Ready for a nap...

Today has been a long day. From getting up far too early to sitting in my chair for far too long, I'm ready for the day to end. I've got errands tonight, but at least it won't be in my office.

I signed up for my retirement stuff at work today. I get 6.2% of my salary auto-deposited into my new Fidelity account plus the deposit I have deducated from my paycheck. The fund I have set up has been getting around 11% return every year for the past 3 years. Sounds good to me. Maybe I can retire in a couple years. O:-)


Time has no meaning

There weren't any hands on the clocktower today when I went to play volleyball. Very odd, indeed.


Ready for spring...

I got my $50 free macaroni grill gift card thing today, so I'm looking forward to going out and eating with some people. I wonder who to invite. Maybe Jake & Rach when they move closer. That's a pretty good deal for simply signing up for a book club.

I've been struggling with this sore throat the past week. It's kinda there and kinda not. I'm not sure what its doing. So long, I'm gonna try to get out of here a little early.

Playing catch up and back to classes..

So last weekend Jake, Rach, Rach's dad and I went and ate Chinese food. Rach's dad was the only one to get meat product, so the three of us enjoyed our tofu and broccoli. Jake and I played video games for what felt like 6 hours, which was great, since I wasn't going to see him for like two weeks. So I got my fill of him and made my way back to Rochester around 9pm, got groceries and reunited with my emaciated (fat) wonderful (smelly) and loving (insane) cat Ashley.

The week was great, no classes and all. No studying. No nothing. I found out I did really well on my final and passed the class with flying colors. So now I'm taking 2 classes this quarter, one of which I need to get an A in to skip the GMATs. Shouldn't be too hard, it's a computer class.

So I needed to decide what to do about my living situation. My lease is up for renewal and I needed to either sign it or find someplace else to live. So I spent the week researching places to live. Saturday I drove around all of Rochester looking at places and being introduced to lovely apartments near and far from work. Near would be preferable. Close enough to walk/ride bike would be ideal. I've grown accustomed to only paying about $20 a month on gas. :)

Unfortunately, all the places that were cheaper ($350 to $500 a month) were either WAY smaller than my current place or out in hell next to gunshot alley. Or they didn't include heat/water, which would add at least $150 a month in expenses on average. Yikes. I ended up signing my current lease again. My landlord will replace my ugly dirty carpet. It would be great if I was living with someone or if I simply made another $5,000 a year. :) Right now I'm getting stretched too thin. I'm gonna need to cut back on my savings contribution and possibly stop gambling. :) Hmm, which to choose. I made my goal of saving money last year, but without a nice raise, I don't think I'll be able to match what I saved. My braces and my increase in rent have pretty much cut my extra money flow. Not to drivel about money, because I know a lot of people don't have any money to save.


Don't I look snazzy today?

But on my money crunching crusade, I decided not to go down to Atlanta in May to see Cindy A. I really want to, but can't right now. I am planning to go to CA again this Summer to see my brother and Cindy V and my mom has made plans for us to go to Las Vegas this July. Plus Jake's wedding is coming up in 3 months and Laura's wedding in 8 months. There are a lot of built in expenses coming up. Why am I trying to convince myself?

So Saturday evening I made 2 pies and 2 quickbreads for Easter. I had planned to go to my aunt's place that night and hang out with her, but I decided I'd have more fun and a more comfortable time staying home and going early in the morning. I love my bed too much. I hate sleeping in anything smaller now. Plus I don't like leaving Ashley for more than a day. The quickbreads came out so wonderfully. I found the recipe online. I was specifically looking for something in which I had all my ingredients and I did, plus some. I added chocolate to the recipe and added chocolate chips to not only the bread but also the peanut butter pie. Everything came out so wonderfully and the bread was fantastic.

Easter was a lot of fun. I got there around 9:30 and as everyone arrived, we started enjoying find breads and my quick breads. My nuclear family didn't arrive until 12:30, which was over an hour late, so the easter egg hunt got started really late. I didn't mind, it got nice and warm by then. Hunting for eggs at my aunt's new house was a different experience than it has been at my grandmothers for the past 22 years. Primarily because we didn't know where borders were. Did she hide eggs back here? Is this a spot she would have gone? Before, we knew where eggs could be because we'd done it so many times. I wasted a bunch of time looking for eggs in a field where after looking for 5 minutes, I realized that if she had hidden them out there, there would have been footprints in the snow. Doh!

But the gift giving was a lot of fun. Deb had gotten me several nice brands of cereal, a huge candle, candy and some other stuff that we traded with each other. It was different this year because Deb gave us all our presents at once instead of trading an egg for a present. I only got 9 eggs this year. Last year I got over 20. Heh. I'm too old to get giddy about an easter egg hunt. No wait, I am not.

The food was fantastic. I'm not sure why, but it was so flavorful and wonderful. I controlled myself and only ate a bit of everything. I also took home a huge plate of leftovers. I left around 3 and arrivedhome in time to clean up and get comfortable for an evening of exercise and teevee.

