Here's the monthly update

Basically, this is going to be short and sweet to let ya'll know I'm alive and give you the condensed version of what's been goin' on. Went to Vegas and had a lot of fun. Niece got married up, so the purpose of the trip was fulfilled. We spent more money on food than on our hotel. Not that we ate a lot. We didn't. It's just expensive on the strip. We later learned the specials are off-strip and downtown. If we ever go back, now we know. Six days is too long to be there by the way. I think a nice three-day would be just about right. If we had tons of disposable income and could've hit a bunch of shows, the six days would have been fine. I doubt we'll go back. We've been and seen. Don't have any pictures, but once I do, I will post more on the trip.

School is going well although can't wait to be done with classes.

Work is great. Love it. DAMMIT, LOVE IT! I started casework on blood since that's the competency test I've taken and passed. Training continues :) I actually like going to work everyday which is a rare thing to feel in this country and I'm so happy I got the opportunity to experience it at least once in my life. I always sorta thought I'd end up in DNA but I love the Trace Division. We get to do so many different and unique things. It's fascinating. Loving it. (Did I mention that I like my new job? LOL!!!)

So, that's the quick and dirty update. We have the reception next weekend so as long as the weather holds I'll be heading up to NE three weekends in a row so you won't hear from me for another month. Consider that fair warning! Hope ya'll had a great Thanksgiving and ate lots of good food!

Love,
Belinda

How can a month have passed?

The two people that actually read my blog have both commented on my last post and this must mean I haven't blogged in a while (I do eventually get these subtle hints). I was floored it had been nearly a month. Bad blogger I am, I am. So...let's see, what can I possibly update you on?? Hmmm....Oh yeah. I thought of something....I GOT THE JOB!

Yep, haven't started yet, just got the offer two weeks ago and we're doing stuff with contracts, but might start next week. So you are now reading the blog of a criminalist. Woo f-in hoo!!! It's been nuts. I had to go and get "real" clothes like grown-ups wear to work. No more flip-flops, damn it all. And have been busy at my still current job getting everything organized for me leaving. And finals were this last weekend, which we had four papers due Friday and a presentation. There's my excuses for not blogging. :)

Smoking not quite as successful. I've cut way, way down and am now a 'light' smoker. My doctors are no help. They keep praising me for cutting down so much but I need them to yell at me and tell me I'm a loser. The cutting down was great to get past an initial point but I cracked at 6-a-day. I was again told not to go cold turkey, just keep trying to cut down more and more. They suggested nicorette gum or the patch which both are awful. No drugs for me to help as the ones available make your heart run a bit higher than normal. But the good news is that my blood results are showing great improvements and I'm now in the "normal" range. We adjusted my meds since I had a remarkable crash one week, sleeping 10-11 hours a night and STILL being exhausted. I was literally falling asleep at work. This went on for about a week and then we ran some tests and the endo adjusted my meds and I've been doing better. I'm pretty tired this week, but that could be to not sleeping much last week because of all the papers and finals, lol.

I think that's the major stuff for now. Better get to work!

Love,
B

Smoker? Who Me?

Well, here we go! Monday was my official start date for the smoking down to nothing. I normally smoke about 1 pack a day (20 ciggies) and so Monday was my "full" day. I did pretty good and actually only smoked 16. So yesterday was a 15-smoke-day and today has been a 14-smoke-day. So far so good. I think I'm mostly doing okay. I don't really have a choice as I AM quitting, but I'd like to do it with as little pain as possible. The gradual cessation has been somewhat difficult in that everyday, I freak out a little bit at smoking one less. But I think I've been overall doing well. It's funny because by the end of the day, the last couple of smokes are pretty awful. Saw my GP yesterday and he's happy for me and suggested nicotine gum to help with any cravings I might have. I'm really not having that many and it just passes if I give it some time. I've been trying to hold off for as long as I can before having the smoke, and have done pretty good. I really don't want to get the patch or the gum, because that just means I have to rid myself of the nicotine addiction twice. Once for the smokes and once for the replacement therapies. If I find that it's really getting to hard to continue cutting down, I will do it though. Anything to quit!

I need lots of positive reinforcement right now and Paul (as always) is very helpful. He's my smoke pusher and gives me my allotment of smokes for the day in the morning. When I first told him on Sunday, the first and only thing he said was "Oh...your car will be so much cleaner." Yeah, he's pretty much in the doghouse for that one! Right this second I'm chewing on a bit of a straw that seems to help with the holding off. Technically, I "can" have one, but I like to see how far I can go before I get wonky.

This isn't going to probably be getting any easier anytime soon. So send your happy non-smoker thoughts to me and help me get over this hump! I'm not a person who says she's going to quit all the time so this is the real thing and I am a non-smoker now (okay, technically two weeks from now). I'm hoping once I get down to only five or four a day, I'll just throw in the towel and quit forever. Seems silly to be smoking only a few a day. Might as well go all the way and just stop. So anyway, just thought I'd share this and beg you all for some good wishes and positive thinking. God knows I'm not getting enough at home! I need MORE!!! :)

Love,
B

Driveway is dead sexy

Yesterday, we had our driveway paved! Very exciting stuff there. Attached some pics. My first thought was..."holy shit, has our driveway ALWAYS looked that BIG?" Really improves the joint I think!




Also, promised some pics of the garden and here those are. There is some arugula gifted to me by Linda (a co-worker). Her and I share seeds and tips all the time! She also gave me some garlic to throw in the garden come Oct. She did it last year and got some wonderful garlic in May.


Lettuce blend-grow bitches...grow!


Overview of the "fall" garden. Forefront is bean plants, then everything else. The blank spot is for the lettuce blend.


You can see the bean plants and the spaghetti squash and the cukes well. The tiny little sprouts are broccoli and cabbage.


Here's the arugula. Basically, a form of lettuce as I was told.


From the back, peppers, on the left is radishes, then okra. Right is spinach, then eggplant (yes, they're tiny).


Here you can really see from right, the cukes, squash, okra and radishes. I don't know why, but I'm always surprised when I get nearly 100% germination. But this time around (unlike in the Spring) I took into account how small the garden is and tried to plan accordingly.


Oh my. Does anyone else get such pleasure from seeing all these beautiful peppers as I do? Just tells you I've become a serious gardening nerd.

Not as fun stuff, but I went to the specialist on the 6th. In looking at the blood tests I most recently had done...still hyperactive thyroid! Shocker there. I was reeling from it. Okay, not really. I was totally expecting it. Although, there was this stupid, small optimistic part of me that hoped the blood might have gotten better. Alas, not to be. The endo (super nice lady) told me it was mostly likely due to Grave's Disease (which for any who might be wondering) is an auto-immune disorder. Thanks mom and dad for the defective genes! Hehe. But the good news is, no eye involvement. So, we decided on a course of PTU (anti-thyroid meds), a beta-blocker (makes your heart and blood pressure be low and hopefully more stable) and birth control pills. Ha! Yeah, funny. But she's pretty freaked at the thought of my possibly getting pregnant while my thyroid is still out of control. So, to placate her, I agreed to go on them. With the caveat that it will be short-term. I told Paul I'm just saving my eggs :)

Got all the meds and started the night of the 6th. Got a swanky little pill carrier too to help me remember when to take what. I go in for another round of blood tests next week to see if there's been any improvement and, if not, I think we'll probably up the PTU. If there's an improvement, I go in two weeks for more blood taken (vampires), and then see her a week after that to discuss where we are and if we're seeing anything good. We'll make more decisions at that point. The fun thing about the meds is that the beta-blocker suppresses your BP so you have to be careful standing up so you don't pass out cold. I told the people at work that if they find me laid out on the floor, it's just the drugs. How often in your life do you get to say that and it's NOT illegal? I'm hopeful that the meds will wrestle my perky thyroid under control. Also, because of all this crap, I will be quitting smoking. None of my doctors want the cold turkey approach, so I'm to ease myself off of them, to avoid stressing my thyroid and making it be all wacky again.

