Mindless ramblings of a crazy person...

Feeling Fantastic!

2009-08-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

For those of you who may read my blog and are not facebook friends, this blog is about my not so typical Saturday night... the first Saturday night of my 5 weeks off from school for summer break. I will be adding a bit more info that I left out of the original post on FB and what not too. Enjoy it!

So far my summer break is off to an amazing start. Had a great time with the guys on Friday night gaming, and get to go game with my new group tonight, I'm so excited! But let's talk about last night....

Stef came to town and wanted to go dancing. Now, years ago this is something I did on an almost nightly basis, at least 4+ times per week. As I have gotten older I have also done much less of going out clubbing and dancing until the wee hours of the morning, however last night was an exception. I have to say that the new meds I am on are doing their job, I have my energy back. YAY!

First of all we went to dinner somewhere new to both of us, the Sapphire Hotel. I always like going somewhere new here in P-town you never know what you are going to get. This meal was INCREDIBLE! Oh, as a background the last several times Stef has been out here to go out we have been to restaurants where you get no utensils to eat, so this was a nice change... eating with forks! Anyway, we started off with drinks. I had a drink called "Going Up", pepper infused tequila, cilantro, and their house made sweet & sour. OMG... seriously like the most AMAZING drink I have had in a very long time. She had "Room Servie", their house specialty marionberry margarita.. a bit sweeter than mine but equally delish!

Then came our appetizers, bacon wrapped dates stuffed w/ blue Stilton, and salmon & corn cakes, both were spot on. She had the shrimp and risotto cakes and I had the hanger steak w/ sweet mashed potatoes and a pomegranate glaze. Seriously absolutely fabulous. We topped it off with dessert and 2 more drinks. Their cinnamon sugar bread pudding and some sort of mascarpone chocolate mouse cake.

Needless to say we were stuffed and I completely blew my anti-inflammatory diet. It was well worth it! I can't wait to go back again and try some of their other items at happy hour prices.

From dinner we headed out to the local lesbian bar for some tunes and dancing. Not much going on there, the music wasn't all that great especially when the DJ decided to have a mini Michael Jackson tribute and played 3 of his songs in a row. That is about the time I was ready to leave. We danced to a couple of songs, watch the girl who was wearing a tutu dance with her friend (I think it was her birthday), and then headed over to the Embers where we would be assured of great music, drag queens, and who knows what else.

After finally giving up looking for a parking place and paying the $6 fee to park in the lot across the street from the Embers, we headed in and the music was pumping, dance floor was crowded so we headed straight onto the floor. It wasn't long before I was approached by a very cute young woman who asked if Stef and I were a couple of course this took a few times because the music was so loud I couldn't hear her. I of course said no, then she proceeded to tell me I was pretty and wanted to know if she could dance with me. "Of course!" gosh, who wouldn't want to dance with someone who just told them they were pretty. hehe *blush* We danced a bit more and noticed this rather strange little man who kept moving around the floor trying to grind on random women, there was a rather intoxicated group of people where it looked like one of the guys and his girlfriend exchanged bottoms (she was wearing his shorts and he was wearing her skirt), can't forget about the girl who was wearing what appeared to be ONLY a track style jacket with no bottoms (NONE... like no underwear or anything... it was rather disturbing!), then there was the crazy shirtless jumping in the air falling on people around him guy, and of course there were drag queens.

Dancing for about an hour we decided to go watch some of the drag show. Ahhh you have to love these men who put on more makeup than a rodeo clown and can sometimes make fairly convincing women. The whole lip quiver, skimpy outfits.. it was very entertaining. We headed back to the dance floor after a brief stint watching the queens.

Out on the floor again was creepy dude #1 who was trying to grind against anything (male of female) that would let him. It was quite entertaining as I kept spinning Stef away from him and yet he still didn't get the hint. Then I began to elbow him every time he got close to me. There was a rather intoxicated girl that he started to grind with until her un-intoxicated friend stepped in and told him to back off, it was rather amusing. Finally he found another intoxicated girl who was apparently as horny as he was. He backed her up to the back of the dance floor where they began heavily making out. Oh, I almost forgot, the whole time on the dance floor creepy dude kept rearranging his unit and grabbing himself. ICK! So, their making out led to hand down each others pants... right on the dance floor! Seriously, these two were wasted, couldn't' stand up on their own, he now had his package out of his pants and was trying to get her pants low enough so that he could bang her... ON THE DANCE FLOOR!

This was all just too amusing not to watch and at one point there was a decent size crowd of us just kind of pretending to dance as we watched this happen. I actually said to Stef at one point, "This girl needs a good friend," I mean who would let their friend do this with a stranger??? Anyway, their mutual exploration of each other went on for some time until a random girl decided to pull drunk chick away from creepy dude which left him trying to stand up and put his willy back in his pants. At this point I flagged security and told him about the guy who was getting closer to both Stef and I with his Mr. Johnson still sticking out of his pants. It was at this point we decided to call it a night.

Not bad seeing as it was 2 am, I wasn't feeling tired at all, and had been dancing off all those extra calories from dinner. Dropped Stef off at her parents, and got home by 3. Ahhh what a night!

Stef also wrote up a little dity about our eventful evening and I wanted to add some of what she said. Apparently she thinks I am a boob smothering, boisterous, biznatch. Not really, those are my own words and I thought it summed up what she said here: "Of note on the drive to the restaurant and every drive after that is that Amy is a VERY vocal driver. There are play by plays, there is cussing. As much as Zachary talks I imagine this is the type of driver he will be. ;)"

She also added the following about the drag queens: "Afterwards we took a break and watched a Drag Queen show. There were 3 notable acts 1) the skinny one dancing to Disturbia whose dancing looked similar to an epileptic seizure 2) the SUPER creepy Cher-like one. He was in a full see through body suit except for a speedo. Not a pretty body mind you. He just looked stoned and super creepy, to the point that Amy was trying to bail on the show. I forced her to stay against her will! 3) the one that was actually pretty good. He had tall boot, flowing (combed) hair a cute hat, bustier plus bikini bottom. Such a good job I truly wondered where he put his penis. Very professional tuck! ;)

And her final words: "Another couple random situations of the night 1) there was this white chick dressed like Pocahontas/ Indian Princess. At one point she got into the cage and did some dancing and I was thinking how that's not very politically correct! 2) There was a guy in a kilt OR as Amy thinks the girlfriend/ boyfriend swapped shorts/ skirt - he was dancing bent over while she was 'riding him' and slapping his ass.

Oh I forgot to mention about creepy dude, as we were leaving I said to Stef, "He really was rockin' out with his cock out." (giggles) It was prefect! :)

Overall a lot of eyes popping out of sockets and laughter. I'll always feel comfortable at Embers because I can do whatever and not be the weirdest! ;)"

I must admit that yes, I too will always feel comfortable at Embers or ER because the people tend to have fun in those places and aren't so caught up in the "scene". Just good times!

A side note about school, just got my grades and I now have an A,B,C for the term. I am not thrilled with the B (in Speech) but will accept it, and am ecstatic about the C. Getting the C means that I didn't fail the final and that I actually understood the problems. I have to say I really was worried that I was going to fail the class or get a D and have to be on academic probation. Math is and always will be a struggle for me. Thankfully though I only have ONE term left to take of math. Hip-hip-hooray!

Peace, love, and chicken grease!

There's always next year...

2009-08-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

This seems to be my motto lately. I am getting pretty good at missing events that I have been wanting to go to (being out of town, or having something else going on or being sick). Let me go back a couple of weeks to get ya'll caught up on what has been going on.

First off, I am almost finished with summer term. This coming week is finals and I will be so happy to see summer term end. That will mean that I only have ONE... O-N-E term of math to go. YIPEEEEE! I cannot tell you how much that means to me. In my women's studies class we are doing a group presentation for our final. My group has been studying Wicca. I have learned a lot this past weekend about witches, witchcraft, and this quite interesting religion.

Let's see next is the dreaded health chit chat. It's funny, it really is true that the older we get the more we talk about our health. Mine seems to be good news or at least I have gotten some answers. I started seeing a Natural-path. She has me on this really wonderful (read: I HATE) diet to figure out what foods I am allergic to. At this point I cannot eat any of the following: wheat, dairy, soy, refined sugars, fake sugars, tomatoes, potatoes (with the exception of sweets potatoes), nuts (except coconut), eggplant, and well... those seem to be the major restrictions. I will just say this, spelt bread isn't horrid, however gluten free cereal and almond milk is NOT the same as any "normal" cereal and cows milk. I have also been OFF of diet Pepsi for over 2 weeks! Who'd a thunk?! So far I have been having a bit of headaches come and go due to the lack of caffeine but not enough to cease functioning.

On the good side of the health issues, she (my new Doc) tested me further for thyroid issues and we have found out that I have a not quite uncommon autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. The kinda crazy thing is is that htere is no real cure for this yet, just experimental stuff. She has me on some remedies and I think they may be working. Yay!

Ok, now for the more fun stuff! I apologize that this blog is becoming so lengthy, this will teach me to not update it more frequently! This morning I woke up at 4 am to get to the MAX by 5:30 (riding my bike there), for the hour long ride to downtown Portland. Katie and I rode in the Portland Bridge Pedal. 3 different routes crossing either 11, 8, or 6 of the cities bridges. Due to my health issues, being sick so much I haven't been able to ride my bike much in preparation for the ride and only made it across 2 of the bridges. It was worth it, kicked my ass but fun.

Next year I shall complete the ride, which brings me to the title of my post... There's always next year!

Summer break wrap up...

2009-06-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

With the end of spring term I decide that I wanted to take advantage of the week off before starting summer term. First up on the plate was heading to Eugene to visit a friend who I recently got in contact with via Facebook. Ahhh the wonders of the social networking sites. Somedays I love them and others I just think they are the biggest time sink and waste of time ever. However, in this case, FB was my best friend. I got to see Meg after not seeing her for over 6 years. What a fabulous time we had. I got to play with her ponies (ok so just petting them and taking their photos, and bringing them in for the night) it was great. Sometimes I do miss having a horse but then again not having them is a lot better to my non existent bank account.

We went and had some fabulous drinks, this pepper infused margarita was the BEST, at Lava Lounge. I had a fab burger w/ mushrooms and brie cheese. YUMMMMO! Spent a lot of time just relaxing, playing with the dogs, and catching up. At the end of the trip Meg decided to give me a brand new tent and air mattress.. this came in useful later in the week.

Tuesday was the Hillsboro Farmers market in downtown Hillsboro. I got to ride my bike down there and meet up with friends where we had some more yummy food, picked up some fresh rhubarb and strawberries, and some vegan chocolate truffles (they are incredible!). I decided to try making a strawberry rhubarb pie... it turned out very good, but the crisp I made was better. Overall not bad for my first attempt.

Wednesday my aunt and I took the dogs to Seaside. Her dog had never been to the beach before so this was a momentous occasion. What I thought was going to be a grey day turned out to be quite lovely over in Seaside. There was amazingly a lot of people there for the middle of the week. Tiger loved just laying in the surf (I will post a pic later).

By Thursday it was time to just relax, as Maggie and I had been on the go all week and were a bit tired. We were also gearing up to go camping. This is something that I haven't done since I was a child. More on the camping trip later as it is past my bedtime and school starts at 8 am with Math tomorrow... bleh!

Goodnight my friends!

It's here! It's finally here!

2009-05-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

The "it" that I am referring to is actually a couple of things. First off, summer seems to be peaking around the corner with temps getting up into the 80's and 90' all over the state. The recent bout of nice weather has had me out enjoying my bike. Thanks to Crazy Kate who picked Betty (my bike) and I up and took us out for a nice ride.

The other "it" is the end of my second term of school. I can't believe that the Spring term has got only 1 week left until finals. The term has been pretty good, and I will def miss a couple of my Profs. I will once again be taking 15 credits during the summer term and of course there is a math class.... I swear that will be the bane of my existance! :P

Memorial Day weekend came and went. I got to spend it at the Oregon coast visiting my parents. It was a great time and gorgeous weather! We spent a night in Newport and the following morning was a minus tide which meant killer tide pools.

So not the most creative blog ever, but hey... at least I made an effort! haha :P

Enjoy the pics. :)

It's over for another year...

2009-04-16T15:43:00.001-07:00

Ahhh April 16th has marked the end of tax season, now I can really focus on school and some sleep.. or can I? After last nights end of tax season party I was excited to sleep in today, but then I woke up with a nasty headache and all I have wanted to do is sleep all day! Ugh, I hate days like that. I haven't even opened a book, which I need to do! That's what this weekend will be for I suspect.

