Pictures....

...can be found at the other place. :-)

As always, email me if you need the address.

An update

Jeez, people. I keep getting all these emails and what-not bugging me about updating.

You people act like I have something interesting to say. :P

I keed... :-)

Everything was beautiful. I'll hopefully have the pictures uploaded and available to post later on today or tomorrow.

Just a quick update to let you know we are both alive and well and still married. :-) The wedding was fantastic and the groom was very handsome. :-)

*smooches* to all. You were very much in our thoughts the whole time.

Greetings from Europe!!

Rotterdam, to be specific.

It's great and it sucks at the same time. Oh the great irony of life. :-)

First of all, I'm traveling with the network manager from my company -- super cool guy, and a great friend to have at my office. Anyway, he and I got to talking at one of our meals out, and I had mentioned my previous work history. This morning, on our walk to the office, he says "so, you said you applied a while back for a job with Royal Caribbean? That's based in Miami, right? So, you've wanted to work for a cruise line for a long time then, eh?" I answered yes, and told him the story of my application to RCCL that didn't go very far at all. Didn't even get through the resume screening process --- the folks at RCCL never even saw it. But that was back when I was 25. The world was kind of my oyster. (Even though I don't like oysters, but I digress...)

So then he says "well, if you are still interested in that kind of thing, I have friends at X Cruise Line in Miami and I can get you in there if you want. You'd be really good at it, too."

Oh -- and where were you 10 years ago, eh??!!! Now that I...now that I'm...well, now that I've put down roots, I get offered the dream job. *sigh* Of course, now that I have all the experience that I would need, it can't be done. Back when I was young and single and looking to move far far away, I wasn't qualified. Oh the great irony of life, indeed. Made me laugh just a little bit.

And in the past, whenever I'd been on these kinds of trips -- by myself, with folks from work or whatever -- I'm always the one who wants to drink and party and hit the clubs and no one ever wanted to go. Now I've got this gal traveling with us who tonight wants nothing more than to just go out and hit the town. Even at dinner, I had one glass of wine and she had 3 (you know me -- I could normally TOTALLY keep up with her, LOL). And then wanted another one and I was tired and said I wanted to go back to my room. "Oh, you guys are lame!" is what she said, and I have to agree. Well, with my current condition, I certainly shouldn't go out and party, but again, the great irony of life made me laugh just a little bit. I am lame, I'm totally lame -- I'm supposed to be the fun one, dammit! :P

Tomorrow we are going to Amsterdam (yes, we are actually taking the day off and going OUT -- we've been working a LOT since we got here, even as soon as we got off the plane. But tomorrow is a day off so the three of us are heading over to Amsterdam to probably take a city tour and tool around for the day. I saw a lot of downtown Rotterdam last night (in my quest to find a US to Dutch power adapter for this laptop) so we figured we'd just ride over to the big city and check it out. Again, great irony of life, the one thing I really wanted to check out in Amsterdam I probably shouldn't do. :P

I've developed a theory -- if it's fun or makes me feel good, I probably shouldn't be doing it.

Sounds like church, don't it?:P
(I keed, I keed....c'mon, you laughed a little, admit it.)

We teased this poor man here that we've been working with today -- he's the nicest guy too, and doesn't really"get" my sense of humor so I've tried to tone it down. *I* wasn't the one picking on him, either, just FYI. :P The gal I'm traveling with wanted to see the Red Light District in Amsterdam and he claimed he didn't know where it was and had never seen it. She just tore into him for that -- "OH YEAH, RIGHT!!! HAHAHAHA!" Poor, embarrassed guy. I felt bad for him actually, I think he felt a bit uncomfortable. :P

I told him I had a friend that I work with who could probably give us detailed directions to said district and probably even knew a few of the girls' names and particular skills (yeah, I'm not making that up). I rolled my eyes and scratched my head while I said it and he laughed and gave me an embarrassed, yet understanding, smile. I found his embarrassment to be quite charming, actually. Considering this country's avante garde attitude towards sex (FYI, the Nickelodeon channel here turns into porno after midnight -- WTF?), I thought it was kind of cute that he blushed and looked down at the floor at her teasing him.

I would love to post some pictures but I don't have the right cable to plug into the camera. Considering the great quest I had to go on to get the power adapter to recharge my laptop, I'm almost afraid to ask. Maybe I'll find one when I'm out and about tomorrow.

