Winston Saved My Life

*sorry about the quality; click the image to see it bigger

drool

DS and I have recently returned from the grocery. The bad news is that half of the amazing cat litter I bragged about just a few posts ago has suddenly disappeared. Neither Woodman's (the local co-op that has everything), or PetSmart are carrying Nature's Miracle. We just bought it 2-3 weeks ago!! Oh well, I guess it's just World's Best for us for now.

The good news is that my kitchen is crammed full of my new "healthy" snacks. I made a list from this month's Self magazine. Every fall they have a "choose your goal" issue with four different goals. There are meal suggestions, and I created my grocery list from them. A lot of the stuff I searched and searched and only found in the single "healthy foods" aisle. There are like 50 aisles at this grocery store, and only one they deem "healthy"! And why isn't almond butter grouped with the peanut butter?

Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of ground flaxseed, almond butter, dried cranberries, pears, peaches, apples and bananas! I've also bought soy milk for the first time ever. It's vanilla flavored, and I'm going to attempt making a smoothie for breakfast with it in the morning.

The best thing was my box of 200 popsicles! The kind you get as a kid when your parents know better than to buy you anything more expensive than kool-aid in a small plastic see-through tube. So some of those are freezing right now, and tomorrow I should indulge! Only 25 calories per popsicle, which means I could have 5 every day and still be under my "snack" calorie limit!! Woo-HOO!!!

Riding along

I've managed to get myself going somewhat.  Last week I read an entire book!  (It was Physik, book three in the Septimus Heap series; a children's book and a fast read, but an entire book none the less.)  I also finally made the jewelry for my best friend's wedding, which gave me the itch to make even more jewelry.  Look for new things in the shop soon!  

The apartment is clean, my plants are getting daily waterings, and I even rode my bike today.  It was one of my best bike rides in a long time.  My brakes finally work again.  Or perhaps they just finally work.  I'm not sure they were ever good.  While DS was climbing today I went for an hour long ride around the bike trails and through some neighborhoods.  I had my headphones on, and was singing loudly the whole time.  Luckily I saw very few people, and the one or two that I didn't manage see in time to quiet down actually smiled instead of giving me weird looks.  So that was pretty awesome.  It was a wonderful feeling having the wind in my hair and singing away.

The temperature today was lovely.  Only a high of 77, and no humidity that I could tell.   All last week it was in the 80's, which meant we had the a/c on.  But today, just perfect.

A new release cycle is ramping up at work, which means I'm probably going to start working late again soon.  Which is just crummy timing, because I'm really starting to get into the swing of things again, life-wise.  DS and I even went to a "high class wine and cheese tasting party" on Friday night.  We all dressed up, and went through probably 10 bottles of wine and waaay too much cheese.  It was delicious though, and we even found my favorite, Pinnochio.  There aren't too many wines I really enjoy, so that was really exciting.

Right now I'm waiting on the super slow and crummy dryer to get the clothes at least dry enough that I can hang them around the house and finish drying them.  I think I'll sit here and make some jewelry while I ponder what I want for my birthday.  It's only a few weeks away, and I'm having trouble answering people when they ask what I want...  time to brainstorm!

Pillow

Apparently this is how I sleep...  as a pillow for Felix.  Good to know that she still lays with me sometimes.  She used to do it before I fell asleep, and she doesn't really do that anymore.

Boooooo

I find life in general to be challenging these days.  Work is turning into a disaster.  I'm being told simultaneously to start letting go of my responsibility and not to "check out" too early.  As one might expect, I'm failing.  When did caring about the company you work for become such a bad thing?

The upcoming move is starting to scare the crap out of me.  I have no idea where we're going to find the money to actually get there, much less live there.  And it doesn't help that so many people we know are getting married this fall.  Not that the weddings in and of themselves are bad, but none of those weddings are anywhere near here.  

I can't seem to maintain interest any much of anything either.  My brain has decided that it can't do anything new until after we move, pushing me into a sort of limbo that is highly uncomfortable.  I can't make myself start a new book, or make jewelry, or even finish setting up my craft desk.  I did finally start playing Soul Calibur IV, but that, Soltrio (a solitaire game on xbox live) and watching the Olympics is about all I can muster at the moment.

