Once Upon a Time...

Holy crow it's been busy!

2009-11-21T16:42:51Z

So yeah just realized I haven't posted in almost three months. It has been a crazy time indeed.
We are now more or less completely moved in to the house. The more: all of our stuff is here in some way, the old guy's stuff is almost all gone, and every room is at least 75% set up. The less: a lot of our belongings are still boxed up in the garage or in corners, and we won't be able to remedy a lot of that until it gets warm again. But we're hoping to get some tulip and crocus bulbs planted today so we'll have flowers first thing in spring. And Ty's fish and inside flowers are very happy.
In other news I may have actually succeeded in getting an early morning position at work. One of our bakers had to "seek other employment opportunities" (three guesses what that means) so as soon as I found out I talked to our HR about taking over the position. It would be a slight pay cut as it's a demotion, but Ty and I would be on almost the exact same schedule then. I would still have to work every other weekend but at least our sleeping patter wouldn't get so fried. From the sounds of it as of Wednesday night I've pretty much got the job (no one else applied and they think I'd be really good in the position) but they want to wait until after Christmas at least to switch me over so that overnights doesn't get short handed right as our loads will start to explode. So fingers crossed that this will be my last month working overnights at Target.

Oh, another cool thing, my grandmother is turning 90 on Thanksgiving day. 90, can you believe it? Unfortunately I have to work so we won't be able to make it there then, but I should have a few days around Christmas off so we'll see her then. She knows we both work in fields that get crazy this time of year so she understands. Besides one of my uncles can't make it up there until Christmas either so it'll all work out.

Well I guess that's the big update. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Later Days.

You mean I can just go wherever I want?... the whole yard is mine??

2009-09-14T00:21:01Z

Koala is loving having a yard. He runs crazy circles in it whenever we've had to leave him inside for a long time and he comes right back up to the house when he's done so we can let him in. House life is suiting our dog just fine.
We got all the big furniture moved in today. It was a pain, heavy, sweaty, and long but we did it all by ourselves. My co-worker did offer to help but he wasn't availble until the afternoon and we had just finished when he called to give the time he could come over. Great timing that guy has. Oh well, we felt really accomplished afterwards.
Now just a few odds and ends in the apartment, super-duper cleaning over there, and lots of unpacking here. Hopefully it won't all take as long as I'm thinking it will.
Other than that, life goes on. I keep trying to get an early morning position at work, rather than overnight but they won't let me switch, and of course a position opens up at the terminal Ty really wants to work at now that we are home owners, bound to this property for at least 3 years (cuz after that we've paid somthing off, I just can't remember what). So yeah, work sucks all around but we have jobs, the house is really nice and the dog is happy.

Later days.

Why do senior citizens save EVERYTHING???

2009-07-30T11:47:42Z

So we are now officially home owners! Yay! We have a yard, and a basement, and several extra rooms in which to spread out all of our junk. It is awesome.

The less awesome bit is that the sons of the guy who owned the place left us all his junk to sort through and clean before they went back to Texas or wherever. See the house was owned by an older gentleman who fell down the stairs and was put in assisted living about a year and a half ago. As such most of his stuff was still in the house. We heard that the son (who has power of attorny) had originally thought of throwing some of the furniture in with sale of the house to help it go faster. As such when writting up our offer we said that we would take any personal property not removed by the closing date. The selling agent said he wanted an exact list of the things we would want out of the house instead, which we wrote up and sent in. Instead of looking at it, or negotiating any of it however the family came, took the really nice bedroom set, all the good useful stuff from the garage and left everything else. And I mean everything. They emptied out the dressers from the bedroom set onto two comforters, folded them up and left them on the floor.
Because of this, despite the fact that we closed on Monday we have only just finished moving into two rooms of the house. The bathroom (all done!) and the kitchen (95% done). The rest of our time since then, and I took off this week to have extra time, has been spent packing up, or throwing out all this guys junk. Now this may sound incredibly rude, and I mean it's not the guy's fault that his sons left all this stuff in the house, but I mean he collected the weirdest stuff. I have found christmas garland from the 50's, at least 10 watches, dozens of shoe horns, countless pins from various events and organizations, every consievable owl trinket known to man, shirts everywhere. I mean we cleaned all his stuff out the bathroom, which was full to the brim when we started, and after moving all our stuff in we still have two empty shelves and an unused drawer. And we haven't even started in the basement yet.
On the plus side, as we are donating most of this stuff to goodwill we can get a tax write off on up to I think 500 dollars. And we've found a few things that are worth some money; an almost complete set of actual sliver sliverware, and a genuine signed baseball from the 1987 world champion Twins baseball team (there was a little stand for it that said what it was or I wouldn't have had the foggiest). So not a total loss, but still an awful lot of work that we really weren't expecting.
Oh well, Mom and Matt are coming up to help out for the weekend tomorrow, and we're all going to see Cirque De Sole's Kooza in St. Paul on Sunday. Now just got to hope that the two console tvs they left us sell on Craiglist. Alright, back to the house. Want to the get the kitchen as close to 100% clean as I can before Tyson gets home. And maybe pack up another couple of boxes of stuff from the basement.