So let's see where was I when we last met? It was coming to the end of winter term at school. I did well in my classes getting to 2 As and 1 B. Not bad for not having been in school for long. I just found out last week that my grades earned me a spot on the Dean's list. Woo hoo! That was a bit exciting for me. This term in school I am taking Sociology, Personal Health, Math 65 (Algebra), and US History 203. I have 2 of the same instructors which makes it nice. So far I am enjoying all of the classes, yes even math. I have a "math friend", makes going to class a bit more fun.

I am quite excited as spring is def in the air. I am going to purchase a bike this weekend so that I will start getting out and enjoying the outdoors. I am quite excited. Honestly there really isn't much going on. Maggie has been on thyroid medication now and her energy levels have gone through the roof, just like she was a pup again. She drives me crazy some days with the dang red ball, but I love her she is a great companion.

There you have it a bit of an update which pretty much most of you who read this already know. I just felt the need to post! :)

Cheers!

Small update

2009-03-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

My first term back to school is quickly drawing to an end. This is dead week and boy am I feeling dead! I have been trying to keep my bedtime to 10:00 pm as 6:30 am comes FAR too early. My life has pretty much been work, school, homework, sleep, rinse repeat. Weekends have left little time for playing my newly acquired Wii, but I do love it! I need to get the Wii fit since I can't really afford the whole gym thing. On that note I am planning on purchasing a really cool old fat person bike from REI. I am sooo excite about getting it, I think that may happen this weekend. Back to the school thing, so far I have confirmed that as long as I do well on my final project in writing and get at least an 85% on my math final I will have 2 A's, I am not sure about History, that is a solid B if not an A if I do well on the final. I am totally crossing my fingers.

Maggie has been doing well although me being a picker and mother hen, noticed something funky going on with her ears last week. She went to the vet, had her ears shaved, and has a fungus on her ear tips. Not sure what it is caused from, she is on meds now so hopefully it is gone in a week or 2. She also has been diagnosed with almost non existent thyroid. Just like her mom she gets to be on thyroid meds. Lucky us! lol Other than that she is still my happy go lucky, "let's play with the red ball" Maggie.

That's it for now, hope all is well with you in blogger land!

Cheers!

RIP Grandpa

2009-02-23T16:55:00.000-08:00

About 30 minutes ago I got a phone call that my mom's dad passed away. Anyone who knows me, knows that the relationship I had with him wasn't the best especially the last several years. I haven't actually seen him since 2004. Maybe that is why I am so torn up. Death really is about closure. I know that in his last years he wasn't himself, suffering from dementia. He just wouldn't have known who I was. I feel so guilty that I didn't go see him. I was actually mad at him for the things he said to my mom and about her. I know that he didn't understand what he was saying, it was still just hurtful. I hope he knows that I did love him, I am sure he did.

He always told me to find a good cowboy to get married to. He was a cheap man, financially. I guess that is what happens when you live through a depression. He would always send me $2 bills when I was a little girl for my birthday and Christmas. The not he included in it would say "No booze, pot, or cigarettes". Which is a bit ironic as he both smoked cigarettes and drank.

He would come to my horse shows and watch me ride. I know he was proud of me. He built his own house, the one my mom and her sisters grew up in. He lived in it until he had to go into an assisted living home. He took me to my first horse race in Grants Pass. We ate cold pork and beans out of a can for dinner.

Grandpa Dave, you were loved and I hope you are at peace now.

Love,

me

Life is good

2009-02-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

In short, yes, life is going well.

1) School- busy as usual. Only have 4 real weeks of class and then finals week. I only have one final test and that is in Math. I have a bunch of papers due in writing, but that is easy for me so I am not too concerned with those. Then I will have another 2 papers and a ton of reading to do for history. Guess I know what I will be spending a majority of my weekend doing!

2) I bought a used Wii. Yes I finally gave in to the urge. I am so excited to play. Although I bought i last Sunday I haven't had time to play.. school and work keep me pretty busy during the week. So, if anyone wants to have a Wii party come on over on a Saturday or Sunday. :)

3) Work- Yikes! We are in the full swing of things, let me tell you! Busy busy. It's hard for me to remember those days when I didn't work or have classes to attend. It's a good thing this is my 4th year doing the accountant gig. I work for such nice people it's great!

Those are pretty much the major things that have gone on sine my last post. Honestly I lead such an exciting life, please don't be too jealous. ha ha ha :P Maggie is adjusting to me not being at home as much. Poor girl, I think she has developed quite an anxiety disorder. What with my pit stops at home at lunch and in between work and school, she has no idea what's going on.

Next on my purchase list is a wicked cool bike from REI. I am so excited especially now that the weather is warming up and it is actually sunny. YAY!

Cheers everyone!

Broken record

2009-01-28T08:39:00.001-08:00

I knew that going back to school was going to be a lot of hard work especially given that my first term back I am also working full time. Talk about sounding like a broken record... wake up, go to work, go home for a snack, go to school, home for dinner, bed. Rinse repeat. Sometimes I am lucky enough to talk with friends on the phone as opposed to only via chat and yet sometimes, VERY rarely I get to SEE them in person! To all of you who have been checking on me. I have had to enlist those of you who are on my chat list for help is making sure I am not online after 10 pm. It is so easy for me to want to stay up late but boy 6:30 am comes far too early!

Math has been successful so far. We just had a big test and I didn't study (bad me!) but still got an 86/100. I am pretty pleased with that. This past weekend I was holed up reading a book called "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl". For anyone interested in wanting to know more about slavery and what a person would go through to become free, READ THIS BOOK! I am really loving history. I have always liked my history classes and learning about history but I have also realized just how much grade school & high school history has been sugar coated. Sad really.

I can't believe that midterms are next well already. Yikes! Where did the time go???

In other news... oh wait, there really isn't anything else going on in my life. HAHAHA :P Magster is learning to deal with me being away from the house so much. I try to spend any spare time I have doing stuff with her. Heh, I am making it sound like she is a human or something. Oh, I do get to go to the coast this weekend. Although I am tempted to say I can't go because my History midterm is Tuesday and since I don't have any free time other than weekends to prepare for it, I am not sure I would have enough. Guess I will have to see what happens.

Good luck out there in blogger land.

Cheers! :)

Homework, school, and hiking

2009-01-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

Well week #2 of school is down, going into week #3. I have successfully managed to make it to all of my classes and now work on time. It is quite the adjustment and I am feeling a bit like a broken record. Work, home (eat & change), school, homework, sleep, rinse repeat. I have also had my first math quiz and got an A. Yay me! hehe :) All is moving along quite nicely. I just didn't anticipate how much reading there would be, especially in my writing class.

Had a super weekend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous even if it was a tad on the cool side. I managed to get to the Hawthorn area for shopping and a bite to eat on Saturday. I have found this place that sells lotions and oils and stuff that you can get scented. They have a HUGE selection to choose from, I went with Thai Tea this time. Yummo!

Sunday was supposed to be my homework day although it was far to nice to stay in. K invited me and the Magster to go with her and 4 other friends on a hike. I was told it was just a short one, wouldn't take to long. I agreed since I really needed the exercise. Between the 6 humans and 4 dogs it was quite a fun time. We went to Sauvie Island where there is a rather easy hike, especially if you are in decent shape. It is 7 miles round trip and very pretty. Views of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt, Hood was even visible. At the end of the trail, after 3.5 miles, was a cute little light house. We stopped and had some yummy cookies that K had made for us as we enjoyed the view. Overall it took about 2.5 - 3 hours. I am sure feeling it today! It was well worth it though. Thank you Miss K for sticking with my out of shape ass! :) I would post pics, but I was a complete idiot and didn't have a cf card in my came... I did have an extra battery though! Arg! :P

After going hiking yesterday I am even more determined to get into way better shape. I am def in need of good hiking shoes, backpack, first aid kit, water container, and a different jacket. I guess those are going on my list of items to by when I get a paycheck, well that and a bike. :)

That's about it for now...

-Cheers

It's a New year!

2009-01-13T15:34:00.000-08:00

Greetings out there in blogger land. With 2009 having snuck up on me I figure I may as well try to let those of you who are actually interested in my life know what is going on. So many things have happened since we last met. Let’s begin…

Dec 8th I got to go see my very favorite group, Nine Inch Nails.. Can I just say how much I <3 Mr. Reznor.... Anyway, it was SOOO cool as he allowed real cameras and video cams in to the concert. I took my camera and got some pretty nice shots, but I wasn't too sharp as I had forgotten to take a second battery and the first one died before the end of the first set. Darn it all! However Mister Ed was able to get a lot of it on his video cam so I can relive the night over and over and over. Thanks Mister Ed for the concert! I had a fairly perfect weekend as we also went to Kell's... my very favorite restaurant in Ptown and the night before we went to Montage my second favorite place to go.

Oregon has seen one crazy winter. I am not the first to let you all know this. Many a friend had their holiday plans ruined or at the very least deterred due to the lovely copious amount of snowfall that we had. I for one was due to visit my parents in lovely Florence, OR the week of Christmas. My plans however were delayed by about a week when I was finally able to make it out of town. I know some of you tried driving in from The Dalles to Portland taking anywhere from 3-6 hours…. So happy that wasn’t me! Then again there was also those who drove from Portland to Salem in a whopping 3 hour trip (normally like 45 mins to an hour tops for those of you unaware). Yes, the snow played a bit of havoc on us here in the Pacific Northwest. From reports I read it was like the largest snowfall in 50+ years! Crazy! All I can say is that I am quite happy it s over, for now it seems. I could never put up with that amount of snow for the amount of time we had it, year round. YUCK! I much prefer that pretty white stuff to stay up on the mountains!

Moving on, I did make it to Florence. It was a great little trip. I lucked out and it didn’t really rain much at all. YAY! I made it back to Portland to pick up a friend then head to The Dalles for New Year’s Eve. WOW… all I can say is that I am sorry. Someone (that would be me) had a wee bit too much to drink and may have done some crazy stuff. Now here is the best part of me being under the influence of alcohol, I remember EVERYTHING! Unlike some people who tend to not remember what they did or said whilst intoxicated. You see this is why I am sorry. I remember EXACTLY the things I aid and did. Oh boy do I ever remember. Those of you who were there know who and why I am apologizing.  We will leave it at that! :P hehe

With 2009 underway I managed to appreciate every last second of free time that I had as now, well let’s just say there is no such thing as free time. Not only has school begun. YAY. Yes, I still hate math. History is always cool, and well writing is writing and I generally really like it. I have also started working as of this week. Back to the accountant’s for the duration of tax season. My day’s pretty much start at 7:30, work, lunch, work, dinner, school, homework, bed… rinse repeat. I am realizing just how much time I don’t have anymore. It has been nice though being so busy again.

There you have it, not really anything too exciting, just enough for me to bore you with! Hope everyone’s 2009 is off to a great start!

Cheers!

So much to do, get caught up on

2008-12-01T22:51:00.000-08:00

Let the recap begin!

So, last I left all of my fearless readers (like all 4 of you) it was over a month ago and I had gone to the Fruit Loop in Hood River. A lot has happened since then. Hopefully I can recount all that has happened. Ok, so I may be being a tad sarcastic. One someone doesn't have a job, school, family, etc.. they aren't usually real busy. I have done well keeping myself from going nuts, especially with the holiday season approaching, rather in full swing.

I have had the pleasure of going clubbing for the first time in like 4 years. My friend came out all the way from The Dalles so we could go eat Ethiopian food and dance the night away. It's kind of funny as she and I both realized that both times she has come out to Ptown we end up eating in a restaurant that doesn't have utensils, where you use fingers for every course in the meal. It's kinda funny. We are planning on pizza next, just to keep the streak of utensil free meals alive! :) Then we hit Aura, a snotty, overpriced, pretentious bar/club. I guess if I were 23 again and well, blonde, 105 lbs, and the brains of a toothpick, then maybe I would have fit in a bit better. After 1 drink we then went over to The Embers... my favorite drag/gay club in Ptown. A much more relaxed, fun loving, easy going atmosphere. I actually got out on the dance floor after a couple of drinks even if it wasn't all that crowded. Good times!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I was lucky enough to get to celebrate it twice, or at least have the meal two different times. hehe :) Seeing my mom and dad is always fun. I made the stuffing for feast #1 and there was plenty left over for the second meal on Sunday when I celebrated with my Aunt & Uncle and their family (again). I just LOOOOOOVE turkey and stuffing. The food this time of year is absolutely the best. Who doesn't love pumpkin, stuffing, cranberries... yummo! Making myself hungry now.

Let's see, oh right. I am now signed up for classes at PCC. I will be taking such exciting subjects such as Math, (ooohhhhhh), Writing (ahhhhhhhhh), and History (wooo hooo). I am nervous and excited and scared and ...... Yeah, I just hope that I can keep it together and get through the next couple of years. Wish me luck!

