That's Amore!

Well, I decided to be productive today (after 2 hours of Guitar Hero) so I finally finished my long awaited spaghetti cake. The cake is a very dense vanilla and it's DELICIOSO! It was kinda hard to get the bowl shape but I think it's pretty good. Why I made a cake that looks like spaghetti I'll never know.

Fake Rock Star

I'm thinking about spicing things up here at Kimchi central. Usually I just talk about the crap that happens in my daily life but I realize that is probably only interesting to myself and perhaps one or two other people. Nah, probably just me. I mentioned before that I am a bit of a celebrity gossip addict and while there's no shortage of those types of blogs out there, I might have to throw in a juicy nugget here and there. Sadly as I type this, there is no really interesting celebrity gossip aside from Jamie Lynn and her supposed peepaw baby-daddy or non-celeb Mischa Barton and her weed bust so just take this as a glimpse of what's to come. I'm also going to start posting more about the outside world as soon as I decide to venture into it since I've been indoors for the last three days playing Guitar Hero. I have a problem DON'T JUDGE.

Happy Friday.

Look, it's Cakey!

Here's a few pics of the Christmas cake. I am trying to get some others that don't have all that crap laying around it but you get the gist.

You may have observed the bottle of Advil and the cocktail nearby. You may want to reference the earlier Christmas wrap-up post. The cake turned out pretty cute overall. It's only my second go with fondant and my first with a square cake, which is way harder to cover than a round. I also experimented with marshmallow fondant and it was okay but I won't use it to cover anything again until I work with it more. It was kind of a pain in the ass to roll out because it got hard quickly and I couldn't roll it as thin as I wanted. That's why the cake is slightly lumpy. Whatever. It's still cute and we ate it so it's gone.

Making Resolutions Since 1974

Okay, I told myself that I would be better today and actually accomplish something but it's currently 12:54pm and I am still in my jammies. I did have several catch-up phone calls this morning so that took some time and I did manage to clean up the area around my computer but that's pretty much it. I have unfinished window treatments staring at me as well as a pile of laundry that I need a sherpa to scale but what am I doing about it? I'm doing nothing about it. I AM going to shower today since that didn't happen yesterday and I might venture out in public but I'm still on the fence. I still have another 2 weeks of vacation until I start back to school so I figure I can procrastinate anything important for another week or so.

I've decided that 2008 is going to be GREAT! and to make sure that happens, I have a list of things I need to do. Some people call these "resolutions" but I don't like to label. I also feel like if I tell someone, I might actually do it. Probably not so don't get all excited or anything, but a girl can try.

What I'm Doing In 2008 (IT'S GREAT!)

1. posting more pictures on this blog - jesus, it's boring! Why are you here?
2. lose 20 lbs. - I laugh just writing that one
3. be a better cake decorator - my new calling
4. be more organized/stop procrastinating - hmmmm...yeah, that's a longshot, too. Maybe next month.....
5. grow my hair long - takes no effort, might REALLY happen! YEAH!


Well, there's 5 for now. I'm sure there's about a billion more than I can list but what the hell, I'm one person dammit!

It needs diapers for chrissake

Oh, I forgot to mention this little tidbit. We went to my dad's house on Sunday to celebrate with my family on his side. That's the Italian side of my family so you can imagine the amount of food they have out for us because there were about 16 people in all that came. My lord, there was food for days. Anyway, we had been there for about an hour and I was in the kitchen with my dad making salad and all of a sudden my step-sister's dog comes charging in the house. It's a little 12-week old puppy, a puggle or something or whatever the hell they call mutts now, and I don't believe that anyone was expecting this little addition to our festivities. I turned around when I heard the commotion and the dog ran right up to me and proceeded to lift it's leg and PEE ALL OVER MY LEGS AND FEET. Like I was a f-ing fire hydrant or something. I looked at my dad and his mouth was hanging open and we both were like WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED? My step-sister came in and I kindly informed her that her dog is a peeing machine and went to try to clean up my pants. The dog proceeded to spend the next few hours peeing in various places in their house, including the fancy couch in the living room. I'm sure my stepmom was THRILLED!

Christmas Wrap-Up Part I

Holy bajeezus. I have the motivation of a tree sloth today. I trust you had a nice holiday or just a day off if that's the case and if not, you have 364 days until you have to do it again so REJOICE!

Christmas eve was fun, albeit a bit more low-key than the usual soiree. My sister Laura and I battled Target and the grocery one last time in the morning and man was it crowded. I don't typically shop on Christmas eve and now I know why. She even had to flip someone the Christmas bird in the parking lot after this woman tried to RAM US! Whatever, lady. Don't mess with us because we are professionals! After that jaunt we went back to her house and I got started making the food. See, that's how it works. I make food all day and they eat it. We had sausage cheese dip, buffalo chicken dip (thanks LM, you have my sister hooked), assorted cheeses, dill dip with rye bread, shrimp cocktail and teriyaki beef skewers. FOR FOUR PEOPLE. We are pigs, I know but it's once a year so screw it! After that I started working on my cake for Christmas day. I got the present cake done and it was adorable. I have pictures but they're on the new camera and I can't figure out how to get them off so I'll have to post those tomorrow. I started the spaghetti cake and got it sculpted into a bowl shape already but I ran out of fondant so I may just have to scrap it altogether. While I was carving out the spaghetti cake, Laura and Jeff decided to give one of the dogs a bath so I was merrily sculpting away at my cake, lost in my own happy little world when disaster struck. I was leveling out of the layers with a big serrated knife and somehow it slipped and I jammed it into the top of my finger. It skimmed my nail, caught my cuticle and proceeded to slice into my finger like I was filleting a side of beef. It didn't really hurt at first but then I looked down and it started gushing blood everywhere but NOT ON THE CAKE! The cake was not harmed or bloody. Anyway I ran to the sink and held it under water but it kept bleeding everywhere, which I'm certain had nothing to do with the vodka and soda I was drinking. I went into the bathroom and told Jeff that I had an "accident", which is never good because I am accident prone and am always getting hurt, and he was like WHAT DID YOU DO?! and I held up my bloody finger. He rushed me back into the kitchen and told me to hold it under the water, which I did and then he went to get a bandage. My sister came out to see what the hell happened and all of a sudden I got really dizzy and broke out in a cold sweat and told her I was going to pass out so I laid down on the kitchen floor. It was very dramatic, I'm sure. We got it to stop bleeding and I felt better so I went back to work on the cake but then it started bleeding again and I got dizzy again so I sat on the couch for a bit. What the hell? It eventually stopped for good and I was able to finish the cake but man did it suck! Now I have a bloody flap on skin on my finger and it's really gross BUT it gives me an opportunity to wear a pink Hello Kitty band-aid so that's the bright side.

Aside from that, the rest of the day was nice. We ate and then ate again and then ate some more and then had dessert. I got tons of awesome presents. Jeff usually buys me some sort of Murano glass sculpture and this year's is a beautiful and dainty little carafe. Jeff and my sister both got me necklaces, one with the London Underground symbol and another with the Paris Metro sign, Laura got me Dance, Dance, Revolution for our Wii, so I'll be making a fool of myself with that shortly, and I also have an assortment of gift cards and such. I also got 4 cake decorating books, a book on illustration and another book on starting my career as a freelance graphic designer. I think that's a hint that I need to get a job. Just kidding, honey! I love books and these are lovely, especially the cake books. I now want to make about a bajillion cakes to try out all the new stuff I learned so get ready for cake, people. YEAH CAKE!