Later days.

Howard Keel = happiness

2009-07-16T15:18:45Z

For those who don't know the name he is an actor in musicals from the 50's. Tyson got me a DVD with 4 of them (Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers) and that's my happy relaxing thing now when I get home, to watch one or more before he gets home. I promised not to make him watch any of them.

Haven't updated in while, but there is some news. We found a house! We close on the 27th. Yipee! And we'll be saving almost 100$ a month. Double yipee!

Not much else going on. Didn't get the early morning position at work, so still icky overnightness. Oh well. At least I gots a job...right?

Later days.

Not dead...yet.

2009-06-22T11:40:56Z

Not much new has been going on so I haven't really posted. But my Dad informed me that I was being asked about a little bit at Faire rehearsals so I suppose I better update something so y'all who read this can pass on the not deadness of me.

Househunting: sucks. We still haven't heard back about an offer we put in on a house A MONTH AGO. We're going to look at a few more houses today that are much closer to our desired end of our price range (especially with what the interest rates have been doing) but if we don't find one we like we might just give up and renew our lease here. I mean we have to let the apartment know by the 30th and the guy working with the bank to sell the house said it might still be another 10-20 days until we hear back. Then we'd have to hope that they accept the offer. Then we'd have to do an inspection and hope nothing was seriously/expensively wrong. Then we could sign all the paperwork and hopefully get a closing date before our lease ran out. So yeah, we'll hopefully make a decision by tomorrow.

Work: Not so bad actually. My one co-work still pisses me off to no end, but that's more cuz he's an egotistical control freak than anything else, and I'm working on not letting it bother me too much. Anyways I put in for a new position. It's still Target (ugh) but it would be early mornings instead of overnights, so the schedule would be much closer to Tyson's and I'd have a semi normal sleep pattern, and times when people could actually call me to do stuff or just talk. Still haven't talked to the ETL doing the interviews and such, dont' even know how many interviews I"ll have to do actually as I'm already a TL, but we'll see. The one sort of downside is that it's for a Freezer/Dairy position. Yes, I would be in a cooler or freezer working with food all day long. However, two of the TLs I would actually consider my friends at work, work that same shift so we'd be able to hang out and such, which is good.

Home: Everything is doing okay here. The puppy is just over a year old now and still crazy as ever. His new love? Frisbee. Seriously when he knows we are going out to play frisbee he will start whining, and yipping and just making all kinds of "hurry up, come on, lets go" noises. Its very cute. The house is also getting over run with Tyson's hobby. Fish breeding. Yes, fish breeding. We currently have 5 tanks running with altogether around 70 fish I think, that's including the fry in the one tank. In order to try and get on board, I have agreed to start my own little tank set soon. I"m only getting two 10gallons and I'm going to raise fancy guppies. They are exceedingly easy apparently. He's got mostly shell dwellers, and yes it's all greek to me too.
Oh and we've picked strawberries twice this year already. The second time I got sunburnt though and it really hurts. All over my shoulders, yuck. I think once it heals I'm going to start trying the tanning bed that they have in the fitness center here at the apartments. I would like to tan once in my life rather than turning four shades of red.

Alright. I guess that's it for my big update.
Later days.

Writer's Block: Grimm Question

2009-06-06T06:34:41Z

What was your favorite fairy tale as a child?

Submitted By wolfy284

View 503 Answers

Like you said Julie, couldn't resist.

I think as a kid it was Sleeping Beauty, a Native American tale called Scarred Face (I think) from my mother's library, and The Fool of The World and His Flying Ship.

MIddle school it was Good Griselle.

Now, Sapsarrow, and Spindle's End (a more grown up telling of Sleeping Beauty).

Later days.

Writer's Block: There Can Be Only One

2009-05-22T12:24:31Z

Do you believe in monogamy?

View 501 Answers

I believe in it for myself. Here's how a friend of Tyson's put it, "If you only have sex with one person it will always be the best sex of your life." However, that's not to say that I would ill judge anyone who has had multiple partners, but I feel that the monogamy needs to at least be shared within the partnership. If one person is monogamous and the other isn't I think it could cause a lot of questions. Wonderings if they are constantly being compared to someone else their partner has been with while they have no basis of comparison, that kind of thing. Maybe that's a bit too scientific, but that's how I feel about it.