Cindy called me yesterday to say hello and ask me a couple things. I ended up mailing her last two boxes of videos to her yesterday. They should get to her by Tuesday. I have one box of her stuff left to send her, which is gonna cost around $25 to send, so we'll see when she sends that. She's doing well in CA. Ben keeps talking to her, which makes her happy, but he won't date her, which makes her sad. She's back on her diet of not eating. Hopefully it'll help her lose some weight. Mine has helped me lost 20 pounds.

Molly came up Monday and we had lunch. She's going to come up next weekend and spend the day with me. That should be nice. Monday night I had 2 classes at Simon (1/2 session each class) and I'm all ready to start up again. 9 weeks of classes shouldn't be bad and then I can matriculate and begin my MBA. Sounds good to me. The books for this semester are going to cost a bundle. Ugh. Nothing used available. Sucks.

Tonight I have Economics. Gonna be a long night. At least 10:00. :(

Bye.

Having fun hanging out in Tofuffalo

Friday was pretty blah. I had a bunch of projects to work on, and it kept me busy the whole time. I had a meeting with another department about a new project I may work on. They'd like me to do some programming for them at $50 an hour for around 3-5 hours a week.

Not so shabby.

Friday night I pretty much studied the entire time for my exam. I watched an hour of 24, studied, worked out, went to bed. In the morning, I studied some more (woke up late) and then had my exam at 1. I think I did pretty ok. I'm not saying I got an A on it, but I don't think I did any worse than anyone else. And since the course is curved, that may mean I get an A ;)

So after the test I came back and doddled for a but before I headed to Buffalo to see Jake and Rach. We met up at Cinco de Mayo Mexican (excellent excellent food!) and after we came back to their place.

We played video games until 2am. Was pretty good. I almost fell asleep (like I usually do) around 11:30, but I got a 2nd wind and Jake ended up being the one that needed to go to bed ;) Hehe.

Jake's dog Tipper is so cute. So many toys and he'll keep bringing a new toy if you don't play with him with the one he has. So funny.

This morning we're just hanging out. They're cleaning. I'm downloading off their bandwidth (muhaha). What would have taken a week on my connection is downloading in hours here. I miss highspeed. :)

Talk to you later.

A good day *updated*

So a quick update about what's going on. Today Laura called me (!!) after I had posted. Her and I talked for almost an hour about everything from my suggestions of having her wedding at McDonalds, her grad program in Washington DC, her neice that she's going to see right now and much more. I love talking to her.

What a beautiful day it turned out to be. I came home and opened the windows right away. Jake may not like that when he gets here at 6pm, but it's nice nonetheless.

I outsmarted my cat. She usually hides under my bed when I am leaving for work becaus she knows I am going to put her in the living room. So today when she did that, I decided to move the birds into the kitchen and move her stuff into my bedroom. She was so confused. I came home and she was ready to go into the livingroom. Muhaha.. reverse psychology on a cat.

So Cindy has forbidden me to come down on Wednesday in May around the 5th or 6th. :( Apparently her friend is doing something for her on her birthday and I have been told to stay out. So I have to rethink my plan. That's tomorrow's goal. That's the week that I don't have classes, so it's important that I take the vacation that week.

I also called the warranty people for my DVD player. Since they offered me the $189 for it, I got to thinking.. they didn't ask me to ship it anywhere. Why would they, if they're not going to repair it. So I called and asked.. and they don't want it! So I'm going to get $189 from them AND I get to get my almost-perfectly functioning DVD/DVR player. :)

Hmm, I wonder what Jake and I are doing for dinner. Check out my two best buds, below, sitting with me on the far left.


Me, Laura & Jake

Too exhausted to wake up...

This morning's wake up wasn't pleasant. I was in the middle of a very nice dream and the cat woke me up an hour before I normally get up. Then the alarm clock woke me up in the middle of the same dream and hour later. I was way to tired to wake up and had to drag myself to the elliptical.

So on Friday I got a bite block put in my mouth which prevents me from closing my mouth all the way. On Monday I got braces on the top set of my teeth. So the pain is horrible menacing bearable and it's impossible difficult to eat anything anymore. I usually have to cut stuff up (or rip it) into small pieces and simply swallow it. I don't really taste it anymore except for the token piece of chocolate every day.

The weekend was a horribly slow and painful nothing blast. I got a lot done, including a bunch of laundry on Saturday, including all my bedding and whatnot. It's nice sleeping into a clean bed with sheets, 6 pillows, 2 clean comforters and 3 blankets. Princess? Yep, that be me.

This weekend I decided to start my casual search for a new place to live. I love my current place, but to me its too expensive. Plus he's raising the rent. Plus my carpet sucks. Plus it'd be nice to have another room or two. My goal is to replace all my crappy furniture and whatnot and find styling sleek and attractive replacements. The brown bachelor look is painful and it pains me to bring anyone over at times. But I may end up living here again for a year, since I love the location and I don't want to move. :) But I'll look just in case.

