Friday, July 15, 2011

july 15, 2011


i'm back! summertime took over for a while there, but i'm back to report my goings on for the past month. aren't you happy? so, where was i?

oh, right. the job i mentioned in my last post. i did indeed get the job and it lasted for just over two weeks. it was a pretty cool shoe company, and i loved that it was only 12 miles away from my house! unfortunately it still took me about 45 minutes to get home everyday. crazy, huh? for one thing, i had to take a shuttle from the building to the parking lot. depending on the day that would take up to 20 minutes. bummer. then i would get caught in the highway traffic for another 20-25 minutes. sigh.

anyways, it was a nice job. different that what i normally do as it was all photoshop work. kinda cool change though. i worked on over 3000 images to create those 365 degree views of their fall shoe line. i also worked on images for the background of the website. i had to take each image and make it twice as wide as the original dimensions. and no, i couldn't just stretch it out! i had to actually create something out of nothing. there was lots of cloning, copying and futzing involved, but they turned out pretty good!

as for that weekend race, it didn't materialize. a few weeks ago, i decided to blow up my transmission in my race car. fun, right? yeah. so i tracked down another transmission and we got it installed just in the nick of time for saturday's race. we get there and i go to take my first practice run when i realize my two-step launch controller is keeping me from going any higher than 5000 rpms. which means i get a 16 second time slip at 85 mph. wha-whahhhh... it turns out that the speedometer cable was broken and my engine management didn't like that. needless to say, i didn't win the race that day. so boyfriend and i flew home to put the old tranny's speedometer cable back in before we make the trek down to new jersey for that sunday's race. long story short, it didn't work and we didn't go. boo! the worst part was knowing i wouldn't be able to race again until the middle of august because i will miss out on the july 30th race.

mom and i went to see a cool art exhibit at the peabody essex museum one night during the week. it was dutch and flemish art from 1400-1800. i don't think it was here favorite kind of art, but i think she enjoyed herself. i loved it! i like most artwork from that time period. we ended up getting there late (as usual!) so we were only able to see that exhibit, but we do plan to go back to the museum before the summer's over to see the rest of the place.

ummmm...what else has been going on? oh yeah, only the BEST DAY EVER! so boyfriend and i went to his aunt's camp in the woods for his cousin's high school graduation party. we had a great time and we were invited to stay over the following weekend (july 9-10) for a "family reunion" of sorts. so we got the bright idea to borrow step-father's pop-up camper for the weekend so there would be enough for everyone else to fit in the cabin. it was the first time boyfriend and i used one of them on our own and i have to say, i fell in love with it! i really want one for ourselves now, soooo much better then sleeping in a tent! ah, where was i? oh yeah. so that day some friends and i had planned to have a yard sale at my house. we did pretty good. i sold about half of my stuff and made $60, and they did well also.

by the time boyfriend and i got that picked up and the trailer packed it was after 3:00pm. it usually takes about an hour to get to the cabin and we made it there with minimal traffic, to my surprise. as we pulled up, we noticed that there was only a handful of people outside, not the crowd we were expecting. it turns out that the "weekend sleepover" had turned into "everyone leave by 4:30pm on saturday." great. we ended up staying anyway and had a really great time. we had some hamburgers and hot dogs, and then split up the strawberry-rhubarb pie i made and brought up for the party. it was delicious! then boyfriend and i set up the camper next to the house - where i impressed everyone with my mad trailer-backing-up skillz - even though the cabin was far from full. after that, we took a swim in the lake. the water was the perfect swimming temperature, just cold enough to make you reluctant to get in the water, but warm enough to not want to get out again. i love to swim, so it was really delightful. we chatted with the family and later on we started a game of rummy cube, a fun game i've only played with them. it's a mixture of rummy and dominoes which makes you think and stratigize (sp?) but have fun at the same time. around midnight, boyfriend and i headed off to bed in the camper. other than the mattresses being a bit thin, it was comfortable. i think we both slept pretty well.

the next day (BEST DAY EVER!) brought bacon and eggs cooked by his uncle with white(!!!) toast and butter. what a treat! i never buy white bread and it makes the best toast! after breakfast, boyfriend and i packed up the camper. it really was easy. i think i could do it by myself. gotta get me one of those...then came more chatting and swimming. i could have stayed in the lake all day. it was such a lovely weekend weatherwise. blue skies and low 80s. perfect summer weather! but we had to leave by 3:00 pm because i had tickets to a concert for that evening.

