Strawberry Blonde

Playability!

2009-02-16T11:15:00.000-08:00

Very recent conversation between my 3-year-old niece and her grandma:

Grandma: "Hey, Em, I'm going to get dressed and you should too!"

Em: "Why?!"

Grandma: "So we can go to the grocery store! Do you want to go with me in a little bit?"

Em: "Yeah!! But not right now. Right now I'm too playable!"

Making Sugar Cookies with Em!

2009-01-25T21:04:00.001-08:00

Hanging out with baby M

2009-01-25T14:58:00.001-08:00

M's beautiful eyes!! The dark part of this picture is Thomas the Train, driving toward the camera.

Exciting!

2009-01-22T02:21:00.001-08:00

My Etsy shop is officially UP and RUNNING!

Head over to my Lazy Daisy Marie blog for details!

First to the Finish Line

2009-01-15T10:16:00.001-08:00

Last night, I had a dream about running. I know, right? RUNNING.

I was in this race. I don't know how long it was supposed to be. You know where it took place? At my house. Yup. Started in the back yard, went through the family room, hallway, kitchen, dining room, living room, up the stairs, down the hall, into my room and back. There were tons of people running laps through my house.

And I was winning! I was winning without being totally tired or sweaty or anything.

And you know who was there cheering me on? BARACK OBAMA. He totally wanted me to win.

Weird, huh? Someone who's good at interpreting dreams please tell me what this means!

My Delicious Breakfast Burritos

2009-01-13T13:30:00.001-08:00

I need to suspend humility for a minute and declare that I make the best breakfast burritos.

Curious? Do I have your attention? Here's how to experience pure culinary joy for yourself.

The following directions will make 3-4 burritos, but can easily be adjusted for however many people are being fed. Leftovers reheat well, too. These are super yummy and very filling!

You'll need the following:

Burrito Size Flour Tortillas
Eggs
Milk
Spicy Pepper Jack Cheese (grated)
Bacon
Frozen Tater Tots
Salt and Pepper
Hot Sauce (Your favorite!)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spread out enough tater tots to on a cookie sheet to cover about half the length of the pan. Once the oven's heated, bake the tater tots. They usually take about 15 minutes to become gold and crispy.
Trim the fat off of 5 pieces of raw bacon. Lay them on a piece of paper towel on a microwaveable plate. Microwave on high for 6 minutes.
To make the scrambled eggs, melt 1 tablespoon butter into a nonstick skillet on medium heat. crack 6 large eggs into a bowl. Mix in about 2/3 cups of milk. Add some salt and pepper. Mix together. Pour egg mixture into pan. I've found that scrambling eggs is a tradeoff between fluffiness and scrambled-ness. The less you mess with eggs, the fluffier they will be. When the eggs are 90% done, add a big handful of grated pepper jack cheese and turn the skillet to low to melt cheese and keep eggs warm til time to assemble the burrito.
By now, the tater tots and bacon should be done and out of the oven and microwave. Once cooled, break bacon and tots into bite-size pieces.
Lay a flour tortilla flat on a plate and spread some grated cheese in the middle. Microwave on high for 45 seconds to heat the tortilla and melt the cheese.
Scoop some eggs and tater tots into the middle of the tortilla. add some bacon pieces and some of your favorite hot sauce. Fold in ends of the tortilla and roll the sides tightly.
Enjoy your yummy breakfast burrito!

As you might have inferred from the directions, multitasking is important. It took me a few times to get the timing of each step down.

This is not a call to action.

2009-01-12T08:20:00.001-08:00

The only way I'm going to go run . . .

. . . is if someone is chasing me.

You may or may not know.

2009-01-06T19:30:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things about me that not quite everyone may know. . .

I don't like exercise. Now, I don't mind activity but I really really hate the idea of working out for the sake of working out. I like things like playing games or going on hikes to get a workout, but the only reason I'd go running is if someone was chasing me.
I am a chronic multitasker. I simply cannot just sit and do one thing. If a movie is on, I need to keep my hands busy, so I'll knit, blog, or facebook chat. I can't just sit and read a book, so instead I'll listen to audiobooks while I work on a project that still allows me to focus on what I hear.
I am a neat freak. I think cleaning is fun and therapeutic. Organization is great. I'm pretty much always purging my room and closet of things that I don't need. I am the opposite of a clutterbug. Oh, and I think Feng Shui is pretty legit.
Sometimes, I lie. Not about important things, but sometimes I think it's fun to try to convince someone that something absolutely absurd is true. I once spent a while explaining to a friend how if you want your hair to grow faster, you need to take down all the mirrors in your house. I usually end up telling the truth afterwards, though. This might be my compensation for never trying acting.
My hair hasn't been it's "natural color" since eighth grade.
If money didn't matter, I would be a professional student. I would rather get a bunch of degrees in completely different areas of study rather than use the degree I already have to go get my master's. There's so much out there to take in, and I wish it could be my job to just learn as much as I could.

That's all I can think of for now. If there's anything else you'd like to know, just ask! =)

Uh oh.

2009-01-05T17:49:00.001-08:00

A Lesson From the NICU

2009-01-05T16:16:00.001-08:00

A while back, I was interning in a child life program and I was assigned to hold a little baby girl in the NICU. She was only 4 months old and had already had many surgeries, with many more to come. As I held her, trying to maneuver around the many tubes and wires connected to her tiny body, I felt the spirit touch my heart, and remind me of what we agree to when we choose to come to Earth.

Not long ago, Heavenly Father told her Spirit that she would come to Earth with all of these trials, that doctors would be fighting to keep her alive, and that the very act of breathing and living would be a struggle. And she still, knowing the difficulties of the calling, chose to come here anyway. Because mortality is that much of a blessing, that it's worth the hard times to gain the experience. It's such an important journey to take, that she was willing to temporarily leave the presence of her Heavenly Father, even though a life of pain and struggle awaited her.

That baby girl reminded me that I, too, was presented with a calling, and that I chose mortality despite the trials that I would encounter. My trials were put into perspective, and I realized that the things I face can not lessen the value of this mortal experience. I, too, told Heavenly Father that I would happily take those troubles upon me to be able to live on Earth and to return to live with Him again.

That baby girl taught me so much in an hour, and she had only been on this Earth for 4 months. I hope and pray that I always remember her and that experience.

Big Picture Restlessness

2009-01-01T15:37:00.001-08:00

What do I want to do with myself?! I have some good ideas. I'm pretty sure any of them would work and I'm sure I'd be able to live in a just fine existence if I went with any one of them.

But I don't want something that just works and would provide a just fine existence. I want something exciting and engaging. I don't want a career where I address Problem A with Solution A. I want to do something where I can continue to grow and thrive and learn ALWAYS.