Here's happy thoughts going out to all of my friends for everything they are going through, whether it be health related, family, relationship, etc. I am always here for you all in whatever capacity that you need it to be. :)

(kisses) (Hugs) to everyone!

-Cheers!

Fall, Friends, and Fruit

2008-10-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

The title pretty much sums up my weekend. The idea of going to Heirloom Apple Days, in Hood River on the Fruit Loop, began last year after I went for the first time. I decided then that it needed to be an annual tradition. Looking back I can't believe it has been a whole year! My how things have changed in that year.

I met up with the fabulous Mrs. Tweet. Awww how I miss my friends! Just so you all know! We had a lovely walk around the mall before she got her hair done, and she looks FAB!

My mom and aunt drove with me from Ptown through the extremely windy Gorge, where we met up with friends in HR for some breakfast at Bette's Place. Good food and worth the wait, although to be honest I have to give Y credit for calling ahead and getting a table for our large group.

From breakfast we set out on or trip around the loop. We got off to a rocky start, while I may have said one farm # to one group of cars, the rest of us went to another farm... oops! I am so sorry for that! That is ok though because once we met up at the Lavender farm M gave me a nice push and I went to the ground with a thud! Ok, so maybe he didn't push me, maybe I kinda just tripped over my own feet... hehe :)

Two farms down we had oh so many to go. Talk about a beautiful day.. or as the joke between my mom and aunt "it was gorgeous in the Gorge". Yeah it got old after the first 10 times. lol

And the food... oh there was FOOD! All I can say is it is a good thing I ate prior to heading out or I would have gorged on far too many sweets. We shared fried dough w/ fresh apple butter, pear dumplings w/ vanilla ice cream, jams, jellies, you name it. I had told my mom about Packer's, they have a HUGE selection of very large cookies. They were nearly the last stop on the list so after each stop she would ask, are we going to the cookie place now? It was with much happiness that we got to Packer's after 5 previous stops. We sampled cookies, cookies, and more cookies. They also have a great selection of pies, fruit, and Ryan's cider.

Our last stop had us at Cody Orchards. They had a great variety and prices on their pears and apples. I loaded up! My overall haul included cookies, wildflower honey, honey crisp/hanner's/jonagold apples, and a handful of pears. I am planning on trying a pear bread, maybe some pear & apple butter, and of course applesauce. Actually I have the first batch of applesauce done already, and is it TASTY! A little whip cream or ice cream with the hot applesauce is so yummy!

I want to thank my friends and fam for joining us. It was a thrill to see you all. Just wish more of you could have made it.

I also have to make mention of the lovely Yvonne for knitting Miss Maggie's sweater. It is soooo cute! Thank you Yvonne, you are quite talented! Go visit her here: http://lavendersheep.com

Peace out all! <3 Me! :)

Open letter to my friends

2008-09-19T01:37:00.000-07:00

Well hello out there in blogger land. I figure if I have any readers left they may be interested in what I have been up to. Well here goes a quick run down. Moved back to Hillsboro towards the end of July/August. Not something that I wanted but as we all know it had to be done. I am missing my friends in TD terribly! I want you all to know how much I miss you and that I wish things were different, but they are not and I have to move on. If it seems I am distancing myself... I am. I have to do it for self preservation. I have come to realize this. If anyone would like to visit me in Hillsborito I welcome you! We can have fun in the big city of Ptown! I have come to the conclusion that going back to TD is just not an option for me at the moment. I hope you all can understand that, and I sure you can.

So, moving out and being alone has felt.. LONELY. I knew it would be and even with the help of the Magster it has still just felt lonely. I guess when you have lived with someone for so long it is just an adjustment. I have been hangin out with some new and not so new peeps in Ptown. It's been fun.

My Aunt scared us, literally died 4 times and wa brought back to life. The Dr's in the hospital are calling her a miracle. While she was in the hospital for nearly a week I had plenty of time to get used to the cafeteria food. Bleh! Actually it wasn't too bad. I even got to read a book, first one in AGES that I read. Kind of a funny story behind why I read it in the first place ask if you really want to know! hehe With that, I have gotten on a reading kick. I am currently reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, it is quite entertaining and has me questioning some of the food I will order in restaurants from now on! haha

I spent a few days at the beautiful coast and went salmons fishing. Of course I didn't catch anything, it was just fun being out on the water, getting fresh air, and getting out of dodge for a while.

Last weekend my other Aunt took me with her to a jewelery making class, beaded earrings. It was so much fun! Now, those who know me will also know that I RARELY wear any jewelery including earrings. The class was fun, I discovered a hidden talent perhaps. we'll see. So far I have made about 14 pair of varying shapes and sizes. I will be puting them up on etsy.com to sell.

Oh, last but not least... the job hunt.... It's been horrid! I have had 3 interviews out of the 100+ resumes I have sent out. 2 of the interviews called to tell me how much they really liked me and had a great interview, yet went with someone else. It's been insanely annoying to say the least! I have been trying to stay positive, it just gets to be daunting after a while.....

Magster is good, getting settled in. She is great company. Shout out to KT who's been keeping me sane! And to my Aunt C who has let me kind of tag along wherever she happens to be going. And last but not least hello out there to all my friends back "home" in TD love ya, miss ya, can't wait to see ya'll soon.

Love, Me :)

Silver lining...

2008-08-19T17:09:00.000-07:00

Someone somewhere once said "There's a silver lining to every cloud". I sure wish that my cloud would just go away.... Having said that I am honestly not trying to feel too sorry for myself. Just a wee bit though. I just found out today that the job I had been an applicant for, just hired another candidate. Gee there's a shock. The thing that sucks about this is that I actually REALLY wanted that job. It was full filling all of the aspects in a career that I wanted. It allowed me to use my degree in video production. It was close to where I live. There was room for advancement. Just so happens that it wasn't in the cards for me today.

Moving on, I shall keep at it. Cruising CL and the help wanted, going to temp agencies, bugging my friends and former colleagues, in general searching for the elusive job that will turn into the career that I have been so desperately seeking.

In other news, it's raining today, it was raining yesterday too. The cooler weather makes me happy even if all else is going to shiznit around me.

-Peace

Recent activities

2008-08-06T17:42:00.000-07:00

I am slowly getting settled in here in Hillsboro. I had a job interview on Monday. I am a wee bit superstitious in that I don't want to talk too much about it. Suffice it to say that posting it on my blog is a bit contrary to not telling the whole world, but hush! Let me have my little neuroses. hehe

There really hasn't been too much in my personal life going on although it seems the people around me have all sorts of crap going on. I just want all my friends in TD to know that even though I may not be there physically I am just a phone call or gchat away. Maggie has been my little shadow, going from room to room with me. She does venture outside every now and then but she prefers the ac in the house as opposed to the high 90 degree weather outside.

My cousins from NYC are coming up on Friday so I am excited to see them. We are going to bbq, should be fun. I am going to attempt making a cauliflower coleslaw dish that I had in TD one night at the Petite Provence. I am also making miniature orange cheesecakes. They are in the oven right now as my test batch. Too bad no one is here to share them with!

I had some other friends from Eugene, who recently moved back up from San Diego, stop by for a visit. We went out for dinner and caught up on old times. It is funny what 5 years will do. In that time both of my girls got marries and now one of them has a baby. It's just crazy!

Today I went with K out for Indian. It was ok, not horrible not like the super best. It was fun having someone to go do something with and get me out of the house. Thanks for lunch K! This weekend is the airshow in Hillsboro so all the planes are starting to come in. I am expecting to hear the jets practicing tomorrow. It's fun to see all the cool planes. Bryan's is right down the street from the airport so I have a short walk or max ride to go see them.

That's about it for now, like I said, nothing too exciting going on. Hope ya'll are enjoying what is left of summer.

Ciao!

Where do I go from here?

2008-07-12T13:44:00.001-07:00

Apparently my previous post was quite the talk about town. No really, it was. Or at least that is what I am told. I was able to provide my friends and people I don't really even know with some entertainment. Happy to be of service to you all. :)

The only problem that I face now is how to keep you all reading! My life really isn't THAT exciting, or maybe it is and I just haven't been blogging about the right stuff! Like the time I went to the strip bar and the really hot chick with the dragon tattoo that ran the entire length of her body... wait no, I can't tell that story. Ok, I guess I will have to settle back into my not so cool life and blog about the really mundane issues that arise in my day to day life. That's ok, I don't mind mundane as long as it isn't asking me to be a third to it's open relationship I am cool with just about anything.

Not much has really happened since my last post and I fear that nothing that exciting will happen for a while. You never know though, I am moving to Portland next week. I will keep ya'll posted though. In the mean time, if ya happen to be in Seattle I know of a place you should check out. :)

-Cheers!

On to the back-up, back-up plan....

2008-07-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

I don't' even know where to begin. As if things could get any stranger or more difficult for me at this point. There I was Saturday, day after the 4th and an awesome night of BBQ and fireworks. Getting my bags packed, throwing all of my clothes into suitcases, making sure I didn't leave any "interview worthy" items behind. All my shoes packed, make-up, hair products... and finally me into the car. I was bummed that my dvds didn't make it, but I figured I would pick them up on the second trip since I had to go back to TD for some Dr. appointments in a week.

Got in my car and headed out... not before forgetting the directions and having to turn around a few miles down the road to go back to the house for them. Saying goodbye to Magster one more time.. I love that little dog, who btw is getting a bath today! hehe

Anyway, on the road, stopping in Kelso to pump my own gas and stop for some Mc D's then on the road once again. The weather was nasty, rainy and bleh! There was a ton of traffic but then, in the distance, I saw it.... SEATTLE! My heart just pitter patted at the site of a real city, the space needle and yes TARGET! Can I tell you how excited I get at the thought of being able to go to Target on a regular basis?!

I kept driving, another 20 miles to Everett where my friend lives. I made it without incident to their apartment. I was expecting a 3 bedroom... turned out to be 2 bedrooms with a large walk in closet. Hardly a 3rd room for me to live in. I was also expecting a bed... oh yeah I would be sharing theirs.... (WTF?!) Yes, sharing a bed with my friend and his gf because they all sleep different hours. Excuse me, I didn't know this bed had a spinning door on it. Sorry but I don't "share" my bed with 3 other people and who knows depending on the night and if any "playmates" each of my friends had over there could be more in bed. Uhhh, excuse me?! Did I hear you correctly? Playmate? Sharing a bed? I dont' think so!

COme to find out, my friend and his gf have an "open" polyamorous relationship. For them they are both bi which means that at any given time they may each be with another female or male or both. How on earth I was expected to fit into this I have NO IDEA!!!! I mean I am an open gal and all and to each their own. Just maybe don't expect that I am cool being your playmate. I have clearly figured out that I am very monogamous. None of this being with multiple partners kinda deal for me.

That isn't even where the night got weird... They decided they wanted to take me and another of their friends to a "club". The Wet Spot, or something like that. Unbeknownst to be this wasn't a dance club, social club, cigar club, no no no... it was a straight up sex club. You pay a membership to get in, then a cover to be a part of the night. I guess it is all legal because you sign all these waivers. However as a guest I didn't sign. So I really was taken aback.

Stepping in the door way I thought it was an odd place, low key music but it was early after all, 9 pm... people would be there and better music the later it got. Then I walked around the corner of the side wall they had blacking the doorway from the rest of the club.... and wow, just WOW!

In the middle of this large room were several BDSM implements. People tied, being whipped, paddled, suspended, watching, having sex, you name it. I was in a real life porn. At first I just felt like I had stepped out of my own skin. Was this really happening? How did I get here? With everything going on in my life my mind wasn't quite functioning at normal capacity. I just found a nice chair in the corner, listened to music and tried to zone out. Being exposed to that environment is something I think I could have lived without for the rest of my life. Not that there is anything wrong with it for some people, just not for ME!

Several hours later and we got back to the apartment. Me, I tried falling asleep in a chair in the living room, since they didn't even have a sofa. I took a few sleeping pills to help me get through the night. Passed out finally on the shared bed, fully clothed. Woke up around 11 am Sunday, showered, packed my bag, threw my stuff in my car and hit the road back to TD. Not without stopping at Northgate Mall first! *sigh Ahhh, a real mall, complete with Barnes and Noble (2 stories of paper goodness), Target, and a CPK (that's California Pizza Kitchen). I had my all time fave salad BBQ Chicken Chop salad... YUMMO! Then I was on my merry way, not looking back.

If I had known more people in Seattle then I am sure I would have stayed. But the situation that I was walking into, was anything but stable, relaxing, comforting, welcoming. I am now onto the secondary back up plan which is hitting Portland. Good 'ol PDX. I love it there, I should have just played it safe the first time around and gone there. I have plenty of my awesome friends there as well as an abundance of jobs.

