50 Cutest Child Stars

I just wasted the last 2 hours watching a show on the E! network about the 50 cutest child stars, and where they are now. Yikes. Granted, I have been putzing around during that time, folding laundry, cleaning, reading a magazine but boy I sure don’t feel fulfilled after watching it. Normally I spent a significant amount of time watching the Food Network on Sunday, but I’m avoiding that channel for awhile. See, I really REALLY want the kitchen aid mixer (I have a braun system but I’ve loved the kitchen aid mixer for years). I have promised myself I WILL NOT spend $400 on the mixer until my credit card is completely paid off (which should be next month yahoo!) and then I will buy it. I can’t wait. I have found that baking REALLY helps me relieve a lot of my stress and I have a large enough office at work that I can bring my goodies into work and not eat them all at home.

We saw the movie Miami Vice on Friday night, it was a lot better than I expected.

We move offices on Friday at work, of which I am coordinating the entire effort, from designing the new space to getting vendors to do everything, to purchasing used furniture and cubicles. It’s been VERY stressful and I will be happy once it is all over. Construction is complete, and while it is the suite next door it still has managed to eat up a lot of my time.

Have a great week!

How I found the cats after I finished showering

SO cute. I love it when they spoon. When George (the orange one) was a baby, he used to spoon Jones (the brown tabby) but quite often now it's the other way around.

So cute!

Zucchini Bread

I made two loafs of Zucchini Bread tonight after I got home from work. They are now cooling but I managed to sneak a bite and so far it is delicious. I picked up some zucchini at the Vail Farmers Market because I was having the itch to bake something.

I also posted pictures from the farmers market, but honestly they aren’t anything to really mention. You won't miss anything if you don't look at them.

I'm ready for the weekend. I've been really tired this week. And blah feeling.

Weekend Re Cap

We had a fairly decent weekend. Yesterday we finished our Stage 2 and 3 options for the new house, and paid our final deposit down for the 30 percent of the options we have chosen. Our savings account isn’t looking as healthy as it used to  They are still pushing dirt around on the lot, and the builder expects them to start any day now. Granted, we have heard that for a full month now. They still expect it will be done at the end of December.

Today we drove up to Vail and spent some time at the Farmers Market. Didn’t buy too much, other than some zucchini to make a zucchini loaf, and some fresh Colorado peaches.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty quiet weekend. This is Austin’s last full week of work, he accepted a job at a company downtown doing the same kind of work he does now, for more money. He was with the company he just quit for 6 years, so he is sad to leave but ready to move on and start with some new challenges. He’ll also have to start commuting downtown, but he doesn’t get all worked up about traffic like I do. I think this will be good for him.

Hellish Week at work

This week was pure evil and hell at work. I don't go into details, but my micro managing boss is making my life a living hell and I can't stand her. To top things off, I am coordinating a move to the suite next door for 100 people, which will happen in 2 weeks exactly from today. I'm ready for this to be over.

We have no plans for this weekend. We need ot go sign some final house papers tomorrow morning, as well as do a complete cleaning of the house since the last two weeks we have lived like pigs in a pig stye. I suggested to Austin that we maybe run up to the mountains and do a small hike or something like that, since for some reason I'm anticipating a very quiet and boring weekend. We'll see though. I'd like to scrapbook, but all of my scrapbook stuff is put away and I think it's too big of a production to get it out only to put it away 3 hours later.

So we'll see! I also want to go to dinner tonight, but I don't know what I feel like.

Sephora is SO great and so evil at the same time

I decided to run to the mall tonight at 7pm, I wanted to hit the Sephora store and get some new eyeliner since the ones i have are dried out and I don't like them. I spent a good hour and a half mulling around, and spent WAY too much money. That store is so great, and so evil to my bank account. Yikes. I ended up with some lip gloss, some eye shadow, and a new eye liner. I'm excited to try out my new stuff tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be a shitty day at work. We are having a change in management and my new manager, Claudia, isn't the greatest. She is a micro manager, and i think believes I am the worlds biggest idiot known to man. Anyways, part of her changes is to change the two people I supervise (Sarah, another admin person, and Georgia, our receptionist) to her supervision. I asked why we had to do this, since I have assembled a good team and we all work well together. They enjoy having me as a supervisor and it works. Why change it. She is just unreasonable and wants to change things. I have no idea why. I gave both of them the heads up today, and both are livid.