I call this a case of "Big Picture Restlessness". I've had this plan for a while that I'd take the degree I received into a grad school program that I've always been attracted to, and after hiding out in school for 2 more years I'd enter that job field and be happy camper working lady. But lately I've realized I'm not sure enough to commit the time and resources necessary to master a field that I feel good about but not CERTAIN about.

So, now what?

I want to take classes I haven't taken before and try new things. I want to see what inspires me and what could make me happy in the long run. And none of it has to do with money. There's just so much out there in the world to learn and explore. I don't want to cop out by thinking I've found my niche when I've found a pretty good fit.

So my new plan is a lack of a plan. And I know that by saying that, I risk being accused of lacking direction. But to that I say, "I have a direction. I'm going forward." And as for plans, I think I will plan to be surprised.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T21:58:00.001-08:00

Hope you all are having a great time ringing in the New Year! Thanks for reading my blog and paying attention to my silly life =)

One of my favorite New Year's Eve movie scenes is from "When Harry Met Sally" and includes this memorable quote:

I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

Cutie Pie!

2008-12-30T17:34:00.001-08:00

How cute is this kitty?!?!?!

Product RAVE!

2008-12-30T15:56:00.001-08:00

I. LOVE. OLIVE OIL!

I really love it with balsamic vinegar, garlic, and french bread. YUM. However, EVOO is an incredible beauty product.

Yep. Just plain extra virgin olive oil. The stuff you buy at the grocery store. The on sale discount stuff. It's all FANTASTIC for a myriad of beauty uses. Here's my list of my favorite uses for a product you probably have sitting in your cupboard right now:

Moisturizer - for face and body, EVOO is great. Paula Begoun recently discussed the benefits of olive oil as a moisturizer and offers some great information.
Conditioner - olive oil makes hair super silky! Sometimes I'll put olive oil in my hair, put it up in a towel, and hang out for a while before washing it off in the shower. It's a great way to add shine and softness to dry hair!
Anti-Frizz - Post-shower, applying a little olive oil to the ends of hair helps keep frizz away! Careful not to get it too close to the roots though!
Shaving Moisturizer - My skin is irritated by many shave gels and the whole shaving process, but olive oil is a great substitute! I'll rub some in to my skin before hopping in the shower and when it's time to shave, I don't have to apply anything else! My skin ends up silky smooth, soft, and I don't have to deal with the itchiness I sometimes face post-shave.
The Oil Cleansing Method - I can't explain this as well as the site I linked to here, but I will say that I LOVE oil cleansing. If you're feeling adventurous and want a totally new skin-cleansing experience, try it out!

While these are my favorite uses for olive oil as a beauty product, you can find a lot of other uses from the EVOO reviews at MakeUpAlley. (You may have to register to view the page, but registration is free!)

Work in Progress!

2008-12-29T05:17:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I've been working a whole lot lately on getting things ready so that I can start an Etsy shop to sell some of my handmade creations!

I need to ask you friends and family to do me a few favors to help me get things going! Please go check out and bookmark my new craft blog over at http://lazydaisymarie.blogspot.com and let me know what you think of the layout and the posts I've done so far.

The point of that blog is for me to gather some information so I can be more successful in marketing my products when I start selling things. Over time, the blog will probably become more of a showcasing point for current projects and other things that will soon show up for sale in my Etsy shop.

BTW, the only reason I'm not linking to said shop right now is that I haven't listed anything yet, so it's just a sad page with my very cool banner on it =)

I appreciate any help and support you're willing to lend, and I'll try to return the favor when needed. Thanks again!

Finally, these won't be spoiling anything!

2008-12-25T23:18:00.000-08:00

As I warned everyone, I was pretty much giving only handmade gifts this year for Christmas. I didn't really plan well, so I have a few things I still have to finish before giving them to people, but here's the artsy stuff I gave people today that I want to document. This cartoonish fish painting was my gift for baby nephew M.

Here on the right is the painting I gave to niece Em. I think it matches some of the stuff in her room. That's what I was going for at least.
Last of the paintings (for now) are these little handprint canvases. I gave these to my sister and bro-in-law. I painted the patchwork background and then helped each of the kids get their handprints on them (counter-clockwise from the top: E, Em, and M). M was a little too young to get to not smear the paint, but I think it turned out cute lol.

So true. Learn this.

2008-12-23T16:41:00.000-08:00

I say it "Shamp-Oo"

2008-12-18T17:25:00.000-08:00

Here's my current favorite shampoo and conditioner products. I'm including my favorite low-cost, drug store brand and a higher-end product for whenever we get out of this recession. =)

(P.S. the links will take you to the Makeup Alley review page for the product, just in case you don't trust me.) ;)

Aussie Moist

Shampoo and Conditioner
(Around $3/bottle, depending on where you shop)

I really love this stuff! It smells delicious, and even the shampoo helps detangle my hair from whatever mess I got it into since I last washed it. I'm one of those bad people who shampoos daily (don't hate), and this doesn't strip my hair at all. The conditioner is also great! It leaves my long hair well hydrated and easy to comb through. It's really important to me that I don't have to fight my products to get volume in my hair, and this doesn't weigh down or look greasy. And best of all, you can't argue with the price.

Aveda Dry Remedy
Shampoo and Conditioner
($22/bottle on Amazon.com)

I've been a fan of Aveda products ever since I started going to an Aveda concept salon back in high school, where I found the best hair dresser EVER. As for the Aveda fragrances there's pretty much people who hate them, and people who love them. I LOVE them. And that's why, if I'm ever feeling rich, I splurge on Aveda. This shampoo and conditioner work just about as well as Aussie Moist, for about 7 times the price. The way I see it, it's paying 7 times as much for the smell. It's up to you if it's worth it. This shampoo and conditioner leave my hair shiny, lightweight, and untangled, and I haven't had a bad hair day on them yet =)

Amazon.com Widgets

So there's my first review. How'd I do?!

Putting my limited knowledge to use...

2008-12-18T15:57:00.000-08:00

I, JessicaMarie, am a cosmetics junkie.

But I'm not addicted. I could quit anytime, I swear.

As an avid cosmetics/hair/makeup/beauty collector, I recently decided that if I'm going to blog about stuff I know, I can safely review and recommend products that i've tried, just in case any of you care about my opinion or happen to be looking for something new.

Most of my friends and family already get doses of my opinion pretty much anytime they mention anything about makeup, their current skin malady, or some outrageously expensive product they just bought to make their dreams come true. I absolutely require of myself that I be an informed consumer for these things, because the truth is, there is a LOT of crap out there. And the crap can cost just as much or even more than the stuff that actually works. And even worse (as far as I'm concerned) is that products claiming to treat a problem can actually exacerbate the issue you're shelling out money to treat. LAME!