Enough of THAT boring old crap. Still have heard nothing about that job. Aw well. The more time goes by, the more I'm getting anxious. I was all existential about it at first, but now I'm freaking!!!! No...no. I am NOT freaking...*trying to convince myself.

Been dreaming of the new iMacs. Yikes. 24-inches of beautiful computer. Dual-core. Tons of bank...sigh. Maybe next year! Well, I think that's about it for now. Big ol' update here. Not really, just lots of pics of my pretty garden and new driveway. Hope ya'll are doing well! I'm off for Nebraska and school this weekend.

Love,
B

What's in the garden & other mystical questions...

As always, lots to type up and talk about. Nothing terribly interesting, but that's my life. The most difficult part is to remember everything I want to talk about and try to keep my wacked-out brain in the right track and not go off on random tangents and then forget what I wanted to say. So, first things first. Here's some pics of our **NEW & IMPROVED** front deck. Paul took some vacation time to get some things done around the house and this is by far the prettiest thing. He cleaned the old crusty boards and re-stained them. Tell us what ya'll think! (He's getting pretty damn handy.)




The garden is nearly officially torn up. I've got my pepper plants left and my bean plants that I direct seeded a while ago. I've been getting some great ideas from this blog: http://inmykitchengarden.blogspot.com. She's funny and keeps you entertained. I learned how to get seeds for next year's crop so could save money that way. I wanted to do it, just wasn't sure how. Duh, I know! Just dry em out and see what happens! Ordered and received my seeds so I'm pumped to get those seedlings started. Unfortunately, I have no dirt, so maybe Paul will get that for me tomorrow morning. He's back at work, but doesn't have to go in until 1 pm and is going to Lowe's anyway. I pulled up the rest of the tomato plants and the zucchini, then tilled til I couldn't til no more. Then Paul got me some good 'ol 10-10-10 fertilizer to get into the soil and let it recoup a bit while the seeds are growing inside. I'll take pics once they start to sprout. The stuff I decided on is the following (from gurneys.com if you're interested):

1 66311 SPINACH TYEE PKT
1 66247 OKRA RED BURGUNDY PKT.
2 14617 LETTUCE BLEND PKT.
1 66219 EGGPLANT DUSKY HYBRID PKT
1 66182 CABBAGE GOLDEN ACRE PKT
1 14521 CUCUMBER HYBRID SWEET SUCCESSP
1 67936 BROCCOLI SOUTHERN COMET HYB PK
1 14979 RADISH CHAMPION PKT/G

We're planning on expanding the garden next year and I'll be extra watchful for those stupid squash bugs. I'm hoping since I've decimated their environment, they've moved on to greener pastures and won't attack my winter squash I'm planning. I'm trying to talk Paul into selling the house and buying 100 acres then we could retire and live off the land. Okay, not really, but it would be interesting if nothing else. I'll take a pic and post it of what's left of the garden so far. Hopefully, the frost will hold off and we can get some fall yummies.

This weekend was my brother's 40th b-day and we had a surprise party for him. Okay, the biggest surprise was that he figured us out. Not really even a surprise there. But I think he was hoping mom was here, but wasn't entirely sure, so he really was happy to see her. The party went really well, I didn't personally get any pictures, but if I get them from anyone else, I'll post for you.

For graduate school stuff, our team is the first to get organized with a name, Baker Street Irregulars. If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, you'll get it. I thought it would be appropriate, and everyone liked it. So, our team for this Crime Scene House Practical is awesome. We got the one and only police officer and nurse. We're so cool. Basically, they give us a scene and we have 4 hours to collect evidence, take photos, etc. Then the rest of the year to analyze the evidence, then in July we go before a mock grand jury and present it. Sounds simple, but there's a ton involved! I did get my safety glasses and lab coat in the mail so I'm set for Sat.'s class. We start on GC-MS. Woohoo! Finally, getting my hands dirty!

I wasn't going to say much about it since I don't really have a shot in hell, but I figure why not? I'm totally happy that I even got a phone call. I applied for a job with the KCPD crime lab and actually got both a phone interview and subsequent "one-on-one" interview. That's in quotes because that's what the guy on the phone told me when we set it up. Turns out it was really a "four-on-one" interview. Let me tell ya, think you're nervous talking to one person? Try it with four. Not any easier. I think I did okay but my lack of experience will hurt me. They liked me, but there's four others interviewing for it this week. They will make the decision sometime in the next month, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm just grateful that I actually got the opportunity to interview! This tells me the following: Since I have sent my resume to them before and got not a whimper back, my graduate school MUST be doing something. It's presence on my CV got me a call back. That means the thousands of dollars I'm now in debt may not be in vain. So, after I get through my last year where I actually get more hands-on experience, I may be in pretty decent shape to get a job. I'm hopeful anyway! Now, I also know more what to expect in these situations. I also got fingerprinted and as they did not arrest me on the spot, I figure I must have no warrants out for my arrest. Always good to know. I'll let you know when they tell me what their decision is!

I think that's all for now and I'll try to post some pics of the garden later this week. I do have two lab reports and some other little homework to do before Fri., so may not get a chance. Talk to ya soon!

Love,
B

Big, Long, Ugly Update

Haven't updated in forever and a lot has been going on. Well, I'm typing this at my cousin's house in Nebraska right now. That's wight wabbit, school has begun. I have my first class tonight. For those keeping track, no, I didn't normally have class Fridays, but this year, we have class Friday night from 6 to 10p and Sat. from 8 to 5, so lots more class time. Fridays are lecture and Saturdays are lab. We get to do everything from mass spec. to gas chromatography to DNA stuff. Very exciting. So this year is going to be more fun and much harder I'm sure. We also were broken into groups and we are an investigative team. The school owns a "crime house" and they will set up a crime that we are to investigate all year long and in July we go up in front of a mock grand jury to argue our case. Sounds fun, but taking a look at the syllabus, tons of time and papers involved. Yikes.

Need to find a decent lab coat and safety glasses so have been checking around for those. No, I didn't procrastinate, I just found out about it yesterday. Fortunately, I work in a lab and swiped stuff from there (with permission of course, hehe).

Garden is nearly done. My zucchini got attacked by a sweet little sumbitch called the squash bug. Look him up. Nasty little SOBs. I didn't know what they were and didn't kill them off when I first saw them, so they were allowed to propagate. I went through and hacked out a bunch of dead leaves and killed the larvae and adults that I could find, but I'm not sure it will recover. The tomatoes were looking awful, but still producing decent tomatoes, so I finally went in and got rid of all but 5 of the plants and really sheared off a vast majority of the leaves on the remaining five. They should still at least ripen what's on there now and that'll be the end of it. These fell victim to bacterial canker, which really sucks. Nothing I could've done to save them! And I have to be extra careful about planting next year. I was doing all this to start my fall garden, which will probably include radishes, vegetable squash, cucumbers and maybe some broccoli and cabbage. Definitely some lettuce mix stuff. I did all the research into varieties and time to mature and just need to order the seeds. I'll let you know how it goes!

