People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure.

Hello all! Did you have a good weekend? We had a marvelous one, I wish it hadn’t ended so quickly!

Weekend recap
Friday Seth and I made more noodles, then went to Walmart and Bakers for final groceries. (of course I forgot something and Seth had to go back Saturday). We got home late and Seth made pizzas and I picked up the house in anticipation for the cleaning we would have to do tomorrow. We watched tv before I about passed out on the sofa and had to go to bed.
Saturday was a big day for us! I woke up around 9 and sent Seth to the store for what I forgot and then started assembling the lasagna. Seth worked on cleaning the house up and routinely helping me assemble. The white flour noodles turned out SO GOOD. I was estatic. We had tons of leftovers. They were hard to keep in the sheets we cut them in, so basically it was like a jigsaw puzzle of noodles. I have such a good husband, not only did he bring me back a diet cherry limeade from his errands, but he also scheduled me a nap before my parents “Jazz on our Green”. I finished up the bread and the dressing for the salad and wrapped everything up and Seth made room in the fridge. Then I took my nap which was like THE BEST NAP EVER. Seth woke me up and he had already packed up the truck and we were off. We stopped by Subway and McDonalds so that we would have something to eat. The night was perfect, cool enough to snuggle under a blanket, the music was good and we stayed until about 10. Food was good, company was great and we had a great time. My parents raised a lot of money for the Pioneer Kids Club and I got to spend some time with my brother, which is always nice.
Sunday I woke up early and put the lasagna in and promptly hit the snooze for another hour. Then I woke up and started cutting the salad while Seth finished the vacuuming. I threw the bread out and set everything up. People started showing up around 12:30 and we served at 1. It was SO GOOD. I’m not even lying, I almost ate my weight in lasagna and salad. I helped Seth do his draft (secretary again!) and then Kathy, blessed Kathy cleaned up my kitchen. (For this act of kindness-she SOLD HER HOUSE! Karma at it’s fullest!) I was so friggin exhausted after it was all over I couldn’t even nap, my brain was just on hum mode. I laid on the couch and watched random things while Seth frosted his cake and made me dinner (which was easy, all I wanted was more lasagna and salad!) and then football started so I lost the upstairs tv. I helped Seth enter the draft picks into the league (I’m a much faster typer) and then went and took a bath. Seth shut everything down and we made it in bed in time for Mad Men’s encore presentation.
What a lovely weekend. If I could have had an extra day of recovery sleep, I would have taken it wiling. In fact I seriously thought about it this morning. But I know there is a three day weekend coming up-so I’m hanging in there!

Hey a random survey
On my way into work I thought, it would be fun to do a survey this morning-and lo and behold one of the blogs I follow had one-SIGN! So here is my survey for you-
1. Have you ever stayed online for a very long time waiting for someone?
Um, not since I was like, 15. And I think it was like 15 minutes because we lived in Europe and it was hard to get an internet connection and even more expensive to stay on, so I’m sure at some point my father came by and laid the smack down and I had to get off. He also employed this method with phone calls. In Europe you have to pay for outgoing phone calls, so if I wanted to call a boy it basically took an act of GOD. And if boys called me my Dad said I didn’t live there and feigned a really scary accent.
2. How do you eat oreos?
Rarely, my staring longingly at the oreos aisle seems to be the only look my husband can resist.
3. Are you cocky?
Nah not so much, unless you mess with my family or friends, or question my work.
4. Did you have an imaginary friend as a kid?
Not that I remember, I know I used to make up having one because I didn’t want to be left out and I thought that it was totally normal to have one so I used to pretend I could see someone just for the sake of fitting in.
5. What t.v. station do you watch the most?
It is completely impossible for me to pick one channel. No seriously, it is. The closest I come is the channel on Cox where they repeat the current news cast over and over so I can see what the weather is every night.
6. Have you ever seen the ocean?
Yes, and occasionally I miss it, and then I remember the ocean in Puerto Vallarta and the nasty things floating in there and then I try to think about the swimming pools in Cancun and how much more I miss them.
7. Have you ever been hospitalized?
Yes, but not like overnight, at the most 15 hours. I had to be hospitalized for my nose job and for the kidney infection that almost killed me. (at least it felt that way)
8. What’s your favorite brand of rootbeer?
You know, I’m a fan of the Upstream’s Rootbeer. My dad used to get little jugs of it for the house, he doesn’t do that anymore, but when he did it was good.
9. Could you live without a computer?
Who would ever want that? I mean I guess I could, but then I’d have to imagine the rest of the world was dead and like go live in Amish country.

New blog I follow
I thought I’d update you on some blogs I’ve added to my roll in the last couple of weeks. This one is about a woman from South Carolina who moved to Japan with her family. It is really fun to learn about all the different culture shock they are experiencing and all the new things they are learning. She hasn’t been keeping it TOO long, so it’s easy to catch up. It’s called Ramblings from Life. She has lots of pictures and I like the pictures.

I’ve also started following a local (to me) gal. I like getting the perspective of my hometown from different eyes. Her name is Courtney Rae and she blogs at The Weiffenbachs.

The sky’s the limit!
Alright friends! Hopefully you are having a good Monday. Mine isn’t going well but there is only up to go from here, right!? Let’s make it a quick week so we can enjoy the holiday weekend!!!

Love (Labor Day weekend),
Carrie

You know it's going to be a long boring day when you are jealous that your computer at work goes to sleep and you can't.

Woot! Woot! Friday is finally here, man it’s been a long week hasn’t it?

TV
Last night my brother in law Chet was over (he does our yard work-bless him) and so I had to turn over the remote once again to the gridiron goons. It would have been okay if we were watching a halfway decent team, but both of them sucked pretty bad.

Weekend plans
I’m so excited for Fantasy Lasagna, but I’m also excited for my parents Jazz on Our Green. I’m not sure if that is because I have grand plans of suckering Seth into getting Subway again (yum) or just to be able to actually participate this year (the year before we were in Sioux Falls and last year it rained and everyone had to move inside). Tonite we have to pound out a couple more racks of noodles, go to Bakers and Walmart, and relax. Saturday before we go to Jazz I’m going to assemble the lasagna so all I have to do is throw it in the oven (I had an epiphany last night, I don’t know why I thought I had to wait until right before I baked it to assemble it, last night it was like, oh yeah, I can just assemble it and throw it in the fridge-duh). Then Sunday I just have to throw the salad in a bowl and set the dressings out (I decided not to put the dressing on the salad because some people don’t like a vinegar based dressing) and get the bread in the oven. *sidebar* so I always get way more exciting about cooking when I know I’m preparing a big meal, and low and behold, all of the supplies I need are on sale at the grocery store. I was pretty excited because I’ve been scratching this lasagna together for about 3 weeks now, and every week when I work on a new ingredient, I go to the store, fingers crossed and bonus! Milk is on sale for ricotta, cheese in on sale for filler, broth is on sale for sauce. It worked out so nice. *end sidebar* Anyway needless to say, I’m very very excited to finally present my piece de resistance after a month of planning. Sunday the food gets served at 1 and the draft starts at 2.

Oh deer.
So it’s SUPER foggy out, like almost creepy foggy, like I was sitting in my car trying as hard as I could NOT to recount that movie “The Fog” so to not freak myself out while I was driving. All the sudden in the immediate distance (because what more could I see?) I saw a something flailing around. It was a deer, who had been hit by a car, and was on the side of the road and not quite dead. It was the saddest thing ever, I sobbed all the way to work. I felt like I should have done something, but pretty much what would have happened was I would have got out of my car and just cried over the deer and that probably wouldn’t have helped the deer much anyway.

Hair cookie
So routinely, as mentioned, in my new job we get random gifts of food. Yesterday it was giant rice krispy treats, today it was homemade cookies. I took two from the gentlemen’s container and dug right in while everyone stood around and chatted. All of the sudden I heard a weird tearing noise from the cookies and I pulled it out of my mouth to see a giant thick hair in it, like a dog’s whisker type hair. I turned and hauled back to my desk and promptly came thisclose to vomiting in my trash can. Something about hair in food sets me off. A while back when I made that ricotta gnocchi L’ara came over and found a hair in hers, and just thinking about it today still makes me sick to my stomach. Later the person who made them came by to see if I liked the cookies and I just said yes. What am I supposed to do, tell them to keep their dog out of the cookie dough? *retches*

Great Blog
Dear friend Jenny M sent me this blog link today, and as if the deer thing wasn’t enough to set me off to weeping at work mode today, this put me over the edge. I love stuff like this. I’m currently seeing that the rest of the blog is like-thanks Jenny!
http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.html

Lunch sucks a bunch
I’m sad, I don’t want to eat my lunch, it’s the same thing I’ve eaten for the last three days, soup. Usually I’m down with this lunch, but today I’m not feeling it. Today I wish I had brought something different. So now I’m pouting about eating my lunch in an hour. Even though I know if I don’t I will get all sick to my stomach and grumpy.

Okay seriously blogger.com?
So occasionally, when the day starts to run out of interesting stuff to do, I go to my blog and if you see up at the top there is a little link that says “next blog” and I hit that over and over until I find interesting ones. Most of the time they are scary ones or ones that have like one entry or the most annoying ones of all-not in English (the Spanish have a surprising number of Twilight blogs) Today I’ve hit the button at least 15 times, and 8 of those times this blog keeps coming up http://bluegrassjam2.blogspot.com/ it made me giggle. I’ll warn you if you attempt this, have some patience because they will rotate the same 6 or 7 blogs over and over. It’s annoying really, and sometimes blogs don’t have the next button and you have to hit back and hit next again. If you find any good blogs let me know!