Can it just be next summer already?

stupid sleep

Every time DS leaves the country, I'm reminded of how much he keeps me functioning more or less normally. I keep not going to bed, so I'm running on little sleep. I'm also eating like crap. But on the plus side, I've been actually socializing (by which I mean leaving my apartment for something other than work, and talking to people face to face).

Winston is antsy. I guess I'm not entertaining enough for him. Felix doesn't care who's here as long as they rub her belly.

Oh.. and I think I'm not sleeping well also because I'm afraid. I'm not used to living on the ground floor, and I keep thinking someone is going to get in, and DS isn't here to save me! And it doesn't help that I want to have the windows open because of the very expensive "window" unit, but I'm sleeping better using the a/c.

Delivery Fail

August 3, 2008	07:39:00 PM	JACKSONVILLE FL	Arrival Scan
July 31, 2008	01:51:00 AM	JACKSONVILLE FL	Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit

It took nearly 4 days to stay in the same city?  WTF?

Not even Babelfish can translate it

DS is in Warsaw, Poland.  I had a title that I tried to translate in Babelfish to Polish, but it would seem that it's not worth Babelfish's time to translate Polish...  He's there for another one of his science conferences.   Before you going thinking how lucky he is to travel places like that for free, you should know that other languages scare him and he's likely to spend the entire trip either listening to talks (which are all in English) or hiding out in his hotel room.  He was supposed to take my camera, but he forgot it.  Which is probably even more of an excuse to not leave his room...

Apparently they don't have internet there.  Or at least it's not mainstream enough for a hotel that hosts large conferences to have it.  He had to call the old fashioned way when he got there today.  I can't wait to see what that cost us.

So we've been in our new place for a week now.  We're on our second furniture arrangement already.  I originally thought I wanted my workspace in the living room so I could watch tv, but I quickly realized that meant there was no where else to go when I didn't want to be in the same room with DS and his video games.  Now the workstation is in the "dining room", which still lets me see the tv if I want, but it's just far enough away that he shouldn't be too distracting if the sound is low if I want to concentrate.

My initial reaction to this place was that it sucked.  The new layout has made it feel like we have more space, which is also greatly helped by the fact that I finally got the kitchen counters cleaned off yesterday.  For the most part, the boxes are all unpacked now.  So I'm thinking it's not quite so bad as I thought.  

Reasons I thought this place sucked:

1. No central air

2. What little a/c we have is a "window unit" installed in the wall on one end of the apartment.

3. That end is NOT the bedroom, so it's like 100 degrees in there.

4. I can't sleep when I'm that hot.

5. I'm told the little heater things along the floor (there's one for each room, and they each have their own thermostat) get hot enough to set things on fire if they come in contact with it....

6. The heater has the very helpful settings of low, medium and high.

7. There aren't overhead lights.

8. The light-switches control every single freakin outlet.

9. For some reason, it controls the bottom plug instead of the top one.

10. Between the closets, heater, balcony door and regular entry door, the bedroom has just enough room for the bed against the wall.  Only the bed...

11. The entryway smells very strongly of mold.

12. There are bugs and spiders all over the place (though thankfully much more rare in my actual apartment than in the building).

13. My garage isn't in my building, so I have five keys just for myself, not counting the garage opener.

14. The closets are awkward.

15. There isn't any place in the bathroom to store towels.

16. The balcony railing stops about 4-6 inches from the actual building.  I'm afraid my cats are going to jump/fall off.  It wouldn't be the first time...

16. Did I mention there's only one place I can put the bed without burning the place down?

Reasons it's not as sucky as I thought:

1. We've more or less figured out the optimal fan placement so we can live without a/c (I'm told that thing is hideously expensive).

2. After investing in some of those 1-to-3 plug things, everything can function without fear of someone flipping a light-switch and crashing my computer.

3. I managed to get things organized in my closets by making separate spaces consisting of boxes on their sides.  Almost like shelving, but not as sturdy.