Miss you, friends and wish you were here with me. Now that I have the laptop back I'll be on Messenger and probably be in the bar tonight. If I can catch a nap, that is. The time difference is messing me up right now. :-)

*smooches* all around.

Words of Encouragement and Support: A request.

I could use 'em today.

Tell me a joke, or a good story. Tell me something uplifting and inspiring. Give me a little encouragement, if you can.

I'm feeling blue.

And high-maintenance. :D

Whatever, again.

And now I leave on the 29th.

For reals this time, I have tickets and everything. :-)

Oh and the other blog just got updated too. Might want to check that out.

WHATEVER!!!!

I just took it in the shorts thanks to office/corporate politics.

No Netherlands for me.

At least not this week. Stay tuned, I may be getting on a plane NEXT Friday now.

*sigh*

And as if I'm not busy enough...

...with the flood of guests since the peep meet (I'm serious, almost every day since we saw y'all there have been people staying at our house)....


...I just found out I'm going to The Netherlands. In 3 days.

Wow.

Well, on the plus side, I'll probably have quite a bit of downtime in the evenings so maybe I can finally get the peep meet pictures updated.

Oh my.

A Toddler's Wrath

Something about this story struck me as both hysterically funny and infuriating at the same time.

Hysterically funny because the kid was just doing what toddlers do. At his age, everything is a toy and everything belongs to him. I also find it hilarious because I've been struggling with my own "how to approach the discipline issue" thoughts and have found myself mildly frustrated by them recently.

Infuriating because where was his mother?

Finding new and creative ways to destroy things is a toddler's job and after reading this? Somehow the cheerios deep in the couch cushions aren't that big of a deal. :-)

http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/41918.html

How funny are the monks though?

"No problem."

I love it.

If you've never seen the Mandala, here's some more info:
http://community.berea.edu/galleryv/MandInfo.html

It's really amazing. Especially to see them working on it.

Although it is made to be destroyed shortly after it's creation, so the kid was actually helping them out. Maybe he's the next Dali Lama!!! :D

I DID IT.

Yeah that's right, you heard me. I DID IT.

Today? I am officially a professional success.

I got the job at the cruise line. I start on June 5th.

I am so excited I can't even come up with words to make a coherent post, so I'll just stop trying and leave it brief. I'll have more later when I can think straight.

It's just a really really big deal. It's awesome that I finally have a full-time, permanent gig with health benefits and such but, well this is more than I expected. Let's just say I've been dreaming about a job with a cruise line for a long, long time. This whole move has been so kismet-y, it's startin' to freak me out a little bit. :-)

More details coming but for now, I'm gonna do a little celebrating.

*smooches* all around.

Whoa! Almost a month!!

Dang. Working has indeed cut into my sittin' around time. :-)

Things have been suuuuuuuuuper busy lately and I have not been around the computer very much. (And that's not totally because somebody frequently hogs it for fantasy baseball :P) Also since the purchase and installation of the hot tub, well let's just say we aren't terribly productive on the weeknights. ;-) Plus, we have started taking the bus in together in the mornings (instead of driving) and not only does that take a teeny bit longer, but since we are walking around downtown (instead of me just picking him up) we've been lingering around bars and stores and generally just screwing around instead of just getting on a bus. :-)

The job is going very well. It's totally stress-free and very boring -- I love it. The people I work with are pretty fun and while I haven't really made any "friends" per se, I do enjoy hanging around them at work. We'll see -- I still have 2 more months here.

Speaking of jobs -- I applied for (and got a call back about) an analyst position at a cruise line. OMG! I returned the call as soon as I could but I have not heard back from them yet. :-( It's a bummer because I've been spending a lot of time in the robotics lab this week and I can't have my cell phone with me in there. So keep your fingers crossed that I can get in there for an interview. That would be a GREAT place to work but there may be some travel involved and I have questions for them about that. Let's face it, I didn't move all the way up here just to get on a friggin' boat half the year.

I'm not that worried about it though. Things will work out the way they are supposed to. The BF went through all of our finances the other night and paid a bunch of bills and damn...we are livin' lean from now on. But my paycheck showed up the next day and I think that made him feel a little better about things. :-) I'm pretty confident that once this gig ends, my contracting agency will find a new one for me. So they won't be repossessing our hot tub any time soon (at least not until AFTER the peep meet LOL).