Okay this post is freaking long so I'll continue with my Christmas Day wrap-up tomorrow and I'll show off my fancy cake. Ciao.

ho ho ho

Merry Christmas Eve to my fine readers. All 4 of you. Christmas eve is my favorite day of the year so I'm happy it's finally here. My sister and I took Christmas eve about 13 years ago after she got married and I moved in with her and my brother-in-law. Aaaaah, we were so young and carefree back then. We decreed that after spending every holiday since 1980 bouncing around from parent's house to parent's house, we decided SCREW THAT, we're making this OUR holiday where we don't have to go anywhere or do anything for anyone but us. We just make a crap-ton of food and drink and sometimes we have a friend or two join us but it's usually just the four of us and it rocks. Hard. Tonight's menu is all finger foods and dips, which is my FAVORITE menu because I like to graze. We'll stuff ourselves, drink too much, play a game or something and then we all open our presents to each other. Our parents are jealous because they can't come because it's THAT awesome but rules are rules. I am hopeful that this is our last holiday sans child so we're going to make the most of it. yowza!

Anyway, have a merry Christmas, or whatever it is you celebrate, from Kimchi central.

The advil isn't working

I'm posting from the couch, which is as far as I've made it today. Aye caramba. I had QUITE a bit of fun at the party last night and I'm paying for it in headaches. Goddam chocolate martinis! I don't even like them but apparently that didn't stop me. Thanks, ME. The party was downtown on the 42nd floor, which would have been AWESOME had it not suddenly stopped being winter this big fog rolled in and ruined the view. A few days ago we were shoveling out of a mini-blizzard and now it feels like October. I hate warm Christmas! Anyway, the party was tons of fun and I spent most of the night on the dancefloor but I managed to not act a fool. There WAS a moment that almost landed me on my heiny but I kept it together and I don't think anyone noticed. Jeff's co-workers and all really fun and his work functions are always so much better then the usual awkward office shindig. And it was fun to put on my fancy clothes for a night since there just aren't a lot of occasions where you can wear a sequined shirt these days.

I decided to stay couch bound today for fear I will have a 4-day hangover and miss Christmas. I don't wanna take any chances since we are on the go from here on out. Tonight is dinner with Jeff's siblings, tomorrow is a big gathering with all my friends, Sunday is Christmas with my dad and then it's already Christmas Eve. It goes faster every year I swear. I'm going to try to make two cakes, a "gift" for Christmas day and then another one that I'm making to look like a bowl of spaghetti. Why? I don't know. I just think it'll be funny. I'm even making meatballs. Mamma Mia!! It may go all wrong, okay it probably will, but I'm pressing on anyway. I'll post pictures of the final products.

I miss you iTunes

Ugh. I've been stuck in some kind of cyber-hellhole for the last few days. Our main computer was brought back to life (for now at least) but we have to reinstall EVERYTHING which won't get done anytime soon. We have a laptop that I'm using but the keyboard is shot so it takes a long time to type because it only types out like every other letter. It took me 5 minutes to type that sentence. Just kidding but it really does suck. In addition, there is some kind of war going on between the laptop and yahoo because I can't respond or delete any emails. WTF?! I have clearly upset the computer gods in some way and for that I apologize because I can't take it anymore. Dear Santa, bring a computer. Love, Amy.

I've been grouting the kitchen for the last 2 days and I'll hopefully be finished today. It looks really cool with the grout. I'll put pics up at some point.

Tonight we are going to a fancy schmancy christmas party downtown. I hope we can behave.

I'm being taken away by the motherboard

Well, I think the computer is dead. Jeff spent a long time last night trying to reinstall windows or something and I guess it didn't work. He said it's the motherboard, which I envision as a spaceship flying inside the computer which is more exciting and name appropriate. I can't imagine that the motherboard not working is a good thing. He said that my school files and all my graphic design stuff is still safe in the hard drive so that's SOMETHING positive for god's sake, although there is no way to access any of it right now so I don't know what's going to happen. I am very thankful this didn't happen a week ago when I was still in school or I would have been screwed. I'm using this really old laptop we inherited. It takes literally like 10 minutes just to turn the dang thing on!

Modern technology- it's good for you!

Today I'm off to grout the kitchen tiles and work on my window treatments. I'm making upholstered cornices out of white pleather and they'll be button-tufted like some groovy 1970's pad. I'm pretty excited. I'll post pics as I go and as the technology gods allow.

Computers Suck Part II

Okay, I kinda got at least this part working. Here's the almost finished product.




I like the additional glass tiles we added. It makes it even more sparkley. I thought about going further up the wall to the right of the sink(in the first pic), but I didn't want to go nutso with it even though I still have 3 full sheets of tile and a few more randon pieces. As per usual, when we went to buy the grout yesterday, they were out of the color we needed. Did I mention that color was WHITE?! How are you out of white grout, Lowes? Not only that but the employee that "helped" us knew NOTHING about the grout we were looking at and even told us that the stuff we were looking at was the wrong kind. Hmmm. Really? That's interesting since it's the same grout we've been using the WHOLE TIME and the box clearly states which grout goes with which epoxy mix, but he still maintained that they were not supposed to go together and his red vest made him an authority. Needless to say, I'm heading to a different Lowes today to see if they have what I need. Based on how this morning has gone, I'm guessing no.

Computers Make Life Easier

I woke up today to a computer meltdown. I'm not sure what happened but I sat down to my computer and there was a note from Jeff on the keyboard that said "reboot". Hmmm. I followed the instructions but it isn't taking care of the problem. The thing is just sitting there doing NOTHING. The best part is that all of my school files are on it, so I REALLY hope that this is some no-big-deal kinda problem and it'll all get fixed and everything will be fine. Ironically, Jeff is a "computer guy" and much like the cobbler whose children's feet go bare, we never seem to have a computer that works properly. Splendid.

Aside from the technical difficulties here at Kimchi Headquarters, things went pretty well this weekend. Jeff and I rarely have a weekend that we are just together doing stuff and we had one of those and it was really nice. We got a pretty large snowstorm over Friday and Saturday so we made sure we had provisions and hunkered down. We got the rest of the tiling done in the kitchen and it turned out really great. I had taken the measurements for the backsplash tiles and somehow managed to screw it up (curse you, MATH) so we were left with over 9 sq.ft. of glass tiles. I couldn't let that go to waste so I decided to bring the tile up the wall more. I would love to post a picture but apparently THIS computer has decided that it isn't going to upload my pictures. That's awesome. Well, I will hopefully be able to post pictures later. Unless I open the door and throw this f-ing thing into the snow. Which I might do. Seriously.

It fell in the bag

I have been doing a little online Christmas shopping this year and somehow this put itself on my Amex. I don't usually go for hearts but this is divine and it has a teeny tiny little key stuck in it that REALLY works and we've already been over the miniature thing so you get it. Merry Christmas, me.

