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...