Look at the time
Well now, it’s much later than usual when I post this, I hope you all aren’t anxiously awaiting my rambles. Sorry to keep you in suspense, I went for a walk around the plant this morning to run errands while it was still cool out. I hope you all have a marvelous weekend and it’s full of love and fun stuff…and relaxation, because that’s important too.

Love (Fantasy Lasgana almost being here!),
Carrie

No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other.

One more day until the weekend starts (well two work days, but let’s not think about that) hang in there everyone!

Cool night weather-hooray!
It was so nice waking up this morning with a bite on the air. I might have to go dig out the winter duvets and start airing them out this weekend. The kidtens have started sleeping with us again, since our output of 1000 degrees of body heat is welcome now. Now when I fall asleep this is very comforting, but at 3 in the morning when it feels like my legs are going to fall off and there is a 20+ pound cat trying to snuggle right in the V in my lady bits, I’m not very comfortable at all. It was cute when they were actually kittens, but now they are these huge long 20+ pound cats and they can’t be bothered to sleep in between us or at the foot of the bed, no they have to sleep all tangled up in our legs. And somehow I always get Willow, who wakes up at 5 and starts playing with your legs if you move them under the covers. I looked longingly over at Bagheera and Seth who had worked out a nice weave where Bags wasn’t quite pressing all 20+ pounds on Seth’s legs and looked all cute and comfy and dead asleep. Willow was using my toes for chew toys. Seriously Dad, please take my cat.

Fantasy Weekend is closing in!
We HAVE to make the rest of the noodles tonite if they are going to dry in time. Friday or Saturday I’m going to mix the cheese and cook the meat so then all I have to do is assemble and bake on Sunday morning. I also am going to mix the dressing for the Olive Garden salad on Saturday. I’ve decided to wimp out and just buy garlic bread since mine always stinks anyway. Plus I felt the need to add a dessert of some kind, so I’ve been ruminating on that. I might just get one of those delicious chocolate cakes that Pam and Jason brought us from Walmart that one time ages ago.

TV
Last night Seth was in a foul mood so he got control of the remote. We watched NFL Live on ESPN and Big Bang Theory. Later when he went upstairs I watched Tiny and Toya (was that the season finale? NOOOOO!!! I hope not!) and fast forwarded thru most of Intervention. Nothing too interesting to comment on there. I know fall TV is going to start up next month, so I need to get stuff off my DVR!

Rant
Okay so I try not to blog to much about work on here, just for safety’s sake but I’ve got a rant that I need to get out and I’ll try to leave it as vague as possible. Usually I don’t have much complaining to do about my job, because I love it, but recently I started a new position at my company and am struggling to adjust and make a name for myself. Last week I was given a task that I had done in my old position daily, so I knew it pretty well. I realized we were in violation of one of the site rules with the way we were storing the documents. I brought it to the attention of my superiors and waited for instruction. Three days later I got antsy and decided to take it upon myself to find a safe place to store the documents until some resolution was made on the documents. I went to my old group and asked for help, since I knew they had a lot of available storage. Apparently there is a lot of animosity between my old group and my new group. When my old group came over to help me move the boxes and boxes of documents to the other building, the shit hit the fan. One person in particular started freaking out and being really rude and condescending to me. By the time the hullaballoo was over (I was right by the way, the whole time) I informed my boss of some of the disrespectful and mean things this person said and how it really perturbed me. One comment in particular was about how “new people think they can come in and change things”, I’m not new, I’ve worked here on and off for over 5 years, rules are rules. So long story short, and vague, the next day the bosses sent this person’s “partner” (they person who works with her) over to apologize to me. Which made me a little pissy because the person is not five, can apologize for them self, and by not making the person apologize, you are telling them it’s okay to disrespect and talk to coworkers like that. But then, the CAKE was when this partner says after the apology, “you have to cut this person some slack, he/she is having problems with his/her spouse this week”. I’m sorry, but when I come to work, I check my personal life and problems at the door. I don’t bring it here. And even if I did, it’s NEVER an excuse to be disrespectful and treat a coworker like shit. I don’t take my work home and treat my husband like that and vice versa for work. The whole thing just struck a cord with me. This isn’t the first time in my life I’m supposed to condone and let someone get away with talking to me in a disrespectful manner because I’m younger or haven’t been with the company as long as they have because they are having problems at home. I just wanted to rant about how I think it’s a totally weak sauce excuse and seriously, shouldn’t be allowed at all.
But I’m internalizing and growing past it, and just ranting to you all instead of beating the person in the head with my shoe, like I totally would have done in college. Because I’m grown now. Rant over, thanks for listening.

Off to the races!
Okay all, I’ve actually got a little work to do, so I’m going to get to doing that. Hope you all have a speedy work day and enjoy the evening!

Love (the cooler nights),
Carrie

We are born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society.

Happy Hump Day all, sorry I’m slow on the uptake. Things actually got hectic at work yesterday towards the afternoon and then they spilled over into my morning. I’m super proud of myself for not taking my shoe off and beating people to death with it. I think this means I have grown as a person. Even if I’m currently concocting a plan to never wear pants again.

TV
Last night I only had an hour or so to watch some tv. I watched “Entourage” while I was waiting for Seth to get home (I really have no idea where this season is going this year or what exactly they are trying theme here) and I watched “The Closer” in the 45 minutes I had before my other engagement (more on that in a moment). “The Closer” was super good. This season has been pretty great. Once they stopped focusing on the “team” and more on the cases and Brenda and Frtiz, the show has fallen into a really nice rhythm.

The Secretary is in
Last night was Seth’s first fantasy football draft for work, his practice one, he says, for the big game on Sunday. He got home later then he wanted, so we had to RUN to Target and get my prescriptions filled and get him a fantasy football magazine. The one we got included a lovely pull out with check boxes. Then we drove thru Taco Bell, they messed up our order so we got all that food free, plus the corrected order, plus free dessert things that I didn’t eat but Seth said were gross. (I pretty much abhor most things caramel. I don’t like the way it sticks to my teeth). I scarfed my food and watched the previously mentioned episode of “The Closer” and then ran back upstairs to be Seth’s Secretary. My job was to check the boxes off and read the stats to him of available players. We had so much fun. At one point he was hemming and hawing a pick and I reached over and clicked the button for him. He pretty much lost every guy I wanted, but granted, I only want people I know, even if they suck. And I wanted all the players from the Bengals since we have been watching Hard Knocks. I was really mad he didn’t’ get Chad Ocho Cinco, every round I said pick him and he said, he’s too far down and then he was gone. We had such a good time though. It was really fun bonding.

SO FRIGGIN EXCITED
Every morning I make Seth what we call and eggie sammich. Basically it’s a ham and cheese omelet on an english muffin. So anyway I’m going over my blog roll this morning and the lady at pinch my salt is going on and on about how easy it is and I roll my eyes and scoff, but then I read the whole article and it IS. And CHEAPER! (they just raised the prices of English muffins at Walmart) Literally you make the dough and bake it on a griddle. So simple. After my fantasy lasagna reign, I’m going to attempt to make and freeze these over the Labor Day weekend and give some to my folks because they love English muffins. I’ve included the convincing recipe below. If you try it let me know how it goes! I’m super excited!
http://pinchmysalt.com/2009/08/25/homemade-english-muffins/

Ted Kennedy
I got all emotional on the way to work this morning when I was listening to my fabulous XM CNN radio station talk about Ted Kennedy passing, which was weird for me since I didn’t really know anything about him. I think they whole Kennedy dynasty gets me all choked up. I switched over to BBC America and they were talking to the Prime Minister about him and about how he was awarded the “Sir” title by the queen and how he helped broker peace in Northern Ireland. So there are some facts I learned this morning, in between choking down the tears.

Lil Wayne is ruining songs
I remember a while back reading an article in Rolling Stone about Lil Wayne. I was alright with him, it was a good article, just your typical rapper who has too much money and not enough business cents at the moment. One part of the article stuck out to me though, that he spent the last couple years remixing and putting his voice on as many tracks as they would let him. That is becoming more and more evident as time wears on. For example, I’ve been jamming to this new song “Down” by someone whose name I can’t remember at the moment, but right toward the end of the song, here comes Lil Wayne with his half bleeped out lyrics about how good he is in bed, gross. It’s a good song until then, I usually turn it around then. So yeah, he’s driving me bananas and his voice is starting to grate on me. I also am now horribly biased because I watch Tiny and Toya, and Toya is his ex wife and basically he’s a dead beat dad. I just don’t like him as a person, he has two women pregnant right now. He’s going to end up like Flavor Flav with 29 kids and a reality show on VH1. Gross.

Rain, Rain, come and stay
Did I tell you it’s a lovely day here right now? I’m especially excited that I have these windows. It’s all dark (I mean really dark, people are making jokes about how it must be time to go home) and raining and thundering. It’s making the morning pass by most pleasantly. Hooray for the coming of Fall!

Toodles!
Alright friends! Hope all is right in your worlds and that you are having a productive hump day, or whatever kind of hump day it is you want to have. Personally I wish I was at home, in bed, reading my books, with no pants on. But that’s just me.

Love (rainy dark days),
Carrie

Doing nothing is very hard to do ... you never know when you're finished.

Tuesday. Huh. I got nothing witty other than-ugh.

