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.

The Butterfly Effect

My latest project has me staring into little jars and looking at small creatures.  I had live animals shipped to my office and they arrived today.  What am I doing, you ask???

I’m raising butterflies!!!!  They look kinda gross now, but soon they will be beautiful butterflies.  All the brown stuff in the container is food.

A co-worker of mine told me about something she did for her sister’s wedding.  They ordered all these caterpillars and put them in individual boxes.  She had to keep them in a dark room and give them a little shake every day.  They took all the boxes to the wedding and handed them out to the guests.  At the right moment, the guests were to all open their boxes.  They were not told what was in the box.  Imagine their surprise when all 200 guests opened their boxes at the same time and had a ton of butterflies flying around.  How cool is that!!!

Seeing as I am obsessed with butterflies, I thought I’d give it a try.  I think my obsession is for small, winged creatures.  I love angels, hummingbirds, Tinkerbell, and butterflies.  There’s just something about these small creatures that I love to look at.  Jeff pointed out that it’s probably also the colors because I don’t feel the same affection for flies.  Good point!

So my little caterpillars are in the process of spinning their cocoons.  They will stay in their cocoons for about 10 days, and then they will hatch into butterflies.  The company also sent me a little habitat to observe the butterflies in.  The butterflies will live for about 2-4 weeks.  At any point during their butterfly stage, I can release them into the wild.  If I do it soon enough, they will lay eggs on nearby plants and I’ll have even more butterflies to enjoy.  I’m so excited!!  I’ll post more pictures once they start to make their change.

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!!

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!! 

My Bloody Valentine

No it’s not what you think.  I realize that title is a little misleading, especially considering it is following a post entitled “Are you Ovulating?”  No, I haven’t taken to blogging about my monthly cycles (but maybe I should……or not!!!)  HAHAH!!!

For Valentine’s Day, my honey decided that he was going to take me out to dinner and a movie.  How sweet!!  I love when he has his romantic moments.    He’s not always the romantic type and he likes to do things that are outside the norm, but I just love it when his romantic streak comes out. 

Like how he sent me 2 dozen roses to my office a few days before Valentine’s Day.  They were pink, magenta, yellow and peach colored (because red roses would be too normal, he said).  They were so beautiful and I was the envy of every woman in the office.  For days.  I asked the receptionist on Friday if anyone else had received flowers and she said no.  I replied that I just must be loved the most.  She tried to hold back her gag.

So my honey was planning on taking me out on Saturday.  I had scheduled my 6 week hair appointment for that day, which was awesome because then I didn’t have my trailer-trash dark roots showing for our big night out.  Yes, I do realize that some women LIKE the dark roots to be showing.  I’m one of those chicks that like a week after getting my hair done starts to see the smallest amount of re-growth and starts to hate it.  Yes, I realize that I’m retarded.  Don’t hate me because my roots are always dyed blonde!!

Exhibit A

Since we can’t just GO OUT without some sort of competition, we decided to make a bet on the Valentine’s Day dinner.  He wouldn’t tell me where he was taking me, so if I could guess the restaurant then I would get to pick the post-dinner movie we went to. 

I was stoked at this assignment!!!  There are a plethora of chick-flicks that I would love to drag him to see.  I really want to see “He’s Just Not That Into You” or “Confessions of a Shopaholic”, since I read all the books.  It looks really cute.  My only clue was that this was a restaurant that I have never been to and I needed to be hungry.  I was fairly certain that he was taking me to Fogo de Chao, since every time he has mentioned this place, he has said how I need to be really hungry to eat there since they just keep bringing out skewers of meat.  He keeps raving about the bacon-wrapped fillet Mignon.  Bacon-wrapped ANYTHING is a-ok in my book!!!  Bring on the bacon!!!  I started checking out showtimes for my movies (but wasn’t sure which movie theater would be closest since the restaurant is in the 90210).

On Friday night, he said that he had to change the restaurant because of the weather issues (it’s been raining cats and dogs here.  Literally.  I think I just stepped in a poodle…….yes, I realize that was lame.  Whatever!!!).  I thought, that’s strange because I don’t think there is any problem getting to Beverly Hills.  Then he said that the new restaurant is a place that I have been to before.  ‘Cause that only narrows it down to, oh, I don’t know, maybe 200 restaurants!!  Thanks honey!!

