Good timing and disbelief

Tuesday I stopped at the library in University Heights to return a book and grab a book they had for me from the hold shelf. As I pulled into my parking spot (on the street just outside) I realized it was a metered spot. I debated for a minute just running in and hoping I would be ok. Then I realized I really didn't want a $40 parking ticket for an expired meter since I'm unemployed and attempting to not spend frivolously! So I scrounged around in my wallet couldn't find any change. I remembered Mark and I had spent all our change over the previous weekend parking in Little Italy. So I again thought about just running in...but then I just thought it really wasn't a good idea. I remembered I had a nickel somewhere in the bottom of my purse because that's where I threw it when Andrew gave it back to me at lunch the other day. I found it and threw it in the machine. Knowing I only had 3 minutes from the nickel, I ran in - dropped my book off on the counter, went over to the hold shelf, grabbed my book and got checked out fairly quickly. I think I actually spent more time in my car looking for change than I spent in the library. But upon walking back out the door I was glad I had! The meter maid was there writing a parking ticket for the car next to mine! That was someone who had pulled up after me, and she was still in the library filling out an application for a library card! Oops. I'm so glad I found that nickel at the bottom of my purse! I still had 2 minutes on the meter when I got back to my car so I was quick...but the 5cents was totally worth not getting a $40 (or something ticket!).

Yesterday on my way home from being over at Gma's house and helping them pull out their Xmas stuff I stopped to fill up my car. I had a $2o in my wallet so I decided to pay with cash (especially since the gas station I was at charges more for credit). So I ran in, gave the lady my $ and came back outside. When the pump stopped I looked up and realized I was getting CHANGE from my $20 and my tank was full! When is the last time that happened??? Disbelief! I only got like $2.25 as change...but still!

Today is my last day of 29. Crazy!!! We're heading over to Christmas on the Prado (or December Nights or whatever its called now) with Mel and JR. As long as no one tries to throw my caramel apples out before they are gone...it'll be a great end to 29! :)

Last Monday of 29

First Peppermint Mocha of the season! Yum! May be my first and last since I have been ordered by the doctor to drink less coffee (boo!). But I am being good and obeying.

Tonight....Christmas decorating!

Last Sunday of 29

So today was my last Sunday of 29. Crazy! I can’t believe my birthday is in less than a week! Today I slept in a little while and did some chores around the house. Then I went to lunch with my mom and Grandma Cindy for her bday. When I came home I watched the Chargers lose ☹ Then I did more chores around the house and FINALLY listed all the leftover wedding stuff on Craigslist to finally get it out of our house! I don’t want to just throw it away…so hopefully some other bride to be out there wants it. I can’t believe it took me over a year and a half to finally do this…who am I kidding!? I’m a ridiculous procrastinator-but now its done. So hopefully people want to buy the stuff and it goes to a good wedding and I make a little bit of money to go towards my new cell phone ☺

Tomorrow we start decorating for Christmas! This may be the first year ever I’m excited to decorate BEFORE my birthday. Hmmm…

18 days till 30...

Wow...it's getting closer. Still debating what to do for my birthday night. But am certain am going to be celebrating Van's 1/4 century with her :)

Random thoughts for today:
-by accident we discovered a new toy for Kiley. As per usual, anything we buy for her as a toy or bed or the like she wants nothing to do with. However, a balled up piece of tinfoil became her new favorite toy a couple days ago and today I made her a "fresh" one and she had a blast with it all day! Ahh....the cheap things in life:)
-I went to the grocery store tonight for some necessities...and low and behold- Eggnog is out! hooray! I guess that means its holidays time. I really want some, but can't drink a whole carton myself...anyone want to share?
-Also on my trip to the grocery store today I realized they now have the holiday pine cones out front of BOTH entrances of the store. And since they all smell like cinnamon I have to hold my breath when entering and exiting the store!

25 days till 30...

Today I spent the day doing a lot of chores and things on my never ending "to-do" list around the house. After walking this morning (and finally getting back onto my longer routine after feeling sickly) I did all the laundry in the house and put the new sheets on the bed. Yay! I cleaned up the kitchen and did the dishes. Grant stopped by and we hung out a bit (which involves him playing various games on the PS3-normally Call of Duty 4). I read some of my book, chatted with the freighbors, vacuumed and checked my credit reports. My reports all look good...so hopefully when the economy settles down and I have a job again, Mark and I can be first in line to get a house with our good credit scores :)

ps-if you can't tell I'm trying to write more in my blog, and using the countdown to my birthday seems to make it easier to do each night.