TV
Last night we watched Design Star and America’s Best Dance Crew. I’m trying as hard as I can, but I just can’t get into ABDC. This is my second year trying to watch it, and I originally started watching it for the love of Shane Sparks, but I get really irritated that the choreographers are given the shaft. People those crews do not come up with their routines on their own. They have choreographers, notably, NappyTabs from So You Think You Can Dance. And since SYTYCD was my first dance show addiction, I WORSHIP choreographers, as SYTYCD taught me to do. How do I know NappyTabs choreograph? I may or may not be twitterstalking them, whatever, shh don’t judge. Also, I kind of hate the judges on ABDC. Like who is Lil Mama to judge dance crews? As far as I remember, she did that song about Lip Gloss and is a pro at looking and talking like Lil Kim. That’s about it. And JC? Okay he may know choreographed dancing, but remember ABDC doesn’t admit to actually using chorographers, and also, his comments can sometimes be stupider than Lil Mama’s. Even Shane sometimes I’m like please, stop talking, please. Anyway.
Design Star was good. I really like Antonio and Dan. They are my favorites. I thought they had the two best kids rooms. Antonio with that little five year old cracks me up though. But the strangest part of the whole night is when they had some “guest famous person surprise the designers in the middle of their last couple of hours (that must have been so annoying) and I’m like who the hell is that guy? And Seth is like he’s a really buff gay dude with his own color show on HGTV-and then he proceeded to TELL me about the show and all the preferences of buff gay guy, and how often buff gay guy works out to get that buff (he really was super buff). I was stunned. Like how do you know this? (I figured he read about it in one of his fitness magazines) He says I sometimes leave the tv on HGTV when I go to take my bath at night-which I can only actually recall ever doing like ONCE. So anyway, my husband stunned me last night.

Autumn
Have a pontificated this week on how excited I am for fall to start? I can’t wait for the leaves to start turning and the air to get a little bite and my light jackets to start making an appearance out of the closet. For the days to start to get shorter and the sun to pop up later (making my drive to work and home SO much better because I’m not staring directly into the sun the entire way there). For Halloween and Thanksgiving and my dead Grandma’s Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations to be dug out of wherever Seth stashed them last year. I can’t wait to go for walks with Seth in the park and not sweat so bad I need to lie down when I get home. For our Sunday Family Dinner to start including more soups (Garlic Soup!) and heartier cooler weather foods. Oh and to cook chili! I can’t wait to start making batches of chili again! And also for the succubus garden to give me my dang pumpkins and then die never to return. (At least if I get a vote)

A year? Really?
Next month Seth and I will celebrate or first wedding anniversary. I can’t believe it’s been a year. So much has happened and so much MORE is going to change next year. It has been a year of ups and downs but I couldn’t and wouldn’t have done them with anyone else *cue sappy music*. The first anniversary (I finally looked it up) gift is traditionally paper and modernly clocks, so I will have to rack my brain for something brilliant. You help.

Our House, is a very fine house
I don’t know if this is my Army Brat or frequent mover background, but whenever I’m reading something in a book about a random room, especially if the room isn’t described well, I automatically think of rooms I’ve previously lived in. I noticed this is much worse when a person is describing a house they are thinking of buying to me. For example the other day Kathy was talking about a master bath being awesome in an open house they went to, and instead of like looking up said master bath in a picture on the MLS site, I automatically thought of my parents master bath in Peachtree City Georgia. In one of the books I’m reading they often hang out in a living room and in my head, it’s the formal living room from our house in Belgium. In my other book I’m reading, the main kid characters share a tiny room together, and I think of the room I shared with my brother when we lived in the trailer in Arizona. Is that weird? Do people who lived in their house their whole childhood do that too?

Swine flu decisions
Okay so they came out today and said over half the country is going to get swine flu and 90 thousand are probably going to die from it. And the people it seems to hit the hardest is people my age. But here’s the thing, I’m super anti flu shot. Mostly because I hate getting shots, and also because almost everyone person I know gets some mild form of the flu after they get it. I don’t know if it’s psychological or what, but it happens. I’ve never gotten the flu shot and I’ve never gotten the flu, and I’m hesitant, especially now that I KNOW that it’s a three series shot for the H1N1 flu AND they are still freaking testing it. So anyway, it’s the current thing on my mind, since I don’t want to die of the swine flu and all, but I don’t want to inject myself with crazy concoctions either…if I wanted to do that I’d start doing meth or something.

Good Deal
Do you have a college sports fan in your house? Amazon is offering-today only, in the Gold Box Deal, a hoodie and a t-shirt for 22.99 from 90 of the NCAA teams. I would say they are the football teams, but I don’t know that for sure or anything. But keeping in the fall theme with football and cool weather and my little ode to Autumn above, if you have a college sports fan, this is a great deal. I already got like 3 people crossed off my Christmas list with it.

Challenge
So I don’t know if you noticed (you probably haven’t) that I’ve been trying to write more for you all, since I always feel guilty when I have these teeny little post days. Anyway for the rest of this month and next month I’m challenging myself to write 1000 words per post. I’ve also tried to minimize my go to subject of television and write more of what’s in my head…not that I’m going to stop writing about TV, but right now there isn’t much on and I was spending whole posts talking about TV shows I barely watched and am not keeping up with week to week, in the summer I tend to let them build up and watch a bunch in a row, so that’s also why separate shows have been getting consolidated into one section. So far I have hit the mark this week. I wasn’t really paying attention last week. It helps right now that I have the time to do it. But just in case you wondered why I have gotten so wordy.

Thunderstorms!
Word on the street is we are supposed to get some thunderstorms this afternoon and tonite! I do love a good thunderstorm. Here’s hoping it doesn’t get severe on my drive home. It probably will though, knowing my track record with driving in storms.

And when you come to the end, stop.
That’s all out of this noggin friends. Hope you have a speedy Tuesday!

Love (challenges and goals I can actually meet),
Carrie

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

Happy Monday all. Is it really that happy though? I mean how happy can a Monday be, unless it’s a holiday and you aren’t at work and you are home with your loved ones doing something great? Today is not one of those days. Today is one of those days where once again I’m stuck at work, tired because getting up early sucks, and in desperate need of something entertaining to do.

TV
Last night we watched Mad Men and it was really good. I have a couple things on the DVR, but not much. Mostly Kings episodes. Anyway I’m not sure what the whole point or theme of Mad Men was, but it was an okay episode. Seth is thoroughly confused (he only watches it once in a while with me and that season 2 marathon when he was sick). I don’t know what is up with Peggy. And I thought for sure Don was going to sleep with his kids teacher. Anywhoo, did you watch? Any thoughts?

Weekend
So I did get the ricotta made, but I’m not sure it’s going to be enough. Seth says once I blend it with the other cheeses it should be. We have to get back to work on noodles tonite. I just want to by box noodles and be done with it, but he is hell bent on making them. Seth had a nice time in Columbus and I spent a good chunk of the weekend with my family which was nice since I missed them when they were gone on vacation. I ate a lot of good food! On Sunday we ate a “Harvest meal” which was all food from my parents garden, and it was delicious. They planted Yukon gold potatoes this year and those things are like butter in your mouth. I ate three of them. I’m not kidding.

Random
So in my new building for my job, there is less carpet and more tile flooring. I’ve fallen victim MANY TIMES to thinking I’m hearing a woman come down the hallway, only to find out it’s a dude. Usually they are wearing cowboy boots, but most of the time, its dress shoes with lifts. It’s kind of the funniest thing ever. I really want to make a comment, but I can’t think of anything witty at all, so I just snicker under my breath.

Shoo fly
I had to join Shutterfly to see my cousin’s pictures of her kids, and they sent me 25 free photos coupon or something like that. So I went to look at our pictures to get some printed, and I realized that I haven’t taken any pictures since Orlando. I think this means I need a vacation. Thanks Shutterfly for pointing that out.

Fantasy weekend!
Yay this weekend is fantasy weekend! Which sounds like I should be doing all sorts of romantical things, but for the most part, I’m busier then heck. Friday I’m going to start prepping lasagna stuff, like getting the meat cooked and the cheese filling mixed. I also plan on going to the store and getting all the rest of the supplies I need like the bread and the stuff for the salad. Then Saturday is the like third annual (I think??) Jazz on my parent’s Green. If you are local in the area and want info on this great FREE event, shoot me an email at carriehellbusch (at) gmail dot com and I will send you the flyer. Basically it’s just like Jazz on the Green downtown except it’s at my parents house and it’s a local band and they take donations for the church and my dad puts up tiki torches so the bugs aren’t bad and we pack a sweet picnic and sit on a blanket and enjoy a nice evening. I haven’t checked the weather yet, I wonder if it’s going to rain. It rained last year so they hauled everyone inside that stayed and partied all night. Anyway that will be fun! Then Sunday we have FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFT 2009-2010. But I’m calling it Fantasy Lasagna day because that’s the part I care about. I totally forgot I had some tastefully simple spinach herb dip mix so I think I’m going to mix it with cream cheese and put it on one of the breads in case people don’t want garlic. I forget some people aren’t complete garlic freaks like me. I think that is starting around 1. I was trying to start it at 12, but then Seth said most people couldn’t show up for the draft part until like 2, so we had to push it back. All I know is once I fill my belly, I’m going to bed. So that’s my exciting weekend.

Random-er
I have a bug bite on my ribs and it’s driving me crazy. Also to scratch it I have to lift my dang shirt clear up practically to my bra and show the whole world what I’m working with or not working with.

Looking forward
I’m living for the holiday weekend. Seriously. Labor Day snuck up on me and I totally swooped in and locked in my dad to come and do my entry way tile. I also made NO OTHER PLANS and I’m going to try hard as heck to keep it that way! I plan on spending the holiday weekend with no pants on, except for the part where my dad is doing the tile with Seth. Then I might put pants on, but that’s only if I plan on leaving my bedroom at all. Which I don’t. I wonder what it would take to get my meals served in bed…

Here’s hoping we make it!
Alright friends, I’m off to be busy. Hopefully it will make this God-awful workday move along a little faster. Although I’ll bet money it won’t. *le sigh* Hopefully later when I run out of stuff to do there is good things to read online. Have a great day all!

Love (the fall season coming in full force),
Carrie

I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.

Hooray world! We made it thru another week. Well almost, I mean we still have to make it thru the working part of this day, but then it’s the weekend! I hope you have lots of good stuff on tap. I do!

