Inspirational Monday

My community project has almost come to a close.  I'm kind of glad about it as it's become very time consuming but at the same time, I'm going to miss it!  I'm probably going to do it again next year though so I'll have something to look forward to, at least.

This is going to be one very busy week!  The final culmination of the project will be this coming Friday night and early Saturday morning.  I won't be around the blogging world much if at all on those days so I won't be commenting as much as usual.

Part of my job with this big project is to come up with inspirational images I could use as decorations.  I've scoured the 'net the last several weeks and found  a few that I wanted to share with you.  These are all via bing, although this isn't the only site I searched.  I didn't end up using any of these but liked them and hope you do too!

I played with my camera a little more last night after I got home and this is the closest I've come to getting a picture of either of my boys.  Hey, I'm getting closer at least!  I've discovered from the few pictures I've managed to capture that they aren't of the highest quality.  Oh well, I guess that's what I get for buying a $10 camera! 

This is Shiver.  Kind of...

I'll keep working on it.

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

It's been a busy week and next week will probably be even busier.  But it's the end of the week which means it's time for Half Full Friday!  As always, if you want to join the fun, head over to Eyegirl's and spend some quality time with Mr. Linky!

I'm happy my roses are blooming!

I'm happy my violet is blooming!

I'm happy I finally got done painting my room a pretty lavender color!

I'm happy the sconces my friend bought me look so nice in my bedroom!

I'm happy I'm almost done with my spring cleaning!

I'm happy we actually got a few days of sun this week!

I'm happy my friend moved because the old house she was renting is now in foreclosure!

Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions on my camera.  I decided I was bound and determined that I was going to figure it out all on my own and I did!  I was so proud of myself!  Until I looked at the pictures...  On my regular camera, whatever I see through the viewfinder is what the picture will be of.  Um, well, that's not the case with my new digital camera.  I thought I was taking a close up picture of Shiver's face, only I got his chest instead.  Chico's picture wasn't any better.  I took some pictures of him laying on my bed and the pictures I got were all of the bedspread.  It's going to take some time to figure it out. 

This week was busy with finishing up painting the first part of the week.  My walls looked so nice that I decided the rest of the house could use some freshening up too so I've been running around like a mad woman trying to get it all done.  Today's task is dusting, bathrooms and wiping down the baseboards.  I saved the chores I hate the most for last.  And once the inside is done, it'll be time to work on the outside. Ugh!

With all the painting and cleaning, I almost feel like I'm moving or something.  I had to move stuff in my bedroom so I could paint behind/around it.  Then I had to move stuff in the living room to vacuum, clean the carpet and vacuum again.  (I don't know why but I always vacuum before and after cleaning it.)  When I was done with that and the carpet had dried, I had to move everything back and move stuff out of the kitchen to mop and back again.  No wonder I'm a little sore! 

And all the while, I'm wondering if I'm doing all this hard work for someone else to enjoy.  I hope I find a job soon because I really don't want to lose my house!

Today's Blog of the Week is one that I just found last week.  I should've saved the link to the article that I found it from but I didn't.  Sorry!

A Bad Case of the Dates

I'm pretty sure that anyone who has been on more than a few dates can identify with this website.  It was started in September 2009 and as the name suggests, it's all about bad first dates.  They seem to be pretty evenly written by women and men.  It's updated daily with one to two dating horror stories. 

The stories only include first names and doesn't indicate what city/state they took place in.  I kind of like that. 

Some of the stories are funny, some are stupid, some are a little shocking but all are entertaining to read.  What was your worst first date?  I had two.  One guy spent more time at the snack bar than he did actually watching the movie.  Looking back, we were both in high school and I'm pretty sure he'd never dated anyone else before so he was probably nervous and getting up to go to the snack bar was his way of relieving the stress he felt.  The other one was also a movie date.  The date itself went fine, I thought.  Apparently he didn't think so as he was a jerk to me after that.

Wordless Wednesday

Source: bing

Just So You Know, I'm VERY Annoyed!!!

A friend called me early Saturday morning and asked if I wanted to go with her to a hair appointment in another town.  Tired of being holed up in the house day after day, I agreed to go.  True to form, she was almost a half hour late in picking me up.  Somehow, we still managed to make it to the appointment on time. 

