Job Update and Twilight

So while I still don't have a start day, I did tell my boss about the new job. They offered me a permanent job and promotion to suppost for the engineering dept. It would have been nice, but when they started talking about training me, I knew I had to tell them about Pasadena despite the lack of official start day. I thought I would hear back today, but with the holiday, I think things get behind so I may not hear anythng until Monday.

So the only problem with listening to Twilight is that anytime they say the word Alice out loud, I want to break into the "Alice Blue Bonnet" song. Its a song about a hat and bonnet that fall in love and are separated at the store, but then reunited in a park. lol. Its cute and the tune keeps going though my head. lol. I'm actually listening to the book as I write this. I'm at the hospital scene.

I've made a list of purchases and budgets for the purchases based on prices on Craigslist, at WalMart, and at the Dollar General. I've created a excel spreadsheet separating and listing the needed supplies and projected cost and divided by need. I think I have 6 sections and so it will take at least 3 months to get my apartment perfected and decorated and supplied and I will be spending $2000 on decorations, furnishings, appliances, kitchen stuff, and everything else. I forgot to add the roomba to it. I'm so buying a roomba. I found one for $85 shipped last night, so I should get it before I move in. This is great for lazy people like me who hate to clean. Hopefully it will help me control Luna's hair. Thankfully Luna is a short hair since long hair gets caught on the rollers.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

New Job and Apartment

So after getting further confirmation of the Pasadena job, I went down to Houston this weekend to look at apartments and I found one. Yay. Its a second floor Quadplex. I talked to the neighbors and really like the area. It's a bit rundown, but not ghetto. There's a park right behind it with a walking trail, a Walmart/ BOA/ Kroger/ Mall/ and the main library within 3 miles. The branch is more like 6 miles away, but the main library will be where I'll be working mostly after March.

On the Pros side for the apartment:

• Not part of some big complex,
• location,
• pleasant neighbors,
• within my price range,
• $100 off first month,
• only $300 deposit for me and Luna and all is refundadable,
• great floor plan,
• beautiful bay window,
• ability to paint walls as I want,
• lots of trees to shade the apt

Cons of the apt

• Too close to shopping,


• not much storage,


• second floor so moving stuff in will be harder,


• wood paneling,


• and last but certainly not least, it does have a bug problem.

So about that last con, yes I did go for the apt despite the bug thing because I simply accept that any multi-family unit in the hot and humid areas of Texas are going to have bug problems. I've never been to one or lived in one that didn't. At least I've lived with it before and know how to deal with it. This includes daily cleaning, no leaving food out, using trash cans with tight lids, cleaning thoroughly, and remaining vigilant. I was after all, once a hotel housekeeper, so dealing with gross stuff is something I just suck it up and deal with. Also, I will be living on my own so just have myself to pick up after. I think Luna will have to get used to eating at set times though since I have the idea of leaving food out for her.

So what work will I do before moving in:

• caulking all holes and cracks to further mitigate the bug situation,


• put out boric acid and traps as well,
  
• painting the paneling and walls


• scrub everything down, especially the oven and fridge

What do I need to do to the kitchen:

• Caulk and fill in all holes
  
• Scrub every surface


• Paint fridge and oven


• Paint walls lemin chiffon or lemon grass


• create floral stencil on wooden water heater cover out of contact paper and spray paint open areas dark blue.


• Hang roman shade


• Hang white sheer curtains with something dark blue as a cornice or something
  
• replace cabinet hardware with black iron or stainless steel
  
• hang family pictures in the kitchen
  
• contact paper in the cabinets


• bug stuff taken care of


• Buy:


• -Cutlery
  
• -boring is probably best
  
• -stand mixer
  
• -knife set
  
• -cutting boards


• -mixing bowls
  
• -dishes drying basket


• -dish towels


• -herb seeds and supplies


• -dried herb rack
  
• -cabinet organizers
  
• -steel microwave


• -medium lidded trash can


• -Square dining sets
  
• -
  

What do I need to do to the bathroom:

• paint walls pale blue, like faraway blue and paint cabinet doors and area by shower dark blue


• Buy:
  
• -metal rolling cart
  
• -small lidded steel or black trash can
  
• -beigy medium brown shower curtain, bath mat, and toilet mat


• -steel accessories as necessary
  
• -one bright floral pic like
  
• -

What do I need to do to the bedroom:

• Paint top of the walls a light green and bottom a dark green with the railing in the middle painted white


• dark brown furniture



• white billowy curtains and a roman shade
  
• bed linens should be golden or dark green and some other color from an opulent fabric


• pre-rafaelite pics
  
• Buy:
  
• -large dresser
  
• -large book shelf
  
• -side table
  
• -vanity
  
• other storage opportunities

What do I need to do to the living room

• Inspiration pic



• I want to paint all the walls that dark teal sort of color and have beige or light brown furniture


• white filmy curtains and a roman shade


• screens on the windows


• small prints like the ones in the pic.