Top Chef
We watched this last night while I was enjoying one of the best Subway Veggie subs I’ve had in a long time and I was super stoked! I actually love a lot of the new cast. My stand out favorite is Kevin, of course, because he’s funny and his food actually sounds edible. I also LOVED that Wolfgang Puck was a guest judge. My mom and I once went to one of his restaurants (either in Chicago or Las Vegas, I can’t remember which) and the food was AMAZING. Plus he threw a bacon donut across the room, which makes him kick ass because those bacon donuts looked gross. The one guy who I couldn’t stand who got on my very last nerve was that Michael guy, I think his name was Michael, you know the guy who was all cocky and saying he couldn’t believed a woman beat him. He was one of the top 4 winners, which means that they will keep him around just to perturb me. We also watched the Top Chef Masters finale and I was please that Rick Bayless won. Although I think Huber (sp?) Keller should have come in second place. I totally would have eaten Michael whatever his last name was gnocchi though-I was so excited when he said one was ricotta gnocchi! I was like Seth! I made that! (See the pictures here.) And I felt all professional and chefy and proud of myself all the rest of the show. What did you all think? Did you catch Top Chef? Are you excited it’s back? Who are your favorites? Who can you not wait to get kicked off?

Things I love about my CRV so far
-It’s getting amazing gas mileage, right now I’m getting 30 mpg!
-The XM radio, hands down the coolest part of the car
-Auto up and down driver window (VUE only had down)
-6 CD changer in the dash, even if I can’t remember what CD’s are in there
-Controls for the stereo on the steering wheel
-The little compartment in my dash that holds my purse
-3 sunglasses storage places
-The onboard in dash computers are pretty handy

Things I don’t love about my CRV
-The thing that tells me how fast I’m going, it only goes in increments of 20, so I have no idea where like 25 or 45 are. Let alone 30 or 50.
-The sunroof, I still haven’t gotten that down, I like to have it open but the sun that shines thru is awful and can’t be blocked by sunglasses.
-The delay in me pushing the controls on the steering wheel to when the radio receives them.
-Manual seat adjusting, this thing has 7 on board computers and you could put in a motor to move my fat butt closer to the wheel?

Things I don’t like about my new job
-It’s like a graveyard over here, super quiet
-It smells like mildew
-Every 20 minutes my computer starts making this squeeling noise that sounds like someone is murdering my hard drive, and no amount of pounding on the computer can fix it and of course it never does it when anyone else is around
-None of my stuff is set up, so I can’t do much
-The lights are off right now, and I don’t know how to turn them on, which I don’t mind, I like it darker since the windows are so big and bright, but that gives every creepy old guy the change to walk by and ask me why I’m sitting in the dark and then insert their uniquely funny comment afterwards.
-I miss my peeps in Document Control. They talk to one another and they make it smell nice over there and they have popcorn breaks and all my stuff worked and I knew what I was doing and I did it well and my computer never sounded like a homicide in progress. Did I mention that the people over there were/are awesome? I miss being able to stand up and walk into one of their cubes and get snacks and cookies and talk about stupid stuff.

Things I like about my new job
-I have windows, three giant ones to be exact
-There is a giant fern that I can hide behind and still spy on people who are walking around and in the library
-They have the best ice machine over here, it makes that little sonic style ice
-No one really bothers me ever
-The work is pretty mindless
-At the moment, I’m not having to sit under harsh florescent lights

Fun new blog
I’ve found a new blog to stalk, it’s called Crazy Texas Mommy and the lady is pretty hilarious. Because I’m doing nothing interesting at the moment, I’ve been catching up on the backlog of her stuff. She’s pretty hilarious, check her out! The post about Polygamy is pretty great.

Random Thoughts I totally agree with
Dear Friend Jenny M sent me this random thoughts email this morning and I agreed with so many of them I decided to share. The ones I starred are ones that actually happen to me regularly.
-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
-*More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.
-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
-*I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
-There is a great need for a sarcasm font.
-*How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? (I saw this on Martha Stewart once, watched it twice, and still have no idea how to do it.)
-*I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
-Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
-How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
-I love the sense of camaraderie when a n entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front.
-*MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood. (My Garmin does too!)
-*I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
-Bad decisions make good stories. Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?
-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....
-*You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.
-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
-*I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
-* The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimate d that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.
Hee-Hee, thanks Jenny!

Epic Fail
It’s only 9:40. Wow. I don’t even know what to do with that. I guess I should start napping under my desk or something. Alright well everyone have a great weekend, hopefully mine is nice and relaxing and I get everything done I want to!

Love (random thoughts),
Carrie

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.

Hello and welcome to Thursday’s blog entry!
I was kind of shocked when I woke up this morning and realized it was Thursday. I think since I only did a half a day yesterday at work I was thrown off.

A side note
For the record, there is something old and wonky about my computer at home, so if you leave me a comment after I left work, I can’t comment back until the next day, or until I boot up Seth’s computer and go thru Fort Knox type security just to open a web page to answer you. So just know, I’m not ignoring you, I’m just incapable of responding at home. I hope to have Seth fix the computer at home by replacing it sometime soon.

More naked face
So in response to lovely Jeni Friend’s comment from yesterday at about my naked face- My mom is a Mary Kay lady, sort of. She’s one of those Mary Kay ladies who just does the minimum order so she can get the discount. So I get all my face wash, moisturizer, and make up for free from her. Can’t beat that! She also gives Seth all his face care stuff too. Although I do feel very guilty about it, and totally plan on winning the lotto and paying her back. Anyway, I have VERY oily skin and about 6 years ago I started getting this horrible painful cysts on my face that were like zits that couldn’t come to a head because they were trapped in an endless cycle of my greasy skin. Pinching them made them worse and oozy and more painful. So my mom asked her friend who sold Mary Kay for advice. At this time I was only washing my face at night and not using moisturizer. I think I was alternating between Avon (my grandma is an Avon lady) and Johnson and Johnson (my Aunt Nat works for them). So the Mary Kay lady friend gave me new stuff to try and it worked, I haven’t had a cyst since. My mom was so shocked by the practically overnight transformation that she became a Mary Kay lady and tried to hock it for awhile. Then I got into all the extra stuff. Like I used to do a day time crème, a nighttime gel, eye stuff, moisturizer. Now I just wash my face three times a day (morning, after work, night) and use moisturizer. I use the zit crème if I need it. So that’s my routine.

Weekend Plans
Somehow I got roped into making my mother a batch of ricotta at her house. I’m not sure how that happened. I think I told her I didn’t have a lot of time this weekend to have family dinner on Sunday (I was trying to see her Saturday while Seth was in Columbus for Chet’s birthday) and it turned into me coming over earlier on Sunday before family dinner and making her ricotta while I make my own. Which is fine, I’ll make a mess in her kitchen. I’m just worried that I won’t have room for all the ingredients in my fridge, it’s not easy to fit two gallons of milk, 2 quarts of buttermilk, and 2 quarts of half and half in a fridge.Seth and I still have to find time to make more noodles, which I’m 67% sure isn’t going to happen. Seth seems to think he is coming home early on Sunday (which he has NEVER done in his life unless I’m nagging him) or getting up early on Saturday to make them before he leaves (which might happen-it depends on when we get to bed Friday). I’m currently trying to decide what sides sound good with grilled brats, which is what we are making for Cheeto and Whitney who are coming over Friday night. So far I have sauerkraut, a salad, and cheesy mash potatoes, but that all sounds kind of boring. I’m obsessed with sides, you know, since it’s the only part I really eat.

Subway!
I’ve elicited a promise from Seth that we can have Subway tonite after grocery shopping. I totally blame Pam for this for reminding me the other day how much I love and miss eating Subway every Sunday. I swear I did it for about 3 years. They used to have a special that Pam and I would get where it was buy one footlong get one free at the Subway on 84th, so we would go and have lunch and dinner and just sit on the couch in our track suits and watch TV all day long. Those were the days…*sigh*. Later when Seth and I moved to Sioux Falls, we used to wake up right before the football games started on Sunday, dashed to Subway (the people there knew our order) and hurry back and eat our sandwiches and snuggle on the couch (I fell asleep) and watch football. Thinking about those days makes me miss Sioux Falls a lot. That and when the weather is really hot, I miss fall and winter in Sioux Falls because I remember I didn’t know anyone around me and didn’t care so I wore a lot of huge sweatpants and Seth’s old football hoodies everywhere. I remember being very comfy.

Octomom
So seriously, did anyone watch this last night on ABC? I ran across it while I was waiting for Seth to come to bed. That woman…well I learned a lot. You can tell she is/was a psych major because she’s constantly analyzing herself and her family and her actions and using typical psych words. She a lot more…educated then I realized. And also I learned that she was going to like, lose the embryo’s she had frozen, so it was a use them or lose them thing, and she couldn’t bring herself to destroy them, so she had them all implanted, never thinking they would take. The other thing I learned was that she really, really, loves kids. Even kids that just come up to her, like she’s one of those people who can really turn it on for kids. Like if this women was your kid’s teacher you would love her because she treats kids with respect but can talk to them on their level. I dunno, it was strange, because she’s obviously overwhelmed and a little nutso, but she knows it.

Two more days!
Alright kids, hang in there, it’s only two more days until the weekend!!! Well two and a half if you count that the morning has already almost gone by (I’m trying to be optimistic, it really hasn’t.)

Love (Subway Sundays and Sioux Falls),
Carrie

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.

Happy Hump Day everyone!
It’s a LOVELY day out, it’s raining and overcast and just perfect for staying in bed and snuggling and reading books. Now why am I not there now?