There is the update for my latest trauma. Stay tuned! :D

Well maybe not

2008-06-23T19:11:00.001-07:00

I have been informed that in order to be back from hiatus that I actually need to blog. I see that i have been neglecting my blogging duties. I guess people DO read my blog after all!! So, now that the dust is finally starting to settle and I am crawling out of my cave so to speak and joining the living once again.

For those of you who have no clue what I am talking about... it goes a little something like this: for my birthday this year I was dumped. There it is for all the world to see. Things haven't been so peachy here in the magic kingdom for quite some time, but I had hopes they would work out. M just happened to be the one who had the balls to say it first. It took me a while to compose myself and figure out what my new "plan" was going to be but for now I think I finally have one.

It goes a little something like this: Seattle looks mighty fine. I've always wanted to live there, I love the weather... bring on the rain baby! Shopping, entertainment, friends, diversity, restaurants that are open past 9:00 pm on Friday and Saturday night (other than Taco Hell), Pike's Market, an airport, clubs, more than 1 movie theater, and of course there are downsides like traffic, a ton of people, I-5, sales tax, higher cost of living, etc. I am hoping that it will be the right move. I am excited, nervous, anxious, scared, happy, sad... all rolled into one.

My life is going to completely change and that is a scary thing. Change is good and we never know what we are going to get with that change. I look forward to meeting new friends although very sad to be losing the very good friends I have met in TD. I will miss them all very much. It may have taken some time to find them, but they have all made an impact in my life. Thank you friends (you know who you are)! M, I wish you the best of luck and hope you find what you are looking for.

- Peace and love :)

Then again, maybe I am back!

Back from hiatus

2008-06-11T10:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, I took a bit of a break.a break from EVERYTHING. A lot has changed and will be changing in the upcoming month or two. While I am not going to delve into all of that now, I just had to share a kick ass link that keeps making me laugh (which I really need right now).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9dpTTpjymE

Enjoy it!

I will get a real update soon. I am just starting small. :)

-Peace!

Unwinding

2008-04-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

With the end of tax season also comes the end of my employment. This is always a difficult week for me as I try to transition out of a normal daily work routine into the looking for work/keeping the house up and honing my photography skills routine. It is one thing to either quit/get fired/laid off/etc from a job and another when the job is a temp kinda deal. One that you dont' love yet don't completely hate. One where you love and adore the people you work with. One that each year with certainty on April 15th or 16/17th you know for a fact will come to a screeching halt. It's like one minute you are working your buns off making frantic calls to people to make sure they get their stuff into you for their taxes to be finished and the next you are waking up at 10 am, forgetting to eat anything until you nearly pass out around 2 in the afternoon, an in general just grasping for what to do next.

Today I devised a somewhat time line of what my days will be filled with until I have one of those 9-5 main stream job things again. I have my days so filled that I dont' know what I am going to do once I get said job. Between learning new photo editing software, taking photos, learning languages (French and Italian), doing the household chores, working out. Gee that all sounds so much fun! hehe :D

Enjoy some of the HDR (high dynamic range) photos that I have been playing with. Be thankful for your days and nights and the people in your life that love you and whom you love in return. In the meantime I will be keeping myself busy, or at least trying! :D

Ok, since blogger is not working properly you can't view my HDR images, you can if you go to my DA page at: http://amy-moore.deviantart.com/

Cupcakes galore

2008-04-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

Although it is the end of another week and I have pretty much forgotten about blogging. So, here I am recounting this past weekend.

Saturday I spent most of the day baking cupcakes. First up was gingerbread cupcakes with lemon cream cheese and lemon curd centers (white frosting). Can you say.. YUMMO! Oh my goodness. Not to toot my own horn but for someone who had never made cupcakes before, these turned out to be so good. I would be happy to share the recipe if anyone wants it, just email me. :) Second the most difficult to make by far and from what I am told (seeing as I detest black licorice I refused to try these but made them at the request of others) pretty darn tasty too, were the licorice (black) with orange marshmallow and licorice frosting (blue frosting). Finally I chose to make the easiest recipe... chocolate peanut butter w/ Reese's pb cup centers and a chocolate buttercream frosting.

Can you say pooped?! That is what I was after creating all of those yummy delights. It was worth it though. I realized just how much I enjoy baking. I hope everyone enjoyed the cupcakes. Oh yeah, they were for a friend's baby shower. Let me tell ya, when Miss K sent out the call for us women to make some cupcakes, we responded! Lovely turn out and a lovely shower was thrown. Thank you for opening your house for all of us (you know who you are)! :)

So this was my final week doing taxes. I do have 3 more days left... since the 15th is on tuesday, I have to come back for a couple more days and then our kick ass end of season party. I will write more on that later. For now enjoy the pics of cupcakes! And if anyone is interested in the recipes email me. :)

-Ciao! :)

Airports, hotels, and a wedding

2008-04-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

What a whirlwind this past weekend was! M's sister got married (FINALLY!) after being together for 10 years C & C got marries in Boise. I was the "official" photographer for the wedding. I was nervous as all get out as I have never photographed a wedding before. All things considered it went really well! The weather was great, most of the people were cooperative, the day went off without a hitch.

It all started for me last friday which went something like this: Get up at 6:30, went o work 1/2 day (until 1 pm), went home to pick up Maggie and load up the car, drive from Hillsborito to almost Gresham to drop Maggie off at my grandmother's, hussle to the airport, check in, disrobe and walk through security... I forgot my cell phone in my back pocket which nearly caused a security threat, grab a bite to eat since it was nearly 3 and I hadn't eaten since 7 am, get on my flight to Boise at 3:45, fly (only partially miserable due to my ears still having fluid on them), get into Boise and wait for someone to pick me up.. not because he forgot (uh huh sure he didn't!) got to the hotel where the women were having the bachelorette party.... Ok, so have you ever been the late one to party where everyone else is mostly drunk and you just feel out of place? That was me. All I really wanted was to have a good hot meal (not a deli sandwich.. no offense) and go to sleep. I was so tired I felt like all I had been doing was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Anywho, the ladies all wanted to go crash the guys party so on our way out of th hotel we ran into the guys and I ended up having food brought to me so I went back to the room to eat and crash.

Saturday was up early and snapping away. I had so much fun taking the pics. I never thought I could do weddings, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I learned a lot too. The reception was beautiful, the food was good, and our hosts were wonderful.

Sunday was spent mostly in the airport after having Jon's b-day breakfast at Elmer's. Long story short, M was to take the 2 o'clock flight while I was on the 6:30. His was overbooked, I volunteered him to give up his seat so he could get a free ticket, thus taking the same flight as me. It worked out well even though we spent like 5 hours at the airport. We ended up seeing C & C and the girls again and spending a little more time with them which is always great. Got into PDX around 7:15 waited almost an hour for our bags only to discover that mine had come in on the earlier 2:00 flight and his was lost. Yes, lost as in they (Alaska Airlines) had NO idea where it was. Not good. We finally left the airport had some food then parted ways.

Monday I was tired as all get out. Even tuesday I felt I was still in recovery. M finally got his bag delivered yesterday and STUPID FedEx just left it sitting on the front porch of the house! Idiot... Not like it had a fairly expensive camera sitting in it. Arg! Oh well, so all in all things ended well and we are onto another month.

I can't believe I only have 9 days of work left... YIKES! I am excited and sad all at the same time. What shall I do?!

Happy hump day all!

-Ciao! :)

Wedding pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/amymoore.74/Ceramony?authkey=G190nH8FhvA

http://picasaweb.google.com/amymoore.74/Wedding?authkey=p8yrnAO3JCQ

http://picasaweb.google.com/amymoore.74/Reception?authkey=Lc2s_GhSYGI

Quick update

2008-03-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I haven't blogged for a while so here is a real short update:

1) Got sick with a *cold a week ago
2) went home for the weekend where said cold turned out to be the real flu
3) slept, slept, slept, ate, slept, pet the dog, slept.. you get the picture
4) came back to Hillsborito
5) work, still sick, dr
6) Bronchitis and ear infection, sweet
7) drugs, sleep, work, rinse & repeat
8) it's Friday.. YAY!
9) leaving for M's sisters wedding in Boise, ID. It is tomorrow and I am going to be the photog. Should be exciting. I am quite nervous!
10) Oh yeah, it is snowing and like the last week of March... We have SNOW... March, SNOW!!! Bleh!

So, there is the past nearly 2 weeks. Jealous, I know. Get over it! hehe :P
I fly out this afternoon for Boise, I just hope my ears can handle it, as it s they are still feeling plugged. I just hope that by the time I get back the weather has decided to get back to "normal", ie: not SNOW!

Ciao!

Hope ya'll have a good weekend. :)

How white are you?

2008-03-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

Ok so maybe you aren't a white person at all, but this site is great. Go there and see how many of the items on the list make you a white person. :)

Well for some stupid reason the link isn't working correctly... so you will have to cut and paste... darn it all!

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

Kitty at my foot and I wanna touch it!

2008-03-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

So yeah, the Presidents (PUSA/Presidents of the USA) were in town last weekend. M and I went to see them. Killer show. They are so fun to see in concert. It was the second time for both of us and we had a great time. While standing in line waiting we met another couple who befriended us. After standing in like an hour, sitting inside waiting for the concert to start for an hour we exchanged numbers promising to call one another. It was so cute, kinda like meeting a guy/girl for the first time.

Saturday we took my parents to Kell's and had a great lunch. Decided not to pay the $20 to enter the tents and be around a bunch of drunks but to instead sit inside and enjoy the ambiance and being dry. :)

Sunday was the big Shamrock walk. Ok, so we kinda cheated a bit. Mom and I didn't sign up, Christy did (my aunt) and so did her friend. We (mom and myself) were just going to tag along and walk with the two of them. When we arrived at the walk to sign up, they were already out of t-shirts, even for the people who had signed up in advance. Kinda sucked. My aunt decided not to do the check in so we just started walking. Got about a mile in, saw a "finish" line of sorts and decided that must have been the end of the race. We instead decided to hit Mother's Bistro for their famous breakfast. I shared the blueberry pancakes with my mom and they were heaven! If you haven't been there before it is in downtown Portland and is a delight! Go now!

Last night went out with the boys for some Guinness and hard cider. The pub was good, service was slow as I dont' think they anticipated being as busy as they were. Was kinda disappointed to learn they were out of fish and chips after waiting nearly 2 hours to get food. Like I said though, beer and cider was great! Have you ever had a "Snakebite". Well that is what it was called anyway, 1/2 Guinness and 1/2 hard cider. YUMMMMMO! Anyway, happy late St. Patrick's Day. Hope ya had a safe one.

Tonight I get to go to Buffalo Wild Wings... can't wait! :D

A bit of this and that

2008-03-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been over a week since I last blogged. Let's see... what has happened??

Gosh, not really much happened with the exception of my getting a new lens for my camera. It is sooo purty. The only major thing last week that happened was the opening/ reception of the art show in The Dalles that has some of my photographs in it.
link for the show:
http://picasaweb.google.com/crystalhuff/March32008TechnoArtShow?authkey=wilvk5MZB8c

the reception:http://picasaweb.google.com/crystalhuff/TechnoArtShowReception?authkey=LjmC1WquUww

and finally my work that is in the show, and for sale:

Art Show

Had a lovely relaxing weekend. We lit up the bbq for the first time this year and had some friends over for dinner, after that went out to a movie with the girls.. and one boy (won't name any names, Blair you know who you are) hehe :)
Then after we went to Denny's for a bit of chit chat and totally fattening desert. Good times! Sunday was spent eating at the pancake house (i loves it!) then renting a few movies and napping on the couch. Totally lazy but much needed. We watched "Into the Wilderness", based on a true story. If you haven't seen it.. do. It was actually directed by Sean Penn, it is thought provoking, heartfelt story of a young man who sets our to find himself. What are you waiting for.. rent it.. GO NOW! :)

Have a wonderful week adjusting to daylight savings time.. gah! I hate it! It is far too early for me to go to bed even, but I must.

Nighty night!

Tes of the day

2008-02-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

Career Inventory Test Results

Extroversion	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Emotional Stability	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	46%
Orderliness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	40%
Altruism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	80%
Inquisitiveness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	60%

You are an Inspirer, possible professions include - conference planner, speech pathologist, HR development trainer, ombudsman, clergy, journalist, newscaster, career counselor, housing director, character actor, marketing consultant, musician/composer, artist, information-graphics designer, human resource manager, merchandise planner, advertising account manager, dietitian/nutritionist, speech pathologist, massage therapist, editor/art director.

