think they live upstairs. I know it may seem a little whiny of me, but I spent almost a year in a single story apartment. Being back in a 2 floor building requires adjustment, and I am not liking the change. I do not understand why they feel the need to stop repeatedly on the floor. Either they are doing very sporadic step aerobics, or the people who live above me are the t-rex family from Jurassic park.
No news on the job front, still sending out applications, but it seems more difficult to find a job after you have a four year degree than before. No one minds hiring a college student, but no one wants a college graduate. Who thought going to college gave you a leg up in the career field? I had this problem after I first graduated too. I couldn't find a professional career in the area for a couple months, nor could I get just a plain old job, at blockbuster. Blech
Excuse me please, I'm going to go get another coke out of the fridge and go have a pity party.

Hold your breath folks, it's time for an update

2008-08-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

First of all...Sorry!! BJ and I finally settled into our nice little apartment almost two weeks ago, and we only just got the internet...yesterday. After much time spent on the phone pleading, and complaining, we finally got the internet installed. I find it interesting that there is legislature in place to prevent businesses from obtaining a monopoly, yet service oriented businesses, like say, the internet, are able to monopolize all they want! Comcast is the only cable internet provider that offers service for our apartment. After several company failures to install our service, we fired them and tried to get DSL through AT&T. Despite what the website and our initial service consultant told us though, it seems that AT&T does not send DSL signal to our apartment complex, and neither does Verizon FIOS. So yes, we had to go crawling back to comcast. I understand why that 75-year old woman busted up her local comcast office. In any event, we talked to a manager, who miraculously understood that we did not want to wait until August 21st to get our internet installed, and got someone to us, the next day. Whoever said the squeaky wheel gets the grease wasn't lying. As someone who has worked in the customer service industry, I cannot comprehend the kind of people they have there who when you say, cancel my account, do nothing to try and convince you otherwise. And if it takes almost a month to get service installed, imagine how long it would take to get a repair person to come out. This is me crossing my fingers in hopes that it will never come to that, e v e r. So hopefully, now that I have somewhat regular internet, I will be able to blog regularly again. And as I no longer play World of Warcraft, I imagine a great deal more free time will be coming my way. Maybe I'll do something cool, like learn German...yeah, that's be very cool.
Auf wiedersehen! (means Goodbye)

A person of many interests

2008-07-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

I have come to realize I have a certain quirk about my personality, which makes it somewhat difficult when I try to make choices. As the wedding approaches I find myself considering what new milestones I may pass as my life matures along with BJ's; like the possibility, even the likelihood of....*gasp* owning a house! For anyone who hasn't been paying attention, the real estate market is currently in a low point. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the largest morgate brokerage firms in the country, are in dire financial straits. They bundle mortgages with other stocks and then sell the packages to investors. However, because they are big, awesome, well established companies, they even insure the mortgage, meaning if the homeowner should default on their loan and go into foreclosure, these loan companies reclaim the property, and pay the loan amount to the investor holding the package. Due to all the foreclosures in recent history, these mortgage firms are suffering big time. The good side to this? People can get houses on short sales for much cheaper than they could even a year ago. I'm talking tens of thousands of dollars here. The bad side? If these companies lose control of what's happening, buyers will find it difficult to obtain mortgages, which would essentially freeze the real estate market. Now that part, would suck, a lot. But, the fact that homes are cheaper is very good for potential buyers. So, I find myself wondering, what kind of house do I want? What kind of furniture do I want? How big a house do I want? You may wonder, what about BJ? Our taste is similar enough that as long as it isn't too "froufy" we'll both be happy. So, the kind of house I would like, Craftsman!!!! I've been looking at architectural books and magazines and I am in love with the arts and crafts/ craftsman style. Too bad for me that most houses in this style would be a major rehab process due to owner neglect; or a really nice one, would still have a really big price tag. This led me to read a nice little book, "Building your dream home for dummies." I'm learning about appraisals, and the permitting process and purchasing a lot versus purchasing land and all the rules and regulations that can go into this process. It could take some serious time, but finding a decent lot for a decent price at this point wouldn't be all that difficult. And if you're smart about the fixtures you choose, the square footage you pick, and shopping for the right contractor, and how much space you really need in a home; building your own home can cost about the same as buying one. Granted there are more hoops to jump through, more steps to take, and it can definitely be a longer wait, but considering you could move into exactly the home you want, built for you under your instructions, would just be amazing. Yes, I know, I was FAR too much HGTV for my own good. : ) But really, how else am I going to get a 3bd, 2 bath craftsman style house with a double garage, a workshop, art deco furnishings and a double slipper Victorian tub? I know right? Sometimes you just have to do it yourself.