my very good friend got me two free tickets to see chris cornell and soundgarden at the comcast center in mansfield. OMG!!! i was going to see soundgarden live!!! chris cornell is my favorite singer of all time. i love everything he's done, from temple of a dog, to soundgarden, audioslave, and his solo stuff. i have it all. LOVE HIM!!! so you can bet i was super excited for the concert, especially since soundgarden split up in 1997, just a few years after i ditched the pop music for rock and roll. they were one of the bands that drew me into the awesome grunge music of the 90s and i never got to see them in concert. i couldn't find anyone to go with me because it was such short notice, and it was too late for boyfriend to stay out on a sunday night. he has to get up at 4:00 am for work, yuck. i ended up going with his friend from work, whom i had hung out with a few times with boyfriend. i was a bit nervous of the long drive there, but we had plenty to talk about. not too much awkwardness.

we got to the show on time at 7:30 pm (amazing) and found our seats. they weren't too bad. we were sitting in the last row under the roof of the arena. the open air seats and grass was behind us. we listened to coheed and cambria who was opening up for sound garden. i only knew one of the seven songs they played. man, was it loud! it was actually a little too loud. there was some distortion. i felt a little bad for the band playing to a half empty arena. everyone was waiting for the main event to show up. on a side note, apparently the bass player for c&c held up a walgreens a few hours before the show for some oxycontins, then took a cab to the arena. probably not the brightest move to take the cab. he was promptly arrested and the guitar tech had to fill in for the set. during the time it took to set up the stage for soundgarden, we walked down to the concession stands and bought two band shirts. mine was the live on i5 shirt which had a cool graphic of streaming car tail lights on the front.

a little before 9:00 pm, the guys from soundgarden walked onto the stage and the crowd, who had filled out considerably, jumped to their feet and roared to life. most of those people had been waiting for 14 years for that moment! oh, it was so worth the wait! they ripped into searching with my good eye closed from badmotorfinger, then launched into spoonman from superunknown and the crowd went nuts. i had never heard chris live before and i was very excited to see that his voice really was that amazing even without post-processing and editing. you can't say that for most singers these days. even though he's been performing some of these songs since the late 80s, he can still hit all the high, screaming notes and keep his smooth, yet a little gravely, tone that makes him one of the best rock singers of all times.

  1.  Encore:

they played a great mix of the popular radio songs and the more obscure stuff. i think they satisfied the casual listener and the diehard "knights of the soundtable" superfans alike. i was in heaven, singing along with all the songs and watching my most favorite singer do what he does best. my date for the night was having a great time also. the band rocked the stage for just about two hours, which went by way too fast for my liking. that included the at least 30 minute encore, where they played some really old stuff like big dumb sex from louder than life (circa 1989.) the best song of the night was the last one they played, slaves and bulldozers from badmotorfinger. they kept the song going and going, just jamming along, for a good eight minutes. it was awesome!!!! at the end of the song, chris, kim, and ben started playing their guitars into the amps and causing some crazy reverb that made me think my eardrums were going to pop! but i couldn't leave because what if they did one more song? after a few minutes of that, chris left the stage and ben tossed his guitar into the amps. sadly, it was over. we got back in the car and i drove him back to his house, then headed home for the night.

it's been almost a week since the concert and i can still bring back the joy and excitement of that night. i still can't believe i finally got to see chris and soundgarden live! it was one of those "i can die happy now" moments. chris even grew his hair long just like it was back in the 90s. it was shoulder length, curly and gorgeous. i think i have a thing for guys with long hair. chris, brad pitt (sometimes), johnny depp...even boyfriend had longish hair when i met him! i have to say that chris is on my "list". you know the one. if you, for some crazy reason, ever had the chance to...you know...my relationship status wouldn't matter that night. hey, doesn't everyone have a "list"? they should : )

i found some great youtube videos from that night...





Friday, June 3, 2011

june 3, 2011

i got an email from one of my temp agencies yesterday. there is a job in andover that my resume was put in for which would start next wednesday. it's for mostly photoshop work and only for two weeks. but the pay will be good and it will help pay for my weekend race at the end of the month, so i hope to hear back from the agency on monday.

on a side note, when boyfriend got home from work today, he noticed that the ashes from the brush fire we had last night to get rid of some of the huge brush and pine needle piles scattered around our lawn was on fire! i had noticed that our porch still smelled like campfire today, but just thought it was lingering from the night before. apparently it had been smoldering all night and day. thank goodness nothing else caught on fire before he put it out again!