I finally ventured out last weekend and got my hair cut. The same person has been cutting my hair for 14 years, and I had it cut one last time before I left California. I was putting off trying to find a new place for as long as possible, but I just couldn't stand it anymore. I wasn't too crazy about the salon itself, but the stylist was super-nice and she did a nice job. She is also kinda new to the area, she moved here from Savannah, GA about 6 months ago. She actually lives pretty close to us and told us of a couple of places to go and hang out. Maybe we'll give it a try and see if we can meet some people.

I'm excited that it's Friday -- the sun is even (kinda) out. I don't know if it will stay that way but it's nice for now. We have some fun plans for this weekend -- fun and kinda sad. Our friend is moving back home to Africa for good so we are going to try and spend a little time with him before he goes. :-(

Happy Friday everyone!!!

Happy Easter, Friends!!!

I'm such a Buddhist -- I totally spaced on it being Easter today. :P

Meaning I also forgot to put together a basket for Rambo. Or buy a ham. Or do anything, really.

It might be a good thing though as we got a little gift basket from the spa place and it had a couple of little plastic decorative easter eggs in there. I thought it was cute so I put one on Rambo's highchair when he was having his snack.

I'm such a dumbass. OF COURSE he picked it up and shoved the whole thing right into his mouth -- and it was just small enough to fit ENTIRELY in his mouth and most likely choke him.

However, it was a little funny -- I didn't panic, I just reached out and squeezed his little cheeks together and the egg shot right out of his mouth. Crisis averted. *whew*

And I did go down to the store today and buy a ham. Uhhhh this is my first one I've cooked by myself soooooooo...well, just wish me luck. ;-)

Happy Easter everyone -- I hope you have all had a wonderful day with the ones you love.
*smooches* and *hugs*

Ahhhhhhhhhhh...the weekend....

And ahhhhhhhhhhh it's even better when you have a hot tub to get into. :P

Longest.Friday.Ever.

But totally worth it. :D Our new tub was all heated up and ready to go so I couldn't wait to get home! So after working all day (at a job I'm actually enjoying -- WTF? That's new!) and then getting horribly, HORRIBLY lost trying to go pick up Dingus after work, ahhhh we were able to step into our new hot tub.

IT'S GREAT. Just so great. I'll have pics and more details later. But for now? I'll just keep saying IT'S GREAT. :D

But that's not what I came in here to tell y'all about.

Today we had Rambo. And it was, without a doubt, the best day I've ever had with him. Strange, but still the best.

He was so much fun today. I say it was strange only because he kept staring at me today. I mean, STARING. He was sitting in his Daddy's lap drinking his juice and he didn't take his eyes off me the whole time.

We played together and he smiled at me a LOT and laughed a few times. But the best part?

Today was the day he reached out and hugged me for the first time. I've gotten a lot of hugs in my life, and I've given a lot of hugs...but seeing him reach his arms up for me, and then feeling them around my neck....wow I was hugging him so hard in return I was almost afraid I might hurt him!

(Then it was kinda funny later in the day cuz Dingus and I went shopping...in the shoe store this lady in line behind me had a little girl about Rambo's age who I was smiling at and talking to...and she reached out and hugged me too! Then I started worrying...."oooh maybe I just have a wierd 'hug me' smell going on today or something" LOL)

It was a great visit and we had a lot of fun today. We played and laughed and I fed him a snack and we hugged and had a wonderful time. I was very sad to see him go. But I'm very excited to go buy him some swimmy diapers and show him the hot tub on Tuesday. :D

And now we've taken our break and the tub should be nice and hot again so I'm going back out. More later. ;-)

Day One: It's Quiet, Too Quiet

Seriously -- this is the most laid-back environment I've ever worked in. WTH? Either this place is decidedly exceptional or I've been getting screwed blue all these years! In all honesty though, it's a great change from where I came from. Now that I look back on it, I'm not sure how I survived it with even this small amount of wits about me.