I'm at this point very actively looking for another position, and even potentially considering approaching my former company and seeing if there are any opportunities there. I just don't see my future happening at SWCA anymore, at least not with the current management structure. It's a shame, because it was a good fit. Ultimately, I want to be an office manager, and I think I'd be good at it. That is just not going to happen anymore at SWCA.

Sigh. Stupid micro manager. I wish she would just go away and stop causing problems in the Denver office.

Mondays suck

I hate mondays. I never sleep good on sunday night because I'm used to sleeping in a bit. And lately it has been so hot out that our upstairs where the bedroom is doesn't get much cooler than 78F so I am hot and sticky and miserable. I become a grouch when it gets hot out. We need to move to Seattle.

Austin just accepted a new job today. After the company he worked for was bought out a few months ago, his job has become fairly boring since he only supports one software product now instead of many. He is taking a similar job for a company downtown and I think he is excited for the new challenge.

It's still hot in Denver, and i'm afraid the new flowers I planted over the weekend might not make it becuase it is so hot and they are burning. I water them 3 times a day but it's the blooming sun, it's SO hot.

Jeesh.

Dinner was a success

Dinner was a success. Everything was cooked well and delish! My beautiful sunflower cake, however, did not fare well. I have this new sunflower bundt pan that I received as a gift from a good friend, and tried out a new recipe for a lemon cake in it. The pan is non stick, and for exra measure I even sprayed non stick spray in it, but it would NOT come out of the pan. I have the feeling it was the chocolate batter I had to mix in the center of the sunflower pan (to make one believe it was seeds).

Anyways, I raced to the store and bought a pie crust, some vanilla pudding mix and rasberries and made a quick pie instead.

What's for dinner...

We are having 12 people over for dinner tonight at our house. That’s a lot of people. I enjoy cooking though, so I’m looking forward to it. It’s all of Austin’s family, right down to aunts and an uncle in town after Vern’s funeral on thrusday to take care of the estate etc.

What’s on the menu you ask?

This is what I have…
• Salsa and Chips
• Deviled Eggs
• Cheese and crackers
• Ribs
• Burgers
• Artichoke Pasta Salad
• Ambrosia Salad
• Carrots and Dip
• Olives

And for desert, a Sunflower cake in my favorite bundt pan that is shaped like a sunflower cake. I’m trying a new cake recipe, it’s a lemon flavored concoction, I hope it turns out!

I’ve got most of everything done. Austin is handling the meat and will smoke the ribs and then will bbq the hamburgers. The cake just finished baking, and I just finished the salads and they are ready to go. I plan to run to target later this afternoon to get a pretty glass cake stand.

I also planted new flowers in my two large barrels out at the front of the house. I’ll take a picture later (it’s still WAY too hot to be outside right now)

107 F? Are you kidding me?

So, last time I looked outside of my nicely airconditioned house, it was 107 F. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? My god it's hot out. I ran some errands while Austin was out at a movie with his friends. Went to Costco, and then thought it would be a good idea to go and get some new plants for our outside planter pots. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Wow. I did get some plants, but they are still sitting outside, I'll plant them this evening when it gets slightly cooler than 107 F.

I planted seeds in these two barrel planters earlier this summer, and they have sprouted, but they are starting to die so it actually does not look very nice. I'm really getting into the gardening thing, it's fun for me. I enjoy watering the plants at night too.

On a side note, they are still pushing dirt around on our lot...maybe next week!

Weekend Summary

It rained ALL weekend and was nice and cold (well as cold as can get in Colorado in July, mid 60s). Almost perfect in my opinion, I hate the heat. I can’t say we really did too much this weekend. We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner on Friday night. It’s cheap, and I like their biscuits. Saturday we headed over to the new house to try to finish our options list, except the interior designer had not sent over her final pricing invoice so we were not able to complete it. While we were there, we got a phone call saying that someone wanted to see the house in 20 minutes, so we raced home, straightened the house, and then left. I went to the mall and fell in love with some kitchen appliances I WILL NOT buy until we move to the new house and I have more cabinet space. Austin booby trapped the door, and surprise surprise they did not show up. Only mildly frustrating.