Monday, May 30, 2011

may 30, 2011






we finally went out on our boat today! boyfriend and i didn't make it out at all last summer, and only once the summer before, so it was great to be back out on the lake today. and what a beautiful day it turned out to be! boyfriend and i and his parents went out for a few hours in the afternoon. we ended up close to shore and fished for a couple hours while his stepmom swam. i was a little sad that i didn't get a chance to swim myself. they had to go in early and boyfriend decided not to go back out again. we did have fun fishing though. boyfriend ended up catching SEVEN fish in two hours! i managed to catch one and his dad caught five. i hope we can go back out on the boat very soon. i can't wait to swim!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

may 26, 2011

i had my interview in portsmouth today. i ended up being interviewed by four people, which was kind of intimidating! one of the women knew two of my previous employers, including the ones who still owe me money (the scumbags.) they were asking me all kinds of questions about design, most of which i haven't had to answer in, oh, four years! i had a hard time coming up with satisfactory answers and kind of blundered my way through some of them. they did seem to like my portfolio, so maybe that will make up for my lackluster answers.

stepdad came up in the morning to deliver the older eliptical they didn't want anymore and also to pick up some trash from our deck and back yard. he has a new trash/debris removal business, so it wasn't a problem for him to take it all to the dump. we ended up loading his dump trailer three quarters of the way full by the time we were done picking up. i was surprised that boyfriend and i had so much junk in our back yard! all the construction debris from installing our french door last year is now gone, along with all the stuff from under the deck and some crap from behind the garage. nice!

he also was planning on taking me to the town hall so i could get a temporary plate for my new truck. i called them to find out what i would need to bring right before i left. good thing i did because the town clerk's office was closed for the day for no apparent reason! i was so angry! stepdad drove all the way up to my house for this specific reason and now i couldn't go. grrrrr! i ended up calling boyfriend and telling him to come home early from work (he's back on day shift again) so i could use his car to go to my interview later in the day.

i hope to hear back from this company by next week with a decision. it would be soooo nice to have an income again!

Monday, May 23, 2011

may 23, 2011

another week has gone by. there are some highlights to share. i got a few calls for possible job offers last week. two from temp agencies and one from a real employer! unfortunately one already fell through because they chose someone who lived much closer to boston than i do. the other temp job is in boston too, i'm waiting to hear back from that one. the real employer is in portsmouth, which would be a much nicer commute. i would start off as a freelancer, with the possibility of becoming full time somewhere down the line. i have an interview on wednesday with them, keep you fingers crossed for me!

in other news, this past sunday was pretty eventful. boyfriend and i went to visit his grandmother and family for brunch at 10:30am. we had some yummy egg casserole, hash browns, french toast casserole (which was really delicious bread pudding), fruit salad, bacon and sausage, and muffins and breads. it was nice to visit with his family and we got to see his new nephew for the first time! he was so cute and tiny!

after we left there, we headed up to the track to support our racing team even though we weren't racing ourselves that day. it was a dreary and cold day for the end of may, so everyone was having traction issues and going slower than usual. it was great to see our track friends again. it had been almost seven months since we'd seen them last! since it was cold and there were a lot of break downs, we didn't stay until the end of the race and left after a few hours. on our way home, boyfriend begged to stop at quiznos sub shop for a sub. he loves those and there aren't any around our house. how could i say no?

once we got back to our town, boyfriend decided that we should buy the dodge truck we had looked at the day before. my old '87 chevy truck has a cracked frame. it happened at the end of last year while i had to tow boyfriend's subaru back home from new jersey after our last race of the season. i don't think the truck liked towing that much weight and the frame cracked. i didn't know about it until just a few weeks ago, so i had been driving it around all winter, since my subaru is broken. because the frame is cracked, that means i can't tow my racecar with it anymore, which is the reason i wasn't racing and also the reason we were looking for a new truck. anyways...we ended up buying a '98 dodge 1500 automatic (ick) regular cab truck. everything except for the paint is in pretty good condition. our last dodge had 299,400 miles on it when we finally sent it to the junkyard. hopefully this newer dodge will be as reliable! although that automatic transmission worries me. i know it will have to be replaced sometime in the future. stupid automatics...

so, after we got the truck home, my mom called to let us know where they wanted to go for her birthday dinner. we ended up going to the new mexican restaurant on rt. 28 called azteca. boyfriend and i had not been there yet, so we said sure! it was delicious!!! probably the best mexican food i ever ate! they made fresh guacamole right at our table with all freshly chopped veggies, yum. i got chicken with onions and mushrooms and cheese, which i put in the softest tortillas ever along with some of that guac. oh, it was soooo good!!! everyone else really liked their meals as well. mom opened her gift i got her when we were at the craft show a few months ago. it was a pottery vase and sponge holder with pretty blue flowers and dragonflies painted on them. she had admired them when we were at the show.