Random breakfast thought
I was making my frozen multigrain waffles this morning and I was looking at the box and they had fancy fruit on the waffles. Seriously, who puts fruit on their frozen waffles that they heat up in the toaster? I’d like to meet that person and shake their hand. I’ve put fruit on waffles that come off a fancy buffet when the fruit is sitting right there next to the waffle iron (and also the whipped cream, ooo I love whipped cream) but not at home when I pull frozen waffles out of the freezer and throw them in the toaster and eat them in my car on the way to work. I don’t even know if you can get kiwi at Bakers in Omaha. I know you can get it at Whole Foods…anyway it was a random thought I had this morning.

TV
We watched Big Bang Theory and Top Chef last night with dinner. I’m super excited that normal Top Chef starts soon! Like this week I think, tonite maybe. I also watched Intervention with the slacker heroin brothers and the family that enabled them and wanted to punch them all in the face. I fast forwarded thru most of the show. I also watched the first 10 minutes of Mad Men and that was good. I’m looking forward to next week. And of course, the only thing I have taping on Tuesday nights, Tiny and Toya, with its lovely insights. This week I learned that you have to have a strong circle of people to make strong choices, or something like that, I’m not sure, I just liked the idea of having a strong circle. I’m working on building mine.

I’m naked!
So for the second day in a row I’ve forgone any form of foundation or powder. I’m still wearing eye shadow so it looks like I’m wearing make up, but I was having the worst breakouts and I really thought it was due to the fact that its summer and sweaty and I was just layering on the cover up in the morning. I’ve come to the point where I wash my face three times a day, in the morning, when I get home from work, and at night. I figured I should stop wasting my mom’s money and only use the foundation/powder when I am doing something fancy. No one at NPP cares if I wear it. Heck most of the women don’t. So anyway it’s an experiment. I just got tired of going into the bathroom at work midday and having to wipe the layer of grease and make up off my forehead. And the breakouts were bananas. So far, so good, I’ll keep you updated.

Books
I just finished “The Chess Machine” and it was really good. I also was trying to plow thru a book in my bathroom called “Falling Slowly” and it was just too much and I gave up. I’m now reading “Vinegar Hill” in bed and “A Secret History” in the bathtub. I really need to finish that Amish Grace book though. It gets a little repetitive after a while, but I know that it really helps out when I need to find a nice center of balance. So I keep it in the office and read it while I’m waiting for Seth to finish up on the computer.

Weekend
So far it looks like we are grilling with Cheeto and Whit on Friday and catching up with them. Some time Saturday Seth is headed to Columbus to celebrate Chet’s 21st birthday and I am probably going to go have dinner at my parents and see their vacation pictures, they are in Wyoming right now visiting family and relaxing (and having a good time it sounds like!) Sunday hopefully Seth comes back at a decent time and we can work on ricotta and noodle making!

Later gater!
I get to leave early today for a doctor check up (yay early nap!) so I’m pretty excited about that. That probably means though that I should do some work, huh? Hope you all are having a lovely day and the weather is exactly what you want it to be!

Love (rainy days and overcast skies),
Carrie

The smaller the mind the greater the conceit.

Well hey there and good morning blog world. Happy Tuesday. I hope the week is going well for you, young as it is.

New Job
I started my new job this week. So far so good, although I haven’t really done anything monumental yet. Today is a busy day in the afternoon so we will see how that goes. It is very, very quiet in this building. I have a cube with a window now and it looks like every now and then they get lunch and cake for the training classes and then share the leftovers with us, so that’s exciting. I love free pizza and cake. I like my new chair. Now if I could just get a nap time over here, it would be perfect, or the ability to sleep in until I was ready to wake up and then get to come to work.

Succubus Garden
I’ve turned into THAT lady at work. I’m the lady bringing in cucumbers and tomatoes and begging people to take them. Like going cube to cube like a crazy bird feeder lady and begging people to take my veggie overflow. If my mom was in town I would give it all to her and tell her to put it on the veggie table at her church for people to take. Seriously people-Seth picked 2 bowls of tomatoes last night and 6 giant cucumbers. I just gave him a death stare like put those back and let them rot.

Status of Fantasy Lasagna
Okay so the tomato sauce is made, and about 16 of the noodles are made, the noodles were a lot tougher to do then I thought they would be. In fact I quit three times and threw a huge fit with tears over them not going as smoothly as when I did them with Bob. Seth swooped in and saved the day and I just snuffled and helped. We worked on it about 3 hours before we ran out of supplies. But he seems to have a system down. Hopefully we can get some more done this weekend while I work on the ricotta on Sunday. Otherwise the lasagna will have half homemade and half boxed.

Mad Men
Did you watch it? You either loved it or hated it. I didn’t see the first ten minutes so I have to go back and watch that on the DVR, but what I did see felt like a comfy smoking jacket. I love all the women’s clothes in the show.

Entourage
This was a good episode, although it’s starting to feel like the same formula over and over, things are going great, things fall apart. I loved the stuff with Ari though, he is definitely my favorite!

Blather
Alright that’s enough blather for today, sorry it’s all I have time for! I’ll try again tomorrow!

Love (to wear pajamas as my job),
Carrie

An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.

Hey all!
I'm starting my new job this week so posting will be sporadic at best. Once I get the hang of things around this neck of the woods, I will resume my regularly scheduled posting.
Miss me!
Love (weekends more than weekdays),
Carrie

It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.

Way, hey, hey. Happy Friday all! It's a bittersweet day for me as I pack up my desk and try to sucker someone into moving it to the other building for me. Plus I get to go to lunch-hooray!

Happy Birthday Kathy!
Today is Kathy's birthday. Remember she's one of my friends trying to sell a house? Well today is her *mumble mumble* birthday! Hooray! Happy Birthday Kathy. We are going to Johnny's Italian Steakhouse at Village Pointe to celebrate. Seth has to stay home because his project is due tonite at 11 pm and he has to do some final tweaking so he doesn't have a meltdown about it. And he has to clean the house for his parents visit Saturday. Chet is coming over too so we will have to go to the grocery store and get food because Chet could eat enough for an infantry division.

Speaking of food
This weekend I'm going to attempt to make the noodles for the lasagna. I'm very nervous but I looked at the recipe Bob gave me for food processor pasta dough and I'm more confident because a, it's really simple and b, the food processor does all the hard work, I just have to roll the dough thru the pasta machine thingy. Oh and find a place to dry it. That reminds me I should call my dad and see if he still has that sweater drying rack we had when I was in like 11th grade…I'm sure it hasn't survived one of my mom's house purges.

Let's see what else?
In an effort to combat the funky smell in my basement that I think is keeping me from hanging out down there I washed all the pillows and blankets and then sprinkled carpet powder everywhere, including the couches. I'm wondering if that time Pam and I got really drunk and she power vomited on me at New Years might be coming back to haunt me now that the weather is warmer…
Holy crap on a cracker, its only 8:35? Booo that. Major boo that.
You know that old saying forgive and forget? I'm working on that, it's a lot harder than it looks on TV.
Now it's 8:36…
My desk is all packed up and it's making me sad.
You know what would be awesome right now? If I didn't have to wear pants, and if I was at home in my bed and it was raining and overcast and cool out.
Remember yesterday when I did MORE THAN 1000 words? I'm struggling to do more than 500 today.

Alright I quit
That's all I've got rattling around people! I hope you have a super fantastic marvelous weekend and I hope I do too.

Love (sleeping in),
Carrie

What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death.

Hey Hey Hey.
It's Thursday. *insert something witty here about Thursday's*
My brain is on auto pilot yet again today, so you get whatever word vomit's up today again.

Oh sleep!
Okay I am seriously not getting enough sleep. I really wish I could take the opportunity to sleep this entire weekend, but of course, I can't. We are actually booking up quickly for the next couple of weekends. Next weekend is Chet's 21st birthday, but I think only Seth is going up to Columbus for that.

Music
Currently, because of my XM, I am being exposed to new songs. One of the songs I recently found myself liking was Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody". I also like The Script, who I just learned opened for U2.

TV
Last night I watched the Philanthropist because I was upstairs in bed and it was the only channel that I had something taping that I could watch upstairs (the other shows are on BBC America which only comes in on our cable box.) Anyway, that show is really good. I really enjoy it. I don't know if it got renewed since it was a show that was a favorite of the old head of NBC who recently got fired for spending too much on production, so I don't know if it will come back because it seems like a high production movie. But seriously I love the cast and the storylines, and I always learn a little something. Like that Haiti used to make rice but now it all gets imported from the US.
I also watched Conan because I was waiting for Seth to get all of his stuff done and into bed, and Gordon Ramsey was on and they were so cute together. They made baked Alaska, which I've never had, but seen and I had NO idea baked Alaska had ice cream in it. Huh. I can't believe fall tv season starts in a little under a month. I'm so not ready! I need to get Kings off my DVR! You can find my fall TV schedule here, if you would like to follow along with what I'm going to be watching this year. I may need to update that-I like some of the new show previews they have been pimping out.
I've recently had an aversion to hanging out in my basement, and I swear if we had a nicer TV in our upstairs living room, I'd make Seth bring up the DVR box. For some reason recently, I just don't like being down there. I think though, once the weather changes and I can start snuggling under blankets it might get better. Maybe it's the couches? Who knows? I'm strange like that. Oh before I forget-Mad Men starts Sunday!!

Succubus Garden
Is a tomato MACHINE. Do you need tomatoes? Seriously, please come get some. I have tomatoes I don't even know what to do with. I've already made close to 2 gallons of tomato sauce. I'm running out of ideas.

Food
All I can think about all the time is food. Lately mostly Biaggi's. The other day I literally found myself drooling and dreaming about Chammps, which doesn't exist in Omaha anymore but they had the BEST waffle fries and dipping sauce. Oh, Oh and in college my friend Julie made this cheese bread, and I have no idea what she had on it besides cream cheese, but she put it on the grill and it was heavenly. Don't get me started on French fries, you could be here for days. Oh man when I was a kid in Augsburg, we used to eat at the golf course a lot because my parents hung out there a lot and they had the BEST kaesespaetzle (basically mac and cheese) and salads. Kathy can vouch, that was the BEST food ever. Once after we moved, we tracked down the chef and went to his new restaurant and ordered the same food. It was still amazing. I think it started my awe of chefs.