Packing and packing and more packing

2008-07-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

BJ and I are off on our move away from Tampa, Florida. We are currently visiting a friend who lives oh so convienintly at the half way point in our drive. Yesterday, we packed the bulk of our worldly belongings into the front of an 18 wheeler, and sent them on their way to our destination. Out of all the times I've moved, I think this is going to be the easiest. and the cheapest. We reserved trailer space through upack.com, and it was very financially sound. We rented 8 feet in an 8ft wide trailer, with a 9 ft high ceiling. for less than $400. I wish I had thought of this before! My friend Mary and I were chatting on the phone and we started thinking about what it would look like if I got a US map and started putting pins in the places where I have lived. We realized that I have lived in a lot of places, sometimes I feel like a gypsy, and started talking about which states on the eastern seaboard I haven't lived in. Let me tell you the list was rather short. I aslo realized I would have to add a map of Europe so I could put a pin in Germany too. : )
I must apologize to those of you who read my blog. I have been so busy turning in and working my last two weeks at work, and then with all the packing and the boxes and the stuff, I just haven't felt like sitting down to type. Sorry! BJ and I decided that World of Warcraft was eating up too much of our time...We cancelled our subscriptions. *gasp* I know I am going to miss my characters. Maybe someday I will start playing again, but in the meantime I think I will enjoy some of my older hobbies, like reading and watching movies.
And now the hunt is on. With BJ and I nearing our destination, we must journey into the foray of hunting for employment. I have an up and coming interview that must be scheduled with a rather amazing company. *fingers crossed.

It fits! It fits! The shoe totally fits!

2008-06-23T16:33:00.001-07:00

I just got back from my trip to see Brittney today, and we had such a nice visit! We played putt putt, billiards, ate funny new york foods. We went to an apple orchard where I had the most amazing caramel apple nut pie with ice cream on top. *drool. Oh, and what else did we do on this sojourn of fun? We tried on my wedding dress. Oh yes, the dress. It's just in the plain white muslin mock up, and I can already tell it's going to be gorgeous. Brittney walked around pinning and drawing lines and ripping seams and repinning, it was a lot of work on her part. I just stood there and looked pretty. I like my job. Now the pictures I am posting are just mock up photos. There is a whole 'nother layer to the dress and sleeves and stuff that are not made yet. Brittney's doing such a wonderful job. She sent BJ and I the information of what measurements she needed. Now, don't get us wrong, BJ and I do measure things very well, you know, when they are nice and flat or made of wood. So Brittney had to eyeball the "measurements" we gave her and try to figure out what it should look like. I am proud to say she was very successful.

Look Look! It has a cute little sweep train in the back too! I love the color accent with the red, and there is going to be more of that. I could not possibly be happier with the way this dress is turning out. And, Brittney has been able to accept my request to be part of my bridal party, so now I have two bridesmaids! Woot! Well, maids of honor!
I'm very happy! Not just with the dress, but with the way that everything is coming together for the wedding. And, of course, with my wonderful groom. : ) Ciao!

If the shoe fits

2008-06-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

I am so excited about my upcoming weekend. I am working hardcore so that I will have this coming saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday. I am going to New York!!! I fly into Albany, turn on my GPS, and drive off to visit my friend Brittney for a couple days of fun, and THE dress fitting. Brittney is so immensely talented, I know it's just going to be gorgeous, and I can't wait to try it on!!!! I have the almost all my undergarments, bustier, nylons, and body shaper, oh my! The bustier was a choice find, in my size, and I know it will stand up under pressure. The first one I ordered was a wee bit too small, but I sent it back to the company and they are replacing it with a better fit, for no extra charge. I even explained to them that I needed it for my dress fitting, and it's being sent to me FedEx Express! How cool is that!

