Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thank you everyone!
Thank you for all of your birthday wishes! I really appreciate them and got a laugh out of a couple. Today was in all a pretty good day even though I had to work and go to school. The kids all sang to me, which embarrassed me thoroughly. They counted out how old I was. I was like "keep going...keep going..."because it seemed to take forever. Then we played football and I was able to make four touchdowns! My friend Jamel figured out that he had to lob the ball to me in order for me to catch it. Any harder than five miles per hour was not going to make it into my hot little hands. Since I could pretty much outrun the kids this worked well. The counselors however, were more of a challenge. It was a lot of fun though and I sweated A LOT. It was fun to actually play a sport and run around. I usually watch the kids at the playground so time went by much faster. Now I'm waiting for Ed to come back from the class so that we can go to dinner. I've decided to not do any school work today...even though I did do some reading earlier and had to go to class. I'm shutting off my brain for the night.
Monday, August 25, 2008
From the airplane
Well, it's back to good old New York for me. I'm currently on the plane somewhere over the midwest. I figured that I should start my blog back up to suppress the feelings of bitterness and irritation. Plus, I have pictures.
As most of you know, I spent that last week at home because I was throwing a baby shower for my good friend Melanie. All those invitations and name tags were finally put to use. The party was quite intimate. By the end everyone knew one another. It was a pretty good time, but I could feel myself fading. I had only had one small cup of coffee and the two Pepsis that I dashed to consume were not holding me over. But in the end, everything was okay. My ducky cake looked really nice and Melanie enjoyed the chocolate ducks. We were very ducki-fied.
Let me tell you about that dumb duck cake. The box lied! I should write them to get my money back. It was supposed to be a 3D cake that could stand up. Well, when I cut the bottom like the instructions said it stood up, but was really funny looking. For some reason the cake deflates when it comes out of the oven. I know that baked goods tend to do this, but it would have been nice if this particular cake didn't do it. I even tried to do that cake two different ways and it still deflated. Anyways, so I was sitting at the kitchen table and said "From this side the duck looks normal." then I turned the cake around "And this side looks normal." and then I turned it so that we could see it straight on and said "So what the heck happened?" This cracked my mom and bro up. Each individual side looked perfectly fine, but then when you looked at it straight on it looked like it should have been a flat cake that I tried to stand up. I was unable to fall asleep because I was trying to figure out a way to remedy my problem without having to lay it flat. My solution was to frost the flat side and then add the little star shaped frosting. Well, this was a lot easier to do in my head while I was staring at the giant Beatles poster on my ceiling. The frosting was not having it. In the end I just cut off the deflated part and laid the duck down. As you can imagine I was getting very frustrated that the cake wasn't turning out the way I wanted. My mom and bro were being really nice and trying to help me put the too soft frosting into the Pampered Chef frosting pump. After a few minutes of me being grumpy they cleared out until I was pretty much done. I had to keep putting the pump into the freezer so that the frosting would harden up. It wasn't until after I was done that I talked to Julie who said that I could have put confectioners sugar in it to make it stiffer. Duh. Why didn't I think of that? That's what I use to make my regular frosting, but I didn't even think about putting it into store bought stuff. Well, what's done is done and it turned out pretty cute. All I have to say is: Josie, you can be the family cake maker and decorator. I'm retiring.
The rest of the trip was great. On Monday my mom, brother, and I went out to SF to have pizza with my extended family. (My dad had to go to a boy scout meeting.) I guess to me a good trip home is when I get to eat a lot. And that I did. I have a sick obsession with weighing myself and I literally saw myself gain five pounds. My pants are a little too tight for me now. I also got a new computer while I was home. It was a very generous birthday present from my parents. I was originally going to pay them back for a little over half of it, but then today when I was leaving they said that I didn't have to. I didn't argue. One "are you sure?" was all I could bring myself to say. I might be jobless until after Christmas so I need the savings!
Christopher and I hung out a lot this week. It's a lot better now that we're older. We get a long so much better. Plus, I'm super cool. I started painting some of his Warhammer stuff to see what the appeal is. It is quite entertaining, however, I'm a perfectionist so it was taking me hours to finish one. I completed two figurines.
As far as work goes, I gave my notice at the Y about a month ago. My last day is this coming Friday. Now I'm looking for a job, preferably somewhere that will start my career. I'd like to work at a book store since publishing firms look for that, but I'm having a difficult time. I was talking to a small publishing company but they said "We'll keep in touch"....we all know what that means. So back to the job search. Since I want to go home for the month of December I think it'll be hard for me to find a really good job between now and then. Then when I get back in January I think that we might be able to move back home when I graduate (my fingers are crossed), that is in May. So trying to find a serious job from Jan-May will be a little difficult I think. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have just stuck it out at the Y, but I don't regret it. My boss is driving me crazy. If worse comes to worse I'll go work at Target or Petsmart or something. Somewhere where the employee turn around is pretty high. I would also like to go home in October to see Mel's baby, but I don't know if that's going to happen (I'd have to miss school and work...provided I have a job). And then there is always Thanksgiving. I want my family to come out to visit again this year, but we'll see. It'll be quite expensive and time consuming. If I can get Christopher out to see me then maybe we'll go down to Georgia, but no promises Annette! Either way, I don't want to be working during that week of Thanksgiving. Really, I think that I should just not work anywhere and just focus on my school work. Donations anyone? Just kidding.
Anyways, so that's about a weeks worth of blogs so I'm signing off with an alli-oop and a catch you on the flip side folks. Peace out yo.
As most of you know, I spent that last week at home because I was throwing a baby shower for my good friend Melanie. All those invitations and name tags were finally put to use. The party was quite intimate. By the end everyone knew one another. It was a pretty good time, but I could feel myself fading. I had only had one small cup of coffee and the two Pepsis that I dashed to consume were not holding me over. But in the end, everything was okay. My ducky cake looked really nice and Melanie enjoyed the chocolate ducks. We were very ducki-fied.
Let me tell you about that dumb duck cake. The box lied! I should write them to get my money back. It was supposed to be a 3D cake that could stand up. Well, when I cut the bottom like the instructions said it stood up, but was really funny looking. For some reason the cake deflates when it comes out of the oven. I know that baked goods tend to do this, but it would have been nice if this particular cake didn't do it. I even tried to do that cake two different ways and it still deflated. Anyways, so I was sitting at the kitchen table and said "From this side the duck looks normal." then I turned the cake around "And this side looks normal." and then I turned it so that we could see it straight on and said "So what the heck happened?" This cracked my mom and bro up. Each individual side looked perfectly fine, but then when you looked at it straight on it looked like it should have been a flat cake that I tried to stand up. I was unable to fall asleep because I was trying to figure out a way to remedy my problem without having to lay it flat. My solution was to frost the flat side and then add the little star shaped frosting. Well, this was a lot easier to do in my head while I was staring at the giant Beatles poster on my ceiling. The frosting was not having it. In the end I just cut off the deflated part and laid the duck down. As you can imagine I was getting very frustrated that the cake wasn't turning out the way I wanted. My mom and bro were being really nice and trying to help me put the too soft frosting into the Pampered Chef frosting pump. After a few minutes of me being grumpy they cleared out until I was pretty much done. I had to keep putting the pump into the freezer so that the frosting would harden up. It wasn't until after I was done that I talked to Julie who said that I could have put confectioners sugar in it to make it stiffer. Duh. Why didn't I think of that? That's what I use to make my regular frosting, but I didn't even think about putting it into store bought stuff. Well, what's done is done and it turned out pretty cute. All I have to say is: Josie, you can be the family cake maker and decorator. I'm retiring.
The rest of the trip was great. On Monday my mom, brother, and I went out to SF to have pizza with my extended family. (My dad had to go to a boy scout meeting.) I guess to me a good trip home is when I get to eat a lot. And that I did. I have a sick obsession with weighing myself and I literally saw myself gain five pounds. My pants are a little too tight for me now. I also got a new computer while I was home. It was a very generous birthday present from my parents. I was originally going to pay them back for a little over half of it, but then today when I was leaving they said that I didn't have to. I didn't argue. One "are you sure?" was all I could bring myself to say. I might be jobless until after Christmas so I need the savings!
Christopher and I hung out a lot this week. It's a lot better now that we're older. We get a long so much better. Plus, I'm super cool. I started painting some of his Warhammer stuff to see what the appeal is. It is quite entertaining, however, I'm a perfectionist so it was taking me hours to finish one. I completed two figurines.