Afterwards, she wanted to go to the mall.  When we first walked in, I saw some pretty sconces.  She asked why I didn't buy them.  I looked at her and asked her with what, I don't have a job so it's not like I can afford such luxuries.  She asked if I wanted her to buy them for me and I could consider it a very early birthday present.  I thanked her and told her no.  We walked around the rest of the mall and I had pretty much forgotten about the sconces. 

We were getting ready to leave the same way we came in and she noticed something she liked over by the sconces and decided to buy it.  I told her I needed to rest my hip as it was really starting to bother me and that I was going to sit on a bench and wait for her. 

She got done so we left the mall and had a nice lunch at Applebee's.  I'd had a gift certificate from my old employer so we didn't have to pay for our meal, just the tip.

Afterwards, she wanted to stop at a department store.  We looked around for awhile and I found the most adorable little candles shaped like miniature cupcakes!  They were on sale and I know I didn't need them but it's been awhile since I've bought myself anything beyond just the bare essentials so I opted to get them.    I was quite happy with my purchase and couldn't stop smiling at how cute they were!  Plus, they were cheaper than the sconces I'd admired earlier!

We left there and right next door was a store I had never been to.  My friend wanted to stop in and even though my hip was really bothering me quite a bit, I'd always wanted to go so I followed her in.  She was busy looking at full length mirrors for awhile so I wandered off around the corner.  And there, before my eyes, was a $10 digital camera!  It was $9.99, marked down from $19.99.  I hesitated briefly before realizing that I will likely never find another one for so little!  I kept going back and forth thinking of how I'd just bought the candles that I really couldn't afford and now here I am thinking of getting a digital camera!  But I took the plunge and purchased it. 

We went home after that and as my friend was dropping me off at the house, she told me that I left something in her car the last time I was with her.  I couldn't imagine what it was and told her I didn't think that was correct.  She was all, "Oh yeah you did!"  I took my time getting out of the front seat and in the mean time she had rushed around to the back seat.  She was fiddling around back there and I wasn't paying much attention to what she was doing.  She handed me a bag from a store we hadn't stopped at so I didn't even think anything of it.  I went inside and relaxed for a bit, waiting for my pain pill to kick in.  Later on, I went into the kitchen to unpack my goodies and discovered that my friend had purchased the sconces for me! 

I called her and said, "So I left the sconces behind the last time I was with you, huh?"  She just laughed and said, "Yeah, don't you remember?"  I thanked her and she said she just wanted to do something nice for me.

I took a bunch pictures of my sweet little chi's and my cute little cupcakes with my new camera, excited about how I could finally post close ups of my boys.  Yeah, well...  Here's why I'm so VERY annoyed!

I've never had a digital camera before and I'm not exactly computer savvy.  I thought it couldn't be too terribly difficult to figure out how to take the pictures and hook it up to the computer.  And apparently I was wrong!  Very wrong!!!  I downloaded the CD and all was good.  The next step was to restart the computer.  Ok, easy enough!  Then it says to go to "My Computer" and select the "D" drive.  Umm, yeah...  That's where the trouble lies.  The "D" drive is my recovery backup.  It gave me a message that I was not to make any changes or deletions to it as it could adversely affect the performance of my computer.  So now what?! 

I have no clue what I'm doing and no clue as to when I can download my fab pictures.  I gotta see if I can have someone help me.  In the mean time, here's a pretty picture of a hummingbird.  Just because...

Source: bing

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

This week has been extremely uneventful.  Pretty much NOTHING has happened.  In keeping with the Half Full Friday theme, I guess I should be happy that at least nothing bad happened!

As always, if you want to join in the fun, head over to Eyegirl's and hang with my man, Mr. Linky.

I'm happy I got some peanut butter Oreos this week!  Yummy!

I'm happy some of my roses are beginning to bloom!

I'm happy I got to talk to a couple of old friends this week!

I'm happy I got started with painting my bedroom a pretty lavender color!

I'm happy I got to watch a cute landscaping guy working a few days ago!  Too bad he wasn't working on my yard, I could've watched him up close rather than spy from afar.

I'm happy I got to participate in the CDAN Q&A on Facebook yesterday!

I'm happy the ceremony I'm working on seems to be coming together the way I want it to!  I hope I didn't just jinx myself now by saying that.

I'm happy our tornado warning earlier today was cancelled!