I found it on http://www.missmisa.com/ and they have cute, interesting jewelry and stuff. I also am a fan of http://www.lephotique.com/, where they take a picture and put it on an acrylic pendant. In addition to my tiny things obsession, I also love things that are shiny and things that are clear. Why, you ask? I have no f-ing idea. They have some awesomely weird images like Eames chairs or the Tokyo subway map and I wish I could buy like 7 of them but I especially j'adore this Paris Metro sign.

LISTEN UP SANTA!

Progress is good

This is what my studio looked like when I woke up yesterday. Holy jalopy that thing is a mess.

Here's how it looks now:

Aside from the two bags of trash, a VAST improvement. I spent the better part of 7 hours in there yesterday douching the whole thing. I found some things I had "lost" and some things I had forgotten I owned in the first place. Very nice. We had already taken out the closet doors to make a sewing niche (aww, how cute) so I added some shelves:

Here's the sad state my "desk" was in:

Here's how it is now:

I can actually see the surface. Imagine!

Jeff's side of the room is still a pit but that's his job so we'll just focus on my side, mm-kay. I had planned on starting at the front of the house and working back so in keeping with said plan, today's agenda involves the dining room, which looks like this:

Holy. Crap.

Well, that's not good, is it. What kind of animals live here?! Oh yeah, US!

Viva la renovation!

Mr. Clean, where art thou?

I just got back from lunch with some of my former co-workers. I used to temp for a big giant corporate machine (ick) and the only bright spot was the fact that the ladies in my department were awesome and made it fun. Well, most of them anyway. I try to keep in touch as much as I can but I am scatterbrained and easily distracted by shiny things so I'm not as diligent as I should be. I miss them all alot and I had a blast with them today even though we had limited time. You ladies ROCK!

Since today is day one of my break, I decided that since I am unable to relax, I am going to begin my organization crusade, starting with my studio. I took pics as it is now so you can really see the trashpit I try to work in. I am highly unorganized on a day to day basis and it shows. Jesus H Christ, what a mess! I'll post an update later today to show my progess or lack thereof since I am basically hauling everything into the dining room and starting over so I'm making a HUGE mess to try to clean up the ginormous one I had to begin with. Well done, me.

Ahhh

If you hear a giant whooshing sound, don't be alarmed. It's just the pressure releasing from my noggin because today was my last day of school for the semester. Hooray! I still have to go up on Friday to pick up some stuff but that's it. I have a nice 4 week break but I know that it'll be gone in like 2 seconds and then I'll be all like "DAMN, school is starting ALREADY?!" Today was kinda fun because we had a little luncheon at a restaurant near campus for the PR group I was in. I have to say that I've befriended more people this semester than ever before and I actually feel like a part of the art department. I'm still the old lady of the group, but no one treats me like that until they ask about my MySpace or something and then I'm like "huh?". I wanted to give them a "back in my day....." speech but I'll save that for next semester. They have, however, turned me on to the wonders of You Tube and we watched a video today called "My Hands Are Bananas" and I almost wet myself laughing. Those crazy Germans.

I'm spending my break putting the house back together and finishing up all the little art projects I started but abandoned in favor of homework. I'm also planning on making a few fancy cakes, starting with a Christmas cake in the shape of a gift. It's going to be a bit wonky and crazy and I hope it looks as good in real life as it does in my head.

Fishsticks

It's freezing in my house right now because it's COLD out and if I turn the heat up the bedroom, which is directly above the furnace, will suddenly become 85 degrees and I can't sleep if it's too hot in the bedroom. I mean, who sleeps when it's hot in the bedroom, WINK WINK! Oh yeah! Just kidding. Anyway, I have the house cold so I decided that instead of wearing a sweater with my sweatpants and t-shirt, I would use a shawl. I feel very glamorous in it. I feel like if Gwenyth Paltrow were to be in her flat in London and she would get a chill she would go get her shawl and wear it casually and look all cool and chic which I am not but am trying for. I don't know why I said Gwenyth Paltrow. I don't really like her. I don't hate her. I don't really have an opinion either way but she is who popped in my head when I decided to wear the shawl. Anyway, what the hell was I going to talk about?

Today was my last official day of class. I still have a couple of classes next week but it's all critiques so it isn't a normal class period. I'm still not done with all my projects but I'm hoping to finish tonight so I can actually have a weekend. I'm really glad to be out of school for the semester. I have all the same people in most of my classes and many of them grew tiresome. There is a joke at school that the 4th floor (the art department) is where all the crazies are and it's kinda true. There is one guy who began the semester really quietly and he has turned in to the most annoying fellow. He's got a slightly creepy vibe and I swear to god the guy retains NOTHING. He constantly asks questions and I know that's a good thing but he does it excessively and he asks the same questions over and over and over. He will basically hear the instructions but retain nothing and then have to ask about every detail of the assignment that we JUST GOT but he has forgotten already. He also interjects in other conversations and makes idiotic jokes. The other day the happened:

Instructor: "Okay, your assignment's due at 10am, in whatever state you have it in."

guy: "So if we're in Maine, we still have to turn it in?"

Instructor: "What? I don't understand."

guy" You said to turn it in in whatever state it was in so if it's in Maine we still have to turn it in, right? HA HA HA HA"

This is what I sit next to. I mean sat. YEAH!

UPDATE: I have now dunked my shawl in the sink 3 times and the toilet (it was CLEAN) once. And it's not really keeping me warm. I'm putting on a sweater. Dammit Gwenyth, how to you manage?

Facts & Figures

My friend Gwen has a blog called Everything I like Causes Cancer (see her link below, read it, she's awesome) and there is some thing called a meme or something and basically you get "tagged" by other bloggers and then you have to write 8 random facts about yourself and then tag another blogger and so on. This is cool and I will tell you why in.................

Fact #1 - I like to fill things out. Especially my pants! ba dum CHING! No, I mean those emails where there's a long list of questions like what's your favorite smell and are you wearing pants and stuff and then you send them to your pals and then you all send them around and you find out lots of cool stuff that is usually forgotten in 6 minutes but it really fun to read anyway. This is like that.

Fact #2 - I save receipts. Any receipt. I find them in my pockets, in the middle thingy in my car, on the floor in the car, under my bed, in random plastic shopping bags laying around, in my dresser drawer, in my purse, in my wallet, I could go on. Some may call this a "compulsion" but my grandma instilled in me that you NEVER throw away the receipt lest you decide in 3 months that you need to return it. Apparently I have applied this to everything from lattes to shoes to a Del Taco burrito.

Fact #3 - I hate coconut. This is no revelation to anyone who knows me but it is one of the few characteristics I have kept my entire life. I hate coconut a great deal. I also hate when people find out that you hate something and want to convince you that THEIR version of said item is THE BEST and you will LOVE IT. They usually guarantee this claim as well. Let me explain this to you people. I have spent 33 years hating something. I've had LOTS of practice and I've been around the coconut block a few times so it is insulting that you would think that YOU and your coconut shrimp or your pina colada are what will change this. You are not and just typing the word "pina colada" make my stomach lurch. I don't care if you dip it in gold, I don't want it and no I won't just "try a tiny piece" so stop asking. However, I will eat certain foods that contain coconut milk but NOT coconut pieces. I also dislike people who see me eat it and then they're all "HA! You just ate coconut! SUCKER" as though I was totally unaware of the contents of my peanut sauce. It's like they win or something. This is a very limited clause and it really only applies to peanut sauce which is delicious but for everything else I will always ask if there's coconut in it. Even like casseroles and stuff. Weird. Anyway, just in case you don't believe me, my grandma used to make the most beautiful coconut cakes from scratch. She would sit and grate the coconut forever and they were like these perfectly white fluffy snowballs and I LOVED it when she made them and I wanted to grab them and hug them but I never once in my whole life EVER ate a piece. Not even a crumb. I used to cry because I wanted to like it so badly but I just couldn't bring myself to ever eat it. That's how much I hate coconut.