I've recently been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, most likely due to Grave's Disease. I won't go into brutal detail, but I see a specialist in Sept, so will keep everyone posted. It does appear to possibly be going into remission on its own, which would be wonderful to avoid lots of medication and/or killing off the thyroid. That's the preferred method of "treatment" in this country, but I think it's akin to saying "I have a hangnail on my big toe" and them saying, "well, let's cut the whole damn foot off." I've been researching the disease to my little ol' heart's content and am armed with tons of information and alternative treatments if it comes to that, but we're shooting for remission :)

My brother's is turning 40 next Sat. Wow. Old man! Hehe, that's all I'll say about that and everyone knows why, (secrets, secrets).

Paul's car project is coming along, although now he's complaining that it's "not loud enough for a drag car" so I'm sure pretty soon I'll be hearing thunderous gunning of the engine. If you're in anyway interested in cars, his blog is listed here for your enjoyment. He recently met up with some family in Iowa for a couple of days and got to see aunts/uncles/dad/sis/etc. They headed up to Wisconsin for some cheese curds, which he doesn't like. But he was nice enough to bring me back two bags. I don't remember if I like them or not, but they are waiting for me in the fridge to try out when I get home.

We're working on thinking about getting the bathroom remodeled. We will be paying someone else to do that though. It's the only bathroom in the house and we can't be without it for an extended period of time. I'm not big on the idea of using chamber pots for two weeks! Yeah, I would have a hard time roughing it, I know.

If anyone caught the news yesterday you know about the terrorist plot that the Brits foiled. Boy, nobody messes around in England. They rock. They had 20+ people arrested pretty quickly! Scary to think though that there's still people out there wanting to "make a statement" and that they were so close to accomplishing their goals. Twisted though they are. I don't know about anyone else, but as a child of the 80s, I think we were actually pretty lucky in having the Cold War. Beats this shit any day of the week. Like Lewis Black said in his recent HBO special (which was hilarious) how do you fight against a people that WANTS to die and have no problem killing innocent men, women and children to accomplish that? He thinks we need to show them we're just as psychotic and vote in a dead president. As in, vote in Reagan and prop him up to show the world WE ARE INSANE. There's something very comforting in that idea. Well, I'm not sure the word "comforting" is what I'm shooting for, but you get the idea.

Well, I think I'd better go and get some reading done. Yikes, homework first, class second. There is something so twisted with that.

Love,
B

Garden Madness!

Don't really have much to talk about that's actually interesting...so here's a pic of the zucchini from my garden. They have been delicious and I've given a bunch away already. When I went out there tonight, I saw five growing. Yikes. I think I'll let one just grow to see how big it gets. Although, I get really unsure because I want to EAT it, so just pick it. Here's Paul holding one of the ones that got away from me for a while.



Love,
B

Request for supplies/help!

I have asked a lot of my family and friends, but this is perhaps one of the most important things we can contribute. Our soldiers are overseas and lacking many necessaties and other items. I am putting together some care packages to ship overseas. These packages are huge morale boosters and the soldiers can't say enough about how they feel when a package arrives. There are some signs that the package deliveries have been slowing down a bit for some and I think we need to all pull together and let them know we're still here, supporting them. Even if you don't agree with the war, those are our kids over there and they could use some help. Most of the items they are requesting are cheap and things we take for granted, but are amazing for them and a huge boost. If you would like to help out, you can either send me any items you've picked up and I'll throw everything together (I would like to spread it out over two or three packages) or send me some money and I'll buy the items directly. I would also ask that if you send any items, please enclose a note or letter of support. Since the soldiers are constantly moving around, I can't give you the information for which battalions we will be sending the packages to at this time, so just a simple note of support with your name, address and email addy will be enough. Below is a list of the most requested items:

1) DVDs
2) Magazines (any kind)
3) Puzzles
4) Games
5) Decks of cards
6) Books
7) Drawing tablets and drawing pens
8) Toothpaste
9) Toothbrushes
10) Female underwear (usually this is completely unavailable to the female soldiers, blows my mind)
11) Feminine hygiene products
12) Deoderant
13) Body washes, especially good smelling ones
14) Shampoo
15) Conditioner
16) Laundry soap
17) Stain fighting products for clothes
18) Body sprays
19) Air fresheners
20) Microwave popcorn (both kettle corn and regular)
21) 220V to 110V adaptors
22) CDs
23) Hard candy
24) Beef jerky
25) Lotions
26) Coffee
27) Creamers (flavored)
28) Crystal Light to go packages
29) Protein bars
30) Vitamins
31) Snacks, such as cookies, crackers
32) Fruit snacks, such as fruit-rollups, dried fruit products
33) Nuts, saw a lot of requests for sunflower seeds
34) Tea
35) Tuna
36) Playstation games (PS1 or PS2) or computer games (PC)
37) Many are requesting MP3 players but this is the most expensive item I've seen so far
38) Wipes (like baby wipes, hand wipes, etc.)
39) Any food that can be shipped and cooked in a microwave (such as Easy Mac, or microwave meals, Ramen noodles, fruit in cups, pudding, peanut butter, jelly, etc. Just think of something you would be missing if you couldn't have it). Their PXs are very limited in variety and the soldiers crave most anything.
40) Cards, letters and well-wishes. This is remarkably important for the soldiers who are often cut off from everyone and everything.
41) Phone cards
42) Flash sticks
43) Things NOT to send: Chocolate (can't handle the heat); any food item that is expired; cans of food are extremely heavy and when the soldiers are out in the field, not very reasonable for them to carrry, they request light, good on the go items; anything hazardous (duh, right?).

I would like to have any items you are willing to donate by August 1. Next time you do some shopping for yourself, just pick up some extra things and mail them off. For any of you living nearby me, I'll be happy to pick them up from you. Ask your friends and neighbors to contribute anything they can spare as well. Just $10 extra dollars from you can buy a lot of simple, cheap hygiene products. If you have a magazine subscription, gather up all your old ones and send those off as well. They do not mind used items, so if you have DVDs or books to send, feel free to. Use common sense in what you send though! Thanks from the bottom of my heart to anyone who can participate! You cannot put a price on how much good will come of this! Check out the website www.anysoldier.com which is where I will get my final shipping information. You will not regret it after reading the heartfelt thanks from these soldiers in need! Please send an email to get my shipping address: potterbm@umkc.edu or cecilia1015@hotmail.com

Love,
B

It's Been A Little While

Haven't blogged in such a long time. Sorry about that. This is probably going to be long. Or short. We'll see how I feel. It's too early to be up on a Sat morning. I'll try to keep it entertaining but that may be a lofty goal. No pics to add in, but I'll try to take some of the garden some time. It's really been producing. We've enjoyed some cucumbers, zucchini, green beans and tomatoes already! We have not since been visited by deer or whatever ate a little of the tomato plants up. I'll start by filling in with the internship.

