☀ Sami by the Sea! ☀

2011-02-20T10:32:00.001-05:00

Does anyone still follow this thing?

;)

If so, and you're interested, I post here now!

http://carolina-fireball.blogspot.com/

Musings.

2010-08-29T10:21:00.001-04:00

Hey blog-friends.

I don't think I'm going to be consistently blogging for much longer.

There, I came right out and said it. Also I figure people already have an idea, as I've been a serious slacker lately. Ever since my new job started I've been so so busy, and sometimes tired, but mostly a lot of my free time has been eaten up. I don't know how full-time job folk can blog daily, or even every two or three days! It was so much easier for me when I was part-time, or "fun"employed. (Hah!) I had time to sit down and plan out posts and make them worthwhile, not just rushed and obligatory. That, and I'm finding myself spending less and less time on the internet lately. (Point proven, I'm typing this from my phone on the way to brunch.)

I guess long story short, blogging is more of a chore to me lately than an enjoyment, and it just shouldn't be that way. :(

So I'm backing away, possibly permanently, possibly not. I may still post some photos once in a while, or pop in to say hi, but I certainly won't be a power-poster.

I've made some amazing friends here, and I'll continue to pop over to your blogs and comment!! :) You all are fantastic.

Be happy, everyday. Nothing is more important. <3

Blue sky, everywhere.

2010-08-23T17:44:00.002-04:00

Just a couple'a pictures I took of the sky last week. These were around 5-ish pm!

One of my favorite things about North Carolina is that it's very flat (at least out East) and the sky is so visible. In fact, when we first moved here, it was one off the things I remarked on first... I just kept saying, "It's so open! It's so flat!" over and over! Then again, coming from suburban DC where there is stuff everywhere, it was expected to be a shock I guess. :)

Hi!

2010-08-21T10:43:00.002-04:00

Wow, when was the last time I posted? Like two weeks ago?

ARGH?!

This past week of work I was busier than a one armed cranberry picker in a paper hanging contest ... or something like that. Busy and stressed and overwhelmed with work due to the fact I didn't have a lot of help this week, but I did my best and am DELIGHTED that it is weekend time!

Here are some bullet points of my life lately:

We are currently watching the Arsenal v. Blackpool game on ESPN2. Happy the Premiere League is back on ... English soccer teams for those of you that are now scratching your heads thinking I've had a brain injury! Arsenal is my EPL team and they're doing great in this game! :)
We go to Orlando in 2 and 1/2 weeks for my birthday and I'm THRILLED!! We are each making a mix CD for the roadtrip and I'm excited to pick some songs out. I'll likely post it here when I'm done. Harry Potter theme park? Seeing amazing friends?! Amazing food?? YES YES! :) There will be pictures.
Matt built us a pair of amazing new gaming computers that are top of the line, fast, and really quiet and awesome. We are going to start playing Final Fantasy XVI (the MMO) with some of our friends next month... and we were loooong overdue for a computer upgrade. I'm excited to be able to see great graphics and not have lag!
It looks like our weather this weekend is going to be mild and less humid, so I'm looking forward to some outside time either with my book or with my camera. :)
Going to start my fall wardrobe shopping next weekend when my paycheck hits! WOOOO! I have been SO overdue for fall and southern-winter clothes it's not even funny. I'm not even going to tell you how old my stuff is... we're not gonna go there! ;) So look out Charlotte Russe and Forever 21!

Hopefully I'll be a more active blogger now that I'm somewhat-back to a regular schedule. I'm SO behind on my Google Reader... :( I heart you all and I'll try to catch up soon, so hopefully you'll see me commenting again. ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

My matching cats.

2010-08-10T20:03:00.002-04:00

Just some recent photos of my cats I took over the weekend.

Kerrigan:

Finnegan:

This is the most wonderful thing I've found in a long time.

2010-08-08T18:36:00.002-04:00

Hi guys!

How was your weekend? Mine was great, and relaxing! Hope everyone had a good one, and that we're all ready for Monday again. :)

I wanted to share something wonderful I found on the internet with you all.

Postcrossing - Postcards Traveling the World

Taken from the website:

The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive at least one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world.

Why? Because, like the author, there are lots of people who like to receive real mail.
The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you probably have never heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises - and who wouldn't like that?

I've just signed up and I'm AMAZINGLY excited about this. The idea is fantastic, and I'm excited that it's so hugely supported! I think when I collect enough postcards, I'm going to collage them in a big picture frame. Super fun!!! Check out the website if you're interested, its very well done and I can't wait to see what random addresses I get first.

Now I need to go buy some postcards... :)

Emergency room etiquette.

2010-08-06T10:06:00.005-04:00

*EDIT* So this week, I completely did the Friday Follow wrong and put my link in the giveaway section instead of the FF section. So if you come here looking for a giveaway, sorry!!! I'm just a major moron (and was in a rush!)

So it looks like I started to write a blog post yesterday, got three sentences in, and left it unfinished on my laptop before going to do something else. .... Oops? Yeah, that's been my week. I feel awful for my lack of posting but I've just been so busy, and I'm still getting used to my schedule so when I'm home in the evenings I'm usually pretty drowsy anyway.

:(

I have the day off today though, because last night I trained on the emergency shift. I worked until midnight and before I even left the building to come home? I knew I was going to make this post.

Emergency etiquette.

A lot of people get freaked out when their pet has an emergency, and that's normal. Unfortunately, a lot of people's common sense also shuts off. If your pet has an emergency, here's a handy list of do's and dont's (mostly dont's) compiled by yours truly!

DON'T call us and ask us if you should bring your animal in. Seriously. The majority of the calls I got last night were, "Hi, I have an insert animal here and he is doing insert random behavior here; should I bring him in?"

This is where the common sense thing comes in.

If a scab fell off your dog's booty two weeks after he'd been neutered, and there's a little bit of dried blood? Nope, don't need to worry about that.

If your little dog ran headfirst into a minifridge and got some yogurt in his eyes? Nope, don't need to see that.

If your cat's looking at you strange from across the room but displaying no other bizarre symptoms? Hmm, likely not. He may smother you in your sleep, though.

If your dog's been having seizures for the past hour and is frothing like the whip machine at Starbucks? Yep, we should likely take a look at that.

(Those are all calls I actually received, mind you.)

I know a lot of pet owners aren't really versed in the medical-icity (I made that up) of pets, but honestly? Think about if you had a scab that fell off, or if you got yogurt in your eyes. Would you go to the ER? However, if you were becoming the whip cream machine, you should pronto. :)

DON'T call us every 20 minutes with a status update on your pet, and ask if you should being him in.

Because honestly? We really can't make that decision for you. You're the pets owner and if it would give you peace of mind for a doctor to take a look at them, then by all means, that's why we're here. I can't hand-hold you over the phone 5 times an hour when we have real emergencies rushing in here that need to be taken care of.

DON'T sign the form that states our exam price, as well as the fact that you will pay for all treatment at time of discharge, then come to us after your pet's treated and say you have no money.

Because we will get collections on you. I know you may or may not be hysterical, but it's in bold print. And really? Ain't nothing free!

DON'T come out of an exam room and get cranky 5 minutes later when your medications aren't ready. Have you ever been to the human ER? Kinda like that, but on a lesser scale. We treated your dog for an emergency and are getting your things together as quick as we can with all the other emergencies going on in the building; please be courteous and respectful of that.

DO call ahead to let us know you're coming if you have a severe case. We like to be ready for the owner that rushes in the door with the kitty that isn't breathing well, so we can make him feel better ASAP.

DON'T bring the snake that bit your dog into the lobby, alive and in a bucket. We don't need any more emergencies if Salazar there decides to go all freakshow on us. Feel free if it's dead so we can ID it. But otherwise leave it home.

DO be calm. Emergency staffs are trained for just this kind of stuff, so once your pet is with them sit down, try to relax, and watch a little TV. Use some tissues, go wash your face, grab a soda from the machine. I'll even let you change the TV channel if you ask nice. :) Howling hysterically in the lobby isn't helping anyone, especially when we can't hear who's on the other end of the phone because you're a sobbing mess. Yeah, it can be very scary but it's out of your hands now, so take a few deep breaths and wait to see what happens.

Okay! That's all. :) I actually had a lot of fun last night doing something different, even though I started to get a little drowsy towards the end... Zzz...

Our weather here has still been pretty hot -- how is everyone else's?? I'm kinda ready for fall to be honest! Getting in the mood for apple cider and fuzzy socks and pretty colored leaves... ;)

But until then, I'll go to the beach as much as I can on my long weekend!

Pre-birthday-ing.

2010-08-01T11:45:00.002-04:00

Happy August! I know, when did that happen, right? I'm not sure. And I know, I'm supposed to have some more photos up here. But since today is officially August, I have to post about something a little different because there's only one month left.

One month left?

That's right. Next month... I turn thirty.

So I have one month left to revel in being a twenty-something, to look back on the past decade and all its awesomeness and scariness, wackiness and confusing turns, mishaps and delights. In my quest to become "very zen" I have learned to have no regrets; whatever junky stuff happened to you happened, and that's how it is, so you take it and learn from it and have an amazing tomorrow.

ANYWAYS. Very zen-ness aside. This post exists for two reasons.

Reason the first is my 30th birthday celebration of choice.

My birthday is on a Thursday this year, but if all goes according to plan I'll be taking a few days off and heading down to Orlando to spend a long weekend.

There is one part of this weekend that I'm exceptionally looking forward to!

It's magical...

But likely not the type of Orlando "magic" you're thinking of.

Oh no, this is real magic.

None of that hocus pocus, look, a quarter in your ear and the five of diamonds in your undies stuff.

Nope, it's time to get your wands, study for your OWLS, and load up at Honeydukes because, if all goes according to plan, I will be visiting...

HOGWARTS!!!!

Yes, none other than the brand spanky new Harry Potter Theme Park. Sweet maple syrupy Jesus, my tail is wagging as I write this. I've easily been a fan of this series for about 10 years now and I can't WAIT to go see all of my favorite places from the book, like Hogwarts and Hagrid's hut and all the shops like Zonko's and Honeydukes and Ollivanders, and choosing a wand and riding the dragon coasters and seeing the Hogwarts Express... AAACK!!! It's going to be AMAZING!!! I'm going to re-read all the books before I go, and maybe try to wear something Ravenclaw colored (my favorite of the houses), and of course take photos of EVERYTHING. And lord help them if they have people playing the actual Harry Potter characters walking around for photo ops, because those Weasley twins won't be getting out alive.

So yeah, really really excited!!!

I'll even try to go on the Dragon Challenge coaster (it used to be the Dueling Dragons coaster), even though sometimes they make me a little motion sick. I think my plan is to take a dramamine beforehand. You think it will work?

I will buy magnets and keychains and little doodads at the shops, and they have all of the actual candies from the books. And? AND? They have. BUTTERBEER. Be still my beating heart!

Okay, sorry! I got a little overwhelmed there.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, reason the second for this post.

There is one thing I want for my birthday. And that is ... birthday cards. Lots and lots of them! I'm turning a big number so I should have lots of birthday cards! This is where you come in.

Send me a card! Or two, or three if you really can't choose just one. Find the wackiest, goofiest, glitteriest birthday card you can find and send it to me. I want to put them all on my counter and take a mega-picture of them! There's no need to get me a gift, although if a card or two was stuffed full of gift cards to Starbucks or Ulta or Dick's Sporting Goods I would be all aflutter, but more than anything.... I want cards!!! I want the mailman to sprain his wrist trying to fit them all into my mailbox!

Email me (nikineu at gmail.com) and I'll give you my mailing address if you don't already have it. Then, get thyself to Party City and find something crazy! Oh yeah, and my birthday is September 9th. I think I forgot that little detail!

I'm excited already!

Phew. That's a lot of excitement for one post. I'm going to catch up on some blogs now, and relax... :)

Photo Meme - Part 1 of 2!

2010-07-28T13:49:00.003-04:00

I'm breaking this up into parts so I don't bombard one post with lots of images. :)

Krysten wanted to see my favorite thing about my home! This was really tough because there's so many things here I love... but I narrowed it down to two. ;)

Thing #1 is our giant garden tub. It is huge!! One of my favorite things is taking a bath in the morning when the sun is streaming through that window... so relaxing.

Thing #2 is the back porch. Weather permitting -- it's been REALLY hot this summer so I haven't been able to sit outside as much as I like. (You can totally see my butt-print in that chair, though.) I really enjoy sitting outside in the early evening with a book or magazine, it's SO quiet and relaxing here. The cats love it too, but more for the unobstructed wildlife views. ;)

Jessica was interested in our dishes! And my favorite coffee cup! And I've got both!

Our dishes are fairly simple; black. The plates have a sort of zebra design on them, and there's also a set of mugs that match but I didn't pull them out.

My favorite mug! It's huge and comes from Edmonton, Canada; Matt got it for me when he was on a meeting up there. I love bears. :)

Gnetch wanted to see what was in my fridge! Augh, this picture is SO boring, as we really only keep what we need and not a lot of extra junk!

Zzz... zzz... milk, yogurt, juice, oh, and some marinating steak on the left there.

The outside of the fridge is much more interesting!

And Jenny Matlock wanted to see my morning cup of coffee. I generally don't drink coffee in the morning because sometimes it makes me wackadoodle but when I do, I like to go with this...

It was SO hot out when I bought this iced coffee, and it took everything I had not to drink it all on the way home... willpower!!! Where I grew up there were Dunkin Donuts on every corner, so I am a huge DD fan. :) And of course, I've got some donuts in that bag... lemon filled and chocolate covered!

I've got a busy work schedule for the next two days so I may not post the other half of this until the weekend. But we'll see! Otherwise I'll be trying my best to stay inside, because the humidity here is really starting to take a toll on me... ugh. No likey!

We need rain.

2010-07-27T15:57:00.003-04:00

Seriously.

With how ragingly hot it's been, and we haven't had a good rain for a week or two... argh. It's getting a little dark and stormy outside now, so I can only hope the stormy part will give us more than a few drops.

New job is going absolutely fantastic; I love it there and everyone is super awesome and sparkles and fireworks, etc. :) I'm integrating well and really enjoying myself. I also have tomorrow off so double yay!, I will get to do some cooking tonight and relax at home (or possibly at the beach) tomorrow. Last night I was so exhausted I almost fell asleep in the bathtub, which really isn't the best idea for a snooze.

Also, since I have tomorrow off, I will be able to actually post for two consecutive days! WHOA! Tomorrow's post will contain all the photos from the meme I posted, what, two weekends ago. Yeah. Better late than never, right? ;)

There is a new frozen yogurt shop in our neighborhood that I'm fast becoming a frequent flyer of. I've always loved frozen yogurt (or 'froyo', as it's called in our generation where everything is abbreviated) but Wilmington never had a shop. But now. One is open. And it's amazing. Their daily flavors vary but they always have chocolate and vanilla, and sometimes raspberry, mango, cheesecake, strawberry, and mocha. The toppings bar is huge and heavenly and has every fresh fruit you can imagine, as well as some of the less healthy but always tasty options, such as Golden Grahams, Raisinets, marshmallows, gummi bears, cookie dough, and Froot Loops. I need to take some photos next time I go back, it's such a fun time! It's all DIY so you fill up your own cup as much as you want it, and pile on whatever fits your fancy that day.

I think my favorite flavor would have to be cheesecake. Agree/disagree? (I'm a huge fan of cheesecake ice cream too!)

First Impression = Sea Hag

2010-07-24T12:12:00.003-04:00

Here is a photo of myself and Finnegan to prove that I am still alive; I look distinctly like a manatee, but Finn looks pretty sweet!

Things have been busy; I went in for work orientation on Thursday for 3 hours, and I start on Monday! I work Monday and Tuesday from 7-2, off Wednesday, then various hours on Thursday and Friday. Once I get more integrated with my duties I'll have more steady hours, but I'm okay with starting off slowly. Especially since I'll have to get up early... REAL early. Hmm. I can't drink a lot of coffee because it has the potential to do bad juju things to my insides, so I'll have to find an alternate way to get myself awake. Cold shower maybe? UGH.

Yesterday we went to see Inception and it was a FANTASTIC amazing film that really really made me happy in a lot of ways, most notably its originality in a sea of comic book films, remakes, sequels, and vampire chutzpah. The plot was absolutely wonderful and I look forward to purchasing this on Blu-Ray when it comes out and rewatching it on our big TV.

And this morning we attacked the yard (and weeds) with vigor, Round-Up, and the mower. We chatted with our neighbors and our new neighbors that are moving in showed up also, so we met them, and it was only after I got inside that I noted my hair looked like it had been attacked like a flock of small angry birds. That were now nesting inside. Ugh.

I have to walk up and get the mail today but I'm waiting until the sun sets, because as it has been in most climates lately, it's hot as heck outside.

Luckily our AC has been unfaltering, or else I'd have to strap bags of frozen blueberries to the cats to keep them cool. .... I may do that anyways, just for fun. Heh heh. Hope you all are staying cool and out of the nuclear sun rays; it's been a HOT July everywhere!!

Will post photos this weekend! They're actually ON my laptop now so that's a big step!

Fan-freakin'-tastic.

2010-07-20T14:30:00.004-04:00

I GOT THE JOB.

Yee - to - the - FREAKIN' - HAW!!!!! So excited. SO excited. I go in for a little training on Thursday and possibly start next week. DSpsohdojfewpodl. <-- -That's how excited I am. I had to go pee in a cup today, and I was SO excited I drank a little too much water on the way and nearly tinkled all over the pee collectors waiting room.

But seriously.

Elated isn't the word.

This is the last piece of the puzzle. It's all in place now ... and for once in a long time? I have nothing to worry about. No creditors, no health scares, no legal people arriving at my door to be mean, no crazy health scares, no court dates, and no unstable employment. After a few years of hardship, everything's lined itself up perfectly.

My new motto? Never stop fighting. Because no matter how craptastic things may seem now, later? They can be amazing, if you try real hard.

I'm still working on my photo meme; I may post it later, if I can stop dancing around the kitchen like one of those fake Coke cans from the 80's that would bend from side to side when you played music near it. (Remember those? PS, my dancing is MUCH better than that.) So until then I will leave you with one more cute, adorable photo.

Hee hee...

Friday Night Blogging; The Random Thoughts Edition

2010-07-16T19:22:00.003-04:00

Guess what? TOTALLY the weekend! Heck to the yeah! What better to lead into the weekend than a bullet post of random thoughts? Come on, you know it's good stuff.

Matt is gone to a business meeting until mid next week, leaving me here to my own devices. MY OWN DEVICES. So far today that has consisted of watching a Pet Sematary marathon on AMC (so many creepy memories of watching those movies), indulging myself at a local produce stand, and cooking up a freeeeeakin' amazing dinner of teriyaki marinated beef strips and fresh corn on the cob. Om nom nom.
I'm really excited with everyone's suggestions for my big photo meme, I've started snapping a few photos already. Go check out my previous post and leave some ideas if you haven't already!
I'm usually not a fan of media critics or reviews, but my local mag printed this review of Twilight: Eclipse that just had me rolling on the floor. I think my favorite line may be, 'the heroine of the story has the charisma of a comatose librarian'. But don't take my word for it, go read it yourself!
We have a ton of little sparrows that like to hop around the backyards and peck around in the grass at this time of day, and the cats are out on the back porch with their little noses pressed to the screen. Fierce hunters.
In less than 2 months, I turn 30. Let's not talk about that right now. ... Actually I'm not as unimpressed with turning 30 anymore, it will be delightful and full of liquor and sweets and I'll be the awesomest 30 year old on the block.
I think every other car down here has one of those annoying "family" stickers on the back of it. You know, the stick figure family with the mom and dad and however many annoying little kids/pets you've got.

Like this one. I seriously hope this is satirical BTW; who names their kids Boogers and Alecheetos?? Anyway, not only are they retarded, but sticking your CHILDREN'S NAMES UNDER THE STICK FIGURES OF THEM is really not the safest idea. At all. I'm glad the creeper that pulls up behind you at the gas station while you go inside to pay and get soda will know your daughter's name is Boogers, so he can lure her out of the van by using her name and promising offers of Milk Duds and Cheetos.

Argh.

Matt and I joked that we should either do one of the following:

1. Get one adult woman sticker, three adult men stickers, with 20 small baby girl stickers. Raising that female army, or the next pop sensation. Also, that is one lucky woman. (Although maybe not after birthing all those babies.)

2. Just 25 cat stickers. That's all. Run for the hills.

That's all I've got. I'd like to have a drink, but I'm not even motivated to go to the liquor store. Someone needs to start a delivery service...!

Make me be creative! MAKE ME!

2010-07-15T18:18:00.004-04:00

This week has been bonkers crazy. Like super wacko, what the crap, bonko boinko crazy. (You know it's bad when I start making up words.) I had a surprise random working interview with the position I'd interviewed for today, which pretty much means throw on your scrubs and let's see what you can do for 2 hours. YIKES.

So I'm behind on blogging and reading blogs and playing video games and drinking my chardonnay and definitely, my photography.

My photo project has suffered (again) and luckily I'm very lenient with myself. I'm picking up the camera tomorrow to go shoot some early morning stuff, so I figured in the interest of keeping myself shooting (and occupied, as my boyfriend is going on a 5 day business trip), I'm going to do a photo meme. And YOU'RE gonna help. (Only if you want to. No pressure. Honest!)

Leave a comment and tell me a part of my life -- or a few things -- you'd like to see. My favorite pair of shoes, the end of my street, what I eat for breakfast, anything. (Also kinda keep it at least PG-13. No butts.) I'll snap a photo of it and post them all in a future weekend-ey entry.

And now I'm off to catch up on your blogs! And fear not, I'm already remedying the chardonnay sitch. Aaahhh.... :)

Sleeping brain.

2010-07-14T12:49:00.003-04:00

Today I had a second interview with that really awesome job I want. Once again I am REALLY excited but don't want to jinx myself, but am really excited.

Moving on.

I slept really well last night for once. Being unemployed leaves me less fatigued at the end of the day than regular working folk, I assume. But I like to try and keep a regular schedule by going to bed at 10:30 instead of staying up watching Diners, Drive Ins & Dives every night until 1 am. But it often takes me a while to fall asleep.

Also know that I am the queen of having an uncluttered mind; never are there excess thoughts or random blurbs of thinkings swirling around in there. If I don't need to be thinking of something, there really is nothing going on in my quiet brain. (Thank you years of meditation classes.) It seems the only time my mind is on overload jumping from thought to thought to thought is ... yep, when I can't sleep. This is how it usually goes down.

