Pictures here now then yet.

Hi.

My friend Jen and I went around the mountains where we live and took some pictures. Can you tell I like taking pictures? Here are a few...







After pictures, we headed to Jen's sister Jordan's house for some DELICIOUS eggplant parmesan and spaghetti. Jordan is one hell of a cook. :-) After that we watched Batman Begins and mocked it the whole time. Hee hee hee.



Jen is in blue, her sister Jordan is in red, and Ken is behind them looking all pensive. Or something. Jordan's boyfriend Josh had gone on a beer run so I don't have his picture but he was really nice. Jen and Ken (I call them Jeniken) are the friends who came by to help me light my furnace pilot light.



Yes, I gave this guy a match and let him spelunk around my gas furnace.

It was a lovely day. I can't wait to go take more pictures! Woo!

The Last Day: Driving 'Round The 10 - Vacation Pictures Phase V

On the last day, my cousin lent me her car and I drove around the 10 Freeway. Here are the pictures.











It was such a nice trip and I can't wait to visit again! :-D

Day 3: Just Beachy - Vacation Pictures Phase IV

This was the day we went to Orange County and saw some family. We had dinner at Sally's mom and stepdad's (yummy spaghetti) and chatted with her daughter Amber and Amber's fiancee Tim at their place afterwards. It was wonderful to see them...especially for Sally! She hadn't seen them in weeks! Sally's mom and stepdad were hilarious and very nice, and Amber and Tim are loads of fun and balance each other out perfectly. They will be a great team. :-D

Quick Completely Unrelated Ego Booster

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

WOOHOOO!! WOOHOOOO!! KISS MY ASS MRS. RASSMUSSEN!!

Day 2: All The Lovely Children - Vacation Pictures Phase III

The next day we arrived bright and early at Sally's school. I was to run errands for her, then meet her back at school to help with the afternoon class. Here she is at school.



She asked me to pay her car insurance, exchange the two left boots she bought at Mervyn's for a left and right, then run to McDonald's for a breakfast sandwich and bring it to her at school by 10:30. This should have been easy.

I went to the insurance office and walked past 5 or 6 cars in the parking lot full of people waiting for the office to open, then tried to jerk open the LOCKED door right next to the sign stating they opened at 9:00 (it was 8:45).

D'oh.

These pictures were taken in the parking lot...until people started to stare.





Waiting in the parking lot was boring, so I went to the mall and did THE SAME THING to the door (still wasn't 9:00). By the time I had driven back to the insurance office it was 9:00, so I paid the premium and went back to Mervyn's for the boots. I entered upstairs and looked in vain for the shoe department (please note I have visited this store many times in the past). I went down the escalator and looked there, then noticed the directory on the wall. The shoe department was upstairs, right next to the escalator.

Agh.

I left the mall and headed for McDonald's. I KNEW where the McDonald's was. I KNEW how to get there. I really did! All you have to do is exit the mall, go down the street and turn left. I KNEW this. I exited the mall, went down the street and promptly turned right...headed straight for the freeway. Great. Somehow I made it back to that intersection and drove AGAIN into the right turn lane! After a few expletives, I jerked the car (my cousin's car) into reverse and plowed backwards, twisting into the left turn lane. I glanced over to the left as the car came to a stop.

I was right in front of her classroom windows.

Thank God she's too short to reach them.

After this, everything went smoothly. The very last errand went smoothly. I helped in her class after that, the children were cute and it was a fun time - for a little while anyway (read: NOT GOOD WITH KIDS). They went home around 2:30 and I was drained. My cousin was bouncy with plenty of energy. I think she's bionic or something.

Here are a few more pictures from the day. This is the hallway in a typical open-air plan most California schools have.



Here is Sally's class room. Isn't it cute?



Here is the tricycle track on the Kindergarten playground. Children like to pedal with all their might to the top of the track by the gate, then take their feet off the pedals and BLAST down the hill, wiping out at the bottom. Kids are weird.



A great day had by all. Tune in for Day 3 because we go to the beach!

