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!

Snow

I've had a lot of people ask me about the snow out here, so here are some pictures for you. First, we have the rather impressive icicles hanging off of my sunporch.

In case you can't tell how long those actually are, I measured them :) Just a little over three feet!


A view of the backyard. The tape measure went down about 7.5", but that's not to say there wasn't a solid layer of frozen snow below that. It was too cold out for me to care about finding that out!

Blogger is not working well today, so if you want to see the others, you can see them added to the January photos.

Last day at UofR today! I don't have to go in until 2pm, since I have to lead a training until 9:30pm.

The winds (or snow) of change

Yes, I am now in the thick of winter. Kevin (Sherri's husband) laughed at me over the weekend when I told him that not only did I not have a driveway plowing service (*gasp* how impoverished of me!), but I didn't own a snow shovel either. Being the great guy he is (and spoiled grown-up with a plow service), he promptly loaded 2 snow shovels into my car. I had to use one today...it was equally as terrible of a chore as mowing the lawn. In fact, it is the winter equivalent of lawn mowing. I hated it. We got about 5 inches today while I was at work, and we're expecting more. I'm thankful my car has a roof rack on it, because it's the only way I can find it in the massive parking lot when it is covered in snow. I big thank you to mom too for helping me get the car with the heated seats, heated mirrors, and heated windshield wipers. Mom, not a day goes by that I don't thank you out loud! I'd have pictures of the snow here, but a) it's dark and b) snow is so ho-hum to me now that I never think of taking pictures of it. Another thank you to Bryan and Amy who both got me hats for Christmas. Now I have a rotating hat collection of three :)

Last weekend I got to babysit "the girls" (Lani and Cassie, and new addition baby Peter). I just adore them and felt silly getting paid for it. We had such a fun time. They were so excited to have me over and had planned an entire night with a movie (Aristocats), pizza ordered in, and fresh baked cookies. To that, we ad-hoc added a dance party to the disco channel on digital cable.

From January 2007

Lani and Cassie dancing. The pillows were part of a "hot lava" game where you could only step on the pillows because the carpet was hot lava.

From January 2007

Lani showing off her strength!

Once the girls knew I had a camera, that made them ham it up!

From January 2007

From January 2007

This odd position they both called "peanut butter sandwich," I think from them making layers like bread. Kids are so strange! Of course I got roped into this too, so then it was a "peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

From January 2007

Of course when girls get together there is always a hair and makeup party. They LOVED this!

From January 2007

Of course I wouldn't want to forget Peter. This picture cracks me up, as clearly this is a reaction to the flash (he had been sleeping, woke up to be fed, and was on his way back to bed).

From January 2007

A slightly better picture. He has the cutest smile with a dimple in his cheek, but it was so hard to time it right.

My sweet mom also sent me flowers, as she knew I was having a very hard time deciding about the new job offer. They have definitely brightened up the house, as flowers are a rare expensive luxury for me.

From January 2007

The rest of the pictures, uninteresting as they may be, can be seen here

On the job front, my last day at UR is Friday. Things have gotten even more crazy there since I turned in my notice, all reaffirming that I made the right choice. Monday I'll be starting at Harris Interactive as a Senior Research Associate in Healthcare Market Research. I'm hoping that it will be a challenging position and that I will learn a lot of new skills. I'll still be going to school 2 classes per term (more about the classes in future blogs, suffice to say this term is one terrible one that is minimal work, and one interesting one that is a lot of work). UR is determined to make my life difficult in terms of school since I'm leaving them, but where there is a will there's a way! Speaking of school, the time I'm spending on this blog is cutting into my homework time. Hugs and kisses to everyone at home!

More Florida pictures

I finally figured out how to get pictures on the web. Go me (I know, it's totally unimpressive, but I'm not so computer savvy). So for the rest of the Florida pics (and a few other random ones) you can click here

Pictures from the weekend to follow as soon as I get time to upload them. Probably Tuesday, since tomorrow I have class until 10:30pm :(

Florida finally!

Okay, this is quite after the fact, but better late than never! Early December I went to Florida to finally meet Bryan's parents and see his home turf. We started off on a 4 day cruise, which was full of gluttony, but 10lbs later (7 of which are gone now) I had a great time. Here are just a few pictures. More in later days as time or boredom allows.