Nola came over at 1am on Saturday night and in the morning I made butterfinger pancakes and we went to Pelligrinos for lunch. A lovely day, I might add. It was warm and I could feel Spring coming down the road. She left shortly after to go to work. I'm glad I don't work on the weekends. I should be studying though, my final is this coming Saturday.

Tuesday was class, Wednesday was studying for the final at Simon and today I'm going home right after work. I might even study a little bit.

So at work I'm on this new project for a web admissions application. I thought my role was going to be a little more involved, but I guess not. I'm an advisor and tester. Which is fine, I get to attend two meetings a week and give advice on the project. I guess it's better than doing actual programming. ;)

So my DVD recorder has been having issues lately. There is an annoying data line on the bottom of the screens which kidna reflects the subtitles, but it looks like static. It's quite distracting and gets worse the longer the movie is going. So since I have a 3 year warranty on the unit for repair and whatnot, I called. Well, they just told me there is no option to repair the unit, just buy out my warranty, which would be $189 (original cost of the unit). I also paid $109 for the warrenty. So if I take this offer, I'll be out some $110 after only a year. Damnit.

So I might keep the unit for a couple years and then turn it back in. ::evil:: Perhaps make this unit simply a TV program recorder/CD player/such thing. It works well for that, just won't be able to watch DVDs on it.

The Aviator with Mum

Last week ended quietly and boringly. I got my auditing done on Friday and the weekend started. It was the most boring weekend on the planet. A plus was on Saturday night I went gambling with Deb and Jen. I didn't lose money overall, so that's good. I won $30 on one bet, which was awesome.

This week has been pretty slow. Not much going on. I got a bight block today for my bottom teeth. It prevents my jaw from shutting (and chewing) so he can work on moving my top teeth out. It hurts, but at least he said they'll move fast. That's great news.

So last night I went and saw The Aviator with my mum after we had a nice quiet dinner at a quaint little sub shop on Mt. Hope. Okay, less British speak and more Luke speak. I ate food next door to where I live. There, happy now?

The movie was very long, but extremely good. I really didn't notice how long the movie was until I saw my mom drifting off to sleep next to me. Howard Hughs led a fascinating life and I recommend the movie to anyone that has a spare 3 hours.

Had a dream last night. A couple coworkers stayed the night at my place. One of them redid my living room while I was in taking a shower and when I came out it pissed me off. The nerve, right? I hated the change. :) I accidentily made them both late for work because I set the wrong time on my alarm clock. Whoops! I also helped some foreign woman get some transcripts. Weird, to say the least.

I mailed Laura a present on Monday. I think she got it on Wednesday. Hopefully she liked it.

No plans for this weekend. Dunno what I'm gonna do.

A lot to catch up on.. oh who I am kidding?

Monday night Jake and Rach came over and we had dinner. They ordered Kim's Asia and bought me some broccoli with garlic sauce. I made white rice and we made a meal out of everything. It was fantastic, as always. Kinda started my new eating plan off wrong, but as I'll tell you later, I got that back on track.

So I got a REALLY great grade on my midterm. Are ya happy for me? :) I am. I stayed for lab, even though I just worked on my computer the whole time. I just wanted a ride from Carrie home. Heh.

My boss was sick the rest of the week. It was kinda nice and quiet without him. Not that he's intrusive or bothersom to begin with, but I just did my thing and waited for the week to end. Nancy gave me a ton to do for the next week or two, so I'm excited to have projects to work on.

So I've been eating pre-packaged meals that have just enough food to keep me still hungry when I'm done, but not overly so. So I'm just kinda... hungry all the time. That's how I lost all my weight a couple years ago.. never eating until I was full. If you eat until you're full.. then later you'll have hunger pangs that will either drive you a) insane b) to eat a whole bag of chips or c) to pig out at your next meal. This way, I'm hungry all the time and its suble and manageable. I did that all week and it worked out well. I was waiting for my body to revolt and make me collaspe, but it didn't happen and I actually lost 5 pounds by the end of the week. I was extremely pleased with myself.

Saturday my aunt had a birthday, so I went to her house and we celebrated. Everyone came (minus my mother who apparently was IN CANADA without telling me) and we had tacos and peanut butter pie. Yes, yes, I had very little.

Sunday was cleaning day. I had a grand ol' time scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom from top to bottom with a mix of bleach and scrubby stuff. I didn't realize my appliances were white. I'm pleased. And my bathroom floor was't naturally yellow. Eww, I know. Jake even commented how nice everything looked. I need to make it a habit to clean hard more often. But I promise not to enjoy it. Right.

This week has started out well. I bought more prepackaged meals since everything with the eating is going well. Jake told me he doesn't want to eat out anymore (good! cheaper for me!) and instead brought like $40 worth of groceries to my place. I felt like I was living in Brockport with him all over again. :)

Currently working on audits for students and programming for clusters. The book is making me see triples of everything. (You try staring at tiny black letters for 5 hours and tell me you won't go blind.) But at least my evenings are a respite. Working out on my elliptical has been a dream come true. I'm so happy I have it. I work out an hour a day. Weekends I usually work out a little less. But I get to watch Will & Grace for an hour while I do it.

Life is good. How's your life going?