26 days till 30...

Today I finished the book I started last night called 1st to Die by James Patterson. My Grandma Jenni gave me the first 6 books in the Women's Murder Club series a couple months back, and I finally got around to reading the first one. I actually didn't realize the books were part of a set, though the fact they were numbered books maybe should have tipped me off that they belonged to a set. But I really enjoyed the first book, I liked the characters and the murder mystery in it. I can't wait to start the second book tonight! Mark and I also finished up some projects around the house over the weekend/tonight. We hung some wedding pictures and some decorations around the house. I also finally completed a project I had been working on for a board to hang my jewelery on. Almost 3 years in this apartment and its starting to feel homey :)

Still looking for a job...anyone have any good leads?

Netflix Instant Watch Saves the Day!

So tonight we finally watched Gone Baby Gone. We have had it from Netflix for almost 2 months (which I'm a little embarrassed to admit!). It was a really good movie. I think Casey Affleck did a great job, along with the rest of the cast. The reason we hadn't watched it was because we were never in the mood for a downer movie. But after having it so long, and having really enjoyed the preview we saw for it, I wanted to watch it and not send it back unwatched. So we started the movie when we were eating our home made pizza...and just about an hour in (to the 1 hr 53 min movie) the disc froze. We assumed it was just switching layers because it was a Blu-Ray disc...and then is skipped to another scene! :( So we rewound it and tried it again with the display on to see how much time we were missing. It skipped almost 12 minutes! We took out the disc, cleaned it, tried it again...still skipping! Luckily Mark had enabled "watch instantly" on our Netflix account, and I had seen earlier this week that it was on the watch instantly queue. So we used my laptop to pull the movie up and luckily it allowed us to skip ahead to where we had left off. We were able to watch the missing minutes on watch instantly, and then go back to watching the dvd on the tv. Hooray! Of course...those were the most intense 12 minutes of the movie so far...so without them we would have been totally lost! Hooray for Netflix watch instantly now available on Macs! And kudos to the Gone Baby Gone cast and writers/director for a great movie. If you like a mystery, or The Wire (though not as good as The Wire), rent (or watch instantly) Gone Baby Gone.

29 days till 30...

So its another day closer to 30. My day involved hangin with my bro, watching Obama speak on tv, researching randomness on the internet - including info on the Twilight movie (which opens in 2 weeks), looking for a job, going to Trader Joe's (who has no pineapple-canned or frozen but has raised the price of mozzarella cheese - blah), saw a SUPER tall guy at TJ's, fed the fatties next door for the freighbors, and am now doing some chores while listening to Coldplay and getting ready to make pizza with Mark for dinner tonight-yum!

Here is me as Debbie Gibson at the 80s Halloween Party in McFarland.

30 days till 30...

So...its 30 days till my 30th birthday (ahh!) and though I've been thinking about it for awhile...I still am not sure what I want to do to celebrate turning 30! How has it snuck up on me so fast?

don't wake Kiley up from a nap

something new to play with

Poladroid, the program that turns regular pictures into old school polaroids! :) Just started playing with it...fun!

Mac only!

Looking for work

So...the time is rapidly approaching when my "free money" will end. As much as I told myself in the beginning I wasn't going to go back to my old work, its looking more and more like I'm going to have to consider it. With the way the economy is right now, there just aren't that many jobs out there. Eh...I guess I can always continue to look for something else once I'm employed again. Or maybe this time I will find something I like there. Well, I actually did like my last actual job...just not the drama that went on in the department and they way things were handled at the end. So...we'll see what happens. Fingers crossed for a job that pays me more than unemployment would!

How I spent last night (or why I went to bed at 5am today)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Its kind of like a drug when an author can draw you into a world, can draw you in so far you have no concept of time or events in your reality, to make you want to turn page after page to see how the lives of your new friends Bella and Edward are progressing. Its a good drug and I can't wait to read the next installment.


View all my reviews.

PS...I blame Mel for giving me the idea to read the book, though I only have myself to blame for taking it from her last night...and reading it all in one sitting!