Bing
So I used Bing Travel because I saw it on the Philanthropist last night and it looked easy to use and we are currently looking for our flight to NYC to visit my Aunt Natalia and go to the Giants game. It was a little confusing at first, and of course the cool feature that tells you when is the best time to fly didn’t work for me so that torked me off. But all and all it was okay, it just seemed like google, but with fancier buttons. Oh and it wasn't even the cheapest flight, cheapotickets.com had a cheaper one by like 60 bucks.

Time is not on my side
Lord, SERIOUSLY? It's only 9:30? I'm paying back some hella time karma today. Seth is actually going to be home tonite and I'm uber excited about it, so I want to get to that part of the day. I need to make his gross cheeseburger dip for his potluck tomorrow. Hopefully I can get thru that without throwing up or making a reference to it looking like neon cat barf.

The Time Travelers Wife
Okay seriously, that commercial makes me cry every time it comes on. I will probably never be able to see that movie. The whole concept gets me all welled up. I cried during HARRY POTTER, so much so a small child moved away from me and sat on his mom's lap because the scary lady next to him was sobbing hysterically when Hermonie was upset that Ron was being a jerk and she secretly loves him. It might be that Lifehouse song though, I do love that Lifehouse song.

More new job ridiculousness
So my new job needs my high school diploma when I come on Monday. For what? And how in the hell am I supposed to know where my high school diploma is?!?! I called my mom last night and she tracked down my college one, so I hope that works, since they generally don't let you into college without a high school diploma. I was shocked she knew where that was. I didn't! I also had to school the lady because she was literally reading me the list of I-9 approved documents and finally I got fed up and was like, I can just bring my passport and that's all you will need. And she was like, um…like she didn't believe me. If there is one thing I learned how to do at Tek it was fill out an effing I-9. If you filled it out wrong headquarters strung you out about it. It was part of my "bonus" how many I-9's corporate returned to my office. I wonder if they will have to do the E-Verify on me. Probably not. Since they weren't even sure if my passport would work as an acceptable document. Now that I think about it, I need to get a new passport, mine is still in my maiden name…

Wow!
I rambled more than 1000 words to you all today, and that's without even pasting from other sites or referencing anything. Go me! Alright I'll leave your tired little eyes alone for the day. Hope you have a good one! The weekend is almost here! Tomorrow is Kathy's birthday!

Love (generally food at the moment…),
Carrie

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Happy Hump Day blog. I don't have anything solid or concrete thoughts to share today-so here comes a whole lotta randomness…

What am I going to have for dinner tonite?
Seth has had class, for the last couple of weeks, until 10 Monday-Wednesday. Which leaves me to fend for myself for dinner. It's been a pretty steady diet of burritos, French fries, and asparagus. Last night I had left over Old Chicago from when my Mom brought it for the sick house. It was so strange not eating one of the staples on that night. I'll bet money tonite I eat a burrito.

Weekend
Our weekend is shaping up to be uber busy. Kathy's birthday party dinner is Friday night, of course Seth can't go because of his project deadline getting pushed until Friday night at 2 am. I'm trying to hitch a ride with my parents, because I want to go, I don't want to sit around and watch Seth code all Friday night. I have to find the time to get her present too. Saturday we have to go to the grocery store and then later that night Seth's parents are coming into town for a wedding and staying the night with us. Sunday is for resting and maybe seeing a movie since Kathy said last night she has some free tickets to the theater near us she won't use. I'm kinda jonesing to see that District 9 movie, but Inglorious Bastards looks good too…

Why are my cats insane?
I might have the cutest cats in the world, but they are the most mentally ill cats in the world, I've decided. They've started doing these crazy laps, on the spur of the moment around the house. They could just be sitting there on the couch dead asleep and then all of the sudden they are up and off tearing around. Then they go back to sitting and look at me like, what? Like I'm the crazy one for not participating in the crazy cat race.

Over it
I'm kind of over facebook at the moment. I feel like I 'm too old for it and I should be focusing on other grown up things. While I like being able to be connect with old friends and to see their pictures, I feel more of my energy and desire to share going into my blog. I'm sure I'll keep my facebook just for the ability to see what everyone is up to (come on, I'm nosy) but I think I'll try to cut back on the status updates and the facebook stalking. I have to start reprioritizing my time these days, I only got to take a hour and a half nap yesterday! I think I'll use it more like I use twitter, I just refresh to see what everyone is up to, but beyond that, if people want to see what I'm up to, they can come here. If blogger made it easier to add a photo album or to add more than four photos, I would probably stop updating my facebook all together.

Sad.
So I start my new job next Monday, and it's my last week with my old group. I love this group. This is the group I always start out with at NPP and they are always so good to me and such great people. I'm going to miss them a lot. Hopefully one day, I might be able to get back to being with this group, although I think that will be harder now that I'm officially an NPP employee. I can't just be farmed out like I usually am as a contractor. But needless to say, it’s a sad week for me and every day I have to talk myself into coming to work because I'm just so sad to leave my group and I don't want it to end. *Sniff and pout*

Blogs
I need some new blogs to follow. Most of the blogs I follow haven't been updating because they are enjoying the summer. And I noticed a lot of the blogs I follow are cooking blogs, and while I find them interesting, usually I just glance to see if I would like the recipe and if not I move on and don't even open the update. I've been checking out the "Blogs of Note" on blogger every day, but seriously, who picks those? The last like four were terrible. There's only one that was remotely entertaining and interesting, but not enough to follow.

Can we fall out of summer already?
I'm ready for autumn. I'm ready for cooler days and jackets and sweaters and the leaves turning pretty colors. I'm ready for my Halloween decorations and Thanksgiving and starting to stress over Christmas presents. I'm ready to be able to take walks with my honey (right now walking with me is so unpleasant with my whining about the heat, Seth just pretends he's going to do a quick run and it's not worth me tagging along). I'm ready for overcast days and nights when I can sleep with the windows open and start layering the duvets back on the bed. I'm ready for the days to get shorter. Anytime now, fall can show up.

Downtown Omaha-BAH!
So I have to go downtown in Omaha on Monday to do "orientation" for my new job at NPP headquarters. I'm so pissy pants about it. I HATE downtown. Hate it, I never know where I'm going. I can't get around and usually end up in tears on the phone with my dad. And late. Last time I had to go to NPP headquarters was YEARS ago. It's really putting a sour start on my new job. Plus, after I spend all morning there, I still have to drive all the way out here and start my job. I find the whole thing ridiculous. I should just get a day of orientation and start the next day. Boo NPP for poor planning.

Stabby
I would stab someone right now for a meal at Biaggi's. Their big house salad and some tomato sherry soup. Holy Mary Mother of GOD that sounds divine right now. I convinced Seth to let us go for our one year anniversary, but I just realized that is over a month. What is the first year anniversary present? Paper? I should look that up.

Bing
Has anyone used the Bing search engine yet? My Rolling Stone just raved about it, but honestly, I'm hesitant. I've already added the world "googled" to my vocabulary and life. It doesn't sound right to say "Binged", it makes me sound like an old lady who is confused about bling.

Who?
Names fonts? I want that job. I just recently started loving one called "Poor Richard".
Names cars? That job also sounds fun. I think there should be a car named The Dominator. You know you could sell that to any dude.
Can get me and Seth jobs at Disneyworld that don't suck so we can be there forever? I just watched our vacation video again and missed it so much I cried.
Is writing for Tiny and Toya, because that is some inspirational stuff. You are missing out if you aren't watching the show, I swear twice a show they give these little speeches and I want to like get up and hug everyone and congratulate myself on being the best person I can be. And cut the negativity out of my life (which I seriously am working on).
Told skinny white dudes it was cool to pierce their ears? It's not. I can't think of one instance where I've been like, oh man, that guy is so much hotter because he's wearing diamond studs. The first thing I think of is gross trailer trash.

Even more random then me
My Mom told me she and my Dad are going to Wyoming Saturday until next Thursday to see friends we have that are out there. They are driving. It just seems so spur of the moment I'm all put out and haven't figured out what I'm going to do without them!

Speaking of my Dad
I have a ever growing list of things I need my dad to do around my house before I tear my eyes out with anxiety, but he's been so busy at work and he needs this vacation so I've been holding off asking, but in case I forget-I need the tile done and my bathrooms recaulked. I even bought the caulking for it. I just am pretty sure if I attempt it myself someone will die.

And then I ate them
I'm starving. Coming in early is throwing everything out of wack for me. It's only nine and I want to eat my way thru a fridge. I keep forgetting my crackers (which are literally right by the garage door, they just haven't made it all the way to my car) and so my string cheese snack at 10:00 isn't as filling as it once one. *sad face*

He's all romantical, that's why I married him
Last night, because we were up so late, Seth and I decided to see if we could catch any of the meteor shower that Jim Flowers was touting on the news. We went out and laid on a sheet in the grass and held hands and only saw two meteors. Granted we were only out there about ten minutes after the allotted begin time, but I was being eaten alive by bugs (I literally have a bug bite on my ass) and laying in the grass made my allergies over joyous with sinus pressure and snot. But the ten minutes we spent out there was super romantic and sweet. I just wish Jim Flowers wasn't a liar and there were more meteors.

Be jealous
I have work to do. I have to get this audit done before I leave. And trust, this audit has got a lot going on. Seven pages of a lot. So I'd better get on that.
Hope you all have a marvelous day!

Love (for the ability to take a nap without anyone noticing I was sleeping),
Carrie

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.