Oh, and by the way, when I talk about a product that "works", I mean that the product is effective for what you buy it for after your own investigation, not necessarily that the product does what it claims. For example, one product I use claims that it "is a nightly moisturizing cream clinically proven to start to visibly reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and age spots in one week for healthier, younger-looking skin", and (doy) i'm not very wrinkly or age-spotted. Why do I use it? Because it has an effective amount of Retinol as an active ingredient, which helps me with my acne problems. Savvy?

Being an informed consumer of these specific products is very important because cosmetic companies can make all sorts of silly claims and show off results from their independent, clinical *coughsuper-biased* studies and nobody regulates them! The exception to this rule is products containing SPF. The sun-protective content has to be legit. But, that doesn't mean anything else they claim is backed by the FDA. Don't look at what the people who make money if you buy the product say. Look at ingredients and reviews from competent people who have actually tried the product.

Another important thing to point out is that these things can be CHEAP! There are only so many active ingredients that work for each condition, and they can mostly be found in just as many quality drugstore products as they can in department stores or higher-end shops. And, most of the department store brands out there are actually owned and manufactured by the same people who own those cheaper brands. So a lot of the time, the only difference between the products is the price while the formulations are almost IDENTICAL!

Anyway, how have I come to know all this information? I've read up on a few great websites and books. If you're interested in becoming more beauty-product-savvy, I suggest checking them out! One of the best ways I use my iPhone is checking every product out before I buy it to avoid having to return the dang thing (though I do like returning stuff, probably because of getting money back that I thought was gone forever).

Paula's Choice is where I got started with this whole shindig. Paula Begoun pretty much saved me from my struggle with acne for the past decade. Once you get to the site, the best place to start is under the "Learn" heading in the left sidebar. You can see how she rates products in her reviews, and she cuts through a lot of the ridiculous claims made by cosmetic companies. She has great information for people with all sorts of different skin issues and sensitivities. However, poking around this free site, you don't get to see her exhaustive collection of product reviews... for that, you need a subscription to Beautypedia. A subscription is currently $24.95/year, which is definitely worth it, as you can save far more than that by educating yourself before going out and impulse-buying products.

Makeup Alley has product reviews for just about anything you've ever seen at the store that might be used cosmetically. Membership is free, and you can post your own reviews for products, read other people's reviews, and even participate in Swapping products that you don't like for products that you do (GREAT alternative to throwing stuff out years after the fact). Also, because regular cosmetics junkies like me are the ones adding reviews, a product will often be reviewed very soon after hitting the shelves, which isn't necessarily the case with some of the other links I'm putting here. BTW, HERE is my personal MUA profile!

So, there you have it. Now you can expect to see more reviews and information as I actually get posting about these things! =)

New Stuff!

2008-12-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

So, as many of you know, I did a little redesigning of the blog a little while back. Here's a little bit of info about stuff you'll see here, mainly in the sidebar over on the left.

First, I link to blogs of my family and friends. Doy. I think you get it.

Then, I link to other blogs that are on my google reader. The majority of these cater to the LDS people, women, or people interested in cool, cute, or funny stuff. It just so happens that I fit all of these categories.

Also, I have a link to the blog for my sister's store, Tender Cargo. You definitely should check it out if you shop for things relating to pregnancy, nursing, babies, etc. Not only would you be supporting a good company, but the stuff there is all way high quality.

Seriously, So Blessed is a hilarious blog. 'Nuf said.

Then I have two links to Paula's Choice, a company that sells GREAT skincare and makeup. I'm going to do a whole post about this soon, so check back for more info.

The rest is just stuff that offers a little insight on me, like my GoodReads widget, Amazon wishlist, etc.

That's all, just wanted to draw your attention over there! =)

Go check this out!

2008-12-12T21:32:00.001-08:00

Lots of giveaways at SERIOUSLY SO BLESSED!! Go see!

Update!

2008-12-04T17:05:00.000-08:00

I've been making changes to my Amazon wishlist. I'm changing most things related to an apartment to lower priority, cuz I'm probably going to be moving into a house with other girls who already have most of that stuff. I don't mind building a collection for when I need it, but it's just not as critical as it seemed originally. Anyway! Check it out =)

Notes for my talk.

2008-11-30T20:41:00.000-08:00

Here are the notes I used for the talk I gave today, in case you missed it. These notes don't contain my obligatory opening joke or my testimony, but I never strayed too far from these for the body of my talk. Enjoy.

"You are here to enable the divine purpose of the Universe to unfold. That is how important you are."
Eckhart Tolle - Writer, Spiritual Teacher

"You are here..."

Speaking about the purpose of the Earth...
Alma 42:26 "And thus God bringeth about his great and eternal purposes, which were prepared from the foundation of the world. And thus cometh about the salvation and the redemption of men, and also their destruction and misery."

Mortality and life on Earth is an absolutely critical part of Heavenly Father's plan. It is through this mortality that we will come upon salvation and redemption, or destruction and misery. This mortal probation allows us to use our agency and choose our fate.

"You are here to enable..."

Heavenly Father's Holy, most perfect plan could NOT be carried out without you. It is only through each and every individual that this plan can come to pass. You enable God's plan to unfold. There is not a soul that you will ever meet whose importance is less than infinite in this plan.

Thinking this way can help us to treat one another better. I feel like I am better able to act with love and respect towards people I meet when I remember that we are ALL sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, and His plan includes each of these souls. Our baptismal covenants bind our promise to uphold the Lord's plan, and to do so requires the utmost respect for every single individual's divine purpose. Just as you and I are here to enable His plan to unfold, so is everyone you encounter.

"enable the divine purpose of the Universe"

Heavenly Father has a plan for his children, for the Earth, for everything. Every single person you meet is a CRITICAL piece of his plan. Nobody here is just coasting or taking up space.

Some people of certain faiths take God's plan and purpose for the Universe as a means to believe in predetermination - that what they do doesn't matter because they have no effect on the outcome - their fate is prewritten into the plan.

However, knowing that the Lord has a plan does not free us of responsibility. It means that we should be making a conscious effort to seek to know our place in his plan. We can consecrate our efforts to help his plan unfold.

D&C 123:17 - "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."
Do you do all that lies in your power to help further the Lord's divine purposes?

It's interesting to relate this to your day-to-day life. Think if what you're doing fits with your place in the Lord's plan. If I did more time reflecting this way, I'd probably be a little more driven to do good works. After all, I hope that Heavenly Father, who knows me better than anyone, has more for me to do and accomplish in his plan than be lazy, watch movies, or shop. Whatever your vice is that takes time away from carrying out the will of the Lord, ask yourself if the one who knows you better than yourself might expect more.