overall, it was a busy but fun day. and here we are at the beginning of a new week. unfortunately it looks to be a repeat of last week, with rain every day in the forcast. ugh, i miss the sun!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

may 19, 2011

i designed something!!!

my cousin is getting married in july and she asked me if i could make her invitations. she sent me a few links on what she was looking for and i created an invitation that had some elements from them all. she really liked them, so that is my contribution to her wedding. it was nice to use my tablet and illustrator again. i miss using my creativity on the computer.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

may 17, 2011

yup, i haven't blogged here in about four months. i kinda forgot about it actually! i'm still unemployed, and have been without a car for the past few weeks. super fun! although, not having a car is saving me money because i can't go anywhere or buy anything. yeah, that last part isn't true. i discovered online fabric stores! they ship right to your house!

so. what have i been doing for the past four months? not a whole lot. let's see...last week my friends gave me a spare ticket to see sully from godsmack at a tiny little theater in concord. that was fun. his voice sounds JUST like he does on his albums!

i also went to the scrapbook convention in manchester two weeks ago with my friends. i was recovering from bronchitis, so i was exhausted by the time we were done, but it was a lot of fun. i managed to stay within my tiny budget and get some great stuff. i can't wait to use it!

boyfriend and i visited some old friends in michigan about a month ago. it was great to see them. he's shipping out to bahrain at the end of the month for a whole year while his wife and two kids move to oaklahoma to be closer to family. at the end of our trip, boyfriend and i spent the day in chicago seeing the sights and having some amazing deep-dish pizza. i really liked the city and i hope we can go back sometime for a longer visit.


one of our birds died. our male pacific parrotlet, peanut. he ended up having an aggressive form of avian polyoma virus, which there is no cure for. poor little guy. so far, none of our other birds has come down with the virus, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed just in case.

i did end up working for one week in march. it was at a company in salisbury, and it was such a quick and relaxing commute! i wish i could find something that close by again.

mom and i went to see 'mary poppins' at the opera house in boston. it was really good! the actress who played mary really nailed the performance. it followed the book more closely than the disney movie so some of the scenes were unfamiliar to me. i ended up reading the book and it was pretty good.

we also spent a weekend up in maine at some of her old high school friends' beautiful new house. i hadn't seen them in seven years, but they were so welcoming, it was like no time had passed! plus their two kids and fiancees stopped by. i haven't seen the kids in more than 10 years. it was a great weekend of catching up and reliving old times. i hope we will start going back up every year like we used too.

just for the record, here are the total snowfall counts for the 2010-2011 winter season...

DECEMBER 2010
  • December 20: 2.5 inches
  • December 22: 1.1 inches
  • December 26-27: 14.5 inches
December total: 18.1 inches

JANUARY 2011
  • January 8: Trace
  • January 9: Trace
  • January 12: 20.0 inches
  • January 16: 0.5 inches
  • January 18: 5.2 inches
  • January 19: 1 inch
  • January 21: 7 inches
  • January 25: 1 inch
  • January 27: 8.5 inches
January total: 43.2 inches

FEBRUARY 2011
  • February 1: 6.5 inches (Part 1 of storm)
  • February 2: 7.0 inches (Part 2 of storm)
  • February 8: 2.0 inches
  • February 21: 1.0 inch
  • February 25: 3.6 inches
  • February 27: 6.5 inches
February total: 26.6 inches

MARCH 2011
  • March 21: 1.25 inches (First day of Spring)
March total: 1.25 inches

APRIL 2011
  • April 1: 5.5 inches
April total: 5.5 inches

Season total to date: 93.6 inches
so now back to your regularly scheduled program...

Sunday, January 30, 2011

jan 30, 2011

today was one of those lazy sundays. we had some stuff we wanted to get done, but not much motivation to do it. boyfriend and i decided to go to a new diner for a very late breakfast around noon. they had so much to choose from i couldn't decide what i wanted! i ended up choosing a veggie fritatta with home fries and a biscuit. boyfriend got two eggs over hard, bacon, hash browns and a biscuit. we even got some honey to go with the delicious grilled biscuits, yum! my meal was huge, so i ended up bringing half of it home. i think we'll be going back there again soon to try their chicken fried chicken...

on our way home from breakfast, we stopped at home depot to buy an air purifier for our bedroom. we have a lot of dust in our house, thanks to forced hot air heat, five birds, and our lack of cleaning skills, so the dust has been bothering both of our allergies lately. unfortunately, we didn't notice the fact that it had an ionizer until after we got it home and had it running for a half hour. ionizers give off ozone, which is deadly for birds and not nice for humans. so we went back out to walmart this time and picked out a hepa filter air purifier. this one was louder, but safer.