Hey world. I'm dying. No seriously, at least it feels that way. Allergies SUCK. Big time SUCK.

Sick
I was out sick yesterday, as some of you may have noticed. I missed you all. Thanks for your well wishes! I'm hoping to get better, but if last night's snot suck fest was any indication, it's going to get worse before it gets better. Unfortunately I am starting the new job next week, so I can't spend this week lying in my bathtub filled with warm water and Johnson and Johnson's baby cold care, which as of now, is the only thing that makes me feel better.

TV
I attempted to watch TV yesterday, but got distracted by the Mad Men marathon. Luck of luck! Of course it was the part of season 2 I had seen, but Seth was home sick too and he hadn't seen it and so he was enjoying it and I was falling asleep until my nose plugged up and then choking on my own snot and then sitting there and whining about how I couldn't breathe. But don't forget! Mad Men starts Sunday-9 pm- on A&E. Anyway, I watched America's Best Dance Crew, which did anyone notice Donyelle from Season 2 of SYTYCD was on there? She was in the group of "big girls" who loved to dance. And I watched 2 episodes of The Closer which is getting really good people. You are missing something if you aren't watching this show, well not really, you are just missing some pretty good writing and good cop storylines. And I watched Entourage, which Yay Mark Wahlberg! Tom Brady! Good episode. In my snot filled haze, that's all I can really remember. I still have the season finale of Law and Order CI on the DVR, I hope to get to that tonite.

Finally!
I finally saw Harry Potter! Aren't you all so proud of me?!? I was uber excited. I laughed, I cried, I thought it was the best one yet. Even though it had a lot cut out and changed, it really was for the best and felt organic and needed for the movement of the story. It didn’t as much like a complete bastardizing of the originally story like it did in Order of the Phoenix. I really enjoyed it. Now I'm trying to figure out when I can see that District 9 movie, it looks so good!

I'm up to my ears in friggin tomatoes
Another 6 quarts of tomato sauce (for lasagna on the 30th) and I still have what seems to be hundreds of tomatoes. I send a ton home with my mom yesterday. Anyone need tomatoes? Note to self, six plants are not necessary if Seth plants the garden next year.

Best Mommy ever
My husband and I were invalids yesterday and my mom brought us dinner. Not only did she hand deliver dinner, but she brought it from Old Chicago so it was extra comforting and yummy. I know she had a million things to do yesterday so it meant a lot that she took the time to do that and even sit and talk for a couple minutes, without acting like I was going to give her the bubonic plague. Thanks Mom!

The in-laws are coming! The in-laws are coming!
My in-laws are staying the night Saturday night, they have a wedding in Omaha. It's going to be so weird because they NEVER stay with us. We have begged them before and they wouldn't. So it's going to be uber strange to actually have them stay. I have to sucker someone into cleaning up my guest room for them. Ha. Where is my husband??
I also have grand plans of trying to make lasgana noodles this weekend, but we will see how that goes. Kathy's birthday is this week and I'm not sure what we are doing for that yet!

Ugh…sniff sniff
Sorry this is short, but as you might have expected, I have a lovely allergy fog around my head and a stack of work on my desk that requires what little attention span I have. Plus if my sinus pressure keeps growing at the rate it's moving right now, I'll probably be going home at lunch.

Love (to be able to breathe normally and get a full nights rest),
Carrie

Given a choice between two theories, take the one which is funnier.

Well hey there fellow Friday lovers. You know I was thinking…Friday's not all that great. You still have to go to work for 8 hours. Now Saturday, Saturday is my kind of day.

SYTYCD
Well look at the egg on my face. I will try not to ruin it for people who may still have it on their DVR's, but man, that one shocked me. Even Seth was shocked and he hasn't really seen a lot of this season. I'm super excited for next season though. I hope it's better than this one was. I've heard a lot of male ballet dancers has made it thru to Vegas, so maybe that's a good thing? I don’t know.

Thunder rolls
Man here in Omaha we had some GREAT thunderstorms last night. I wish I could have stayed in bed and watched them all night, but alas, sleep calls me willingly. It sure was nice though. Kind of like God's way of saying "here Carrie, I'm going to turn up the gas on the planet for the next couple of days, but here are some awesome thunderstorms to placate you." Thanks God.

More drug testing
I get to leave early today to do some drug testing. I'm very not excited about it. Remember last time I went? Twice? I wish they had made my appointment earlier. Then I could have left after lunch and had the afternoon to myself.

Looking for a nom nom
To celebrate my new job, I'm trying to get my dad and mom to go to dinner with me Saturday night. I'm trying to find a new Mexican restaurant in town with big portions and lots of cheese. So far I'm failing. My parents like "Margaritas" on 72nd, but their portions are too tiny. Any suggestions I'm open to Omaha area people. I just found this one and it looks pretty friggin amazing. http://www.riverasmf.com/menu.asp

Wow. Really?
Did you know Lysol kills HIV-1? I didn't. I just read it on the bottle. Apparently if you get HIV on your desk, the Lysol spray will kill it for you. Huh. How about that? I wish it didn't make me gag when I sprayed it, I'd carry it everywhere and spray everything. But all the smells remind me of the playhouse my grandma had when we were kids that was full of spiders. We thought spraying Lysol on the spiders would kill them. It didn’t. So what did we learn today? Lysol kills HIV but not spiders.

Weekend plans
Nothing to big going on this weekend, thank GOD. Hopefully dinner with my parents and getting to see Harry Potter on Sunday afternoon. Seth has his project due Monday, a homework assignment, and needs to study for his final. I'm glad this class is almost over! Master's classes are sucking the life out of him!

TV
Last night I watched The Philanthropist while I waited for Chet and Seth to finish working in the yard and running errands. What a good show. I don't think they are going to renew it and that makes me sad, but I really have been enjoying it. I also watched Top Chef Masters and I'm glad Art Smith is gone, although his food always looked really good. His personality kind of grated. Now if they could get rid of the woman with no personality whose cooking always seems half thought thru, I would be a happy lady! I think I want Hubert or that Michael guy to win. Rick Bayless bothers me too. Next week looks so good!!

Snooozzzzeee
I just got very, very sleepy all of the sudden. It must be the lovely weather. I wish I could find a way to go home, sleep, and then do my drug test and go back home. But if I'm here at work I might as well stay here at work! At least until lunch…

Weekend well wishes!
Have a great weekend all! For those in the Omaha area-stay cool!

Love (Mexican food with lots of cheese and big platters),
Carrie

People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.

Good Morning. How's your Thursday going? Mine started the same. I woke up and thought "You know what would be MUCH better than going to work this morning? Staying in bed." But then I didn't want the guilt trip from Seth about how many bills we have and how the credit card bill is out of control and we really can't afford to let me lay around and maintain my sanity. So I got up.

SYTYCD
I'm going to call it now, I agree, it will either be Jeanie or Brandon. And I'm thinking Brandon since I tried to vote for him for almost 2 hours and couldn't get thru. Your thoughts?

Design Star
I'm catching up on Design Star. I watched the one where they designed kitchens (two weeks ago?) last night. Man those kitchens were bad. I wish they would get them the time to make them right. My kitchen is probably the one place in my house I would pay someone to remodel (the cabinets are gross) and I need good ideas!

Aerosmith
So Aerosmith was performing at Sturgis and Steven Tyler fell off the stage and hurt himself and had to be air lifted out of Sturgis. Wow. He's 61? Aerosmith is falling apart. I think they need to just give up touring and ride their awesome rollercoaster at Hollywood Studios instead. That's what I would do. You know they get to line jump if they want. Anyway I just thought I'd mention that people are getting airlifted out of Sturgis now. And not for knife fights or being run over by a motorcycle gang. Seriously is motorcycling even hardcore anymore? Everyone that I know that owns one is white upper class. There are tons of guys out here at NPP that ride their motorcycles, and trust, I don't think they litter-let alone own the road.

Fantasy…well Seth's, not mine
Seth is going to soon have his Fantasy Football League Draft. He does it live. He just got a fancy new whiteboard that will print people's teams once they figure out whatever mumbo jumbo it takes to make your teams. I really don't understand what's going on over there. What I do understand, and am super excited about, is cooking for 10+ people! It's been a while! So I've decided to make ricotta from scratch again, and homemade lasagna noodles and make some of my fantastic lasagna. I'm pretty excited about it. I think I'm going to try and have Seth have it on a Sunday (it will be in the next two weeks) so Friday night I can make the noodles and let them dry and Saturday night I can make the ricotta and let it settle and then Sunday morning I can assemble and bake. I think I need to do another round of tomato sauce cooking though for the lasagna. I like mine very saucey. I also plan on making the vegetarian one with fresh spinach (as opposed to the frozen I usually use which is always runny). So that's all very exciting and now I'm very excited for draft day. Which should be sometime in the next two weeks.

Home for sale redo
So NP Dodge put up MUCH better pictures of Kathy's house, so here's a better link for Kathy's house-
http://searchne.npdodge.com/index.cfm?action=listing_detail&property_id=20914127&searchkey=efeb6f0e-d808-976a-d7b4-09eb09d21689&npp=20&sr=1

Oh. Wow. Really?
So I got the permanent job at NPP. They just called me five seconds ago. I haven't processed a proper reaction yet. I'll get back to you…did I mention I talked about what I learned in marriage counseling for my communication skills and talked about my lack of bathroom door for 4 months and my cats? I seriously can' t believe they hired me. I'm in shock.

Onward and upward
Alright shiny peeps. I'm out. Have a great day!

Love (my XM radio),
Carrie

My Friends Homes for Sale in the Omaha area!

As promised here are two delightful people I know in Omaha who are trying to sell their homes. You should buy their homes or pass on the info to potential buyers and if you or your friends buy either of these houses I will give you a prize. Maybe Willow.