Initial thoughts:

Truthfully, I am GROSSLY overqualified for this gig. But as long as you're overqualified you might as well be overpaid and thankfully, I'm that too. ;-) All kidding aside, the work is insanely easy and anybody with the tiniest bit of computer exposure could do it with no problem. The upside to that is that I've got all the confidence in the world that I can handle this (and getting in over my head is one of my biggest fears) and it's certainly a nice change of pace from the "OMGWTFBBQ!!!111" environment I just came from. The downside is that I'm likely to get damn bored damn quick. Good thing I'm only working there for the next 3 months, eh? ;-)

As usual, no chicks. It sure would be nice to chat with a female every day but the guys that I work with are really really nice. One of the guys looks like Bill Engvall and sounds EXACTLY like Jeff Bridges. (That drove me crazy for HOURS until I was able to finally place the voice).

The campus is beautiful (apparently it's practically brand-new) and my desk is nice and clean and cool. It's nice and clean because they still dont' have a computer or a phone for me yet. :D As pretty as it is, it is kind of a pain in the ass to get to. But the cool part? I get to drive past the Space Needle every day. AND they had Nutter Butters in the vending machine!!!!

I do have to figure out my shoe situation though because I'm on my feet almost ALL day. My back is killing me right now. The hardest part about my job is going to be that, and trying to find my way around. The place is HUGE!!


All in all, it was pretty cool. I was actually quite proud of myself today -- I toned it down just enough so that I was funny but I didn't butt into conversations or was loud and obnoxious. (Yeah yeah I know I can get that way...what can I say? It's part of my charm.) I was confident, had a firm handshake, smiled and looked everyone in the eye and never let 'em see me sweat. :-)

Also -- I noticed one of the guys I work with struggling to fix an issue on a computer and I knew exactly what he needed to do. HOWEVER, I said nothing. Nobody wants to look like Little Miss Smarty McKnowitall on their first day. Even though I wanted to laugh and shoot my coffee out my nose when he asked me "do you know how to add a computer to a network domain?", I didn't, and just said "yes I've done that before" and moved on.

So all in all it was a good day but I'm exhausted and my back is killing me. I just got a pizza and Dingus is on his way home so I'm just gonna kick back for the rest of the night. More later. :-)

Oh and...

..my pee was fine. I got the job. I start tomorrow. :D

Reason # 5,469,539 why I love my boyfriend

Seriously. I couldn't love anything more.

He worked from home today -- because our new hot tub was delivered today. The hot tub that he bought and hoped would be a surprise (it was foiled because I wasn't working and caught the "pre-inspection" guy walking around on our deck). But that's not why I love him.

We have the most beautiful house. Which, with (mostly his involvement) is decorated beautifully.

He has been so patient with me while I'm not working. And understanding that I was very freaked out to be in a new place and it would take me a while to adjust. When I did land my interview? He celebrated that little victory with me.

And when that interview landed me a job? He celebrated again...and shared my victory with my friends.

Then my victory was spoiled by the drug test I had to take, (yeah yeah yeah, I know, whatever) and he was sympathetic and understanding. Sympathetic and understanding for the last week, and then he drove me to take the test.

Today he worked from home because our new hot tub was being delivered.

I got the news today that I got my new job, all is well. I was so happy that he was home to celebrate that news with me. :-) But that's not why I love him.

Our DirecTV guy came out today to fix our setup (again, long story). He was off the clock and he had his 5 year old son in tow. I forgot to mention to my boyfriend that D would have his son with him.

After spending most of the day outside with a flyswatter trying to kill all of the wasps and bees that were out there scaring me, D (our directv tech) finally showed up.

I introduced him to D's son. He was about to run out to run an errand and leave me and D's son to watch Spongebob. And I was totally OK with that!

But then he changed his mind and brought out this toy for us to play with, which we did...and then he said "oh wait, we have an Xbox"...which caused D's son to light up like a friekin Xmas tree.

So he didn't run his errand...instead he hooked up the Xbox (which I had completely forgotten that we owned) and sat there and played with this stranger's son for an hour. I brought out cookies and milk, they both ignored them cuz they were playing the game.

I couldn't love anything more.

If I ever get pissed off at him and tell y'all that and am ranting and raving and totally furious -- please remind me about today. Because I've never seen a sweeter, more patient, more loving, more compassionate and caring man than I did today.

:-)

Ooooooooooh!!! *angry fist*

Damn you, Washington!!! Seriously!!

Long story short: totally nailed my phone interview. Seriously...nailed it. At the end, the guy said "well, I have a few other people to talk to, but I'll be in touch".