Holy Appointements Batman!

2008-06-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

Please forgive any typos you may see; we just got back from the eye doctor a little while ago and my eyes are still a weeeee bit dilated. They had this crazy machine that would take pictures of your eye, from the BACK of your eyeball, it was weird. And BJ and I picked out new glasses. The ones I got are black metal and super cute. BJ keeps telling me they are artsy looking, like I should suddenly be a costume designer. : ) We had a dental appointment yesterday that I was going to blog about, but I was sleepy and took a nap instead. I had a cavity that had to be filled, and it was on the bottom row of teeth. The dentist takes this metal syringe and sticks it inside me jaw on top of the nerve. Now I know what those bugs feel like when they fly too close to a bug zapper. I felt like I was getting shocked. The dentist told me it was because he was right on top of the nerve, and had to make sure to get the numbing stuff down in there really well. I was the unlucky one, because one shot was not enough. I had to have two. This was actually my second visit to the dentist. I had just had a cleaning, exam, and 50 bajillion x-rays the week before. I was impressed how extensive it all was, and the dentist was really good at what he was doing. Thank God for my benefits package. BJ has to go back a couple more times for fillings. He had 3 cavities. I think, being 25 years old with only 2 cavities ever, is a pretty good track record. GO ME! In the meantime, I think I'll go play a little more World of Warcraft. BJ and I have been getting some really amazing gear for our main characters, and my little druid is healing up a storm. Too bad for us the expansion is going to set the level cap at 80, and we'll just have to do all this stuff over again. *sigh

So much excitement!!

2008-06-06T20:04:00.001-07:00

BJ and I went to Best Buy a couple of days ago to look at some electronics. We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted, and I knew what was a good buy from reading the sale paper. Ever since I got my economic stimulus check, I have wanted a GPS. It seemed like a worthwhile enough item to purchase, and anyone who knows me also knows how easy it is for me to get misdirected and not know where I ended up. There were a lot of different models to choose from, and I just didn't know what to do. We looked at internet reports, at websites with ratings of different GPS units, and such. It wasn't until one of the nice guys from work brought it in for me to see, and it was amazing. He owned a Garmin Nuvi 200, and I thought it was just really cool. He let me push the buttons and navigate with it, and I have to say, I was hooked. Best Buy had a sale on the Garmin 200W, just like John's 200 but with a wide screen, and the Garmin 260 was only $30 more. I looked at the features and hemmed and hawwed about which one to get. The 260 would say the street names, but I really wanted the wide screen because I could see everything sooooo much better. You might ask why I didn't get the 260W? It wasn't on sale; and I didn't want to spend an extra $150 to get it to tell me the street name when it was clearly written on the GPS screen. I got the 200w and I was sooooo happy with it. BJ opened it for me once we got to the car and I started it up. It came with a nearly full battery and only took 2 - 3 minutes to find the sattelite. Then, our new Nuvi navigated us home. It's got a really good system for navigation, a clear voice speaking when and where to turn, and you can search for nearby stores by type! I think this little GPS is really going to come in handy on my future trips.

Prepare yourself...wedding gushing ahead!

2008-06-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

I am getting more and more excited about the upcoming wedding!!!! I wanted you all to see my way cool cake topper, it has a couple of pewter dragons making a heart as they kiss. And, we have it engraved with our married names and the date of the wedding. I really like looking at wedding magazines to see what other people are doing for their wedding decorations, it's just so pretty! The only part of the whole wedding planning process that I am struggling with is the music for the reception. I have the ceremony all done, and now I just have to find enough good, and wedding friendly songs to play as background noise. Wish me luck! And feel free to drop a suggestion or two...or 10, yeah 10 would be good...