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Dodgeball, food, and friends

2008-02-25T07:07:00.000-08:00

Where to begin....

I arrived home in TD friday night after finally making it through Ptown rush hour traffic in a record 2 1/2 hour time. Arg! Ok so that is one of the very nice things about living in such a small town, anytime I want to go anywhere it takes all of 7 minutes max.

Anyway.... We got to bed early (as opposed to the normal friday 3 am bedtime), so that we could get up early for dodgeball. What a blast it was. The tournament was put together by the parks & rec, it was double elimination. The Goog had 2 teams representing... unfortunately neither won the whole she-bang! Speaking of she-bang, that was M's teams name. They actually did win one game but lost the following 2, thus eliminating them. It was fun having a whole cheering section for the guys and watching them play their little hearts out. I am hoping that at some point there will be a dodgeball league. Watching the guys play reminded me being in elementary school and playing prison ball.. ahh those were the carefree days.

I spent time saturday and sunday getting my photographs ready for the art show. Sunday turned out to be a disaster as I spent nearly 4 hours and many, many return trips to Fred Meyer because they had no frames to fit my freaking photos. It was soooo aggravating! Finally at the last minute Chuff pulled me out of the bind I was in providing frames for the last of my photos. They look gorgeous! The art show is in The Dalles at The Dalles Art Center beginning March 1-31. This is the first time I have had my works on public display so I am a tad nervous. I hope they go well, not to mention they will also be for sale. Yay!

That's about it for now... Ciao!

Oh, and to enjoy more pics from the dodgeball game go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/amymoore.74/DodgeBall2008?authkey=NmQMnOxKzrc

What a weekend!

2008-02-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

So the big Hallmark holiday better known as Valentine's Day came and went..... and I barely noticed it being any other day. Why is so much pressure put on this one silly day for people to show their love to others??? Anyway, M and I went to the coast for our annual Seaside holiday.

It was a FANTASTIC weekend. The company was great, the food wonderful, and the weather even better. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Maggie and I did plenty of walking on the beach. There were a TON of people. The poor pup was soooo pooped by the end of the weekend she slept the whole way home. We did have a bit of excitement on our way back home. As we traveled through Tillamook and headed up Highway 6 I was watching all of the happy cows crazing in the fields. As we got closer to the last field there were several cars parked alongside the road. I thought they were looking at the cute cows, however as we got closer I looked and saw a huge heard of elk. There were probably 40-5o elk just wandering in the field. It was a pretty darn cool sight to see.

We got home Sunday evening and decided to go see Jumper. It was a pretty fun little flick. A lot less heavy than the previous weeks film of "No Country for Old Men". Fun effects, nice locations, and some skin made for a fun but short movie night. I also picked up my pics that are going to be in the art show at The Dalles Art Center in March. I am way nervous, never had my work on display before. I hope it goes well.

I had a nice suprise monday as M didn't work and did some chores in town, we went to lunch along with some of our HR friends. Funny thing to be having lunch in Ptown with friends from HR. Then at the end of the day someone brought me flowers at work. Now, I am not usually one to say go out and spend money on flowers that are going to die in a few days... HOWEVER... they made my day! I just love gerber daisies and the roses smelled lovely. All in all a super fantastic weekend!

Today... well today I went and got my hair cut and colored. I was thinking that I was just getting high lights, oh no.... it is much cooler than simple high lights. I have (red) more like pink highlights in dark brown hair now. It is so fun! Check it out...

That is all for now, I know I am not too terribly creative, just wanted to get an update out there.

Cheers!

Day before that Hallmark holiday

2008-02-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Happy hump day everyone! I love weds, it means that monday is over, friday is yet to come and most important for me it means PAYDAY!!!! WOOT! So, I have some money in my pocket or bank account rather, and bills to pay. The good news is that I will still have left overs for playing. YAY!

As for my weekend wrap up... Satruday just flew by. Did the drive to TD got in around 1 am. Went promptly to bed. Woke up to a doorbell and who should it be standing there the beautiful miss Ame around 11:00. It was photo shoot day. My very first attempt at taking photographs of a "model"/ a person posing for me. This was a bit tricky as I hadn't done it before since most of my work is landscape/cityscape and animals for the most part. The second challenge was finding a suitable place to take said pics. I think that we had quite a few good shots. I am happy with how things turned out. Of course now I can say, "oh I wish I had done "x" instead"... as they say hindsight is 20/20. I think I will have at least 3 good shots to use for the art show next month along with some new stuff I have been working on.

Later that night was a friend's surprise b-day. It was a good time. The guys played Axis and Allies while the women folk chased kids and watched "Love Actually". Ahhh, I LOVE that movie, how can you go wrong with Colin Firth and Keira Knightly??

Got to sleep in a little on sunday, went to the pancake house.. YUM, for breakfast before meeting up with a few friends for a viewing of "NO Country for Old Men." WOW! Excellent movie. Once again the Cohen Bros have made an incredibly smart, well written/acted/shot film. If you get a chance go see it. It isn't a typical Hollywood ending film and actually reminded me quite a bit of one of their other greats "Fargo". Then it was time to pack up and head into the big city again.

Looks like I have also managed to avoid the plague that has been hitting everyone in TD. Makes me glad not to be there right now! haha :P Seriously though, hope you all get better soon.

Go out and enjoy your hump day and the day before tomorrow (which will never come) Oh, and let's not forget about that damn holiday that was made up by Hallmark and the fine makers of Chocolate treats everywhere.

Be good kids!

Hump day, the beginning of Lent, and other assorted goings on

2008-02-06T14:43:00.000-08:00

Not much to report, it is hump day as well as the first day of Lent for all of you Catholics out there. Hope ya partied hard last night since you have 40 days and nights of giving something up. Although I am not Catholic, nor religious particularly, I have been known to give up something in the past for Lent. This year I think it will be WoW. It wont' be too terribly difficult as I rarely play anymore anyways. I think it is a fun test of ones will power. Just in case I can't stay away from Wow, it has already been almost a week since I have played, maybe I can give up something else like... aw screw it I am not Catholic why should I have to give up anything! *evil grin*

On a completely different note... I have discovered deviantART.com, ohhh it is so addictive. It is an artists community for people to upload their works as well as sell them. I have listed several prints so far and am really enjoying the work of others.

http://amy-moore.deviantart.com/

I have also been playing with Gimp and trying to get some photos ready for the art show. I am going to be taking some photos this weekend of a friend to hopefully submit in the show. Aside from Gimp I have found some programs working with fractals. I am really enjoying this type of artwork and being creative.

Enjoy the rest of your week and those of you crazy enough to actually participate in Lent... GOOD LUCK!!!

Super Sunday

2008-02-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

Ahhh yes, the Super Bowl. Beer, burgers, commercials... what could be better? Wait, a football game? Noooo, I am talking about the commercials! Let's face it who actually watches those overpaid (for the most part) grown men running around in tights catching the ol' pigskin? Not to mention the usually lackluster half time shows that they come up with for Super Bowl Sunday. Prince was pretty good last year, heck even Janet Jackson's nipple ala Justin Timberlake was better than Tom Petty. Don't get me wrong I like Tom Petty, but as a performer ya have to admit he is fairly lack luster.

All in all Super Bowl 42 was pretty darn good. The first 3 quarters weren't sooo exciting, but if you missed the last 2 minutes of the game thinking that the Pats had it wrapped up in their last TD, then boy you were in for a shock. Those Giants weren't going without a fight to the end, and that is just what happened. In an amazing drive down the field Manning led his team to a Super Bowl win. Those poor Patriots, having that perfect season doesn't seem so sweet now does it? All those wins for nuttin! I only wish that I had put some money on those Giants.

The commercials this year didn't have too much to offer. There is always the very cute Budweiser Clydesdales. This year I also really like the Dorito commercial with the human sized mouse jumping through a wall... made me laugh out loud. Did anyone else think those E trade commercials were a bit weird, especially the one where the baby burped up? Ewww gross. Let's not forget the "Jack sandwich". My mother was totally offended at that one and said she is going to write a letter to Jack in the Box about how inappropriate she thought it was. I just laughed at her "Ok mom, you do that", was the only respone I could muster up. haha :P

Whatever your guilty pleasure is I hope you enjoyed Super Bowl Sunday with friends or family, or in whatever fashion suited you.

-Ciao

Time keeps on slippin'

2008-02-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, it is February already!!! I can't believe I have let a week go by without an update, I am sure all of you in blogger land have just been waiting with baited breath, so to speak, to hear of my exciting adventures in tax land. hahahaha I crack myself up!
Seriously, can you believe that it is February? I just have to pinch myself, where did January go?

On to the weekly update, as I have yet to be good about a daily blog.... Starting with the drive back into Hillsborito... OMG! Over the weekend there was a lot of snow and ice, especially in the HR area. Sunday morning I woke up nice and early so I could go out and buy some tire chains only to find out that Schwabs was closed. BOOO! Of all the shops in town only ONE, yes O-N-E, was open. They were nearly sold out of chains too by the time I got there at 11:00. Thankfully they had a set that would fit my vehicle. After breakfast at the Pancake House, a Sunday morning tradition, we got to the house where M helped me (ie; did all the work) put the chains on. Mind you the roads in TD were clear, but HR to Cascade Locks were required to have chains. I managed to get a couple miles down 84 before realizing I didn't need those silly chains and all hose big bad truckers passing me didn't have them either. I pulled them off quickly, jumped back in the car and off we (me and Maggie) went again.

Things were all good until just getting through HR and up the hills. Oh my! Ice and packed snow in both lanes on both sides of the freeway. I really should have left those damn chains on! 2 1/2 hours later, miles and miles of ice and snow, driving at 10-20 mph for what seemed an eternity, I finally reached the outskirts of Portland. Another 45 mins and I was safe and comfortably "home" in Hillsborito. I narrowly escaped several accidents as i went sliding from one late to another due to ice not to mention th idiots who think that just because they are in a 4x4 they are unstoppable. I vowed not to go back to TD if there was even the slightest chance of snow and or ice. I had my share thanks!

After having started my week off with that fun driving it was nice to finish the week on a quiet note. Got paid weds.. yay! Maggie is going to the vet today and getting her hair "did". Lucky dog. She is sooo shaggy right now and can barely see out through the fur. She is still th cutest doggles EVER though!

I think I might have to catch a flick this weekend or go to Powells or both even! Oh and isn't there some sort of football game this weekend? Whatever your plans are, stay safe and have fun!

-Ciao!

Blog test for the day

2008-01-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

I was just reading an article on a family who has 6, yes SIX, naturally born children who are ALL moderately to severely autistic. Could you imagine? One or two, but every one of their six kids is autistic. Wow, what are the chances of that. In the article they say that the marriage was nearly torn apart.. gee ya think? Like whoa...

But then again maybe I am the f*ed up one, especially with an I.Q. score like this:

Your IQ Is 115

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional

Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional

Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional

Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Can you do better?

ARG!!!!

2008-01-25T10:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I meant to post this yesterday, but was far too busy and now I am not quite as upset nonetheless I am very irritated.

Why you may ask? I shall tell you! Weds evening I was all set to play in my weds game. For those of you who dont' know it, I am a GEEK, a gamer geek. I play a weekly D&D game. Yeah, I said it get over it, it's FUN! Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, my game... since moving to P-town I have to play via web cam since the game is in TD. I have my camera all set up and finally working, FINALLY got the mic figured out. For some stupid freakin' reason it keeps getting set to mute and other random settings get changed. (Another annoyance that set the mood) I was fully connected and had all my stuff togeher, I could see the rest of the group, and just as the game started.... BAM! My comp shut down. Mind you this had been coming for a while now, I knew that something was wrong, but was assured by a certain individual that it was most likely something that me the user had done to the system to make it so laggy and non responsive. Well, when the system died and started making very loud noises, I knew I was not to blame as we had this prob when the comp had been built.... it overheated. ARG! For whatever reason it worked just "fine" for nearly a year and now it dies.

Great, just great, now what do I do? Hmmmm, well I can't edit pics on gimp, surf the net, chat with friends, NOTHING online. Ok, I will watch tv. Oh wait.... no I won't. Not because I don't have a fabulous big ass screen tv to watch, however I only have ONE FREAKING CHANNEL TO WATCH! Yeah yeah, it isn't the end of the world, there are starving kids in africa who dont' even have clean water and I am bitching thatmy comp died and that I only have 1 tv station to watch. Did I mention that the program on that SINGLE channel was.. oh lord this hurts... American Idol. Freaking shoot me NOW!!!! Yeah, and then what was on after that you may ask... the STUPIDEST game show to ever be on tv... EVER... it is something like 21 questions but with a lie detector test. Yeah, I watched it. What choice did I have? It's not like I was going to solve that dirty water and no food problem in Africa sheesh, who do you think I am???