Worries for another day!

2009-05-22T12:20:24Z

So I know that last posting was very.. I believe emo would apply right? But I have just actually had the first really good week at work in a long time. I switched with my fellow team leader so that I am now running the floor and he the backrooms and it was a great switch. I actually feel like I'm accomplishing things at work now, I have more paperwork, and the time to do it which I love, and I'm even enjoying throwing the truck(which means getting all the boxes off the delievering truck onto a conveyerbelt like thing so we can sort them) because it's using a lot of physical energy at the beginning of the night rather than trying to push myself to get through it all at the end of the night. Yes I am slightly irked that the other TL seems to be better/faster in the backrooms than I was, but I have yet to not come clean any night so I'm just going to let him be happy and fast back there.

Not much other news unfortunatly. We're working with a new realtor cuz our last one fired us after we decided not to follow through with a house that had a flat roof and thus tons of possibly really expensive problems. Now we're just waiting to hear back about a short sale in Inver Grove Heights that we really liked with a huge yard.

Later days.

PS My folks told me all the Janesville peoples said hi so HI back! Hope you all had a good time, and hopefully we can make it down to Bristol again this year. We'll see where we're at with moving when it gets there.

Hopefully this helps.

2009-05-17T14:16:12Z

It was my last night working the backrooms.
We came clean, with a lot of help from the floor and at the last minute but we did it.
Tomorrow/tonight (I count it a new day when I sleep even though it's not) when I go into work I will be on the floor, offically. Same shift, same place, same stupid people working for me, but a new rutine. I really hope that having new tasks and responsiblities makes this job less soul rendering than it has lately become.
I hate being at work and trying hard not to cry. I hate that no matter how hard I try and how much I do HE always has to do more. And I hate when I can't finish and HE swoops in like some bastardation of a hero to say "I'll just get all that done really quick and then come help you over there" like my work is worthless and only HE knows what HE's doing. And I really hate getting advice over and over again, while being treated like a stupid child rather than being left to make and learn from my own mistakes, as I may not make the same ones anyway or what HE thinks is a mistake is actually based on how other people feel about HIM and not about what was actually done.

later days.

Decompression time.

2009-04-28T14:38:05Z

So yet another attempt to buy a house down the drain. We actually made it all the way to the inspection, but because of what would need to be fixed and how much it would cost we just couldn't go forward with the house. As a result we are back to square one. Oh and our relator said that he thought it would "be best for us to proceed with a different agent".
Yes, our agent fired us. Now granted, we were getting to the point where we were thinking about if we should go with a different agent or not ourselves, but still isn't it better when the buyer says that to the relator? Oh well, Ty found out that if we get a relator through our insurance company (as in one they send to us) then we get money back when we get money back. Also we get money when we close with them, so all kind of a good thing that we got let go I guess.
Anyways, that's why I've been so bummed out lately and not posting. So right now I am taking time to relax and watching Fraggle Rock to decompress from all this insanity until Ty gets home. Hope everyone else out there in livejournal land is doing better.

Later days.

This all just sucks.

2009-04-25T21:02:41Z

Could someone please just shoot me now.

Random thought

2009-03-31T20:54:50Z

Jackie chan is like the Fred Astaire of Kung Fu.

Talented, skilled, and able to use unorathdox props to enhance his performance.

Later days.

Victory!... almost...sort of...well nearly

2009-03-17T19:34:19Z

So we've accepted an offer put forth by the bank on a house. We've filled out an early termination of lease form, ending our lease at the apartment on May 17th rather than August 31st. We still have to fill out a ton of paperwork and absolutely confirm the price, oh and move.

pray for us.

Later days

Third times the charm....right?

2009-03-14T02:44:00Z

So we have now put in an offer on a third house. We lost the other two in multiple offers. This is, not going to lie, getting rather frustrating. I mean it's cool to look at all the options of houses out there online but when every time you find one you like someone else gets it, it is a huge pain in the a**.

And maybe it wouldn't be so bad if right now my life didn't consist of work, sleep and house hunting alone. Seriously when do we get to be past the point in our lives when it all just work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep. It's been 3 years of this already, and I have no frame of reference for how long it will last, but it is driving me insane.

Well that and my co-worker, but whatever.

Later days.

A swing... and a miss

2009-02-27T20:42:01Z

Well we actually did put an offer on that house we saw last week. It was great, needed some work but not so much as to scare us off. However the bank went with another offer that got in first that they were negotiating with. Grrr.