10:30 pm: Go to bed.

10:35 pm: Matt is asleep. (WTF how?)

10:36 pm: Think about the cats.

10:38 pm: Think about old job.

10:41 pm: Think about funny stories and anecdotes from old job.

10:44 pm: Think about funny stories and anecdotes from old job.

10:47 pm: Think about funny stories and anecdotes from old job.

10:49 pm: Think about the house.

10:50 pm: Think about how I want to do the guest bedroom.

10:53 pm: Think about how I want to do the guest bedroom.

10:54 pm: Think about breakfast.

10:56 pm: Think about the beach.

10:58 pm: Think about the scariest parts of scary horror movies. (Why do I do this at night? To freak myself out? Am I the only one? Argh.)

11:00 pm: Think about nature.

11:02 pm: Think about soccer.

11:05 pm: Think about soccer.

11:07 pm: Think about baseball.

11:08 pm: Think about ordering gourmet brownies off the internet.

11:10 pm: Think about brownies.

11:13 pm: Think about brownies.

11:14 pm: Think about a book I am reading.

11:17 pm: Think about going hiking.

11:19 pm: Think about going kayaking.

11:20: Think about kayaking.

11:23: Think about buying a kayak.

11:25: Think about buying a small boat.

11:27: Think about the dishes in the sink.

11:29: Randomly fall asleep.

Recently, somewhere near the end of that, I remember thinking to myself that this would make a good blog post. So you can insert that in at your leisure.

Today it is VERY humid and Finnegan is really adamant that I let him on the back porch, but I'm worried he will poof up like a cotton ball. Bad fur day! Bahaha!

But will they have vuvuzelas?

2010-07-12T11:29:00.002-04:00

Spain won the World Cup.

I'm no longer allowed to watch serious end-game matches in which I have an invested interest in one of the teams playing, because my nerves pretty much turn into a bundle of rubber bands and I have to go outside after an hour for some 'nature time'. Which translates to doing a few upward dogs on the back deck.

Spain deserved it though; they really played with that 'Spain finesse' I'd been waiting to see the whole tournament, and you just couldn't help but cheer when they got their goal and Iker (their goalkeeper) sobbed for like 5 minutes into his big Stay-puf marshmallow-like keeper gloves. It was awesome.

And my team was #2 out of 32 teams, which is nothing to boohoo about! I had a great time watching everyone play.

We've decided our next long-term goal is to go to Brazil with some friends for the 2014 World Cup and watch a few games in Sao Paulo. Luckily we have 4 years to save money, book hotels, and learn Portugese; this morning I learned how to ask where the bathroom was, but I've already forgotten, so this may take more blood sweat and tears than originally expected. (And flash cards.)

I took 4 years of Spanish in highschool, so seeing 'gato' for cat and not 'puhkalebra' (made up not real Portugese word) or something made me feel a little better. I'll be able to participate in all conversations concerning cat and cow welfare, as well as eventually find the bathroom, and order french fries at any fine restaurant. I'm good to go!

Saturday Centus Shake Up!...

2010-07-10T11:14:00.003-04:00

I don't know if you knew this...

But Jenny Matlock is evil. Don't let her sway you with her nice ways and amazing garden that I am highly jealous of! Oh no, it's all a sham. We won't even get into the chicken incident!

Because for this weeks Saturday Centus? ... The rule is, while we get 200 words this time, it has to be written in the style of a Harlequin Romance novel.

(PS, Mister Scoundrel and Miss Captive, you should likely not 'do it' in a bed of poppies. I don't want to think of the allergies or rash that could come from that.)

So yes, much like Scoundrel's Captive, we are captive to these evil, sinister, dastardly rules! So I sat down this morning with a big ol' mug of water and wrote a tale of epic, undying love, affection, and giant hooters. The prompt is in blue, and the rest, is history...

* * * *

The setting sun cast an amber glow over the crowded McDonalds. I filled my drink cup full of sweet, quenching Mr. Pibb as I adjusted my perfect blonde bouffant, waiting for my meal.

When I turned around I was startled to meet a green eyed gaze...

I gasped - my entire body tingled, as if I had been stung by a giant wasp. There he was, the wallet chain dangling from his pillow-like waist winking at me in the sunlight. The arrow on his "I'm With Stupid" t-shirt pointed up to a face chiseled of the finest Laffy Taffy; lips like elementary school erasers formed a perfect, heart-stopping smile.

I couldn't hold myself back any longer! I leapt across the room with the grace of a walrus at the ballet, my stretch pants straining against the two chili dogs and milkshake I'd consumed hours earlier.

I fell into his ham hock arms, the girth of his manly chest crushing my flimsy dollar store brassiere, along with its oversized contents. That moment was ours, and when the cashier called out ... Cheeseburger Happy Meal... I knew he was the one! And after dinner the back of his Chevy 4x4 was our destination, and it would be hotter than fry grease.

* * * *

That, my friends, is what redneck dreams are made of! ;)

A little too late.

2010-07-09T12:55:00.004-04:00

I got a call from my library this morning letting me know that I book I had been in queue for had arrived! Hoorah! (I love my library.) I thought to myself -- I bet I could maybe go get that book and head to the beach for a nice read.

HAH.

At 10 am on a Friday?

Hah.

I got my things together and headed out to the library, checking out my book and taking some time to chat with our library duck, George.

(Yes, we have a library duck, he likes to hang out outside! His name is George and he is a Muscovy duck; this isn't him but he looks a lot like this. The first time I saw him he was sleeping and I thought he was a big Hefty bag someone had left behind. Sorry George!)

I got to the beach around 10:30... do you think I'd find a spot? Haaaaaaayyyyylll naw! (That's how we say it in the South.) All of my favorite lots, filled.

With TOURISTS.

You may or may not know my stance on tourists. It usually involves the middle finger and a lot of honking. While I love that tourists flock here and spend their hard-earned money in our shops, restaurants, and other fine establishments so we can tough it out through the winter economy, I would really like to ... oh, I don't know ... see them less. Lately it seems like an even mix between families with anywhere between 4 and 56 children, and Jersey Shore wannabes. Thank you, Jersey Shore, for showing beachgoers they can wear whatever the heck they want and look awful and feel no shame about it. Eek!

At any rate, the moral of the story is, go early or go home. So I went home.

...

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

I realized today that I have 99 followers. 99! That's a good amount for someone who does very little blog promotion and has serious SITS A.D.D. I'm not really big on promoting though. If you find me and like me, cool! But I'm not going to advertise every freakin' place with giveaways just so people show up over here and don't give a care about my wittiness when the giveaways end.

But maybe I will do a giveaway if/when I reach 100 followers. I don't know what I'd give away, though. I'm horrible at that. I rarely enter them because I'm a minimalist at heart and don't like a lot of stuff/clutter that I don't need.

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely weather, traffic-free, all the parking you want weekend!! :) I'm going to a new organic produce stand so I'm HELLA excited (who says hella anymore?)... yeah, it doesn't take much to thrill me anymore!

I'm bringing you a gay bar!

2010-07-07T12:16:00.003-04:00

The title has nothing to do with the blog contents.

I had to put it there because mere seconds ago, my boyfriend, who is going to a meeting in Portland Oregon in a few weeks, clapped his hands, pointed at me, and said ...

"I'm bringing you a gay bar!"

There is this supposed amazing donut shop in Portland called Voodoo Doughnut (It's been on the Food Network before) that he's going to check out. Their menu sports a bunch of freaky and fantastic doughnuts, one of them being the gay bar. I was supposed to tag along to Portland but then I lost my job and most of my cash so it's sorta a no-go and it's a little bummy. But apparently a gay bar is going to make the cross-continental trip for me! Woohoo! Awesome.

Anyway. Some GOOD THINGS!

I had a fantastic job interview today that I have all the experience in the world for. I'm really excited because it's pretty much the job I had in Maryland, only in North Carolina. Not to put all my unhatched chickens in the same basket, but I have a very good feeling about this.

Please do a voodoo dance for me, or some type of lucky incense waving ohm-chanting ceremony. Look, I'll start; Ooooohhhhmmm... I'm waving my arms in an S-formation... doing the cha-cha...

:) :) :)

My Dutch made it to the World Cup finals!! I am beside myself with delight and excitement. We will either face Spain or Germany; Germany is just frightening as a team this year, and I'll be surprised if Spain beats them today. We'll see...

My pulled pork turned out FABULOUSO. Here is my simple and extremely foolproof recipe:

You need the following.

- ONE PORK BUTT. 2 pounds should do but the smallest we could find was 5 pounds, so we hack-n-slashed it apart into two equal, smaller pork pieces. I have a small crockpot -- actually two small crockpots, long story, thanks mom! -- so I used them both.
- 12oz of root beer per crockpot; or enough to cover your pork.
- Your BBQ sauce of choice. Can't go wrong with Sweet Baby Rays IMO.
- Toasted burger buns, if you so desire.

Place your butt (heh heh) in the crock pot and pour the root beer over it. Cook for 7 hours until you can pull the pork apart with forks easily. Drain old porky butt root beer from the crock pot, replace freshly pulled pork and mix with BBQ sauce. Let sit in crock pot for another hour or two to absorb flavor. Toast your butt buns and VOILA, amazing taste sensation.

Seriously amazing and easy. I'm looking forward to trying this with all sorts of BBQ sauces! And the leftovers the next day? Best thing ever.

That's all I've got. There are lots of good things happening over here, and I'm hoping my gay bar makes it here in one piece. What doughnut would you want to try from Voodoo? There's a link up there somewhere... diabetic coma heaven!

The fifth!.... of July.

2010-07-05T11:42:00.003-04:00

Happy Monday to all! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend and still has all their limbs attached. I was surprisingly busy and didn't have time for much -- I even was chosen as the lucky gal to write this past weekend's prompt for Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus, but I didn't have time to write my own story! Sheesh. Some bum I am, huh? (Tuesday or Wednesday Centus this week, maybe... hee hee.)

The weather was fantastic this weekend; the blazing heat took a brief exit and it was sunny with a light cool breeze and just wonderful. Yesterday morning we did some much needed yardwork before going to the grocery store with the rest of the nuts who hadn't gone the previous days. WOW. I don't think I'd ever seen it more crowded there. And some people are just R U D E with a capital bolded Twilight-inspired sparkly R. Yes, I'm talking about you, rude uppity woman who hasn't an ounce of patience, and tried to plow through everyone's carts in the aisles, shoving them into people. Please, thank you, and excuse me should all be words in your vocabulary!

(Not the actual woman. But this is what I got when I searched for 'skanky grocery store woman' in Google images! You go, Pam Anderson!)

We came home and relaxed and had steaks and home made french fries (courtesy of moi - have I shared that recipe yet? Can't remember.) and then headed down the the beach in the early evening for frozen custard! They were going to shoot off fireworks around 9 but it was 7:30 by the time we were done, and we didn't really want to hang around. The police were in full force and giving exuberant beach house partiers the smack down in a BIG way. On our way to the custard shop, we passed a beach house with maybe 25 people crammed on the balcony, all between the ages of 22 and 40, shrieking, yelling, hooting, and being generally drunkenly loud. I like to be excited, but these people were EXCIIIIIITED. Like, I just won the lottery of a jillion dollars and I'm going to the moon and I found out that [insert favorite actor here] wants to marry me excited.

One woman was so excited she was wearing a tall cone-shaped princess/fairy hat with shiny gauze spitting out of the top. It looked like a dunce hat for Tinkerbell.

On our way back, two police cars were in front of the house, and the clearly smashed 40 year old woman with the 'special hat' was getting a very stern talking to on the lawn, while the rest of the drunkies shuffled around upstairs like lost cattle.

Hmmmmmmmm.

I did discover one thing, though. The south? Likes their explosives. Around 9pm here at the house our neighborhood lit up with fireworks from every angle! We stood out in our driveway with our drinks and watched our own personal fireworks show. Then about 15 minutes was spent running from the front of the house ... to the back ... to the front ... to the back ... to see them all. (Well that was mostly me, squealing like a five year old the entire way.) I really think I saw more fireworks last night than I'd ever seen. And they were BIG ones too, like you'd see at city fireworks shows. Serious business. Awesome business.

I was so happy to get to see so many fireworks; our town has a few shows, but it's one of -the- busiest holidays here that getting anywhere close would require you to be there around 4 or 5 pm, and I'm just not into that. Next year we are buying our OWN fireworks to join in the fun!!!... Heh heh heh.

And today? I'm trying my hand at a tried and true southern delicacy.

Pulled pork. I LOVE pulled pork. We've got some in the crockpots now simmering in some root beer, and I'm keeping all my fingers crossed it turns out delicious. As a now-southerner, I have to perfect a few 'down-home' recipes. I'll let you know how it turns out...

Is there one recipe you make that is just your 'signature' dish?

Happy Friday! Many photo memes are here!

2010-07-02T16:10:00.002-04:00

Before I get to my photo memes, I have to let you know something amazing.

Last soccer-related babble for a while, honest.

Today? The Netherlands beat Brazil. BRAZIL. Yeah, only the South American soccer kingpin. It was such an amazing game to watch! Brazil got a goal early on and my hopes were crushed -- as they sort of had been when I learned we would face Brazil -- but as the game went on we managed to get two goals and finish them 2-1.

I was shrieking, jumping, hiding behind my hands, running around behind the couch in small circles, and flailing a lot! My throat was sore and I was so amazed and overjoyed that my team came through. We went out to lunch and I wore my Holland jersey and people kept asking us about the Netherlands game and it was fantastic that Americans are really noticing soccer. Okay I'm done with that now, really. :)

Time for photo memes! I have two today. The first one is Tazim's brand new project...

This week's theme due to the impending holidays, is "Iconic Things About Your City/Country". I was going to post some more Wilmington city photos but then remembered I had one better...

It's the Capitol building!

I got the chance to hang out in Washington DC this February while Matt attended a conference; it was snowy and ginormously cold but I managed to go to the Botanical Gardens, and when I realized how close I was to the Capitol, I had to get my nearly frostbitten bum over there for a photo. It really is HUGE close up, and there were all kinds of tours there and kids sledding on the lawn.

At first I was REAL excited, because I thought, hey, maybe Mister Obama's in there! No Sami, that's the White House. .... Oh. This is just where the government meets and stuff? ... Hmm. Still cool, though!

And looking at this photo makes me chilly.

Okay. I'm going to give you a little warning. This week's photo? ... Kinda creepy.

Well, I don't think it's creepy. Some people might, though.

While I was editing it, I had to ask Matt for a bit of Photoshop assistance.

(It's been a while since design school.)

And when he saw it, he said.

"... Whoa. That's kinda freaky."

See what I'm doing here?

Giving you space.

So all of the sudden, on your Google Reader, you don't suddenly come upon ...

... A creepy photo.

I had a lot of fun with this.

And I promise I'll stop taking creepy photos. For a while.

Yay! See? Not so creepy. And also, this is not a tribute to Twilight. Bad werewolf-thing.

Am I a zombie? Have I been chewing on my fingers all morning due to the match, causing mass destruction? Have I run headfirst into a brick wall? Have I had an unfortunate Spaghetti-O mishap??

This was taken in my bathtub because I really wanted the tile as my backdrop. I like the 'clean' feeling it gives the photo, almost like a crazy house. And I also learned something about ketchup that no one else would know, because no one else is wackadoodle enough to leave ketchup on their lips for minutes at a time. It burns. After I washed my face off, my lips tingled for about half an hour. I realized tomatoes were acidic after I worried my lips would fall off for the sake of art, and all turned out well.

I also realized I like ketchup much more as a condiment and less as a main meal. It's very thick and overpowering on its own, and I didn't much care for it smeared everywhere. Yuck. Blargh. Egh.

All right, before I go I have two more photos to show you. They are much friendlier! Remember all those flower seeds I planted a month or two ago?

I have flowers!! My cosmos are in full bloom and I have about 10-12 yellow and orange flowers right now, with more buds on the way. The marigolds are just doing something bizarre and keep growing in snake-like waves, but they are leafy and green and pretty nonetheless. I'm delighted that flowers I planted actually turned into well, you know, flowers.

And this last one is a stuffed sheep that Matt bought me a few weekends ago. He is amazing and flat and soft and yes I'm almost 30 and still love stuffed animals. ;) Have a good Friday night y'all!!

I wonder...

2010-07-02T09:15:00.002-04:00

I come to you all this morning with a serious question!

Do you eat fast food??

I'm serious! Inquiring minds want to know. By fast food I mean the usuals; Burger King, McDonalds, Hardees, Wendys, Taco Bell, Bojangles, anything that has a window to pick up your edibles.

We had Chik-Fil-A breakfast this morning because chicken minis are out of this world. But other than that I can't remember the last time we ate fast food. Once in a rare while we'll have a McDonalds or Wendys craving but I can count those instances on one hand. It just doesn't seem appetizing to me.

What about you?

I'll make a more lengthy post later, filled with photos I'm sure. :)

We didn't start the fire. .... Honest! And some pet fire safety for good measure.

2010-07-01T11:30:00.003-04:00

Last night, as I was cooking dinner, the smoke alarm went off.

Wait, no. Smoke alarms. See that bolded S? ALARMS.

We are in a brand spanky new house (or heezy, as I have been enjoying to say lately) that has brand spanky new smoke alarms in every room. Now, it's mortifying enough to be cooking dinner and set off the smoke alarm. My mom has a magnet -- Dinner's ready when the smoke alarm goes off! Yeah. It's not the height of culinary fashion. It only happens when I'm grilling porkchops on the Griddler and I don't know why. They come out fine and tasty and juicy, and not charred lumps of sadness like you'd imagine when the smoke alarm goes off.

Uhm, alarms.

All of a sudden, all at once. BWEET BWEET BWEET BWEET. My smoke alarms, let me tell you about them -- three of them are in one section of the house and are about 10 feet apart from each other. 3 smoke alarms. Within a 10 foot radius. Also, there is one in the living room situated about 15 feet up on the ceiling, and one in our bedroom ceiling.

5 smoke alarms in a 1215 square foot house. Three within 10 feet of each other.

Can you guess where the cats were when they all went off at once like some unearthly howl of Beelzebub?

I'd had this happen before so I was more annoyed than anything when the BWEET BWEET BWEET started resonating in my ears. LOUDLY. Piercing like a hot iron poker. And then all of the following things happened in this order, in quick succession:

1. The cats flipped a wig. Our floors are wood so it went something like this.... "skrtch skrht ckshgt..SKRTSKRTSKRRTKSKRT ... FWUMP... SKRKEKTSKRKTSKR" those are cat claws (and the eventual cat falling over on its side from too much speed and no traction) desperately trying to get some traction to evade the hellhounds that were descending upon them from the smoke alarm gods.

2. Matt yelling FINN FINN FINN over and over again because Finn is scared of his own shadow, so surely his little brain was thinking this was the unholy end of days, and he couldn't get under the bed fast enough with his big bottom and bumblefoot. And he fell over about 4 times on the way because wood floors are cruel on manic catfeet.

3. In my rush to get the porkchops off the damn grill -- which I was thoroughly berating now -- THIS @#&^%&*# GRIDDLER I'M NEVER USING THIS #(&$( FOR $&#(%& PORKCHOPS AGAIN YOU #&(^*# PIECE OF %*#) %*)#*^ -- I dropped a porkchop. On my clean wood floors. And porkchop juice went everywhere. And it started again. %*&%)#*$!! (Matt later told me that as he ran by the kitchen to get to one of our many smoke alarms, he saw me standing there, staring angrily at the porkchop on the floor, with a fork in my hand. And at the time it wasn't funny, but it is now!)

4. Matt down the hall, yelling THE PUSH TO HUSH BUTTON ISN'T WORKING, WHAT DO I DO WHEN THE PUSH TO HUSH BUTTON DOESN'T WORK. Huh? I had no clue what a push to hush button was.. oh... that button on the smoke alarm that you can push to make it shut the #$^^$# up when it's going off. The buttons I can't reach because I'm a midget!

5. Me standing on the bed, waving many towels at the smoke alarm on our ceiling as it screeched cruelly in my face, prompting another round of despicable badwords and a hatred that built in my chest for these evil devices. I can see why so many people take the batteries out of these horrid things. Seriously. If the one down the hall in the guest room went off, we would wake up. If the one over our bed went off in the middle of the night, we'd likely be prompted into seizures and perish in the flames anyway.

Later on, after I had cleaned my floor-chop mess and we were sullenly eating (okay that was just me), we got on the topic of cats in a house fire. If they were under the bed in a fire, how would we get them out safely?

Duh, I said, you'd grab them and throw them in a pillowcase and tie the end off and put them on the lawn.

That earned me a long ".........." and a Look.

But it's true!

I used to work in an upscale veterinary clinic for many years, and we would often have safety training and fire drills. And I never forgot my first fire drill where, in the event of a fire, we were responsible for the following (sorry another list):

1. Grabbing pillowcases from the cabinet.
2. Putting angry, cranky, sick, medicated (and likely frightened of the smoke alarm hellhounds at this point) cats and small dogs that probably want to eat our face off or at least poop in our shoes IN said pillowcases.
3. Secure pillowcases and run outside with as many as your arms could hold, full of angry frothing howling animals, and put them in your car for safety.

UH?? I could see it now; my car windows fogged up with about 10 black pillowcases with little felt flames on them rolling around in the backseat, fighting like a bad Looney Tunes clip. I was skeptical. But it was the noble thing to do. Luckily we never had a fire.

And we didn't have one last night, either.

Wordless Wednesday - Don't Step on the Third Rail.

2010-06-30T13:01:00.004-04:00

I'm not ashamed to admit that I may or may not have had too much to drink last night. Now I have that feeling, you know, the one that feels like a bunch of heavy soggy lukewarm bandages are wrapped tightly around your head. That one. Blaaaaargh.

So I'm leaving you with a photo for Wordless Wednesday while I try and go get acclimated to my brain again.

Not the best photo ever, and would likely benefit from some editing, but it's somewhat old... Most underground DC Metro stops look like this one! I was at the Smithsonian stop, waiting for my train.

My lucky day! I'd like to thank the Academy...

2010-06-29T14:07:00.003-04:00

I won me some awards! Two on the same day, nonetheless!!

Lady Hill has awarded me the Versatile Blogger award! I'm delighted and all a-flutter. Thank you to the most awesome zombie-hunting Lady around!! :) For this award I have to list 10 things about myself, and then pass the award on to 15 bloggers. (I may just do 3, because that's how I roll.)