Day 1 - Vacation Pictures Phase II

I arrived at Ontario Airport and went to baggage claim to get my bag. My electric razor had turned on somehow in the bag and it was going "NEEEEEEEEH!" and shaking ever so slightly as it passed by on the belt. What's funny is that all the security guards were standing there doing absolutely NOTHING about it. I thought this was ridiculous at first, then I realized it probably happened all the time and they were afraid it was a dildo or something. Heh.

I snapped a picture of this mountain outside baggage claim, or as I have named it, "Mount Smoggy McFoggyBottom." They certainly don't look like this in Utah...



My cousin came and we left the airport...



We had dinner and wonderful conversation at Grand Burger (Turkey Burger! Yum!) and went to her dad's house. She lives here.



We chatted for a long, long time and my friend had asked me to take a picture of the sunset in L.A. so I did from the backyard.



Stay tuned! More to come!

The Many Faces of Sally - Vacation Pictures Phase I

This is my cousin Sally.



This is how she felt after getting her first teaching job.



This is how she felt after the first day...



This is how she felt after the first week.



Hooray for Sally!

HI!

I had an AWESOME trip!

I took hundreds of pictures and will post them once they are organized. Now I am going to bed.

Feels good to be back! :D

Going to be leaving town...

Hey!

I'm leaving for L.A. tomorrow to spend some fun-filled fantastic time with my cousin. I will take many pictures, and I will see you on Tuesday!

WOOOOO!

You want an update?

Here's a picture of my bulletin board. Have a nice day.

Feral Freaky

Here are some more pics from our nighttime photo session. Something is wrong with Blogger's Image feature, so I used my Picasa account to host these because you have to see them. Especially the feral cat. He's freaky. My friend tried to post him but it wouldn't work. Freeeeakyyy.


Freaky Feral Cat Madness! 


I am a Statue of Learning. Hi. 


What is this thing? 

Night Picture Snapping

Hello.

So my friend and I decided to go on campus at 10:00 p.m. and snap crazy pictures. Not only was it incredibly fun, but we managed to get some really cool shots. She will probably post some too, so check out her blog. Here are a few.







Stay tuned!

Sah-Tur-Daye

Hi. It's Saturday. I like Saturdays.

I love lounging around with nothing to do and nowhere to be. Well, nowhere to HAVE to be. It's nice to go places. ;-)

Speaking of that, next weekend I'll be in L.A. with my cousin! Woo! It'll be a nice trip I'm sure. What's cool is that I've been so busy I forgot about it until just a few days ago. I even made appointments and everything on those days! Totally forgot! Weird.

Well, I'd better go sit around and nothing, so you have a good Saturday and I'll see you soon!

Here's a picture of my bedroom wall. Wood paneling! NICE.



-Pjamms :-)

Hi.

Last night I had a video chat with my friend in Alabama. We both had never done this before and had webcams just sitting there, so we decided it was time to use them. They are surprisingly easy to use. It amazed me when we first opened our windows and saw each other and our computer desks. She showed me her clock in Central Time, and I showed mine in Mountain. It was cool and new and exciting and blew me away...for the first five minutes or so.

After awhile, we just kept talking and making weird faces at each other. It seemed normal to be doing this and it made me wonder why. Has technology gotten so advanced that now nothing will strike us as breathtaking for more than five minutes? I don't want to be a part of that world...I want amazement! It made me wonder if it would be a good idea to stop pushing forward for new inventions so much. Maybe if we just sat here a minute and caught our breath, we'd notice how pretty the drapes are in the sunlight. However, human nature is far too strong. Competition would kick in and people would be working ahead in secret so their nation could reign supreme in the "Tech War" once we all got started again.

We're pretty self-destructive at times, ain't we?

It seems big to propose an entire world stop thinking ahead, so maybe I could do that on a personal level. Maybe I could take a break from all these computers and internet applications and web design and blogs and yadda yadda...and just rest. Then when a new invention comes out, it will be REALLY BIG to me and I won't be over it within five minutes. The world will be NEW and DIFFERENT and EXCITING to me once again! Like a child!