So the hunt continues. Getting a little frustrating though, especially since the two we saw today the first would be basically a whole renevation, and the second we didn't even go in because we'd already seen AND rejected it as trash. Grrr again.

Oh well, hopefully something else will come up soon that we like as much as that other one.

Later days.

Once more into the breach!

2009-02-18T18:12:34Z

14 houses down. Still no winner. Seeing another in an hour, really hoping it will work out better than some of the others. Like... liveable for one. Not in need of more work than the house costs.
Oh well... good thing we started early.

Later days

Home sweet housing market.

2009-02-10T12:15:03Z

So Ty and I are house hunting. Our relator is great, from Italy accent and all, and he gets our humor and moods so it's really easy to talk to him. He's honest about his feelings on the houses we're looking at, and even says what he would do if he were looking at these houses to live in.
So far we've seen 8 houses and have two in the main running. This Saturday we're going to see 10, in one day. Yeah those are our valentine's day plans. But the market is too good right now to pass up.
Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Later days.

When did I move into Blockbuster?

2009-01-31T15:55:57Z

So I just finished alphabatizing and reshelfing all our movies. We have at least one movie for every letter of the alphabet. Seriously every one (Quigley down under, Young Shirley Temple, Zoom: Academy for Superheroes).
And that doesn't include all the tv series and their adjacent movies that live in our bedroom.

It was actually kind of cool to see them all laid out on the floor in piles according to letter. Is it sad that I found that to be a rather enjoyable activity? Like "Hey this is cool work" kind of thing? I don't know.

In other news we've started house hunting. It's turning up some good online prospects and we're going to go look at a couple of placed this afternoon. Here's hoping that if we find one we love that they can hold it for us until our lease is up in Sept.
Does anyone out there know any legal ways to get out of a lease early? Cuz right now if we did we'd just be paying for it and our house payments which is not within our means.

Okay, time to go shower for the day.
Later days

Opinions sought!

2009-01-13T19:17:06Z

So I'm thinking of getting another tattoo... well no I am going to get one I've just finally decided what it will be.

A shakespearean quote with the celtic love knot that Tyson got me years ago. I'm thinking "We are too wise to woo peacefully." from Much Ado.

Looking for opinions on:
Where to place it
How to intergrate image of love knot
Any other good shakespearean love quotes that could be good

Later days!

Ah, obsessions.

2009-01-11T14:56:08Z

Work went amazingly, surprisingly well last night. I was still frustrated at points but we came clean in the end and I even found some supplies I needed for a project I can hopefully get done tomorrow.

Plus when work is going well I can day dream a bit more about my new obession: "The Legend of the Seeker". A very fun new tv show based on "The Sword of Truth" book series. Has anyone read those and seen the show? I heard a lot of the book's fans were displeased with the tv shows adapation because it was more of a "took ideas from here and there in the books, but changed some other major things to make it better suited to tv" kind of adapation.
I really like the show though, especially the costumes. Oh man, inspired for a new faire garb, hecks yeah! If you look closely though, it looks like the main characters boots look almost identical to Greg's boots from Bristol. I can't think of the name of the company that makes those boots, but they look like they're the same ones.

Okay I'm now ranting in a tired fashion so I am going to go eat something and see whent the hubby wants to head to bed.

Later days!

So far a good year.

2009-01-07T16:19:30Z

Work has been going really well for the last few weeks. The team is working very hard and getting amazing results. We're working with almost half the team we had during the last few months, put we're coming clean almost every night. True we have smaller loads than we did during the christmas season, but they're still fairly well sized so I'm very pleased with my workforce.

It also helps that Brandon (aka Susie, just a silly nickname) has come back from his tour with the airforce! I haven't felt much connection to the war at all, but it is nice to see that he's back and very much the same as he was when he left. I hope that any of you who have friends or loved ones, or even just aquaintences overseas have the same kind of homecomings soon.

On a final note, my new year's resolutions-
1. Practice my guitar at least 3 times a week.
2. Work out on all of my days off. (I know, who doesn't resolve to work out for the new year)
3. Grow my hair out, without getting it cut AT ALL for the whole year.

Later days.

Sleepy puppy.

2008-12-29T14:17:03Z

What a busy christmas. It actually kinda made me want to move back to Milwaukee, or at least some small suburb inbetween there and Madison just so we wouldn't have to take trips like that again.