after lazing around on the couch for awhile watching tv, boyfriend heated up a delicious shepard's pie from trader joe's for lunch/dinner around 6pm. after that, we both played on our computers for a few hours, then it was back to the couch to watch the final night of the winter x games. we were cheering shawn white on to his fourth snowboarding gold in a row for superpipe, and weren't surprised when he walked away with the prize. he is a snowboarding god! oh yeah, there was a late night run to mcdonalds for a small snack around 11:30pm. i got the southern chicken sandwich and boyfriend got some burgers. : )

Saturday, January 29, 2011

jan 29, 2011

i worked today. seven out of the 14 hours i work per month. i don't work at this job for the money, but for the discount on parts. there is a lot of upkeep with eight cars. after work, i came home and snoozed on the couch for about a half hour. it was tough getting up at 7am after almost a month of sleeping until 10am.

i also finished the host by stephanie meyer. it was ok. the first 1/3 of the book was slow, the next 1/3 was ok, and the last 1/3 was pretty good. i don't think i'd read it again, but it was nice to see what else she'd done besides the twilight series.

i washed a load of jeans and folded some clothes, then ate my leftover chicken parm from last night. boyfriend came home at 8:30pm and we chilled on the couch for the rest of the night. pretty exciting saturday night, huh? ; )

Friday, January 28, 2011

jan 28, 2011

i actually applied for some jobs today! once boyfriend went to work at 2pm i called a local dealership to see about a service writer job i found online. the woman said to come down and fill out an application, so i printed out my resume and drove down. i filled it out and left the resume. we'll see if i get a call back. i figure it's time to look for something else besides temp jobs, and there's not much in the way of design jobs up here.

on the way back home, i got a call from my friend a. since i was driving past her house, i stopped in to say hi. it was unusual that they were home so early. we played rock band 3 for a few hours until k. arrived. then we all went out for dinner at an italian restaurant they like to go to every friday night. it was very busy, but we got a table within 15 minutes. i got the chicken parm and french onion soup, which was very good. i had a huge amount of chicken parm to take home. it will be good for dinner tomorrow!

i didn't wait up for boyfriend because i have to work in the morning. it will be hard getting up early after going to bed at 1am!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

jan 27, 2011

yuck. we woke up to another 10-12" of snow this morning. this has been such a snowy winter! i am so ready for spring!!! once we shoveled it all up, it was time for boyfriend to go to work. i managed to do just about nothing for the rest of the day, because i'm good like that. boyfriend came home early again tonight, two nights in a row. we stayed up for a while watching a movie. i like waiting up for him on nights he doesn't stay too late at work.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

jan 26, 2011

today i planned to get up at a reasonable hour and get out of the house. i woke up at 9:30am and was out before 10:30am, so not too bad. i had to return some box thing to the cable company because i have apparently been paying $70 for this thing we don't use anymore every month since last september. i need to pay more attention to my bills, i guess. so the lady at the counter was very nice and she refunded all my $70 fees. i now have an almost $300 credit, so i don't have to pay this bill for quite a while! plus, i was eligible for a higher cable package for less than what i was paying for the next six months. cool!

then i went to the craft store to use my $100 gift card my friends gave me in thanks for taking care of their house for the past week. it sounds like a lot, but i earned every penny! i snowblowed their huge driveway, fed their fish, and even fixed their furnace! i was looking for perler beads, those plastic tube beads that you iron together to make animals and pictures and stuff. i found a tutorial on how to make the weighted companion cube from the video game 'portal' out of the perler beads. it looked so cute that i had to make my own! so i ended up finding a 22,000 piece tub of beads, along with a few pegboards. i used a 50% off coupon, so i got everything for under $17, which was less than the tub of beads cost on it's own. i love craft store coupons!

boyfriend went to work and i accidentally fell asleep on the couch with all of my birds out of their cages. whoops! luckily no fights broke out. later on i got a text from my friends inviting me out to dinner at the place down the street. it had started snowing, so they picked me up. i got the citrus chicken and a sweet potato, with sauteed mushrooms and a salad. yum! i took half of it home for tomorrow. it was nice to get out of the empty house for a little while.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

jan 25, 2011

i didn't too much today. i spent some couch time with boyfriend until he went to work. then i hung around and watched some tivoed shows until it was time to pick my friends up at the airport. i drove to their house and picked up their truck, since they would not all fit in the nissan! the ride to the airport was much better today than last week since it was 7:30pm and there was no traffic. i got there at 8:20pm and had to wait until their plane landed. it was about a half hour late. i drove them home and hung out with them for about 15 minutes. they gave me a cute smurfette lunch box with an adorable little pink and white hamster toy, plus a $100 gift card to a craft store!