I am a glutenous American who can't live without my iPod, computer/internet, 465 cable channels, PSP, PS3, Xbox, iTunes, and whatever else the marketing people tell me I need to be entertained with. Heaven forbid I actually read a book (hmmm), go for a walk (hell no, not when it is like 20 degrees out!), work out (not a member of a gym here yet), basically entertain myself for a few short hours. Instead I get pissed. I was sooooo angry I could have just burst. Then to top it off the dang dog wouldn't leave me alone. That damned red ball of hers... and she kept getting it stuck in places so I would have to get up and get it. I know she does that on purpose. Honestly, she does. I will be sitting in a chair and she will run up to me, instead of putting the ball in my hand, she "throws" it under the desk/ table/ chair/ coffee table or wherever else is inconvenient.

There you have it, the end of my week and my pet peeves for what set me off this week. I do have to say though, yes I am alive and thankful for that. I am also going out to dinner tonight at Montage one of my FAVE places in P-town for food and adult beverages. They have the BEST mac n'cheese. Yay, TGIF!!!

Nothing much really

2008-01-23T08:04:00.000-08:00

*Yawn*

I was told yesterday by a friend that I need to update my blog. This is someone who I didn't even think read it! So, I guess I should do a quick update, even though not much is going on.

I am in my 3rd week in P-town and having a great time. Last week I was quite busy visiting friends, going out to dinner, going to the eye dr., and of course working. The work is mindless admin work, nothing too exciting. The people I work for though are exceptional and I love em... sooo much different than my previous employer.

After driving back to P-town from a not so bad weekend, I met up with K and we finally got my new bed. Yippeee! Ok, so it is a twin, but it is quite comfy. It took some getting used to, as in not falling out, for a couple of nights but I am getting used to it.

On a sad note, Heath Ledger was found dead yesterday in his NYC apartment. At this point all signs point to suicide/drug od. Such a sad day. He really was a growing actor and not just a "movie star". I loved him in A Knight's Tale and Brokeback. RIP Heath....

Sleep is good

2008-01-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, the first week back to work is under my belt. Things are starting to come back to me. It is good. I am finally starting to settle into the house. All those new noises, smells, and Maggie pointing them out to me. Darn dogggles... scares me half to death when she hears something in the middle of the night and starts to growl. Things are looking up though as my boss has a bed for me that they are willing to give me for free. Yay! No more airless mattress!!!

It was a return of the "get home friday night/saturday morning at 2 a.m., sleep until noon Saturday, eat 1 meal, stay up far too late saturday night, then try to get up "early" sunday, have breakfast sunday before 2, then head back to Ptown. There is something I have to do so I don't feel like I am wasting so much time sleeping, goodness!

Saturday was actually kind of a day for miscommunication that ended up being a fun evening. We were going to play board games with friends who ended up going to a Chamber of commerce free meal kinda thing which didn't get over until pretty late. The no communication came on my part for not calling B & Y to tell them we weren't going to play. Well when we got home from pizza they were at the house waiting for us. I felt awful. Things actually turned out just fine and dandy as we played Settlers of Catan which I again failed to win at. Oh well, there will be other chances! I will dominate the world yet! hahaha :)

All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend, and I am back to work today. I always feel so bad in the morning when I leave for work. Maggie just looks at me with those cute brown eyes as she curls into her bed and looks sooo sad.

Off to answer phones....

1 day down....

2008-01-07T20:53:00.001-08:00

Ahhh, the working life. I have completed my first day back at work after my short term "early retirement plan" and it was so nice getting back out there. I can't say enough how nice it is to work somewhere that you are truly wanted, where you walk in and everyone is happy to see you and relieved to have you around. It makes life so much nicer having an employer, friends, loved ones in your life who appreciate you. It took all day, but I finally got back into the swing of things. This is my 3rd season working for the CPA. I have really come to not hate tax season, it gives me a job! Yay!

I have to say though that my day started out pretty rough. I got settled into my new diggs Sunday evening. Felt I was coming down with a cold, oh joy. Tried to go to bed around 9 since I was feeling so icky. Well the air mattress, or the airless mattress as I call it, did not provide for a super nights rest. Aside from all of the different noises, not having any legal drugs to enhance my drowsiness, my mind was completely restless and I had like 3 hours sleep max. Right now I am not really sure what is keeping me awake other than the episode of LA Ink that I am watching.

Here I am with 1 day down and many more to come. Here is my little reminder to those who read my blog... GET YOUR TAX INFO READY!

-Peace all!

Bleh...

2007-12-28T23:19:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up for me right now. I have a raging headache. Am waiting for M and D to finish their gaming session so I can go home. I have like the worst headache, stupid migraines.

Christmas came and went. I hope ya'll had a super holiday. Mine was pretty nice and relaxed. Chilled with childless friends on Christmas eve and played Apples to Apples (one of my presents)... what a fun game that is! Slept in on the big day until noon!!! Isn't that sad?! Then went to some other friend's who were making their traditional Christmas day taco dinner. It was fun. I am just worn out.

On another note I will be starting work in 1 week. Yay for work! I am sure I will be back to blogging nearly everyday since I will have plenty of face time at a computer with not a ton to do and no WoW to play. Yes I am that bad. hehe

Hope everyone is ready to bring in the New Year of 2008. Make it safe, make it legal, but make it FUN!!!

-A

Ahhh the holidays....

2007-12-16T22:38:00.000-08:00

The baking madness of the holidays has consumed me full on and kept me from blogging. Yet again I have come down with a case of the nasty cold... bleh!

So about 2 weeks ago M emails me and says that there is going to be a cookie contest at work. Well that gave me a little over a week to figure out just what I was oging to bake. After going through dozens of cookbooks, calls to my mother, and perusing the internet's various cooking sites I narrowed down the choices. We had to bake 1 of each of the following categories: butter, chocolate, and novelty. I decided to go with my grandmother's potato chip cookies which I fully remember from childhood as being these buttery salty goodness sweets. For chocolate i went with the infamous chocolate kiss wrapped in butter dough. Last but not least was the bourbon ball cookie for the novelty.

Starting 2 full days before the contest I made my first batch of the potato chip cookies. Somehow these were NOT the yummy goodies I remember. Hmmm, perhaps I didn't use the proper butter, or vanilla? Well, I decided to try the bourbon balls. Easy enough recipe, just turned my hands into a chocolaty mess. They didn't turn out half bad, as long as you like bourbon! :)

The following day (thursday) I resumed full on into baking mode. Waking up early and into the kitchen I went. Another batch of bourbon balls was finished, then I took a crack at buttery cutouts. Those didnt' turn out so good. Dang, I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I took another crack at potato chip cookies making a few modifications, this time they turned out a bit better but still nothing like I remember. Ahhh, that would have to suffice as it was the last batch of the night and it was about 10 pm.. I was pooped! I also made 2 batches of the kiss cookies, each with different types of kisses.

Oh, lest I forget that somewhere in between batch 4 & 5, my trip to the grocery store, and the 2nd load of dishes... the kitchen got flooded! OI! Yeah, one of the pipes under the sink fell off and flooded the kitchen. Ugh... I got that mess cleaned up and finished the cookies up.

M took the cookies to work for the contest the following morning. I had no hopes of actually winning as I thought most of my cookies turned out pretty fair if not bad. Someone made a chocolate chip bacon cookie that won, there was a devine butter cookie, and a double chocolate something or other. No big deal, it was fun just to make them. Oh, but wait... there is one more prize, the overall bestest cookie. Who do you think won that?! ME! My bourbon balls won! Woot! I can't believe that I actually won. I think that the only reason people liked them was due to the alcohol, but that is ok because I AM A WINNER!!!

May the holiday season find you with plenty of cookies!

A snow filled weekend

2007-12-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning came all too early as I tried to force myself out of my warm bed and into the shower. M didn't get home until somewhere after 2:30, I knew he would just love getting up several short hours later to head into the wilderness to get our Christmas tree. We showered picked up Trev and headed to HR to meet up with the rest of the gang. The 5 car caravan headed up Highway 35 into the Mt. Hood National Forest. The further into the mountains we got the more snow there was.

We made it to the Little John Snow Park, piled out of our cars, made sure all mittens, gloves and hats were on, then head out on the path to find that perfect tree. With M leading the way, we plowed through feet of snow, making our way through the woods. Have you ever walked through real powdery snow? It is a lot like sand. OMG, it was nutso! Cold, snowing, and surrounded by snow. It was great!

If you aren't familiar with how this whole "going into the woods to cut down your own tree" works, it goes something like this: Anyone can do it. Just go to the Forest Service, pay $5 for a permit, get a map of the areas you can get the tree from.... that's it. Easy peasey... or so you would think. hehe

Walking through feet of snow in the freezing cold isn't all that easy. Then having to drag out a tree that is bigger than my entire living room. Ok, so maybe I only helped drag it like 100 feet 300 max... but that was tough. I am not saying I don't like the tree that I chose, it is just so frigging HUGE! Once we finally got it out to the parking lot, rather M & Trev, and up on the Jeep, I was never so happy to get in side the car and try to get warm. I did watch the guys and the girls go down the huge sled hill a couple of times. Then on our way down the mountain we came across a couple of guys who had gotten their car stuck after sliding off the road.

After a futile attempt to dig it out, pull it out, push it out, of that embankment we figured it was just not going to budge. The guys got a ride into town and we were once again on our way back home to get into warm, dry clothes.

I swear I didn't get warm until I went to bed saturday night. However, I am warm and dry now so it's all good. It's monday and I am still quite sleepy so this blog isn't quite as spicy as it could have been. Enjoy the pics and have a happy day!

-Peace

It's begining to look a lot ....

2007-11-30T18:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, like Christmas. Even I have to admit it is time to start putting up those decorative lights, mistletoe, holy, etc, etc. Snow started falling earlier this week. It is just crazy! As I sit posting this, I am freezing my tushi off, is 29 degrees cold enough?! I think so!

Tomorrow brings a fun filled day spent with friends going out for breakfast and then off for the great Christmas tree hunt. Weeeee.... We are going to head into the wilderness, purchase permits, then cut our own trees. This will be exciting and quite an adventure to say the least. I will post an update later this weekend.

Everyone have a super night and bundle up, as it seems winter has made its way right onto our doorsteps.

-Peace

Post turkey day thoughts

2007-11-26T15:24:00.000-08:00

Gobble, gobble....

It seems the big stuff your face until you can't eat anymore holiday has come and gone without a hitch. First off, I went to my parents last week, yeah, they convinced me to go. The timing of my trip couldn't have been worse. The weather up until last week had been beautiful. Of course the day I decide to go it was nice, but after 5 hours of driving it was nearly dark by the time I got there. So, I wake up friday morning to lovely rain. Now this isn't just little raindrops, or mist.. but full on downpour. It rained for 4 days straight. I felt so caged up. Couldn't really go for a walk, go to the beach, fishing, or anything else. While it was nice visiting my parents, bless their hearts, it sucked not being able to really enjoy being there. On the other hand, with all the spare time, my mom and I made cards. She has really gotten into that so she and I sat around 1 day and made some fun stuff.

I left on monday after spending 5 days there. The weather cleared up and has been sunny and dry since I left. Figures.... that's the kind of luck I have. This is the second year in a row that I have gone to go salmon fishing and the weather kept me from doing it. Ahh yes, this is why I love Oregon so much. ARG!

Moving on to last week, one of the local stores had this fab coupon, that if you bought over $100 in groceries you got a free 20lb turkey. Pretty sweet deal I thought. I ended up spending twice that amount, but eh, we need food right?! hehe

The turkey day plans went something like this: A group of 10 or so of us in town were getting together. Each one making a couple of different dishes. The problem was that the family in charge of the turkey, potatoes, and stuffing were ALL sick. Good thing I had that turkey! So, I left it out to thaw only to confirm the next day that the sickies were going to be able to make it after all. Thank goodness! Both for them being well and able to cook the yummy food!

I made a couple of desserts, green bean casserole, snacks. We had more food than could feed an army. Literally... not to mention that 2 days later I had to make my turkey since it had thawed out. I will be eating turkey for quite some time to come. That's ok, I love me leftover turkey!

How was everyone else's holiday? Oh, and Washu got Rock Band. Great game! Basically it is guitar hero but better. Up to 4 people can play, drums, vocals, bass, and guitar. I have to say thanks to Washu for letting us invade his home for turkey day and over the weekend to play. Good times!