Fact #4 - I have used the "firming" variety of body lotion every day for like 4 years and I still have saggy cellulite. I don't use it because I think it works but rather I'm afraid to see what will happen if I stop. I keep imagining I will wake up the day after I switch and I'll be covered with 7 layers of blubber. Well played, Neutrogena, well played indeed.

Fact #5 - I love the Lord of the Rings movies and I will always watch them when they're on no matter what point of the movie. Wizardry!

Fact #6 - I overuse the words "awesome" and "apparently". I will continue to overuse them.

Fact #7 - I know ALL the words to the song "We Didn't Start The Fire" and the song is just him listing off world events in rhyme. dumb. For some weird reason my 10th grade social studies teacher used the lyrics for some lesson or something and we got a copy of them and they've been lodged in my brain ever since. I can't remember birthdays and I retained nothing from any math class I've ever taken since about the 9th grade and yet I know all the words to a mediocre late-eighties Billy Joel song. Sad.

Fact #8 - When I was in second grade, my school was having some kind of talent show type of thing and I decided that I would do a "dance routine" to Olivia Newton-John's smash hit "Physical". My memory is fuzzy but it was basically me in a headband and leotard with an old cassette player doing jumping jacks and various "aerobic moves" to the music. I do not believe I put on a good show. This memory is really funny to me because I have no idea why I would have done this nor do I ever recall practicing a routine or anything and yet I still picture it happening. I even remember asking a girl on the bus going home if I did okay and she told me it was boring. I wonder if anyone else remembers this? I wonder if it really happened. If anyone was at Clayton Woods elementary in 1983, let me know if this is real.

That's it. I'm supposed to "tag" someone now but I don't know if my skills are up to it. Dang this post was long. You're probably tired now.

The Grand Finale

We finally finished fondant class and here's the end result:




I'm REALLY in love with my cake. I usually pick my stuff apart and point out every flaw but I'm just gonna enjoy this one. There is a cake show in February at the Botanical Gardens and my instructor wants me to redo this on a dummy and enter it. It isn't juried or anything but it would be pretty cool to have my cake in a show. Class was spare and the ladies that showed ended up with really nice cakes. Some were better than others but one girl did a blue cake with royal icing snowflakes that was SO cute. I'm gonna spend the next couple of months practicing fondant stuff and then I'm taking gum paste in the spring. MAN, I am so down with this cake stuff. ANNOUNCEMENT: I HAVE LEARNED A SKILL. Go me.

My Mii looks like me. Really.

Tonight is the grand finale for my cake class. I have spent the past week mulling around different designs in my head and I finally decided on branches with pink blossoms and a pink bow around the sides. I wanted to forgo a bow entirely because I'm not really a bow kinda girl, but it's good to practice and I think I can make it work. I'm a little nervous because I think that the ladies are gonna pull out all the stops tonight and I don't want to get laughed out of class. I'll post a picture tomorrow of the final project.

We had a pretty good weekend despite the crap weather we had. We had to order edging for our countertop and it hasn't come so we haven't been able to make much progress on the kitchen. I'm hoping it comes this week because I have two weeks of school left and then I'm on a mission to get the house put back together. I have a ginormous list of all the stuff I want to do but we'll see how much of it actually gets done. I have high expectations for myself but alas, the call of the couch is deafening.

My sister got her Wii on Saturday so we went over there to play and HOLY LORD IT WAS SO FUN. We played tennis and bowling first and then my sister and I went to town with Guitar Hero. Jesus H. Christ, that is an AWESOME game. I've never been into video games aside from the Atari I played when I was a kid but I might be a convert at this point. I'm hoping Santa can find a Wii in his bag for us, too. I feel like a rock god playing guitar hero and I'm only on the practice mode which is only like three notes and I played Foghat over and over. It was SWEET.

To Liz, I understand now.

wrap it up

I want to apologize to my regular readers, all three of you, for my posting gap. Next week is the last week of school and I have been frantically getting all my crap done.

Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary! I was thinking about our kick-ass wedding all day and then I wanted to eat doughnuts. Jeff arranged for us to have a super fancy dinner at the Ritz Carlton, which was superb. It was all swanky and full of rich old people and we had like 4 waiters or something. It was delicioso! I had a bowl of french onion soup that was the best soup I have ever eaten. Ever. I had beef tenderloin with truffle potatoes and crispy onions with Bearnaise sauce. Obviously, it wasn't a light meal. I only ate about half and one of our waiters asked if I wanted it boxed (of course) and then proceeded to pile all the other plates and silverware on said plate. Right on top of my food that was supposed to be put in a fancy little to go box. She walked into the back and came back with a bag and handed it to me. I looked inside and there was a plastic container with my piece of meat in it. That was it. No potatoes or onions, just the hunk of meat. DAMN YOU LADY! Then they brought us some kind of molton lava cake for our anniversary that was a work of art. The chocolate thing had little Santa's printed on it and they wrote "Happy Anniversary"on the plate with chocolate syrup. I'm easily impressed, I know.

Prior to that, I was at school for this sew-a-thon that the PR class I'm in put on for a non-profit organization. I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to go and since it fell on my anniversary, I didn't have to stay the whole time and I was actually kinda proud that it turned out as well as it did. We have some MAJOR tension within our group and I was skeptical the claws would go in long enough to get it done but it all came together in the end and everyone managed to get along. Ahhh....


I'm off to do homework (on Friday afternoon. NERD ALERT) and then I'm putting up my new Christmas tree. I'm sorry, holiday tree. It's white and Jeff refuses to call it a Christmas tree because it isn't green so he has deemed it the holiday tree. Whatever. It's going up today.

Happy Friday.

The spaceships were dropping german shepherds

This is why I don't sleep. I just woke up from a dream that we were being invaded by aliens so we were trapped in some big house and none of the toilets worked and my sister was watching the alien updates on CNN and I was making out with Randy Quaid. Not Dennis, the hot one, but cousin Eddie.

Maybe it was the grilled cheese at 10pm.

ouch

Yeesh. Today is super crappy out, raining and cold but not cold enough to snow, just cold enough to make the rain really miserable and I had a rough morning at school, and blah, blah, blah. I had a project due today that I spent the better part of Sunday working on, got it mounted and ready to go, only to get to school and find out that my instructor has food poisoning and is out. Great. THEN, my illustration teacher, who had been "helping" with said project came in and he wanted to see them. I was THE ONLY person who actually had the project done and ready to go but when he came over to see it, he told me that it was "unpleasant to look at". Now, I'm certainly not the world's greatest artist and it was supposed to be a photo comp for an advertisement so it wasn't supposed to be photo-realistic but it wasn't THAT bad for chrissakes. JEEZ. He acted as though the sight of it would send you into a seizure or make you go hysterically blind or something. I was already having a bad morning because I was either wide-awake or having extreme nightmares involving Madonna (???) so I got no sleep. AND I was cooking dinner last night and had VERY HOT oil splash out of the pan on me, which by this morning looks like I have sprouted a second head on my arm. The oil was so hot it ate through my kitchen rug. I was so mad at the chicken that I didn't even eat it. I had a bowl of cheerios instead because they're safer.

