271/365

I love this tool. It is a Sizzix die cutting machine I got from A.C. Moore in Dover a couple years ago. It retails for $99, but I found it in the Clearance section for only $7! I couldn't believe it when I saw the empty box on the shelf. I brought it to the counter and the woman went and got me a new one and charged me the $7. Plus I found four packages of letter dies marked down from $149 to $19.99. Of course I snapped them all up! It's definately paid for itself by now. I love a great deal!

270/365

I can't believe how much wasteful packaging this Swiffer vac had. I had been wanting to get one of these for a while, so when I found a $5 off coupon, I bought it from BJs today. It is great for hardwood floors because unlike our regular vacuume, this doesn't have the spinny brushes that spit the birdseeds all over the floor. It is basically a handheld vac on a stick with a Swiffer pad attached behind it. The vac sucks up all the feathers and seeds and other big stuff, while the pad picks up the dirt and little stuff. It works great around the birds' cages and I can get the whole house vacuumed on one charge! However, the packaging really bothered me. It was in a box inside a box, plus there was styrofoam and plastic inside too. In this age of "green" how can a company justify all the extra packaging? I guess I'm no better, because I bought a product that uses throwaway pads and an electric vacuume, rather than just sweeping up the floors with a broom. Oh well, at least I recycled the cardboard...

264/365

Look, I caught a Goldfish!

8/23/09

253/365

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Awwwwww...

This is straight out of the bag of pretzels. Is this a sign?

250/365

249/365

This is an experiment for me. It is an apple-cinnamon oven puff pancake. Doesn't it look delicious? It will be even better when I flip it over, dust it with powdered sugar and then dip it in maple syrup (real, not that fake ms. b. crap!) ooooo...I can't wait to eat this!

248/365

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240/365

A dilemma...

Stay where I am safe but extremely unchallenged? Or take a chance on something new and uncertain?

My horiscope for today reads:

You are at a crossroads of sorts now, but instead of making a choice between two different alternatives, you need to choose how to expand your options. That's pretty exciting -- but time is short!

I am not entirely sure what that means, but it is very relevant to what I'm going through today. An opportunity has come up for a new job. Right now I am working at Measured Progress. I started working here last September, and it lasted through the beginning of March (it's a temporary position). Then I was called back at the end of May, and I am fairly sure I will be here through the winter again. So far, I have done approximately one full weeks' worth of work in the two and a half months that I've been back. It's that slow here right now.

Most days I sit and stare into space, or read crafting blogs and try to look like I'm doing actual work. Yes, I'm getting paid to sit here and do nothing, but it is depressing and the days drag on forever. I feel like I'm just wasting my time here, when I could be doing so many other things. I know the work will pick up in about another month, then get super crazy since everything's on deadline in November and December.

But...

A coworker sent my name to her temp. agency in response to a catalog design position that opened up at Brookstone in Manchester, NH. I actually had worked with this particular man and his agency before, so he remembered my name. He sent me the details for the position. It will run from September to November/December, and it pays $25/hr. $25/hr! That is a nice number to see on your paycheck. That's $5 more per hour than I make now. Over the course of a month, that adds up to an additional $600 take-home.

But...

It is only 2-3 months long. I'd be unemployed by the end of the year, rather than sometime in February/March. And who knows what else I'll be able to find for work once it's done? Ahhhh...I don't know what to do. I really want to take the new position, but my brain/monthly bill calculator takes over and says "no f-ing way!" I guess I'll be doing some serious thought about it this weekend, and lots of talking with Rob to find out his opinion. I'll keep you posted...

239/365

What a surprise when I got home! Rob had the day off and he spent most of the afternoon mulching our new flower beds in front of the house. Mom and I had spend a few days yanking out the old dead shrubs and planting new ones a while back, but we didn't mulch the beds, so the weeds were running rampant! It almost looked like the grass extended all the way up to the foundation, rather than new dirt and plants. So when I got home, he lead me out to the front lawn where the valiant plants were no longer struggling to rise above the weeds. Instead, they were shown off beautifully by the thick layer of black mulch that matched so nicely with the front door and shutters. Our front lawn finally looks presentable!