In the end, I have to give thanks (not to be cheesy) for good friends, great family, and killer food. I really have to thank my parents for everything they have done the last couple of years. M for all he is doing for me now, and my friends for doing that thing they do. In reflection I also have to thank all those soldiers who are out there fighting, putting their lives on the line every day. They dont' get enough thanks or praise. They need to know that those of us here in our cosey homes with our friends and family on the holidays, are thinking of them, hoping they in turn get to come home and be with their families.

-Peace!

Not much to blog about

2007-11-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

I think the title is pretty clear...

Lately life around here has been not so exciting. Kinda funny how things go in waves. For months it seemed I was crazy busy, now it is almost the quiet before the storm. I have been really conflicted though lately. I want to go visit my parents however with the god awful price of gas and the fact that my measly UI barely covers my current bills, I don't have spare funds to go visit them. What's a girl to do? I was thinking of setting up shop with my cardboard sign on the corner by the freeway exit, but with too many people in town knowing me I would probably not make much. Then I thought hey, selling off a kidney might work, then again I don't really have any connections in the black market of body part sales. I know! I shall take in the huge amount of pop cans and at a nickel per can I should have enough to get at least 1/2 a tank of gas. Woot!

Ok, maybe those aren't realistic choices, but in times of dire need those are some of the thoughts that cross my mind. I would whore myself out except that, well, I am soo far above that and I would do those things for free anyway. Hmm, on second thought, no I wouldn't. haha

In closing, if anyone has any great quick money making schemes that don't involve selling body parts, testing any drugs, or standing on street corners, then I want to hear about them!

Happy day everyone! Cheers!

Ohh the pain!

2007-11-10T02:23:00.000-08:00

Weds D and I had an appointment with the personal trainer at the gym. Dana is awesome! She totally kicks your ass, but in a good way. About half way through my legs were trembling and I was sweating like a pig (that is if pigs actually sweat). It was a fabulous work out and I was so happy to have gone to do it. I knew I would be sore the next day, just didn't realize HOW bad it would be! OMG! My quads felt like they had been turned to stone and didn't want to function at all. This was quite a pain (literally) as I had planned on going to Dana's power up class that evening.

I worked up the nerve to go to the gym early so I could at least get some treadmill time in. 30 mins later and a couple of miles I had worked myself into a good ol' sweat. The classes had already started their warm up and I got in just in time. WOW! It was tough! More of the same stuff we did in our session weds, but way more difficult. Lunges and squats till the cows came home basically. I think I shouldn't have pushed myself so hard, but in the end I am happy I did. Now I just have to keep up with the strength training. I have the treadmill/ bike down.

That has pretty much summed up the last couple of days, working out and recovering from working out. Got the car back, $1200 dollars later.. ouch! She runs great now though. Maggie was happy as she got to go with M to work for 1/2 a day. She loves being the center of attention and she gets plenty of it when he takes her to work. She is such a CUTE puppy!

Friday night came and went without a hitch. Played a great game with friends, but now it is time to go to sleep, or so I am being told since it is 2:31 am. For some reason I am not sleepy.. it couldn't be the Rockstar that I drank, could it?! hehe :P

Peace all!

Zzzzzz....

2007-11-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Rubbing my eyes as I force myself to write a much needed blog, yet again I have been told I have been a bad blogger. I guess I would blog more had I actually though people read this garbage called my life. Not that it is actually garbage, or that I think I am uninteresting, but really... Me? I am flattered and thank you to those who do read my mindless ramblings. Now on with the happenings of my life as of late....

Had a pretty uneventful weekend. M was gone for a few days for work, it was nice not having someone around. I know that is bad to say, but I honestly am getting tired of the nit picking. It was only for 1 night too AND I didn't have to wear my earplugs just to get a good night's sleep! My car is still in the shop after breaking down on Halloween, it should be all fixed and ready to go tomorrow. The guy was really cool at the shop, they gave me a loaner car, a big purple Dodge Intrepid, with cassette deck, and a funky odor. I can't complain though, it didn't cost me anything and I had wheels in case I needed to go anywhere.

Saturday night we had birthday dinner with a friend, it wasn't the best food but the conversation was excellent as always! Good friends are hard to beat and I have to admit I have made some excellent friends out here in the boondocks. It will make me sad to leave them when I go to working in Hillsboro for the tax season.

Sunday was more of nothing as M sat and watched tv all day. I got the Magster out for a much deserved walk and she had a bath so she is all clean, soft, and fluffy now. I love that little dog!

Nothing to report for Monday, yes the life of Reilly is what I lead.. NOT! hehe

Today was interesting, hence the needing of "zzzzzz's". I helped Amy out as she is PTA president and they needed someone to look after the youngin's during the PTA meeting. Now an hour doesn't sound like that long of a time, mind you this was roughly 5-8 children that all wanted me to either push them on the swing, watch them slide/jump/hang from something, play tether ball (god I haven't done that in YEARS!), or climb with them somewhere. Ahhh, school playgrounds, that brought back so many childhood memories. At my elementary school we had these huge tires to crawl in, I remember the first "couple" in the fifth grade who went to have their first kiss in the "big" tire. Kinda funny how years later he ends up being gay and, you guessed it... her too!

Not that anything like that was on my mind, just happened to think about it while I was typing this. Weird how the mind works. Anyway, hope whoever is out there has a super duper week!

-Ciao

Is it really Halloween?

2007-10-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that the day has arrived. Only one pumpkin has been carved, no costume has been dreamed up, and my house is only partially decorated. I am feeling a bit bah humbug over this years Halloween, although it is my very favorite holiday. It seems like the last several years have been against me enjoying the holiday properly. Either I haven't had a job, been in between jobs, or been working on said day. This year as we all know my lovely employers decided to end my short time with them. That being said, I was left with little extra funds to properly buy and decorate the house as well as any sort of kick ass costume for myself.

I was okay with not being the scariest house on the block. I was okay with not having a super freaky costume. I was NOT okay with my car breaking down today though. That seemed to be the straw that broke the camels back. It's a good thing I don't have anywhere especially important to be and that I have several friends who are also unemployed or stay at home moms who are more than willing to drop everything for their poor friend Amy. Yes, poor me. I am on the pity bus today.

Back to the not believing that Halloween is here. Wasn't it just yesterday I was planning a trip to Ireland? For that matter when did the temp change from a daily hight of 100 degrees Fahrenheit+ to being in the mid 40's - 50 with a low in the high 20's? I must say it is a welcome releif as I hate the heat and love being slightly chilled when I crawl into bed.

All was not lost in my bah humbug spirit, as I did manage to get a friend to take me to the store for sugar coated treats so the trick or treaters wouldn't feel the need to spray my house with silly string and t.p. I did get to see my friend Amy's kids in their simply adorable costumes. I must give A a HUGE thumbs up as she made the girls' costumes, one a butterfly the other a scarecrow. They were so awesome! Good job Amy!

I am making the same vow this year as I did last.... I am GOING to have the scariest house, creapiest costume, and most kick ass Halloween next year, I promise I will!

-Happy Boo day everyone!

Keeping busy

2007-10-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I am going to put a link to the web site I have been working on. Keep in mind it is a work in progress and I would appreciate any and all constructive criticism and feedback. The program I am using isn't real flexible so I am limited with what I can do. Anyway, this is what I have been working on for the last week or so.

http://amymoore.74.googlepages.com/

Thanks in advance to anyone who looks at this!

-Peace

Whirlwind weekend

2007-10-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

What a weekend it was too. Friday night after the gamers left our place, I promptly went to bed knowing that 7 am would come all too early. I was right! As the sound of my lovely alarm clock went off, I lay there thinking, "Why am I getting up at this hour on a Saturday?!?". Then it sank in, I am getting up at the butt crack of dawn (this time of year anyway) to go work out. Yes, working out at 7:30 am on a Saturday. Jealous aren't you? Feeling groggy I managed to get dressed, pick up my work out buddy Denise and hit the gym. I should have realized that while I was trying to walk on the treadmill like a trained gerbil, that my staggering around might be a sign that I was coming down with something. I forged on through a 40 minute walk and a 15 minute bike ride.

The work out was to justify the next part in our Saturday plans which was homemade cinnamon rolls with a group of Googlers prior to our trip to the Fruit Loop to visit orchards during the Heirloom Apple celebration. Our hosts for this sugary goodness of breakfast were wonderful and I thank you so much Aim & Skippy! We all loved those sticky, gooey, buns of sugary, frosting happiness. I took some of my homemade sugar free applesauce, Steph made these yummy potatoes, there was fruit, juice, milk, and coffee. It was a lovely breakfast for the 15 of us who got up that early to eat it.

Heirloom Apple DaysOct 2007

After the food filled our bellies and likely added a pound or two to our thighs, hips, bellies, or elsewhere, we headed off in a caravan of 4 cars filled with 8 adults and 4 children. At the first stop the kids each got a free pieced of fruit,went on a tractor ride through the orchard, pressed some cider, and learned that an heirloom apple is a variety of apple that is 100 years old or older. You don't' see these in stores much and the orchards are trying to preserve them, because once they are gone, there is no bringing them back. We lost one carload before continuing on as the self proclaimed "Nap Nazi" had to get back to put their little one down for the mid day nap, which I heard didn't go so well... something about all the sugar and excitement? Huh, odd that something like that would affect a small child. hehe

Next stop was more apples and pears with a petting zoo thrown in. There was this crazy looking goat who had 2 sets of horns. He was scary. Ame got a leg of lamb there, I would have NO clue how to prepare lamb. I have only had it one time that I remember liking it. She better be letting me know when she makes that thing, as I am sooo crashing her place for leg of lamb dinner! After admiring the gorgeous mountain view (Mt. Hood), petting the pigs and goats, buying our fruit, jams, and leg of lamb, it was time to head on to the next stop. We lost yet another Carload to nap time. Ya know, I am going to have to start looking into this nap time thing. I am thinking it sounds like a great idea!

We drive some more through the valley with views of both Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams, it was a beautiful sunny day with that slight chill in the air that reminds me snow is just around the corner. The next orchard was having a fun German Edelweiss celebration. They had brats, sauerkraut, potatoes w/ apples, fresh cider... it was delicious! Once our bellies were full, yet again, it was off to Packers for big ass cookies a bit of pie or ice cream and then home.

It was a long day, but the day wasn't even half over as we still had a Halloween party to go to that night. Ya know what sucks about losing your job in October? Not having enough money to properly celebrate Halloween as it is my favorite holiday. After my busy day I had needed a nap and we woke up in time to go to the party but unable to find a last minute costume idea.

*sigh* I am getting old. There was a day when I would be able to not have needed a nap, then found something to make a costume out of and gone onto the party and been there until the wee hours of the morning. What happened to those days? I want them back! I hate this feeling old crap, it was around 9:30, yes that is pm, not am the following day, that I looked at Matt and said, "Are you ready (to go)?". It wasn't even 10:30 by the time we said out goodbyes and hit the road back home. I want my youth back damnit!

Sunday I crashed hard. Woke up somewhere around 11:30, had a screaming headache, trying to fend off a migraine. It wasn't pretty. M and I spent some quality bonding time (as in our asses bonding to the couch) together. We caught up on all those tv shows we love. It is great having several episodes to watch all at one time. So we have now caught up on Bones, House, and Criminal Minds. I can't wait to see Heroes tonight, love that show.

Peace out for now and enjoy the pics!

Busy, busy...

2007-10-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

Holy moly cow! It is hard to imagine that I have been even busier since having lost my job last week than when I was working, but it is possible! I was just told by Amy (one of many that I know) that I have been a crappy blogger lately. It is true, I have been. I know I made promises of blogging of my adventures in Ireland, and perhaps one of these days I will be able to decipher my horrid handwriting and do that. For now you will have to suffer with my mindless ramblings of what is happing in the immediate past.

Today was my first trip to the gym to work out with the personal trainer.. dear god she kicked my ass. However I think she kicked Denise's ass a bit more than mine as she was still feeling the pain today during her cardio workout. It was a good intense hour of strength training, I would love to have every session be with her but I just can't swing that kinda cash. Perhaps if some of my photos start selling or people want me to photograph them or their events and I make some extra cash I might be able to swing it.

Speaking of photos, I have started building my website. It is just a simple one for now as I learn about web building etc, but I am rather enjoying it. I have also began to enter some of my photos into contests, so cross your fingers!

In review of the last few days, it was an absolutely beautiful autumn weekend. Saturday the A's and the girls went out to a local farm where they were having an Autumn festival. It was loads of fun. I had a blast taking pics of the girls as usual. Have I mentioned how much that I love fall?! It is so beautiful here in the Gorge too. I need to get out there this week now that the rains have stopped and take some pics. Anyway, made it to the pumpkin farm to get our orange balls to carve for the festive holiday next week. I also love Halloween, it is my fave holiday.