Dec. 24th: After we have both worked 10hour+ shifts at work we pack up the car and drive the four hours to Poynette for time with Tyson's parents. The puppy thrilled in his first trip to the country, all kinds of crazy new smells to smell, nooks and crannies to explore. Tyson even let him run around outside off his lesh for the first time out of the pen. He loved it! Running free and playing with Fuzzy (their aussie shepard). Gifts were exchanged and opened and I fell asleep on the couch for half an hour before I was woken up for the drive to John and Steph's place in Waterloo. Another new place for the puppy. More smells, more things to look at, and very little sleep. We finally had to put him in his kennel for a little while so he would understand it was time to sleep.

Dec. 25th: After breakfast we saw a noon showing of "Yes Man". Hilarous! Only one scene that I really could've done without but overall a very funny movie. Puppy was left in his kennel at John and Steph's so as to not be left in the cold. After the movie we went back to Pat and Betsy's, while they went to Steph's family's house. Another afternoon of watching tv and chatting with the in-laws then back to waterloo. Pupppy was SOOO happy to see us. He thought we had abandoned him. John went to work and we played Yatzee with Steph while watching a "House" marathon. All in all a good day.

Dec. 26th: The puppy decided to wake us all up by barking very loudly at John when he came home at 5am. It took about 10mins to convince him that it was okay, that John was not an intruder but did in fact belong there. Then we all slept for a few more hours, and had biscuits and gravy for breakfast (home made by Steph, yum). An hour drive later we show up at my folks place, have a quick gift exchange, and then finish getting ready for the party. It was an awesome party. Got to see the Paulpikie sisters, Alan, the Scott-Frys, James (ie evil sheriff), the Friedel, the Heaths, and my new baby second cousin once removed! She is so cute, but was very tired and cranky. Puppy was a bit overwhelmed at the party, he woofed at the first few guests, and then just took to hiding for a while. However once he figured out that Edie was going to feed him half of most of her sandwiches he cheered up a bunch.

Dec. 27th: Went and saw grandma at her new apartment. She seems really happy, and is doing much better now that someone is helping her with her medications. Her apartment is cute, but a lot less room than she used to have, which explains why mom and dad have rented a 10x10 storage space for all her other stuff. That evening we got to usher for "The Producers" at Skylight. It was great to be in the theatre again, and to see that two of my college classmates were in the show! It was so cool to see that they were doing what they've always wanted to do, even if it did make me a little sad that I haven't done any theatre in a while.

And now we are home and the puppy is sleeping, sleeping sleeping. Poor thing had enough stress this weekend to keep him out for a few days I think. But I'm gonna take him to play with his friend later today and I think that will cheer him up some.

Okay off to do errands so that we can have stuff to eat around here.

Later days

Falalalalala!

2008-12-18T16:56:44Z

On the twelfth day of Christmas, mkpoet sent to me...

Twelve faeries drumming

Eleven dragons piping

Ten cartoons a-leaping

Nine hugs dancing

Eight watches a-milking

Seven costumes a-sewing

Six movies a-dancing

Five ba-a-a-arenaked ladies

Four star wars

Three fairy tales

Two marx brothers

...and a music in a photography.

Yarrr!

2008-12-07T12:14:26Z

So just got back from a visit to the urgent care clinic in Apple Valley. My sty/chalizion is now coupled with a bacterial eye infection. Go my right eye! At least it isn't too serious, I just have to use drops twice a day for a week, and after the first dose it already feels better. However, my eye is also super photosensitive right now (i.e. even normal room lights bug the crap out of it) so I am wearing a nifty difty eye patch. And not like the bandaid like one that Spridco had a few summers back, but an all out black cloth held on with elastic one. I feel kinda stupid, not gonna lie.

On the plus side I finally went in to a get a hair cut and got what was on the picture I brought with me yesterday. Huzzah for that. (If you're curious look up the character Alice Cullen from Twilight and you'll see what I got) STill need to work on how to get the exact style back by myself, but I'll get there.

Also good news I got MY christmas tree up and decorated! It's smaller than Tyson's but I really like it. It's cute and quaint and full of colorful, homey goodness.

Later days.

Is that a dog thing or just my dog?

2008-12-03T16:48:37Z

So Koala is having a little trouble with the cold. Actually I don't know if it's the cold or the salt they put out to melt the ice on the sidewalks. Every time we go out he'll suddenly favor one leg as if it hurts and start making pain whines. Today he actually just laid down on the ground holding three legs in as if they hurt and was whining quite painfully, but he was fine as soon as I carried him inside. Then we went back on the sidewalk and he was fine as soon as we hit the side that wasn't shoveled or salted.
Is it a cold thing or the salt sticking in his paws? Anyone got a dog that does this kind of thing?

Later days.

P.S. On a plus side he has learned to roll over! Go my dog!