Nah...I like my computer too much.

Anyway, moving on...here's a pic for the day. It's the pretty, non-technological mountain across the street.

Listen...Lab??

So I tried to make an audio post, but it hasn't posted and emails to the "Contact Us" address have been returned undeliverable. I tried to go to the company's website ListenLab but it's down.

So, basically, I don't think I'm getting an audio post anytime soon. :-(

Here's a funny picture. I think I can lift that printer. Heh heh heh.



Wishing I had an audio post,

-Pjamms :-(

There is an audio post coming which is part of a conversation I'm having on Virgilturtle. Don't worry if it makes no sense. Unless you're on the forum it wouldn't. I just thought I'd explain now before everyone got confused. :-)

I Dream of Jeannie (song in my head).

Hi.

My mom gave me some INCREDIBLE roast marinated in red wine and shitake mushrooms. Once I crock-potted it and ate it up, it became evident I would have to cook again. So I decided to make polenta. It's not that expensive, and relatively easy. If you haven't made it before you may want to watch out for the following things:

1. When it says "pour in gradually" that really means GRADUALLY. A little bit! It's made of thin corn meal that becomes hard as a rock if you do anything else. Gradually!

2. Turn down the heat IMMEDIATELY once the polenta is added or it will bubble and boil and go "FLOOP!" onto your stovetop in an attempt to escape. Many, many times.

3. Be sure to add the ricotta cheese. Nobody will tell you this and it won't be on the package, but if you don't add cheese to the mixture it will taste like Cream of Wheat.

4. Allow it to cool for a good 20-30 minutes before eating. Otherwise it will still be gooshy and steamy and taste like what ladies and gents? That's right. Cream of wheat.

5. Make sure you have enough marinara to pour some on the slices when it's done. Again, avoiding the cream of wheat factor...

That's all I can think of for now. If any of you have made it and have suggestions, let me know. I think it's tasty (or would be had I done the right things).

Here it is.

My adopted pet.

adopt your own virtual pet!

Raking Tisks.

Hello.

I'm sitting here waiting to go to my Russian Lit class. For the longest time I would wake up with just enough time to jump in the shower and fly out the door (sans breakfast) to school 5 minutes late. That just didn't seem like a good way to do things, so I set my alarm 3 hours before class starts. I have time to laze around (update this blog) and leisurely drink coffee while watching the Weather Channel.

Someone just coughed outside. Who the hell is up at this ungodly hour?

I'm sure you all do this already, but to someone who never did before, this is nice! I like having all this extra time. Of course, when my alarm doesn't go off (see two days back) it can be a problem, but most of the time it's nice. Plus, I have time to use my espresso maker and have hazlenut espresso...mmm...

So there you have it. Getting up early is the shizzy. Here is a picture of my bed after it's been made in the wee hours.

Sunday Someday...

Hello.

My furnace has been fixed and it officially freaks me out. It's across the bedroom and I can see the pilot light glowing at night. When it turns on I can hear the "Fwoosh!" of the firebox and it gets VERY hot in my room as the furnace is on the wall. In my room.

I'm not sure who designed these apartments, but they had a very unique perspective. That's all I will say. :-P

I looked at the fuse box (circuit box? circuit breaker box?), you know, that box on the wall with the metal lid with circuit breakers in it? Yeah whatever the hell it is. Anyhow, on the bottom was a sticker from the electric company that installed it. The electric company has long been out of business and the phone number was "2-6201." I'm guessing that due to that fact, and the fact I had to sign a lead paint disclosure when I moved in, these apartments were built sometime in the late 50's - early 60's. I guess it's okay but it does bug me they're so old. My friend Ken said there's probably asbestos in the ceiling. Probably so...

Well, here's a picture of the weeping willow in the courtyard. That'll take my mind off the fact I live in an asbestos-laden death trap.

"Fwoosh!"

Voulez-vous changer les draps?

Hello there...

