Another weekend flies by

Sorry I never got a chance to add some text to the last posting! I'll sum it up in a few quick sentences. The flowers are the dead ones I got from ProFlowers from my mom for V-Day. The snow is just that...lots of snow! From the side door there are usually 2 steps, and from the front door there are 3. As you can see they are both level with the ground.

Onto this weekend, which has been pretty mellow. Housecleaning and movie watching (Shut Up and Sing was a great documentary). Here are the replacement flowers from ProFlowers. They screwed up, so I got two bouquets. Beautiful!


From February 2007

A good chunk of Saturday was spent unburying my desk in the office. There is also now a nice sitting area for when Bryan needs some space while he's studying (or during football season he can come watch up here). For those of you who came to my condo, you know I loved the lights in the kitchen. I found some at Target last week and had to buy them!

From February 2007

From February 2007

From February 2007


From February 2007

What a difference a week makes. While there is still snow, the steps are visible again and so is the driveway!

From February 2007

I also spent part of today with Lani and Cassie. I wanted to take them to the mall to get a snack and ride the carousel, but they wanted nothing to do with that idea and wanted to just play pretend instead. I'm no good at that, but I played along for a few hours. Now I'm off to dinner with Kim and Anthony, who are the sweetest people I know here because they always invite me to go places with them.

Not sure when the next update will be. Bryan comes next weekend (YAY!), so I'll be busy getting ready for that, then we're off to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a few days, and we're having a party that Friday. I'm sure there will be lots of pictures and updates after all of that fun.

S-nooooooo-w

From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007

Ahh, the taste of freedom

My first weekend without worrying about homework was fantastic. I had free time to go get a haircut, go out to dinner with Kim and Anthony, and go see a movie. The haircut was great and cheap (see below, ignoring the fact that I look terrible!), and dinner at Bugaboo was so yummy with possibly one of the best drinks I have ever had: Raspberry Lemonade Rush (A refreshing mixture of Dekuyper® Razzmatazz® raspberry liqueur, Minute Maid Lemonade and Bugaboo's own Moose Juice made with Grey Goose® vodka. Garnished with a fresh lemon wedge). They give it to you in this huge shaker which is 2+ drinks. Sadly, I was the driver, so I had to stop drinking after a little bit into glass #2. It was so good though! The movie (The Queen) stunk, but it was still refreshing to have time to go see a movie. I thought the woman who played the Queen did a great job, but the movie was really boring.

Sunday night found me taking Snowflake to the ER vet for anaphylactic shock. Who knows what she got into, but she was really sick...lethargic, dilated pupils, quick shallow breathing. I swear she did it all out of spite. I didn't get home until midnight and had to leave her there. Monday I had to get up early, go get her (right next to my work), take her to the day vet in Greece, then come back to work. She is fine now though, and will be going to her new foster home on Wednesday.

Monday night marked the one year for Bryan and I. Fairly uneventful since we both had to work and are 2,700 miles apart, but I did get fun new PJ's and a bunch of new bath stuff which I used last night. I am loving the jetted jacuzzi tub! I just need to master the art of patience with bubbles. I put in a bit and it doesn't froth quickly enough for my liking, so I keep adding more. It's fine then, but once you turn on the jets it makes the bubbles multiply 1000x. I frequently end up buried in bubbles!

The new job is still going well and I really enjoy it. I'm working long hours, but it doesn't bother me when there is actually work to do. Speaking of work, that is what I should be doing now :)

New haircut

For only $11! What a deal!

A weekend of thankful

This past weekend showed me that I have so much to be thankful for. So in random order, here we go:

1) I am thankful for neighbors who randomly snowblow my driveway anonymously, not looking for any sort of thanks. I finally figured out who it was, thanked him (promising him banana bread as a thank you) and I come home tonight to see that he had done it again. Bless him, especially since this has been the temperature here lately! Coupled with me being sick, I did not want to be out shoveling.
From February 2007


When I finally did shovel some of the ice on Sunday, these are just a few of the chunks I chipped away at and had to pick up with both hands because they were SO heavy!
From February 2007

2. I am thankful for heat, since it has been so cold here lately. As you can see, Snowflake likes it too.
From February 2007

3. I am thankful (my biggest thankfulness of the weekend) for friends who come and bail me out of a crappy situation. I somehow managed to lock my keys in my car while I was looking at laptops at the mall. Anthony and Kim went to my house, got the spare car key, and came and brought it to me. Of course, I had to sheepishly show up at their house an hour later for the superbowl party. I definitely owe them dinner for their help! The superbowl party was fun though, with lots of yummy food! I gave homemade guacamole a try for the first time, and it was a huge hit.
From February 2007

From February 2007

4. I am thankful for sun, even if it is followed by the scariest, snowiest driving that night that I have ever been in. It's hard to see from the picture, but the road wasn't visible at all, and the lights you see are right in front of me, even though you can barely see them.
From February 2007
From February 2007

5. I am thankful for some free time and some extra money for a nice manicure :)

From February 2007

6. I am thankful for cookie making fun with some of my favorite people in the entire world! Lani and Cassie keep me constantly laughing and I have such a great time with them. They helped me make these cookies for Bryan (sorry to ruin the surprise!), all the while threating that they were going to "tell him Tia made the messy ones." I think you can judge by yourself that they all came out really well. We had so much fun. I was also hilariously informed by Elena (who said it in total seriousness) that "Unicorns are from Russia." When asked how she know this, I was told, "I just do. Knights are from Russia too." Keep in mind that she is 6. I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe!
From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007
From February 2007

7. Last, but certainly not least, I am thankful for a fabulous new job. I absolutely love it! The people are great, the work is interesting, I'm learning new things, and I am busy! I think I am really going to be happy at Harris, and I fit in well with the team. I am already working on projects, so it is clear that the boss has high expectations for me.