As far as work goes, I gave my notice at the Y about a month ago. My last day is this coming Friday. Now I'm looking for a job, preferably somewhere that will start my career. I'd like to work at a book store since publishing firms look for that, but I'm having a difficult time. I was talking to a small publishing company but they said "We'll keep in touch"....we all know what that means. So back to the job search. Since I want to go home for the month of December I think it'll be hard for me to find a really good job between now and then. Then when I get back in January I think that we might be able to move back home when I graduate (my fingers are crossed), that is in May. So trying to find a serious job from Jan-May will be a little difficult I think. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have just stuck it out at the Y, but I don't regret it. My boss is driving me crazy. If worse comes to worse I'll go work at Target or Petsmart or something. Somewhere where the employee turn around is pretty high. I would also like to go home in October to see Mel's baby, but I don't know if that's going to happen (I'd have to miss school and work...provided I have a job). And then there is always Thanksgiving. I want my family to come out to visit again this year, but we'll see. It'll be quite expensive and time consuming. If I can get Christopher out to see me then maybe we'll go down to Georgia, but no promises Annette! Either way, I don't want to be working during that week of Thanksgiving. Really, I think that I should just not work anywhere and just focus on my school work. Donations anyone? Just kidding.
Anyways, so that's about a weeks worth of blogs so I'm signing off with an alli-oop and a catch you on the flip side folks. Peace out yo.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Yay, the plumbers came!
Nothing much has been happening around here except that our water heater went out on Saturday. So I haven't had hot water for almost a week. It's kind of been a drag not having hot water for showers, but other wise it hasn't been that bad. I was just a little irritated because I took work off early so that I would be here for the plumbers. Well, they were a no show. But they're here now, which is good because Emmy and I both need baths.
Other than my minor water drama, nothing has been going on. I come home and watch the olympics and then sleep. I went to bed at 10 10 last night because I had stayed up until 12 30 watching women's gymnastics the night before. So I missed the men's individual event, but I was way to tired to watch. Oh! This Tuesday I actually got to go out with some friends. My coworkers and I got free tickets to this independent film called American Teen Movie. So we went out and had fun. It made me feel like I actually have a life. Hehe.
Other than my minor water drama, nothing has been going on. I come home and watch the olympics and then sleep. I went to bed at 10 10 last night because I had stayed up until 12 30 watching women's gymnastics the night before. So I missed the men's individual event, but I was way to tired to watch. Oh! This Tuesday I actually got to go out with some friends. My coworkers and I got free tickets to this independent film called American Teen Movie. So we went out and had fun. It made me feel like I actually have a life. Hehe.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Thursday, August 07, 2008
More Georgia Pics
In front of the Levie house.
Breakfast!
At the Ben and Jerry's in Chattanooga, Tennessee before our Imax showing of Dolphins and Whales.
Cool 3D glasses for the whales.
The butterfly garden at the Chattanooga aquarium.
This butterfly landed on Julie's leg pretty much as soon as we got into the garden. Pretty cool.
Davie and a butterfly....seems like Julie and Davie are lucky with butterflies landing on them. I think I was more focused on taking pictures than anything else.
These are shoots that go down to the bottom of the tank to send food down to the fish down below. They're like reverse bank suction shoots. Our tour guide called them toilet shoots. For $15 we got a behind the scenes look at the aquarium. It was pretty cool. I'd never done something like that before.
Edward putting the veggie tube into the water for the veggie eating fish. They stuff the tubes with romaine lettuce and broccoli. All of the food that they give the fish is resturant grade. So all of the seafood that they were giving the fish (squid, small fish, and shrimp) could have been stuffed in my bag and cooked up for dinner. I think the stench would have lead them on that I stole some though.
The two sea turtles that the aquarium had were both rehab turtles. This guy lost his back flippers in a boating accident. He has to swim with his bottom sticking up in the water. The tour guide said that if he wanted to stay at the bottom of the tank he had to wedge himself into a crevice to stay down.
Yup, this is a frozen rat. The aquarium feeds them to the big snakes and stuff. They also had tiny little baby mice. They were frozen and looked like plastic hairless mice. They were a little creepy. I like my animals alive.
Look at the caption!!!
The ride home. Some little furry girl slept the whole way! She says "Thank you Pau Pau for the seat belt. You saved me from a couple of Mommy's bad stops."
Look how cool the stingrays are! They come up the wall to feed!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Bouncing in the shurbs
Emmy and Buttons jumping in the shrubs. Emmy was chasing her frisbee and Buttons was chasing Emmy.
Massive picture blog
Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip down to Georgia last week. We had SO much fun.
Edward and I on Uncle Walter's golf cart coming back from the acres and acres of corn and insects.
Our traveling group
Emmy looking into the toilet at the house that we were staying at.
Look at this gift basket that they left us on the bed. Julie got one too. There's so much good stuff in there! I couldn't believe it.