I really just want to crawl back into bed but I have cake class tonight so I must persevere.

Thank you whoever invented elastic

Aaahhhh.....it's Sunday. I don't normally post on Sunday but it's been a long weekend so consider yourself lucky. Thanksgiving was a success and no one ended up with food poisoning so that's always good. Our holiday group has dwindled down to just 8 of us, which is weird because when I was a kid there would be tons of relatives coming out of the woodwork but now it's just us. My dad went down to Georgia (along with the devil, apparently) to visit my stepmom's family and Jeff went to his brother's house, so they didn't get to bask in the glory of my turkey. Actually it was a turkey breast and it wasn't even my recipe and there was no glory but just go with it. Aside from the small group, it was a pretty normal Thanksgiving. I ate WAYYYY too much and then I ate even more so then I had to put on sweatpants which is never a good sign because after the sweatpants feel tight, where do you go? Nude? I don't think the guests would have liked to have seen that. No one needs to see that, really.

After stuffing myself and passing out cold, I was jarred awake by my sister at 4:20 am who had decided that we would all go shopping on Black Friday. She and Jeff decided that they wanted to buy Nintendo Wii's. They couldn't have done this in say, June or something, when there were plenty to be had. No, they decided they needed one the day after Thanksgiving and you know what? A MILLION OTHER PEOPLE WANTED THEM TOO. AT 4AM. GLORIOUS! We went out in the freezing cold with really bad hair to stand in line at American Electronics or whatever to have them tell us, after standing in yet another line WITHIN THE STORE (WTF?) that they only got like 3 Wii's and clearly we were too late. Fantastic. We left and opted to go to a game store a few strip malls down to see if we would fare better there. There was a small line but nothing crazy so we decided to give it a go. We stood there for an hour or so, only to be told that they had 20 Wii's and we were the 22nd person in line. Are you serious game store worker? Really? Yes, I am totally serious. I felt bad for us but I felt worse for the lady in front of us who was number 21. Suck. The best part was when the line for Target, which is at the complete opposite end of the plaza, surpassed our own line. I think they must have been giving away artificial hearts or something because it's freaking Target and while Target is pretty awesome, it's still just TARGET. I was pretty bored at this point and Jeff was freezing so we left defeated. We got home at 6:30 and I promptly passed out on the couch while my sister got online and overpaid for a Wii on ebay. She just HAD to have it because it was now a MISSION. We all pretty much stayed horizontal for the rest of the day and found some really bad TV to watch and ate leftovers. Isn't it weird how when you lay around all day, you end up being MORE tired than if you had gotten up and done stuff? Bizarre.

Anyway, that was our big excitement for the weekend but I'm most excited that it's officially Christmas time, which is my FAVORITE time of the year and now I can listen to awful cheesy Christmas music until my ears fall off and eat bad things like sausage cheese dip and drink lots of bloody mary's with only a small amount of guilt. It's a good time for me.

Don't roll your eyes

Well, Thanksgiving is upon us yet again, so I want to take this opportunity to thank the people in my life that have helped make me a happier person. The last year brought me extreme heartache with the loss of my granny, who was the constant positive force in my life since my birth, it brought challenges with school and our house project and it brought a lot of happiness with our decision to adopt. I know this is totally CHEESY and not in a good way like how pizza can be overly cheesy, but in a Lifetime movie kind of way but who cares it's my blog so DEAL. Here's my list of what I'm thankful for:

-my husband, first and foremost, for always being there for me even when I'm difficult (I know, it's hard to believe, but I can be) and for being my #1 fan. This is our 5th year of marriage and I still consider myself the luckiest girl in the world for having him in my life. Having Jeff for my husband proves to me that true love DOES exist and I'm grateful everyday that I found it. I love you, baby.

-my family, who at times are challenging themselves, but who are also there for me in the good and the bad. As we've gone through all our trials and tribulations in trying to have a child, the main thing I have learned is how important it is to have a family who loves you for who you are. We aren't perfect but I have no doubt that if I fall, they'll be there to catch me.

-my best girlfriends, who have shown me how you don't have to be related to feel like family. You guys are like my sisters and I thank you for always being my support crew. Life sucks a lot and we've all had obstacles to overcome but it's easier to handle when you have friends like you.

- my teachers and friends from school, who have welcomed me, challenged me and shown me that I can do way more than I think I can. It took me a long time to finally go to college and it has been terrifying at times but they've made it an easier pill to swallow. I finally feel like I can call myself an artist without looking like an ass and they've been instrumental in that.

ENOUGH! That's my list. I won't be posting tomorrow because I'll be too busy stuffing mah belly with food so I wish you all a super awesome Thanksgiving.

Ch-ch-check it out

Whoa, this is a late post. I had to battle the grocery store after class and it took for-evah, even though I only bought 6 things, because I had a slooow checker. He had very little interest in ringing up my grocery items in a timely fashion. I swear, no matter what store I'm in, I will ALWAYS get in the worst line. I'm serious, it's all the time. I'm trying reverse psychology on myself now and trying to pick lines that look really slow and crowded but it doesn't seem to really work that well. AND the "express" lane now allows 20 items so that's no better. What the hell? 20 items is not express, that's half a cart full and it requires a regular line, people. Then when I was leaving I got behind a woman who had about 15 helium balloons in a big bag and she could barely get them through the doors so I had to wait for her to get them under control. sheesh. I though she was going to be trapped between the automatic doors forever.

Fondant class #1 went pretty well last night. Fondant is pretty much edible clay so it was fun to squish around and play with. This class is more hardcore than the other classes because we have professionals in there with us. There's a whole table of ladies who own/work in a cake supply shop and another woman who owns a cookie company. We still had a few ladies from the last class and unfortunately one of them was the irritating one. Well, one of the irritating ones. She came in about 20 minutes late and instead of quietly taking a seat, she burst in yapping about how she's late and blah, blah, blah and then she proceeded to say hello to anyone she recognized LOUDLY. All of this would have been fine except that our instructor was IN THE MIDDLE of lecturing and she just totally interrupted her. She is grating. She pulled the same crap she did last time and had to interject her stupid comments every 5 minutes. Maybe I'm just crabby but what the hell is with these people? They are so rude and they think they're all funny and sarcastic but they just look like idiots. They also complained abut how much work was involved in decorating a cake. Um, yeah there is, dumbass. You probably should have figured that out by this point. I think they just want an excuse to get out of the house and away from their kids because that's all they talk about. whatever. Fondant is FUN and I'm excited to learn anyway. You can't break me, lady!

It makes nice flooring, though

We made a decent amount of progress on the remaining bits left to do in the kitchen this weekend. I got most of the backsplash tiled and as soon as the bar top goes in, I can finish wrapping the tiles around the whole countertop. I think that once that is done and we tile the bar top, WE ARE DONE! So let's see, I think back in February I had proclaimed that the house would be done by early summer and it's now almost December and we are still short of being done. I think I was a little off. I think I was still naive back then and didn't realize that every project takes about 3 times longer than you think it will. Dumb. Here's the kitchen as of today:

The glass tile turned out really nice. I was resistant at first because I was afraid it would be too much but now that it's in, I'm happy with it. And it's sparkly so that's a bonus.

