I'm not too sure about this MySpace crap

Ok, I know everyone is in love with MySpace, but it's kinda freaky. Some random 15 yr old girl from Stockton asked to join my friend list. Hello? I don't even know her! Where would I be meeting 15 yr old girls? I tried to send her a message, but her profile is 'private', so it won't even accept email. Crazy. So, yeah, she got DENIED. Ha!! Denied my friendship! That sounds evil. I mean, if you want to be my friend, at least engage in a little discussion first! I'm not easy!

It is nice checking on Sherry's myspace blog, though. She called last weekend from VA to say hi. Sherry is a college friend from NY that moved to VA with a friend to start an herb farm. They just bought a house with 14 acres on it. I'm so happy for her that she's following her dream. It's going to be a lot of work, but is sounds like they've thought out what needs to be done. Can't wait to see it in a couple years.

I'm sitting on pins and needles about Nathan's blog. I'm waiting for him to hear back from UT Austin if he got any funding for the PhD program. Why is UT playing hard to get? They accepted him, now send the damn funding letter! He's actually flying in this weekend for a get-to-know-the-department event. He's coming in late Friday and I think the UT thing is all day Saturday. That works out well since New Volunteer Orientation is Saturday at the shelter, so I'll be busy with that for a few hours. I think the group for the cats will be small. Usually, if we've had a lot of RSVP's the director sends out an email warning us, and I haven't heard from her. I'll have all day Sunday to mess around with Nathan. I was hoping Tony would come too, but it didn't work out. I really hope Nathan moves to Austin (I'm trying not to push too hard, because this really is a huge life/career choice he needs to make). I think Sunday we'll drive around neighborhoods down south so he can get a feel for the layout. He came out last July and we drove around a bit, but I think now we'll focus more on possible places to buy a house. My brother-in-law is a real estate agent, so he gave us a list of what's open now, just to get an idea.

Next week my boss is leaving for two weeks. She and her husband are going to the British Virgin Islands. They do a lot of sailing and scuba diving. She's getting a list together of crap she wants me to do while she's gone. It should be pretty slow, though. The ....weird(?)....thing is today she took me out to lunch and asked for a favor. Her mom has cancer and is on chemo. She's staying at my boss's house while they're gone and my boss wanted to give her my phone number in case anything happens. She also wants me to pick up her mom's mail from a post office box. It's no big deal, since I'll be picking up the mail on company time when I go to the bank (hell no I'm not doing that for free!) I'm happy to do it, I was just really surprised that she asked me to do that. I've never really done personal favors for her. It was just odd.

Wild Animal Park

Yesterday I went to a Wild Animal Park with a bunch of people. It's a place where they have random types of animals grazing on acres of land. You ride in an open trailer and can feed the animals from your hands. They had camels, buffalo, elk, gazelle, and a bunch of other four-legged herd animals. It was pretty cool. Definitely not in the San Diego league, but for central Texas it wasn't bad. We also went to a couple of Austin landmark restaurants, which was nice. There's still a lot about Austin that I don't know about so I always like to go somewhere new.

For those not in the know....a few months ago I joined a local group called Austin No Kidding. It's strictly for people who don't have kids (either don't want them or just haven't had them yet). It's an awesome group. There's people from all age ranges, singles, and couples. They have scheduled events like game night, movie night, restaurant explorers and they also have spur-of-the-moment outings (since we don't have kids, no one has to arrange babysitters). The nice thing is that none of them are big party people. So, even though we don't have kids it's not like everyone just goes out to bars and get drunk. They're more about hanging out and doing fun stuff. The movie night is SOOOOO fun because this couple has a huge house about 5 minutes from me in Cedar Park. They have a theater room in their house with leather reclining seats with cup holders and a 10 foot projection screen and surround sound. The first time I saw it I begged them to adopt me. They invited me over a couple weeks ago to watch a movie and we saw World Police: Team America. If you haven't seen that yet, and you like South Park, you must rent it. I didn't know what to expect with the puppets but it was really well done. I especially love the anthem ...'America, fuck yeah!' Heh.

Back from CA

Holy cow it's been a long time since I've posted!

I went to CA for a few days to see some family and my high school friends. Here's a pic of the Sierra Nevada that I took from the plane window. It looks so cool, thought I'd post it.