Friday, January 21, 2011

jan 21, 2011

i slept so soundly last night that i didn't hear boyfriend come home from work, or snore and toss around in bed. i didn't wake up once until after 10am! i guess i was tired. when i looked out the window, there was about 7" of new fluffy snow. just what i needed, more snow on top of the 1 1/2 feet we already have on the ground! since i had to use up the package of stew beef in the fridge, i decided to make my beef stew before breakfast. i chopped up some carrots, potatoes, butternut squash, onions, and the beef and threw it all in the slow cooker along with a package of beef stew seasoning. i know, that's cheating. but it comes out really good!
so it was time to shovel. and shovel. and shovel some more. boyfriend snowblowed the driveway while i shoveled the path (almost a tunnel at this point!) and around the cars. then i cleaned off his car and moved onto mine. i hadn't driven my car all week due to my illness earlier so under the fluffy 7" was a nice, hard crust of another 5" or so. i had to hack and scrape and brush for a good 15 minutes to uncover the whole thing. when i went to back it up to snowblow the huge piles that now lay around it, the damn thing wouldn't start. grrrrr!!! on went the battery charger.

boyfriend went to work and i stayed outside to shovel his space out some more. it was getting pretty tight. i also chipped away at the huge snowbanks that were at the end of the driveway. you know, the ones filled with ice and dirt from the city plows? yup, that was super fun. once that was done, i had to go inside to rest for a while. i was still pretty weak from not eating for four days.

after laying there for a while, i realized it was almost 4pm and i had to get to my friend's house to snowblow their driveway while they are away. luckly my car was charged so i was off. of course, the first corner i took, i spun the car halfway around. i didn't hit anything, though, and managed to get it straightened out. i guess i need some practice driving a rear-wheel car! i made it to her house with no more trouble. i parked at the top of the driveway and slogged through the snow to get to the house. i was able to get the snowblower started pretty easy and managed to get the whole huge driveway done in about 45 minutes. it wasn't great, but better than nothing! then i went inside and fed the fish before i left for home.

when i got back home, i was finally able to clear the area around my car. then i remembered i was supposed to scrape off some of the snow from our shed with the collapsing roof. by now, it was dark, so that job really wasn't pleasant at all. not that any of the days' work was pleasant... it was now almost 6pm and i realized i hadn't eaten lunch, so i had a big bowl of my beef stew. it was delicious! it was my first real meal since getting sick on monday and i am happy to say there was no tummyache after! just a little heartburn. i pretty much zoned out for the rest of the evening. i will have some sore muscles tomorrow, that's for sure!

Friday, January 14, 2011

jan 14, 2011

whew, i got in some cardio today! i shoveled the remaining snow from the path and driveway so it wouldn't turn to ice like the car tire tracks already had. plus, i had to run some errands, so i really needed to dig the nissan out of it's snowy blanket. well, that took forever! it was at least 10 minutes before i could see any glass or paint. i actually had to use the shovel to get the center of the roof. after i was finished clearing it off, i had to shovel all of that fallen snow off the ground! i think it took me 45 minutes to get the whole job done so i could back out of the driveway.

after that ordeal, i stopped at the library to see if they had a sewing book (which they didn't, but i put in an inter-library request) and to talk to the childrens' librarian about possibly hosting a crafting class. maybe learning to crochet, or some scrapbooking class or something...i haven't decided yet. then it was off to kolhs to return some clothes that didn't fit. i was planning on stopping at the grocery store too, but decided to wait until sunday.

boyfriend and i got some chinese food from the new asian place down the street. it was pretty good, much better than the existing chinese restaurant a few buildings down. we also got some bad news that his uncle was in the hospital with a serious medical emergency. i hope to hear some better news tomorrow night.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

jan 13, 2011

i didn't step out of the house at all today. that was quite an accomplishment, don't you think? i did get the office partially cleaned up though, and some dishes and laundry done. yup, that's about it. we had leftover steak for dinner and boyfriend was in bed by 8pm. sigh.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

jan 12, 2011

holy snow, batman! i woke up to at least 10" this morning, and it hasn't let up at all! it is right around noon, and boyfriend and i decided to have a go at reaching the snowblower in the driveway to clear up the worst of it. it took me almost 10 minutes to dig out the stairs and a shovel-wide path to the driveway. boyfriend spent the next 20 minutes or so on the driveway, while i followed behind and did clean up shoveling. the snow is above my knees right now! some trader joe's peppermint hot chocolate is definitely in order, i think.