Wouldn't you want butterflies like these in your backyard?
Yummy squash casserole that I got a recipe for.
Country fried steak...mmmmmm
Having fun in the workshop with Great Uncle Walter
Me and the Doozer
Emmy got a bath pretty much everyday because she ran around so much that she got dirty A LOT.
Wanda's Restaurant! We were driving to the Chickamauga battle field and we saw this. I had to stop to take a picture for my mommy. So now we have pictures of Wanda's Restaurant and The Desmond Hotel!
The mill (I'm not sure that's what it's called) for the sorghum processing. Chip (Ed's second cousin once removed) is going to try to make sorghum syrup this summer with a friend of his.
This is the heating mechanism that they will use to make the syrup.
As far as we know, this is Emmy's first encounter with chickens. She also saw horses, but we didn't want her to get butted in the head by a testy horse.
This house is seriously as beautiful outside as it is inside. This is where we slept the whole time. Uncle Walter's place was just across the street.
A big house needs a big driveway. We'd take nice little walks down this driveway just to have a "romantic" walk.
Emmy paw prints!
This was definitely a Levie place.
I'm getting tired of waiting for the sets of five pictures to upload, so I'll have to finish tomorrow.
Edward and I on Uncle Walter's golf cart coming back from the acres and acres of corn and insects.
Our traveling group
Emmy looking into the toilet at the house that we were staying at.
Look at this gift basket that they left us on the bed. Julie got one too. There's so much good stuff in there! I couldn't believe it.
Wouldn't you want butterflies like these in your backyard?
Yummy squash casserole that I got a recipe for.
Country fried steak...mmmmmm
Having fun in the workshop with Great Uncle Walter
Me and the Doozer
Emmy got a bath pretty much everyday because she ran around so much that she got dirty A LOT.
Wanda's Restaurant! We were driving to the Chickamauga battle field and we saw this. I had to stop to take a picture for my mommy. So now we have pictures of Wanda's Restaurant and The Desmond Hotel!
The mill (I'm not sure that's what it's called) for the sorghum processing. Chip (Ed's second cousin once removed) is going to try to make sorghum syrup this summer with a friend of his.
This is the heating mechanism that they will use to make the syrup.
As far as we know, this is Emmy's first encounter with chickens. She also saw horses, but we didn't want her to get butted in the head by a testy horse.
This house is seriously as beautiful outside as it is inside. This is where we slept the whole time. Uncle Walter's place was just across the street.
A big house needs a big driveway. We'd take nice little walks down this driveway just to have a "romantic" walk.
Emmy paw prints!
This was definitely a Levie place.
I'm getting tired of waiting for the sets of five pictures to upload, so I'll have to finish tomorrow.
The Doozer and me
Well, Edward's plane for Sacramento was scheduled to take off 5 minutes ago. So now it's just me and Emmy. Maybe now I'll have the urge to get back into blogging. I still need to upload all of my pictures from Georgia. We only have a half day of work today because we're going to be working from 6:45am to 7pm on Friday so maybe I'll do it today. We're going to New England Aquarium! I'm so excited. Two aquariums in two weeks! I'm a happy, but tired girl.
Okay, I'm going to read a little bit before I go to work. TTFN!
Okay, I'm going to read a little bit before I go to work. TTFN!
Happy Birthday Goung Goung
Happy birthday Baba/Goung Goung! We won't say how old you are, but it's impressive that you can ride, hike, and canoe for miles at your age and I can't even ride a mile and a half at mine.
Ugh, this is uncomfortable Mommy.
Didn't you hear me?
Ugh, this is uncomfortable Mommy.
Didn't you hear me?
Friday, August 01, 2008
Hey Ya'll!
Greetings from Georgia! We have a little bit of time, so I thought I'd blog a little about the peachiest state in the country. It's so nice down here. It's hot and humid like a steam room, but the people are so friendly I feel like I've had enough kindness to last me until Christmas in NY. We've been eating SO much and not getting enough time to digest it all. This is because we wake up for a full breakfast, clean up, can some sort of vegetable, eat a full lunch, clean up, can more vegetables, and then eat a full dinner. On the upside of me gaining a hundred pounds, I've learned how to make some really good southern food and I think we'll be having biscuits at every meal from now on.
I have more to say, but the keyboard at the computer I'm using isn't very good so I'm going to have to sign off for now. Bye!
I have more to say, but the keyboard at the computer I'm using isn't very good so I'm going to have to sign off for now. Bye!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)