From our Heavenly Parents, we have inherited Divine Nature, with divine qualities that are our responsibility to develop.

2 Peter 1:4-7 : "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity."

Here we are given the list of divine qualities we are to strive to develop. I know that as we try our very best to develop these qualities, we will be more aware of our divine purpose in Heavenly Father's plan. By living with more faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, not only will we be instruments in the Lord's hands to bring about His work and His purposes, but we will also partake of wonderful fruits of our efforts.

2 Nephi 2:25 - "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy"

Define this by noticing what it's not. It's not "men are, that they might have pride/things/glory/easy lives/PLEASURE"

Eckhart Tolle: "Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within"
Rightly so, joy arises from these deep, inherited, divine qualities that lie within each of us. Our Heavenly Father, through his Great plan of Happiness, has a monopoly on true, lasting joy. The world will often try to sell us pleasure and market it as joy, but things outside of us can only bring cheap knockoffs of joy. We need to be careful, as the adversary has many carefully placed and cunning salespeople trying to market us these pleasures as sources for lasting joy.

If I'm giving you something for Christmas . . .

2008-11-19T20:39:00.000-08:00

Just a little FYI: I'm really not spending money right now. That means that if I'm giving you (or your children) things for Christmas, they're going to be limited to things I can make. That would include the following:

Paintings
Drawings
Knit stuff
Jewelry

If none of these things appeal to you, it would probably be best for you to hint something cheap I could get you! Also, if you like the idea that I'll be making you stuff but hate certain things (scarves, landscapes, necklaces, etc.) please let me know ASAP in some way, seeing as I'm already working on things and am trying to plan out everything else. Thanks! =)

BabyCats

2008-11-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

When I found Zoey like this, it looked like she was actually reading the voting guide. She moved around a little bit by the time I grabbed the camera, but this is still pretty cute. She's still our B.A. kitty. Toby doesn't really try to mess with her at all. She defends herself well and doesn't take no crap from nobody. In terms of snuggle-factor, she likes to nap and hang out nearby people, but only comes up for some loving every now and then.

I caught Roxy in this very funny position on their scratching/play post one day. She fell asleep like this for a good 20 minutes. She's definitely keeping the title of funniest sleeper. Roxy's a little daintier and more fragile than her sistercat. She's a little clumsy and seems to get confused sometimes, but we don't care cuz she's so sweet and pretty =) Shes a little more snuggly than Zoey when it comes to laying with people, though the kitties do cuddle with each other a LOT.

The kittens both have actually discovered the fun of playing with the bathroom faucets. Every morning and night when I go to get cleaned up, they rush in ready for me to turn on the drip for them to play. Roxy will get all up in the sink and get her whole head wet, while Zoey's a little more careful and prissy about the water and stays a little bit further back.

Anywho, they're super cute and we love them. Toby's definitely more used to them and a little bit big brotherly sometimes. Come play with the kitties! They're happymakers.

Abstinence

2008-11-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

I'm not dating right now. On purpose. I decided to abstain until I'm done moving and getting the new job thing all figured out. So, if I won't go out with you or someone you know, it's nothing personal. I'm just not dating, and that's fine =)

Give me some As to my Qs please!

2008-11-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

I <3 Apple

2008-11-18T17:06:00.000-08:00

I spent many hours at the Apple store yesterday. I had to return a few things and wait around for an appointment to get part of my laptop replaced. While I waited, I sat in on a free workshop on iPhoto. I just really love Apple. I hope that they continue to come out with awesome stuff forever.

Last-Day-of-Work-pwnd

2008-11-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

Ayudame!

2008-11-18T16:32:00.001-08:00

Someone help me think of a name for my blog. To this day, I haven't had a single one that I like. !! ! !

Funny subtlety

2008-11-16T01:17:00.000-08:00

Em is spending the night tonight. After saying goodnight to grandma and grandpa, she makes sure the last thing she tells them is, "Be careful if you make pancakes!!"

Hahaha i'm guessing we already know what's for breakfast tomorrow.

funny

2008-10-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

I know this is early

2008-10-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

I started working on my Christmas List for this year. It's on amazon, as always. Here's the button!

I'm asking for pretty much everything anyone would need for an apartment. Considering my current money/life situation, I'm thinking December would be around the time i'd be able to move, and it would really help to have a lot of the things I've put so far. I have a lot of the stuff I'd need for a bathroom, so most things I've thought of have to do with a kitchen.

Oh, and as a waitress between Undergrad and Grad school, I definitely could use some money.

I guess I should also point out things I DON'T need:
Cookbooks (I have some, and recipes are all over the internet)
Anything beauty/cosmetic related
Clothes/Pajamas (I don't trust you to do this right)
Books (I have a lot to read already)

And, yes, I would like a keyboard. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just enough to let me play some piano tunes. This list is subject to a LOT of change, since I started it so early. Let me know if you have any questions/suggestions.

Blah!

2008-10-15T19:37:00.000-07:00

Since California's going to Obama no matter who I vote for, I might just write in Stephen Colbert.

COLBERT FOR PRESIDENT!

LoL!

2008-10-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

I'm Pro-Choice.

2008-10-11T19:04:00.001-07:00

And by Pro-Choice, I mean, I believe everyone has the right to choose whether or not to have sex, protected or unprotected. After that, whatever happens, the choice has already been made.

I believe other stuff on the matter too. This statement doesn't necessarily reveal how I feel about the whole thing.

I recently was referred to failblog.org

2008-09-29T02:28:00.001-07:00

see more pwn and owned pictures

Please take a few minutes of your time...

2008-09-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

Please head over to Oprah.com and check out the information on the PROTECT Our Children Act. I don't usually go super activist about things, but I think this particular issue is VERY important.

The issue is that American law enforcement doesn't have enough funding to go after the sexual predators that they are able to locate through various technologies. Only about 2% of predators whose illicit activities are tracked can actually be taken in by police because of a lack of funding. Senate Bill 1783 - the PROTECT our Children Act - will authorize the allocation of over $320 million to catching and stopping sexual predators from hurting more children.

I was particularly inspired to help out with this issue after hearing the answer given by a sexual predator when asked why he targeted such small children (even infants). He said that it was because "they couldn't vocalize what was being done to them and that it was wrong". Well, I can vocalize that what's happening is wrong, and I can't think of a better use of my voice or a few minutes to contact our senators than to take even as few as one of these predators away from the children they harm. Please take even the smallest bit of your time to consider supporting this cause. Thanks.

More Kitty Pictures!

2008-09-15T02:28:00.000-07:00

Zoey, like Toby, loves looking out windows!

Roxy gets the award for funniest sleeping positions. She also likes watching TV.
This is an older photo, but I just had to post this beautiful picture of our Toby

Latest Painting

2008-09-15T02:27:00.001-07:00

A trip to the ER

2008-09-15T02:17:00.000-07:00

My body is all out of whack.