It was incredible. Absolutely phenomenal. I learned so much, not only about medicolegal death investigation, but about myself. I can actually handle pretty much anything I saw. Although the kids bothered me, but that's pretty much everybody, so I don't feel wimpy about that. I saw everything from a small plane crash, to several homicides, lots of traffic accidents, too many decomps and lots of naturals. I got to do the external exams on some of the intakes, taking blood and other fluids, fingerprinting, etc. I liked the whole thing so much, I asked the Chief Investigator to keep me in mind if something opens up in the future and gave him my resume. The investigators work two 24-hour shifts in a week, getting five whole days off! How nice would that be? And they are definitely paid more than I am and they're hourly, so get 8 hours of overtime automatically and can get more if they want. Holidays are paid double-time. They even had little rooms with beds in them so if it's quiet they have the opportunity to catch some sleep. Sweet. So, at the very least, a new career possibility opened itself up to me. Big shout-out to all the people at the office, they were great!

Got back into the swing of work (which seemed slightly more boring than the internship, lol). And helped get a grant submitted, so everyone cross their fingers that we get funded. Got another paper accepted for publication and we're currently trying for the cover, so double cross fingers for that too. Celebrated with some collaborators by hitting a local bar and drinking myself into a righteous buzz. It was fun and I think it should be a weekly ritual that we take off from work early and hit the bar, hehe.

So, got all my papers (16!!!) done for the internship and then received a test that I've been working on off and on. It's due Thurs. so I hope to get it done this weekend. My poor car got a little sick and had to be diagnosed yesterday. It's the solenoid (sp?) and the part won't be here until Mon or Tues. Part of my Mazda warranty is apparently whenever there's any type of warranty repairs to be done, they give you a car. So, the dealership called Enterprise and requested a drop-off since I was stranded at work. Paul had dropped me off, but wouldn't be getting off work until after 9 pm and I didn't really want to spend that much time at work. Enterprise called right after the dealer and we scheduled the drop off and I gave him the address and directions to my specific building. Then I heard nothing again for three hours. I got the number from Paul to that Enterprise and called them. They didn't answer first time around, but second time they did. And proceeded to be completely confused about what the hell I was talking about. So he said he'd call back, but also said they were closed several times, so I thought I would not hear from them again. I called the dealership back and luckily the service dept manager was still there doing paperwork, so when I apprised him of the situation, he tried contacting Enterprise through several different numbers and got ahold of no one. He called me back after trying to find me a loaner car (which he couldn't) and offered to come pick me up and take me home. I felt bad, but was stranded so agreed and gave him directions. The Enterprise kid surprised me by calling back and once I re-told him the whole story and gave him the name of who set up the drop-off, he asked if I was in desperate need of a car right then because they were closed (had to throw it in again I guess). During my wait time, I sent off a scathing email to Enterprise customer service which will likely be ignored. I told Enterprise kid that they could forget about it, someone from the dealership was picking me up, then in order to not start yelling, I hung up. Chris picked me up (thank you nice man) and on the way home we chatted. He said he gives Enterprise over $8000 (or he said $6K, I don't remember) a month in business from the dealership and will be contacting someone today about the horrible lack of competence over there. And he mentioned that there's 4 or 5 other companies just waiting to take over for Enterprise. I'm going to guess HE isn't ignored. So, I finally made it home and am stuck here all weekend. Which is good I guess since I have to finish that test. But I was royally pissed off. So, Enterprise sucks and screw them for leaving me stranded. Hopefully, they have to bend over backwards and kiss Chris' ass a lot. I hope they have to beg. Yep, there's that sadistic streak in me coming out. I haven't quite mastered the whole "forgive and forget" thing, but I think I'm justified in this instance.

I think we're going to be going out tonight after Paul gets off work, so I plan on taking a long nap later in the afternoon after I fertilize my garden. Well, I think this is long enough for now to make up for all that time away and I'm sure all your eyeballs are crossing by now. I will post more later!

Love,
B

Internship

Just a really short and quick note to let you all know what I've been up to recently. Hanging out with some unsavory individuals, let me tell ya. Yep, my internship started at the Med. Examiners office. This is my third day, and I can honestly say that I've learned far more in those three days than I did in the first year of graduate school. Handled my very first autopsy with flying colors. Apparently I have an here-to-for unknown iron stomach. We're at that time of the year that the dead no longer stay very "fresh" and that's all I'll say about that.

Everyone here is amazing and so very helpful. They are truly good people who do a really difficult job, with no props whatsoever. They don't expect (or often get) a thaink you from the public. They are hounded by the media for answers to questions they either don't have, or can't give out. They go out in the heat, snow, rain, whatever to do their jobs and I have yet to hear any true complaining from any of them. They crawl into some of the most abysmal situations and are proficient at a job most people can't imagine doing. They are also regarded with a kind of "freak show" curiosity by the mainstream population, i.e. "How can they DO that?" Remarkable bunch of people. Next time you see your local investigator, give them a hug (and hope they aren't packing iron).

Right now it's a little boring as we haven't had anything for a while. Hoping it picks up a bit next week. I want to see and learn as much as I can. So plan on working as much as I can as well, although I need to get some laundry done. I was only able to find 4 pairs of khakis on my "khaki-quest" last week, so need to wash them up so I have something to wear. Also ran out of big ol' Sudafed pills and soda at home. NEED SODA. CAN'T SURVIVE WITHOUT IT. Soooo...better hit the store. Anyway, I'll chat at ya'll later
Love,
B

Garden Pics!

I'm posting some pics of my garden in all it's glory. I'll try to explain what they are and not screw up too bad. If you can't tell, I'm totally obsessed with my garden, hehe. Here goes.


Can't resist showing off the cherry tomatoes we'll soon be enjoying! I have a feeling we're going to get a rush of them, then dry out for a bit but damn, I'll take what I can get!


That's all one species of cherry tomato! I think I may have overplanted JUST A BIT! I honestly thought most of them wouldn't survive the transplant, but they surprised me. I lost only two plants.


Sweet peppers in the foreground and the MONSTROUS zucchini plants in the back. Can you believe how HUGE these are?


One more pic of the zucchini. I just can't get over these guys.


Just showing you how large these zucchini leaves are. That's my wittle ol' hand there. Monsters.


Awww...my bean plants. They are bush variety so won't vine out, but they look like they're thinking of starting up some flowers. This variety only will harvest 2-3 times, so you need to keep a continous supply of seedlings going. Which I haven't done yet. This weekend will be for that.


My two lonely ol' cucumber plants. They're flowering so that's a good sign.


My containers of stuff. Left is basil and right is romaine lettuce. I'm expecting the lettuce to wilt out soon as it's way too hot for it. But the basil is doing well.


Right is parsley, left is cilantro. I'm pretty happy about the herbs, but I'll tell ya, nobody got seeds like Gurney's! I will be ordering herbs from there next year so I have a shot at getting something decent.


Let me know what ya'll think!
Love,
B

Viva La Vegas!

Just to keep everyone updated on the Vegas fun, I sent out an email to anyone who I know is going with hotel info, prices for your rooms and some thoughts on what we might be doing. Check out this site to see more attractions: http://lasvegas.com/attractions/?vc1=1&vc2=txtl_txt_atr_6

Please check your email if you've requested a room and I also sent the confirmation stuff for each one of you. You will have to bring this to check-in and I will have to be there. If anyone else is thinking of coming, let me know and I can reserve more rooms or just let you know where. Check-in time isn't until 3:00 pm so remember that when making travel plans! Here's the hotel info: http://www.barbarycoastcasino.com. Check out those plasma TVs in every room! Woohoo! Hehe. As I'm looking through the attractions, I've seen about 20 or so things I'd like to do, so I will have to narrow that crap down. Well, better get back to work! Can't wait until this vacation!