4. Daily candle burnings and open windows are slowly removing the stank in the apartment.  (still no hope for the entryway)

5. I don't have to get up early just to drive DS to the bus stop anymore!

6. I live near real bike paths again.

7. I don't have to climb a hill from hell just to go somewhere, anywhere, on my bike.

Newly found suckiness:

1. The "dryer" that I now have to pay to use can't even get things dry with two full cycles... we might have to become laundromat people.  Luckily there's one just a block from here.

Now that I am a devoted Google reader reader (heh..), I've been getting a lot of updates from Apartment Therapy.  I'm happy to say that they were right about their cat litter mix, and it is absolutely, completely amazing.  My litter box has never been so easy to clean, or smelled so nice.  Best of all, it's biodegradable and non-toxic, something I definitely couldn't say about my old litter.  Also, my new litter box is the shit!  You just roll it one way, roll it back, and you're clean, no scooping required!  I love it so much I even took the time to post a review on PetSmart.com, where I found it.  I never do that.

hmm.. there was more too, but I feel like I've been typing forever and it's about time I went to bed.  Extra effort has to be made to get me in bed at a decent hour when DS isn't around to tell me it's bed time at 9:30.

Hello to New Digs!

I'm sitting on the floor of my old apartment, which is more or less empty. DS and I have never been very good at actually getting everything out of the apartment when we move, which ends up lending itself to some extra, non-planned purging. He's left to drop some random stuff off at the new place, and then he's going to bring back lunch and oven cleaner (I have to admit I don't think I've ever cleaned an oven...)

I'm surprised at how clean this place is. It gives me hope that the December mega-move to CA will be not quite so bad as we're fearing it will. I'm happy to report that we got everything (except for cleaning supplies and aforementioned riffraff) into the new place in somewhere around 10 hours. And that's with lunch and dinner breaks and only one helper! (Bless her soul, Renae is a saint.. actually, if she were drinking while reading this, I'm pretty sure milk would shoot out her nose. But still, she was our sole volunteer, and we have waaay too much stuff even after all our purging)

The cats were ANGRY that we were moving. We had to lock them into one room all day (with all needed supplies of course) because they are notorious for running out the front door at every opportunity. I also read somewhere that cats get very anxious when they see all they know of the world disappearing out the front door. I think maybe they started getting angry when we started packing and purging about a month ago, because I found a suitcase that one (or maybe both, but I really think it was Winston) had starting using for a litter box. Things like that are always a sign of either a sick animal, or one that is very upset. And since they both seem more than fine now that they're in the new place full of their stuff, my guess is someone was sending me a message...

I think we might end up fitting into our new place even better than I had planned (I have to scaled cut-outs of all my furniture, and I like to draw out apartments and arrange my stuff before we move). That's pretty exciting considering we'll be extremely lucky to have this much space after December. Though I think the more we move, the more DS and I move towards the sentiment of less is more.

Oh.. and we're tired. Extremely tired.

I can do it!

59 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

Apparently when DS filled out the same quiz for me, it said "very poor"... I think that means we're doing great! I am awesome!

Dr. Horrible

Quick!!!! GO! Before it's too late!! (as in sunday at midnight)

Decisions

In a recent conversation with Kimberlina, it was pointed out to me that I never shared our moving decision. Not only did he get an offer from Salt Lake City, but also from Santa Barbara, California as well. A tough choice was ahead of us: go to Salt Lake City where there are friends and realistic living expenses, or go to Santa Barbara where the research is better and live on a box on the beach...

We chose the box on the beach. You think I'm kidding about the box, but only a little. We currently have somewhere between 1000 and 1100 square feet in our apartment, and it's pretty full of stuff. With nearly double the rent, we might get a 650 square foot apartment in Santa Barbara... pretty insane if you ask me.

The plus? He's really stoked about working with this guy, and we're both intrigued by the idea of living by the ocean (Santa Barbara is only about 2 miles wide, squished in between some small-ish mountains and the ocean). I grew up in a land-locked state and didn't take my first trip to the ocean until I was a senior in high school. And I've never seen the Pacific Ocean.

