I'm a bad bad blogger...

I know I'm terrible... I talk all about a vacation and then I disappear after it.  Hopefully none of you got the postcards we sent to Zach's parents that said we were going to stay in Mexico, otherwise you might have actually believed it!

No no, we're back at home and I've been awfully busy with a variety of work and semi-work related activities.  I'm busy drumming up crafty things to sell, so not work related but maybe new work related.  I purchased a Klic-N-Kut, which is a super sweet computer operated paper/vinyl/chipboard cutter.  I've had it a week, and so far it is awesome!!  The software is a little difficult to deal with but I was up and cutting in a day, so I think that is pretty good.  I'm hoping to use it make some cards and other goodies, as well as create some cool vinyl wall art stuff.  

The Klick-N-Kut

I've got a lot of crafty ideas in the works... so far nothing that is actually done... but a lot in my head.  Zach  is gone pretty much all this weekend so I'm going to be crafting it up and hopefully have something to show for all my talk!

The first goal would be to actually create some things to be sold.  My first "selling" goal would be the Fairy Festival at Monches Farm (Where my mom works in Wisconsin) which is held in August.  I'm hoping to have some fairy goodies for the kids and their moms who show up at that event.  I can't decide if it should be first or after that, but I want to create an etsy shop as well.   A part of me would like to exhibit at the  Renegade Craft Show in September, however that might be a little ambitious, especially with a $310 booth fee and the possibility of a terrible rain-out weekend (like last year!).  Maybe I'll be ready for the Christmas one (not to mention the weather will be less of a threat since it is indoor!). 

I'm pretty committed to this little venture... I'm plotting designing a logo and such right now and determining some of the packaging as well.  I'm all about packaging... I know that is dorky but that's me.

I'll make sure to keep this updated when my ventures are more fully baked... I'm a little nervous about putting everything out on the Internet without it being sold by me or something... I know... totally lame.  Maybe I will if your lucky... especially since no one reads this :)

If you need a good laugh...

I highly suggest you check out the blog F**k You Penguin. You will die laughing, and if you don't well, I'd suggest you visit a doctor. Basically the site takes those million and one super cute animal chain e-mails you receive and berates the animals in them for their cuteness.

Below is a little gem from last week:

"First I thought this blue-footed booby was just doing a cute little dance, which is bad enough (personally, I can dance fucking circles around this loser). But it turns out this is a fucking mating ritual, which basically means dude is hitting on me.

But the fucked up thing is that these sexed-up douchebags do this sort of thing all the time. Take a look at this piece of work. Does she even know you are videotaping her, Romeo? Then halfway through, he invites his goddamn friends over! She's having none of it, of course, which is why a minute in she pees right where he wanted to do it! TAKE THAT YOU FUCKING SLIMEBALL."

Is it totally unnessesary? Of course it is. But it also made me laugh out loud at my desk on a day when I was a bit stressed and that is simply priceless. Go check it out, and if you have a Google Reader, I highly recommend you subscripe to it because it is a great way to start the day.

Some thoughts about today...

Jenna over at That Wife raised some interesting questions regarding Obama's inauguration today. In short she said, "If we turn Obama into “The Black President” and judge all his successes and failures as those of the black man who once ruled the free world, are we really living “The Dream”?" The more I thought about it, the more it plagued me, and the more I felt compelled to respond. Below is my response, with some more thoughts added once I moved it here:

I think it is silly of us to think that the media isn’t going to have a field day with anything that is a “first”. They look for any angle they can to exploit, and Obama’s race is just that angle. Remember, if it is “historic” than we all have to watch it, and that means ratings for them!! It would be the same thing had it been Hillary (she’s a woman!) and it would have been something similar had it been McCain/Palin (he (I think) would have been the oldest, and she the first woman VP). When there is only 44 of something, you can find a “first” pretty easily, and they sure will.

In the same respect, I think it would be inappropriate to not acknowledge that him being President does indicate that our country has come a LONG way… it wasn’t too long ago that someone like Barack Obama would have had to sit at the back of the bus and couldn’t have eaten at the same places as you and I, him being President would have been a joke. That now his is President, says a lot about us as a nation and how far we have really come. Just because you and I may not judge him based on the color of his skin, doesn’t mean a lot of other people (both past and present) do. It is just nice to know that enough of us have gotten past that to elect him President.