This week's Blog of the Week is a fun one!  I found it from a post someone else did on their blog about it and have been reading ever since. 

Cake Wrecks

What is a cake wreck?  The blog originator, Jen, defines it as:

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it.  A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons.  Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators:  Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

This blog was started in April 2008.  Jen writes most of the posts herself, with her husband a few friends helping out here and there.  All of the cakes are professionally made, meaning they're either for sale or someone has paid for them. 

Now, I've never taken any professional cake decorating classes but I have absolutely no doubt that I could do a better job of creating a masterpiece than some of these "professionals."  There's a wide variety of cakes pictured here ~ some are bizarre, some are weird, some are creepy, some are ugly and gross and some are kinda cool!  My favorites though, are the ones with the creative grammar and misspellings.

Whenever I go to the bakery section of any grocery store, I always make a point to check out the cakes and see if there might be one that would be appropriate for this blog.  So far I haven't found any.  Once, at a job I held long ago, a co-worker brought in a birthday cake for me where my name was misspelled.  I'm EXTREMELY picky about having my name spelled correctly, probably because it rarely is unless I specifically make a point to ensure whoever I'm talking to spells it right and even then, it's still often incorrect.  My co-worker said he made a point to let the bakery know how to spell it when he ordered it but it was still wrong.  That's the closest I've come to finding a cake for the blog and even then, it still wasn't as awful as some of these.

The blog is updated almost daily but for some reason I don't read it that often.  I seem to forget about it and only catch up about once a month or so.

If you decide you really enjoy the blog, you can also order the book from Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Borders and IndieBound.  I haven't read it so I'm not sure if it's all new material or not.

Pretty in Pink

Source:  CDAN

I totally want this couch!!!  In the regular sized version, of course!  And without those ladies sitting on it.

Wordless Wednesday - Nailed It

Happy Memorial Day!

Source:  penniwigs

Nothing much to talk about today.  Not much going on but I always post on Monday's so I didn't want to not do it today.

My neighbor mowed my front yard last week which made the back yard look awful in comparison so I caved and mowed it all this morning.  While doing so, I came to the conclusion that if I ever move to another house, I'd be quite happy having a small front yard and little to no grass in the back yard.  My little chi's can play in the dirt!  I'm really not one for yard work and will try to delegate it to others when I can.

Afterwards, I took a shower, dressed in a different outfit and went outside to admire my work.  There was a little gray bird out front with a long, thin beak.  It let me go up fairly close to it while I watched it walk around the yard checking for worms.  It was such a pretty little thing!  Then I got a little too close, I guess, and it flew away.

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

It's time for Half Full Friday!  If you want to participate, head on over to Eyegirl's and spend the day with Mr. Linky.

I'm happy my neighbor mowed my front yard for me!  I'm sure going to miss him when his house finally sells.  I doubt my new neighbors will be nice enough to do little things like that for me.

I'm happy the snow from Saturday melted by Sunday!

I'm happy one of my rosebushes has lots of little buds on it!

I'm happy my violet has one tiny little bud on it! 

I'm happy I figured out how to change my password after someone hacked into my email account!

I'm happy that even though it was a chilly week, the sun still managed to come out here and there!

I'm happy I finally figured out how to get my pictures to post where I want them!

source:  bing

It's been a chilly week here filled with rain.  I actually don't mind the rain for the most part because it means I don't have to water the lawn.  I'm hoping it warms up and stays dry though for tomorrow at least beacuse I have a yard sale to partipcate in to help raise money for the community project I work with.

I have idea how or when I found this week's Blog of the Week, which is actually a website.  I just know that it's always an entertaining read whenever I seem to have too much time on my hands.  (Which is frequent!)

Emails from an Asshole

The originator is John Lindsay and the oldest email I could find is from June 2009 which makes this site just about a year old.  It seems like I've been reading it for a lot longer and maybe I have, I didn't do a very extensive search of this site at all.  It's updated about every couple of weeks.

The premise of this site is a collection of emails sent to people who post classified ads.  The ads could be for anything - looking for a roommate, someone selling a car, another person needing a specific service, someone else who is looking to purchase a specific item, etc.  John's goal is "to mess with them, confuse them and /or piss them off."  He does an excellent job of it!  He says only about 10% of people respond back to him and I can see why.  He also says he changes the names to protect the innocent.