Never to early to think about Halloween

2008-05-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

As I am sure many of you have read, I am getting married in November. Specifically, BJ and I are tying the knot on November the 1st, 2008. This means, of course, that the rehearsal dinner, is totally on Halloween night. And clearly, we will be in costume. I found an awesome looking cosplay costume on ebay today; one of those, send us your measurements and we'll make one for you kind of deals. I'm going to modify it from the cosplay and be a goth vampire, it'll be sweet. Now we just have to work one out for BJ. Here's a picture of the design, and yes, that's PVC.After this fun adventure, BJ and I went to David's bridal to purchase shoes. The store was huge and brightly lit, and comfortable, and the people there were very nice. No one was pushy, we had to actually ask for assistance, which sometimes can be a good thing. They did not have the shoes I wanted in my size, so we had to order them. I also had to pay for them up front, which I thought was odd. In other shoes stores, if my size was unavailable, I would have it ordered, show up when it came to the store and if it fit correctly, then purchase the shoes. Also, they are non-refundable, so if they don't fit, I have to appeal to the manager to possibly have them exchanged. I also find it strange that, although I did pay for the shoes, and they were ordered today, they will not arrive in the store, until July 9th. Really, more than a month to ship a pair of shoes? I'm glad I am not getting my dress from there. I would be terrified of the "right size" not fitting correctly and then being stuck with a dress with no refund, and very little likelihood of exchange. I think that the wedding industry is the only one that can get away with not accepting returns on clothing. I can completely sympathize, if something is worn or if the tags are cut off, but point blank pay for this and you shall receive it, only it, and it is non-refundable, seems a bit extreme.

Check my profile, DO IT

2008-05-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

I like this cool feature from blogger. If you look at my complete profile, you'll see a random question I have answered. I can go to edit my profile any time I want to to get a new question. So if you're reading my blog, check out the random question. You never know when it could change.

Hello Iron Man, goodbye Socks

2008-05-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

BJ and I watched IRON MAN yesterday in theatres, and it was just fantastic. We even stayed through the end of the credits and saw the little cut scene. I was a wee bit mystified, mostly because I know little to nothing about the Avengers, so we'll see what comes from that. I loved the movie, it was so good. After it ended, I just wanted to watch it again. The animation for the suits and the robots was so well done. There was a lot of great humor thrown in too; it was a joy to watch. The only issue I had with the movie was on a personal level. Stark's partner, Obadiah was played by an actor whom I know very well, he's very recognizable. The issue I had was, I know his face is not shaped that way. There must have been some prosthetic makeup added under his chin and it just looked really odd. Now if it had been a less recognizable actor, I probably would not have had an issue with it. It's funny that our perceptions of people who work in films can alter the way we look at them in new roles. I saw in the credits that there were even Puppeteers...how exciting is that. I don't know what they did in the movie, maybe they were the robots in the lab. In any event, if you have yet to see Iron Man, go watch it, if you have seen it, go watch it again. It was so good it knocked my socks off.

System Maintenance of DOOOOOOM

2008-05-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday to one and all. For us players of World of Warcraft, Tuesday is quite the infamous day. Before Tuesday never meant all that much to me. It is neither the beginning of the week, nor is it the middle on the way toward the weekend. However, since I started playing WOW, it has taken on new meaning. World of Warcraft is a very involved and detailed game, and to keep it running, it has to have scheduled downtime for system maintenance. And that scheduled time comes once a week; every single Tuesday. Normally this would not have been an issues. The start in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and work through until the afternoon, usually finishing around lunchtime, and it would be all set to go once I got home. Here lately though, BJ and I have been getting the same days off scheduled, and for whatever reason, we get Tuesday off. So we get to hang out for most of the day, watching tv or otherwise entertaining ourselves, instead of playing WOW. : [ Oh well, BJ and I are going to go watch Ironman today, so that will be fun. Happy Tuesday All.