While I was in disneyland (July 27th-31), I developed a pretty bad ingrown toenail. I've gotten them over and over again in my big toes for the past year or so.

After seeing doctors and getting antibiotics to treat infection and blah blah blah, I finally saw a podiatrist, who performed a double matrixectomy (sliced off little bits of both sides of the toenail on both of my big toes) a little over 2 weeks ago.

After 2 weeks of soaking my feet 3 times a day, I went back for her to check on my recovery. She said there was a chance I would develop an infection, so she prescribed me Azithromycin (a generic for Zythromax), a 5-day antibiotic course. This was a just-in-case measure.

Anywho, yesterday, my body started feeling a little crazy. I was getting these spurts of numbness, tingling, and pins-and-needles feelings down my arms, shoulder to fingertip that lasted for 15 seconds or so each, and were recurring pretty often for many hours. Each time I got that sensation, I would also get really dizzy. When my arms weren't feeling asleep, I was feeling generally lightheaded.

After consulting my typical health sources (WebMD, and facebook chatting with friends who have moms who are nurses), I decided that I should go to the ER.

The doctor at the ER did all these weird neurological tests to make sure my brain was okay, which it is (you don't have to joke about this statement). When I told her about the antibiotic I have been taking, she said that many people have problems on that particular antibiotic with things like vertigo, out-of-body experiences, and numbness. The doctor felt confident that the antibiotic was responsible for all of my symptoms. And since I was on it as a "just-in-case" measure, it's no problem for me to just stop taking it.

The last time I took one was yesterday afternoon, and I'm just waiting for it all to be out of my system. I still have some twitchiness and little bouts of the tingling, though they're not as intense as they were yesterday. I really hope that it's all gone by tuesday, the next time I'm scheduled to work =/

On the bright side, my toes seem to be healing nicely!

Kitty Photos #3

2008-09-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Kitty Photos #2

2008-09-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

Kitty Photos #1

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

I'm awfully tired!

2008-08-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

At about 4:30, the little kitties decided that I needed a bath. They licked my face, back, and arms!! I was way too tired to fight them, but it was too strange for me to sleep through!

Welcome, kitties!

2008-08-29T02:01:00.000-07:00

Our two little girls came home today! There's so much to say about our first very stimulating day together! I think I'll try to stick to a few little points!

Both little girls are incredibly cute, and we're so happy to have them home! They both purr all the time, seriously. Even if they're sleeping, the moment you start to pet them, you can hear their little motors start.

First, meet Roxy. She's our siamese-looking-himalayan-light-haired girl. She's way playful and cuddly. She has a squeaky little meow and will get in your face to say hello and rub your nose with hers.

Now, meet Zoey. She's our dark-furred cutie. She's a little prissy, but very playful, super loving, and likes to help give her sister baths. She followed me around at night as I went about my business, and I heard her meow from downstairs when I ran down to get a water bottle and a snack.

Our game plan for getting the girls acquainted with our home and with Toby was to put up a little baby gate ($8 at target) at the entrance to my room, and keep them inside with food, litter, and tons of fun kitty toys. They got comfortable very quickly, and about 15 minutes after we got home, they were both conked out on my bed. It didn't take long for Toby to realize there were new kitties around. He liked sitting outside the gate and watching them play, but he was very anxious anytime they came to check him out.

The kittens hung out downstairs for a long while, exploring, meeting my Dad, and cuddling up with my mom for a nap. At one point, I carried Roxy upstairs to the litter box in the caged-off room. I returned downstairs for a moment to grab Zoey and my phone, and went back upstairs. Toby was sitting in the hallway, looking super alert. I turn the corner to see little Roxy sitting in the hall, on the very wrong side of the baby gate, with this look on her face that said, "I escaped the room I'm supposed to be in, but you're not mad cause I'm just way too pretty" lol

At one point, Toby jumped over the barrier to check out their food situation. I saw my plan failing fast. And then, a few hours later, while Kay and I were hanging out with Toby in Kay's room, the full destruction of my plan was evident as a curious little Zoey walked in after having been put in my room too. With a sigh, I removed the baby gate and let the girls roam free around the upstairs, since the gate was providing only the most superficial barrier.

It took a good while of testing the waters with each other, but somehow Toby and the gir ls were okay with this layout for a while. (left to right: Roxy, Toby, and Zoey up on the bed with Kay. )

There's plenty of other details from the day for anyone who wants them, but here's how the nights ending. The two little ones are on my bed, curled up sleeping. Toby is sleeping on the floor, like he often does. Come visit the kitties! They're waiting to meet you!

Oh, and by the way.

2008-08-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

I did this painting a while back, and forgot to post it.

Coming soon...

2008-08-28T03:16:00.000-07:00

The past couple of years, our family has had to say goodbye to many wonderful pets. We loved the heck out of each, and we miss them all dearly. Most recently, we lost our pretty black panther-cat, Merlin. He was a great friend to my mom, and he loved to snuggle up and cuddle in her lap every evening. We'll all really miss him. Someday soon, I'll post about our past pets and include some pictures too.

That being said, our home is down to one pet, my kitty cat, Toby. For anyone who wasn't around my blog in September of '06 here and here are the first two posts about him. These days, he's about 2 years old, and acts pretty adolescent. He's kinda fat, which the vet has recently assured me is just because he eats too much but is otherwise healthy. He's still pretty playful, and I'm trying to play with him a lot to get him moving more so he can burn off some of his fat! We haven't been down to just one pet in a long time in our family. Even when I was very little, we always had a few cats, some birds, and at some point, we even had some rabbits. And of course, for 12 years we had our dog, Buddy. We are pet-loving people, and it just makes sense that at some point we'd add a few more animals to the family...

That being said, these two pretty little girls are coming home to us sometime this week. They're 8-week old sisters from a litter of 5. My mom and I met them at Petco, and I'll admit, I'm the one that instantly fell in love. They're super sweet, loving, playful little maine coon/himalayan mixed kitties! I'm hoping that Toby will take to them well, and maybe even play with them. These kitties are very chill about other animals, including a huge golden retriever at their foster house that licks their little faces with a tongue as big as they are.
I got to hang out with them and their littermates at their foster house last night, and it turns out the family taking care of them are LDS, so we had lots of stuff in common to talk about. Part of the adoption agreement is that they don't leave the foster house until they are spayed, which will happen this week. As soon as they're done with that, we get to pick them up! My mom and I are very excited to welcome them home. My dad is hoping that they won't ruin any furniture. Their foster family named the entire litter after yummy treats, and these two have the foster names "Hersheys" (the dark one) and "Skippy" (the light one). While my mom and I like these names, we've been coming up with a few alternatives in case we want to change them. Our top three at this time are Zoey, Roxy, and Dolce (dohl-chay; italian for sweet). If you have any other cute, girly names to suggest, feel free! We're so excited to have these little girls home to cuddle and play with! There will definitely be more pictures to come!