In the final piece of news, I made the decision today to quit school for now. It turns out that education is just something that I am not interested in at all. My program is 95% teachers and administrators, so the things that are taught in class just aren't relevant to me. I am completely bored and disinterested, and I was dreading going to class. After much thought, I decided to quit and just focus on the new job for now. I'll pay down my debts and think about school in the not-so-distant future. I really need to do a health focused program, as that is where my interests continue to lie. UR has one at the medical center, but it is a day program...totally incompatible with work. I'm going to keep my eyes open though and see what programs around the country might interest me. For now, I'm just happy to have some "me" time back. I was thrilled tonight to be able to clean without guilt that I should have been studying.

Hugs to everyone at home. I miss you all!

My lucky day!

I have no idea who is responsible, but some kind soul used their snowblower on my driveway today!!!! It was the nicest thing I could have come home to after a verrrry long day of a new job and late class. If anyone knows who did it, let me know so I can properly thank them!

The new job is good so far. I'm too tired to write much now, but I'll keep you all posted.

Weekend update

This weekend was spent being a bit sick with a sore throat and a cough. Hopefully I'll get over it soon since I start at Harris tomorrow! Speaking of Harris, I guess the weekend update should start with them. Any PRE people reading this will appreciate this story :) So out here people like to have holiday parties after the holidays. I have no idea why, but they do. Harris's Healthcare holiday party was Saturday, so I got to go to the party before I even started working there :) It was at a bar-type place where we had the basement to ourselves. The food was buffet style, and very good. Fried artichoke hearts, meatballs, breaded chicken, a spinach/croissant appetizer thing, quiche, fruit and veggie trays, salad, and cookies. Here iswhat I learned at this party: MAN MY CO-WORKERS CAN DRINK!! The alcohol was free, and they sure took advantage of it. No one on my team is above their early 30's, and many of the women are in their early 20's. No joke, some of them must have pounded back 6-8 drinks. A card game of ass hole started (I didn't participate), and I was appalled when a co-worker of mine started trash-talking our boss (fuck you, I'm going to come to your house and kick your fucking ass...etc) in a very loud voice. I guess this is the norm for her when drinking. The boss didn't seem to care though. I did meet some very nice people though, but it's clear to me I have way too much going on in my life to join their every weekend drunkfests!

I guess that was the extent of the fun part of the weekend, unless you count driving to the big mall for some retail therapy. The nice mall here is about 35 minutes away, but it's a great mall. I got a bunch of new pants for work, since many of my existing ones are either too big or too lightweight for the ROC winters. Limited had a great sale going on, so I was happy.

From January 2007


For those of you who commented to me about the huge icicle, the longest piece of it has now crossed the 4 foot line, at a whopping 50"! Friday got just above freezing, so it melted slightly and refroze over a foot longer. Today was 22 when I went out a 4pm, and I doubt it was ever warmer than that. Still snowing as well, and it is forecasted to keep snowing all week.




My dinner tonight was so yummy that it was worth sharing. I went to Target today to get my ink for my printer, and ended up buying way more than planned, as usual! I had been looking at electric blankets for weeks because I'm always cold here at night, but I had no idea it would cost me $100! Finally today I gave in and bought one. I decided to just get the twin size a) because it was only $32 and b) I know Bryan is never going to want a heated blanket on his side of the bed! Surprisingly, the twin size covers almost all of the bed, so it was a great decision.

Anyway, back to food. I found these boxed meals on the preprepped aisle that were on sale, and I decided to try one (the most healthy one of the group). It was delicious, and I highly recommend it!



Now I feel a bit like those people on Allrecipes.com that rate something 5 out of 5 stars and then say "This was the best recipe ever. All I did different was cut the milk in half, add one more egg, add cinnamon and nutmeg, and eliminate the banana." Huh? How can you rate it 5/5 if you changed it around entirely? Anyway, so I took this box of Mushroom Cavatappi, added some steamed cauliflower and broccoli, and pan fried a chicken breast and some fresh spinach. It made for a bit more nutritious meal and was really good! It made an enormous amount. Here is the finished product, in my huge mixing bowl.



From January 2007

And more in the food category. Last week I stumbled upon this lava cake mix at Walmart. Decided to give it a try, and darn they are good! Bryan, this is the closest I've gotten to chocolate melting pots. I'd have a picture of the finished product (it made 4 cakes), but I ate the one a few days ago when I made them, and I froze the other 3. I'll thaw one out tonight and see if it tastes as good as it did straight out of the oven. At only 3.5 grams of fat, they aren't too bad for you either.

From January 2007

I think that's all the news from around here. UR ended uneventfully with my head boss not even bothering to say goodbye. The 3 women I work closely with brought me a cookie cake though, so that was sweet. I'm sure I'll stay in touch with them, as they have all said they want to do lunch next week. One even just interviewed for a position at Harris!

Hugs to everyone at home. I'd kill for sun and 50 right about now!