• Buy:


• -couch


• -easy chair


• -coffee table


• -end table


• -2 book shelves


• -other storagey furniture solutions

What do I need to do to the dining area:

• Maintain front room scheme, but with the dark blue green only on the bottom on the room and paint top portion to match the yellow of the kitchen and the middle rail will be white


• dark brown furniture

modern art like,
Okay, so what can I do now?

• finalize paint choices
• plan for after Thanksgiving sales like paint, a flat panel, and plates, cutlery and appliances
• plan utility companies and save deposit
• complete change of address

Twilight

So I just got back from the midnight showing of Twilight. It was awesome. I still haven't read the books, but now I actually want to. I'm not much for horror or vampire lit, but the movie was so good, I think the books aren't what I would expect. They also made sense and were interesting for me as a newbie, I could tell there were references to the book that I didn't get, but they didn't get in the way of the story. btw: It's a story of first love with a little teen angst thrown in, but not too much and it doesn't get in the way. Oh, and the mirror scene was seriously exciting and dramatic.

All the bit characters were interesting. The story revolves around Bella and Edward, but the vampire characters and the classmates are flesh and blood. There were a few akward moments with the dialogue, but I think they were on purpose and they were nearly as bad as any of the Star Wars movies which I hold up as monuments to bad dialogue. All in all, I think this has been my favorite midnight showing since the second Lord of the Ring. The audience was interested, good seats, and the movie was enthralling. Let's see if the midnight showing for Star Trek will compare.

Little Red Riding Hood and the Oil Change

I'm dressing as little red riding hood for Halloween this year, although I've not even finished cutting out the fabric. It's going to be renaissance inspired so I'll definitely post pics of the entire process.

I got an oil change yesterday and as I left the oil change place, my car started acting up. The engine would seem like it wasn't getting gas. I have a 1988 BMW 325i, an awesome car, and its never done this. I couldn't think what was up, and having a suspicious mind, I thought the oil change place might have broken something on my car just to get money for fixing it, so I didn't immediately return. I went to the nearby library to do some research. I then looked under the hood and realized the reason the engine was running unevenly was because the people at the oil cahnge place forgot to put the oil cap back on. I guess other cars can handle it better since I went to a nearby O'Reilly's to get a cap and they so did not have one and the guy behind the counter said that usually the only thing that would happen is that oil would spurt out over the engine and you'd get some fumes. He'd never heard that lacking an oil cap would result in uneven engine running. So fyi, if you have a 88 bmw 325i, the oil acp is necessary. It was actually dark outside, so I didn't see that the cap was sitting near the engine, but the oreillys guy that came out to take a look at it put him hand on it and found it. I put the cap back on and it ran swimmingly once more.

Today I'm picking up a muffler from a junkyard since being muffler-less is a bad idea. I'm going to call Automotive Plus to find out if a used muffler is a good idea and what to look at on the muffler and whether a new one is the best way to go. I suppose I just need something on there right now.

Also, I got a huge rip in my back window yesterday. :darn it: I'm probably going to replace the canvas and window. You can buy one on Ebay for $220 with shipping and it doesn't seem to difficult to install. Time consuming, but not difficult. And If I completely ruin it, I still have the hard top until I have the money for a professional job.

Goodness, its been a month

So I haven't posted in over a month, but we don't have internet at home any more and I tend to do other things while on the internet, like job applications and watching youtube ;-) I have a new HG concealer, Estee Lauder's Maquicomplet. It never cakes and while it costs more than MAC Moisturecover, you get twice as much and more coverage. It's awesome, even for 27.50 plus tax.

Here I am wearing pretty much only the concealer, so you can see it is a good match and makes my circles less noticable. And this was during my horrible Virginia trip. Rained the whole time and was for nothing because I don't think I got the job.