First up is Kathy's house, it just went on the market today. I might post the actually agent's site later, but for now, this is the MLS listing of the house:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/6976-N-88Th-Street_Omaha_NE_68122_1111547670?mp=1&source=ig

Just know that the pictures do not do it justice. Hopefully the agent retakes them. I imagine Kathy is on the phone right now eating someone's head about it.

To prove to you all the house is actually more awesome then the pictures, here is a picture of Kathy and I at my bridal shower in her house, see? Pretty. Excuse the fact that I'm barely wearing clothes and my hair is grey-it was a bad dye job.

The other house I have to sell you is Heavy Baggage Blogger L'ara's house. Here is the link to her house, it's a great deal! But you better act fast-I hear she has a second showing today!

http://www.cbshome.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?Search=9875a018-7106-4deb-b9cd-ded53a9f9203&Listing=41970680&IRPAgentID=10389&Image=1&First=1&Last=1&pagesize=10&SearchType=quick&ListingDistrictTypeID=&FirstLetter=&Sort=6&Cookies=&UseColorBar=false

Let me know if you need anymore info on the houses!

Love (to help you move, but not to help you physically move),
Carrie

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

Hello, welcome to Hump Day. I swear to all that is good that I the second I fell asleep last night my alarm went off. So needless to say I feel completely unrested and brain function is at an all time low.

TV
Last night I watched Top Chef Masters (finally caught up!) I like these rounds better then the first ones, the champion rounds or whatever, but it was really neat to see the best of the best compete against each other. I also was pretty excited to see Tom from Top Chef, because I kind of heart him.
Seth and I (for the brief 45 minutes Seth had to sit down and eat) watched Big Bang Theory reruns, which were all kind of hilarious.

Homes For Sale!
Kathy is putting her house on the market today and I am anxiously awaiting the listing to go live on NP Dodge so I can link it here for you. I don't know if my loyal readers are looking for a home in the Omaha area, but you might know someone. Heavy Baggage Blogger L'ara is looking for a buyer too, so as soon as I get Kathy's listing I'll make a special post for both of them.

SYTYCD
It's time for SPOILERS!
*Louis Van Amstel to choreograph.
*Mia Michaels, Adam Shankman, Tyce DiOrio and Debbie Allen to guest judge.
*Top 4 Group Routine by Wade (could be on results night)

Jeanine & Evan - Sonya Tayeh
Jeanine & Kayla - Contemporary - Mia Michaels
Kayla & Brandon - Broadway - Tyce Diorio
Brandon & Evan - Pop Jazz/Hip Hop - Laurieann Gibson
Kayla & Evan - Jive
Jeanine & Brandon - Paso Doble

Spoilers for the finale:
*Talia of SYTYCD Australia to perform a Sonya routine.
*Guest performance from "The Rage Boyz".

If you want more details and a more indepth review by someone who was at the taping last night, here is a link to a seat filler who posted a review:
http://community.livejournal.com/_sytycd_/812803.html#cutid1
Trust it's a thorough review! The writer did a great job.

Mama?
My mom is in Florida and I miss her. Not like I would be seeing her if she is in town, but I think the fact that she's out of the state just makes me uncomfortable.

Green
So our dear friend Cheeto and Whitney are baking in the Mexican sun right now on their honeymoon and I swear some days, it's all I think about. Like I want to be there so bad I almost cry about it. I'm so jealous. I want to write them emails all day long and remind them to have a great time because it will be over fast and to do all this stuff that I loved and eat all these things that are fantastic. When they come back and tell me all about it, I might cry through the whole story. I miss Mexico so bad. I officially want to get a little summer villa there like the people on House Hunters International. I wonder if my parents would go in on it with me…Shoot now I want Mexican food.

Lunch
My lunch is sucktakular today, which is sad because I really need it to be a rockstar lunch so that I have some inspiration to make it thru the rest of the afternoon. On the flip side, I think I might have pizza for dinner tonite…

Weather
Have I ranted to the blog world yet about how much I HATE sunshine, and heat, and summer in general? Well if I have, I apologize, but the weather is about to spend the next week in SWEATY HELL so I'm complaining again. I hate summer. I hate squinting on my drive home and to work. I hate sweating. I hate humidity. Is it fall yet? Fall is great, you get to wear cute layers and the leaves are pretty. There is generally NOTHING good about summer in Nebraska. I need to find somewhere that has summers that get no warmer than 70-75 and stays pretty much overcast. Where is that? You tell me so I can try to get Seth to transfer there.

Carrie, Out
Okay kids, since hopefully I will be back today with a special, buy my friends houses post, I'll leave you for now. Plus it's time to eat my string cheese. And you know I don't like that time of day messed with.

Love (cheese),
Carrie

An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it.

What a lovely Tuesday. I wish I was home in bed snoozing enjoying the weather. I'm glad that it is storming though because last night I kept seeing flashes of lighting and I thought I was losing my mind because Seth never saw them and thunder never followed. We had the blinds down because we have the air on, so I could never be really sure of what I saw. This morning I finally heard thunder so I was relieved that I wasn't on the crazy train.

Willow Sabu-Princess Kitty
My cat has royalty issues. She demands to lay on our guest bed all by herself (if you lay with her or if Baggy lays with her you get stink eye and a butt in your face) and you must come in and visit her and pet her there. She won't come to you much anymore. And recently she has done the most high maintenance thing I have ever seen. Bags usually gets a piece of lunch meat if I'm making Seth's lunch sandwich or if I'm making Seth's breakfast. It's our cute little thing, he knows its coming and he squawks at me if I'm falling behind his designated morning snack time. He waits as patiently as he can while I get everything out. It's pretty adorable. Lately though, Willow has been present for these sessions. I've tried to give her half of the piece of lunch meat, but she just looks at me like I'm an idiot. Last night she came in and sat on the kitchen table bench and pawed and meowed at me. Not wanting to waste lunch meat or over feed Baggy, I tore a thumb sized piece off for her. She purred and picked up the piece with her paw and gobbled it up. Then she mewed and pawed at me again. I tried it again. We did that about four times. The next time I did it, the piece of meat fell flat on the bench and she couldn't scoop it up. She looked at me like I was a flippin idiot. I folded it up so she could scoop. After six pieces, she was done. She left with her little tail tick tock crocing as she sauntered out of the kitchen. Baggy still scarfing his piece of meat and making "nom nom" noises, but even he paused in awe of what just happened. This morning she showed back up as if we were going to repeat the ritual, but I tore the piece too big, she scoffed and pittered off, as if she had better things to do then wait for me to get my shit together on how she was to be fed.
She was a TERROR this morning. At 5 am she decide it was time to play. I don't understand why she can't go play in the living room. Oh because then it wouldn't disturb my sleep. She brought mousey (her favorite toy) and dropped it off the step ladder we have in the bedroom (to put DVD's in the player) over and over trying to attack it and catch it before it hit the ground. Eventually she woke up Bagheera so then he decided to see what she was up to. When I finally made Seth yell at her at 5:20, she looked at him like he was an idiot and went right back to making the MOST ANNOYING NOISE IN THE WORLD. I got up in a rage and kicked everyone out-but then I felt bad because I heaved Bags out of the room and all he was doing was watching, so I went into the hall to pick him up from where I had unceremoniously dumped him out of the room and brought him back to bed. Willow showed up shortly after, thinking that meant she was welcome back in and proceeded to practice her tight rope walking routine between the high dressers. I CAN'T WIN. While she was waiting for breakfast, she practiced her kitty on crack laps around the house while she held mousey. If she wasn't so cute and Seth didn't like her so much, I'd give her to my Dad. He can deal with her brand of princess. Because I'm about to kill her.

TV
Last night my DVR had a seizure every time I tried to watch something, so I only watched Entourage (alright episode, I like Ari centric episodes) and Top Chef Master's and America's Best Dance Crew (I was mislead, I thought it was the first episode and it was more like greatest hits) before I got mad and quit trying to watch my DVR. Every time I fast forwarded and tried to stop, it had a meltdown and completely rebooted, there by screwing up my recording of The Closer, so I have to wait until Saturday again to DVR that. Nice. The only consolation to my TV junkie soul last night was that my Pushing Daises DVD's came and also my Entourage DVD's! Yay!

NPP Forever?
I have an interview today for a permanent position at NPP (right now I'm just a contractor). I'm nervous, but not nervous because I think I like the qualities they are looking for, just nervous because I tend to be a huge goon during interviews. Like giant goon. I tell you things you don't really care about and ramble on for hours. Plus my pants are tight today (they were the loosest ones I can find, I haven't worn dress pants in forever-most of my dress pants are packed away) and everything is all squished and crabby in my lady region area. At the moment it's all I can think about. I feel like a can of biscuits waiting to pop.

Thanks Oprah!
Oprah gave away a free book yesterday, "Let the Great World Spin" by Colum McCann. I started it (it was a free PDF) and it is a really great book, very visual and just has some of the most beautiful descriptions I've read in a while. I also finished the book "Liar, Liar" and am getting close with "The Chess Machine"-I put a new book for my bathtub book in the bathroom, but for the life of me I can't remember what it is right now. It's one of the library freebie stack.

Rebranding
Okay so I just read that "Radio Shack" is changing its name to "The Shack" and a couple months ago I read that "Pizza Hut" changed its name to "The Hut". I think that sucks. I also think it sucks that they changed the Nickelodeon logo so instead of the slime splat it's just a straight boring line of letters. EPIC FAIL.

Sleepy in the Pants
Alright Friends, that's all the thoughts I have in me today. I can hardly keep my eyes open again. It's just such a lovely day for sleeping. If I didn't have this interview today, I'll bet you money I would have stayed home and enjoyed the weather and the napping.

Love (cloudy grey days),
Carrie