Jeff spent most of the day Saturday "taking the yard back" as he put it. We have a weirdo neighbor who thought it would be a great idea to plant bamboo all over his yard but he didn't bother to actually research the bamboo he was planting and it is the kind that spreads like a plague. That means that over the last few summers, we have had our yard totally invaded by HIS bamboo and it has made quite a mess. Most of the grass is dead as well as our entire herb garden. The stalks come up wherever they please, like the MIDDLE OF MY YARD, and running them over with the mower doesn't help and when they are still little, you are constantly tripping over them. It had gotten so thick this year that we had lost half the yard and you can't walk through it, so it wins. Damn you BAMBOO! I was always expecting the vietcong to poke through at any moment. Anyway, Jeff popped a cap in it and ripped everything out. It looks so much better despite the fact that we have giant patches of dirt where the grass used to be. We should have thrown all the crap Jeff dug out over the fence so he could have it back but we are nice.

Tonight is my first fondant class and I'm really excited. I've been sketching out a bunch of cake ideas so I hope it doesn't go badly and my dreams are squashed forever. I also hope the class isn't as irritating as last time. That's a lot to hope for.

Goodbye Cracky

Today's post was going to be about my horrible morning at school and how I found out about 30 seconds before class was over that the project I have spent the last 3 weeks working on is WRONG and how I was so mad that I almost went BLIND and how I now have to start over and redesign the whole thing. I was also going to throw in a note to instructors everywhere that when you give students an assignment, it's probably a good idea to actually give them all of the information they need to do it instead of spending all your time and energy making sure you look cool. Of course, I am speaking of NO ONE IN PARTICULAR. I was going to finish by expressing my fears about having spent all this time going back to school and working my ass off only to then go out in to the workplace and deal with people who are all smug and think they're better than all of humanity which is as appealing to me as pulling out my own eyeballs.
With a fork.

Instead, I'm going to focus on my brand spankin' new windshield that I just had installed. It sure is clear. I'll miss you cracky, but I'm sure the highway gods will see to it that an errant rock heads my way soon.

iRule

One of the benefits of being in art school is that when you have downtime, there's lots of crap laying around to play with. Today, my friend and I found ourselves in class with nothing to do so we made ourselves iPhones out of foamcore. She had already made herself a foam iTouch, but I told her she deserved more, thus the iPhone was built. Nice, eh?


I need to practice looking all smug and hip now. I should also buy a Prius.

I've been kicking around the idea of getting myself a Mac laptop, since it's what I'll eventually be working on in a job and it's what I work on every day at school. Our PC is fine for internet crapola and such but my design programs work so much better on a Mac. Unfortunately, they're pretty expensive so I'm not exactly running out today to buy one. Foamcore however, is not, especially when you find it on the floor. Thus, my new Macbook Pro:


Nothing like the internet, a printer, old foamcore and a glue stick. Viola. It's pretty sweet and the first picture totally looks like it's on.

Artsy Fartsy

I fancy myself a bit of a painter from time to time and my work usually revolves around abstract color studies or some kind of weird shape or something. I currently have a small series of art pieces that revolve around slang terms and pop culture references and how the innocent word or phrase can be made offensive. As I have stated before, I am a fan of offensive art (to a point) so it isn't a negative take on it, more of a tongue in cheek type of thing. I also like big art. Like REALLY big art that takes up a whole wall. Which is odd because as I also mentioned before, I have an abnormal obsession with things that are ridiculously small. For instance, we were at Home Depot the other night and when we walked in there were these boxes with a sign that said "miniature tools $1.99". SOLD! I came home with a itty bitty pair of pliers. For what purpose you ask? I have no idea but that isn't the point. I'm also a big fan of airline bottles of liquor and those squatty little bottles of condiments that you get at hotels.

Anyway, back to my story about how I like big art. I am usually broke and don't have a lot of cash to spend on big canvases and such so I have, to this point, created paintings and stuff that are about 24" max. I'm also way too lazy to stretch my own canvas so I'm a slave to the man. I had a job at an art supply store last year and learned that they have a big sale every year and you can buy canvases in quantity for a HUGE discount. Jeff was all "go get gigantic canvases" and I did, but the biggest I got was about 36" X 48". Big, but not super big. Then I hit the motherload. My friend Sam had acquired a HUGE canvas and had no place to put it in his apartment and sold it to me for $50. This canvas would have sold for WAY more in the store but Sam is a peach and didn't even want me to pay for it but I insisted. Well, I was so excited and had the perfect place to put it and was all jacked up to paint on it. The problem is that I haven't been able to. Well that's not true. I have painted on it 4 times now and nothing is working. I think that I'm so obsessed with making it something spectacular because it's so big that I freeze up. It now sits in my basement with my last attempts scrawled on it, taunting me to try again. This freaking thing haunts me! I have since painted several other smaller pieces that I am perfectly happy with but I can't seem to get it right on the monster. It is perplexing to me. I'm giving it another go this week because the plan is for it to hang in my fancy new dining room and at this rate the room will be done before the stupid painting.

Sweeeeeeeet

Thar she blows! I finally finished the cake. The cake plate is messy and I should have run it through photoshop and cleaned it up but I'm lazy so just avert your eyes. Here's another one:

I have to say that I'm pretty proud of how it turned out even though it's a bit crooked but what else is new. We really only get one chance in class to practice any one technique and it's up to the student to practice at home, which I didn't really get to do. My mom's cake turned out nice despite my teasing and her cake was the only one in class that actually looked similar to the cake on our workbook. She worked really hard on it and I wish I had a picture to post but trust me that it was really pretty. I think that only a few other people actually finished their cakes out. Class was nice and relaxed because the obnoxious few didn't come and the ladies that were there turned out to be nice, which is good because I think almost the whole class will be in our fondant class next week. There is one woman who makes it VERY CLEAR that she wants to do this for a living and acts all smug about it and she's the only one left that irritates me. I know it shouldn't, but it does because every time our instructor talks about a technique or a product, she ALWAYS has to chime in about how she's already tried it or that she already used it on a cake or blah, blah, blah. Just shut up already. WE KNOW. Her cake was nice but it didn't blow my skirt up SO THERE lady! Oh well, she'll probably become some world famous cake decorator while I'm ringing up copies at Kinko's.

UPDATE: Yes, that is me holding the cake and I am indeed wearing pumpkin pie pants.

Thar she blows! I finally finished the cake. The cake plate is messy and I should have run it through photoshop and cleaned it up but I'm lazy so just avert your eyes. Here's another one:

It leans a little

It's go time for my cake. I went with a 6" round 4-layer cake, yellow with chocolate icing. I baked 8" rounds but wanted to test out my carving skills so I carved it down to a 6". It came out okay but I went in freehand so it's kinda off. Whatever. I also went to town on some new flowers. I'm pretty much sick of this cake now and just want to finish it. I start fondant class next week and I'm pretty convinced that therein lies my future. I already have my fabulous new career in cake decorating all worked out in my head and I am totally disregarding the fact that I have no experience and moderately limited skills but I just have this itch in my head that this could be "it". I've been searching for "it" for a long time now and so far all my ventures have failed but I keep plugging along like an idiot still hoping that something works out. We'll see. I'm sure the other ladies will have very elaborately decorated cakes since they are so highly skilled and then I'll come home all dejected and threaten to quit but then I'll see an awesome cake somewhere and then I get all jazzed again and the cycle continues.