Love,
B

Insomnia...ain't it grand?

So, just can't really sleep so thought I'd update on several things. Trying to type "quietly" and it's making me make a bunch of mistakes so forgive if it gets jumbled. I have a friend staying here doing her internship and she's seeing all sorts of interesting stuff. Can't tell ya'll about it, but it's so far been a good experience for her and I'm now more excited than ever for my own internship.

Garden is flourishing. My zucchini plants were very crowded so I took a chance and uprooted two of them to move them to another part of the garden, figuring if they die, oh well. I still have two others to produce. Tomatoes (cherry ones) are producing flowers! Exciting stuff there. Herbs and lettuce are growing (well, most of the herbs anyway) but our record-breaking heat may start getting rough on everything so I'll have to be extra diligent in watering them.

Gave in and went to the doctor on Fri., hoping he could ease some of my allergies which have been awful. I'm already on two medications and they are helping, but still have sinus headaches, drainage (always fun to talk about) and feeling generally miserable. So, he checked me out and agreed that I'm still suffering and put me on TWO MORE medications. I pushed to see an allergist and get some testing done to see what I'm allergic to, but he wants me to wait until the season is over. I would have to go off everything for a while before the skin test (which sounds like tons of fun) and he thinks I'll be in trouble if I do that right now. Said this is the worst season for allergies he's ever seen. The clinic was completely out of samples so I had to get a prescription for one of the extras he wants me on. Thankfully, the combo of the four seems to be working since his next effort would be to put my on steroids. No fun. After the season, he'll send me to the allergist and we'll do a full skin test. In case you want to know about what it is, they basically stick you with a ton of different things, scratching the surface of your skin to get the offending bit into the dermis. Then you wait for 12-15 min. and if your skin swells up and gets really itchy, that's what you're allergic to. They then give you creams and cold packs to ease that reaction and you get to go back onto your medication. You have to wait in the office in case you have a severe reaction and go into anaphylactic shock, which is life-threatening. Fortunately, I don't think I have any really serious allergies, just a lot of little ones, so don't worry about me. But seriously, how barbaric! Don't they have anything better than that? There is a blood test but it's much less sensitive and pretty much worthless according to my general, but we'll see what the allergist says. Doctor also forbids us to open windows at all in the house and keep the air on for the rest of the season, limit my time outdoors, if I AM outside for any length of time, I am to immediately shower and wash my hair, wash my bed linens once a week, get my air ducts clean, etc., etc. Fun summer, hunh? I go back in two weeks for an update on if the combo is working and to get blood drawn for all sorts of tests. As in cholesterol, triglycerides, blah, blah, blah. I wanted a baseline when I'm in reasonably good health so we have something to compare to if anything happens. He also wants me to get a mammogram done when I hit 35 for a baseline on that too. Then I can wait until 40 to start getting them regularly. Maybe someone, somewhere suggested this, but I don't remember, so I'm urging all my friends to do it too. Sounds like a remarkably good idea to me. So, let's all remember to jump on the ol' Happy 35th B-day to Me...Let's stick our boobs in a vise!!" bandwagon. Then we'll go drinking.

Had a good cry today. Watched Baghdad ER on HBO on Demand. Everyone needs to see this HBO documentary. It chronicles an ER over in Iraq and shows the horrible injuries our soldiers face everyday they're over there. Made me cry it was so sad, but very, very good. Extremely graphic, but we should all know what they're going through, especially now.

Thurs. night we went to the Improv for open mic night and got to see the local talent show their stuff. Most were really funny, but this poor girl bombed the worst of them all. Here's a sampling of her "special" brand of humor: "So, the reason I'm a stripper? Because prostitution is illegal." Then there was a pause as though we were supposed to laugh. No one booed her, thank god, which I was grateful for, it takes guts to even try, so gotta respect that. But Paul and one of his work buddies, were rolling with laughter, not WITH her, AT her, if ya know whadda mean?

Last night, Paul and I were reminded that we're entirely too old to enjoy the nightlife on the Plaza. We met the friend that's staying with us and her fiancee who came down for the weekend at one of the pubs down there. Yikes. I felt ancient. So much silliness it was silly dammit. Paul and I were rolling our eyes, although when he hit the bar to get us a round, he found $80 laying on the floor. As no one was actively searching for it, he grabbed it and it paid for our night. I tell you this because karma is an interesting notion to me and I believe he is getting back $300 he lost to the wind in Nebraska one day before we were married. He was very philosophical about it at the time and figured "oh well, I guess someone else needed it more than I did." I was freaking out, not being as philosophical as he. Over the last year or so, he's been finding random money laying on the ground, a fiver here, a dollar there. I think he'll continue to do so until his $300 is returned to him. Nutty hunh? But, it keeps him occupied, continually glancing to the ground to see if there's a little gift for him.

I'm going to attempt to lay in bed and hope I don't just sit there like a log with too-open eyes and finally find some rest for the night. Busy day tomorrow of finishing laundry and trying to get Toby to see the vet. More on that when I know more. Sweet dreams all.

Love,
B

Garden Days

Here's some photos of my "ghetto garden." As you can probably see, there's a bunch of leaves in there. I did that temporarily until I could get some mulch to help with water retention. Also, can't hurt to get those rotting leaves in there. Yummy! This weekend, the plan is to side-dress the tomatos since they need all kinds of food that has probably already been leached out of the soil. I planned on getting a soil test done, but ran out of time, so it's a shoot and miss kind of game right now. The tomatoes are really happy in the ground and are doing some nice growing. The zucchini has just exploded as well. We've got three plants, which should be more than enough for the two of us, if they produce that is. The cucumbers are down to about 3 plants as well, which is honestly a miracle. You should've seen what I transplanted, sad, sad plants. The onions haven't resurrected yet, but here's to still hoping! The beans are growing again (new crop of seeds) and the canteloupe which died off once, has been re-seeded when I did the rest of the transplanting. Still nothing there yet. But it's been fairly cool, so I expected they wouldn't germinate.

Planted a bunch of herb seeds the other day, tarragon, sweet basil, italian parsley, curled parsley, cilantro and oregano. Unfortunately, it might be a little late for these little guys. But I might get lucky and the good thing is that a couple are perennials and I will grab some of those plants to keep in the house over the winter. All the herbs will stay in containers, so bought some more of those to get up to the right number to give these the room they need. We'll see how it goes. If all goes well, I'll be drying a lot of herbs and will send some to whoever wants some. I'll keep you posted!


Weeping Willow


Shed

Also, wanted to share a couple of more pics. The first is of our little ol' weeping willow that is the happiest tree. He's just growing and growing. We're getting some beautiful weeping out of him! The second is just to show the shed with its new clothes. Paul re-sided it and put a new roof on a while ago, just haven't taken a recent pic of it. He did a remarkable job and if we didn't have that shed, one whole bedroom would be filled with storage tubs. That's about it for now! I start the internship soon, but a friend from class starts her's here on Sunday. She has to go in at 7:30 am!! Yikes. No, but...YIKES. That's mighty early for me, so looks like I'll have to start retraining myself on how to go to bed at a reasonable hour. I've been cracking on those papers, so I've gotten a couple of the six outlines done so far. So many to go, it's a little depressing. But it's all good, I can do it (just keeping saying that over and over again and it will come true).

Love,
B

Better late than never...