Uh huh. 20 minutes later I got a phone call that I got the job. :P

Yeah! Yay! I rock! Just gotta work out the paperwork and he has to get the PO all set up and I have to take a drug test and woo hoo......wait, what? Drug test? Oooooooooooooooh.

So I put it off for as long as possible, which was today (Friday). Dingus is going to San Diego today for his fantasy baseball draft so I finally drove into "the city" today to have lunch with him. Then I was off to take my test. I made it into the city just fine and was quite proud of myself when I left...and then I got so, sooooooooooo lost. I drove around for two hours, stressed out as all hell, and then I just gave up. I just got on the freeway (going the wrong way I might add) and said "fuck it, I'm going home".

I had told Dingus I would call him when I was done with my test, and since I never took the test, I didnt' call. So he called me from the airport.

How much do I love Dingus?? An indescribable amount. When I told him I was lost, he didn't direct me towards the lab for me to take my pee test, nor did he direct me home -- he directed me towards the nearest tanning salon...which he knew I really wanted to visit (and couldn't find the day before). And he told me how to get home from there.

And he was right -- I found it, I bought lotions and I tanned...and you know what? I *do* feel better. :D

So now...Dingus is gone, I'm home alone, I had a very stressful day and oh! hey look! wine!!

:D

How are you???? :D

Who can turn the world on with her smile?

Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile
well it's me girl and I should know it
with each glance and every little movement you show it
Love is all around no need to waste it
Love is all around why don't you take it
I'M GONNA MAKE IT AFTER AAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!
*throws hat into air*

Straight out the gate I got a hit on a resume I submitted. I've already had a phone interview and they said they'll be setting up interviews later in the week and I should expect a call. It's a contract gig at a biotech firm -- I'll get to wear a lab coat and goggles!! I wonder if I can wear a pocket-protector too....

:D

My first Washington friend!

This is Milo. He comes and visits me every day. (We think he lives next door.) He desperately wants to come inside the house but I think that might be pushing it a bit too far with my own two kitties. In all fairness, they have been pretty patient with everything so far...

Picture post!

Here are some pics of the house:

Awwwwwwww, happy kitties!!

And our little 6-inch snowman we built with what was left on the ground:

ETA: Aaaaaaaaaaaand one more...at Dingus' behest (see comments):

Greetings from Washington!!!!

I'm here! I made it! And I just finished hooking up our DSL while I'm waiting on the DirecTV tech.

No TV, no phone, no internet....bah, we've been living like savages!! :P

Well, it was a wild few days but I am finally here and settling in. The movers took FOREVER and it ended up costing a *wee* bit more than we had budgeted, but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run. They said it could take up to 2 weeks for my stuff to get here but we are hoping it will arrive in the next few days. I keep attempting to put what things we do have in the house away, but then I remember that this place is going to be filled floor-to-ceiling with crap pretty soon. I hope it does get here soon though so I can deal with most of it while I am still blissfully unemployed. :D

As Dingus said, the cats did great. I was amazed. They hated being in their carriers so we let them out once we were on the road. Dingus had set up this whole little "camp" for them in the back seat so they were pretty happy. They made some noises and moved around for about the first hour, but after that they were settled. They sat in our laps some of the time or just curled up in the back seat. No potty accidents, no barfing, no hissing, clawing or freaking out. But their lives have been so hectic recently that they haven't slept much and so these days they are VERY tired. Fat Bubba's tummy was a little upset upon arrival but at the last litterbox check he appears to be getting better.

The house is BEYOOOOOOOOOOOOOTIFUL! It's certainly the nicest house I've ever lived in and certainly not something I could ever afford in California! We have a HUGE yard with a beautiful deck that wraps around half of the house. We are hoping to have everyone over for a BBQ during the July peep meet and we are so excited about it, we already bought this kick-ass new patio furniture! It's a cool table with this lid thing in the middle and when you remove the lid? Voila! Firepit!! It's really pretty but also probably safer than a traditional firepit...on a wood deck, it's probably better to have the flames up off the ground a little bit. ;-)

It's raining today but that's the first time it's rained since I've been up here. Yesterday was really really nice which was a relief, because you can imagine my horror when we pulled up to the house and there was snow on the ground! SNOW! ...the hell? :O

I still have to set up the wireless router and deal with the TV guy so after I have that done, I'll upload some pictures for you. *smooch*