:( I went to the San Marcos Cosmetics Company outlet and picked up some Estee Lauder Individualist foundation with a good color match and some MAC mattene lipcolor is 40s pink. It's a good, almost ylbb color on me. The Individualist foundation I'm a little uncertain about since the color is good, but I think it may be making my pores look bigger. I mixed it with a little Maybelline Age Rewind Cream Foundation this morning and I'm hoping this helps it last longer, it doesn't highlight my pores today either, but that could be because I started using retin a again this weekend and my pores look smaller anyway. I'm so happy I decided to order it from All Day Chemists in India. It arrived in a week and three tubes cost $30 with shipping and they work just as well as the retin a I was buying here.

Okay, so on the job front. I had 2 interviews last week and I should hear about them this week. wish me luck. I'm working for the forseeable future at a temp job in Irving doing mostly filing.

I was feeling horrible yesterday. I decided to start a project and go through my entire clothes collection (I have quite a bit) and since my family was down in Houston visiting my sister (would have gone, but the car would be cramped and my car was in the shop Saturday) I took over the front room and seperated by clothes that fit and then by clothes I like and now have quite a pile for Goodwill. The family did get home early, so I hadn't finished. I also felt horrible and kept stopping to take a nap. I was just nauseous and headachy. Oh well, I still finished it, even if the clothes for Goodwill are in the front room right now. I didn't have the energy to take them out to the car or into the garage.

Really Easy Prok Chops and a Couple New Items

So, I'm back to eating more healthily, so dinner tonight is baked pork chops, salad, and green beans or spinach.

Really Easy Pork Chops

Ingredients:

Pork Chops (as many as you need, I have 8 from a family pack)
garlic powder (to taste, I like more than most people)
salt (also to taste since you may like more, I'm trying to watch my salt intake, so used very little) pepper(also to taste)
fresh rosemary(since we have some in the garden, use dried if that's what you've got and its also to taste)

Process
So rinse off the chops and cover pan with foil for easy clean up and spray foil with butter flavored spray.

Place pork chops with one inch between them and spray tops with butter spray.

sprinkle garlic powder, salt, and pepper on chops

Sprinkle cut fresh rosemary or non-cut, or dry on it.

Place in 415 degree oven for 20 minutes or use a George Foreman to grilled for an even better experience.

These aren't perfect pork chops, but they are tasty and as you can tell, they are also really easy to put together. If you marinaded them overnight, they would be even more flavorful and moist. You could also add some thyme and oregano to the mix for a more complex flavor. I like that these are really healthy(very little oil used in cooking and no heavy sauce) and still have flavor. Now, I like these, but most people I've shared my cooking with (re: family members) think I overseason and like weird flavor combinations and then they object when I don't share something really good with them. :shakes head: Never understand them...

Latest Sewing Projects:

Seventies Simplicity Pattern 9365



I ran out of fabric because there was very little left and I ended up trying the belt out over it and it just didn't look right. I saw this girl wearing a shirt with a v-neck and a bow at the bottom of the v and new then and there that this was the right thing to do with it.



Modern Butterick 5101.




















I love this drapy jersey and its color. I actually did the wide leg pants too, but haven't finished adjusting them as they came out too big. I think I'll make this shirt again in a non-stretchy, drapy material.



Vintage Dress Inspired Pattern McCall 5378.















So it was supposed to have buttons up the front. Sue me. I had doing buttonholes and I realized while looking through my stash that I had 4 buttons that matched that would look good with the pattern. I didn't want to take a long trip to WalMart (5 minutes) and it needed, like, 9 buttons. Anyway, I decided to just sew up the front and see what would have. I like it. I get the nice collar and the silouette without spending a lot of time on it.

Palin?

Well, I was going to simply write in Mickey Mouse on the ballot in November because I can barely stand McCain and Obama is crap... but Palin is at least an ackowledgment that social conservatives are important too since McCain, Obama, and whoever Obama is running with is pretty liberal. Hmmm, I suppose McCain is really old and he might die quickly and we can finally have a woman president . Yes, he is a lot more palatable, I might even buy a bumper sticker or shirt and the last one I bought was for Romney :(.   I don't know, the whole this is crap now, but Palin seems to be a light in the darkness... Ooh, and with McCain being so old, maybe he won't die while President, but he can't live too long and won't be the same drain on the government other former presidents are through their lifelong salaries. Fiscal responsibility is what McCain is about, right?

Here's a link to the bumper sticker.