I'll post pics of my cake tomorrow. Good, bad or ugly.

at least I got sweet parking

As I have mentioned in the past, I am a disorganized individual. I actually manage to get quite a bit done in a day, but my attention span is short and I am easily distracted so I go in circles alot AND I have a terrible memory so it's really a wonder of science that I can even operate a pair of pants. Anyway, this leads to my morning. Jeff gets up earlier than I do and I usually just sleep right through it but today I was up with him and I was being slowly pushed out of my side of the bed by two ninja shih-tzu's, so I decided to just get up and get on with it. I had roughly 45 extra minutes on top of the hour I normally have and yet at 8:45, when I needed to be in my car, I was still trying to decide between the black shirt or the green shirt. What the hell is my problem? Needless to say, I pulled in to the parking lot right when my class was supposed to start. I was quickly distracted by the fact that the parking lot was almost empty. I started panicking and was all "is today a holiday and I don't know it?" so I pulled into a spot to gather myself but then I remembered that I am a dumbass and today is Thursday which means that my class starts at 9:30, not 9. I have been in school now for 12 weeks and I still can't keep this straight. I thought about going back home but for what, so I decided to get some administrative crap done for my schedule next semester. For some ungodly reason, I had to go through advising to get my schedule finalized before they will give me my loan money which is RIDICULOUS because advising is a cesspool of mismanagement. They give wrong information and tell you to take classes that you can't use. Anyway, the secretary or whatever she does told me I had to fill out some giant form so I did and then she directed me to room J to talk to the advisor. I went to room J and no one was in it. There was an office across from it and I could hear 2 ladies having a loud conversation about stuffing so I positioned myself so they could see me out the door. After about a second, this lady barges out of that office, past me and into room J. I started to go in after her and this transpired:

room J lady: " Did they send you here? What room did they tell you? Room J? 'Cause THIS is room J and they didn't tell me they were sending you back? WHO TOLD YOU TO COME HERE?"

me: "The lady out there told me to come to room J"

room J lady: "What lady? Out front, that lady? DAMN, I'm gonna go out there and TELL them that they need to NOTIFY me when they send someone back. This is registration time and I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS"

me: (silence because I fear for my life)

room J lady: "How can someone have the SAME job for this long and NOT KNOW HOW TO DO IT? I don't understand. I tell her to NOTIFY ME when she sends someone. RETAIN SOMETHING FOR GOD'S SAKE!"

me: " do you want me to leave?"

room J lady (looking puzzled): "What? Why? Oh no, this isn't about you. You know what I mean? YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

No, room J lady, I do not know what you mean. I was frightened of this woman. Then she wanted my class printout and when I asked her where I would get that from, she was like "WHAT?!!!! They give it to you BEFORE they send you here. DAMN." At this point I was going to make a break for it before she morphed into a chupacabra and ate my head but then she just started laughing and saying "you know" over and over so I figured the threat had passed.

shutter bug

Here are my flowers from class the other night. They aren't masterpieces but I'm pretty happy with them. I'm going to make more on Sunday and they'll all be clustered on top of the cake. Jeff was so kind as to set up a tripod to take this so it wouldn't be all blurry. Thanks, babe.

Jeff is quite the amateur photog. I'm not sure if anyone knows that. I'm the worst photographer which is sad because I'm good at picking imagery for projects and stuff and I know very specifically what I like but i can't actually do it to save my life. If it weren't for Jeff we would have to pass on all our riveting life stories verbally because there would be no visual record. I usually take one picture of something and hope it looks alright which it never does. Jeff will take like 10 and they all usually look really good. I rarely even remember to bring the camera for chrissake. Anyway, he takes some really nice pics so today's post is a "Tribute to the Amateur Photography of Jeff."

Let Them Eat Cake

I had cake class last night. The women have calmed down a bit with their banter but now we have a guy that is more annoying than all of the ladies combined. He already works in a bakery and said he took the class just to learn the rose. Trust me, the rose is HARD. I guess he feels such a sense of superiority over us non-bakers that he constantly makes loud comments and sits there with his GIANT tub of icing from work and makes roses over and over. He also has a wonky eye so I don't know where to look when he talks to me. Class went well on the whole and I'm prepared to make our super finale cake next week. It's some kind of flower basket in cake form. As usual, my mom struggled with her flowers. She got out a few good ones but by the time she got it down we had moved on to something else. Bless her heart. At one point she was making some flower and it had gone so awry that I could do nothing but sit there and laugh uncontrollably but I didn't want to make a lot of noise and that made it worse so then I had tears streaming down my face. Like I said before, she's good at the baking and I'm good at the decorating. It's a perfect partnership. The best part was in the parking lot after class because we already look like sherpa's with all the crap we have to lug and we had our flowers in these flower former things and a gust of wind came and blew half of them off. My mom was so distraught to lose her 3 flowers that she was going to pick them up off the asphalt. I had to bat her hand away with my foot because she was going for it even though it landed ICING SIDE DOWN. That almost made me pee my pants.

I'll post a picture of my cake next week. Unless it looks like crap in which case we'll forget this ever happened.

Giant Hamster Ball

Good Monday to you. This was the first weekend in ages that I actually felt like I had a weekend. Thank you sweet gods of time for giving us an extra hour. Ahhhhhh...so relaxing.



Not really. We did a lot of house stuff this weekend. Jeff went all Mrs. Doubtfire and went on a cleaning spree through the whole house. I'm certainly not complaining because he cleans better than I do and he got rid of all the crap that had accumulated from the renovation. I spent the better part of the weekend making curtains for the living room windows. I still have a frustrated interior designer living inside me. They look pretty rad but I have to make some adjustments because I just eyeball stuff and they're about 8" too long. I wish I were more organized and precise but I'm just not and I've come to accept that everything I make has a certain percentage of wonk in it and I'm totally fine with that. I love those groovy looking George Nelson ball clocks from the 60's but they're like $500 so I decided to make my own. I knew going in that there was just no way that I could get all the spindles evenly spaced so I decided to alternate them. It still didn't matter because some of my holes were off and the dowels all sat in the holes differently and then the hols I drilled in the balls weren't straight either. I decided to keep going and make the best of it so I now have the wonkiest Nelson tribute clock on my wall in the history of tribute clocks.

I took the picture from a more flattering angle but trust, it's totally off. Anyway, I don't know where I was going with this conversation........oh yeah, I'm disorganized.

Tonight is cake class again. Next week is our final class where we make our big fancy cake. I'm excited because I've done pretty well on my flowers. Nevertheless, my mom and I are cheating at this point. Her skills on the pastry bag aren't really, um, that great, so I'm "helping" her with her flowers. I figured I'll make her bake my cakes for next week so it all evens out. The more frustrated I get in school the more I want to open a cake shop and make awesome cakes all day. I could be a graphic designer/cake lady/kids book author. Hey, I could illustrate a children's book through the magic of CAKE DECORATION! That would rule.

