Wordy Thursday

I know I haven't posted in a while. Sorry. Life as usual goes on.
I haven't been working for over a year. I don't like working for people that enjoy jerking me around and around. Hopefully what I did yesterday will help with both issues. I started the application process for a place called SEL. DH works there, and it would be so nice to be on the same schedule, and to double our income in one swoop. Perhaps then we could get a new to us vehicle, and do repairs around the house.
Anyways, yesterday.
I took the bus to Pullman to go to the SEL Open House, I figured while I was in Pullman I would pick up my birth control so I wouldn't have to worry about going next week to pick it up. Coasted down a really, really big hill. Pullman was built on 7 hills, to go practically anywhere you have to go up or down hills. Got my stuff, and headed across town for the Open House. I made it in time to see DH on his 4 pm break. The hill to get up to his building is a real killer. I managed to make it up the hill, and be waiting for DH (panting, sweating, and red face matching my red shirt) to come out of the locker room.
I went through the Open House, did the tour and the tester board that shows what it would be like to work on the drop line. After the tour I signed up for a telephone interview on Monday. I did the same thing at a previous open house, did the same thing and did the whole telephone interview, assembler testing, and main interview. They didn't want me then, hopefully they want me this time.
I forgot that the bus changes its schedule for the summer and that it doesn't have the later pick up that it did in the fall/spring schedule. Ahhh living in a college town and next to another college town. So I missed the bus and had to ride my bike all the way home. 12.5 miles. Again. Today I am a big OUCH.
My keyboard and mouse are currently freaking out, keep losing connection. I keep having to hit the connect key in order to keep typing. I think it is the piece that connects it wirelessly. This last paragraph of typing took 9 re-connects as an example.

******
I am hoping that DH gets home ok. His bike tire went flat on the ride to work today, multiple times. He has to ride home tonight, or walk his bike home which would take even longer. It is 12.5 miles from his work to home. He has walked it before, I just hope he gets a ride. He rides in about once a week. Otherwise he gets a ride in with a friend of his.

Thanks for reading my ramblings
Tina

Thursday Thirteen #3

Thirteen Things about Me There is the 7 random/habits about you meme going around, so I figured I would just make it a TT. When I was growing up I had a really bad habit of pulling off my toenails. Including the roots. I think I was a little bit of an insomniac and so I would usually read until all hours of the am, when even that got repetitious I would pick at my toenails. The next biggest toe was my regular victim, though all but the big toe got pulled. This is still evident in my toes today, my next biggest toes' toenails grow in very thick, and instead of trimming the top edge I have to trim the whole thing down. Big toe wasn't immune to this treatment, but the nail is to large to have pulled out, so it got picked at and trimmed down to bare nail bed. And my parents wondered why I limped funny. I also chewed my nails all through high school. I finally quit chewing my nails about 2 years ago, I got it down to just chewing on my right pinky, and then I quit that one to for my wedding. The pulling and chewing was a way for me to deal with stress, and let me tell you stress was a big part of my life in high school. My first job was working for my father at a place called Checks Plus Collections. I called angry people and told them they had to pay their returned checks plus our $20 fee per each bounced check. Try sounding mature and firm with very angry people when you are 16. The pay was ok, it wasn't fast food, I made night manager, and I had spending money. The worst was getting the people who were angry and cursing, cursing me and everything in between, and that I had to work Saturdays 8am-12pm. I like to eat Lipton Chicken soup mix dry. That is to say I like to eat it without mixing it with water, or cooking it. Just the soup mix and the hard noodles. I like salt. I really love having a swamp cooler. I have at least six knitting or crochet projects currently in the works. A rainbow knit baby blanket; a front post double crochet; a crochet random ripple that changes colors every two rows; a crochet spiderman round ripple; a crochet round ripple baby blanket for a friend who is having a baby soon; a crochet hexagon patchwork blanket; and a knit ripple scarf. I can not find a decent bra in my home town, I have to go to Spokane, and I have yet to find the shop open when I get there. So I stay home a lot, so I don't have to wear such an uncomfortable device. I believe I am up to a 48D, the biggest the stores here go up to is 44. We like to hang out with our friend 'S' on the weekends. Where we watch movies and TV series, and I work on one of my many projects. I like to play runescape. I love to read, and I am enjoying sharing my favorites with my DH. We have been fans of Firefly since we first saw the train episode (pilot?) on TV. I try to donate/sell my plasma twice a week. They pay $30 per donation, which is why DH calls it selling it instead of donating it. My last donation took 37 minutes, which is rather fast for me, I usually take about 42 minutes. I go through a lot of milk and pickles. We like to go camping, but we don't currently have a vehicle that would get us there. DH gets a ride to work with a friend, since the truck wouldn't make it to his work and back. Bonus: I get what I call 'cold aches' . Basically it feels like I have an ice pack where my leg bone should be, and it feels like it is radiating cold and it aches. Lately this has been starting in my left thigh bone and then (most of the time) it expands to include my hip joint. Then it will start in the other leg and expand to its hip joint as well. Weather doesn't seem to be a factor, as I get this no matter the season. Many times I have gotten this in 90+ degree weather, doesn't seem to cool me off any just hurts. I would get these as a kid too, my parents figured they were growing pains, gave me a Calcium pill and a hot pad. Oddly enough the Calcium still helps some, so in an effort to prevent 'cold aches' I take Calcium at night before bed. (It didn't work last night and my thigh bone is currently aching). The hot pad helps most of the time, but in hot weather is more of a pain. Thanks for looking. Tina Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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Shooting in my town