So the big problem now is.. getting a job myself that pays enough that we can both move around our apartment and not starve, as well as getting rid of enough stuff that we can move around in our apartment. Thus, I have begun purging. Like crazy.

Our current lease is up at the end of this month, and this place won't let us have a short term lease that ends in the winter (jerks!). So we're moving to someplace that will, and then moving again in December. It's pretty lame, but it's giving me an excuse to get a head start on the whole packing and purging process. I'm working on going through all of my stuff and packing it in such a way that a lot of the boxes can remain boxed until we get to California. But in doing so I've realized that even with getting rid of several pieces of furniture, there's no way we could fit into anything less than 800 sq ft right now.

Hence, a second round of purging. Tackling the stuff that I didn't think I could part with, and actually parting with it. I'm reading this book called "It's All Too Much", and it's actually really helpful. Things to think on:

1. If you're hanging on to things for sentimental reasons, or because it's too important, think about where it is. If it's in a box in your cellar or closet, how can it be that important?
2. Only fill your house with things that are either useful or beautiful.
3. If you haven't used it in a year, it's not useful.

600 square feet, here I come!

Need a Painter?

Luke, of recent birthday fame, also recently bought a house.  The basement has a rec room that was ingeniously given peach accent walls and red curtains.  *shudder*  He asked for my advice on what to do with it, and I suggested we paint it to look like a pool table (there will be one down there eventually).  There are two walls separated by a fireplace that end up being less than the length of the room, which is pretty big.  So I didn't think the dark green would be too overwhelming or oppressive.

It's coming along nicely I think!

Fireworks

And now, for your enjoyment, some of the fireworks DS and I could see from our balcony.

Luke's Birthday

There's a birthday tradition between some of the people at my office to "decorate" their office space.  You may remember the balloon foray.

June 29th was Luke's birthday.  We hung large sheets of paper on one wall, and projected dinosaur images for easy drawing.

Then we spent quite a bit of time coloring in these huge beasts.

DS was there for moral, but not creative or manual, support.  To occupy himself, he made use of Luke's many small plastic toys.

Some of his little scenes were historical (though he might claim they're all historical).

The end result?  Huge success!!  Luke was scared to work, and spent the day looking over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't about to be eaten.  Watch out!

Sort of makes me want to start randomly doing things like this to everyone's offices.  Way better than plain white walls.

Cincinnati

Sometimes I have to travel for work, and recently I was sent to Cincinnati for a "go-live".  (By the way, the people at The Christ Hospital are pretty cool; they gave me ice cream and made my 12 hour shifts not totally sucky)  I more or less get to choose where I go, and I chose Cincinnati because my best friend Kelly lives there.

She's building a house, and we went to see it.  It was the first time they'd been in it since the roof was put on, and she was very excited to see that the brick was already being added.  

This of course has DS and I salivating for our own house...

We went to the Butterfly Show at the Krohn Conservatory.  The theme was "the Silk Road", and the exhibit featured butterflies from Asia.

It's times like these that I really appreciate how amazing my camera is.  And it's not even all that great by today's standards!  Simply amazing.

Volunteers offered a spritz of Gatorade for your hand, which was supposed to attract the butterflies.  I didn't really have all that much luck, but this little girl was walking around with them all over her.

We decided to stroll around the nearby park, which overlooks the river (which, by the way, was completely gross looking.. massive storms and flooding will do that.. big and muddy and frothy).  There was a statue in the distance, which we saw from behind.  We were sure it was a witch over a cauldron, but it turns out to be a gift from Cincinnati's sister city in Japan.*

Afterwards we visited the art museum.  I'd been there before, but I think this piece was new.  It was taller than me and made out of wood.  Something about it just makes me want to rub it, like it will be soft or smooth.  I really like it.

----------------------

* This statue represents a fisherman using this special way of fishing with birds.  The birds' necks have rings that don't allow them to swallow the fish.  They fly off and catch one, then bring it back to the dude, who takes it out and puts it in his bucket.  Kinda gross if you ask me, but also a pretty creative way of making do with what's around you.

Job Hunting... Again.

So DS has this dream of becoming a research professor at some big university.   And I totally support that.  But DEAR GOD it's a slow process...