He posts the original ad along with the string of emails to and from him and the person who placed the ad. Warning:  If you are easily offended, this is not the site for you!  It's hard to describe the emails without actually showing them to you so to read the most recent one, click here.  It never occurred to me that some of these emails might be made up until I read the comments.  Some people seem to think they're fake and maybe they are but I still enjoy them.

If you visit the site and decide you love it, there's a book which is available on amazon, an online store and you can also follow them on twitter and Facebook.

If you have any blogs or websites you'd like to suggest I use to post a Blog of the Week, please feel free to suggest them.  I'm always looking for new blogs and it would be fun to see what you might find too!  Or even if you want me to post about your blog, just let me know!

Wordy Wednesday

May you forever Rest In Peace, Sweet Max!

You will never be forgotten

March 12, 2000 - May 24, 2010

Pictures posted with permission of MaxMom, Caryl Moll.

Looooooooong Overdue Award Posting!

My heart goes out to Maxmom Caryl and her family.  Her sweet Max passed over the rainbow bridge today.  I truly had come to love him as if he were my own dog so the loss feels just as devestating.  My heart also goes out to Cocorue.  She and her sister, Tiffane, lost their human daddy recently.

Waaaaay back in March, Fiesty Three were kind enough to pass on an award to me.  Only I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong and how to paste the code correctly and stuff so I didn't post it.  And now I've FINALLY figured it out!  Yay me!

Thanks to the Fiesty Three and I hope you didn't think I was ignoring it or had forgotten about it!  Shiver is quite the fiesty little guy so this award is most appropriate for him.  Chico is the sweetest little chihuahua that there ever was so Shiver'll have to give him a few lessons on fiestiness.

Mr. Spring decided he was a little too busy visiting other parts of the country on Saturday, I guess.  Either that or Mr. Winter came along and bribed him 'cause Mr. Spring was nowhere to be seen!  I woke up to a rain/snow mix.  A little bit later, it turned into big flakes.  And then it turned into itty bitty flakes which quickly began to pile up.  I was not a happy camper, y'all's!  (See how I did that whole double contraction thingie there?  Yeah, they don't teach that shit in school, you gotta be really smart to know how to pull that off!)  After awhile, the rain came along to wash it all away.  And then it snowed some more.

Friday was a really bad day!  About 12:30 or so, I got a call from the title company telling me that I didn't get the job.  Basically it all came down to experience.  Or rather, my lack of.  But seriously, how are you supposed to get experience if nobody is willing to hire you?  So after a good cry at the devastation of losing a job that I sooooooooo desperately wanted, I hopped in the car and drove to the post office.  As if I wasn't already feeling bad enough about myself, I got a rejection letter from another company I'd interviewed for.  My self-esteem was at an all time low! 

I've applied and applied and applied for jobs.  Some of the jobs I was aware that I didn't have the experience for, yet applied anyway.  In some cases I got an interview and in other cases I didn't.  In those instances I was ok with not getting an interview.  But I've applied to several places where I had all of the qualifications listed in the ad and yet my phone never rings!  Yes, I realize there is an economic recession going on right now but if I have all of the qualifications, I don't understand why I'm not being considered!

After much crying and soul-searching, I've decided I'm really going to do everything I can now to get into school.  Apparently the skills that I have are not what employers are looking for right now.  I've already applied for financial aid so I just have to wait to hear back.  I'm praying that this will work out and that I'll be able to just focus on school without having to worry about working (since I can't get a job as it is) and still be able to pay my mortgage.

One of my new favorite bloggers, P, likes to create lists of things not to do.  I'm going to kind of follow her lead today and make a list for employers of things TO do.

*Call me back after I've left you voice mails!  I've never had a job where it was ok for me to just ignore phone calls from people.  I realize you're busy so I only call twice.  I call to follow up on a lot of jobs and almost always have to leave voice mails.  99% of the time, I have to leave a voice mail and 99% of the time, those voice mails are ignored.  It really makes me lose a lot of respect for you when you can't be bothered to make a quick 2 minute phone call to me.

*There's no need to be condescending towards me in an interview!  If I don't have the experience you're looking for, you should already be well aware of that fact just by looking at my resume.  Being rude to me not only let's me know that I won't be getting the job but it also let's me know that I wouldn't want to work for you anyway.  And just so you know, I'm going to tell my friends and family about the poor treatment I received from you.  Not only does it reflect poorly on you, it reflects poorly on your business as well.