238/365

237/365

Yuck. Another trip to the dentist. I had another bad cavity on my little molar on the bottom left of my mouth. This time, I insisted on having a white filling rather than the silver he used last time. It took almost three weeks before I could stand room tempature liquid in my mouth without doubling over in pain last time. I am SO sensitive to silver fillings! After jabbing me with the insanely huge novacane needle a few times, he went to work. It took about a half hour, then he was done. Once the novacane wore off (about four hours later) my tooth didn't hurt at all! I can drink cold water, chew crunchy and chewy food, and there is no pain. Hooray! I wish I'd had the option for a white filling last time...even if it was more expensive.

236/365

I always get happy when I see another CRX driving down the road. Especially red ones! This one was following me home from work for a while before turning into the Market Basket plaza by the Rt. 4 rotery. BTW...don't try to take photos while driving. It's really difficult!

235/365

What cute little wedding favors! Easy to make, and full of yummy M&Ms. Good job!

234/365

Today was Kerry and Rob's wedding. Don't they look so happy? Kerry looked beautiful, of course. Her dress was so pretty. Rob was hansome in his suit. I was very glad that we were invited, along with a few other members of Team XXX Racing. Andrew and Kathy, Claudio and Carmen, Chad and Caroline, Jared and Charles and their dates. It was strange to see everyone in clothes other than their racing tshirts and jeans and helmets!

After some missteps earlier in the day (like me forgetting my shoes and having to drive an hour back home to get them) we arrived at the church a little late. We snuck in as quietly as we could, just in time to see Rob and Kerry say "I do." Then we went back to Claudio's hotel room for an hour to wait until it was time to drive to the reception.

Once at the hall, we had cocktail hour with an open bar and yummy snacks. Everyone from Team XXX pretty much hung out together, as we really didn't know anyone else there. Then we were led into the dining room, where we were stuffed in the corner like I knew we would be. We were the rowdy table after all! It was ok though. We all had a great time laughing and exchanging stories about the bride and groom and each other's antics, and of course, cars! It was a wonderful night and I was sad when it came time to leave. It's fun to get together somewhere other than the racetrack with this great group of friends.

233/365

I brought in this plant a few days ago to spruce up my cubicle at work. It had taken over cabinet shelves above the sink in my kitchen with it's tendrils, so it was time to go! It adds a nice little touch of life to my typically uninspiring cube. If I try hard enough, I can pretend I'm outside in the woods. Err...maybe not.

232/365

I went down to Saugus to visit the chiropracter today. On my way back, I stopped in to my Mom's house to visit with my cousin Leanne. She's holding down the fort while my parents are on their cross-country camping trip this summer. We talked for a couple hours while she prepared for the party she is having tomorrow. By the time I got home, it was 9:00 pm. Rob and I watched Burn Notice, then he headed to bed. I went to the bedroom to give him a kiss, and realized that while I was gone, he had put together the new king-sized bookcase headboard I ordered from Amazon the week before. I didn't realize that it came in, and he didn't mention anything when I asked him what he did after work. Sneaky boy! He did a good job too. We still have to move the bedroom furniture around, but it's nice to FINALLY have a headboard, it's only been six years!

231/365

Rob and I went to JC Penny tonight to find him something to wear to the wedding we are going to on Saturday. His old suit didn't fit anymore, so we were on the hunt for some dress pants and a nice shirt and tie. (August heat and suit jackets don't mix!) He (ok, I) ended up picking a pair of dark grey pants and a light blue, short-sleeve, button-down shirt with a light blue striped tie. He's going to look so handsome on Saturday!

230/365

I drove home a different way from work today. It actually was the way I used to go home while I was working for Hot Diggity a couple years ago. It was a nice change of scenery. My ride home gets so boring day after day. This is a vineyard I remember passing all the time, although I don't remember it with grapes, just wintery vines.