I think unfortunately, the media has really latched on to the “historic” stuff and not focused on his policies as much as they should have. To imply that many people who voted for him did so only because of his race and not because they believe strongly in what he has to say and where he wants to take this country, is just plain inappropriate. Are there people who did so? Of course. In the same light, there are likely people out there who voted for McCain only because they wouldn’t support a black President. Did you ever notice that the news media always talks to the person on the scene who is probably the LAST person they should talk to? The always sound goofy, and never have much to really add? I feel like that is how the media has covered Obama voters. Like we're a bunch of sheeple who didn't bother to look past his race to see what he stands for (For the record, some of us did, and we actually liked what we heard!). Hopefully for ALL of us, the majority of us voted with our thoughts, morals, ideas and goals in mind and not just with our eyes.

We all have to find the balance between celebrating the fact that he is the first African American President and the fact that he is our President, our leader and hopefully the one to get us through a seriously trying time in our nations history.

Kennedy was once celebrated as the first Catholic President, but he is judged by history for his actions, not his religion. Let’s hope Obama will be looked at similarly. I think when that is the case, we will finally be living “The Dream.”

It seems almost all great changes generally come in steps, and Obama’s election was one of the steps to get us all to the ultimate goal of true equality, and that does deserve some level of celebration. You'd celebrate your engagement before you were actually married right? I think all the steps that get us to the things we aspire to be (both personally and as a nation) deserve recognition and appreciation. This should be no exception.

I can't wish the Obama administration enough luck and courage in these comeing 4 years. Whether you agree with him or not, he faces an uphill challenge bringing this nation back from the brink. Let's hope he can live up to everything he has promised.

Cruise Preparation

We'll be in a room very similar to this (complete with portholes) very soon!!

Zach and I will be heading out on our Carnival Cruise from New Orleans in a few short weeks!  In fact, we have just two work weeks left and we are going to be out of here!!!  I have been ploting what we'll be doing on our two port days (Cozumel and Progresso) and what we will do on our weekend in New Orleans before we leave on the ship.  Sometimes I think that the Internet is really more dangerous than helpful as I can spend hours learning about a million more bits of information than I would ever need about all of the locations above.  In fact, sometimes I think it makes me worry more about what I might miss than what I'm actually going to do!

In addition to all of the planning that I've done in preparation for the many places we will visit, I have also been plotting what exactly we will be bringing with us.  My luggage arrived earlier this week (and is AWESOME by the way) and I've started a fairly serious wish list on Amazon for all the books I want, including some Sudoku books, a few to read and a guide book about New Orleans.  I've got to have something to do on the plan before we go as well as on the boat when I'm lounging right?  When we went to the Dominican, I think I brought like 3 books and managed to read, ah, maybe one.  Not to mention I plan to bring some knitting with me as well, which probably has a much better chance of actually getting done (as long as they don't confiscate my needles when I try to get on the plane!).

My dog a gimp!

Poor Rigby! On Saturday, while doing his usual in the house ball fetching, Rigby ran into the wall/door molding outside our bathroom door. Zach was playing with him, saw the hit and the following doggy limping/whining. I heard the whining and instantly thought the worst (see, there goes the worrying again...) and ran to see what was the matter. Poor puppy was sitting there looking awful pathetic with his paw up in the air and whimpering. Zach and I both started to try and calm the little bugger, which seemed to help. After a few minutes it became clear that it probably wasn't broken, since he is more than willing to let us poke and massage his paw/arm with no whimpering or whining. Yet, he has been seriously limping and not using that front right leg ever since. He spent most of the rest of the weekend napping on the couch with us, only getting up occassionally to eat, pee, play with the cat a few times and try and get us to play ball with him a couple times before giving up and coming back to nap.

We are fairly certain it isn't broken... we've done a lot of handling of his leg/paw and aren't getting any reaction. I would have to think if it was broken, he'd be reacting when we touched it. However, if it is a sprain, what do you do for a doggy leg sprain? I assume a lot of rest... which has pretty much been the ticket so far. I have read you can give them asprin in really small doses, but I worry that if it feels better he'll start walking on it, and obviously I can't exactly explain to the dog that since it feels better he can't run around on it. The crazy in me wants to take him to the vet pronto, but my wallet is urging otherwise. I can only imagine what the vet bill will be after an exam and x-ray... not that Rigby's health is more important that my money (at least up to a point...) but I would hate to go through all of that only to have them tell me there is nothing we can do! Does that make me a bad pet mom?

Becoming more financially savy... Step 1

Wow... it is only January 2nd and I've already made some progress on my "hopes for 2009", I am so proud of myself. I guess me and the million people who went to the gym this morning... :)

Yesterday, when I was filing away some of seemingly never ending piles of receipts, bills and other paperwork I always have sitting around, I got to thinking about just how much of this stuff I actually need to keep. I have pay stubs from all the way back to 2001. I also have credit card statements from roughly that same time period. All of which are shoved into two big file boxes, one of which I can currently barely close. As Zach wandered in to see what I was doing, I started asking him if he know what I actually needed to keep, and low and behold all we both knew was that if it was tax related, it should be kept for 7 years. Other than that, we were clueless.