*I'm expected to do a little research prior to the interview, you should too!  Some of the interviews I've been to have just shot one question after another at me and I barely have time to breathe, let alone think, in between questions.  And others - well, the employers hardly ask anything at all.  I don't know if this means you're just not interested or you just aren't very good at interviews.  If you really don't have much to ask, consider doing some research online about what to ask.  I'm expected to research your company ahead of time and ask questions, you could research a few questions.  I hate really short interviews because I can never really get a good feel about how it went.  But then again, maybe that's the whole point?!

*Don't schedule me for an interview and then not interview me!  This has happened to me twice.  In both instances, the employer found someone they wanted to hire before they finished interviewing all of the candidates.  One called and told me before I came in, the other did not.  I don't understand why an employer wouldn't want to interview ALL prospective candidates.  You've already got the interview scheduled and who knows, I may turn out to be a better fit than the person you've hired!  Only you'll never know because you didn't bother to interview me.  (This hasn't happened recently, but it has actually happened to me!)

*If you say you're going to call everyone you've interviewed to let them know one way or the other, then do it!  Almost every single interview I've been on says they'll get back with me either way and yet, the vast majority never do.  If I really want the job, then I'll call to check and usually have to leave a voice mail which is usually ignored.  A letter will do if you don't want to make that dreaded phone call!

Some things not to do if you're a friend of someone looking for work, especially if you personally make over $3000 a month after taxes:

*Not understand that I can't survive on minimum wage.  And then proceed to ask me if I can't cut some things out.  Like what, power?  I have exactly one luxury item at the moment which is satellite tv.  The reason I haven't given that up is because even if I cancelled the service, I'd still have to pay a cancellation fee along with my regular monthly service fee until the contract is up so I might as well keep it and just avoid the cancellation fee all together. 

*Don't ask me if I've gone shopping, out to eat or seen any good movies lately.  I'm not sure where you think I'd get the $ to pay for such things since you're very well aware I don't have a job!

*Don't ask if I have any money to lend you.  You make over $3000 a month after taxes!  And you're single and childless!  I don't know what you do with all that money or how it's possible that you never seem to have any but I've lived quite comfortably on considerably less and didn't borrow from you!  Yes, this was a one time occurrence but you know I don't have a job and that I just barely make ends meet every month.  And then don't make me feel bad about it when I tell you no!

*Don't give me unsolicited career advice, especially poor unsolicited career advice, and then try and make me feel bad when I don't follow it!  I'm not going to apply to any and every job I see regardless of the pay, whether of not I have an interest in doing that type of work and whether or not I have the experience.  I cannot afford to live on minimum wage so I'm not going to apply for those kinds of jobs.  I'm also not going to apply to become a plumber if I have no interest in that profession and I'm certainly not going to apply to work as a doctor if I don't have the medical training!  Yes, some places provide on the job training but there are certain jobs, such as a doctor, where you MUST have some schooling first!  NO SELF-RESPECTING HOSPITAL IS GOING TO HIRE SOMEONE OFF THE STREET TO BE A DOCTOR WITHOUT THEM FIRST HAVING SOME KIND OF VERIFIABLE MEDICAL EDUCATION!!!!!!!  (Yes, she and I had this argument once!)

*Criticize the way I choose to conduct my job search.  Just because I might not do it exactly the way you would, doesn't mean that I'm doing it wrong.  Yes, I choose to do a large portion of it over the internet but that's not the only way I look for work!  Contrary to what you might believe, I also look in two separate newspapers, I ask around and yes, I even go into stores and apply sometimes!  You prefer online dating and while I would never consider doing that, I don't criticize you for it!

That's enough lessons for today!

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

Another quick week.  I think it was so quick just because I had somewhere to go almost every single day.  I kind of like that though, it keeps me from being too bored!

It's time for Half Full Friday!  As always, if you want to join the fun, head over to Eyegirl's and spend the day with Mr. Linky.

I'm happy for the beautiful weather we had this week!  It's supposed to snow this weekend (ugh!) so I'm enjoying the sunshine while I can.

I'm happy my parents did some pretty major yardwork for me on Saturday while I was gone!  I knew my dad was going to come fix my lawnmower but I didn't know my parents were going to do any of the yardwork for me.