Nicknames are for friends

I read this on a blog tonight:

"I refuse to call Cabernet "Cab". Nicknames are for friends. Wine... you ain't there yet. Not like my pal "Suds." Yeah, me and "Brewski," we're still tight."

I thought this was funny. And for me, I must disagree...me and "Cab" are friends...as are me and "Zin". :)

Kiley

Kiley also enjoys the new couch...though does not enjoy getting her picture taken :)

Free Disneyland Ticket for your birthday in 2009!

Disneyland is giving you a free ticket to use on your birthday in 2009! I think that is way cool. Register online and go for it! What better way to celebrate your birthday and still feel like a kid than to go to Disneyland??

Help find Belikin

I just got an email from my friends Jason and Sarah that one of their cats has gone missing! We helped them move (back) into their house this weekend. Apparently Belikin missed living at Grandpa's house and wandered off! If anyone is in Allied Gardens and sees an orange & white cat, please stop and see if its Belikin. Let me know if you see anything.

See this post for more on Belikin Watch 2008.

Tuesday randomness

So I'm doing laundry today and I run out of laundry soap (well I've already bought more since I knew I was getting low) and I rinse the bottle and go throw it in the recycle bin. When I'm down at the trashcans I remember J & Mel have some empty boxes in front of their car to recycle and I decide to grab 2 to hold my "give away" piles until Amvets comes next week. I see Kiley sniffing at the boxes (I decided to be nice and let her wander while I'm doing the laundry). I grab 2 boxes and notice the door by the water heater is open a bit (this heater is in the carport area with a small area next to it, both sides covered by sliding doors). This door is periodically open so I glance in. I see the usual back suitcase thats in there (I'm not sure how, when or why its there, but its been there since the first time I peaked in the door). On top of the suitcase now though, is a Container Store bag filled with recycling! I'm assuming its the collection of one of the various people who go through all the recycle bins in our alley daily. But I'm not sure why they would leave it, or hide it there. So then I go back upstairs with my boxes and grab my clothes from the dryer and go back down to make Kiley come inside. But she's not in her usual spot by the mailbox. I go back by Mel's car and she isnt there either. I make the rounds and end up back in the alley looking for her. I check under Mel's car and there is a lady walking in the alley that says "Are you looking for this cat with the collar?" as she points to the yard of the (now-non) abandoned house. I go around the fence...and sure enough...Kiley is sitting in the yard, beyond the new fence, next door. I say to her "What are you doing in there? You don't live there...get out here!" and she stands up and comes back through the bars. The lady laughs as I thank her. I heard Kiley back up the stairs, but she gets no treats this time! At least I didn't have to try to go in to get her out!

Dilemma of the week

Originally when I left the bank, I had decided I wasn't going to go back to banking or a job in the finance industry. However, after a month or so, I decided it was dumb to limit my job search, and that if a job I was interested in happened to be at a bank or credit union then I would apply for it. I found not one, but 2 jobs at the same company that I'm thinking about applying for. However I don't think I can apply for both jobs without sounding desperate. So for the last week or so I've been debating about which to apply for.
job #1 is a job that basically fits the exact description of what I've been looking for. I don't have all the qualifications, but think i could do a really good job. It would be challenging and interesting. The pay however is lower than what i was looking for, but the job description is transferable outside of banking/finance.
job #2 is a job that I know I could nail, I meet all of the qualifications and I would rock at it (if I do say so myself). I think this job would be interesting as well, even though it's not originally what I thought I wanted. The pay is higher than job 1, and still not as high as I wanted (though I'm not sure I'm going to find the perfect job with the perfect pay) however this job isn't transferable outside of banking/finance at all (though some of the skills are).


Ahhh...what to do? Any thoughts?

Crazy cat

The problem with exercising at home various from person to person. Some people lack motivation, some people lack space, and some people have Mr. Heckles living below them so they can't make any noise! Well my problem is a combination of Mr. Heckles (or lady Heckles in our case) and Kiley! I've been walking for the last couple weeks, and I've been good about walking 4-5 days a week. Today I decided I wanted to start doing some simple leg/arm exercises after my walks...well Kiley thought lunges were a game for her...so each time I moved my legs, she chased my feet around. Well, for anyone who has met her and her teeth, you know this was not a fun game for me! I ended up just standing still till she got bored, and then I continued with the exercising. I wonder if it will still be a game for her tomorrow.