I had to make my guess in writing before we left the driveway.  I took a wild stab in the dark (goodbye bacon-wrapped goodness) and off we went.  We ended up going to P.F. Chang’s in Burbank.  Now I personally love P.F. Chang’s.  I would commit a crime of passion for their wonton soup.  Seriously, it’s that good. 

However it has taken me over a year to go back there after a very unpleasant experience with some bad scallions and a whole night of throwing up and running to the bathroom that ended with me in the ER because I thought I had appendicitis.  I never thought I would re-visit my mixture of rice, scallions and red wine in the middle of the night.  Thankfully this visit was a bit less eventful.

Since I didn’t guess the restaurant, Jeff got to pick the movie.  And guess what romantic movie he decided to take me to???  Yep, “My Bloody Valentine”.  In 3-D, no less. 

A deal is a deal, so I grudgingly followed him over to the theater and we took our seats.  The theater started to fill up, which is always good when you see a scary movie.  Half the fun is listening to the audience’s reaction and hearing other people scream. 

As the previews started playing, it seemed a big odd.  All of the previews they were showing were for Disney movies.  Usually they show all the previews for the new scary movies coming out.  Oh well, less scariness for me!!!

As the movie started, it was all a cartoon.  I thought “This is a strange way to start a horror movie, but whatever”.  As the opening credits started to roll, it turned out that we were watching “Coroline”.  Imagine the surprise of a bunch of 20-somethings who came out on a Saturday night to be scared and Coroline starts playing.  People in the theater started yelling and getting out of their seats.  Jeff and I were just sitting there laughing in our ridiculous 3-D glasses, wondering what would happen next. 

I’ve never been to the theater where they show you the wrong movie.  Then we started wondering if there was a theater full of kids expecting to see Coroline who were being subjected to a bunch of horror movie trailers.  Yikes!!!

The staff came in and fixed the movie.  They apologized for the mix-up and said they would skip the previews and get right to the movie.  Which bummed Jeff out a little bit because he likes to see what new horror movies he can try to drag me to see.

In the end, the movie was semi-predictable with a twist at the end.  I won’t spoil it in case you are planning to see it.  As we were leaving, the staff gave us all a free pass for our next visit, which was pretty nice. 

I think this means that Mrs. Kitty and I will have to see “Shopaholic” ourselves!!! 

Hey, are you ovulating?

Let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel!!  Hey, it’s for educational purposes! 

The other night,  I was all content to go to bed early.  I took a long hot shower and was ready to spend some one-on-one time with my Tivo, watching Desperate Housewives.  I went out to the living room to say goodnight to Jeff and then it happened.  We were bouncing around the TV Guide and found a title we couldn’t ignore.

It was “The Science of Sex Appeal” on the Discovery Channel.  It intrigued us both.  So much that I totally disregarded my poor lonely Tivo for 2 hours and was glued to the TV with Jeff.   The title alone would have been worth it!!

It was a show all about the attraction between men and women, and what women look for in a mate versus what men look for in a mate.  This sparked major conversation!!  Most of what they said seemed true when we were talking about it.

The funniest part was when they were talking about women ovulating.  They showed pictures of a woman’s face throughout the month and showed that during her ovulation, her face became more rounded and plump.  This is to help show men that she is fertile and able to conceive.  Men also produce a smell that, when mixed with the bacteria on their skin and sweat, produces a urine-like smell. (It’s amazing that women want men at all after hearing that!! Thankfully, I am not affected by the smell issue.)  Normally women find this smell repulsive (understandably!), but yet during their ovulation, this smell is a total turn-on.  Which prompted us to say this would be the new pickup line: “Hey baby, are you ovulating?”  I think it’s going to be a big hit in the bars and clubs!

If you feel like getting a good laugh (and learn at the same time!!), check out the link to the site here.

And I am telling you…..I’m not going!!

I totally just had a “Dreamgirls” moment singing that song.  Heheheh!!! 

Sorry I’ve been a little M.I.A. lately.  I’m still here!!!!  Work and school have just been crazy!  Work has been super busy because we’re getting into tax season (whoo hoo!!  NOT!).  Plus I’m taking on all the billing for one of our clients.  It’s really been all me doing it and my manager doing the receivables.  It’s a little crazy but I can do it!! 