I'm happy I had another interview this week!

I'm happy I finally got around to getting a library card!

I'm thrilled that this is Max's 104th Day of Grace!

I'm happy that I filed for financial aid for school yesterday!

I got a call Tuesday afternoon asking if I could come in for an interview on Wednesday.  Of course I said yes!  I couldn't find much information on the company on the internet so I was a little leery going in but I got there and everyone I encountered was really nice.  I'm pretty sure I was the first candidate interviewed which doesn't exactly work in my favor as they didn't take notes so they may not remember me when it's time to make the final decision.  But -- they did say that I had a slight edge over another candidate who might not have seen recorded deeds of trust, mortgages, UCC's, etc., just because I used to work with them all the time.  I soooooooooooooooooooooo want this job.  I really, really, REALLY want it!!!  Like I'd be willing to pay THEM to work there!  I'd be starting at the bottom but I'm ok with that since it would be an excellent opportunity to learn.  The position is with a title company which is exactly what I want to do but can't seem to get in with one because I don't have the experience.  But how do you get the experience if they won't give you a chance?  After the interview, I went home and immediately wrote out and mailed a thank you note.  It hasn't always helped in the past but it has gotten me a little bit further sometimes than it might have otherwise so I'm hoping it makes a good impression this time!  Oh, and I found out at the interview that this company actually does have a website; I apparently just didn't search very hard for it.

Edit:  I didn't get the job.  :(

This week's Blog of the Week is from an article I found on AOL this past week.  Reading it just made me want to cry!  This blog was started on Feb. 20th.

Katy Is Strong

 On Feb. 10, 2010, 41 year old Katy Hayes gave birth to her third child at home, a daughter she named Arielle.  She was in a lot of pain after the birth.  It was an eight hour labor with no drugs and an almost 10 pound baby so some pain was certainly to be expected but when it just kept getting worse, her husband Al took her to the hospital on Valentine's Day.   There, doctors confirmed a diagnosis of invasive group A streptococcal disease, a rare variant of the bacterial infection known as strep throat.  But while the latter can be successfully treated with antibiotics, the type of infection Katy suffered from is far more dangerous and, if left to develop, much harder to treat.

Within hours of arriving at the hospital, Katy suffered massive organ failure.  On Feb. 15, she lapsed into a coma.
 
Her doctor's told Al that she had a less than 5% chance of survival and that no one comes out of this because once the snowball effect of happens of organs shutting down began to occur, there would be nothing medical science could do to reverse it.
 
The only hope of survival would be to remove not only her uterus but all four limbs as well!  After conducting some research on his own with doctors all across the country, he came to the conclusion that in order to save her life, he had to do the unthinkable. 
 
This blog is Katy's story.  She's home now as of May 18th but needs round the clock care.  She was self-employed previously as a massage therapist, a job she will never be able to return to.  She is unable to do the most basic of things for herself or her baby and will likely have astronomical medical bills for many, many years to come.  There's a link to donate to towards those bills should you choose to do so.
 

The blog is maintained by Al and it amazes me just how upbeat he is with each posting!  He, of all people, has the right to be angry and depressed and he may very well be, but he never lets it show through.  He and Katy and their three children have a very long road ahead of them and I wish them well.

Wordless Wednesday - Hands On Edition, Part II

I Am The Freakin' Rice Krispies Treats Queen!!!

source:  bing

I have waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too much time on my hands sometimes!  I made Rice Krispies Treats a few weeks ago which turned out beyond yummy so today I decided to make them again, only this time with strawberry marshmallows.  And these are even more beyond yummy!  Each bite reminds me that I am THE BOMB.  And then I swallow it and the feeling goes away.  LOL  

Yesterday I went to a fish hatchery.  I'd never been to one before and consequently, had never seen so many fish in one place before!  There was a special section where you could feed them which I liked the best because there were a wide variety of fish all in one place.  The fish food reminded me of dog food, it was the same hard consistency.  I got to see several pelican birds there too which was kind of cool.  Had never seen one before.  The real purpose of the trip was to the go to the alligator farm so we (my parents and I) went a little further down the road and discovered it's closed on Sunday's.  What a disappointment!  I've never seen an alligator in person and although I have no real interest in them, I really wanted to go to the farm for some reason.  So we went to see some waterfalls instead!  They were breathtakingly beautiful and I wish I had a camera with me to capture the moment.  All in all, not a bad way to spend the day.
 