Trick or Treat

Jeff and I went to my sister's house last night to hand out Halloween candy. We handed out candy in our neighborhood once, but we only got one trick-or-treater and he was about 19 and should have had a job to buy his own candy. The thing is that I love to give out candy. I love the little costumes and the power that a big bowl of fun-size Snickers has over the children. Thus we travel 30 minutes away to the middle of suburbia to spread the Halloween cheer. Most of the kids were really cute and I saw an impressively large number of pirates. Three boys came dressed as "party boys" and they kinda looked like K-Fed crossed with Zac Ephron. How is that a costume? Anyway, two little boys, Batman and his sidekick "wrestler/ninja-guy (I'm still not sure)", thought it would be okay to repeat our house as if we wouldn't remember. Um, it's one per customer AND if you're going to be a sneaky repeat, maybe carry a larger bucket as I had to place the new candy on top of the PREVIOUS one. I let it go in the spirit of giving, but I didn't wish them a happy Halloween and I hope their teefs rot.


When we got home, there was a package on the front steps. It was kinda big and I thought maybe someone had sent me a gift. Wouldn't that be nice to come home and have a random gift waiting for you? Anyway, it wasn't a gift per se, but it was our Adoption Process Guidebook. Bask in its glory and its size:



That's one big book. Sorry for the blur in the first one but the flash kept reflecting off the cover so I turned it off and it all went awry after that. There is an overwhelming amount of information in there and much of it is legal jargon that I don't understand. yikes. It's pretty cool though because it's REALLY HAPPENING NOW!


On another note......

I meant to post this on Monday but I forgot. My mom has a new dog and she brought her by on Saturday to visit her cousins. Her name is Gracie and she's super cute and has enough energy to run a medium-sized city. Here she is:

My dogs, however, prefer to spend as much time barely conscious as possible. They don't quite know what to do with this bundle of energy when she comes over and quite frankly, they don't care to deal with her. Since they can't talk, I'll let their expressions speak for them:

Clearly they're thrilled.

Blog Burn

I had this conversation with a friend recently.

me: "Hey, how are you (blank)?

friend: "Oh great, how are you? How's the adoption stuff going?"

me: "Oh it's going. Loads of paperwork and stuff to get done. Hey did you get my email about our blog? We put up any adoption info we get."

friend: "Yeah, I got the email but I haven't looked at it. I mean honestly, who ACTUALLY reads those things? I am way too busy for that."

(end scene)

Ouch.

Booger Boy

As you may recall from a previous post, there is a fellow I go to school with that has "issues", especially where bodily function is concerned. I have been trying to figure out exactly what the deal is with him and I have come up with nada. Sometimes he's really gross (as we all remember) but other times he will burst out with a really funny comment at a highly inappropriate time. For instance, today we were in the middle of doing a project critique, which is similar to standing up and having people throw rotten tomatoes at you while you defend your work that you thought was awesome, and he busted out this little gem while eating fun-size Starburst packs brought in for Halloween:

"AWWW, wouldn't you know it? Two pinks in the same pack! CAN YOU BELIEVE MY BAD LUCK?!"

This outburst was made during someone else's critique and while the room was all serious and quiet. The girl getting critiqued was already a nervous wreck and she just stood there staring at him in horror. I swear I almost peed myself trying not to laugh because inappropriate humor is usually the funniest kind. He followed that up by picking his nose and wiping it on his jeans leaving a shiny white trail. Classic. He clearly has some sort of something going on, but he is capable enough to attend college and he completes his projects correctly and on time. Graphic design isn't exactly rocket science but it's not that easy either and some of his stuff is actually pretty good. He is a mystery to me.

Confrontation

I like to keep things here at Kimchi central at a light, neutral stance, much like the Swiss. However, today has been one of those days that has summoned me to the top of my soapbox so bear with me as I lighten my load.

I have noticed a trend among people these days who feel as though they have free reign to say whatever comes into their little heads. Some call this "being blunt" or "telling it like it is" or "not caring that you come across as a big jerk" or what have you. This type of thing tends to lead to some kind of heated confrontation, of which I am not a fan but of which I bore witness to today. That's not to say that I sit by meekly and take whatever crap is thrown at me, but I have learned many lessons in life and the most valuable has been that it's easier to catch flies with honey instead of vinegar or something like that. Maybe it's bees. I don't know but my point is that being nice and trying to work things out without getting all jacked up isn't that hard and quite frankly, it will get you a lot further than being nasty. There are lots of days that I'm crabby and don't want to fake it, but being a jerk just makes it REALLY hard to like you and want to be around you. There is another life lesson I hold valuable and that is, if you can dish it out, you better be able to take it. If you think that someone is being stupid or you don't agree with what they're saying, unless you have a REALLY good reason for it, just let it go. Why take every opportunity to point out someones flaws or shortcomings and act like you're the boss of the world? Maybe you have those same shortcomings and seeing them in someone else makes you angry at them, but you're really angry at yourself. Paging Dr. Freud!

I have been making a very concerted effort to try and change my disposition so that I can actually BE happy instead of just faking it, and the only way I have found to accomplish this is to try and stop judging those around me. Does it always work? Hell no. There are LOTS of people that ring my bell, but I try keep that private. I'm not saying don't bring up bad subjects or hide stuff under the rug, just don't approach stuff with a gigantic chip on your shoulder and expect everyone to think you're awesome. Am I saying that you should sugar coat things? Well yeah, sometimes and what's wrong with that? You may think you're being all cool and forthright by "telling it like it is", but you usually just look like a wiener and that's not good. Anyway, I'm sure I've strayed off topic but I think you get my point that people need to stop being so dang nasty and start being nice to your fellow humans. Lest you think I'm being all self-righteous, I spend a sad amount of time reading online gossip where they skewer celebs like beef tips and I will laughingly point out a shiny shirt on a man if I spot it. I said I TRY to be better.

Okay. I'm off the box. Sorry for the rant but I had to get it out so I can make room for lunch.

Weekend Loverlies

I wanted to post some pics of the kitchen to show off our hard work this weekend. I say "our" in the royal sense because Jeff did most of the heavy lifting(thanks, honey). As you can see from the (crappy) photo, the counters are done, the sink is installed and working as is the dishwasher. I can't tell you how exciting it is for us to not have to do dishes in the bathroom anymore. Seriously. Bathtub dishes suck.
Clearly, the place is still a disaster area, but we are finally in a position to get stuff put back together. I am going to get the backsplash installed this weekend (hopefully) and then we only have the bar area left to tile. It has been a very long 10 months, but seeing it all come together makes it worth all the headache. The sink turned out so freaking gorgeous that I just like to stand and stare at it. Here, you can too:

Oh so pretty.

Here's a close-up of the countertop:

We did give ourselves a small reprieve this weekend and went to a spectacular party at Mike & Brian's beautiful new house. Seriously, their place is REALLY nice. As usual the food was outstanding as was the company. Of course, I mention the food first because I spent a good 30 minutes hovering over the table eating my own weight in cheese dip. You know, I could eat appetizers at every meal. I already have an abnormal obsession with things in miniature so an appetizer spread calls to me like a sweet siren. I wish they made tiny hot dog buns for little smokies. That would be so awesome. Anyway. We had a great time and it was so nice to see all my girls! Jeff and I are truly a couple of lucky ducks to have the group of friends we have. T-Rav, you crack me up!