These have to be the coolest trees I have ever seen. They are banyan trees. According to the tour guide, one tree can eventually spread to cover four acres! It drops roots from the branches, and the tree behind us is just one tree. Amazing! This one is in Key West.
Dinner the final night, near Bryan's parents house. It's dark, but the restaurant is on some body of water (sorry, I have no idea if it was the ocean or a lake!). It was a seafood place, and the food was so yummy (even though I had pork).
Us on formal night on the cruise. Doesn't he look handsome in his "designer" suit? :) It's always fun to get dressed up.
Me enjoying a sip of Bryan's margarita in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico after taking a dip in the ocean. I still think it's so strange to swim in the ocean, since the Oregon ocean is 50 on a good day. Mexico was fun, but man the constant harassing of the shop owners gets old very quickly. NO, I don't want your ugly silver that is going to turn my skin green, nor do I want any pot.
View from the marina near where Bryan's parents used to live. Can you imagine having this within walking distance of your house?? This water was FULL of beautiful fish, and even two sting rays that we saw! There are also tons of pelicans, which I had never seen in person before. So cool!

Blogs are for bragging, right?

Or....blogs are for embarassing your boyfriend! So Christmas 2006 was the year of the robe. Bryan had always said how he wanted one, so my mom got one for him, and Bryan's sister Amy had one that was getting a bit tattered, so Bryan got her a new one. This made me realize that I needed a robe too :) Today I get a package in the mail (which is exciting in it's own regard). I thought it was the world-traveling package I had sent myself from Portland (which, BTW, was sent priority mail Dec 30th and still isn't here. Of the other 2 boxes, the other priority caught the forward, was sent back to Portland, and made it back to Rochester yesterday. The media mail package arrived today. Where is the 3rd box?)

Anyway, I digress. It turns out the package was from Bryan, and contained this awesome new robe that is SO soft. It is really a pale blue, even though this picture makes it look more teal. He also got me a new shower poof, and this duck. Now not only is this a cute duck, it's a bath sponge....AND the best part is that when you squeeze it it quacks 3 times. It's hilarious. We first saw it when we were baby shopping for Amy and Andy, and I was laughing so hard in Target. Now I have my own :) You better believe every morning Bri is going to hear my quacking duck in the shower! So this totally made my day, and is further evidence that I, in fact, have the best boyfriend that exists!
As a side-note, check out the shiny Rochester hair. I swear they changed my water supplier while I was gone! I have never had hair this shiny and frizz-free in my life, except for a vacation in North Carolina.

Finally snow and it's still coming down

Rochester, take 2

So owning a house is a lot of work! Although Bri took great care of my house while I was gone, there were a million little projects to do when I got back. These may not seem like big things to those of you that have owned a house, but many of these were things that I would have previously said "dad, the railing is broken" and POOF! it would be magically fixed! Too bad things don't work like that out here :) So my completed tasks this weekend:
- fixed the railing to the basement
- replaced the brackets in the kitchen drawer that have been broken since I moved in
- nailed in all of the pieces of molding that keep falling off (because the previous owners didn't nail them down, they just set them there)
- replaced the themostat with a programmable one
- replaced about a million burned out lightbulbs, of course in all high up light fixtures, all of which needed different types of bulbs!
- added a lock to the attic door, which the cat kept pulling open
- and finally painted(and cleaned) my office...see below for proof :)
The office was this yucky purple. I've hated it since I moved in. I wanted to paint it some shade of blue.
Let's just say that this isn't quite the blue I had in mind.! It dried so much darker and greener than it was on the chip. It's growing on me though. Yes, it desperately needs a second coat of paint. But since my desk is NOT easy to move, I wsa painting around it and removing the painters tape as I went. By the time I realized it needed a second coat, all of the taping was gone, and I'm too tired and lazy to start over! Someday I'll get around to doing it. For now, it's tons better than the purple.

And a random picture taken the day before I left Rochester. It was just the beginning of fall here, and this tree was so beautiful that I had to stop and take a picture of it. Now everything is all bare. It has been insanely warm here though. Friday I went to the gym at 7pm, and my car thermometer said 58! Today was a bit colder (44 at noon), but most days have been sunny. You'd never know this was Rochester! Even my maple tree is confused....it's starting to bud. Let's just hope winter doesn't come, or that tree is in trouble!

Hugs to everyone back home. I miss you all, but take 2 is going much more smoothly than take 1 :)

Dad: After, and after after

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, and will do so as time allows in between house projects. I know many of you were following the problems with my dad, so I thought you might like to see a few pictures. The first two are the day after the fall in the ICU, and the last one is Christmas Day. He was doing well by Thanksgiving, but I couldn't get the scanner to work at my parents house to scan in their cruise picture.


These pictures are still a bit scary to look at, but it's amazing how far he has come. He still has a few residual problems with backaches and associated rib trauma, but other than that he's doing well. The doc says it will be about a year before he's back to his pre-accident self.