Here's the promised pic of the new car. In this pic, it's already been tinted (pretty dark too!) It's much, much cooler with that black leather interior. It's so damn adorable, I can't STAND it!! lol ;)

Love,
B

Wedding Site!

Here's the gazebo where the wedding will actually take place. They were setting up for a ton of weddings that night, so try to imagine it at night, lighted with white X-Mas lights!



Hey! How the heck did I get in that one? Hehe. Beautiful place! They set up everything for you and although it was pretty steamy (103 degrees), I bet it will be gorgeous in Nov.

Love,
B

P.S. will have to wait on the car pic, looks like I deleted it :(

Whew!

What a fantastic visit with the padres. But entirely too short. I blinked and I was back on the plane heading home. So here's the full rundown on what all we did. Arrived 11-ish Wed. morning (tired from staying up too late playing games--check this site for great Mac games: http://www.macgamestore.com/) Dad picked me up and we waited for my one RED bag. Then after standing there for a good few minutes, 7 or 8 red bags get dumped off at the same time. I could almost hear the laughter of the sado-masochists at the other end. Dad and I drove back to Kingman, passing on the Hoover Dam again. Pretty amazing structure and the bypass they're building is going to be just as amazing. Here's some pics, they are keeping a journal with pics--this is what we saw: http://www.hooverdambypass.org/Const_PhotoAlbum.htm#Feb2006

Dad was hoping they'd be keeping track and I guess they are :)

Continuing on to Kingman, we hit up a Wendy's and had some lunch. Then stopped at the house, dropped off luggage and went and saw Mom at work. She didn't get any of the days off since she was off for so long with the "damn feet" so she was pretty bummed. Did a bit of shopping for SB requirements (crap I can't live without). After that, Dad and I stopped off at his work and I got to see my cousin Kenny who works there and everyone else. Someone had baked cookies, but I just didn't look over there at all. Entirely too much temptation! Then went home, relaxed, mom cooked up fajita-like things (only bad thing was the type of tortilla used, so figured I'd live with it).

It was GORGEOUS there the entire time I was there. Just had to throw that in. Left K.C. at 58 degrees, cloudy, landed in Vegas, where it was a perfect 98 and super sunny. That was pretty much the weather every day. Sunny and in the 90s. Didn't get a lot of sun since I didn't take the time to lay out and get fried, lol.

The next day, Dad and I had originally planned some stuff, but the temptation to be lazy was entirely too much for me and I didn't even get out of PJs until mid-afternoon (after enjoying a wonderful three-hour nap). Unc Tom and A. Elaine came by for dinner and Kenny and Shawn showed up after work. Mom allowed me to help make the enchiladas. Okay, okay. All I did was throw 4 or 5 into the microwave and warm them up for her. Yeah...big responsibility there. Although, I did get yelled at for not getting it hot enough, haha.

We ate, then bullshitted for a while, then everyone headed home. Friday was a busy day. Dad and I got up and went to the shooting range they have outside of town. He got a yearly family membership and showed me how to shoot the two new guns he got. I liked the Glock much better than the dinky .380, but got better as I practiced. It only sucked because my hand would get tired before the 9 rounds were gone and it would start shaking. Dad was awesome at hitting the target! Kicked my ass and not for the last time that day.

Went home, packed up some snacks and water, got the walking sticks and headed up to the mountains. This hike made me realize how very out of shape I've allowed myself to get. Yikes. Seriously. My ol' man laughed at me. Not in a mean way, just laughed WITH me. Well, I was laughing when I could actually BREATHE!! I ended up going all of nearly a mile before calling surrender. We headed back down and went home.

Mom and I then headed to Laughlin and gambled a bit. (Okay, until 2:00 am, I could barely outlast my mom either). Ended up winning $50 on a quarter machine (woohoo). Actually ended up winning even more than that after I sat down and thought about it. But it's all good. Wanted to get the nuts to go play blackjack, but am a puss, so skipped out. The crowds surrounding them intimidated me. I want Paul to take me himself and get me acclimated so I feel comfortable trying it on my own. Only place to really have a shot at winning are the tables! Not that I'm a big gambler, but it would be nice to have another option besides throwing money at the slots.

Sat. we were planning on going to the Arts and Crafts Fair at a local park, but once again, laziness overwhelmed me. We did manage to move and get to Bullhead City to see my Unc's band play. Then to dinner where we had Mexican (again). I'm pretty well Mexican-ed out for a while :)

Sun. got up early and went to breakfast for Mom's day. Had given mom her gift Wed. so nothing fun to open. Good eats though! If you're ever out that way, hit up Mr. D's on historic Route 66. Yum. Got back to the house and read for a while, then showered, packed up. Hopped in the car to hit Vegas. We ended up going to the Apple store there which is in this huge mall that is on the North end of the strip (didn't even know it existed--Fashion Show Mall). They really did have a fashion show too. Mom watched, but Dad and I were busy ohhhing and ahhhing in the store. Realized I really, really want a big ol 60GB iPod, but just can't swing the $379 right now. Maybe I'll get it from Santa (hahahaha!)

Went to the place my niece was thinking of getting married in Nov. Very pretty. I'll post some pics that we took. She went and booked it (actually I think her mom did). So, as long as Mitch stays in line we'll be fine, haha. Just kidding Tash. Got to the airport and enjoyed a Starbucks Frappacino (definately NOT okay on the diet). But damn, it was good. Anyway, better get back to work! Oh yeah, will also post pic of the car if I can find it.

Love,
B

Where to start?

Lots of stuff has happened and I haven't had a moment to catch my breath, much less do a proper update. I'll try to add pics as soon as I take them.

Most exciting first. I bought a new car :) Not new, new. Just new to me. A 2005 Mazda3 hatchback. All loaded up and everything. I'm loving it, but I hated signing over all that cash, lol. The more I drive it, the better I feel about it. Took it to NE this weekend and everyone there said it was really cute and they liked it. Everyone wanted to drive it, hehe.

New great-niece is doing well, murmur still there, but so tiny, they swear it'll close up soon. Isn't slowing her down. She's gaining tons of weight and my niece tells me she sleeps pretty much through the night, only waking once. Lucky!! If we ever have children, my mom assures me they will not sleep at all, just to get back at me. I was apparently a devil child who thrived off no sleep.

Had my final on Sat. so if I did okay, I'll be done with my first year of graduate school. WHEW! Hope I did okay, I was sorta bad and didn't get as much done as early as I normally would have. It just seriously snuck up on me. I think I did okay, but I don't want to jinx it!

Wednesday I leave to go visit Mom and Dad and get in some R&R. Since Mom was off over 2 months with her surgeries, probably won't get any time off while I'm there, so it'll be dad and I bumming around. I want him to take me to the shooting range since it's been an awfully long time since I've fired a weapon and it will be fun to do it at a target. See how bad I really am. Other than that, no plans set in stone. Sorry it took so long to update, I truly have been crazy busy.

Internship starts in June so I want to try to take some time during my vacation to get a few of those 16 papers done to get a head start. I won't be taking any extra time off work, so I really need to get as much done as I can now to help me out. So evil that they assigned us those papers. ARGHH!! 16 papers. Yikes. Well, better get back to work. I'll post pics of the car soon.

Love,
B

Baby, Baby!