Giving this one to the following lovely ladies:

Gnetch @ Thank Goodness for the Good Ones
Shelly Ann @ Painting The Memories
Tazim @ Being Tazim

My second award...

From JessRaquel comes the Sugar Doll award! Another fantastic lady that deserves a big THANK YOU, because she is just that awesome. :) This award also has you list 10 things about yourself, and pass it on to 10 (Three? Heh heh.) bloggers.

And this one's gonna go to ...

Krysten @ After I Do
Lindsay @ PancakesNPajamas
Becky @ So Very Blessed...

So, here are my ten things:

1. My very first crush was on Richard Dean Anderson, aka MacGuyver. I was five. Augh. Mullet.
2. I would *much* rather spend a quiet evening in watching movies and having drinks than going out to a bar/club and staying up late. Yep. Getting old!
3. Scrabble is my favorite board game ever!!
4. One of my big pet peeves is impatient people that stand right-behind-you in a checkout line at a store. That's not making you go any faster, dingbat!
5. I dislike Lady Gaga. Her songs are somewhat catchy but she's trying way too hard as a 'person' to be a unique snowflake.
6. My bed is my no-worry zone. Regardless of whatever's been worrying me during the day or stressing me out, I leave it at the door and relax in my safe-haven bed. :)
7. I haven't been to the dentist in a year and a half. Ack!! I know. Not only am I a dentophobe, but I'm also unemployed.
8. There is a stuffed walrus on our refrigerator.
9. I own the SeaQuest season 1 boxset. Yeah, I know ... awesome!!
10. I love being outside during thunderstorms. They are amazing!

Phew. Totally done with babbling about myself! It always takes me for-ev-er to think up those little random factoids. ;)

A morning beach event, complete with alien crabs and Jesus.

2010-06-28T14:29:00.007-04:00

First off I want to thank everyone that commented on my last Saturday Centus post - I wasn't going to reply to every comment, but any type of criticism is more than welcome and I really enjoy writing! Honestly I really prefer writing darker, more eerie/supernatural stuff and I used to write a lot back in the day so mostly it just comes naturally. It almost makes me want to write a short story but then I'd have to have a solid plot and not just 100 words. ;)

At any rate, moving on...

I was going to do a vlog today! But this morning was my beloved Netherlands facing Slovakia, so I had to cheer my Oranje boys on. (We won! Quarterfinals baby!~) After that and lunch I sat down with my new book, fully intending to read one or two chapters, but I got *so* wrapped up in it that I accidentally read four or five before I realized that the afternoon was upon us. We had The Bug Man coming today to do his bi-yearly spraying (Something this ex-Northerner has never had to deal with.) and I highly doubt he'd want to see me wailing on the vuvuzela.

So there went that idea.

And then I was going to write a post about the US Men's National Team losing to Ghana and how awesome we did. But I KNOW it would just turn into a post about me being absolutely googoo over Landon Donovan ( Hummana, hummana, hummana (those hummanas are picture links btw) - most people are so not into the fivehead he's got going on but may I just say, meeeeeow! btw email me bb. ♡ ) so I erred on the side of caution there.

So I decided to write about our Sunday morning excursion.

If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don't -- why not? ;) you may have seen me post this pic early Sunday morning. Matt and I got up at 6:30 to get our junk together and head out for ... get ready for this awesomeness ... breakfast on the beach. We stopped at a local deli on the way and got the most amazing bagels ever, got to our little parking area at 7 am, and trundled out onto the empty beach to set up our chairs, eat our bagels, and enjoy the sunrise over the water. AAH! Freakin' amazing. This is fast becoming a Sunday morning ritual. I fed that nosy seagull up there a few pieces of my bagels while the waves crashed.

We stayed for two hours, and I discovered two amazing things on this trip.

1. CRABS. I don't know much about them, and I'd never seen a live one until this day. Sitting around in our chairs, for some reason I looked behind us... and saw a crab as long as my hand pop out of the sand. EEHHH?! Eyes wide, I couldn't take my eyes off it as it scurried around, hiding in the little sand gullies (from roving seagulls I imagine) before scuttling around some more. And then... I saw another... and another... at one point, at least 8 crabs behind us, scuttling and hiding, bobbing and weaving.

It was almost like being in a crab-related horror movie ... one girl's trip to the beach at sunrise ends fatefully ... she didn't know about the sand crabs ... waiting just beneath the surface to pop out in hordes, scuttling, clacking, pinching!.... THE CRABS, coming summer 2010. (Starring me and Landon. Wait, I, uhh.... ahem.)

I came home and learned that they were ghost crabs from this Wikipedia article. I always wondered why I would find fist-sized holes in the sand sometimes, going down at a 45 degree angle. Answer? Space alien crabs.

2. Apparently one of the churches on the beach holds a Sunday morning sermon at 8 am. Where? About 50 feet behind our chairs. Complete with a speaker system, acoustic guitaring, and about 40 church-goers with beach chairs dressed in their Sunday finest. We got to listen to the dulcet sounds of Amazing Grace while the entire congregation watched my wide load lumbering around in the sea like Jonah's beached whale. I think next time, we'll park one public access down the way...

Can't wait for next Sunday morning! But now, I'm going to write fan mail to a certain midfielder...

Saturday Centus #5

2010-06-26T11:54:00.002-04:00

I'm doing Jenny's awesome Saturday Centus again! Yippee!! Briefly, she supplies a writing prompt, to which you have 100 words to weave your story with. Awesome fun. Here is my submission for this week, with the supplied prompt in blue...

* * * * *

Uncomfortable and in a hurry, I jostled through the others as I made way for the door, hearing more murmured concern.

"Did you notice Elizabeth in class this morning and how forlorn she seemed?" Perhaps I will write her a comforting note, I thought.

Likely that wouldn't help. I'd seen her glassy gaze, empty expression, half-parted lips in an eternal sigh. I'd seen the barely there matching bruises.

I knew.

In the night the swamp air was steamy, and clung to my clammy skin. I followed the wrought iron fence through the gardens to the cobblestone street, breathing heavily; nervous? I knew I wasn't alone.

I felt those predatory, unliving eyes on my back as I hurried home.

* * * * * *

Long before Tru Twilight was even a thought, there were vampire novels - Anne Rice was my absolute favorite author while I was in high school; her vampire chronicles engaged me in a way no other books ever had. And now I want to re-read them. :)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend; mine will be filled with edge of your seat soccer games, a beach morning tomorrow, and lots of tasty food. Enjoy y'all!!

Shiny, shiny pictures!

2010-06-25T06:00:00.004-04:00

Yup, it's back. I'm back in the saddle again. (Not unlike that awful screechy Aerosmith song.) After a two week absence I'm ready to go, and I'm beyond thrilled with my results for this week.

Oh, if you haven't the foggiest what I'm babbling about, a trip here may make things a bit easier on the ol' brain.

Anyways, I'd had a pretty solid idea in my head for photo three for quite some time ... you see, there's this soccer thing going on ... what, you didn't know? Well I'll be! But there is a soccer thing going on. It's pretty big time. And I wanted to base my photo around that.

I'm rooting for a place called the Netherlands. Where's that? Uhh... you know, Holland. Huh? You know, up above Germany? Amsterdam? Ahh, now you know, that city. Holland. But that's not why I'm rooting for them, they have some superb players on their national team and... blah blah you really don't care about that part, huh...

Less talky, more Oranje!

I really really really enjoy this photo more than words can tell. (You know you want to see it bigger, don't you? I think you do. As always, BTW, you can click the photo to go to its Flickr page, read more comments by me, and comment on it there if you have a Flickr.) This actually wasn't what I had in mind at all for my finished product, and I took it more as a 'goof off' photo than anything serious at all. But when I uploaded them I saw this one and was like .... yeaaaah... that's totally the one.

I learned a lot about photo editing with this one; I did most of it myself with the exception of one Photoshop action, and I'm extremely pleased with the end result. I kind of look like I may eat your face off but I won't, promise.

... Oh! I'm wearing my Netherlands orange kit jersey! KNVB stands for ... *deep breath* ... Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond, which if not in Dutch would mean the Netherlands Royal Football Club, or something of that ilk. The lion that's sticking his tongue out and not smoking a corncob pipe is their mascot. Holland is obv Netherlands. I'm wearing eyeblacks of the Dutch flag; they feel a lot like those Biore pore strips. And the soccer ball I have is a miniature replica of the Jabulani, which is the ball the World Cup uses in all of their matches.

I'm sure that's more than you wanted to know about the Dutch national team. But hey, trivia...

My hair also had a metric crapton of product in it to get the pigtails right because the heat index here is still hanging around the 500's, which generally means the frizz of doom. Now my hair is crunchy, but it was all for the greater good!

Also, did you know I have a real live orange vuvuzela? That didn't make it into this photo? But may make an appearance in my vlog next week that I've decided to do? Did I just spoil my surprise??... :)

And one outtake from this week also:

I learned a lot about skin editing here. A -lot-. I also learned that my camera is not kind and picks up every pore, freckle, and bit of sunburn I've got. (I also learned a lot about cloning out all the stray eyebrows I had, because yeah, the camera saw those too. Eek.) I even left a few freckles so I wouldn't look like a department store mannequin! Huzzah!

I also want to say that my awesome and super-creative blogfriend Tazim is starting a new photo meme as well...

I am unreasonably excited about this because I love things, and if you love things and taking photos of them I really encourage you to join because it will be full of love and things and amazing happiness! Okay, the end. But really, I am looking forward to this project a lot. :)

Happy weekend y'all! Stay cool and out of the way of the Dutch, because we're going all. The. Way!

My movie experience.

2010-06-24T11:08:00.003-04:00

Happy Thursday! I awoke this morning to not one, but two moving trucks bumbling up and down our cul-de-sac. It's totally moving in day, and two of our new neighbors are making it so. The construction is mostly done around us, and I do want to tell you allll about our new (and not so new) neighbors around us, but I think I need to watch them discreetly out of my picture window first to get a better feel of them.

Today, I'm going to talk about the movies. Matt and I rarely go to the movies because right now it's about as expensive as going on a mini shopping spree (okay, maybe at Old Navy or TJ Maxx, but you get the drift), and then you have the other movie-goers that don't seem to mind spending 10 bones on a non-matinee ticket to be a dink during the show.

ANYWAYS, the USA had an amazing soccer win yesterday, so we decided to get a little dinner and go see this:

Knight and Day opened yesterday, and the commercials totally drew us in. Cameron Diaz can do no wrong and is absolutely adorable, and while Tom Cruise may be nuttier than a sack of cashews, he's still a phenomenal actor and yes, I will always find him seriously attractive. It's an action/comedy movie and was a LOT of fun.

What wasn't so fun was the trio of lobotomy patients that sat two seats to my left. Okay, maybe that was too harsh. Trio of forest dwellers raised by local buzzards. ... Okay, anyway. Seemed like a dad and his two teenage children. One of them (the younger boy) escaped my during-the-film stinkeye. The other two, however...

The girl sitting two seats to my left was likely no older than 18 and needed the jaws of life to disconnect herself from her cell phone. To her favor it was on silence, but there was a 45 minute span in which she received (and sent) text messages every two minutes. How do I know this? Because her phone lit up EVERY. TWO. MINUTES. As soon as it had shut off and I became engrossed in the movie again, I would see it light up like a lighthouse in a storm out of the corner of my eye, and here we go again.

If you can't stop texting Johnny Sexyface or Sally EveryGossip for two hours to enjoy an overpriced yet worthwhile film, then God help you. And hopefully he will, when I launch myself across the rows of seats to beat you repeatedly over the head with your phone so it will never, ever light up again.

The second offender was the father figure. Who found it necessary to have his car keys in his hand during the second half of the movie for some reason. And to jingle them softly at random intervals throughout the movie. Just soft enough to annoy the frak out of me. WHY do you have your keys in your hand during a movie? Are you trying to call Ol' Fido over? Are you planning a quick escape out the emergency exit?? No. NO. You do not do that. It's okay if you have a latent twitch for whatever reason, but do not hold noisy things in the movie theater. It will make people like me launch across the seats and ... yeah, you get it.

But honestly, compared to some movie experiences with bratty teenagers and kids under the age of double digits who don't seem to know how to keep their mouths closed for over 5 minutes at a time, it really wasn't that bad. We have more movie outings planned for this summer (because uhm, hello, Inception looks AMAZING!) so we can only hope that we're seated with other folks who are respectful enough to want to enjoy the movie.

That's all for today; back to watching my neighbors try to shove a sofa into their house through the garage door in heat indexed 105 degree heat. It's been a hot one all week here, y'all. My plans for relaxing and wandering through our botanical gardens to photograph trees and flowers and the butterfly house have been dashed this week, but you know? There's always soccer.

I have a lot of ideas.

2010-06-23T11:04:00.001-04:00

Lately my brain has been bursting with ideas. THINGS! Things to do that sound exciting! But really? Are they really exciting?

I want to do a vlog for Monday Mingle. I have a love/hate relationship with vlogs because while once in a while they are cool, all the time I start to wonder whether I'm reading a blog or watching TV. No wait, I'm not, the World Cup is on that TV. (More on that later.) Should I do a vlog?? I have the capability, I think. But they're so weird. I'm torn, truly.

I want to redo my blog design. ON MY OWN. This may be the nuttiest thing in the world. I know diddly crap about CSS, but I know enough about blog design and basic HTML that I will likely be able to muddle myself through. I used to make awesome websites back in the day, and I'll be darned if I'm about to shell out 30 buckeroos for something I can gnaw on myself and eventually (possibly) do the right way. My own design is starting to overstay its welcome; those tiles are reminding me more and more of a chlorine city swimming pool eeeeevery day.

I want to go to a Buddhist retreat because I'm reading a book about one right now, and it sounds the bomb! But the closest one to this non-Buddhist beach town is about 8 hours away in the mountains, and it is a largely silent retreat. No talky. No makey friendy. No cellphoney also. Also expensivey. I think the no talky part is a great idea; just leave me be to my whirling dervish of non-thought and let me mosey through the gardens ....................................

Okay, non-thought over.

The World Cup is on RIGHT NOW and it's USA v. Algeria. For you non footie folk I'll just say the US -has- to win this game to advance further, and they've been presented with quite a number of opportunities to make a goal, but failed each time.

Matt is HEAVILY invested into this game. This situation can end in one of two ways.

1. Win

The skies erupt with sunshine and candy falls to the Earth! Giant macaroni and cheese platters for lunch, new wardrobes and shopping trips for everyone, and a basket of corgi puppies *somehow* finds its way to my doorstep, because the planets align and All Is Good.

2. Lose

The End. The ocean rises and consumes our house (and car for good measure). The cats contract Continuous Meowing Disease and never shut up, blowing out our eardrums. All we have to eat for the rest of our lives are those horrid Uncrustables, drinking Bud Light out of the miserable Vortex bottle; always enough beer to taste crappy, but NEVER enough to get you drunk, in this sad Sisyphean life.

Seriously, folks, it's life or death over here. And it is VERY tense. If I raise the white flag please send Pop Tarts or small cans of fruit to keep me going.

A new week!

2010-06-22T11:12:00.003-04:00

I'm back! Aah. :) I had a nice little blog-cation. You may or may not have noticed (bahaha), but I tend to get burnt out on projects and things really, really easily. I have great ideas that make me excited and pumped up, and I'll dive into them headfirst and 110%, and then, two weeks later...

.... Booooring! Next!

Yep, I have hobby ADD. I'll admit it. And while it's not that strong with blogging, I still feel I need to take hiatuses (hiatii?) more often than most of you power-bloggers. I just get bored and feel like I have nothing new to contribute and I get twitchy and stuff. TWITCH! Need... space... ahem. Okay!

Anyways, we had a fantastic long weekend with our friends and family coming over to watch lots and lots of World Cup! It went from Wednesday to Sunday, and most times we had seven people here watching continuous soccer, and I'll admit by Saturday I got a little World Cupped out. I escaped to the library -- aaahhhhh -- and hung out there for a bit, perusing some books and reveling and the sound of silence and not-vuvuzelas (I won't hate, I have a vuvuzela app for my iTouch, and Matt's parents had an ACTUAL VUVUZELA sent to us and it is amazing) and not having to listen to the following exclamations from at least three people every time someone got close to a goal -

"ooh... OOH... EEEEE... AAGGHHH.... WHY DID YOU DO THAT.... AAUUGGHHH.... maybe an obscenity in here..."

But we had a fantastic time, and the only photos I got were of my decorations because once people got here I sort of forgot I had a camera, and my waistline surely gained like a million inches because we ate so many delightful lunches and dinners, but it's okay, we're doing daily cardio now. :)

I'm feeling kind of refreshed now too; before our long weekend I was getting ho-hum and feeling a little bored and monotonous -- unemployment will do that to you! -- but now I feel I've got a better outlook and am ready to go again! I'm going on a garden walk sometime this week (maybe even this afternoon) with my camera, I've signed up for an early morning bird walk next month, and I've been reading a lot of Buddhism books and novels that really make me happy and are getting me back to my roots.

Isn't this full moon flower vase amazing? ♡

Okay, I need to be paying more attention to the TV now because my World Cup-obsessed boyfriend had to tear himself away from the TV to get a haircut and I'm charged with texting him any goals or cards gotten by anyone and I just nearly missed the French goal and my head very well may be on the line .... !! ;)

A little break.

2010-06-15T09:55:00.004-04:00

I really haven't had much of worth to say lately, and I'm scrambling to get ready for the small horde of folks that will be visiting us on Wednesday & Thursday for a long weekend, so I've decided I'm going to take a small blogging hiatus.

These little flags are tiny replicas of the teams playing in the World Cup... well, a small portion of them, anyway. I finished all 32 of them (FINALLY) so we can stick them in our three and a half dozen cupcakes we've special ordered for the occasion! We will have such tantalizing flavors as:

Pink Lemonade!
Orange Creamsicle!
Key Lime!
Cabana Coconut!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup!
And of course ... Bacon!

I've got towels to wash and bathrooms to scrub, and more handmade decorations to hang, oh... and soccer games to watch! I may do a little post as the week goes on but I think it's time for a smidge of a break. It comes at a good time I think, as I'm feeling a little burnt out for blogging 'material', I guess.

So have a great week!! I'll see ya in a bit. :) I'll come back with tons of pictures!

Feelin' hot hot hot!

2010-06-13T18:32:00.003-04:00

I have three major developments to tell you guys! I know, you're holding your breath in anticipation...

Thing the first!

The ringing in my ear is slowly but surely going away! Hurrah! It's still there a little but I really don't even notice it anymore. Take that, evil sinus system from my dad's side of the family!

Thing the second!

This thing is depressing. I returned a library book late and have ... A FINE. *dun dun duuuuunnn* I've never, ever, once in my life returned a library book late. I checked out three and thought they were all due on the 22nd. NO. One was due this past Wednesday.

My fine? Sixty cents. AUGH the humanity! I am embarrassed. I think I may wear a disguise when I go to pay my fine. A fake moustache.

Thing the third.

It's flippin' HOT here! We had on-off thunderstorms this morning, so today it's been in the mid 90's and humid as all get out. Feels like you're walking through a sponge! The heat I can take, but the humidity really does a number on me. Sometimes I even feel a little nauseous... blar! I'd really rather be blogging from the back porch, but I'm holed up inside with the air conditioning.

Staying inside also gave me a chance to start cleaning for our party this long weekend! Matt cleaned the granite countertops and our flat stovetop, and I took on the daunting task of scrubbing our hardwood floors clean. Not something I see myself doing often. Kind of a pain in the patoot. But it is sooooo sweet to see a nice, smooth floor with no little kitty pawprints on it!

Except the few over there that Finn left. ARGH!! Did you know cats sweat through their pawpads? (And their noses as well!) That's why you never see a sweaty cat! And that's why they leave prints on your clean floors.

And finally, I am really bad at posting awards... (I'm as forgetful as a ... huh? Who are you again??) but JessRaquel over at Mo Shiorghra was awesome enough to give me this one!!

I love sunshine! And sunflowers!! And all my bloggy friends. :) Thank you all for lighting up my Google Reader with your fabulousness!

Have you all been watching World Cup? .... Have you?? Aren't you happy that England didn't spank our bottoms 195-0? (We managed to tie England 1-1.) What's your favorite match been so far? Are you finding yourself attracted to the entire youthful German team?? (cough) Is the Netherlands (my team!) gonna kick butt tomorrow? Why is my Fantasy League team doing so poorly?????...

... Sorry. ;)

Cleanup on aisle five.

2010-06-12T10:58:00.002-04:00

I'm not one to complain - especially on this blog! I can't stand consistently whiny posts, because really? Life is awesome. But once in a while...

It really turns into a comedy of errors.

Two weeks ago I got sick, my sinuses were clogged, I couldn't lay down or sleep without my noseholes instantly clogging up with goo. There's nothing worse than not being able to breathe through my nose at night, at least for me! Because I'll inadvertently wake up in a pile of my own drool. Gaaaaaaaak. Barf. Anywho, I took some medicine, and I got better! (Huzzah!)

Then, last weekend, my sinuses got extremely dry. I woke up to minor nosebleeds a few days in a row, my eyes were itchy and dry and I felt like one of those allergy-prone dogs who was constantly rubbing their faces on the ground. No worries, I crammed some Vaseline up my nose and got some moisturizing eye drops. And I got better! (Huzzah!)

Wednesday I awoke to the loudest ringing in my left ear I'd ever had! WOWZA! That combined with a little sinus pressure made for a kinda crappy day, but by the end of the day it had subsided to a dull roar and I felt better.

But it's still here.

Ringing. (Lowly, at least.)

Do you know what people like me do when something is wrong with us? Yup, we hit the internet. Then, after reading all the viable information we can, we start creating our wills and bucket lists because surely we are in mortal peril! I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, or at least I used to be a lot worse.

And while I read that this ringing (otherwise called its medical fancy name of 'tinnitus') surely isn't life threatening in the least, I read that some people? Have been suffering with this for more than TEN YEARS. Are you SERIOUS?! No, really, after a year give me the gun and my will's on the table. Because while it's really not bothering me (minus a very vague amount of sinus pressure now and again) it can really get ANNOYING. If I had to live with this for more than a month you'd see me running down the street, shrieking like a banshee and waving my arms, foaming at the mouth and wearing a plastic tablecloth from the dollar store.