I like books, and cookies, and reeses, and BJ

2008-05-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading a book called, The Talisman, which a coworker let me borrow. It was coauthored by Steven King and Peter Straub, and it's very good thus far. I haven't really enjoyed a King novel since BJ and I listened to, Salem's Lot, on an audio book. Also a very good book, but involving vampires, which I have yet to see in this new book. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel. In other book news, I really enjoyed the trilogy of his dark materials, which was all started off with, The Golden Compass. Yes it has talking animals, but that does not make it a rip off of Narnia. Seriously people, CS Lewis did not come up with the idea of talking animals out of the blue. There are any number of folktales, that predate CS Lewis by, a lot, which are filled with talking animals. Take the compilations of Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm; they just wrote down the different stories they happened upon in their travels, and there are a fat lot of talking animals. Tolkien even made trees talk, and that says....well, something. I have a headache. : [ And my keyboard is a little messed up, most of the number keys at the top will no longer function correctly. Unfortunately I am deprived of all those nifty little symbols that might normally be available by pressing the shift key. I am working on compiling music for the reception for the wedding, and while meandering my way through my ITunes library, I just find so many good songs that are so totally inappropriate. So I made a list of totally inappropriate songs while I was at it. Where else can one find the Gorillaz with Queen? I really like the Feel Good Inc song. BJ said it probably wasn't a good idea to play it at the reception {I agreed.} You, the reader, should probably understand that our wedding is primarily made up of family and close friends. And BJ and I have a very small number of close friends, so there will be a slightly more "mature" audience there. Not that that is a limiting factor, but it definitely spins more of a family reunion / Backyard BBQ feel for the afternoon. I like it; our wedding is just one big family party. I'm thinking of purchasing a set of Bocci balls. It's a fun game to play in grassy outdoor areas. I like it a lot more than croquet, personally. Yep, getting married in the afternoon with a tea and dessert reception which = SUGAR RUSH...This is the part where you might normally see explanation points...: [ Ah well, I am off to bed to get rid of my headache, and to watch a little family guy. Nothing cures your ills like a little humor.

Houses of cards, they fall down...a lot

2008-05-24T18:29:00.001-07:00

I just got home from work, WOOHOO. It wasn't really a long day, as the hours were just odd. I had a later check in, and logically enough a later check out. We were sitting around the break room in between shows and I was thinking about pizza. For some really odd reason, the break room smelled like a slice of dominos pizza, you know the spice blend they put on it with the cheese and tasty bits. It was odd because no one had dominos; no one even had pizza. Therefore, I've been craving pizzas for about 4 hours or so. I called BJ when I got to my car, and my wonderful man threw a pizza in the oven for me. Excuse me while I blog with one hand. Mmmmmm....pizza. Anywhos, earlier that day I had gotten my friend/coworker Heather to play a card game with me called, Fluxx. It's a fun game where the rules start out easily enough, but as you lay down different rule cards, it can get a lot more complicated. It's really fun. Sometimes you can win on a single hand. Sometimes it will take a little longer. Another good one we played for a bit is Phase 10. It's such a cool game it has it's own Wikipedia page. The games both have a similar idea. You have to lay down a certain number of cards in order to meet the goal and win the game. I like Fluxx though because it's easier to understand the basic way to win. Once someone wins, a new game starts. Phase 10, when someone wins, they just win that turn and then go on. The other players who still have cards in their hands have to rack up points for the unused cards. Points in this game are bad...very bad, and the game can go on for a long time. And if you're ever really bored, you can try to make card houses out of them. I was never very good at that, the stress...it's too much. : ] But if you're ever bored in a break room with fellow employees, whip out a pack of fluxx cards and see if anyone wants to play. I know I always do. .

Ahhhhhh, so many choices, not enough music

2008-05-23T20:03:00.001-07:00

I am trying to set up the music for BJ's and my reception, and I'm at a bit of a loss. Any suggestions would be great. I've got the ceremony music all set, with BJ's help in decision making, and Ryan's editing skills. But the reception, I need some help people. Send me your suggestions, pretty please, with sugar on top?

I'm not a WOW junkie...honest

2008-05-23T18:36:00.001-07:00

So, I like to play World of Warcraft. My fiance' likes to play WOW as well, and so does my friend Mary up in the Northern world. We like to get online together, and our awesome guild leader pays for our guild, basically a group of people who have decided to help each other through the world of WOW, so that we can have a VENT server. Vent, aka Ventrilo, is an online chat server so that I can chat up my friend, and some of the other guild folks while we play online. It's got a fantastic clarity; better even than a cell phone. And I like being social. My main is a lvl 70 Night Elf Druid. She's cool, she's maxed out, and she's blue. She's a healer, and she can shape-shift into different critters; including a TREE. My best buddy Mary, is also a Night Elf, but she is a hunter, and my love of my life, is a human palladin. He's got sexy shoulders.