Last night I dreamed I was shaving my legs of all things! I had a bandaid on one leg (I really do!) and was trying to figure out the best way to shave around it without having to remove it. WTF?!

This morning I went to my meeting at the Department of Labor and actually got somewhere this time!  The woman I met with asked me why I was there.  She remembered me from the week before but didn't remember asking me to come back.  I used that to my advantage and told her I was there for information on educational assistance programs which she gave me.  I have to do some research and get back to her but they actually have grants which they use to help pay for education!  I really wish that they would advertise this!  Part of the reason they're even in existence is to help people find a job!  What better way than to help people get the training they need to get a better job and not be a drain on the government?!  They won't pay for all of the training so they encourage you to apply for financial aid too but any little bit will help.  Now I just have to figure out what I want to do, what school I want to go to, what it'll cost and get the info to her.  That's the fun part!    

Question:  Is it just me or is anyone else having issues posting pictures exactly where they want them in their posts?  Mine lately want to seem to always post at the very top of the post.  Every once in awhile something will want to post in the very center.  Soooooooo annoying!

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

Another quick week!  How is it possible that life is passing me by so quickly?

Eyegirl's out of town this week so she's not hosting Half Full Friday but I have nothing better to do so I'm still gonna participate.

I'm happy my irises have finally bloomed!

I'm happy I had another interview this week!

I'm happy I got to spend Mother's Day with my mommy!

I'm happy to be guest posting over @ Eyegirl's today!  If you decide to check it out, please forgive the bad grammar.  The Grammar Police were supposed to look it over before sending it but it turns out it was their day off so they didn't do it.  Yeah, a little embarassing!

I'm happy I got the new Stride Gum Mystery Flavor!  I'm kinda diggin' it!

I'm happy I finally got around to mopping my kitchen floor this morning!  It looks so much better now!

My interview was a little intimidating.  Three attorneys stared me down and asked almost nothing!  I'm kind of thinking that this was maybe a pre-interview?  Like a first round of interviews and they'll conduct a second set after meeting everyone and deciding who they liked.  Seriously, this interview did not even last 15 minutes.  I tried to ask a lot of questions to show I'm deseperate for a job interested.  So we'll see...

This week's Blog of the Week is one I found on some random person's sidebar list of blogs they like to read.  The name of it intrigued me because I used to watch Unsolved Mysteries a bazillion years ago and then watched it again with a new host on a new station.

Kidnapping, Murder and Mayhem

The blog originator is Robert Waters, a true crime writer.  He's authored 4 books in addition to writing the blog.  His header pretty much explains it all: 

"The KMM Blog features true crime writer Robert A. Waters’ analysis of cold unsolved cases and commentary about modern and historical crimes. Kidnapping. Murder. Mayhem. They're as old as human history, and as fascinating."

The blog was started in 2008 but I didn't start reading until about a year ago.  It's updated about once a week.  The majority of the posts are murder-related, although some of them are book reviews and some discuss missing person cases.

Most of the posts are by him but he does have a few guest posters whom he gives credit to.  What I find interesting is that not all of the posts are about current events.  Some of them are but some go back as far as the 1950's.  (Some may go back further but that's the oldest that I remember reading.) 

I wanted to help promote this blog in some small way as you never know who might hold the final clue to cracking a case wide open.  Sometimes the smallest detail can provide the lead investigators might be looking for.  You just never know!

2nd Annual Doggone Dog Swap

The deadline has arrived and you should've received your swap partner's information by now.  Please let me know if you haven't gotten it yet and I'll resend it.  Remember, it's coming from a different email address than the one you sent your information to.

Here are the ground rules, if you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

1. The maximum you can spend before postage is $30.  You don't have to spend that much but you can't spend more than that!

2. You'll need to let me know when you sent your package and when you get yours.  If I discover that you received one but never sent one out, you'll be outted and blacklisted from participating in the future!

3. You must post about the swap once you receive your package.  I want to see what you got!

4. You have until June 12th to get those packages mailed out.  That gives you one full month to go shopping and to get it in the mail.

5. This is the most important rule - HAVE FUN!!!!!

Want to know who else is playing along and who they're partnered with?

Meeko - Meghan  
Amber - Katie