I scoured the internet for home remedies. Thus far I've tried the following:

Rinsing my ear with saline solution.
Applying drops of olive oil to my ear.
Making an olive oil earplug.
And some kind of wackadoodle treatment consisting of laying my hands flat on my head and whack-whack-whacking the back of my skull with my index fingers. (I think the guy who created this is a crock, and I think he wrote all the 'amazing' testimonials on his website as well.)

Don't worry, I'm not crazy enough to put a bunch of strange materials in my ear, outside of what I can find in the kitchen. Some people have used a neti pot and had results with it, but the mere thought of pouring saltwater up one nosehole and having it come out the other nosehole is enough to make me reach for that plastic tablecloth. (BLAR.) Go to the doctor? HAH! Unemployed and without insurance, I'll be likely planning for my next bankruptcy. I'll wait until aliens crawl out of my ear, thanks.

I'm somewhat thankful for the constant World Cup on the TV, because the horns in the crowd that sound like angry bees drown out my earnoise. It really only bothers me when I'm idle or it's quiet; otherwise if I busy myself or hang out in a mildly noisy area it isn't noticeable.

But it's there.

And my eyes are not only dry but goopy-watery in the morning. Cool.

And I have reflux because my IBS has been acting up (oh yeah, I have IBS) and I've felt like the Hindenburg for the most of the week. (Pre-kaboom, mind you.)

And due to a silly little seemingly innocent joke on my part, I can no longer watch a team stand for its World Cup anthem without thinking of this:

And so I've been stopping randomly during the day, to belt out, "I like to push the pram-a-loooooottttt...."

It makes me feel a little bit better! But still, where's my tablecloth. I'm going to wrap myself like a burrito in it until I get well again! Auuugghhh....

An ode to yumminess.

2010-06-11T11:24:00.003-04:00

I want to tell you a story. About one of the most amazing foods ever. I used to hate this food with a passion, but recently my eyes have been opened and the light has shined on me, and I can now proclaim!

YES!

POTATO SALAD!!

It's true, I used to hate this. My mom would make it all the time in the summer, but me? EW. No thank you. Barf-o-rama, I'd rather eat dog poo, et.al.

At work, people would bring it to potluck luncheons. UGH. That looks disgusting! How dare you try to feed me that!!

... Isn't it awful, that all my assumptions were on looks alone. I had never ever tried potato salad!!!

Poor, potato salad. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ever doubted your amazing tastiness. I was rude and closed minded to judge you.

I did discover how amazing you were, though. We had lunch at a little local place here a year or so ago, and potato salad was a choice for a side item with my lunch. Why I randomly chose it, I'll never know, but from that first bite forward I knew that I would never wrinkle my nose at you again. The large, succulent potato pieces mixed in with the flavorful mayo and egg, and just enough celery to give a crunch once in a while? Perfection! There is no better food that makes me think 'summertime'. (With the exception of grilled burgers & corn on the cob!) Fireworks erupted over my head, a choir of angels sang, and damn the caloric content, so I will only have one small scoop at a time, I promise.

We are going to lunch pretty soon at the place with the Best Potato Salad in the World, and I was SO excited that I had to write this post. That's how awesome it is! what food would you devote an entire blog post to?? Cheese would be a close second for me... mmm... cheese...

Have a great food-filled weekend y'all!!

My task today ... sigh.

2010-06-10T10:43:00.002-04:00

So today I was going to take my picture for my 52. I've got a FANTASTIC idea that makes me go, bwahahaha! What is it? I'll give you a hint ...

Crepe paper!

BWAHAHA!

What do you think it could be? Tell me! I'd love to hear your guesses. :)

But I can't do that today. Today, I've put my foot down. I NEED to clean out my dresser and my closet. Go through it, dig out the things I'm never going to wear again, and put them in a Goodwill box!

You know, the t-shirts or tank tops that are shoved to the very back of your drawers, the 'I may want to wear this someday, when the Tuesdays align and I lose 5 inches off my waist.' Uh-huh. Yeah.... The shirts I wore in college that looked so great, but now? .... We won't talk about that. The winter sweaters that fit once but now when you put them on, you somewhat begin to resemble a sausage in a brightly colored casing, your arms sticking straight out like Randy from a Christmas Story.

I had a few spare bucks scraped together yesterday so I went out to do a little shopping and bought a great new fun summer dress! I brought it home and ... uhh, no place to hang it! My hangers were being hoarded by shrunken winter sweaters. Sigh. That's how I knew...

A little belated spring wardrobe cleaning, I guess.

Hope your day is more fun!! :)

I made a post, but it went ... somewhere else.

2010-06-08T13:25:00.005-04:00

So I spent my morning at the beach, and I actually wrote a blog post while I was there! And then I came home, and it wasn't posted! What the heck?? I really did write a post on my phone, I wasn't faking. I guess the internet had other plans for it.

I wonder where it went .............

ANYWAYS! I've gone three days without posting, ack! We had a fantastic weekend, full of sun and barbeques and new friends, and yesterday was filled with more more more job searching -- that position I interviewed for? Turns out an internal applicant applied for the job Friday afternoon, so she automatically got it, and all of us interviewees got the shaft. Now, I can certainly understand promoting from within, and even applaud it, but you really should stop letting people apply BEFORE you interview external applicants!

Anyways, I felt this morning I needed a relaxer, so I woke up early and jetted off to the beach. I've found this lovely little spot that isn't nearly as populated as other, easier accessible parts of the shore, so I set up camp there for the morning armed with my book and my chair and my shades and my 100 calorie Lorna Doone snack. It was fantastic! Just what I needed. There was a pair of little girls playing in the tide pools and rolling around like the cutest little beached whales ever, so that was fun to watch. And a seagull decided to take a nap near my chair! Am I that dull?? ;)

Here's a picture of my chair:

http://twitpic.com/1v15lp

Yeah, I totally have a Finding Nemo towel. I'm not sure who the pink octopus is but he's sure cool!

My beach chair is pink too! I'm not going to tell you how much it cost. It's a great chair, though. The blue ones were on sale but I wanted the PINK one so I paid for the pink one. This was back when I had a full-time job and could fritter away funds on the coolest beach chair ever, by the way. Now I'd have to bring a milk crate with me or something!

But anyways, I really did write a post this morning. It was about the beach and things I saw at the beach, and how evil tidings seemed to be striking a lot of my friends in the blog-o-sphere lately, and that if I could wiggle my nose and go POOF! you would all be at the beach with me with your own oversized Disney towels, top-price chairs, and cool library book of your choice.

I wonder where that post went! Maybe to the bottom of the ocean?

Ooh, dubloons! Yarrrrr.

World Cup starts Friday. There's a concert from South Africa on Thursday at 2pm EST on ESPN that I'm looking forward to!! I've made my World Cup fantasy league and barring no more injuries from anyone, it should be awesome. Matt and I have a friendly wager of a dinner at the restaurant of our choosing for the winner... cross your fingers for me! My team's gonna go All! The! WAY!!!!

.... :) (I want that dinner.)

Is this week over yet?... It is?? WAHOO!!

2010-06-04T16:16:00.002-04:00

Man oh man, what a week it's been over here. Between court hearings and ferrying documents around from bank to lawyer and back again, and job interviews and sinister monsoons trying to attack our house... it's been eventful, folks.

Apparently our home warranty didn't cover our garage electric being busted because it was a lightning storm (hmm), so Matt rolled up his sleeves and ... fixed it himself! Something about a plug with a fuse in it and some wires and shazam! Good as new. (Can you tell I'm sooo not mechanically inclined?)

And my job interview went well today! I'm not going to say it went GRRRREAT! because I said that about the last one and I got the lovely 'thanks but no thanks' email. So we'll see if I get called back next week!

Here's my photo for my 52 this week... I need to start planning ahead for these more, but I blame the hecticness of the week, and the bad weather! Boo, hiss, weather!!

You can click on it to go to the actual photo page. I snapped this real quick after my interview today; the lighting was crappy because a storm had suddenly decided to roll in -- oh boy! -- so there's a little more noise in the photo than I would like. I wanted it to have a little bit of a faded vintage-y look so I did what I could! Voila. (PS - if you ever see those shoes somewhere, even if they're only $15, don't buy them. They hurt and are really just for looks.)

And a fun outtake of my photo shoot... did you know I have the most giant white cat in the WORLD?! Because if you didn't...

AAARGH, HE'LL EAT US ALL!! I took a bunch of photos of me squeezing my marshmallow-like cat, and once I uploaded them, I realized in every single one of them ... his butthole was showing. No, really! So I used the rubber stamp tool to clone it out and replace it with fur! HAH! Take that, unsightly cat butts! You are no match for the cloning tool.

But anyways, I've started a list of ideas that I'll use for future shoots. They include ketchup and old champagne bottles and my feet, but not all at the same time.

I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC weekend!! I've gotten a little behind on blogging, so I'm going to play catch-up and respond to some comments. We have a community BBQ on Sunday that I'm looking forward to a lot, tasty food and meeting our neighbors... I wonder if they'll have pulled pork?? A gal can dream! ;)

I am the bomb. Also, that bomb dropped on our house.

2010-06-03T09:10:00.003-04:00

(This is a two-part entry. Part one is crazy good. Part two is just crazy.)

So yesterday at 9:30 a.m. I sat my butt in our federal courthouse for my 341 hearing -- pretty much the meeting of myself, my attorney, the trustee, and any creditors that cared to show and speak regarding my bankruptcy. (Tip - creditors never show unless you've likely done something really bad, like fraud or embezzlement or evil.) There were about 15-20 other folks there as well, so I wasn't the only one, but dang was I nervous. This is where I would find out how my bankruptcy would proceed, and how my assets, if any, would be distributed.

I waited. And waited. And ... yeah, waited some more. I got to talking to this old man sitting next to me (And eventually, the guy behind us -- everyone wanted to blab at me! Did I have good hair or something??) and we talked about why we each were in this situation, laughed about it, talked about our pets, and he told me about his 50th high school reunion he just attended. He joked that he couldn't remember half the people that remembered him, and had to keep asking ... "Who the heck are you??" ... and the people HE remembered had to keep asking him ... "Who the heck are you??" We got a good laugh out of it. In retrospect I'm glad we talked; it surely took the edge off of both of us.

And then, at about 11:30, I was called up to swear my life away on the Bible and throw my battered financials on the mercy of the court. At this point I was more hungry than anything; I'd forgotten to bring my muffin from home, and have you tried to find a vending machine in a court building? Good luck to you if you do.

At any rate, I answered all of their questions, and my case was deemed a no-asset distribution. Which means I have no assets to distribute (hur hur), but more importantly, I get to keep what meager worldly possessions I have. And, that my petition passed.

And, that I DID IT. I totally, totally did it. I'm totally done. In 30-60 days I'll receive my discharge notice in the mail, I'll be totally bankrupt, and free free free to start anew.

I really can't describe the feeling of freedom this gives me. A HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders. For the past three or so years I've really been living under stress and fear - it may sound cliche, but I was afraid of everything... afraid of what notice I'd get in the mail that day, afraid of who would call me, afraid that someone would come to the door and give me papers. Being afraid to check the mail just isn't right. Everything felt so out of control, and I felt like I was just being dragged along for this horrible ride. And I remember when I finally realized that I could possibly, just possibly, file for bankruptcy, and I could take control of everything that was happening to me... I just started bawling, in my car, in the middle of rush-hour traffic because I was so happy and filled with hope! It was such a liberating moment, as was this entire process. I really started to feel happy again, like I was getting a second chance at my life without all the stress and the fear and the worry that stemmed from some poorly made decisions.

I'll never forget me leaving the courthouse yesterday; walking down the hall towards the exit with the biggest smile on my face and a bunch of excited exclamation points bumping around in my brain. It's one of those moments that I'll remember, hopefully forever, but who knows with my memory...

And do you want to know the first thing I did when I left? (I know you do!) I walked right down the riverwalk to the chocolate shop and bought myself some malted milk balls! HECK YES! (I bought Matt a peanut butter cup too, because we were there this past weekend, and he was looking at the peanut butter cups longingly, and he was about to buy one but my stomach suddenly got extremely uproarious, and it was most certainly not because I devoured half of a humongous brownie sundae after dinner, okay maybe it was, but anyway we had to make a hasty exit and I felt bad, but that's a whole other story.)

Oh and I got a call for a job interview while I was sitting around waiting to declare my what-have-yous, so I have an interview tomorrow at 11 am! Double awesome!!

* * * * * * * *

So I'm driving home yesterday and this massive thunderstorm opens up, like torrential rains and hey I can't really see the car in front of me and wow that lightning was right in my face. I make it home -- praising the new tires I had put on a month ago -- and I'm making lunch when... CRACKA BOOM, out goes our TV and internet amidst the monsoon outside. Little did we know it also blew out our electric garage door opener, and ALL the electricity in the garage... but we found out when we tried to leave for dinner... TRAPPED, in our own garage!

Will that stop us from getting dinner at dollar taco night?! (A lot tastier and higher quality than it sounds, BTW.) HECK NO. We busted our way out anyways with the help of our P90X muscles and the garage door book that told us how to open it manually. Strangely enough it seems the whole blocks garage doors weren't working, and we got a chance to meet one of our neighbors who has a personality very much akin to a bag of turnips. (Hopefully some of our neighbors moving in next month will have personalities more like bags of freshly cut daisies, or lab puppies, or piles of fresh blueberries!)
So, what do we do when we have no internet, no TV, and nothing to do for the night? Why, buy a bottle of chardonnay and watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail on DVD, of course! You silly English Knnnnnn-ig-its! Bwahaha.

Obv. today we have internet back, and TV as well, but the garage door is still going on a wing, a prayer, and a maintenance ticket. At least we can get out, though. Don't stifle my freedom, electrical storm.

Okay, that's all. I need to take a picture for my 52 this week, and I was planning on going to some local gardens and doing something fun and cool, but the weather is farting in my general direction so I may just go flail about in the marsh behind our house thanks to all the rain! Ahh, getting in touch with nature... :)

Berry pickin'! And recipes, too!

2010-05-31T20:18:00.005-04:00

So today, to celebrate Memorial Day, we went to take advantage of a local farm chock full of our favorite blue fruit..

Blueberries!

We have a great little place right up the road where you can pick your own berries, and blueberries are in season. I love picking my own, so we took a little field trip this morning to get in touch with nature and enjoy some fresh, local produce.

Blueberries are one of the best-for-you fruits out there! Thanks to Reader's Digest, I'm able to tell you blueberries have the following health benefits:

Good source of dietary fiber.
Excellent source of antioxidants.
Provide some vitamin C and iron.
May help protect against some intestinal upsets.
May protect against urinary tract infections.
Anthocyanins may help protect against heart disease and cancer and may help prevent memory loss.

And, they're freakin' tasty! I didn't bring my camera along, so you don't get to see me with a bucket strapped to my waist, or skipping merrily down the rows and rows of berry bushes.

But you do get to see the end product...

FOUR pounds of berries! (Carrying them around my waist as we picked them was great cardio!) So, what do you do with four pounds of berries?

You make the most epic blueberry muffins ever.

I'm going to share with you my recipe for the yummiest, cake-iest, most decadent muffins I've ever made. It really is the best recipe I've tried yet. Here's whatcha need:

1 cup fresh blueberries
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line your baking cups with paper liners.

Combine your flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder until well mixed. Add your vegetable oil, egg, and milk and mix with dry ingredients until just moistened. Your batter will be VERY THICK!! It's supposed to be; it holds the fruit in place in the muffin cups so all your berries don't sink to the bottom of your muffin.

Fold in your blueberries gently and then fill your muffin cups right to the top. Since the batter is so thick, I used my hands for this step, but you could use two large spoons. I was able to fill 10 of the 12 cups on my tin, so if you want more, you can double the ingredients.

Bake for 20 minutes, and voila!

SUPER tasty. You could make these muffins with anything; blackberries, cranberries, chocolate chips... and you can bet I'll try this with chocolate chips!

And after that? Yanno what I made?

Blueberry iced tea.

First I made a pitcher of regular iced tea. (I like Lipton cold brew!) Poured myself a big old glass when it was done, into the blender, along with a handful of blueberries. Blend on puree. Voila!

You can leave the skins (like I did) or strain them out; personally, I find them v. tasty. :)

And that, my friends, is fun with blueberries! Hurrah!!

* * * *
You may or may not have noticed that I switched the comments on this blog to the Disqus system; I LOVE it because I'm able to comment back to the commenter right here in the comments, as opposed to email. So if you notice a different format when commenting, fear not, you're not in the Twilight Zone. ... Yet.

Football. No, not THAT football. The more important one!

2010-05-30T14:57:00.004-04:00

This weekend thus far has been great! The days have been full of sun, we've been outside a lot, and we've been doing a lot of planning for our party.

What, party? Where are the invitations?? This isn't any ordinary party.

It revolves -- no pun intended -- around this...

That's one of the new South African soccer stadiums for World Cup 2010. GOOOOOOOAL! (I promise not to do that too many more times. ... Well, maybe.) Apparently, I'm shacking up with a soccer freak. I had inklings of this in the early dating process but nothing has manifested itself so fully until the past few months. The 'preperatory' months. (Is that a word?)

I'm now a registered user on Fifa.com, I'm playing in a fantasy league (huhwha'?), and my interest piques when I see Crouch do the robot after getting a goal. When did this happen?? Right now there are consecutive FIFA matches being played on the PS3. And I distinctly remember a 'joking' chat that involved drawing black hexagons on our white cats with a Sharpie.

Did you know there's 11 days until World Cup? Or that there's about a jillion formations you can make with your strikers and midfielders and defending dudes? (That's a technical term.) I know Rooney hurt his something or other and was going to be out of England's team, but now he's back and us Yanks are a little worried because they're our first group match. I know some dude from Germany hurt his something or other so bad that he's out, and that's gonna totally hamper their chances for being good. And I know the Brazilian coach didn't pick Ronaldinho (pronounced ron-ahl-deen-yo) for their team and the whole of Brazil may riot because of it.

I know all of this information by osmosis. I have no choice but to osmote (not a real word) it into my brain because that's all that's the word over here lately.

... Oh, party.

We're having a soccer party! Matt's family and some of our friends are all coming over for a long weekend to watch the World Cup and shout GOOOOOAL at each other, and likely make up some drunken celebration dances.

I've taken on the role of C.D.O (Chief Decorating Officer) and have tasked myself with making small copies of every. Single. Flag. Of Every. Single. Country. Playing in the WC so I can slap 'em on toothpicks and stick them into the three+ dozen cupcakes we've custom ordered just for this occasion. It was cool when I started. But there are a lot of flags. And some of them have a shield with a snake on it, or some type of sunburst dealie or random star formation, that my artistic OCD kicks in and it's tough with Crayola markers on 2"x3" paper.

WTF, Spain.

I also had the bright idea of cutting out a metric crap-ton letter O's so I could tape the letters, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! to our streamers that are going to majestically swoop across the dining area. I should learn to think on my ideas before blurting them out in 'HEY THIS IS COOL' excitement because now I'm envisioning lining each of my hundred O's in black Sharpie tediously. Hmm.

We have a soccer-ball-themed chip dish.

And a centerpiece with brightly colored foil streamer things and cardboard soccer balls. (Some parts of which may or may not become a snack bar for the cats. I'm hoping they'll go after the chips instead to be honest. Less hazard involved.)

Our party isn't until the 17th so I have some time. Phew! I'm rooting for the Netherlands to win it all, so I'm now the proud owner of a bright orange jersey with the Oranje lion on it, and NEDERLAND on the back, and a set of eyeblacks that look like their flag. Everyone's rooting for a different team to win it all so the fandom part is sort of fun; we've all gotten a shirt with our respective team on it.

So yeah, it's been pretty much Soccer Saturation over here. I'm holding up okay! I'm actually enjoying it because it's something new for me, and it's exciting to see all the different cultures come together every 4 years.

... But if culture just ain't your thing, check out some of the fine specimens you'll be able to glimpse on the pitch!

Clint Dempsey plays for us, the good ol' USA. He's from Texas! Land of snakes, cacti, and supposedly, soccer. He's a striker, therefore a goal-getter!.... Sorry, bad soccer pun.

Cristiano Ronaldo plays for Portugal. Uhm, humana humana. Did you know he's the highest paid footie player in the world? Trivia! Impress your friends.

Robin Van Persie! He plays for the Dutch! GO ORANJE!... ahem.

This is Kaka. He's a midfielder for Brazil, and honestly that's all you need to know. I mean, look at the GQ cover.

So you can either plan your match watching around the teams you want to win, or the teams with the humana humana guys playing for them! Either way, it should be a good time for all, so GOOOOOOOAL!! (one last time), and I'm off to draw up some 'O' templates.

We're going berry picking tomorrow! I'm excited!!

Saturday Centus #4

2010-05-29T10:04:00.002-04:00

It's Saturday Centus time, hosted by the ever-wonderful Jenny Matlock, with prompts written by Mister Jenny. (What a team!) Done in 97 words this time, the supplied prompt is in italics.

“May I help you, miss? You look puzzled.”

“Mmmm… thank you, I’m just looking for my father. We came in together a moment ago, but he seems to have wandered off.”

A small smile curved my lips as the memories in my head faded. Dad always was such a scatterbrain. When I was little, I wondered how he didn't end up on the side of milk cartons.

Tips of my fingers pressed a little harder to the chilled headstone, and I sighed. The bowing of the tall grass in the wind seemed to echo my sentiments. Had it really been almost five years? I guess time flies whether you're having fun or not.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and I knew it was time to go.

My new project ... has begun!

2010-05-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

My friends, it is with unbridled excitement and fond delight that I present to you, my new project; something I've had in my head for some time but have now finally brought to fruition...

My 52 self-portrait challenge! It will all be hosted and set up on Flickr, so if you have an account, please add me as a contact, or come and comment on my photos once in a while! (My profile is here; it will also tell you a little more about the project and its name.)

Of course, I will also be posting my photos here as well, so you all can keep me motivated if you're not on Flickr! (I may need the motivation.. tee hee.) It will likely be on the Friday, Saturday, or Sunday of every week, so I can keep a semblance of a schedule with this. And each photo will link to the Flickr page for it, which will have a title for each photo, and more of a description and details there.

So, without further adieu, week one...

Just something simple and fun for my first shot! :) That is the comfiest scarf in the world, for the record. And it's really hard to shoot without a tripod and a remote. Maybe not hard, but tedious. So some accessories may be in order! ;)

Let me know what you think!! I have some photogenic issues -- I think I look goofy in most candid photos of me -- so hopefully this will help in getting over that. I'm enjoying the project already!