Amber (my niece) had her little girl Friday afternoon at 1:13 pm. She was only pushing for about 45 min. and was induced at 8 am, so it went pretty quick. She named her Natalia Elise and she weighed in at 6 lbs. 8 ozs. and 18 inches long. She's a petite little thing with a pretty full head of gorgeous black hair! They detected a small heart murmur yesterday, but today said it was really small and will probably close up on its own shortly, so no worries! Here's a couple of pics for ya'll with her grandpa (my brother).




Love,
B

What's the point of a title?

Here's some updates for ya'll. I'm at work, waiting for a poster to print out so I have about 20 min. to kill. Figured I owed a blog (er...about seven). Managed to survive my 6 weeks of continuous class (just barely) and will have this weekend off. Whew. I need to clean my house and do laundry wicked bad. And Paul's preparing the garden area (we putting down some topsoil) today and I'll use some of Sun to plant. We're going to hang out with some of Paul's co-workers on Easter and I plan on enjoying several beers to celebrate. Celebrate what you might ask? I'll think of something when the time comes. It's only important to think it in my head.

Still no baby! I'm pretty sure that the second time they stopped it pissed the baby off and now she's not coming out, they'll have to drag her out. Last I heard, they were going to induce on Tues, the 18th (I think that's the date). But we'll see. I'm still hoping she'll pop on her own. I still think she should go jogging and see what happens.

School is going okay, but it's getting long. I'm pretty wiped out and ready for a break (er...vacation). We're planning the trip to see my oldest niece get married in Vegas. I wanted to go see Penn and Teller, but at $85/ticket, I'm out. We are going to go see the "Thunder from Down Under" male revue. Woohoo! Think Chippendales, but cheaper and supposedly more fun. That'll be for her bachlorette party. Again, woohoo!

Don't have to worry about my massive numbers of plants, they managed to pretty much die off. Some of them anyway. Not all, I still have tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, some zucchini and ONE measly pea plant left. Good thing I've got more seeds. Don't know what happened except for the fact that I think they ran out of nutrients. I would bet that if I would have fertilized them, we'd have been golden. Well, I can't think of anything else vital right this second and the poster is done. Now I have to wait through one that isn't ours to get to our other one. Then I can get out of here. (Not completely, still need to finish working, lol).

Love,
B

Maxine

Need to be writing a paper, but I'm pooped. Might bang it out in the morning. Niece is still cooking jr., so we're good (actually, it's a little girl, so not sure if 'jr' applies here). So, rather than moan and groan about my job or about school, here's some damn funnies my Auntie sent me. Enjoy!

Love,
B

She lives!!

Yeah, yeah. Haven't updated in a while. Let's go easy...remember this is my 6 weeks in a row of driving to NE for class. Fun times. I'm down to only two left now. This weekend ended up being a bit scary. On Fri. about midnight my niece went into pre-marture labor and ended up being in the hospital until Mon around noon. They managed to hold off the contractions for the most part. I spent most of the weekend at the hospital with her and her sisters. Got to experience all that great hospital food. You'd think they would have the whole 'let's be healthy' thing down pat, but NO! Guess they want to stay in business from those coronaries. So, the diet pretty much was a total waste this weekend, trying to recover from that.

Boss was nice enough to let me have yesterday off so I could spend more time there (actually, I didn't really ask, just offered to drive in and come to work whenever she got out of the hospital). He told me to stay my sleepy butt there and get some rest.

Got into Lincoln on Friday night and took a quick shower and met up with Chris at the city pool tournaments. Ha. Who knew. I saw my very first boyfriend EVER there. We dated in 9th grade and I was all madly in love with him (as in love as a 9th grader possibly can be). How funny. WEIRD, but funny.

Next weekend, I think Tracy's hosting her sister's bachelorette party. I just thought of that this second. Hm. Better call her up and make sure. I gotta get some panties for the party (no worries, for a game). I'm wiped so going to bed. Just wanted to let you all know, I'm still HERE!!!

Love,
B

DOH!

I was reading back through the blog and realized I hadn't updated on some stuff I said I would. Paul got his test results back and his cholesterol is a shining 176! He's a little high on the bad cholesterol, but nothing that can't be put in check. His potassium levels were a tad high so they had him come back 2 weeks later and get tested again. Well, today those test results came back and the potassium was much higher this time. They narrowed it down to the possibility of peanuts and peanut butter being the culprit, so he can't have any nuts for the next two weeks until THOSE results come back. Paul's tummy was hurting him again, so I think when he sees the doc about the K+ levels, he needs to talk to him about that too.

Amber's baby shower went really well, lots of people came and we had pretty good snacks (cake, cupcakes, nuts, etc). The night before my oldest niece and I went through the girls' closet and got some organization going. We separated out all the clothes and got them either hung up, put in dressers or in the 'give away' pile. Before we started that, my niece actually made me dinner. Lasagna, yummy. I was very impressed. Amber got a TON of diapers and really useful stuff. I think she was happy with it.

After waiting and watching on eBay for several months, I finally got my UGGS for what I wanted to pay. Nothing like getting something 2/3 cheaper than retail. :)

We're going to expand our garden since it looks as though most of the stuff will be growing. If it looks like it's going to really produce, I need to learn about freezing and canning. Don't want anything to go to waste. Still spinning my wheels at work so I have low job satisfaction right now. I can't got any further without either new data or some help. Boss has been working from home for a while now, so haven't even seen him for a week. Hopefully, he'll be in today sometime so we can go over some stuff and he can let me know if I should take every Friday off or not for the next month.

For those of you who may not know this, Mom had bunion surgery last Thurs. She didn't tell very many people since she didn't want to 'make a big deal out of it.' They didn't have to put a pin in the left foot, just shave the bone down (yeah, gave me the shivers typing it) so her recovery time should only be 2 weeks or so. They think they'll have to pin the right foot thought, so she'll be bored for 6 weeks. She's already going pretty crazy right now not working. I would be catching up on sleep which I desperately need (ah well, I can sleep 5 weeks from now). I'm whining, better stop. :)




Here's some pics of my wacky kitty who found a much preferable home today. He didn't move from this box for at least 20 min and was still there when I left for work. I can't imagine how he got his fat butt in there, but it's adorable!

Love,
B

Attack of the killer BEAN plants!

Here's the promised photos after finishing up the transplant. Each of the little mutants have their own home now. If they all actually produce beans, we'll have beans to last a couple of years. I'm guessing some won't survive the final transplant into the garden, so we'll see what happens. I'll post a pic after Sunday to see how huge they are. Heh. Who knew?

Love,
B

Damn those mutants!

So, I spent a good portion of the night last night unwinding the massive root systems the beans have grown. The mutants are out of control. I transplanted them (had to go to the store to get more peat pots) so they all have their own little home. Hopefully, they won't continue to go quite so crazy. Need to do the other beans now. Didn't think I had that many plants and so just bought 50 pots. HA! I way underestimated my idiotic seeding. Need to grab another 50 so they are all on their own. I'm going to have beans coming out of every orifice there is. Assuming some of them produce anyway. Working on getting a compost container going too since we have all kinds of veggies left over that are going to be perfect for good compost (and about a million dead leaves). That's Paul's project for his days off this week to build a compost container. Then it's up to me to get it going. Hopefully, within about a month, I'll have something decent to give the plants. I'll take another pic after I get the others all transplanted. They aren't wilting or anything just yet, so hopefully I didn't kill em off.

Laura, check the mail in a couple of days. We're sending a 'surprise' to you and Al. Sorta Al's B-day present, but it's really something for you both! Enjoy!