School has also kicked into high gear as well.  I’m working on learning a new software program.  The program itself is a breeze and I totally feel comfortable with it.  It’s just getting down to actually doing it because I’m exhausted by the time I get home from work.  The good news is that I have to finish this class and one more class (mid-February thru March), and then I can start applying to take the CPA exam.  Yay me!!!  I’m a little worried about actually taking the test.  It’s a 4 part test, and if you fail a section, you can re-take it in the next quarter.  I have one year from when I take the first one to pass all the tests.  I’m hoping that my job will pay for me to take a review course before I actually take the test.

So I’m still here, although very busy!!!  I’m still reading all your blogs and getting a good chuckle out of them.  So thanks!! 

No more crack for me

Sorry I’ve been a delinquent blogger lately.  I really have no excuse but let me try…..

Jeff came home on Jan 2nd.  It was SOOO nice to see him!!  I got the biggest smile on my face when he walked thru the doors into baggage claim at LAX.  The whole time he was gone, it felt like a part of me was missing.  Like an arm or leg, or some other useful body part that you take for granted.  So it was nice to see him and feel complete again. 

Our plan was to go out to dinner on the way home from the airport.  Since he had been away from good Mexican food for 2 weeks, we decided to go to On The Border.  I know, it’s not like a mom-and-pop place, but they have this cheese there that is crack to me.  It’s kinda like the Tostitos cheese in a jar, but they serve it with chicken flautas and it is the most awesome thing I have ever tasted.  If I was told that I could have this cheese in unlimited amounts for the rest of my life but I would lose 10 years off my life, I would gladly make the exchange.  I did have to stop there on my way home from work when Jeff was gone because I was having crack withdrawls.

So on the way home, we went WAY out of the way to go to this restaurant.  We were all geared up for some good, down-home crack.  We got to the mall, parked the car and walked to the restaurant. 

That’s when we noticed that the restaurant was dark.

Too dark…

Uh oh!  This can’t be!  Why are they closed???  Upon further inspection, there was a sign tapped to the inside front window saying “Thank you for your patronage over the years, but we have closed our doors for good”. 

NNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Whatever will I do without my crack cheese?  Where will I go when I have a craving for that wholesome goodness, that perfect mix of cheese and chicken that makes me so happy? 

(Never mind the fact that I, like most people around New Year’s, have decided to try to lose some weight.  I’m sure crack cheese is on SOME diet plan, and that’s the one I want to be on.  If crack cheese is wrong, I don’t want to be right!!!)

Luckily my honey saved the day (ok, well not the day but certainly pulled me out of my weekend slump) when he informed me that there is another On the Border in Palmdale, which is only a little bit farther of a drive for us from our house.  Will I make the trek?  You betcha I will!!!  Neither sleet, nor rain, nor hail….oh wait, that’s the post office.  Regardless, nothing will stop me from getting my crack fix. 

I’d like to blame Mrs. Kitty for introducing me to the crack cheese in a jar (although I do warm it up instead of eating it cold from the fridge!)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope 2009 will be wonderful to you all.  According to my Chinese Astrological Horoscope (if you believe in that sort of thing, and it’s kinda fun to at least read them and either laugh your ass off or seriously decide to change your ways before something horrible happens to you), 2009 is supposed to be a great year for me as a Rooster.  A friend at work gave me a great email about all the different Chinese horoscopes, but I can’t find it online so this link is what you all are stuck with.  Hey, I’m a giver!!! 

2008 was a crazy year for me.  I always take this time to reflect on what happened during the year.

1- In January, Jeff and I decided to move in together.  After 3 years of dating, we both decided to take the plunge and give it a whirl.  The whole time, Jeff just kept saying “I hope we don’t kill each other”.  My answer?  Just do what I tell you and nobody gets hurt.  You can imagine how well that went over!!    But amidst the rain storm and torn up pavement at Jeff’s old place, we were able to get thru the hurdles and move in together.  We spent the whole month of February still going thru all the CRAP at Jeff’s old place and cleaning it out.  By the last weekend, I thought I was going to kill him if I had to go thru one more box of Playstation swag that he’d been holding onto for years.  The last time we went to his place for the final cleaning, he commented “This is the first time I’ve seen you smile here in a month”.  That’s because we’re almost out of here!!!  Let’s pick up the pace!  Less talking, more cleaning!!