A revelation.

2010-05-27T14:48:00.003-04:00

Guys.

I realized something today. Something that made me do a Keanu-style "whoa".

I got up pretty early today to head out and run a bunch of errands. I had a great time; the weather was lovely, as the sun hadn't been out for too long and it wasn't burn-i-nation out, not much traffic on the roads... yep, perfect.

Wait, what?

... Perfect? Morning?

I'm a MORNING PERSON?

I sat at a stoplight, stunned. Me, who HATES mornings, who would rather eat a cactus than get up before 8:00 for non-essentials.

It's true. I used to love staying up late and watching movies or what have you, but I just can't stay up like I used to. Even on a day where I'll sleep in (to 9:30-ish) once 10:30 hits, zzz. See ya!

I now find it much more fulfilling to get up, get out there early in the gorgeous pre-10:00-hot weather when no one's out and enjoy the morning. This is a big change for me.

I'm even planning on getting up early tomorrow -- yes, the official start to Memorial Day weekend, when everyone and their MOM is gonna be out and ... going to the beach -- and head out there myself around 8:30. I'm hoping to beat the rush and that most people will be travelling tomorrow morning. We'll see, I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm also almost ready to start my 52 self-portrait project! I've taken my first set of photos and narrowed it down to a few I like, so I'm going to think on it and likely post them during the weekend once I clean my Flickr account up. I need to think of a good name for the project, too. Not just "sum piktrs" or the ever generic "Project 52". Something ... fun, biff, pow!, like that!

But now, I need a nap, because I got up early.

LOST, and my rebound relationship.

2010-05-26T14:48:00.002-04:00

As you may or may not know, I love LOST. It ended recently, as I'm sure you know, as the internet has been a virtual a-bomb with people who are upset with the ending. I mean, REALLY upset. Going as far as to write page after page rants including every single wibbly question they don't have an answer for. Some people are even going as far as to create a class-action lawsuit on Facebook suing the LOST creators for six years of "emotional damage and duress", among other ridiculous things.

You can't be serious, right? Let me put down my coffee and I'll get you a nice tranquilizer.

I'm not going to write a bullet list of grievances or debate my side into the ground, but I loved the ending. I thought it was fitting for a show that had such amazing characters and storylines between them, that the ending should bring them all together again in such a beautiful way that yeah, I'll admit it... I totally cried no less than four times. Bawled into the blankets.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from my favorite forums that I would frequent while the show was going on...

It wasn't ever about being lost on an island; it was about being lost in life and finding your way through tribulations and the help with those you care about. Everything else, the mythologies, the scifi, that's all insignificant compared to the true moral of the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ride of this show; the mystery, the mythology, the tension and drama. It had me hooked from the start! And I think it's okay if we never find out where the polar bears come from, or where the electromagnetism came from, or the story behind the giant statue on the shore, or what the light was, or why the smoke monster sounds like an old gate opening up with it's clankity clanks and AWOOOO~... *takes a breath* :) You get my drift.

The show itself had so much imagination, amidst the same ol' cop dramas and legal dramas and hospital dramas, and reality show Bachelorette/Survivor/Dancing With (insert your favorite type of famous folk here) clones that it was SUCH a breath of fresh air. The imagination this show had was boundless, and that's why I think I enjoyed it the most. :)

And I can honestly see why some folks would be upset with it. But remember the moral of the story - 'let it go'. Don't create Facebook groups to sue people. Don't create flame wars on the internet. It's entertainment, and although it may be flawed, it is what it is.

It's okay. At least, I'm okay with it. I had all those questions in the back of my brain but after the finale it was just like... it didn't matter. The people mattered, and the journey mattered. I didn't bawl because I never figured out the Man in Black's name. I bawled when Sawyer and Juliet remembered their life (and her death) together, and clung to each other in front of that vending machine after he said "I got you, baby"... that's what it's all about.

ANYWAYS.

The show's over. It's up and left me all alone in my viewing world, so I needed to find something new to latch on to. A rebound relationship, if you will! And it's presented itself nicely.

Yep. The new Doctor Who, featuring (for now) Christopher Eccleston and I Have Total 80's Hair Billie Piper. I used to watch the original version of this show with my dad when I was a wee kiddo, and it's only taken me 5 years to realize hey! They're continuing the story! Thank you, Instant Netflix. :) For all its cheesiness this show is AWESOME, and my phone now rings the Doctor Who theme. Bwahaha!

A bit behind, and a few other things.

2010-05-25T11:33:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I had the migraine from H-E-double hockey sticks. I've only had two migraines before in my life, and yesterday was one of them. Oh, it was miserable! If you've never had one before I don't recommend going and looking to get one, either. It really is gnarly. I can compare it to millions of tiny men inside your head, either doing one of the following:

A) Grinding a tiny pestle repeatedly against your skull, as if it were a mortar, and they were very intent on crushing a lot of fresh herbs,
B) Clunking a tiny pickaxe against the the inside of your skull, trying to form a jailbreak and get the heck out,
C) Celebrating Memorial Day a little bit too early, complete with whizz-bang firecrackers, a 50-piece marching band mostly comprised of a percussion section, and barbecuing hotdogs by lighting many tiny fires on the inside of your skull.

I spent the most of yesterday sleeping, and when I wasn't asleep I was curled into a little ball under the blanket making noises like "mrrrghhhghgemmm". Thank goodness for Advil Migraine, though! Once I had that in me it was no contest. Take that, evil little skull-kicking men!

So suffice to say I am a bit behind in all the things I've been meaning to do, so today and tomorrow are my catch-up days.

The floor hasn't been Swiffer'd in over a week, and let me tell you, when you own animals whos fur is the exact opposite color of your floor... well, it gets a bit noticeable. It looked a little like we were walking on a cloud cover, and while it may sound whimsical... not so much. Also, Swiffering now that we have a table and chairs on the floor is infinitely much more work than Swiffering a large empty square area. Move the chairs... Swiffer where they were... now move them back... Swiffer the rest of the floor... attempt to Swiffer under the table and lose half of the fur you've collected... yup. It's an exercise in skill and dexterity, I tell you!

My good friend Gabby has also inspired me again with her endless creativity (Seriously, where do all these great ideas come from? Sometimes I think someone dug my creativity well in the desert!) so I'm going to be starting a new photography project. It's something I've wanted to do ever since I became interested in DLSR photography (so it's been quite a few years), and it's going to be a series of self-portraits over the course of a year, one for every week, or a 52 as some people call it. A lot of people do 365's, which is a photo for every day of the year... not only do I have the attention span of a sea lion, but I don't want to feel obligated to get a photo every day. I think a week's time will give me a nice amount of time to figure out what I want to do, take the time to do it with the right posing and shot, post-process it at my leisure, and not feel like my creativity is stretched or burnt out.

So, yay for that! I don't have a name for my meme yet, but I will be posting it here weekly, so you'll get to see my results and hopefully, progress. (And my ugly mug. Bwahaha!!!)

And one last thing; thank you for all of your wonderful, inspiring comments on my Saturday Centus! I really enjoy the weekly challenge of it, and I'm happy to be writing again, and that people are leaving me their feedback. :) So, thank you thank you!

Saturday Centus #3

2010-05-22T10:03:00.002-04:00

It's Saturday again, and you know what that means... :) Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus!

This one is amazingly on time today because I knew right away what I was going to write about. The prompt is below in bold... and my 100 words (exactly 100 this time!) comes afterwards... heehee... enjoy... :)

I look back over my shoulder, squinting into the late afternoon sun, gawking with stunned alarm at the broad rolling muddy waters of the Mississippi.

I was soaked to the bone; had I really just crossed that river? I paused for a moment to catch my breath and wring the dirty water from my hair, but I didn't have much time. It seemed everything was going awry... and the rivers flooding were just the tip of the iceberg.

A moment paused was too long, and I heard them before I saw them approach the opposing river bank. The lumbering, shambling undead. Their eerie, unearthly groans.

I grinned wryly, slinging the shotgun over my shoulder. Time to hit the road. I was safe, for now.....

* * *

... Braaaains....! Couldn't resist the chance to use zombies somewhere, so that quota is filled! Have a happy undead-free weekend y'all!! ♡ ♡ ♡

Mailbox at the Beach - An Excursion

2010-05-20T21:25:00.003-04:00

It's no secret that I live on the coast. (Blog title sorta gives that away!) It may, however, be a secret that I live very close to Wrightsville Beach, about 5 minutes away and over the drawbridge. It's a cute little place, very cozy and home-y in the off season, and a perfect summer beach in the on-season. It's your typical coastal, island town.

Our beach has a mailbox *somewhere* on it. I'm not going to tell quite where, as it will add to the mystery. ;) But it's a mailbox with a set of wooden steps on a certain area of the beach, and there's something really ... neat there. I'm not going to give THAT away yet either, but you'll find out, as yesterday morning I decided to finally head out there and see if I could hunt this place down.

There really isn't much about this mystery locale on the internet, so what little information I had I'd gathered up from Google searches and a local magazine that published a small article on it last year. (Yes, I still had the back copy of that mag. And coincidentally enough, the local news also posted a small story on the mailbox that can be found when Googling now, although they don't give away the location! ;) So I grabbed my camera to document my adventure, hopped into the car, and headed out!

I made it! The public access was somewhat empty this morning, so I managed to get a shot of it. It was also REALLY bright out this morning, so I did a little post-processing on most of these photos so the colors would pop more. :)

Ahh, a nice clear sunny day! This area of the beach isn't a real popular 'touristy' area, so it was quiet, clean, and awesome. It's also not really 'tourist season' yet, so we'll see how it gets in a month or two!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of a few shells. :) I was also here to pick up some shells and sand for the winner of my giveaway, so it was a multi-purpose trip! Nothing wrong with digging around in the sand once in a while...

Ah, the beach! I love the beach! The water was pretty nice today, and I was wishing I had brought my bathing suit, beach chair, and book... maybe next time, though. I was here on business this time! And I had a ways to walk too...

This little guy was happy to point me in the right direction... and also to remind me, KEEP OFF THE DUNES! He was really noisy, and it was so funny to see him sitting on this sign, honking away, that I came up from the shoreline to take a photo.

Taking a break... aaaaaahh. I had been walking for a -long- time at this point! (A sidenote; after my excursion was over, I realized that I actually parked a lot farther away than I had to. Oops!) So I took a break to try and snap a photo of some relaxing seagulls. This guy seems kind of wary; actually, it was hard for me to get close without them standing up and walking away!

... Okay, almost there now... I think...

I knew I was almost there when the people started to dwindle to a few lone wanderers, and I stumbled upon this bird sanctuary. It was roped off, so I took this photo over the ropes. What a sweet place for the beach birds to nest... :)

Now I *know* I'm almost there, because I'm at the very end of the island! I took this photo across the inlet, of the big fancy houses on the other side! Aaahhh, that's the life. :) I was amazed how much bluer the water was here, likely because it's shallow.

... Okay... walk a little bit more ... turn around and ... !!

I found it!!!! Nestled in the dunes is a mailbox with a set of stairs -- they weren't always this short, the stairs used to be a full set, but the sand has covered nearly all of it. So now the steps are more of a seat. :)

And I have to admit, I feel AWFUL that I didn't get a shot from farther away of this, because it looks so cool. I turned around from taking the last shot of the sound to see this almost behind me, and I was overwhelmed with giddiness and almost childlike excitement that it totally slipped my mind.

It really was like a treasure hunt, because this place has been here for years but you really have to go a bit off the beaten path to find it, a little bit of an adventure. :) It was exciting and exhilarating to get out there and experience the sun and the sand along with searching for something iconic yet tucked away from the majority of people that visit the beach. Something special for sure.

But okay, back to the photo adventure!

You can see on the face of the mailbox door, it's scrawled with, "LEAVE A NOTE". And it has a cool starfish handle! The mailbox itself wasn't very large, probably a little bigger than my camera bag. I opened the door...

... and there it is! A notebook and pens, just ready for you to leave a note. :)

I don't know who exactly maintains the mailbox (although I have a hunch), but there is always a fresh notebook in here with some pens for people to write down their thoughts, pour out their hearts, or just draw a nice little picture. Here is what I wrote...

Not the most profound or mind-boggling, but it's true! I'll tell you though, earlier in the week I had worked up in my head what I was going to write in here, but once I actually got out here it all seemed to have fallen out of my head and so I had to go the impromptu route. ;)

The notebook is like a Postsecret, but a little bit neater I think. I sat here for about 20 minutes and flipped through the book, just reading. Some people had written pages upon pages of what they were going through at the time, some just a few words. Grief, sadness, fear and worry, to happiness, elation, joy and hope -- emotions spanned the gamut in this little book, and I couldn't resist photographing a few other entries.

It was nice that there really weren't a lot of people around (granted, it was about 11:00 am on a Thursday) so I could take my time and relax in this little haven. I had such a blast flipping through this notebook, and wondered who was collecting them all and replacing them with new ones... wouldn't that be fun...?

It's become something of a tradition to leave seashells behind at the stairs. This tree was covered in them, some attached by ribbon, some attached by string. Larger ones that couldn't be hung up were left on the sand and scattered around the stairs.

Here are some more shells, and the surfboard here... I don't know if that's always here, or if it was left recently. Either way, it's pretty neat. :)

Ta-da! This is the best photo of me I could get as a photographer without a tripod on a really sunny day! ;) I kinda like it, I think it mirrors the mystique of all of the notebook entries by only being a shadow.

All right, time to get out of here... wait, one more shot of the ocean!

Ahh, that's better! NOW I can go!

I hope you enjoyed my adventure of seeking out this little local treasure. I was happy to finally get out there and look for it; I had been meaning to for some time. And now that I know where to go, I'll surely be back for more in the future. And if YOU ever happen to be in the neighborhood, drop me a line, and I'll take you there! :)

Winner winner chicken dinner!

2010-05-20T21:02:00.003-04:00

Mmm, chicken... wait, I already HAD chicken for dinner! Coincidence?? Hmmmm....

Sorry, I'm getting to the winner of my one year giveaway! Random.org hand-picked this number...

And lucky number 3 is...

Amanda!! WOOHOOOOO!!! Confetti and disco lights and the clanging of pots and pans, you've WON! :D Drop me an email at nikineu@gmail.com with your address and I'll ship you your lovely beachy giftjars ASAP!

. . .

Speaking of dropping lovely things in the mail, I was going through some of my crafty boxes today and realized I have way too much cool stationary for my own good! I know handwritten letters are, like, SO primitive, especially with the invention of e-mail and Twitters and iPads (that I really REALLY am not ashamed to admit that I covet badly), but if you'd like a handwritten letter on some really rad stationary, feel free to drop me a line -- again, at nikineu@gmail.com -- and let me know. :)

I have a really fun post lined up for tomorrow ... I took a really awesome and uplifting excursion today, and I'm going to post aaaaall about it tomorrow, complete with many nifty photos!

Wordless Wednesday - Sprouts and Tables and Dresses, oh my..

2010-05-19T14:07:00.004-04:00

Finally, some photos! How exciting! Anyways, remember those flower seeds I planted? (It's okay if you don't, I won't hold it against ya.) Well here are some sprout photos...

These are the Cosmos, and they've gone BONKERS! Three days after I'd planted them, baby sprouts were shoving their way up through the dirt, and about a week and a half later... this! The flowers are in very beginning blooming stages (you can see them if you squint, maybe) but they're on their way! I can't wait to see the colors, and set them on my front porch in full bloom. :)

Here is a close up of the marigolds, and you can see the little flower sprouts in the leaves!! :) I like this photo, I am really learning how to take a decent macro photo with my stock lens.

Look, it's me! I wore this dress last Friday and I kept getting COMPLIMENTS on it... what the heck! I bought it at Kohls in 2005 for 15 bucks! Anyways, I figured I'd document this momentous occasion, and also document the fact that continuous P90X is making my arms look awesome.

Here it is, the Table Set of Doom!! We're thrilled with it and it fits our decor perfectly. And, I'm writing this post from the chair directly in front of the curtains! How cool is that?? And no, there is not a plant in my purse, it's an illusion!! ;)

Yup, another one. See, the plant is a separate entity! You can see on the island counter to the left the crappy books I've subjected myself to reading, and will review them shortly. No really, they're really bad. I decided to dabble in 'chick-lit'... bad plan, Sami. Blargh.

Last one. I HATE our wastebasket. Bluh. But it serves a purpose. The signed doodlydad on the wall is actually a menu from Emeril's restaurant in Orlando, and it's signed by Chef Bernard - we got to meet him! I was pretty flabbergasted, but mostly drunk. Heehee...

This concludes (not-so) Wordless Wednesday!

Wordy Wednesday (Saturday Centus!)

2010-05-19T13:39:00.004-04:00

Who posts their Saturday Centus on a Wednesday?

That's right, me. I walk on the wild side!... No, actually I've been assembling furniture, ignoring the fact that my car smells like burnt toast when it starts (we've got that all ironed out though), and filling out job applications that are littered with questionnaires with such brain-benders as "Do you think stealing is bad?", and "How do you feel about interacting with people?" Hmm. Tough stuff, let me tell you. I am living the dream! ;)

This prompt actually features my name! -- GASP, but Sami! Your name is Sara? You've been moonlighting all this time?? How dare you?! - yes, Sara is my name, but Sami is my nick-name, so there! ... Uhm, anyway, since this prompt had my name in it, I thought it would be fun to write this prompt as if it WERE actually me, and what I would do in this situation... so without further adieu...

The small Cessna 172 picked up speed as it roared down the runway, Sara at the controls, the flight instructor beside her.

Why had she signed up for this again?? As the plane rumbled louder down the runway, many frightening scenarios flashed through her head.

An engine sucking in a bird, and exploding in a firey ball.

Crash landing on a particularly pointy mountain range.

The plane just -stopping- midair, for no reason at all, and plummeting...

"AAAAAAAAGH!!!!"

White-knuckled and wide eyed, she jolted the steering wheel while still on the ground, and taxied... right into a tree.

Phew, safe! Sara breathed a sigh of relief. The instructor, however, was not as pleased.

"You nut!! You're paying for this damage!"

Yup, I'm a weenie. :)

I'm making two posts today; this one, and Wordless Wednesday next, because I have some awesome photos I want to share!

No more furniture.

2010-05-18T14:28:00.003-04:00

So I had a big, long, detailed and somewhat humorous post written up on our trial and tribulation of today - picking up the kitchen set we bought and bringing it home. One table, four chairs, shouldn't seem like that big of a deal. But between my car not wanting to start this morning, nearly sneaking into a Bojangles for napkins to clean up oil in the AutoZone parking lot, chair boxes the size of elephants, surly warehouse workers, FOUR trips to the furniture store (one of which was not in our own vehicle), and many tiny foam balls flying around my car like an evil snowglobe... it was a LOT of trouble. And a lot of heavy lifting.

I deleted the post because it was VERY lengthy and wordy, and I'm not into the mega-long posts at any rate.

Some assembly required means YOU WILL PUT THIS ALL TOGETHER YOURSELF and I currently have the table assembled, along with one chair that is a little tippy for some reason unbeknownst to me, and completely makes me angry because it is tippy and I spent an hour on it. The rest of them can either put themselves together or go stuff it, because my lower back feels like it's been pounded into about 50 pieces at this point. (Or they will wait until Matt can come help me.)

My giveaway is going to be extended until Friday, because it's been pretty rainy here and I haven't had a chance to get to the beach. :( I could have gone today, as it finally cleared up some, but I was too occupied with trying to wrangle chair legs and backs and cushions into something that won't fall apart once you decide to sit on it.

I guess I'll try my luck at another chair. But if it's tippy, I swear I'm going to run shrieking into the forest! You'll see me on the news, "Deranged unemployed woman runs willy-nilly into some tall underbrush, screaming about allen wrenches! She's crazier than a sack of ferrets; film at 11."

Stuff it!

2010-05-17T12:23:00.002-04:00

So, I woke up this morning to find an e-mail from the place I interviewed last week saying, in similar terms, thanks but no thanks.

Wait, what?? WHAAAAT? The interview that I thought went really well?? So now I am confused, and back at the drawing board. I guess it was nice of them to at least let me know, but I still hope their building burns down in a firey blaze of terror-filled shrieks that can be heard two counties over.

*charming smile!*

So yes, they can stuff it. I hope whoever they pick has really bad body odor!

.. Okay, now I'm done. Honest!!

In my unemployment phase, I have been reading a lot of books. I am BFF with our local library and their online reservations database, so I'm hoping to post some book reviews once I finish the one I'm currently working on. My question to you fellow reader-types ... any suggestions for new books? I'll read pretty much anything, but sometimes historical non-fiction will put me to sleep. Example... I checked out Skeletons on the Zahara a few weeks ago, as the description on the back looked like a great read! Fast forward to a few days later, where I have the prologue and about half of the first chapter under my belt, and I find this book is about as interesting to me as a sack of old boots. Hey, I tried! ;)

Suggest away!

All right, that's all from the seaside for today. It's rainy and gloomy out, so I think I'm going to set myself up with a movie! And don't forget about my giveaway, it ends Wednesday and it's right over there. :)

So much pink!

2010-05-16T15:58:00.002-04:00

Hi all!

Not much to say today, we had a BUSY weekend, which included changing the oil in my car, washing both of our cars, an amazing brunch on the beach, and watching Zombieland! So while I rest and recharge for the rest of the day, I'll leave you with a somewhat old photo.

Matt took me on a big trip to Disneyworld in April 2007. These are some of the flamingoes at the Animal Kingdom park! They were SO pink and looked so soft; I wanted to take one home in my purse. :)

Hope y'all had a good weekend... don't forget to enter my giveaway! (It's the entry before this one, I'm too wiped out to find the link! LOL) :)

Blogoversary & Giveaway! It's here!!

2010-05-14T11:27:00.005-04:00

Holy crap, guys! As of May 19th, my blog will be one year old!! How freakin' exciting is that?? I never knew when I started blogging that I would have so much fun and be introduced to so many amazing people, but it's all true. So thank you, yes all of YOU, for being your awesome selves and helping Sami by the Sea along through its very first year. (Awwww.)

For my birthday blog celebration I'm hosting a giveaway! It's nothing huge, as I am surely unemployed (hopefully not for much longer!), but I wanted to do this as a way to say thanks to all of you in a hand-made, sea-like way...

I've recently discovered these tiny little jars, and have been traipsing about the beach (the non-touristy areas, I mean, who wants to traipse with tourists and their band-aids anyways?) collecting sand and shells and arranging them just so. It's a great way to bring that beachy feel into your home; as you can see, this one is on my kitchen windowsill.