Did awful this weekend on the diet, so I need to come up with different ideas of how to stay on it when I go to NE. Especially since I have class for every weekend for 6 weeks in a row. I have so much to do, just thinking about it makes my brain ache. I need to do laundry, the only thing good I can say about the state of my house, is that at least no one else has to see it but me and Paul. The good thing is even though I gained a couple of pounds over the weekend, just by being good Mon-today, I've lost that again. I like the flexibility of this diet. Paul's doing good too although he ate us out of house and home last weekend. He's going to be starting his own blog about the Capri his sister gave him. I'm going to try to show him how to set that up tonight. Well, that's about it for now. I'm sure I have way more to tell you, but I better go be somewhat productive at work.

Love,
B

Attack of the mutant plants! Run for it!

Yes, I planted what I thought was normal seeds from perfectly normal vegetables. I didn't realize I was about to embark on my own 'little shop of horrors' journey. Check these bad dogs out!





So, the problem is now that I can't exactly plant these guys in the ground just yet because it's a little too cold. I don't want to kill them off by pre-maturely sticking them in the ground. Just in case you wanted to know, Gurneys.com is where I got the seeds and I planted them in Miracle Grow. Apparently a dangerous combination! We'd bought seeds last year at Lowe's and it took 4-6 weeks to get them to the transplantation point. And only about 40-50% grew, but not Gurney's I'm not sure what steriods they put in there, but they work hella good. I'm wiped out, so will try to blog more later and tell you all about my weekend and my upcoming 5 weeks from hell.

Love,
B

Yadda, yadda, yadda

Edit to add in Paul's. He's gained a bit, but dammit, don't give up you SOB! (Yeah, that's a loving wife for ya!)



There so much to write about, but I'll just try to hit the high points. To get the weigh-in out of the way, first mine. I'll edit to add in Paul's after he gets back from Junction City.




As you can see, I had a very good week to make up for my cheating, so I'm pretty stoked about that. Now, to get the umph to start exercising. Anybody got a red hot poker?

So, Thurs. we went to see Lewis Black in Lawrence. Very small venue and we were pretty damn close (only 5th row). Is it possible to over-use your smiling muscles? We laughed for pretty much 2 hours straight. We got to Lawrence, picked up our tickets and walked down on Mass Ave to grab a bite (we had about 45 min before they'd start seating). We randomly choose this place called the JayHawker because it didn't seem terribly busy. We were seated and proceeded to wait for any sort of waiter-guest contact for about 10 min. My hubby actually got pissed and wanted to leave, so we left. Now, for those of you that know my hubby, he's pretty damn patient (you might've guessed that because we've been married for nearly 8 years and he hasn't killed me yet). He's the kind of guy that could get the wrong food entirely and just eat it rather than send it back, or he won't get something that should've came with his meal and he won't say anything. Me on the other hand, well, I'm a bigmouth. I'm usually the one who gets all fired up. But the place wasn't cheap and he said if we're gonna drop $50 in this joint I damn well expect some service. That's it in a nutshell anyway. So we went to this other place and cheated royally. We each had two drafts of Boulevard and I can only say it was like ambrosia. Yum. I even caught a tiny buzz! Shocking, I know. That's what not really drinking does to ya. I had spicy chicken fingers (the aroma made my eyes twitch, so you know it was really spicy) and Paul had a melt with lots of veggies. So, we really only cheated with the bread on his sandwich, the breading on mine and the beers, so in retrospect not as bad as I thought. I'd tell you more about the show, but I'm lazy and going to move onto other things.

My garden is officially starting! I spend a couple of hours yesterday getting the seeds planted in a jiffy greenhouse to start em up now. Just so you know. Bean seeds are freakin' huge. We're trying a couple of different varieties of cherry tomatos, Big Beef tomato (more regular size), sweet peppers, zucchinis, two types of beans (topcrop and something else-brain fart), cucumbers, canteloupe, and onions. There could be more I'm forgetting, but I think that's it. So, for dinner tonight, we'll be sending up a sacrificial rotesserie chicken to pray for the growth of at least some of them. I packed so many beans in those little peat pots, we could be shortly taken over entirely. If you don't hear from us for a while, send in a search party with machetes to hack us out.

Also installed my 250 GB external hard drive. Didn't even fry the damn thing, so success! Managed to successfully partition the drives as well. 100 GB for system backups and 150 (actually around 140GB) for miscellaneous stuff to help free up my computer. Haven't gotten everything moved over yet, just iPhoto pics. Next is the iTunes library, but there's a trick to that and I can't remember it. I'm going to move over some of the applications that I don't use regularly too. The enclosure came with a little fan which is good because I can feel some heat coming off it anyway so can't imagine what it would feel like without the fan.

Giving a class presentation on Thurs. and haven't really done anything yet, so that's for tonight and tomorrow night. Betta bust ass on it to get it to the group on Wed. So, will be in Lincoln by early Thurs or late Wed. If I feel perky enough, I'll drive Wed., but if not, Thurs. morning. The weather is supposed to get into the 70s this week! AHHHH, spring :) Our final is this Sat. so wish me luck in NOT procrastinating.

Amber's baby shower is this weekend too and I'm going to help my niece (oldest one) go through and organize the massive amount of baby clothes she has to give some to Amber. Since we're doomed to have all girls, it works out well in the clothes arena, but Tash has no idea what all she has. Sunday, we'll decorate and have the shower. Hope to see some of you there! Better go get lunch ready!

Love,
B

This close to $365 million...

I got a little Powerball fever since I actually bought $10 worth of tickets in LINCOLN!! Not at the store that they sold the winning ticket to, but still. What a bummer. Here's a weblink in case you want to see if you have any winnings coming to you: http://www.molottery.com/app/inputPBTickets.do

Good luck and remember the little people.

Love,
B

Fat chicks GONE

Okay, I think I fixed all the trackers, but the new one isn't as cool. I actually have to update on their page to get the new code. The other one I could just copy it and change the values. Sigh. Oh well. I'll just bookmark and continue on. Better get to eating some breakfast!

Love,
B

Where'd the fat guy and the pig go?

Grahics went bye-bye and the site that I got them at before, when I tried to create new ones, the HTML code isn't working. Be patient and I will get it all fixed! Someday, lol. And I'm changing my goal weight to 120 which I think is more realistic and if I did actually see 115, that I don't think I'll look okay. There is such a thing as TOO thin (no really, there is, I promise!)

Love,
B

Diet do good!

Well, I actually gained 1/2-lb, but have managed to get into a smaller size, but cheated a bit this weekend with a dinner made by my cuz's hubby. Amazing that a little pasta nailed me, lol. Paul's nearly at his goal and feeling sooo good about himself! I haven't seen him this happy with himself in a while, so it's a good thing I'm such a bitch and forced him on this diet. He's been doing unbelievably awesome and I'm so proud that's he's gotten so gung ho about it. Hopefully, we'll see some positive changes in his cholesterol levels which I'm guessing we might get sometime this week. I went and bought some cute new clothes, woohoo! Now I want MORE :)

Went out with friends last night to an Italian joint. We did pretty good with what they had available. But I'm going to be really cautious this week because of my screw-ups over the weekend. I'm thinking that my body is probably pretty happy with this weight and now I'm going to have to start working out to tighten up. Sigh. But our cable company now has fitTV programs on demand that's Paul's been doing, so I might try some of those and see if that keeps me from getting bored. Better get back to work! Will write more tonight after I get home!

Love,
B