It went by so fast. I saw my grandmother, which was good. She's 84 and still going strong, but really, how many more years does she have left in her?
Nathan had a shindig at his house on Saturday for all the old BCHS folks. It was great seeing everyone. Of course, they all had to bring their significant others because god forbid they do something without them. At least Andrea doesn't have a boyfriend so I wasn't the only single person there. (yes, I wish her all the best in finding someone to love, but sometimes it gets annoying when a person bases all of their social activities on their s.o. - which is why I love Melanie so much - she and her husband have been together so long it doesn't matter to her if she does things without him) I could rant on and on about this, but then I would just sound bitter, which isn't the case (maybe just a little). This pic came out so good of Nathan and I. After seeing some of the other pics of me on that digital camera, I noticed how kina non-white my teeth were looking. I talked to my cousin about it, who's a dental hygenist, and she said those 7-day Crest whitestrips were really good and don't damage the teeth. I think I'll try out a set. It really makes a difference when you smile, I think.


Anyways, Heidi let me stay at her house and she and her s.o. Bert just got a new kitten - Atticus. Very cute. Neither have had cats in the past, so they were asking a bunch of questions, which was fun - I tried to mold them into good cat owners: good food, good scratching posts, a bed, etc. Here's a pic of the little rascal. I think he's about 7 weeks.


The party was fun. I made my 7-layer dip, which always goes over well. Heidi has a friend that sells Two Sisters Gourmet stuff and she made a spinach dip that was incredible. Everyone was munching on that all night. I think I'll try and pick up a few packages of it.
On Sunday Andrea, Heidi and I drove up to Mt. Diablo. I'd never been there before and since it'd been raining so much, everything was beautiful and green. We hiked a little and drove to the summit. I think it's about 3500 ft up.


By the way, my rental car was a Chevy Impala and it sucked ass. Yes, it had a lot of power and it handled well, but it was poorly designed on the inside with minimal visibility, uncomfortable seats, and little head room. The stupid speedomoter went to 140mph and the way the layout was, I had about half an inch between 60 and 70mph. So the whole time I was driving it I was watching my speed. I was so thankful when I got back to Austin and could drive my little Corolla which I LOVE. Stupid car. At least I didn't get into a wreck on Monday when it was raining so badly. When I turned the car in, another guy was there with a convertible that had a smashed front. That's gotta suck.

My new fence was put up while I was gone and it looks awesome! There's a couple of boards that need to be replaced, but all in all they did a good job. The lumberyard had a surplus of a higher quality board, so we got a better board for the same price. My neighbors on either side of me did their fences too, so it was three yards full of fence. Now I just have to do some landscaping and the outside will all be done. There's still several projects inside that will keep me busy for a few months. And no, I haven't finished the backsplash yet. Still working on it!

Quite a week

Man, this was one crazy week. To start off, Monday the painters came to replace some of my siding and rotted wood and paint the house. It took them about 2 and a half days to do everything and the house looks SO good. I ended up going with practically the same colors, except the red is a little darker. I think they did a really good job, and it was cheaper than what I thought it was going to be. They found some window trim and fireplace trim that was rotted and they also replaced some boards on my front patio. They only charged $56 for all the extra wood and work. Not bad at all. Also, since this is the same guy that painted my parent's house, they are going to get a $50 referral bonus. Cool! I'm definitely keeping his number in my cell in case I have any other repairs down the line. They came when they said they would and the workers were very nice and they all spoke English (which is uncommon in Austin. usually just the main guy speaks English and all the workers just speak Spanish....and my two years of Italian in college screwed up all my Spanish knowledge. Everytime I try and speak Spanish it all comes out as Italian -very annoying).

The other main happening this week is that Tuesday I was doing payroll which covered 2/11 - 2/24. My boss came in and said there was a change to make....I got my raise!!! And, it's exactly what I wanted!! She tried making me a salaried employee but I talked her out of it. So, I'm still hourly (which means I get overtime) and I got a huge raise!! If she does make me salaried later on, hopefully I'll get another little raise to cover the lost overtime. I was actually shocked that the number she said was the same as what I wanted. I really expected it to be less because we've been working on the budget and have been discussing cutting some positions to cut down on expenses. But, she said I was worth every penny, which made me feel good.

Thursday Melanie came over and we saw Napoleon Dynamite. It was ok. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood. It was entertaining, but I wouldn't buy it. I'm really surprised it became such a huge movie because it was very different from your usual fare.

Have I said this yet?....Must Love Dogs was soooooo bad. Bad plot, bad characterizations, bad writing. I didn't even care about the main characters. The only one I liked was Stockard Channing in a support role. I'd seen the previews when it came out and was thinking of seeing it, but I am so glad I did not waste money on that crap.

Tomorrow is New Volunteer Orientation. It seems like I did this just last week! At least they said only 15 people had signed up for the CATs so I shouldn't have a problem with taking them on a tour myself. Usually I depend on a couple people to help with the tours after I give my big talk about what we do. The problem with splitting up is that I never know what the other groups are being told or if they're being told all the right thing. Oh well.