229/365

Check this sucker out! Huge! Like, bigger-than-my-thumb huge. He was chilling outside the work kitchen window, soaking up the sun. Today was one of the few days this summer that it didn't rain and made it into the 80s. He was pretty cool looking too, with purple streaks on his wings and a furry body.

228/365

Rob got the borrowed chipper/shredder working today. I'm nervous about him using it, but he has no fears. We have A TON of branches that came down during that bad ice storm this past winter that have been sitting in heaps throughout our backyard. It will be nice to have them gone. Plus we can use the chips for mulch in the front yard garden. Keep up the good work, honey!

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Finally, something do to at work! This should take me a little while to finish...

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Oh my.

It's so...

Yeah...

So, getting back to yesterday's post, this is a classic example of a Cake Wrecks cake. I found this at Walmart last night when I was buying groceries. I think the character is supposed to be Wolverine, although it's hard to tell when he's face down in frosting. I'm not sure what the airbrushing is suppose to be, lava maybe? A lake with a really bad red tide problem? Whatever...it's nothing compared to the piles of crap scattered around. I have no idea what those are suppose to be. Rocks? Dinosaur droppings? Why would you want to buy this for your child?

223/365

This is such a great blog! CakeWrecks.com was the first blog I started reading, late last year and I still check it every day. The girl who writes this has a great, sarcastic sense of humor. It is a blog about ugly professionally-baked cakes. I know, it sounds wierd, and it is, but it's SO funny! I can't believe people actually pay for the cakes she posts. Actually, the one pictured above is a pie, but it's still horrific. It's a fetus wearing an iPod. On a pie. An iPod-wearing fetus on a pie. OMG!

222/365

I <3>

I found a cool website today (while trying to look like I had work to do) that had all sorts of characters you could print out and fold up into a boxy 3D version, like Hello Kitty above. Of course, she is the one I chose to print. But they had characters from Family Guy and other cartoons, superheros, real people, and more. What a great way to waste some time!

221/365

Mmmmmm...campground breakfast. Anita, Vetree and Kirsten made pancakes, eggs and bacon this morning before we packed up the campsites. Note to self: don't put a brand new teflon frying pan on an open flame. It doesn't end well for the pan...or the bacon.

220/365

Um, yeah...

That pretty much sums up the entire weekend camping at Dennison Lake in Winchendon, MA. Rob and I worked today, so we didn't get to the campground until after 5:00pm. Once we finished setting up the tent, we turned around to see Darren and Chris lounging in the hammock behind us. They look a little to cozy to me! We all drove to our boat in Winchendon for a late afternoon swim. Darren and Anita brought two HUGE rafts to be towed behind the boat and we all had fun splashing around in the lake for about an hour.

Then, just as I was docking the boat, we got pulled over by the, um, lake police for lack of a better term because Rob was on the outside of the boat railing. He was prepared to jump to the dock and tie us off, but I guess he was out there for too long and the cop didn't like that. He ended up giving me a ticket for $60 for having no boating license, although he did skip the fines for driving an unregistered boat, driving to endanger (because Rob could have fallen in the water and I would have run him over), and towing more than two people in a raft at a time, with no lifejackets. We also had to prove that we had lifejackets for everyone on board, a fire extinquisher, and a few other things.

We did get off easy, but that ment that there would be no day on the lake the next day. Oh well, what can you do? At least Rob said he would pay the ticket for me. I guess we have to get our boating license now...

219/365

I finally got a picture of Mr. Cardinal! He and the missus have been frequenting our feeder for a few months now, and I haven't been able to get a photo of them before today. He is so skittish! I think they have a nest in the big pine tree by our driveway. Isn't he beautiful?

218/365

"Where did all the birds go?"

Pip Squeak was watching the cardnals and sparrows at the feeder today, but when I put her on the window sill, they all flew away and didn't return. Oh well, she'll have to watch them from behind the curtain.