i managed to get the kitchen partly cleaned up today. the counter is mostly cleaned off and i scrubbed the stovetop. boyfriend cleaned the microwave, which hadn't been done in, well, i can't remember! it looks good now. i also started unearthing the table too. i may even see the top of it tomorrow! we had a friend stop by for a few minutes as i was making dinner, which was steak with mushrooms and onions, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. he was having fun playing in the snow with his wrx ; )

it's now about 11:30pm and the snow has finally stopped for the night. this was a really bad nor'easter, with thundersnow in some places that dropped 2-4" of snow per hour! crazy! thank goodness for our snowblower because it would have sucked to shovel the entire driveway.



there is 18" of snow on our railing and the wind has been blowing it off all day. tomorrow i will measure the snow in the yard to see the true total. i'm guessing around two feet!!!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

jan 11, 2011

1.11.11

almost as cool as november 11 : ) i took it easy today (no surprise there!) and managed to do some dishes and laundry. i also cut out little squares from all the christmas cards i received so i could make a little collage out of them for my december daily album that i will hopefully be finishing one of these days. then boyfriend called and said he was coming home to pick me up for dinner with his step-dad. yikes! i had to jump in the shower and get ready in a half hour. i made it though, and it was a very nice night out. this was the second night of mexican and this time i loved my meal!

Monday, January 10, 2011

jan 10, 2011

i was determined to get an appointment at the unemployment office today! after a few attempts last week with no success, i decided to get to the office before they opened at 8am. i figured that way, i would not have to wait in line. well, that didn't work out quite like i hoped. the line waiting to get in went around the block! i don't ever remember this many people trying to get appointments in the past few years i've needed unemployment. so after standing outside in the cold for 10 minutes, i finally got to the front of the line to sign in. by that time, they were taking appointments for after they reopened at 1pm. i was the second name on the sheet, so i could go home for a while and then come back at 1pm which worked out great.
i got back there a little before 1pm and i had to wait for 15 minutes. then i was called in and was done within five minutes. finally!

boyfriend came home a little late and we decided to try the new mexican place by our house. it had calmed down since opening a month ago and we were able to get a table right away. he ordered a burrito with seafood and i tried a tamale and a chimichonga (sp?). my order wasn't that great but boyfriend loved his. i'll have to try something else next time.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

jan 9, 2011

after staying up late last night playing halo reach on xbox live, i woke up kind of late this morning at 9:30. boyfriend was in the basement playing starcraft 2 because he got up much earlier than me. that was fine for a while. i packaged up the baby shower gift and played online for a while. it started getting later, so i took a shower and finished getting ready to leave at 11am. boyfriend still hadn't come upstairs yet. finally, with five minutes left he came up. of course i was a little upset that he stayed down there for two hours without even saying good morning. he tried to placate me but i was having none of it. i will be glad when he finishes that game!


so the shower was a typical baby shower, only with more guests than usual. i found some of boyfriend's family to sit with, so at least i wasn't by myself. there was a mountain of gifts to open and it took a hour and a half! at least my quilt went over well, and everyone oooohed and aaahhhhed over it, which was nice. i was glad to leave however. there will be another one to go to in two months for his family.


after that, i took a drive to salem willows. it was very cold and windy, and i was wearing a dress and a thin coat. silly me! but i got to see the ocean for the first time since the summer so that was good. i miss the sound of the ocean. i took some photos, then got back in the car half frozen. then i drove down to winter island and took some more photos, although i didn't get out of the car this time. it was relaxing to enjoy some of the places i used to visit often when i lived nearby.


i visited with my mother for the rest of the day. we made a tasty roast pork and homemade applesauce, with mashed potatoes and roasted butternut squash. she was also making homemade chili and beef stew for the week so the house smelled wonderful! we chatted for a while, took down the christmas tree decorations and decided to send out a facebook invite for a game night in a couple weeks.


a view of the lighthouse at winter island...
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Saturday, January 8, 2011

jan 8, 2011

boyfriend worked today, so i had the house to myself again. i watched little miss sunshine when i woke up, then set off to work on the baby quilt i was making for a baby shower tomorrow. that movie made me uncomfortable from beginning to end although i loved how it ended!

so on to the quilt. i found the cutest pre-quilted baby fabric at joann's yesterday, and no one will know that i didn't quilt it! it was shades of blue with flannel polka dots, puppies, and white minky fabric. so cute! i found another blue polka dot flannel for the back, added some batting, and joined it together with some dark brown satin blanket binding. what a pain that was to work with! after i was done sewing it, i had to go back and hand sew some sections where it didn't catch on the reverse side. good thing i'm not a quilter.

i also made up four burp pads from a cute criss-cross flannel. i couldn't pass up the fabric for only $1.50, especially when packs of four thin burp pads go for $8 at the stores! i also got two newborn jumpers with bibs and hats, and the cutest sweater knit jumper in grey and red stripes! plus a bird toy to hang on the bag. i just hope she likes them...