So this morning, I asked my friend Google what he thought, and he sent me over to bankrate.com, which had a great answer you can find here: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mtg/20000518h.asp.

Suffice to say, I can probably throw out about 7/8 of what I have been hauling around with me for years. I can't wait to go home and spend the night clearing out that clutter and reminiscing about all the stupid purchases I made during my time as a Boston Store purse seller. I think the justification was something like, I get 25% off though, how can't I buy another Coach purse I don't need? Now if only my paper shredder was working properly....

In addition, I went on-line to a majority of my bills (credit cards, phone etc.) and signed up for paperless billing. Since everything is already set up to pay automatically for me, it seems silly to get statements, only to toss them a month later. Less paper for me to deal with, and better for the environment to boot!

On a less financially savy note.... I ordered a new set of luggage for our upcoming cruise! :)

I could try and justify that I actually "needed" it, but it would pretty much be a big lie. My old set of luggage, which is listed on one of the aforementioned Boston Store bills that will be shredded, is neon pink, I mean hurts your eyes pink. (When my luggage missed its connecting flight once, the lady at the counter pulled out a card with various luggage fabric swatches on it, suffice to say my obnoxious pink was not on it.) It has seen better days, and actually on our last vacation had the zipper pulls sheared right off of it. Not to say I couldn't make it work, but to be honest I was just really over the pink (and honestly I think Zach was sick of having to be seen with me and it too). I got the beautiful set pictured above, which features an easy to find on the luggage carousal Fleur De Lis pattern on a red background. A little more adult than the previous pink set, to say the least. I am sooo excited, and it was on sale at overstock.com, so how could I go wrong? And with $1.00 shipping for this big old set, I couldn't say no. Have I mentioned I can justify almost any purchase? That's probably something for another financial entry...

Change.. one step at a time

I've never really been a fan of New Year's Resolutions, but I feel somewhat compelled to make some changes in my life, and the start of 2009 seems like an appropriate time to do so.  I'm not going to refer to them as "resolutions" since I don't want to be like all the gym goes who quite their resolutions by February.  My hope is to use this blog to chronicle the progress on these changes throughout the next year.  I like to think if these ideas are out in cyberspace somewhere it will make me accountable.  (I do recognize this is all in my head, since I doubt my non-existent readership will be clamoring for updates, but hey, a girl can dream.)

So, without further ado, my hopes for 2009.

1) Read More - Ok, I know this isn't very exciting, and will not likely provide some great amusement for this blog, but I always loved to read, and every time I read a book for pleasure I am reminded how much I love it.  With that, any suggestions?

2) Blog More - I used to use livejournal a lot, and really enjoyed writing about my life.  It might not be Paris Hilton style antics, but I think I've got something to share.  I love reading other blogs, and I hope that I can provide some amusement as well out in the blogosphere.

3) Become more financially savy - I am 25 years old and I think it is about time that I start thinking more strategically about how I spend my money.  I know I do a fairly good job, but I think there is always room for improvement.

4) Start an Etsy Store - I've always been somewhat crafty, and I would love to be able to provide myself a little extra income (see goal above!) by creating something I love.  Ideally, I would love that to turn into something full time, but I'm not exactly holding my breath.  Real employment does have it's perks (like health insurance!).

5) Clean House - I have a TON of stuff in my life.  I mean, Hello Kitty paper, pencils and stickers that I've never used and have been trucking around with my since middle school, kind of stuff.  I used to find some odd comfort in this stuff but now it is starting to feel like extra dead weight.  E-bay here I come!  I'm still struggling with the memories stuff... things from High School etc.  But that is for another day.

6) Learn my way around the kitchen - I'm not bad at cooking but I'm not great.  I'm a stickler for recipes, since I'm terrified that I'm going to screw things up otherwise.  I need to get over that.  I had my first big baking adventure (for another post) but it turned out wonderfully!!

7) Knit Christmas gifts - I always PLAN to do this (and I actually did for 3 people) but I want to do more.  I love knitting, and if I start now I should easily be able to do this without the stress around the holidays!

8) Learn to worry less - I worry a lot.  I worry about big things (employment, money etc.) but I also worry about a million and one stupid things which constantly stop me from enjoying my life.  I wake up on vacation worried that we are missing valuable vacation time because we were sleeping.  I spend time at a party worrying about when we are leaving so we can make sure to be up in time for something the next day.  I am constantly one step ahead of myself and worrying about the next thing.  This needs to stop.

I think that is good for now.  Eight things is plenty to work on, and if I somehow master these, I think I can find something else too :)