You can get a better judge of size in this photo with the votive candle! What I enjoy about these little jars is the size of the shells needed. I have a few other glass vases around the house like this, one is long and rectangular, and one is a large glass bowl. I can use bigger shells for those obviously, but the tininess of the shells needed for these jars is what makes it so awesome! I find a lot of times the you'll find the little baby shells completely intact, not broken in half or chipped. I like to use them alongside chipped pieces of bigger shells with really fun colors and textures. :)

Here you can see a little more detail on the top layer of shells. The barnacley piece on the bottom was a really awesome find, and added some fun variety along with the pure black shell and the orange one with the snail pattern. :)

SO! THE GIVEAWAY!

One lucky reader will be receiving two jars of their very own, complete with the freshest beach sand my feet have ever laid eyes upon (huh?) and your own personal assortment of hand-picked fresh outta the tide shells. (I find the best specimens when I walk right at the waterfront.) I'll send you the two jars, the shells packaged carefully in their own little bag, and the sand in another separate bag, so you can assemble them however you want at home.

My jar has about 14 small shells in it, so it's not completely full. If you want more shells than that, like to fill the jar up all the way to the top, just let me know! I'm always happy to hang out on the beach for more time... ;)

Since the winner will receive two jars, you can either assemble them as I did mine, or dump all of the sand into one and all of the shells into another for fun variety. The choice is YOURS! :)

HERE ARE THE RULES!
They are very easy! You won't have to promise me your first born,
or recite Jabberwocky backwards in Pig Latin.
(I don't like contests that make you jump through a lot of hoops!)

RULE 1
Be a follower of SbtS, and leave a comment!
Tell me what one of your favorite things about going to the beach is.

(OPTIONAL) RULE 2
Blog about this giveaway! Leave a separate comment with a link to your post.

DONE! Totally easy peasy. I'll choose a winner on Wednesday the 19th. Happy entering, and happy Friday! :)

WORDY Wednesday! Cheers & Jeers & Shinies are here...

2010-05-12T12:48:00.003-04:00

I usually post a super-cool photo for Wordless Wednesday. What, it's not a cop-out on not writing a post! My pictures are awesome! But today...

TODAY, can't be wordless. Too much has gone on in the past few days to keep my trap shut about it, so I'm going against convention and doing WORDY WEDNESDAY. And it will be done in three categories; Cheers, Jeers, and Shinies. Unfortunately Jeers has to come first to be chronologically correct soooo...

JEERS!

My car failed inspection! What in the world?! I didn't even think I NEEDED an inspection; heck, in Maryland they inspect it every two years. They don't even do 'em in Florida! So when I went to re-register my car online it asked me, "Is your inspection current?" Well, heck if I know. Oops! It's not. Actually, it's 10 days overdue. Better get that taken care of!....

Two of my tires are really bad, like the tread is almost gone and you can maybe see a little bit of the metal from the bands inside showing. (I know this because we rotated my tires this weekend. Aha!) But who checks tires on an inspection, anyway? In Maryland, they just eyeball your car, stick some kind of beepy meter in your gas cap thing and hook some doodad up to your tailpipe for a minute and let you go. In Florida, they don't even do THAT! At any rate, I need two new tires and an alignment before my car will pass. Sheesh.

Yesterday was a bad day. I whined, I bemoaned my fate, I stuck my head under some blankets and boo-hoo'ed. I'm tired of things going wrong and costing money! But luckily, I had some "emergency" money set aside that I will begrudgingly use for two new tires and yadda yadda gimme a registration for another year please.

Okay, now that that junk-ola is out of the way.

CHEERS!

I had a job interview today! That I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT! So excited, I had to break out the caps for nearly that whole sentence. It's for a front office position at an optometry office, and I think the interview went AMAZINGLY well, so please keep your fingers, toes, eyes, arms, legs, and antennae if you have them crossed for me!! I need this job like vodka needs cranberry juice (or whatever juice of your choosing) and it would be right up my alley. So natch, very optimistic about that.

And, I came home today to find that my flowers I had planted this weekend are beginning to sprout!! Two of my four pots (the marigolds and one of the mixed pots) have little baby sprouts in them, and I pretty much did a Snoopy Dance of Happiness right there. I'm surprised because the packaging said to expect sprouts in 12-14 days... I'm not using regular soil, but potting soil made specifically for starting seeds so maybe that's why.

And of course, I took some pictures. No, I haven't uploaded them yet. Gimme a week ... or two.

SHINIES!

Krysten is an awesome lady and she lives over at After 'I Do', and she's having a giveaway for this gorgeous little number riiiight here:

Isn't that little sparrow necklace the *cutest*?? I'm trying my darndest to win it, and should you think it's the *cutest* as well, visit her and enter here!!

... All right, that's all I've got! .... Okay, maybe just one photo.

This is one of my favorite photos I've taken, of a girl angel statue in a quaint, charming little outdoor shopping area here called Lumina Station. I really like the composition, and the light was working just right for me. :) The statue has such a great shape that I couldn't resist getting just the right shot.

Okay, NOW I'm really done.

A Beach PSA - Keeping it Clean

2010-05-10T15:58:00.005-04:00

Whilst strolling the beach this weekend, leisurely, I found myself somewhat amazed that it wasn't even full blown tourist season yet, but the beach was still... dirty.

Okay, before I continue on with my rant, I'll have you know the city did a complete beach restoration two months ago. On the whooole thing. It was nourished and cleaned and there were cranes and large official-looking pipes and it was a metric butt-ton of work, I'm sure.

Now here I am, wrinkling my nose at things in the sand that sooo should not be there.

You may or may not (likely not) remember my beach PSA from last year about keeping your bathing attire classy at the beach (go read it, it has pictures!), so to follow suit, I give you my newest beach public service announcement...

DISGUSTING THINGS THAT I CANNOT STAND SEEING LEFT BEHIND ON THE BEACH!!!
(otherwise known as, 'Clean Up After Your Damn Selves'!!)

We'll start with the big baddie, the grand poo-ba, the worst of the worst to nearly smush your bare foot upon as you're walking...

1. USED BAND-AIDS

UGH. Seriously. UGH. To me there is absolutely nothing that squicks me out more than seeing a tired old Band-Aid, all crumpled over and stuck to itself in the sand. ARGH. Even thinking about it gives me the willies. (Aren't you glad I'm not using photos for this post??) Luckily I haven't seen this very often. However, this is a disgusting, vile breach of not only littering but personal hygiene that should never ever be broken.

It's okay to have a boo-boo on vacay. But please, keep an eye on it. If your Band-Aid falls off? Pick it up! If you want to change your Band-Aid? PLEASE bring your old, nasty crusty one to the trash can; there are receptacles on the beach for this very reason! Sure, it may have been covering something simple like a shaving nick on someone's leg, but all I can visualize is it being stuck over Little Billy's pus-oozing spider bite. BLARGH.

(I have the willies again!)

2. SODA CAN POP TOPS AND BOTTLE CAPS

I love stepping on an old bottle cap when it's upturned and all the little prongs are facing upwards. No, really! It keeps me alert.

...

I'm okay if the college kids want to drink on the beach. (I'm not a huge proponent of beach boozers though, as extreme heat + beer or liquor generally = worst hangover EVER) However, trash cans. There must be room in your coolers or whatever for the tiny little caps and tabs that are there to open your delicious libation. The bottles and cans clearly make it to the trash or recycling somehow, because the beach never resembles a cooler full of (empty) Michelob bottles. What about the rest?

Think of Little Billy, romping joyously in the surf as he stumbles and falls and thumps his head upon the sand whereupon YOUR misplaced bottle cap, prongs up, digs into his soft and sensitive cheek. Great, now he's bleeding and hollering and needs a Band-Aid. And we all know where THOSE end up, right? (See above.)

3. CIGARETTE BUTTS

I am so, so happy that the city is having meetings regarding prohibiting smoking on the beach. These almost give me the willies as much as Band-Aids, because you KNOW that the gnarly filter stubbed out into the sand has had some creepy stranger's lips wrapped around it for a good 10 minutes, puffing away. Again, BLARGH.

Do smokers care that they're walking on other people's cigarette butts? Because as a non-smoker, I think it's pretty yuck-o. Would YOU want to walk in a giant ashtray? That's pretty much what it is; a pretty localized ashtray of discarded filters. Seriously, if can't you go for 2 hours without smoking on the beach, you may want to try investing in some Nicorette. And I'm sure the folks behind you who are downwind of your evil smoke puffings would gladly pool together some cash to get you a pack.

But yeah, if smoking does become prohibited on the beach, I would do the Snoopy Dance of Happiness. On the beach. In my bikini. ... Well, maybe in my backyard and fully clothed, but I would still be dancing with JOY!

4. THE RANDOM EMPTY SANDWICH BAG

I usually find these guys mingling about in the tide, half-full of sea water and looking suspiciously like a dead jellyfish. (Don't touch, they could be faking.) The water makes them look all the more slimy. Yech.

What the heck was in this? A sandwich? Some Cheetos? Your cellphone? Suntan lotion? A collection of used Band-Aids that now, since the bag has drifted away, are aimlessly scattered around the general vicinity?

A tip - once you take something out of a plastic bag, if you can't find a proper receptacle to stow it in until you can get to a trash can (like say, oh, your beach bag? the cooler a foot to your left?), put some sand in it to hold it down. Then, remember to take it with you when you leave. AND you get some beach sand as a souvenir, it's win/win!

5. LOTS AND LOTS OF NAPKINS

Little Billy goes to get a hotdog for lunch, and comes back with enough napkins to clog a toilet bowl with. Of course, it's destined that at least half of those napkins are going to take a flight of fancy when a strong gust goes by, scattering along the beach like grains of rice on a wooden floor. (Or uncooked spaghetti... ugh.) Mr. Billy Dad may try to chase after all of them, but that would make him look like a moron, so he may try for a quarter of a second before he sheepishly sits back down and ignores the world from behind his Maxim magazine.

Someone else will get them, he thinks! They'll all get picked up eventually! No, they won't Mr. Billy Dad, you should be getting them... But instead one can only hope that the only thing you'll get is a bill from the ER, after a particularly crotchety seagull tries to eat a wet piece of YOUR napkin bundle, thinking it a tasty treat, and upon finding it just another wasteful piece of paper flies into a rage, bombarding you and pecking your eyes out.

Okay, I'm done! ;) But seriously, there's enough bad juju assaulting our poor environment right now (hello, massive oil spill?) and it makes me sad that people who come to enjoy the nature and beauty of our awesome coastline can't care enough to leave it as clean as it was before they got there. I hope that one day I can walk the beach without having to see any of the above mentioned yuckies, or any yuckies at all. :)

Saturday Centus & Pre-Blogaversary!

2010-05-09T18:54:00.004-04:00

The awesome Jenny Matlock has started a new writing meme that I'm really excited about! She'll post an 100-word starter prompt, to which you use your writing skillz (!) to finish the short story in 100 words or less. It's called the Saturday Centus and my entry is below; Jenny's prompt is first in blue, and my finish is in purple. Go check it out via the button below. :)

My untied shoelace changed my life. As I leaned down to re-tie it, I kicked away a few leaves. When I turned my head slightly to look where the leaves had been, I was astonished to see a rubber-banded wad of hundred dollar bills nestled in a little indention in the muddy ground.

I should never have picked up that money.

Hurried footfalls out of the park, trying to be discreet. A chill up my spine. Something wasn't right here, and regardless of the other activity about it suddenly seemed eerily quiet to me. Had I stumbled upon some sort of sinister dealing?

A glance back over one shoulder barely caught the two men following me. My heart skipped a beat, and the blood in my veins momentarily turned to ice. I had little choice. The money was dropped, and I took off like a shot.

The chase was on.

* * *

My little ol' blog is having its 1-year anniversary in a week or so! NO WAY! (Yeah way!) So I'm going to be having a little giveaway that I'm excited about... what, you want hints as to what it's going to be? It's cute, little, full of local awesomeness, and made by ME! So yup, it'll be awesome! ;)

Trying some flowers! (& an award!)

2010-05-08T16:52:00.005-04:00

So today I took some of these...

and planted them in all of these...!

(No, not my sneakers!)

The big bag of mixed flower seed was given to us as a gift, and I bought the marigolds and cosmos at Lowes today with some potting soil. I've never planted *anything* before, so I'm excited to see how these turn out!! (Hopefully good!!) I've got them in a good spot for morning sun and will be watering them every morning when I wake up. So ... fingers (and flower stems) crossed for me! I'll keep you posted on my flower progress. :)

I planted the marigolds in the big brown pot, the cosmos in the green one, and the mixed in the two smaller ones. I chose marigolds and cosmos because I read that they were good 'beginner' flowers, and do well in containers. Lets hope so...

* * *

In other news --

I recently received this award from the awesome, bomb-tastic Shelley Ann at Painting the Memories! Yaaaaaaay!! She's an awesome gal who writes some really fun blog posts and has just done an awesome book review on The Lovely Bones... go check her out! You won't be disappointed!! :D

The rules for this award are -

*give this award to 10 (I'm only going do 5 - me too!) sweet and friendly bloggers
*make a post about the award including the picture and mention the person who gave it to you
*put the award on your blog
*let your nominated 10 (5) know you've awarded them by leaving a comment

I'm bestowing upon these five lovely blogs -

Sunny Sweet Pea
Me: Daily
From Lazy to Lady
Have We Met?
Teasingly Diverse

Yay for weekend awards and good stuff! Speaking of weekend stuff... I hear Matt in the guest bathroom with a ratchet and some other tools... argh... think I'll go investigate this a little bit! ;)

Talkabout Thursday!

2010-05-06T14:03:00.003-04:00

Sorry this Talkabout Thursday is a little late! I forgot to set this to post overnight... oops, must have been all the Cinco de Mayo margaritas!! ;) (Or the massive sunburn I have on my back, ARGH!)

Anyway, without further adieu...

What is YOUR dream job?
(Emphasis on the word *dream*; as extravagant as you like!)

The idea for this question actually came to me yesterday; we were walking on the beach on a warm sunny morning yesterday, when I started to talk about how awesome it would be to own a bed and breakfast right on the beach. Last May we went to an amazing B&B in Savannah and I've been so hooked on the idea since then! There are so many huge, charming, beachy houses on the beach...

... Like this one!

(I didn't take this picture. But the house sure is cute!!)

Each guest room would be decorated in shabby-chic beach decor with comfy beds and fluffy pillows, ceiling fans, and wide open windows with a great view. And each room would have a fun beach-bird name, like the Sandpiper, or the Crane. I'd want no more than 4-6 rooms for a really cozy atmosphere. Local newspapers are complimentary, wi-fi is free, and concierge service? We'll happily hook you up with some of the best things to do on the shore.

We'd cook up a tasty, diverse, and fresh breakfast every morning so our vacationers could meet each other and chat over raspberry ricotta tarts and fresh fruit juices (mmmmm), and set out bottles of awesome local wines with complimentary local cheese platters in the evening for a relaxed rest on the balcony after a long day of sunbathing and sightseeing.

There would have to be a small garden at the very least, with pink rosebushes, azaleas, and of course, palm trees! A bubbling fountain and a swinging seat would be nice, but a hammock tucked off to one side would be even nicer for an afternoon siesta.

Every awesome B&B needs a friendly housepet to befriend & charm you during your stay. Our cats -- Finn the Scaredy Cat and Kerri the Spaz -- would not be allowed to apply for this position! A demure housecat and perhaps a small well-behaved dog would be chosen. They'd need to fit the beach attitude lifestyle -- relaxed, laid-back, friendly, and the ability to nap anywhere on the premises comfortably!

I don't have a name for my dream house yet, though. That's a work in progress!

...

Okay, now you know my secret dream is to be a B&B owner! Once I win my first million and get this started, you're all invited out for a complimentary evening on me. ;)

Okay, your turn! I'm totally done rambling now, I promise!

Tomorrow I have to remember to post my award! So stay tuned! And hang in there, it's almost the weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - Not Quite Butterflies..

2010-05-05T10:11:00.003-04:00

A caterpillar relaxing on a branch at Harry P. Leu gardens. :)

I'll be back to my regular schedule soon, y'all!

Accomplished!

2010-04-30T15:23:00.003-04:00

So as of 2:30 yesterday afternoon, my bankruptcy petition was signed by moi and I have officially filed for bankruptcy. (If you're sitting here going, wait WHAT?, you can reference my original post here!) It's been so much work up until this point for me and now that I've signed off on it all, I can sit back and relax for a little bit. And there's still work to be done, but such a huge step is out of the way that I can't help but go, WHEEEEEE~! :)

I spent my day today cleaning the heck out of this house, and it looks beauuutiful now! :) We're having some great friends from out of state over this weekend so I'll be MIA for a bit, but I hope everyone has a great and refreshing weekend with lovely weather! :D

Talkabout Thursday!

2010-04-29T09:34:00.004-04:00

I was so tired last night, that I forgot to set this to post early this morning! Oops! Well at any rate, here's today's Talkabout Thursday question..

Do you collect anything? If so, what? Is it a big collection?

I collect ... stuffed lobsters! Altogether I have about 20 of them; most of them are smaller (the size of your hand) but I have a few bigger ones, and one -really- big one that sits on the arm of our armchair. :) I have a much smaller collection of 'maneki-neko' (the Japanese lucky cat with one paw in the air), and only have three of those.

Here is my favorite maneki-neko!

Leave your Talkabout in a comment, and happy almost-weekend!! :)

Wordless Wednesday - Sweet Treats

2010-04-28T09:38:00.007-04:00

I got a package from my mom yesterday...

Handwriting meme.

2010-04-27T13:39:00.004-04:00

So I saw this fun meme on a few blogs recently, and I decided I wanted to play! :)

Write down the following, take a photo of it, and post it - The Handwriting Meme!

1. Name & blog name
2. Right handed, left handed or both
3. Favorite letters to write
4. Least favorite letters to write
5. Write 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.'
6. Write the following words in all caps.
CRAB HUMOR KALEIDOSCOPE PAJAMAS GAZILLION
7. Favorite song lyrics
8. A special note or drawing

Ugh, thank goodness I don't have to write out all my posts... kinda tedious! ;)

In other news, in case you haven't visited lately, I finally have a layout that I love and am happy with here! Woohoo! I'm also going to be replying to comments via email now, so if you use Blogger make sure your 'show email' option is checked under your settings tab so it'll be able to get to you.

That's all for today! Matt is out of town for the WWW2010 conference in Raleigh for a few days, so I'm going to spruce up the house before we have guests this weekend. Yay for prettifying stuff! :)

Oh, Paula Deen... The Better-For-You Nuggets!

2010-04-26T10:34:00.005-04:00

I'll admit it, Paula Deen is one of my Food Network faves. She's happy, spirited, has a great charming Southern home in lovely Savannah, and she loves what she does. (AND I have an autographed cookbook with my name in it!) My only complaint? She may love it a little *too* much.

Some of her recipes are a little ... much. On the butter side of things.

A few months ago, I made this recipe. (Paula Deen's Homemade Chicken Nuggets) I was a little confounded by the melted butter, especially as I was pouring it over the greasy chip-covered chicken that had already been dipped in egg. Was this all really necessary? And yeah, they tasted great, but my eat-healthy side couldn't help but frown at me. So, I made a few changes ...

(Those aren't mine! And I wish my nails looked that nice.. hee hee.)

Take away the potato chips and replace them with ... Total. Yes, Total. Take it, toss it in your blender or food processor, and crumb. I was skeptical (althought not as skeptical as Matt) but it made a nice, dry, tasty, better-for-you crust that actually came out crunchier than the chip coating! Eggs are ok to use, but Egg Beaters are better! And the butter? Not even needed! Serve with warm honey and you have a four ingredient, yummy meal that's great for you and not your average dinner fare. I love making these at home!

I will, though, still wear my bright lime green HAY Y'ALL! Paula Deen t-shirt with pride.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend - the clouds have finally skedaddled here and it's sunny, balmy, and just a great Southern spring day. I've got some plans for a few fun excursions this week to balance out unemployed job-searching Sami with enjoy your time Sami. :) Yay!

Me in 3's!

2010-04-24T11:05:00.006-04:00

The ever-lovely Krysten over at 'After I Do' has tagged me! So I present to you, the Me in 3's, interspersed with some photos I took at Harry P. Leu gardens while I was in Orlando a few weekends ago! Enjoy! :)

3 names I go by:
1. Sami (my nickname)
2. Sara (my real name!)
3. Uhh... hmm... I don't have another one~ ACK!

3 jobs I have had:
1. Taekwondo instructor
2. Veterinary assistant
3. Mortgage loan assistant

3 places I have lived:
1. East Templeton, MA
2. Germantown, MD
3. Wilmington, NC ♡

3 fave drinks:
1. Unsweetened iced tea
(they really sugar the sweet tea up down here! my teeth cry sometimes! LOL)
2. Italian soda
3. An 'Arnold Palmer'
(lemonade mixed with sweet tea... or sweet tea vodka for an adult version! yum!)

3 TV shows I watch:
1. LOST!!!!!
2. The Office
(Slowly catching up, thanks Insta-Netflix!)
3. Anything on Food TV :D

3 places I have been:
1. Boston
2. Disney World!
3. Las Vegas

3 places I would like to visit:
1. Ireland
2. Bora Bora!
3. Germany

3 fave retro TV shows:
(not sure what retro exactly means, but these are some of my favorite old ones)
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Seaquest DSV! Heehee.
3. Freaks and Geeks

3 fave dishes:
1. Sushi
2. Grilled shrimp
3. Cobb salads

3 things I am looking forward to:
1. Being EMPLOYED again!
2. Decorating our house more, once I am employed again!
3. A possible vacation near the end of the year that I'll talk about more down the road. :)

3 people I am tagging:
1. Gnetch
2. Lady Hill
3. Nicole

Blogs of Ye Olde Days

2010-04-23T09:14:00.003-04:00

Did you know ... I had a blogger blog way back in 2001? (Say whaaaat?) For real! I was blogging before blogging was hip! (Is it hip?) I remembered this fact recently and so, this morning I sat down and finagled my way into my old, old blog account back from when I was like, 21. Oh man. OH MAN.

Oh man.

I now present to you, some inviting snippets of Old SamiBlogs from 2001.