Be kind to animals, please.

2008-08-21T02:08:00.001-07:00

Words of Wisdom

2008-08-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

"If you don't want to be rained on, you need to stop standing under dark clouds"

Reoccurring Maladies

2008-08-03T02:31:00.001-07:00

1. Ingrown toenails

2. Heartache

3 more paintings

2008-07-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Two movies for you to go see.

2008-07-20T03:24:00.000-07:00

1. Wall-E

2. The Dark Knight

Both are FANTASTIC!!!

Newest Painting

2008-07-13T02:26:00.001-07:00

I &hearts iPhone

2008-07-13T02:10:00.000-07:00

Taking a cue from my sister, I've decided to post my iPhone-obtaining adventure.

My original plan was to head to the AT&T store here in my town at about 6 A.M. to get in line for the iPhone. I was online IMing with a fellow late-stayer-upper friend of mine, MG, at around 1:30 AM. He was bored and hungry so he decided to head out to Jack in the Box and drove past the AT&T store to scope out the situation. He called me and said there were already about 40 people in line, so I told him to get in line and that i'd be there shortly. I got some lawnchairs, blankets, pillows, a book of crossword puzzles, and some food.

And thus, I camped out in front of AT&T. Our outgoing natures allowed MG and I to befriend everyone around us in line. In front of us were two twenty-year old guys, a thirty-something of Latin descent (who we later discovered is a daddy), and behind us was a doo-rag wearer who used to be in the army. We all became friends, played cards, etc. It was kind of breakfast club-ish; a very random group of people united by one random experience. At some point, one of the twenty-year olds went home and got a humongous air mattress. it was bigger than a king-size. At this point, my outgoingness bought me two hours of sleep on an air mattress on a sidewalk. I kept safe distance from my new but still strange friends of course, and MG stayed awake.

BTW, at this point, let me point out that MG rocked as a friend that night. He wasn't even getting an iPhone. He just stayed to chill with me.

AT&T opened at 8, and workers came down the line with clipboards asking which iPhone we wanted. I told them I wanted a 16gig in black. Only a handful of people after me, and they had to announce to the rest of the line (some of which had been waiting there since around 3:30 or so) that they only had the white 16 gigs left after that point, and after another point, they'd be all out altogether. I was so happy that MG had given me the intel so I could get the phone I wanted. Lucky lucky lucky. I got into the store around 9:45, bought the phone, said goodbye to my new friends, and was on my way home by 10. 8 and a half hours after I got to the store, I left with my new iPhone. I didn't have them set up my phone, and i didn't experience any of the difficulties during activation that people have been talking about.

And now, iPhone and I are experiencing a beautiful new relationship. I think we'll be very happy together.

Paintings

2008-06-27T00:52:00.000-07:00

Painting has become one of my favorite hobbies over the past few weeks. Here's a few of the projects I've completed.

Cake Decorating Course 1

2008-06-26T23:00:00.001-07:00

Here's my first cake (it was lesson 2). I really like how it turned out, and would probably be willing to do something similar for a little boy's birthday or something. It's really easy to do a cake like that with any sort of shapes (balloons, hearts, polka dots, etc.)

and any colors.

This is from lesson 3. We were doing drop flowers. I don't really like this one very much. I wasn't planning on it being neon-pink, but I got impatient with the color, and added too much at once. I hate the way the green stems and stuff turned out. Our green icing was too thin, and I was in a rush to get to work. So, this is my least favorite of the cakes I've done.

This is my cake from today's class. The cake is iced in light purple, and i used light yellow to make my roses (this should be a familiar color scheme for anyone who has been in my room). I'm really excited to eat this one too, cause it's a yellow cake with a chocolate fudge filling. YUMM!!!!

Here's a close-up of the roses I made. These were tricky to get the hang of, especially because my icing was too thin, so they kept leaning all over the place and sometimes collapsing. I'm looking forward to trying again sometime with the right icing consistency. I think I could be pretty good at it. So, if anyone needs a cake for anything and wants roses on it (and it's not for some huge-deal event), let me know!

Here are pictures of the cakes my mom did! The rose cake has 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of filling!! Want to come over for dessert?

2008-06-19T03:25:00.001-07:00

I appreciate knowing that people read my blog even when I abandon it for long periods of time. Keep checking up and maybe I'll talk about something amazing and/or worthwhile =)

This is what Toby looks like these days:

Life is currently really awesome. I'm having a lot of fun, and I feel like I have a whole world of opportunity in front of me. I graduated college with my degree in Human Development. I'm working a lot to save up money, preparing to take the GRE, re-learning the Spanish language, doing lots of paintings, making jewelry, and reading lots of books. Life is just fine. I love it. =)

Oh, and I had a lot of fun tonight. I have a really good family. I'm glad that now, as adults, I can be good friends with my siblings, and I really appreciate them in my life. ::End Mushy Display of Emotion::

Recent Creations

2008-06-19T03:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight was very difficult.

2008-05-21T01:51:00.001-07:00

Tonight, I had a conversation during which I found out many things I hoped for in my future are no longer possibilities. I learned that things I still wanted dearly to happen, I have been wishing for alone.

It made me realize how horrible it feels to lose the hope and possibility for a certain dream to come true. The one bit of my future that I felt like I still had a bit of a grasp on is now just as blank as every other part.

I don't really know what to do from here. I miss him terribly. My heart hurts knowing that, this time, missing him isn't going to end in having him again, but will only end when the empty spot in my heart he used to fill is no longer there, no longer waiting for him to return to it.

This pretty much hurts worse than anything I've ever felt before, and I don't really know how to handle it.

It's funny because it's ...

2008-04-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Tech support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I’ve tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate.

**************

DEAR DESPERATE,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and don’t forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.) Also do not attempt to reinstall Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,
Tech Support

Source: Amy

Amy's Source: e-mail forward

Final Finals.

2008-03-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

This week marks my last time taking finals in my undergraduate education. I'm pretty sure I'm not taking any classes next quarter besides my internships, so it seems like I won't have to take any more finals! This excites me more than can be contained by this blog. =)

I've taken two finals so far. In my Philosophy of Scientific Reasoning, I finished the final in roughly 13 minutes, and I feel pretty good about it. In my Social and Personality Development class, I finished in about 25 minutes, and I've already found out that I got an A. We'll see how that makes my final course grade turn out, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an A. I think I got one point below an A on my midterm, and did pretty well on a paper. That teacher looks at everyone's total scores before scaling grades, so I can't really be sure how that will turn out.

I only have one final to go, and I'm not too concerned about it. It's in my Public Speech class. I'll study some today and a little tomorrow before I go take the test tomorrow evening.

Yay!! So done with this stuff. I'm excited for my internships, and I'm also excited to start my new job tomorrow morning!!

Dear Oprah

2008-03-13T00:50:00.000-07:00

Hey Oprah!

I often enjoy the books you recommend. Eat, Pray, Love = awesome. That being said, I have a bone to pick with you.

Stop putting hard-to-remove "Oprah's Book Club" stickers on books I buy. Take a hint from Borders. Their price stickers are super easy to remove, almost like post-it notes or something. I don't want an Oprah's Book Club sticker on my book, nor do I want a gummy mess from trying to remove said sticker. Find a different way to show that you're recommending it. I don't like stickers on my books.

How am I ever supposed to get my studly boyfriend to read a book that has a big fat "Oprah's Book Club" sticker on it?!

Thank you.

Currently

2008-03-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

Right about now, I'm finishing up classes for the quarter. Tomorrow is my last day at the lab preschool, so, after 20 weeks of being their caregiver, I'm going to have to say goodbye to the blue table children. =( I had to write a little blurb about each of them to give to their new caregivers to tell them some of the stuff I wish I had known when I started back in the fall. It bummed me out pretty badly. I'm gonna miss my little buddies! This reminds me that I should write a post about some of the funny moments from the preschool.

On the bright side, I'm super excited for next quarter. I decided to stay on for the Spring even though I technically finished all the courses for my major because I (with some help, see earlier post) figured that it was much less scary to be a student who doesn't know what's next than a non-student who doesn't know what's next. I'm using the university's resources to do 2 fantastical internships, and I can't wait to start. I'm also trying to forgo taking classes I don't need and just being a part-time student. One internship is in the Child Life program at a nearby hospital, where I'll be hanging out with patients and their families in the pediatric wing to help ease the stress of the hospital experience. The other is working with an Occupational Therapy professional for a nearby school district. O.T. and Child Life have always interested me, and I'm hoping that the experience will give me some clarity about what I want to do next.

Oh, one of the reasons I feel okay part-time-studenting is that I got hired as a server at a restaurant, so hopefully I'll finally be able to save up some money if I can log some pretty good hours there. I start my orientation next week.

Thanks to the kindness of a friend of a friend, I got the new fashion (classic crochet) of Ugg boots for $50 today. Awesome.

Since mid-February, Elvis and I have overhauled our efforts to be great saints. We keep track of our daily prayer (morning prayer is the hard one to remember), scripture study, and overall goodness. I'm also trying to cut out Diet Soda, so I give myself a star for every day that I don't fall off the wagon (I think it's been 5 days now). Another habit I've gotten into is journaling (privately, as you can tell by my infrequent bloggage). I pretty reliably write every other day or so. It feels really good, I'm super happy, and we've definitely noticed a greater ability to feel the Spirit in our lives, including a really neat somewhat revelatory dream I had.

Also, recently we've been attending the Oakland Temple weekly to go to the Visitor's Center to see the Joseph Smith movie. There are a whole lot of investigators around here, so we take a few when we go. We always feel good for choosing to go there when we could be out partying or getting in trouble on a friday night. I put a cool picture from one of our trips below.

I don't know if I ever posted this, but a while back, I got called to be 2nd counselor in the Relief Society Presidency in my Single's Ward. Woohoo! Going good so far.

Anywho, that's the wrap up. Here's Elvis and me being all lovey.

Braggadacious

2008-02-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

I can solve a Rubik's Cube in a pretty short amount of time. Can you?

Scary Cat Picture!!

2008-02-05T22:58:00.001-08:00

EXCITED!!

2008-01-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

Elvis gets home tonight!!! I would've told people this sooner, but I only found out late last night! He was originally going to keep it a secret and surprise me, but he couldn't sleep the night before traveling without letting me know what was going on.

I'm a happy bear.

Say Cheese!!

2008-01-21T00:16:00.000-08:00

A wonderfully fair trade has recently resulted in my ownership of a new camera. Well, it's new to me, but used to others. I'm pretty excited since I've always been pretty obsessed with taking pictures, and my last camera (Nikon Coolpix 5600) was deficient in many categories (i.e. really long flash recharge time between pictures, not many options, etc.). I can now proudly say I have a Kodak DX7590, and so far, I'm a big fan. Here's a few pictures I took today while my sister and her kids were over.

This is the kitty, Toby, and my niece Em all "nice and snug".

Here's Toby all by himself. It's been a while since he made it onto the blog.

I needed a new scripture/church books bag, so I bought a plain black tote and embellished it with a variety of pink beads. This reminds me, I really ought to put up pictures of the jewelry I've made the past few months.

Here's niece Em and nephew E juicing lemons for lemonade with their Grandma and Grandpa

Em and E are always willing to be "Grandpa's little helpers"

Why I hope you will join me in boycotting Best Buy

2008-01-17T16:30:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I haven't posted this yet. If you've already heard this story, feel free to skip this.

First, this concerns the boyfriend, whose name (if I'm not mistaken) I have managed to keep out of blog posts for about a year and a half. For blogging sake, he is now known as Elvis.

For Christmas this year, part of the gift I got Elvis was the game Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360. Just the game, not the bundle pack with the guitar controller (he already has one from GHIII). Unfortunately the disc was warped. In both his xbox and mine, it would vibrate and make a lot of noise when it spun, to the point where the game would start to skip. Naturally, we took the game back to Best Buy and exchanged it for another disc of the same game. I could already tell from some other experiences with their Customer Service and this first GHII experience that they weren't very easy or polite people to deal with.

The disc we exchanged for turned out to be warped, too. So we took it back again. Exchanged it for another disc. Oh, I guess it's a good idea to mention that each exchange occurred with the same customer service girl, who's pretty rude. During this third try of getting a disc that worked, we noticed that the girl peculiarly took the plastic wrap off of the new game case and threw it away. We didn't really think anything of it, so we went home.

Did that disc work? Of course it didn't. So we took it back to Best Buy for what I hope is my last time ever going to that store. We were fed up with GH 2, so Elvis wanted to return it and put the money toward the new Lego Star Wars. At customer service, the same girl as always looks over our GHII. She asks us "did you buy this in the bundle pack?" We say, "no, just the game" She tells us that there's no barcode on the game we brought back, which should mean it was from the bundle pack. We reiterate that we didn't buy the bundle but have just exchanged the game itself. She says she can't do anything without the barcode. We look perplexed. She calls the manager over.