This is a group shot of us being silly outside a place called honor hold. I admit sometimes WOW appointments take precedence over hanging out with coworkers, but we spend enough time at work anyway, why go hang out and still feel like I'm at work? Maybe I am a bit of a WOW junkie, but I have a set time to log and go to bed, and chores do come first. Unless it's doing the dishes. Yeah, the dishes can definitely wait.

Oh the cuteness

2008-05-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

So I was doing my usual work thing like I do most days. I was closing tonight, shutting down all the venues and such. One of the great things about the company I work for is the fantastic animal displays; they even have certain animals that just roam the park at their leisure. So I saw the albino female peahen when I was closing up, all white and very pretty. And she had a little baby chick following her around, and it was just so cuuuuute. Apparently she hatched four of them, but now she just has the one left. It made me wonder what kind of competition she was dealing with in a theme park. All the dangerous carnivores are in their enclosures, and then I figured it must be the natural predators. We've got some pretty big lizards that roam the back areas, and a few stray cats that can wander into the property, and snakes....icky.
So does everyone remember the photo of the shark and the helicopter that came out a while back? I was telling some people about how scary a pic it is even though it's fake. Ryan and Jade then assured me it was genuine, but I did some internet sleuthing. It is indeed a fake, and I can sleep a little easier.

One thing to know about me, if you already don't know, I am absolutely, unreasonably petrified of sharks. I will get scared in a swimming pool if I am by myself, thinking there is a shark about to eat me. I blame my sister who once told me, at the tender age of 10 or so, that sharks come out of the pool drain in the hotels and eat any guests who try to swim later than they should. Yeah you know who you are, don't ask me why I believed her, the all knowing sister at the wise age of 13, staring down the face of teenhood. Maybe it's the fact that pools are creepy when you are by yourself, and you can't wear your glasses while swimming, and really, who doesn't think the pool drain is sketchy? So, me with my unreasonable fear of sharks, you probably think I avoid them right? WRONG. I love to watch shark week. Those 3d underwater movies in IMAX scare the crap outta me whenever a shark shows up. I know a lot of information about an object that makes me deathly afraid. I guess it's the same logic people apply to scary movies. You just can't stop watching them because some part of you wants to be afraid. You want to get the poo scared out of you, all the while knowing the person on the screen feels the same way. In real life one might wonder why we turn to fictional horrors as a source of entertainment, when there are plenty of non-fiction ones available. I say, we like to be scared by unreasonable things, because then you can say, that will never ever ever happen, once it's over at least. Me? I like scary movies, but my favorite way of being terrified? I go buy a ticket to an aquarium, and stand in front of the shark tank.

Look Ma! I'm Blogging!

2008-05-21T17:52:00.000-07:00

OOO, Hello, My name is Brittany, call me Britt, and I today have just created a blog. Amazing I know. 25 years old, and this is my first stab at keeping a blog. Anyhews, I work in the entertainment industry. No, not that kind of "entertainment." I work backstage at theatrical shows, helping people change costumes, handing off props and microphones, etc. On some days, I get to work for a children's show where I get to manipulate all the puppets, and help the dragon get dressed, those are the very best days. I love my computer, but not as much as I love my fiance' BJ. We're getting married in November, and I am just as excited as a mom buying Christmas presents the day after Thanksgiving. Well, maybe not like that, not psychotic excited; more like a little kid about to be handed an ice cream cone. Yeah, like that! One vital piece on information to know about me, I am random. Expect me to switch or jump topics completely without any kind of advanced warning. You may not be able to see the connections, but trust me, they're there. I could explain it to you, but that would take out a lot of the fun; not to mention it would be a long and convoluted production involving streams of consciousness and flying monkeys. And you really don't want me to get my flying monkeys. So, this about wraps up my very first blog, ever, and I just want you to know I heartily enjoyed this one way conversation. Just like I am enjoying my colbyjack cheese and crackers for dinner, that's good enough for dinner, right? mmmm, cheese.