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Friday, January 7, 2011

jan 7, 2011

today i went to a friend's wedding! she was marrying her step-brother's best friend, and they had to throw a last minute wedding together because he is shipping out to germany next week. it turned out quite nice though. it was only 15 minutes from my house (yay!) and it was held at a very pretty function hall. the ceremony was less than 10 minutes long (another yay!) and then we went to the next room over which was the function room.

the only person we knew was seated at a different table, so boyfriend and i went to sit with her once we saw that there were two extra seats. the bride was lovely, and so smitten with her groom, it brought a smile to my face every time i saw them kiss!

the best part of the night was when boyfriend and i, and our friend, went out into the hall and got our pictures taken at the portable photo booth set up for the wedding guests. there were hats, boas and masks to take silly photos. boyfriend picked the pirate hat, i got a purple boa and a peacock feather mask, and our friend chose a red hat and big black plastic glasses. what fun!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

jan 5, 2011

uuugggg...woke up at 9am with a headache this morning after not being able to fall asleep until after 2:30am. i didn't do much besides lay on the couch and watch tv, including the little princess with shirley temple from netflix. i slept for a bit while my lovebird made a nest on my shoulder and slept too. thank goodness i didn't squish him! i hope i feel better tomorrow so i can get some stuff done.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

jan 4, 2011

i had a hard time sleeping last night. for some reason, my asthma started up and i was coughing and wheezing for a long time. i actually moved out to the couch for a few hours and then went back to bed once boyfriend got up for work at 4:45am. so i ended up sleeping until 10am! not a good habit to start on my second day off work. i ate breakfast and played online for a little while then headed out for the day at noonish. bank, old navy to return some jeans, borders to get a 50% off calendar (or two!), petsmart and petco to return birdie gifts that didn't fit in cages, then to the mall to look for a dress for a wedding i just found out about last night that is this friday! i was unsuccessful. there may be some great sales right now, but there isn't much left to choose from. i'll just have to use a dress she has already seen me wear at a wedding. i got back home a few minutes before boyfriend did. farmer brown's soup for dinner, then some starcraft 2 for him while i dismantled the christmas tree.

can you believe that old navy is selling shorts on january 4? really?!! i know stores like to stock the next season's stuff early but the beginning of winter was two weeks ago!

Monday, January 3, 2011

jan 3, 2011

today i decided to be lazy. it is my first work day off, and i didn't want to do anything! i wasted some time on facebook, read my current book, wideacre, for about an hour and a half, and browsed my favorite blogs, which are listed to the right. at around 3:45 i got in the shower, then i unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. you know, to make it look like i did something by the time my boyfriend came home from work! we made taco rice (rice topped with taco meat and cheese) for dinner, then watched tv until he went to bed.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

jan 2, 2011

today was great! i was visiting some family in northern vermont this weekend. it was really nice to see them again, since i don't see them more than a few times a year. we had a second christmas today, along with some really good 'visiting', or hanging around the kitching table talking about anything and everything! i've only been home for a little while and i already miss them!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

jan 1, 2011

hi.

my name is bunny, and i'm an unemployed designer.

it's been one day since i've been employed.


so, i'm starting off another year with no job. awesome. this is not the first time i've been layed off, nor will it be the last. time are tough, jobs are scarce, blah, blah, blah...the hard truth is that i haven't had a full time job since november 2009. which means no health care insurance since then either. terrific! i've been bouncing back and forth between temp jobs and unemployment checks for the past three years to pay the bills. sometimes they get paid on time, sometimes they don't!

i'm not poor by any means, but i'm not well off either. i live in an area where there are not many graphic design jobs. probably not the best place to buy a house, but at the time, i had a good job! most of my temp jobs have been 25-40 miles away, so that means an hour and a half to three hours of commuting a day, depending on the traffic.

this is a blog about my daily activities while not working. i don't know if it will interest anyone, but it will be a good record of what i accomplish (or don't!) during the next few months of staying at home. let's get started, shall we?