7/13/01
My mom wrote a letter to the Wonderbread website. That just beats all. She was pissed 'cuz hamburger buns don't come in packages of four. So she wrote them a damn letter. She was also gonna write a letter to Martha Stewart telling her that the white comforter she bought for my bed sheds and sucks, but there was no e-mail address. INJUSTICE!

1/2/02
LOL, in Subway today I was looking at the list of drinks, and they have like.. blender-made drinks. And they have the QUEEREST NAMES. x_x LOL like one strawberry-banana one was called something weird like Fizzleberry Twister or something. Now is it just me, or would you feel a little retarded requesting a Fizzleberry Twister or a Fruity Mango Swirl? x_x Who thinks up these names? It would be so much easier to say "strawberry-banana" than "Extra Fizzbomb Super Fruit Smasher". And a lot easier to say without getting a little embarrassed..

2/4/02
I have to go to bed so goddamn early it's not funny. I'M NOT LAUGHING. Speaking of not laughing, I forgot my goddamn lunch today so I took my three bucks and went to Stop and Shop and made myself a salad. A SALAD. Their salad bar is 598564 better than ours and I made a nice little one, but a salad only makes me 1% less hungry than I was before I ate it. :( Boo. I don't like dressing on my salad, it makes it pukey. I like lettuce and spinach leaves if they have them and carrots and cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. And some cheese but not a lot. :P YEAH. So you can all go buy me a salad now.

4/9/02
Aaaaa I REALLY need to go to Mailboxes Etc. on my lunch break. x_X I cannot find poster mailers anywhere. Damn USPS! *shakes fists* I will find some.. oh yes.. muahahaaaa.. *swirly*

Not a whole heckuva lot to say. x_x I came into work today and found my phone off the hook. The headset was just sitting on my desk. Hmm.. I've also been seeing witty advertisements on the signboards of local churches. It goes something like this:

"The one thing missing from CH RCH"

Obviously it's U, i.e. you, i.e. propaganda to get lazy heathens to go to church and whatnot. Clever.

I actually picked some of the tamer ones. I was a freakin' exuberant 21 year old, let me tell you what. Hopped up on life and way too much anime, and making posts filled with caps lock, random letter combinations, exclamation points, and lots of these ... ^_^ ... Ayiyiyi. I'm glad I found these though; not only did I discover my reflux started a WAY LONG TIME AGO, before I thought it did (thanks, past self, for chronicling your stomach pains with a lot of 'fushururururu' expressions and ;_; faces) but it's just kinda fun to read back on this stuff and remember ... "Oh yeah...!" Blogger, chronicling memories since 2001.

Happy Friday! I'm going to try and go to the beach today, but the weather's looking a lot more cloudy than predicted. Boo...

Talkabout Thursday!

2010-04-22T05:00:00.002-04:00

Yay! It's that time again! Just grab this button and link back here (or link back without the button!), answer today's question, and ~~sign in on the MckLinky below~~ screw the MckLinky, just leave a happy comment with your answer! :D Then make sure to visit other folks that participate in the Talkabout! :)

Today's question...

Do you subscribe to any magazines? If so, which ones? If not, which ones would you like to subscribe to?

I subscribe to ... Good Housekeeping! Yup! You heard me! ;) Good classic stuff. I would subscribe to The Nest, but I enjoy reading it online too much! And lastly, I used to subscribe to a wonderful magazine called The Sun that's full of wonderful interviews and writing bits, but I can't afford to renew it right now, so I'll just have to wait...

Next!! ♡ ♡

A not-so Wordless Wednesday.

2010-04-21T10:38:00.003-04:00

At first I was just going to post this picture. But then I realized, without the context behind it, it's just a motorcycle. Hence, the not-so Wordless Wednesday. ;)

I received a phone call from my mom on August 7th, 2005. It was a Sunday and probably around 11 o'clock; I was home in my little townhouse in Maryland sewing and watching TV. I never expected to pick up that phone and get the barely audible news that I did - He's dead. Grandpa? No. Dad? Yes.

My dad was a fit guy for 56. He exercised all the time; running, canoeing, martial arts, hiking. He had been mountain climbing with some friends from work that morning when he had just collapsed, and was unable to be resuscitated. They were lucky to be hiking near a husband and wife pair of doctors at the time, who took care of him until the air-lift arrived. But it was still too late.

To this day we're still not really sure what happened. My dad had always been a smoker, but he was working on cutting back. There was no autopsy done because he had never wanted one, so we could only assume it was a blood clot or some sort of heart failure. Regardless of the reason, it stopped time for us that day.

I'll spare you the majority of the details that followed. My dad had always had a motorcycle, a Harley Sturgis. As far back as I can remember I was going for rides on that thing, putting on my white bike helmet, my mom worrying at the foot of the garage while we took off down the road. He rode everywhere on that thing, alone, with friends, everywhere. So after he passed away, my mom didn't have the heart to sell it, so she gave it to one of his best friends and biking buddies.

This was four years ago. My mom got the above photo on her email recently, as well as a note from my dad's friend. He's restored the bike fully and rides it everywhere! He's also been sick, and his family has fallen on some financial troubles, and he said that many times it'd crossed his mind to sell it, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it because of what it was, and who it belonged to. It really warmed my heart to hear that, that he was keeping that legacy going despite the odds.

So the photo to me is wordless. And now it is to you all, too. (After lots and lots of words...;)

Talkabout Thursday will be posted tomorrow! Have a great Wednesday all!! :D

Bacon cupcakes.

2010-04-19T14:16:00.007-04:00

Yup.

You read that right.

Bacon cupcakes. I'm going to tell you all about them.

These are bacon cupcakes. Notice how they are habitating peacefully in their little box! Our local cupcakery makes some amazing cupcakes, and once in a while they'll do fun and gastronomic flavors like this! We've had them before, and couldn't resist snagging a sweet half-dozen when we heard they'd be doing them again today.

That is real bacon on the frosting! A lot of people have misconceptions about the poor bacon cupcake. A whole cupcake that tastes like bacon?! EW! Fret not, I thought the same thing. But it's a freakin' CUPCAKE, so I gave it a try.

The frosting is lightly sweet and tastes like maple cream cheese. A lot of frostings I'm not so fond of, because they're REALLY sweet, but this is extremely tasty without being overbearing or tooth-softening. The cupcake itself tastes very pancake-esque and is light and fluffy. And the yummy little chunks of bacon on top are a great salty contrast to the sweetness of the cupcake. It's like a breakfast in a muffin cup!

Mine didn't last long, and let me tell you, it was HARD putting down my cupcake to take this photo after my first bite!! SO decadently tasty! It's not a heavy cupcake at all (like a chocolate one would be), so it's hard to keep my hand out of the box after eating just one...

... But I've been eating really good lately, so maybe I'll have another after dinner. ;)

Whaddya think?! Would you eat a bacon cupcake?? :D

Of car photos and pork chops!

2010-04-17T20:27:00.004-04:00

Wowza! Check out the paint color on that car!! Today was a goooorgeous Saturday morning, so we headed downtown for our local Rims on the River event... hundreds of classic cars and motorcycles took up a chunk of the downtown streets, and everything was closed off so we could walk around and admire all of the shinies. SO fun! We spent about two hours out in the sun taking photos, ogling awesome vehicles, and taking photos! I'll post a couple more below... you can always click on them to check out the bigger version... (Did you know that paint above has metallic shinies in it?? Yeah.... big versions are awesome!!)

Our local farmer's market was in full swing! Today was the first day of the year for the farmer's market, so it was DEFINITELY very busy!! So many fresh herbs, veggies, meats, and the flowers.. oohh, the flowers!! Love it! Even local wine and cheese!

Okay, I would ride this pink bike EVERYWHERE!!!! (It has a little painting of the bunny and skunk from Bambi on the side there! And Bambi was painted on the OTHER side!)

And promptly upon returning home, a smidge sunburned... I promptly slept for 2 hours. Gee, what a fun time I am, huh? ;)

I just finished eating dinner; tonight I grilled some porkchops. The ever-awesome Standy asked how I make them ... so I'll tell you!

(Not mine, but they come out looking just like it!)

I used to bread and pan-fry my porkchops, but after grilling them once I'll NEVER go back to that method! They are just so much tastier and healthier grilled, and they always come out so much jucier. I use my Griddler, one of the best birthday gifts Matt's ever gotten me - seriously, you can make EVERYTHING on this thing!! I'll brush the grill pans with EVOO and set it up to heat, wash the chops, and salt and pepper them lightly. Then I'll either do one of two things - dust some of Chef Paul Prudhomme's Meat Magic (YUM) on 'em and toss them on the grill, or sprinkle some fresh basil on them instead. Either way, I'll close the Griddler and with both the top and bottom grill plates pressed on 'em they're done in like 5 minutes. I used to actually brush them with honey pre-grilling, and they came out AMAZING (a little grilled-on honey crust, mmmm), but the honey is SUCH a P.I.T.A to clean off the grill plates that I rarely do it anymore.

So there you have it! I'll dish up either some jasmine rice or french-cut green beans for a side dish, and voila, healthy and tasty!

Hmm... speaking of grill plates, time to go clean those bad boys... 'till next time! :)

Après moi, le deluge // after me comes the flood

2010-04-16T13:23:00.003-04:00

So I was pretty excited yesterday to go and promote Talkabout Thursday out on 20SB and the web and stuff.

But then I got laid off from my job.

...

Uh-huh.

To be honest I sort of saw it coming, if not now than soon, so I'm not completely shocked about it. There just isn't enough business right now to support my position anymore. It's still one thing I really would rather NOT have happen right now (LOL, who would?) but hey, such is life.

And now I'm CONVINCED that there is a little gremlin out there somewhere, who has a list with my name on it, and a bunch of evil hardships I must go through, and he's checking them off one by one and laughing like this - buuuwehehehehhhhhh!

:)

I'm okay though; I had "a day" yesterday of course, but now I'm back on my feet and ready to keep going. After a relaxing weekend, of course. Sitting on the back porch in breezy warm weather with iced tea is pretty necessary right about now! ;)

And I don't care how many things are on that damned gremlins list. Because I'll take them all on.

It's ... here! Talkabout Thursday!

2010-04-15T05:00:00.001-04:00

Hi, hi, hi!!!!! :)

You're here for the new feature here at Sami by the Sea!

It's called ... *drumroll* ... Talkabout Thursday!

Talkabout Thursday is going to be an every Thursday meme that I'll post here (with a MckLinky so EVERYONE can participate, and visit others who participate as well!) with a random, fun, yet thought-provoking question (more than just 'what's your favorite color?' or favorite movie or what have you) so we can not only get to know a little bit about each other, but meet new blogfriends in the process. And here's why I chose the name...

Talkabout - What the heckum is a talkabout? Well, a 'walkabout' is, in short, a rite of passage for Australian aborigines to head out into the desert for a good amount of time on a somewhat spiritual journey to discover things about themselves. So, a talkabout is (theoretically) a time to not only divulge fun stuff about yourself, but to discover more stuff about your friends you didn't know, and THEN to learn even more stuff about bloggers you didn't know to start with and MAKE some friends! WOO! Let's talkabout!!

Thursday - Let's face it. Everyone loves Friday. (Me too!) It's the start of the coveted weekend. Friday has SO many 'Fun Friday'esque memes. Friday always snags the last pair of jeans in your size from the Gap. AND it can eat all the Oreos it wants and never gain a pound. So Friday needs a rest. Thursday, the quiet and often humble prelude to Friday, is getting its comeuppance. ;)

So when you combine them, you get ...

(Yup, I made that!)

Now that all the official blahblah is out of the way, here's how to play every week:

1. Snag that button thar' (r-click, 'save as') and stick it on your Thursday post! Link back to here (nikineu.blogspot.com - or even better, my corresponding Thursday post) so folks can read what everyone else has posted.

2. Answer the question of the day on your blog!

3. Submit *your* Talkabout Thursday URL in the MckLinky below. Commence visiting other awesome folks who have also done steps 1-3, comment on their posts, make friends, have fun! Repeat weekly for best results!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy! (... That was ... dare I say it ... cheesy!)

Here's this week's question...

So 2010 is only 4 (and a half) months in. What do you think has been your biggest accomplishment so far this year? It can be something as big as getting married, to something as small as eating a little bit better at lunchtime.

Mine? DEFINITELY taking the big scary step to file for the BK. It's got such a negative stigma around it but going through the process thus far has given me so much hope and happiness that I'm not worried about anything anymore. :) It's going to be SO worth it when it's all over and I'm happy that I'm going through it positively and with a lot of knowledge on my side.

That, and I've been setting some smaller goals recently, for myself and for the house, and it's exciting to have something fruitful to work towards. :)

Add your post to the LinkyTool below and have a Talkabout!! :D

Your questions, a new blog name, and more!

2010-04-13T14:46:00.003-04:00

Yay! I'm back!! :) We had a faaabulous time in Florida; the weather was great and it was so relaxing! Even if it's just for a few days, isn't it great to just get away once in a while?

I took some great photos, now I just have to find the time to upload my favorites to Flickr and post them here. Maybe this weekend...

Now it's time for me to answer your questions! Yay!! Thanks to the dedicated few that left me something fun to come back to! ♥ ♥ ♥

So without further adieu...

♥ Krysten from After 'I Do' asks:

When you're in a bad mood what's something you do to cheer yourself up?
Naps. Naps ALWAYS help! Sleep therapy...! :) Also, weather permitting, I'll go outside. Being outside has always been very theraputic for me and just sitting outside and listening to the birds for a few minutes is enough to make me go .... ahhhhh.

Favorite dessert?
ALL! ... Well .... since I'm VERY closely monitoring my calorie intake lately, I can't eat as many desserts as I would like! I am a sucker for fondue, though. Chocolate + caramel swirl = awesome!

Favorite place you've ever visited?
A toss up between Las Vegas and my first trip to Animal Kingdom!

♥ Gnetch over at Thank Goodness for the Good Ones asks:

What do you usually do when you're bored?
Sit around on the internet ... and browse .. forrreevveeerrr.... *echoing voice* I like to catch up on or rewatch my favorite TV shows (thank you instant Netflix!) or again, go outside.

♥ Shelly Ann asked what city I was posting from! We were passing through Savannah at the time. We visited last spring and stayed in a bed and breakfast, and LOVED it!! What a wonderful city!! :)

♥ STANDY! ♥ (he gets two hearts, because we've been friends for a LONG time!!) asked:

Would you ever wash your car in a bikini? XD
ARGH! I'd have to go on a SERIOUS fitness plan!! I'm not self conscious, but I want to be in top shape if I'm going to be sporting my bikini anywhere other than beachside.

When would you visit Australia? Them koalas want to play with teh Sami.
NOW! I would sneak a koala home in my suitcase... it's on my list of places to visit before I go four paws up, but saving up some cash first would be a good plan. ;)

Out of all the food that you can cook, which one is your favorite to eat? and which one is your favorite to cook?
My favorite to eat is usually anything that's new or inventive that I haven't cooked before... like things that I try out. It's fun to cook new recipes, and it's fun to eat them!! :D My favorite thing to cook is grilled porkchops... yum... they always come out nice and juicy, and healthy!

♥ Amanda at Teasingly Diverse asks:

How do you post from your blackberry?!
Argh this evil phone! But I use an app called CellSpin; it's free and lets you post from all sorts of social media, not just Blogger or WordPress!

♥ Gasai at Gasai Photography asks:

What is your ideal vacation? (where would you go, who would you go with, and what would you do?)
I'd grab Matt and go on a month (or two!) long tour of Europe, stopping in Germany, Prague, Greece, and Ireland, just to name a few spots! ;) Just touring, photographing, enjoying the culture!

THANKS Y'ALL!!! That was fun! :) Speaking of fun, expect a new and delightfully interactive feature at this blog within the next week! I'm excited for it!!

And speaking of this blog, I've changed the name to Sami by the Sea. Herding Cats was fun, but it wasn't very original (I stumbled across two other people with the same blog name! Egads!) and this one is a little more personal and fun. :)

Now I dare say it's time to catch up on my blog reading... hope everyone's having a sunny week so far!

Road-blogging.

2010-04-07T20:10:00.002-04:00

Hi from Georgia! I'm trying out blogging from my evil Blackberry.. so far so good! Our trip thus far has been uneventful, but we did drive through some waaaay backwoods towns in SC, and one little downtown-esque area that looked just like a 50's zombie town. Eeee...

Anyways, my faithful and bombtastic readers (<3), since I am on vacation and not blogging regularly... I invite you, yes you!, to ask me a question! Whatever you want to know, ask away! By leaving a comment, of course. Lots of folks do this on their blogs to get to know people better, and I think it's a fine idea. So leave a question or two, and I'll answer them all in my next post! (AND post a link to your blog... whoa.. double awesome!)

I think I've seen my fair share of Shoney's billboards for today... later! ;)

Lions and tigers and safari tours, oh my!

2010-04-06T15:14:00.003-04:00

Hi y'all! It's HOT out! On my way home from work, the temperature sign at the gas station said 85... yikes! Too soon! It's almost like we gave spring the old heave-ho a little early and charged right into summer. It's supposed to cool down over the weekend, but phew! so not ready for an April heat wave!

Tomorrow afternoon, we are heading out of town for a long weekend to go here ...

... Yep, gonna hang out under a big ol' tree... heh heh...

Nah, it's a picture of the Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom! We're headed down to Orlando to visit Matt's parents, and as we generally do, peruse a Disney park while we're there. New camera + safari animals is gonna = awesome! We went in 2007 for the first time and it was AMAZING! Disney really did such a great job with this place, and it shows in every exhibit. And if you get the chance to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge... DO IT. Their best hotel in my opinion! It's very Africa-inspired, with lots of sun, dark woods, and plant life everywhere. And the balconies of the rooms actually overlook savannas with real animals! We woke up to giraffes and warthogs every morning. ;) Definitely the coolest. Lots of great memories. (Maybe I'll post some pics of our trip we took then.... hmmmm... I wonder where the hell they are, LOL!)

And tonight?!

My favorite show!!!!!! Only six more episodes!!!! AAAAHHH!!! What am I gonna do?! I'm sure I'll start to cry at them all towards the end of the show, when favorite characters start dying or doing emotional crap or something. AHHH soo good!! Haha, sorry... :)... does anyone else watch LOST? Who's your favorite character? (Mine's Faraday!... But, we haven't seen him anymore.. :( )

Of Bikinis and Bunnies

2010-04-04T10:40:00.003-04:00

Good morning all, and Happy Easter!! :) We forgot to color Easter eggs this year, but my Cadbury creme eggs were hidden around the house this morning when I woke up! ;) Hope everyone has great weather and a lovely day!! ♥ ♥ ♥

ANYWAY, I have a story for you... and would like your opinion! Read on, if you please...

So Friday we decided to walk to the mailboxes to get our mail. Lately our neighborhood is literally Construction Rowe; about 8 houses are going up at the same time so there are workers alllll over the place! (Not to mention dust, lumber, trucks, etc...)

We get to the mailboxes and I look down the road... in front of one of the houses are a young couple washing their cars, in bathing suits. The guy has trunks on and the girl has this little bikini on. Normally, I would say whoopdee doo, except for the following:

1. The house is directly across from the model home. So everyone visiting for information on the 'hood sees Bikini Car Wash.
2. About 50 construction workers swarming all about. Uhhhhh. Yeah. You know what they're thinking about at lunch and beyond. Your scantily clad bum. And bubbles from the soap.
3. Please don't wash your boyfriend's back with the sponge. PLEASE. This just takes it to new levels of ewwww.

My argument was that a little modesty goes a long way, and while it was unseasonably warm (mid 70's) and I'm far from being a prude as far as bathing suits go, it wasn't scorching enough to require teeny bikini carwash. A tank and shorts could easily be washed afterwards, and considering the general busy-ness of the neighborhood, make you stand out a bit less than a sore thumb.

What do you think? Am I being totally over-analytical of this? I just don't know!

FACT - Life Ain't Easy.

2010-04-02T10:58:00.004-04:00

If I am anything in this world, ANYTHING at all, I am living testament to the fact that a) life ain't easy, and b) you can come out on the other side rocking out with a margarita and still be ok. :)

I debated posting about this for a LONG time, because it is kind of personal, but in the end I decided... whoopdee freeeeakin' doo! Yes, this is my life, and this is happening to me, so why should I care who knows? I think I'm at a stage in my life where, after everything that has happened to me, I either have no shame or an incredible amount of resilence. (Or a really sweet combo of both!) And I could write a laundry list of all of the gnarly things that have happened to me over the past five years, including being held up at gunpoint in my own home and going through two breast cancer scares, but that will be for another time. (Maybe!)

Okay. Flash back with me, if you will ...

*Wayne's World 'time-travel fingers' and 'doodly-doo' noises...*

As a young gal I grew up in the middle of nowhereville. I was very naive, because nothing happened in nowhereville so there was no real reason to, you know, be worldly. So when it came time for me to move out into the world with my now-ex-boyfriend from nowhereville to Mega Urban Crazy DC Suburbs... yeah. You don't really realize HOW naive you are until you look back on yourself and see the glaring mistakes you've performed!

Long story short, now-ex and I bought a house. BIG commitment. My naive self was all, wheeee COOL, like, and stuff! Nevermind the fact that I really did not feel ready to purchase a house, and feelings for now-ex(fiance at the time) were pretty wishy-washy at the time, but he was persuasive so voila, house. (Whee, cool, like yay!, etc.)

To make another long story short, our breakup was nothing short of World War Twentyfive, and after many many issues property-wise and aside and failed sales, the house foreclosed. Like, oops! My naive self had since turned into a ball of worry and stress; the time between breakup and foreclosure had been about 2-3 years, in which I had met the amazing dude I'm with today, and moved to this lovely coastline. So that was good. And hey, the economy was (is still?) in the can, so I'm not the only one with a foreclosure on my credit report.

However ...

Often times a foreclosure doesn't mean the end. Remember those back HOA dues? Yeah, they're suing you. And that home equity loan? Oh yeah.. that's still out there. ANOTHER long story short (noting a trend here? ;), the HOA sued and settled against us for a pretty decent amount of money.

Now-ex has lots of money. I, clearly, don't. (Helloooooo full-time job? Are you out there?) He's not paying it, and there was nothing I could do, short of doing nothing and having my bank accounts seized and wages garnished. (Scared yet? Ugh, sounds yucky, right?) And that HEL could sue at any time. Dun dun dun....

So. I am filing for bankruptcy.

Yeah, you heard me. Do not pass go, do not collect ... well, you know.

And you know what??

I haven't felt more hopeful in YEARS.