2- After deciding to make the move even though I was going to have to commute about an hour to work, I suddenly was laid off from work.  2 days before my birthday.  SUCK!!!!  We had just taken on a larger rent and now I’m out of a job.  GREAT!!!!  I spent 2 months hunting for a job.  You would think that it would have been a little vacation for me, but I was so stressed out the whole time, I wasn’t able to enjoy it until I got a job.  Then I was inquiring about vacation time!  I did get one job about a month into my unemployment, but I thought I was going to gouge out my eyes with any sharp objects, so I opted to quit after 2 days.  Literally, I felt the life draining out of me at this place.  I’d start work at 8am, and by 8:30, I was looking at the clock, wondering when lunch was.  This job was working for a company that helped people negotiate their IRS debt down.  So basically I was calling the IRS 50 times a day.  These people are not happy campers!!  But luckily I was able to score my job now, so I was super happy.

3-  Jeff and I were able to take a trip to Chicago in July.  I didn’t think I’d be able to go since I had just started my job, but they were totally cool with it.  We had a great time visiting his family and took a trip to Galena, which was really fun but very tiring.  So much walking!!  I felt like I had been at Disneyland for a week the way my feet hurt!!  One highlight from that trip was when we were driving back to his parents’ house after Galena. We were driving in his brother’s car, which had EVERY SINGLE SERVICE LIGHT ON on the dashboard.  We hit a huge thunderstorm, and turned on the wipers.  The wipers kept getting hooked on each other and then the driver’s side one flew off the window and was stuck on the door.  5 times!!!  Good times!!  I thought it was hilarious.  Jeff??  Not so much!!

4- I got to dress up for Halloween, which I haven’t been able to do in 4 years.  Most of the jobs where I have worked (ie banks) tend to frown upon dressing up.  I was able to pull off Mary Katherine Gallagher (SUPERSTAR!!!) one year.  This year, I went with Strawberry Shortcake.  I had so much fun!!!  I tried to get Jeff to be the Purple Pieman, but he wouldn’t go for it.  Oh well.  There’s always next year!! (cue the evil laugh!)

5- Jeff and I celebrated our first Christmas (kinda) living together.  We went out and bought the tree together and had a really fun day decorating it.  Every time we pulled an ornament out, we’d reminisce about where it came from.  To complete the day, we had the crock-pot-in-the-bedbrainstorm.  Let me tell you, so many people are just JEALOUS over that little brainstorm.  Feel free to give it a try.  I suggest getting an extension cord so you can keep your snacks warm.  It was awesome!!!  Hehehe!!!

I’m SO excited to pick up Jeff from the airport tomorrow night.  We’ve talked on the phone a few times, usually for a minimum of an hour, and we’re both missing each other.  It’s amazing that we’ve only been living together for a year and yet I can’t seem to sleep well when he’s not here.  It’s like my body knows somethings amiss.  This happens when he’s here and I go to bed before him.  I keep waking up looking for him.  Even if I don’t wake up when he comes to bed, it’s like I already know because then I sleep soundly thru the night.  So needless to say, I haven’t slept very well since he’s been gone and I’m looking forward to him coming home.  “Hi Jeff, welcome home.  Now let’s go to sleep!!”  Or not. 

He’s been getting a little homesick for me too.  He’s been saying how much he’s ready to come home.  He made the mistake of watching Skin-imax at his brother’s house the other night.  Now he’s REALLY ready to come home!!  I told him that’s like waving a loaded pistol around!

Here’s hoping that 2009 is a great year!!!

Is it steamy in here, or is that just me???

After much haggling and the utterance of words that cannot be repeated in polite company, my water heater is FINALLY fixed.  After 4 days of no hot water, I took the hottest shower that I could possibly stand.  I swear,  I thought my skin was going to peel off it was so hot, but it was FABULOUS!!!!  I’m so happy!  I had to threaten bodily harm to our office staff, but it finally got fixed. 

I have taken 3 showers since last night.  Apply, scrub, rinse, repeat.  Obsess much????  Why, yes I do!!!!

On another note, I got the cutest pedicure today, and I totally wanted to post pictures of my fabulous toes.  They are a cute red sparkly color and I have the greatest snowflake and snowman on my big toes.  But when I turned on my desktop computer, a loud screeching noise came out of the battery backup thing it’s plugged in to, and I don’t know how to fix it without Jeff being here.  So, no pictures until he calls me back and tells me how to fix it. 

So what have we learned today???  I will make you swim with the fishies if you take away my hot water for 4 days again, and I have no idea how to operate my own computer.  I’m so glad I’m a college graduate!!!