Today we didn’t’ do too much of anything. I managed to waste 4 hours today watching a movie on lifetime. I just finished baking a chocolate espresso cheesecake for Gary, my father in law. We had plans to celebrate fathers day with him 2 weeks ago but then Vern got really sick and we have been busy with that. The funeral is on Thursday, and will be my first memorial service I have gone to.

On another note, another project coordinator starts on Wednesday at work to help me out a bit since I am so swamped. On one hand, I’m really sad that I can’t do it all myself, and on the other hand I’m really happy I’m getting some help because I’m getting burned out. I’ll have to train her, and I can’t help but feel like she will be better at things than me and then I will get fired. Sigh. I wish I had more self confidence.

Four things about me.

Things you may not have known about me.....
A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Hot Dog vendor
2. Airport Planner
3. Environmental Planner
4. Office manager

B) Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Pretty Woman
2. Save the last dance
3. Turner and Hooch (when I was younger)
4. ?

C) Places I have lived:
1. Calgary, Alberta
2. Kansas City MO
3.Atlanta GA
4. Broomfield CO

D) Fours shows I love to watch:
1. The Office
2. Windfall
3. Everyday Italian
4. Entourage

E) Four (of my favourite)places I have been on vacation:
1. Paris
2. Maui
3. Holland
4. Vancouver Island

F) Websites I visit daily: (maybe not daily)
1. www.monster.com
2. www.9news.com
3. blog sites
4. hotmail.com

G) Four favourite foods:
1. Queso
2. Grilled Cheese sandwiches
3. Grilled chicken
4. Fajitas

H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. On vacation
2. at Archivers scrapbooking
3. In our new house
4. on the beach

I) Four things you might not know about me:
1. I have lived in the US for 7 years now and will get my permanent green card at the end of this year
2. I rarely believe in myself (bad self esteem)
3. I hate being by myself
4. I wish I could have 10 cats and become the crazy cat lady

Uncle Vern passed away last night at 11:30 pm.

RIP.

Me

This picture was taken when we all got together monday night for Vern's birthday. I just had my highlights re-done and had my hair cut. I think it's a good picture of me :)

The IRS and I are no longer fueding...

I have finally been cleared of the tax fraud case the IRS had against me. After getting that initial very frightening letter from the IRS in March stating that I owed them $10,000 because they thought I earned more money than I really did, they finally have reviewed all of their evidence and have dropped the Federal Tax Court date in August and the case against me. It would have been nice if they had admitted in their letter that it was an error on their part, but they did not. Just a simple letter stating that they now concur I did not make that extra $20,000 they think that I really did make.

We were off yesterday for July 4th and I went back to work today. I’m ready for the weekend.

Weekend Ramblings

Well, Canada Day has come and gone for another year. We went to the Body Worlds 2 Exhibit http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/home.asp at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Their "catch phrase" for the exhibit is "the Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human bodies involving the use of plastination". It was really pretty interesting, although it was a bit too busy for my liking and I felt like I wasn’t able to linger or learn about all of the things they had available. What was most impressive to me was they had a healthy lung, a lung of a coal miner, and a lung of a smoker. Ick. Yet another reason not to smoke. I was also really moved by the prenatal section where they showed fetuses of various ages and sized. While the timing is not quite right yet for Austin and I to start a family, I hope that in the coming year or two we will be. The exhibit was very powerful, and busy.

Austin wore his Nike retro shoes he purchased last year off of EBAY. I love them. We went out to dinner after at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We ALSO steam cleaned our carpets this weekend, Saturday to be exact. I can’t begin to describe just how excited I was to steam clean the carpets. I rented the unit at the grocery store on Saturday, and we completed it after dinner Saturday night. Austin mainly did most of the work; I filled up the bucket and added the soap. Quite disgusting how much dirt was in our carpets, but I was just happy as could be. I’m not sure we will clean the carpets in this house again (and here’s hoping it sells SOONER rather than LATER), but I really would like to get into the habit of deep cleaning them more often in the new house, particularly with the cats and their hairball throw ups.

I have to go to work tomorrow, and then we have Tuesday off to celebrate the 4th of July. Austin, the lucky bastard, is off tomorrow. We are going to a party that friends of ours have, actually their parents are the one who hold the party and the kids always tag along, even 10 years later. This will be our 4th year of going and it has always been a lot of fun.

Happy 4th of July to my American friends!