The manager's pretty rude in her communication skills too. She tells us that she can't exchange GH for a different game, but she can grab a new copy of the game, exchange our warped disc into the new box (with a barcode) and send that box with the warped disc back to the warehouse or whatever they do with returned stuff. Elvis is nice and says that's fine because he did want that game, after all, but we had just been fed up with the poor product quality. Unfortunately, this put us in another pickle because that meant we still wouldn't have a barcode in case this new disc sucked too.

So the manager leaves and the original girl is completing our transaction, and she cuts open the plastic wrap on the new game and throws it away. It takes about half a second for my brain to realize what happened. I turned to Elvis and said, "that's where the barcode is. They threw it away last time." He realizes it too. The girl at customer service clearly hears our observation, and you could see it in her face that she realized what she had been doing. They were telling us they couldn't complete the transaction the way we wanted because there was no barcode. There was no barcode because the jerk had unwrapped the game "for us" (which we were never asked if we wanted her to do when she did this before, btw).

Instead of calling the manager back over and explaining that it had been their mistake, the jerk says nothing. Elvis is pretty nonconfrontational, so he just wants to leave, but I start to get pretty angry. I tell him we should tell the manager. So, we go up to the rude manager, and Elvis says (very politely), "Hey, I don't mind having this game since this is the game I originally wanted and all, but I wanted to let you know that the reason the barcode wasn't on our game was because the girl at customer service has been cutting off the plastic wrap and throwing it away with the barcode on it."

Any good manager would have realized it was Best Buy's mistake and taken care of getting us what we wanted. Did she? Of course not. She rudely sneers, "oh, um.. yeah, sorry about that" And we left, and I was pissed off.

I haven't yet written a letter or e-mail to corporate, but I intend to. I'm really never ever going to buy anything from them ever again.

Oh, and for the curious, the new disc is warped too. And now Elvis can't take it back because he lives in Georgia, and there's no barcode on the package.

I just have to put this out there...

2008-01-15T16:21:00.001-08:00

I think Orlando Bloom, Keanu Reeves, and Tom Cruise are all horrible actors.

OPEN SEASON on me.

2008-01-12T00:39:00.001-08:00

Pending an e-mail from a professor, I will most likely be graduating at the end of Winter Quarter (March) with my B.S. in Human Development and my minor in Psychology.

This is your chance to get everything out that I may not want to hear expressed vocally.

I pose this question now and maybe only now: What should I do??

2007 is coming to an end...

2007-12-21T18:54:00.001-08:00

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-12T01:17:00.001-08:00

Don't send a lame Starring You! eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Thank you, Mr. Klobas

2007-12-05T18:00:00.001-08:00

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1182762326

Christmas List

2007-11-24T02:47:00.002-08:00

Here's what I could find that I like on Amazon.com

If things are listed as high or low priority, you can believe that those are true levels of importance. If it's listed as medium, I may just have not considered it's importance, so don't just blow those off or whatever I guess.

And let me know how to get to your christmas list please. Thanks!!

Click Here to See it

And So Can YOU!

2007-11-13T17:30:00.000-08:00

Oh, right. A blog. I forgot! =X

I am currently trying to listen to the conference talks that I missed this October. I recently got to listening to the much-talked-about talk "Mothers Who Know" by Julie Beck. If you haven't heard it, you can read it there to know what it's about. I don't really feel like getting in to how I felt about it and all that jazz, but I will admit that as I listened to it, I was reminded of this portion of I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert (funny book, by the way).

"The mother-child bond is a fragile thing. That's why I didn't let my mom out of my sight until two years after I married. Buy while time apart is hard on the kids, it's devastating for Mom. There's something I call "The Maternal Instinct." It's a natural part of every female from the paramecium all the way up to our female human woman. Females need to nurture constantly, so they hate any time alone where they are left to think, shower, or sleep. For a Mom to be happy, every moment away from her children must be filled with the soul-wrenching thought, "Am I a bad mother?"

The answer to that question is a resounding "Yes." Scientists have proven, one assumes, that every flaw in a child can be traced back to a mistake made by the mother. As adults we're all imperfect, so that means all mothers are incompetent. But some mothers are worse than others. Take women who work. I don't care if it's CEO of a major corporation or three hours a week as a teacher's aide, if you work outside the home, you might as well bring coconut arsenic squares to the school bake sale.

A mother needs to be in the home even when the kids aren't. A messy home sends a coded message to children: "I'm not loveable. Otherwise Mom would dust."

A good mother cooks, cleans, drives, organizes charity events so her children earn community service points for college, and expects nothing in return except love and breakfast in bed one day a year.

So, a word to all you Femin-Idi-Amins: Stop "liberating" moms by trying to make them join the workforce. They're already doing the job that God put them here to do: Everything."

That's what I was reminded of while I listened ot that talk. The big difference is that he is a comedian, not a speaker at General Conference.

Harumph.

2007-10-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

I think that the classes I'm taking now justify the many classes I took the past three years that I thought would never matter.

It seems to be coming together nicely.

I'm very busy and stressed out. I always have something I'm supposed to be doing. This isn't it right now. So, clearly, i'm not at my most effective.

Watching "The Office" is nice. I laugh a lot.

Baptismal Reinvention

2007-10-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Pick up your computer. Laptop, desktop, whatever. Pick it up. Take it to the bathroom. Fill the bath. Immerse computer in full tub of water, making sure to completely cover all bits of it (oh, you should've unplugged it first... oops!). You should've had at least two witnesses present. Once computer is removed from the water and has experienced a sense of renewal, you may continue reading. I'm sure you have questions now.

So, yes. This is a new blog. There's no deep reason behind the new blog. Simply logistical. My old blog was registered under an e-mail address that is no longer functioning, so I couldn't do something as simple as find out my password. Plus, this is under my gmail account, so I don't have to switch and log in again after being continuously signed in to google reader (which I use to look at other blogs). A little bit of inconvenience now will make for much greater convenience (and perhaps even more blogging?) in the future. I literally would have something great to blog about and wouldn't be able to because I couldn't remember my password for that old account, or remember exactly how to enter in my username.

Please change your bookmarks, links on your blog, and get on my case to blog more often here. I'll tell you what I have to say if you ask. How does it go? Knock and it shall be opened unto you? Yeah. Let's do some of that.

I don't know how to sign into my old blog to grab the HTML from old posts that I would like to keep, so if you let me know of any of my previous posts that you'd like to see stickin around on this blog from my old one, let me know. That way I only go through the tedious task of reposting it if people really want access to it before the old blog spontaneously combusts.

That reminds me. Note to self: remember to post blog about how neat the world would be if people would spontaneously combust on a regular basis.

So let's review.

Old Blog.
Go here to review my past and let me know which blogs you'd like to see stay on here.

New Blog.
Change links and bookmarks to this address. Tell your friends. Check up regularly.