I leave you with a link to the Autumn fest pics.. enjoy!

Fall 2007

Just a quickie

2007-10-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes that is the sound of me screaming. I have had just a crazy last 2 weeks. Went on vacation to Ireland and had a freaking amazing time! Came home only to be "let go" from my job! This is the first time in my life I have ever been fired. *sigh* All is good though so far. Filed for UE benefits so I am in my waiting week now. Those are the major highlights. I will go into detail later. This is just a quick update as the title suggests. I do have my pics from Ireland up

Ireland

So, go enjoy the pics. I kept a daily journal from the trip that I will turn into a blog, just need to find a few moments to do it. Life is definitely crazy!

-Ciao!

Leavin' on a jet plan...

2007-10-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

But I will be coming back in 8 days... boo! I want to be gone much longer than that. How bad is it when my vacation hasn't even started and I am already dreading coming back to work. Gah! Sometimes I hate my life and the decisions that I have made. Then I have to sit back and think, if I hadn't done things the way I did, I wouldn't be going to Ireland (leaving tomorrow), have met some of the greatest friends (in Teh Dalles of all places!), have gotten my Magster, or made so many friends in far away places.

Sleep is not something that is on my side right now as I have been awake since 3 am, muddling my way through the early morning hours here at work. I am hoping to be awake enough to drive the 1 1/2 hours to Portland tonight without incident. I am lucky enough to have family in P-town that is driving my butt to the airport so I don't have to pay those ungodly parking fees. I am flying all by my lonely to and from Dublin. It shall be interesting. I just hope I don't get stuck sitting next to some huge, hairy, greasy dude who doesn't know how to use deodorant, some whiny snot nosed brat who can't sit still, worse yet one sitting behind me kicking my seat, or some lady who doesn't know how to not bathe herself in old lady perfume. In general I love flying and don't tend to have any major issues. I wonder what movie they will have for us... good thing I have my iPod. WOOT!

I will be on the plan in 26 hours and 30 minutes! YAY!

Horses and tattoos, oh my!

2007-10-03T08:20:00.001-07:00

Gah! I am draggin' today. Not really sure why though. I have no real ambition to do anything at work. I spent all day yesterday trying to plan out my days in

Ireland

. I leave in 3 days. *sigh* It's so hard for me to believe that I will be in

Ireland

by the end of the week. There is so much that I want to go see and do, too bad I don't think I will have enough time.

I was hoping to get in a visit to a horse race or 2, it looks like I won't be able to though. Racing there is on the weekends while I am there and they races are both on Satruday, the days I am traveling..boooo! I did however find out about the Irish National Stud. It is a place where thoroughbred stallions are at stud, they have a breeding education program, museum, etc. It sounds a bit like the Kentucky Horse Park, where I went to school and worked for 7 months, in Lexington except it is geared mainly for thoroughbreds. It is about an hours trip outside Dublin and I am bound and determined to make it there! I have been getting this itch to get back into the horse scene. Too bad I don't make enough money to do that right now. I know people who kept telling me that one day I would want to get back into it and I was so adamant that I wouldn't. Well you were right! I guess it is true, once horses are in your blood they are always there.

Oh yeah, and I am totally getting a tattoo in Ireland. I am pretty much set on a design with a horse or dragon worked into a celtic knot. The meaning behind the horse being power, guidance protectors prosperity, magic, prophecy, the transporter to the otherworld. While the dragon is symbolic of luck and power. I want to combine one of those symbols in the Celtic knot style for hope, strength, and love, in some way.

The only problem being that there is no real meaning for the knots, as they date back for many hundreds of years and there is no dictionary to their meanings. Meanings for these designs have pretty much been made up to sell jewelry and trinkets, people have chosen to put meaning into them and whatever you want them to mean pretty much works. The only problem is I am not sure where to have it done on my body. Since I am losing weight I don't want it in my back, hip, arm, or somewhere that I might lose weight from. I am kind of thinking the ankle or on my chest where it would show only when I want it. :P I have narrowed the tattoo parlor down, now I just have to figure out how much it will cost too.

*sigh* I suppose I should get back to work... yeah well or something like that. I have so much to get done in the next couple of days it isn't even funny!

-Peace!

It's quiet... too quiet

2007-10-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I drove down to my parents in Florence, Oregon so that they can watch the Magster while Matt and I are in Ireland next week. What can I say.. other than I LOVE my parents! They are the best. I don't mean that because they are my parents and they HAVE to love me and be nice to me, but they really are so supportive and helpful. I am so lucky to have them. They always provided for me and gave me what they could, making sure that I was happy and able to be involved in activities that I loved. Now that I am an adult I seem to fall right back into being that 10 year old girl whenever I am around them. Funny how that seems to happen whenever mommy and daddy are around.

So back to the 5 hours it took to get to their place. I really do like living within driving distance, but 5 hours is just too darn far, especially for a normal 2 day weekend. Add to that the nasty rainy conditions we had driving home Sunday and that made for only 1 nice day at the coast. It is funny how my parents now live at the coast and I go there fairly often, yet rarely make it to the beach. Although I am not real sad, as I am not one for walking on the sandy beach. I hate sand, it gets everywhere and sticks to everything!

I can remember being a kid and running up the sand dunes in Florence. At the bottom of the dunes is a small lake. We would race to the top and then roll down to the bottom and splash into the warm lake water. It was so much fun! Ask me to do that today and you would get a resounding "NO!". haha :P

Anyway, I digress back to the weekend. It was wonderful and as I drove out of the Gorge and into Portland, I could smell the city, people had their woodstoves burning, it had just rained too. I love the smell of a fresh rainfall. Driving down I-5 the air once again told me we were in Albany. The mill there produces an oder that is quite distinctive. It reminded me of when we were kids how someone always blamed another person in the car for having gas. Yes it is THAT stinky! We hit Eugene, Matt was asleep and snoring, Maggie was asleep in the back. It was just me, the darkness, and about 50 other cars surrounding me on the freeway. After stopping for a very quick bite to eat we headed down H-126 to Florence.

What a perfect drive it was too, not a single car in front or behind me. I love it when that happens, as that Highway is fairly dangerous. In fact, several years ago a friend of mine lost her life on it because a trucker fell asleep at the wheel, crossed into her lane, and hit her head on. So, yeah... every time I drive that particular road I get a bit more tense than I should be. We arrived in Florence at 11 and yet again the smells in the air were so refreshing I knew I was at the Oregon coast. It has a slightly salty, not quite fish like smell, it is quite distinct, I love it.

Mom and I spent some quality time together getting Maggie some of her special dog food as well as checking out the shops in Old Town Florence. They have some very cute touristy shops. I had to get the obligatory candy, no salt water taffy though, I can't stand that stuff. That afternoon we spent watching the U of O lose to Cal, then OSU lose to UCLA... not a good day for Oregon College football. Not to mention for my father whose big screen tv went out earlier that morning. He and Matt went tv shopping, unfortunately there wasn't much luck with the 2 places they had to choose from in Flo-town.

Sunday I woke up ungodly early at 5 am! Ugh, what was I thinking. It was nice chatting with dad though since everyone else was sound asleep. It was a very rainy day Sunday. I took an early morning nap, mom went to church, then we all went and had breakfast at Driftwood Shores. It was BlEh! I do NOT recommend eating there. Too bad it is the ONLY restaurant on the Florence beach. There are plenty of other great places to eat though, or go a short drive up the coast to Lincoln City, Depot Bay, or Newport.

We left Maggie behind with the grandparents and headed back home. It was sad leaving her there, not that she wont' be taken care of but my little puppy isnt' at home. As we walked into the house last night I realized just how quiet it is when she isn't around. That little dog is my life and I miss her nagging the cat, or squeaking her toys, barking at ghost sounds, and scratching at the back door. It really is too quiet.

10 days and counting!

2007-09-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you who don't know, I am going to Ireland October 6th! Oh yeah.. I am friggin' going out of my mind with what to do whilst there! I have 4 or 5 book, maps, tips from friends who have been, and countless hours logged at the computer surfing numerous sites giving me info as to where I should go and what I should avoid. I don't know if my mind is completely wrapped around the fact that I will FINALLY be traveling to Europe. Ireland is on my top 6 places to visit before I die. Number 1 on my list is France, then Italy, Ibiza, Amsterdam, Australia. Oh sure there are PLENTY of other places that I must visit before I die. Those 6 just happen to be tops. I have already been to the best place on earth imo (in my opinion)... NYC. I LOVE it there and SOMEDAY I WILL live there.

I really feel that in order to travel to these other countries that I must have a basic understanding if not be fluent in their language. This is probably the reason that I haven't been anywhere other than Canada and TJ (Mexico). I can at least as for a bathroom in Spanish and for "dos cervezas por favor" (2 beers please). What else would I need to know??? However in France and Italy I want to completely immerse myself in the culture and to do so I think I must be able to speak the language. It always seems that when foreigners are here in the states "we" assume that they should know English, so yeah same basic principle to me anyway.

On to the trip at hand. I have had people requesting I take photos of certain statues, etc. I know that I will hit up some of the tourist trap kind of places. I used to hate the term tourist, but that is what I am gosh darn it! I want to see the country and experience it, ie: TOUR. I am also pretty set on getting my first tattoo while there. I have a basic idea of what I want, just have to decide where it will go. I haven't even began to think about packing either. Hmmm, maybe I should put some thought into that.

Cough, Hack, BLEH!

2007-09-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Was that a hairball that just came up? Is phlegm supposed to be that color?! Ewww, gross!!!!! Yeah, I am sick, lucky me. It started Sunday night with a 100 degree fever so no work monday for me. Went to work Tuesday but left early after deciding it best not to spread the germies. Can you believe I made it the whole day Weds, however went to the Dr. Thursday and he scolded me for having gone to work at all and he sent me home for the remainder of the week. I think I forgot to mention that I woke up Thursday with no voice, and as today is Saturday I still am unable to speak. ARG! This sucks. I feel like something has crawled into my throat and set up camp. I really hate colds, they are just so annoying and draining.

Since I have been home for several days I have gotten to watch way too much tv, gotten caught up on America's Next Top Model and L.A. Ink. Sooo much fun! That pretty much wraps up my festive week, catch ya'll later!

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Weekend in review

2007-09-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

I have a bit of catch-up to do it seems as I haven't blogged since last week and it is already hump day! Eeee gads! I had a fantastic weekend went with some friends on a drive to what is called the "Fruit Loop". Basically a 40 mile loop in Hood River, OR, that highlights 20+ farms, orchards, etc. We stopped and picked apples at 35 cents a pound was a steal, went to a lavender farm whose outhouse was painted lavender and called the "Lavender Loo", went to an old fashioned general store that had fresh huckleberry shakes, pepper jellies galore, and homemade jams from every possible berry imaginable, the last stop on the 3 hour tour was a wonderful treat where cookies grew larger than dinner plates and they had scrumptious fruit pies a plenty. Here is a link to the pics taken, feel free to comment.

Fruit Loop--10.2007

If you are ever in the NW part of Oregon anytime in the spring through fall/ early winter you really should stop along the fruit loop. Pick up some fresh fruit and support the local farmers.

Later in the evening after having stuffed myself with apples we decided try one of the 3 Chinese food restaurants in town. I was so spoiled living in Portland where I could have Chinese (and good Chinese too, not this wannabe over fried, nastiness that I have now), Thai, Japanese, Korean, you name it and it was available. Now I have to suffer with bad, worse, and no f*ing way will I go there. It is sad really. Small towns like the one I live in need some diversity, it is their residents that really hold them back. The people who grew up in the small town who doesn't like change and all the "big city" folks taking over. I ask you, what is wrong with a little bit of culture. What is wrong with some diversity and change? I digress, the food on this Saturday night was actually quite good. I have a lovely orange chicken which wasn't too overly breaded and had a very distinctive non fake orange taste. Dare I say I would order it again?! Yes, I do believe I would. The pot stickers, chicken friend rice, cashew chicken, and Lo mein, were also very well done. I think I have to take back the choices of Chinese, it is now Good(almost very good), horrible, and still no f*ing way.

Sunday was nice and relaxed, got to go have breakfast at my fave little pancake place with friends. So, we have all decided to do our own "Biggest Loser". Seems there is about 30 of us who have pitched in $30 each and at the end of our designated time (sometime in December) we will split the pot between the person who loses the most weight and the one who loses the highest percentage. I am really hoping to win at least one of them if not both. It is a huge motivator to lose weight and workout. With all that said, Sunday was my last day to enjoy those yummy pancakes and highly greasy eggs and bacon.

That is all for now, I should get back to work, I think I should anyway. I will be back later to update you more on the week, who I am, and those off the cuff thoughts in my little mind.

-Peace :)