Sure, bankruptcy is like the big bad, and it's got such a negative stigma around it. The ultimate "oops". And I did make a pretty big oops, so I'm owning up to it. But the feeling of relief I'll get for not having to deal with this anymore, the crap I've been dealing with for almost three years... is SO worth it. No more worry. No more being terrified of strange phone calls, or getting served court papers (THAT was an experience), or being fearful of something as mundane as checking the mail because there could be more evil notices in there... No more sleepless nights wondering what's going to happen next. A fresh start. It's so appealing and EXCITING to me to be able to leave that dreary, horrible part of my past behind.

And sure, it chews up and spits out your credit score, but I already have a foreclosure AND a settlement on there, so what's another turd in the litterbox, as I say? ;) There are a lot of myths about bankruptcy and one is that your credit will be miserable forever, and that's simply not true. I'm working with a great lawyer that makes me feel comfortable and at ease, and there are a lot of steps I'll have to take, but I'm on the road to a new start and that, more than anything, gives me such IMMENSE amounts of hope that ... yeah, it's ok. :) I've got a wonderful support network of people that are taking care of me through this, and I couldn't be more thankful.

So that's my scary story that's really not-so-scary anymore, and I'm stickin' to it! Thanks for reading guys, and thanks for hanging around. I heart you all and being able to get this off my chest is another big step I've accomplished! Now there's nothing to do but look forward.

Looking forward right now ... hmm, is that a bottle of rum on the counter...? ;) I think it is! Happy Friday y'all!! (And I promise, my next post will be MUCH more fun! ;)

Hello, out there! We're startin' up!

2010-03-30T20:50:00.003-04:00

Okay! HI!

Wow, the Blogger interface looks a little foreign... welcome back, me! :)

Now that I'm (finally) ready to blog again, I'm totally going to renovate this thing from the ground up. New layout, new name (maybe?), new content -- I want to post 3 times a week MAX, that every day posting thing just ain't my style! I'm excited. :)

And, yes, I've been going through something very scary. But before I post my story on that, I wanted to make this post first.

I'm SEVERELY going to be cutting down my blogroll. You know, in the whole renovation spirit. There are a lot of y'all that I read and comment on that also read over here, and I give you muchos smooches for it, but there are also a lot of people I read that I'm usually number 56 in their post comment total of 284, and that's no fun. So I'm working on weeding the blogs out that I just don't feel connected to! Slowly but surely.

So, for all 10 of you that still have me friended and read here (LOL), do me a favor and leave me a comment here so I make SUPER SURE to keep connected! I'll appreciate it, because my poor Google Reader is SUCH a mess, and at this rate I'm more likely to just junk the whole thing and start from scratch.

Ok, done! Since it's time for LOST (eee!), and also since you've read this far, here's a photo of the awesome sky I took yesterday! Some big ex-rain clouds rollin' on out of here... :)

2010-03-04T13:17:00.002-05:00

Hey there blogfriends -

So it's been almost a month since I've posted.. I know, I'm awful. I'm also going through something pretty big and pretty scary right now, and while I'm not quite ready to talk about it, let's just say it's been a long time coming and it's not quite what people may think. So natch, I really haven't been feeling creative enough to blog lately.

I took a big step today towards doing what I have to do, so give me a little time to get some stuff under my belt and I'll come back to tell you all about it. :) I hope everyone is doing well, and is happy, healthy, and warm.

xoxo
Sami

Mini-Vaca time!

2010-02-09T20:42:00.003-05:00

So on Thursday, I'll be heading up north for a little bit...

... for a lovely 5 night, 6 day stay in our nation's capital! Mr. Cats has a big science conference/convention up there he is attending, so I am tagging along for a mini-vacation! ;) The best part is it's mostly all paid for; hotel, travel fees, and a good portion of the meals are on the company. I've been anticipating this for months now and it's almost here!!!! :D I'm SO EXCITED to get away for a little while and relax in a fancy hotel, eat yummy food, and do some sightseeing.

Now, I lived in the DC suburbs for 5 years, and there are some things I am DYING to do again now that I'm going to be in the area... visit all of my favorite little restaurants... head over to the Smithsonian and some of the monuments with my new camera... we are going to hang out with my old work friends Friday night and EVERYONE is excited! :D

I think the best part of this is that we're going to be able to spend Valentines Day together! We weren't able to last year, so this year we have reservations at a fancy Italian restaurant Saturday night (because he has a meeting Sunday night and we didn't want to rush our dinner), and it will be tasty and lovely. :)

Hopefully the snow will stop after this last mini-blizzard so getting around won't be too troublesome. I heart the Metro!

And I'll probably be Tweeting more than blogging over this long weekend, so if you're not already following @mufasa, that's me. :)

Okay, I'm off to snuggle up on the couch and get ready for LOST!

It's workin', it's workin'!

2010-02-07T20:16:00.002-05:00

So it's definitely well into February by this point (and I'm chilling on my couch watching the Superbowl - Go Saints!) and I'm thinking about my New Years Resolution for this year - get in shape! And we've been doing - exercising for at least an hour every day with either yoga, cardio, and weight training. And it's working out GREAT! I used to be sluggish but now I have so much more energy. And it's only been about 30 days but I have been noticing some minor changes body-wise for the better -- while I only weigh about 122, I've got some big ol' thighs and hips, and the dreaded stomach pooch. Not so much anymore!

I think the hardest thing in this regimen is to EAT BETTER. Ooohhh today I had a MAJOR cheeseburger craving when we were out at lunch! But I did the good girl thing and ordered the grilled chicken wrap. (And it was DARN yummy!) Here are some of the things I've been doing lately, and some I've been doing for a while, that are little changes that are definitely helping!

- Cheese. Oooohhh mommy do I love cheese. (At lunch sometimes, years ago, I used to just go to the grocery store and buy slices of mozzarella and eat them... oh so bad!) But yeah, I haven't met a cheese I don't like. It's tough to not eat cheese, but the Laughing Cow makes some absolutely AMAZING 80 calorie cheese wedges. I was skeptical at first. 80 calorie cheese? Yeah, probably tastes like mulch. Not so, my friends - this cheese has BIG taste with little calories. Love to spread it on some low fat Ritz and go to town!

- Cream cheese. Sort of on the cheese bandwagon; there was a time where I was having a bagel LOADED with cream cheese every morning for breakfast. (That must be where those thighs came from...) Unlike the Laughing Cow, low calorie cream cheese just tastes like poop to me, so I won't eat it. Thusly I haven't had ANY bagels and cream cheese at all this year! I've actually been making a lot of fruit smoothies for breakfast with bananas or mangoes, nonfat yogurt, and nonfat milk. They're surprisingly filling! And fruit is yum!

- No soda. I stopped drinking soda a few years ago actually and I remember when I did; within weeks I felt SO much better and had actually lost a few pounds! Very very rarely will I have a soda, and it's always when we're out somewhere. But I remember when I used to stock the fridge with that stuff weekly... ugghh...

- No fast food. This isn't really tough for me because I don't really eat a lot of it to start with, but sometimes the Burger King down the street just smells too good to pass up. If we get a fast food craving we'll usually hop down to Chik-Fil-A, they have some major yummy chicken wraps!

- Starbucks. Oh white chocolate mocha. (And all of those tastily evil holiday mochas!) SO yummy. This is a REALLY HARD ONE!!! Starbucks used to be a staple for us. It still is, but not as much; I'll go maybe once a week, if that, and when I do I usually get a hot tea or a light tea latte. Their Awake latte is amazing, and a tall nonfat is only 120 calories!

- Sodium. My mom actually got on my case about this; what in the world?! ;) Anyway this is a toughie too, there seems to be a decent amount of sodium in EVERYTHING. :( A lot of the frozen healthy meals I get are packed with sodium unfortunately, so I can't always rely on that for lunch. It seems the only way to really do this one is to eat a lot of fresh, organic ingredients every day and that can get a smidge more pricey than a Smart Ones out of the freezer section.

Okay, enough babbling out of me. :) Any tips that you find work well? Let us all know! And if I hear either that Jay-Z/Rihanna song OR any more out of Daughtry *barf* on this Superbowl anymore, I'm turnin' it off!

I don't even...

2010-02-06T09:56:00.004-05:00

There are no words for this:

Miley Cyrus' 9 year old sister launching a lingerie line for kids

Oh wait, yes there are; how about disgusting, grossly inappropriate, and trashy. I think those all work fine here!

Whatever happened to playing Barbie and running around in the mud and playing kickball until it got dark? Why must young girls feel the need to be SO sexualized so young?? At that age you really can't comprehend long division, much less the complicated world of sex and lust and the feelings that go with it. Who the hell are they going to WEAR this stuff for anyway? Any parent that even considers buying this trash for their little girl needs a swift kick to the ovaries.

Sigh. This makes me sad. :(

V-Day on a Budget, Right Here!

2010-02-01T20:06:00.010-05:00

So it's less than two weeks away from the holiday of hearts, Valentine's Day! Some people aren't into this holiday ("it's sooooo commercial, blah blah card companies just want our money", well it's only as commercial as you make it! baha! so there! *heehee*) but if you are a total fan (like me!) and if you're on a budget (again like me!) there's still lots of ways to enjoy the holiday. :) I decided to make up a little list and post it here for others who are in the same boat!

CANDY
(my favorite ones are the yellow ones!)

Let's admit it, this holiday has some pretty great tasty stuff. Candy hearts at the top of the list, cinnamon hearts, marshmallow peeps (yeah, they have those on other holidays, but they are one of my faves!) A favorite candy or candy bar is a sweet gift!
Even better IMO, make your own delish treats! I made some amazing chocolate truffles a few years ago - it was easy and cheap with only 4 ingredients, the majority of which I already had at home. And they were SO yummy! Candies, cookies, little cakes... yum, yes please! There are recipes all over the internet, so check it out!

SWEET NOTHINGS

Yeah, love notes are a little sappy, especially if one or both of you aren't the romantic type. In lieu of the smoochiness, maybe make a cute list of 10 or 20 things that you love about your SO, little things they do that make you all fuzzy inside!
Make your own card! If you're anything like me, you've got some spare scrapbooking paper laying around. Have at it! You can even tuck that awesome list right inside your fab card. Double whammy! ;)

I.O.U NOTES

I did this one year and it went over FABULOUSLY well!! You can purchase these online and fill in your own stuff (or even find some free ones to print out!), but that can be costly and as I am a crafty dame, I found making my own was much more fun and personal. :) Feel free to make them as PG (good for one car washing, will cook you one dinner of your choice) or as naughty (good for one shower together, good for one blanking of my blank with your blank ;) ) as you like. A combination of both is always nice too.
A nice lasting twist on this is to create 52 IOU cards and have your SO pick one out of a cool little bag or box (Yay Michaels run!) each week for a year.

COOK TOGETHER!

Sit down together and plan out a meal to make together. Bonus points if it's something new you've never tried before! I love cooking together; we have a blast in the kitchen and generally make an awesome meal while doing the teamwork thing. :) So light some candles, put on some Sinatra, and get in the kitchen!
I love the idea of a picnic, but it's usually a crummy time of year for that. Be creative; find a cozy little corner or nook in your house or apartment, set down an adorable gingham blanket, and fill a basket with sandwiches, snacks, and some bottled water (or fizzy adult beverages) and enjoy each other's company.

MASSAGE

I've never met a guy that didn't like a massage. (Oh wait... I did... that didn't last long.) I did this one a little while ago too, and massages are ALWAYS a big hit in this household! In fact, it was so awesome, we're doing it again this year! You can go as simple or all-out as you want, but Bed Bath and Beyond usually has a few selections of budget-friendly scented massage oils. I love that place! ;) Light some scented candles, pop in an Air CD, and get some sexy relaxation on!

Okay, that's all I've got! If you've got any suggestions, leave 'em here in a comment, I'd love to hear them!! :D Hope you enjoyed my little write-up of budgety fun stuff to do for (or to!... *heehee* ;) ) the one you heart this year!

I return!

2010-01-29T16:22:00.005-05:00

Hi all! I'm baaaaaa~ck!! :)

... Roll out the red carpet... get the trumpets out... toast with champagne... okay okay, so I was only gone a few weeks, skip all of that noise! (but please keep the champagne.. hee hee..)

Anyways, fanfare aside, it's good to be back. But it was even better to take a break! I really needed it - post-holiday blues, combined with part-time job blues and oh!, I have a strange lump in my breast blues were just really weighing on me. But good news, as my part-time job is keeping us going just fine for now (and I really do have the best boyfriend in the world!), and the lump? Just a fibrous mass and nothing to worry about. YAHOO!! You cannot imagine my relief!! (Or maybe you can...!)

So now that all that hoopla is out of the way .... since I'm part-time now, I have Fridays off. This would be great in warmer weather, but it's sometimes just another day to stay inside because it's too cold out to go anywhere! So today, I made the best of things and made it a movie day. :) One of the movies I watched....?

WALL-E!!!!!!!

I had never seen it before! And I don't want to spoil it for anyone else who hasn't seen it, but I really liked it, even though it got kinda heavy at some points. It was a wonderful story and it really got me thinking... would I like it better to live in a world full of advanced technology (like the Axiom, but WITHOUT all of the floating chairs... uhm... I'd like to continue using my own body thanks!) or a world back in the day (like Wall-E's Hello Dolly film) where times were just simpler. On the one hand, we've made so many leaps and bounds with technology that I can hardly envision living without it -- cell phones and the internet, we can buy things, talk to people, and see photos and videos from all across the globe, and it's made the world such a smaller place -- but on the other hand, back at the beginning of the century, it seems people just had so much less to worry about... people these days are so stressed out... with the economy and money and their health and everything... even though people back then had things to deal with too, it seemed it was just a happier time with much less stress.

I'm not sure what my choice would be!! What about you?

Hope y'all have a great Friday! :) And to anyone caught up in that midwestern snow/ice insanity... stay safe!!!

I am a bad blogger!

2010-01-12T20:58:00.004-05:00

& i will be back soon. :)

A little plug.

2010-01-09T18:43:00.003-05:00

Hey all,

I'm going to make a quick plug for a friend of mine, Anne. She just started her very first blog -- as a New Years resolution, even!! -- and she just joined 20SB but I figured I'd link to it here to get her some more views! :) It's called The Happiest Things and, while it isn't nearly as verbose as other blogs, the message it aims to get across speaks volumes. I'm following her with my Google Reader and it's great to get a little gem of optimism in my reader every day! So please give her a visit and show a new blogging girlie some love! :D

We have been SO BUSY today! I bought a new curtain valance for over our sink and it's just charming. :)

Snow time...?

2010-01-07T19:23:00.003-05:00

So, I know the most of you have seen snow so far this year... it's been so much colder than usual... but not us yet. It may snow a little bit overnight!

It will be nice, but I, for one, am wanting OUT of this cold snap!!

I don't know about you, but this looks much more appealing to me...

Fun in the sun! Yes please!!

Okay, these vintage bathing suits are AMAZING! I want the one on the left, please! :)
Mmm... can't you just feel the sun's warmth in this picture? I want to bury my toes in that toasty sand!

Sometimes, when the weather gets warm here right before tourist season, I can get to the beach and have it all to myself! Love it...

I love this beachy look! And that necklace is simply awesome.

Hope you all are feeling a little bit warmer than you were earlier! :) I'm going to keep thinking sunny thoughts! (After a little bit of a pretty flurry, that is!)

( all images via weheartit )

It's a new decade!

2010-01-02T13:11:00.004-05:00

Happy 2010 y'all!! :)

Our 2010 was fun but low key... just the way I like it! I soooo don't have the stamina to deck myself out in sequins and stay out until midnight! We went out for some dinner, came home and watched The Twilight Zone till we switched the channel to watch the ball drop. Aaaaand we toasted with champagne cupcakes!! Our local cupcakery has been making them for the new year, and they are VERY yummy with a glass of the stuff, too. :)

I posted a few new pics of Finn over at my photoblog. I think I may be moving it to Tumblr though... more as this develops!

edit Yep, Tumblr is the bomb.... find me here!! There's an RSS feed you can add to your Google Reader if you're so inclined.... ;)!!!

It is CHILLY here in North Carolina this weekend -- okay, in the low 40's and VERY windy -- so we are just laying low and playing a lot of video games in our cozy house! Is it spring yet????

Aahh.... that's nice! :)

New Years: Better Than I Could Say It

2009-12-31T15:33:00.002-05:00

I was just reading through the folks I follow on my Google Reader, and after reading the most recent post over at 1000 Awesome Things, I felt extremely compelled to make a post on my own blog with a link to it.

Everyone's had hardships this year, some more than others, but this post really just makes you realize that ... hey, it's ok!

http://1000awesomethings.com/2009/12/31/601-getting-through-it/

This is a great post that makes me smile regardless of all the stressful, late-night-crying crap that's happened this year. :) Life is GOOD!

New Years & Awards

2009-12-30T15:16:00.002-05:00

Amanda over at Teasingly Diverse hath bestowed an awesome award upon me!! :)

The Happy 101 award!! WOOHOO!!!! :D :D It looks like the rules for this one are to list ten of the things that make you most happy! I was originally going to do photos for each one, but that might take up a lot of space, so without further adieu... the ten things that make me happy as of late... :

tea*sleeping*fondue*birds*my new camera!* yummy scented candles*the beach!*milkshakes*my pink fuzzy socks*and family guy reruns! (heehee)

Now to give this to a few awesome folks! The three bloggers I'd like to pass this one on to are:

smileyfreak*life love & wine*overwhelming fullness like carbonated joy

YAY! I like passing on awards! :)

Soooo regarding my little health issue, I have a doctor's appointment set for Tuesday. I had to call 3 OB/GYN offices to get an appointment; the first one couldn't see me until mid month, the second was closed until next year, and finally the third could get me in. :) Phew! I'm not nearly as nervous as I was; I'm pretty sure it's a cyst, so that makes me feel a lot better!

In the meantime, Mr. Cats' sister and her boyfriend are heading into town tomorrow to spend NYE with us here at the house! Fun!! I'm looking forward to that... lots of tasty food to be had this weekend! :d Mmmm, food.....

So this will probably be my last post until next year, so everyone have a great New Year's Eve and here's hoping 2010 brings you health, happiness, and lots of sunny days!! :D <3

An update?! No way!

2009-12-27T22:50:00.004-05:00

Happy Post-Holidays!

I know I'm not the only one that's been MIA lately... we've all been soooo busy! Crazy holidays! Ours was actually pretty low-key; Mr. Cats and I stayed home and opened our presents from both of our parents and each other, watched Christmas Story, and went out to an amazing sushi bar for Christmas dinner! Yummmm. :)

So overall, there is good news and bad news:

GOOD NEWS
I finally got the Nikon D3000 that I've wanted!!! I started up a little photo blog here - http://ensoh.wordpress.com/ - and am already loving my camera and having a ton of fun learning how to take great photos. :) Please feel free to follow!!

BAD NEWS
Maaaaybe TMI, but I found a lump in my right breast on Christmas Eve - not the best time to find something like that. While it's gotten smaller, it's surely still there, so I'm forseeing a doctor's appointment in my future. Yay for having no health insurance... ugh, more fees that I can't afford! But I can't afford not to get it looked at. Three years ago, right before we moved to NC, my doctor found a lump in my left breast that I had ultrasounded, but the ultrasound showed nothing. I'm hoping this one is equally nothing, or just a cyst or something, but just feeling it there makes my stomach go cold. :( Sigh. I'm VERY nervous. BUT, I'm doing my best to stay optimistic. :)

That's about all for now ... we're trying to figure out where we want to go to dinner for New Years Eve! We'll go eat somewhere and then come home to share a bottle of champagne while the ball drops on TV. :) Nothing better!!

Photo Sat-... err... Friday!

2009-12-19T10:37:00.004-05:00

I'm a day late and a dollar short with this, but this is still one of my favorite photos ever! Taken when the cats were kittens, and lovingly manipulated by me... enjoy! Tis the season!!

Waiting ...

2009-12-14T20:37:00.002-05:00

Don't you just hate waiting on someone for something, when they said they'll be right there, and 45 minutes later, uhhmmm so where are ya??

(Don't tell anyone, I'm actually talking about World of Warcraft; waiting for someone to get back so we can start something... yeah yeah, I play intarweb games!)

Definitely a pet peeve! I hate being late... I'm always early or on time. I feel so bad when I hold stuff up. Guilt guilt!

Anyways ... What are your pet peeves? Aside from waiting on people, I'd say mine are being interrupted when I'm talking, and bad parenting! You know the type, parents in a restaurant with kids, kids screaming bloody murder and flinging porkchops around like it's a rodeo, parents trying to pretend they're on a beach in Cozumel... yeah, not so much!

Baby, it's cold outside...

2009-12-11T10:43:00.004-05:00

Thanks for all your input on my last post! I've been sort of in a "blog rut" as of late; I am blaming the cooler weather personally! Brr! No fun. Today it is 41 degrees but feels 32! AACCCKKK! Guess who's not going outside today?!.... Muahahahaha....

At any rate, I'm sitting here with a microwavable hot pack on the side of my face because I feel like a large man decked me in my jaw in the middle of the night! I have a horrible habit of grinding my teeth and tensing up my jaw when I sleep, so today I can barely open my mouth without any muscle pain. Sheesh! Eating my morning waffles was ... interesting.

And I can't BELIEVE Christmas is a measly two weeks away... aaaack?? Luckily I'm almost done with all of my shopping... it's budget Christmas! ;) One small yet meaningful thing for everyone on my list. That's okay. It's refreshing to push away the commercialism for once and get to the good stuff. A warm house, loved ones, and a cozy blanket in front of the TV with a warm snack? That's all I need. :)

Stay warm out there!!

Oh hi!

2009-12-07T21:29:00.003-05:00

Wow, I've been delightfully absent for a while now. Eek!

I've been doing a -lot- with the holidays here in full force, and I just can't get myself to sit down and think out a post. Isn't that lame?!

I've been thinking about this blog lately and what I want to do with it... I'm pretty sure that I will be getting this for Christmas:

And if that is true I see myself dropping this blog for a photography blog. I've got some really neat ideas in mind, one of them being a project of 52 weeks of creative self portraits (one a week) that I'd really like to hit the ground running on. :D I've already got some fab ideas, and have been perusing other like-blogs with the same idea! (It will have its own URL too, not hosted on blogspot.)

Would you follow a photography blog if I had one? Or should I stick with this?

I think my shots may just be more interesting than my current blog content... ;)