I was talking to my friend last night. She is really nice to talk to and it was fun. Something bugged me though. We have to use calling cards to talk to each other because she's in Canada and I'm in the U.S. She's not even THAT far away from me, but just because of the border smack in the middle of us, we have to use cards and endure many calling snafus to talk. What if I wanted to call Northern Maine? No prob. Alaska? Good to go. Hawaii? Aloha! Ontario? Whoa there pilgrim...you need to call INTERNATIONALLY with your calling card! There's a border there doncha know...

What the hell is the difference? I would think it's more difficult to connect a call from here to Alaska - which is NORTH of Canada. We should have some sort of agreement with Bell Canada seeing as how we are RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. It's ridiculous. Sometimes we make things harder than they need to be.

Well, it IS pretty cool to hear her calling card end the call in English and French. I guess that's a benefit I hadn't considered. ;-)

Have a lovely Saturday. Here is a picture of my feets.



-Pjamms :-)

AGH!

I overslept and missed my first class and I'm looking everywhere and can't find my fucking glasses!!!!!

How are you?

Late Update

Hi there.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, in which I discovered my heart has a "slight" murmur and will need an Echo Cardiogram (when you get dye in your heart and they take a look-see), my spine has a bulge in the L5 region which explains the momentary SHARP PAINS I've been having down my leg (Sciatica) and my furnace isn't working correctly.

On the plus side, my friends Ken and Jen came over last night and we laughed our asses off watching "Strangers With Candy" and Ken got my pilot light lit and told me how to do it in the future. It was really great to see them as always. :-) Oh yeah, and the maintenance guy is fixing my furnace today AND I have a candy bar.

Here's a pretty picture for you to gaze upon. It's my Chia Homer and ceramic fish on the wall in my bathroom. Yeah.



Have a lovely Thursday.

Frosty Chocolate Utah

Smello.

As I type this, the Weather Utility on my desktop is blinking red. It's really, really, REALLY cold. Below freezing. It's a little unusual for it to get this cold this soon, but I guess when you live in the mountains at 4800 feet you have to expect that.

Last night I heard the warning chime for my Weather Utility (peal of thunder) and I saw this advisory. For some reason, the last paragraph strikes me as funny/disturbing:



It's time to worry about that already? Damn. The reason this is on my mind is because my furnace hasn't been lit yet. Usually when you move in somewhere your furnace pilot light is lit and you just turn it on, right? Yeah, well, not here. It's not lit and I have NO IDEA how to do it. I thought it would be okay for the rest of the week, but last night the temp got down to 58F INSIDE my apartment. I turned on my computer and put in a DVD so it wouldn't freeze (obviously it affected my brain). My friends Ken and Jen are coming tonight to show me how to turn on the gas and light it, since it's my first time and all, so that I don't blow my face off. That's very nice of them. :-)

My pinky refuses to bend anymore. I need to go warm up somehow. Here's me being cold.



-Pjamms :-)

Good morning!

I have a problem. There is an enormous tub of Red Vines in my kitchen and I don't know what to do with them. It started innocently enough, I was grocery shopping with my friend and we came across the licorice on sale. She noted how good of a deal it was - it really was a great deal - so I enthusiastically purchased it and took it home. After awhile I came to the following realizations:

1. Red Vines do NOT taste like Twizzlers (my preferred licorice).
2. I have enough to feed a small army.
3. The army won't eat them because...
4. They get stuck in your teeth easily and...
5. They most certainly do NOT taste like Twizzlers!

In short, they won't GO AWAY. Sometimes I want something a little sweet so I'll grab a couple for a snack. Within seconds I'm thinking "Gee...I sure wish I had Twizzlers."

Now, the responsible thing to do would be to eat them all (not at once) and get Twizzlers at that point. But due to the extremely slow rate of consumption, I don't know if that will ever happen! So, my question to you, dear blog readers, is:

"What can you do with Red Vines besides eat them from the package?"

Is there anything else I can do with them? Use them in a recipe? Melt them into a cleaning solution? Decoupage? Hello??

Please let me know. And if you live locally (or not) and really fancy Red Vines, GET OVER HERE! They WON'T GO AWAY!!

Thank you.

-Pjamms :-)

Here they be: