Are those crickets I hear??

Oh hey there!!  How’s it going?  Yes, yes, I know I haven’t posted anything in a while.  I know, I suck!!!  LOL!!!  But I do have good reasons for that.  Mrs. Kitty hit it on the head in her last blog post, which made me think that I should post something so that you wouldn’t think this space has been abandoned.

When I began blogging, I absolutely loved it.  LOVED IT!!!!!  It was such a freeing experience to be able to say anything I wanted to without being interrupted.  I have done journaling in the past and it has always been such a great way to get my feelings out in the open and look at them from another perspective.  Having people comment on my experiences was just the icing on the cake for me!  How great to have people understand and relate to things that I was going thru.  It made me feel like I wasn’t alone, and the feelings that I was having were totally normal. 

Of course, blogging wasn’t always such a great thing.  I got busted at work for blogging when I should have been working.  Ooopss!!!  But how could I not??  I had so much to say, and still do!!  I seem to have an opinion on everything, and I love being able to express it so openly.

 The other issue that I have had with blogging is having family members read it.  I guess part of that is my fault.  I was so excited when I started blogging that I was telling everyone about my page and welcoming them to come visit.  For the most part, that was great.  It was a great way for my family and friends to keep up with what was going on in my life.  But it turned ugly after a few posts when a family member criticized my actions in one of my posts.  This person sent me a lengthy email, chastising me for each item in a particular post.  I felt like this person had slapped me across the face for being ME, which, sorry to tell you, isn’t going to change any time soon!  This slap sent shock waves thru me.  I couldn’t believe my innocent little blog was being used against me.

 Since then, I have been very hesitant to post anything.  My free and open space has suddenly become claustrophobic and I wanted out of here.  Which is part of the reason for the lack of posts in the last few months (the other reason being that I’m just so freaking busy!!!!).  I’m not sure what to do with this situation.

 I have considered making my blog private but I enjoy it when people I know and don’t know stumble upon it and comment.  I have considered creating a new site and directing those I want to keep in contact with to the new site.  I’m still not sure what to do.  It is slightly comforting to know that I am not alone in this conundrum, but it really sucks.

Amazing nature

I have been nurturing my little cocoons for about a week now.  Every day  I come home from work and see if any progress has been made.  Every day there was no movement, no indication that my little cocoons were hard at work.  But they were!!!

They were not very pretty! 

But today when I was at work, Jeff sent me a text message that they were starting to hatch.  I was so excited!!!  But I felt like a working mother who was missing a big day in their child’s life.  I felt so bad that I wasn’t home to watch it happen.  By the time I got home, 8 butterflies had hatched.

(Thankfully the instructions said that there might be some red liquid that comes out.  There is red liquid all over one side of the habitat.  At first I thought there was a little Butterfly Fight Club action going on.  First rule of Fight Club……don’t talk about Fight Club!!!)

I think they look like monarchs, but the booklet only refers to them as Painted Ladies.  I’m not sure if that’s a generic term for butterflies or a type of butterfly. 

I also had to save one of my butterflies already.  The booklet says that you can put cut watermelon, bananas and oranges in the habitat and the butterflies will drink the juice.  Apparently the first butterfly to hatch landed on a banana slice.  The juice must have been really good because he looked a little drunk and fell off the banana.  The bad part was that his wing landed on the wet banana and he wasn’t strong enough yet to lift himself off of it. 

I told Jeff that I just had to save him!  He said I should just let him deal with it, but he was stuggling so much.  I reached in and let him grab onto my finger and lifted him off the banana.  He stayed on my hand for a minute before I gently set him back down.  I like to think that he was thanking me for helping him, but really he was probably just thinking “What the heck was THAT thing??  And why was I stuck to it?”  They’ve been thru a big change today, so now they’ll just rest tonight. 

I still have 4 cocoons yet to hatch so maybe I’ll have a few more yet.  My plan is to watch them for a few days and then release them outside.  I’m hoping that they will lay their eggs outside and we’ll see more butterflies around our house.

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One day post tax-day

So I have officially survived my first tax day at an accounting firm.  Phew!!  It was quite crazy!  Especially with Betty’s help.  She definitely added an element of drama and insanity.

Now I am counting the days until my vacation.  I’m getting so antsy now!!!  I have one more day of work, and then I’m free for a week.  YIPPEE!!!!  Jeff and I are taking a trip down to San Diego to go to the Wild Animal Kingdom Park.  They have a butterfly jungle exhibit that I’m dying to see.  We’re also going to take a 3 hour safari trip in the park and feed girraffes and rhinos.  I’m so excited about it!!!  And, my honey being as awesome as he is, found an On The Border restaurant down there that we’re going to see.  Unfortunately the one near us closed down January 1st, so I haven’t been able to satisfy my crack-cheese addiction.  He’s has Map Quested directions to the closest one in San Diego, so I will get to enjoy my chicken flautas and cheese.  Yum!!!  That’s just one of the things I’m really looking forward to!!! 

I’ll have lots of pictures when we come back!!  Stay tuned!!

Pain!

One of Jeff and my favorite video games is a game called Pain.  It’s this crazy game where you use the character and slingshot them around town, trying to hit and damage as many things as possible.  The more damage, the more points you get.  It’s really sick and twisted, yet oddly satisfying.  They have a new feature where you can edit the shot and change camera angles.  Jeff is now having too much fun editing his game clips.  It’s the film maker in him coming out!

For your viewing pleasure….

Click here and here.  Enjoy the pain!!

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Happy St Patrick’s Day!

