ARG!!!!

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

*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

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....

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...

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....

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

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