There was this thought in my brain that I wouldn't live in Wisconsin all that long.  And then graduating took longer than expected.  

So in December he graduates, and I think, sweet, we're like five or six months away from two real paychecks and possibly buying a house!

And then that didn't happen.

So he's applying for second post doc positions now.  Salt Lake City actually seems really interested in him.  Which is really exciting for the both of us, but especially for him.  He has friends there, and there are mountains, and I think he's started drooling in his sleep at the thought of living there.

This is only a temporary solution however.  So he's also going to be applying for professorships again this fall.  This leaves a small potential of moving around January (God willing the Salt Lake City thing keeps going as well as it has), and then again in the summer to whatever school wants him to teach.  He keeps telling me this is a remote possibility, as most schools will allow him to finish his post doc before moving.  I think if moving twice in one year means getting into a permanent home that much faster, bring it on.  But we'll see.

Personally, the glossy finish of my job is starting to fade, so I'm looking forward to moving (though I will sincerely miss Wisconsin; it is a seriously cool place with seriously cool people).  Mostly though, I'm counting the days until I have my dream job of pursuing my hobbies all day (and I don't mean sleeping, though not needing an alarm clock is certainly part of said dream job).  This dream is near impossible until DS lands a teaching position, because living off my hobbies isn't exactly going to make ends meet until then.

So everyone cross your fingers!  Because we'd both love this Utah thing, and I really believe it will make the next step that much easier to reach.

Memorial Day Weekend

This image is actually from St. Louis.  It would seem that even gas station attendants are trying to cope with the high price of gas.  (No idea what's up with the gray streak...  my camera has been acting funny recently)

This weekend was the annual Brat Fest.  A group of us went for lunch on Friday, and did our part to contribute to the world record numbers.  Jim here is on number 6.  It was quite impressive.  I only had one, and that was more than enough.

On Saturday, I went to the Henry Vilas Zoo with Graham and Renae.  Have you ever seen a white peacock before?  I hadn't until this one.  She sort of looks like a chicken without her coloring.

This was my first time being at the zoo when the prairie dogs were out.  The exhibit is a recent addition to the zoo.  They were very lively (two were even.. enjoying each other's company!)

On Sunday, DS and I went to the Milwaukee Public Museum to see the Body Worlds exhibit.  It was pretty amazing, you're not allowed to take pictures.  Afterwards we checked out the rest of the museum.  This diorama reminded me of this movie I always watched as a kid.  It starred Fred Savage when he was really little, and I swear this image was in it.

Picture Update! (Now with text)

April 27th: Felix wants to know why the hell it's snowing

St. Louis Zoo, May 18 - Hippos are HUGE

But they have tiny tiny ears

Baby Elephant!!

This Grizzly was hot, and decided to hang out in the pool

Prairie Dogs are so cute!! Like little squirrels with shorter tails.

I was trying to take a picture of the Lion yawning, but caught the tail end instead. He looks like he's going to kill someone.

Always have to support the Lemonade Stand

Athens, Part 3

Everything is an archaeological site.  

For example, in preparation for the Olympics, and even still, the city began adding subway stops.  Except everywhere they started digging, they found old crap.

But what can you do in a city where you really can't dig anywhere without finding something?  

Simple.  Build over it and have glass walls and floors!

Other things are just nestled in regular areas.  Like these old columns in the National Gardens.  (I think that guy is doing Tai Chi.  We thought he looked like he was just pushing the air in front of him over and over.)

Or even better, this tiny church in the patio area of a Starbucks.

A similar thing happened when they started building the New Acropolis Museum (which wasn't open yet).  So it also has a glass floor.

In this picture you can see Hadrian's Library and the Temple of the Winds (and probably other stuff too).  Everything is completely built up around them as if they were just another building on the street.

The cool thing about it is you can eat outside and view awesome things, like the Acropolis.  Free of charge!

And in a city this big and densely populated, the archaeological sites are some of the few places to experience open space.

Though be careful!  If an earthquake hits, you could have gigantic columns falling on you.  DS and I made sure we studied the length of this one so we knew how far to run if things got shaky.