I hope you all had a great St Patrick’s Day!  My day was filled with all things green.

I started out the day like Dr Seuss….

Here I am enjoying my green eggs and ham!

The whole time, Jeff and I kept saying how disgusting it looked, but we ate it.  Jeff said if he closed his eyes, it tasted just like regular scrambled eggs.  I have been forbidden from posting the picture that I took of him because he had just gotten out of bed (party pooper!!!).

Then we had a mid-morning snack at work…..

(That’s my nice, organized desk!!!)  Hahahahahaha!!!!

Then after dinner, it was over to McDonalds for a classic.

Let me give you a little insider tip.  My co-worker brought in the Girl Scout cookies today that I had ordered.  Try taking a bite of a Thin Mint and taking a sip of the Shamrock Shake.  Oh lordy!!!  It’s mint overload……and FABULOUS!!!!

All good things must come to an end

All good things must come to an end.  Such was the case with my birthday festivities.  And now that I have awoken from my food coma, I can now blog about it. 

We had a great time.  We celebrated for about 2 weeks, which was awesome.  By Sunday night (the night before my birthday), Jeff said this was the longest birthday celebration ever!!!  As it should be!!! 

On Friday, my managers celebrated my birthday at work.  They decked out my desk with a huge balloon, a cake, cards, and a bunch of candy.  Then they took me out to lunch and took me to get a manicure and pedicure.  I asked since they celebrated on Friday, did I really have to show up on Monday, my actual birthday?  They said no, so I gladly took the day off!!

Over my actual birthday weekend, we had a gaming event on Saturday.  As always, it was super fun.  We won the game (which is always a nice bonus) but just barely!!  I made a really yummy spinach and artichoke dip for everyone to enjoy.  Secretly, I think that is why they tolerate me because I bring good snacks.

On Sunday, I slept in until 11am.  Well, it really only felt like 10am because of the time change.  None the less, it was nice to just sleep in.  After a day lounging around the house, we headed out to Fogo de Chao.  I was ready for my meat galore.  And what a feast it was!!!

We entered the restaurant and directly in front of us was this huge wine rack.

This rack was so big that it works on a system similar to a dry cleaners.  They flip a switch and they all start rotating around until they get to the bottle that they want.  Very cool!!!

Then came the wonderful salad bar.  I tried so hard not to eat too much salad because I wanted to taste all the different meats.  Here we are at our table:

All the gauchos were walking around with such yummy looking meat.  I had to try them all!!!  My plate would be full, but they’d still come by and ask me if I wanted to try something.  Of course I had to say yes!!!

The filet mingon was my personal favorite.  It was so delicious and just melted in your mouth.  And the bacon-wrapped chicken.  Yum!!!  I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!!!

After all the meat we could possibly eat, Jeff was ready to call it a night.

We went home and were both ready for a nap!!

It was a great birthday treat, one that I won’t soon forget.  Thanks honey!! 

Let the birthday festivities commence!

I have decided to try to milk my upcoming birthday for as long as I possibly can.  This weekend we started the first weekend of the festivities.  I told Jeff that I shall require much cake and birthday well-wishes so let’s get started.  I love my birthday.  He said that once I hit 30, I won’t enjoy it as much but I don’t think that’s possible.  I was reminiscing a bit the other night.  It seems so strange to be turning 28.  I still feel like I’m 21, or 22, playing “adult” like a child would play dress up.  How long do you feel that way?  Until you have kids?

Jeff took me on my annual trip to Benihana’s on Sunday.  I’ve been going there for my birthday for the past 5 or 6 years.  I love that place!!  I especially love when they take the rings of the onion and stack them on top of each other.  Then they pour water (because open flames have been banned) into the volcano shaped onion and it starts to steam out.  I don’t know why, but that really amuses me.  I guess it’s the little things in life that I appreciate.  We also had our picture taken there, which I have in a little frame.  I’ve been trying to get on there website to download it but it’s not working.  I guess I’ll just have to add it later.

On Wednesday I’m going out to dinner with Mrs. Kitty.  I can’t wait for that.  I just have to make sure I wear comfy pants.  Not only so we can eat a ton of junk, but because I always end up laughing my ass off and my stomach ends up hurting from laughing so hard.  Good times!!!

Saturday we’re planning a gaming event.  I love getting together and letting my inner geek come out.  Although according to my brother, it’s not so much an inner geek as much as just a geek.  I was trying to explain the board game that we play and I was using small words but he still seemed a bit confused.  Maybe it is more complicated than we think!!  It’s just second nature to us now.

On Sunday, I’m finally going to get to go to Fogo de Chao.  I really thought we were going on Valentine’s Day, but a birthday dinner there would be just as good.  I’ve been told it’s a food coma, which made me start thinking that I’ll be going on a diet on Tuesday.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on my actual birthday, other than work.  I was going to try to take the day off and go to Disneyland but I’m not sure who to go with.  Most people have to work that day.  Either way it should be a great day!! 

Howdy ho!!!

Just a quick note to say hello to all my lovely readers.  Sorry I haven’t been around too much.  We’re in the throws of tax season, as well as me trying to finish up my final class before testing for my CPA exam.  Work has been insane with all our clients.  Aaagghhh!!!  But it’s good.  I’m learning a lot from this job, which is always a good thing.

I’m also having some medical issues that I’m trying to get thru.  Hopefully I will get some clear answers here soon.  I hate the not knowing part of medical issues.  It’s frustrating to wait for test results.  Grrr!!!  I want to know now!!!  Anyways, hopefully I’ll be able to get a direct answer soon.