I know it has been awhile since I posted, not much has been going on, I go down to donate plasma, I go shopping, I eat things that are bad for me i.e. Doritos and ice cream, and I get phone calls from friends and family.
Like this afternoon, our friend Scott calls to see if we had heard about the shooting.
Me:The WHAT?!
Scott: The shooting, here in town.
Me: No, I hadn't heard anything about a shooting, where was this?
Scott: Up at the courthouse, and then the shooter holed up at the First Presbyterian Church, shooting off more rounds and killing a couple people inside.
Me: No I hadn't heard anything about it.
Scott: You should check CNN.com, they have an article up about it. My mom (who lives in Wisconsin) called me this morning to ask about it. That's how I heard about it.
Me: Wow, um ok, thanks.

So, wow. Our town had a shootout. We made the front page of CNN.com, so much for the peaceful tranquility that is our normal weekend. DH's mom lives about a block from where this happened and I wonder if she heard the shots. Also, apparently our town has 3 SWAT teams?? DH says every cop in town and every county officer belongs to one of the SWAT teams, it's more of a drinking buddies group. Though I do find it interesting that it took the SWAT teams 5 hours to storm the church after the last shot was heard at 1 am. I am also sad that "first Moscow police officer to be killed in the line of duty" happened this weekend.
We were awake until about 6:30 am and didn't hear anything.
I keep expecting phone calls from family to check on us, and find out what is going on.

In other news, I need to post to tell about our fabulous weekend 1st anniversary trip, do the 7 odd things/habits about me meme, which I may turn into a TT like others I have seen do.
That's it for the news here.
T

Ok I know you have done it too, fess up. Gotten depressed and (physically) hurting, and gone and gotten a HUGE bowl of ice cream and eaten ALL of it. Digging through it for the little veins of caramel, using it to sooth your inner cranky child who just wants to go hit stuff, and then go scream and cry on the floor. It is so wonderful that ice cream now comes in these great little cardboard boxes, so much screaming in the world stopped before it even starts. I know most women use chocolate for this purpose, but I have found that chocolate is one of the few things that upsets my stomach pretty badly. Acid reflux combined with acid indigestion, not fun. I miss my Lindor chocolate, but I suppose I can do without it, since it means not as much acid burbling up my throat. So that means I had to replace the comfort food, that turns out to be ice cream.

I went to donate/sell some plasma yesterday, heart rate was to high. What makes your heart rate be so high? Is it a food? I don't drink caffeine a day before I go it, I am good about the salt before I go in. As more explanation, the pulse rate has to be 100 or lower, my pulse rate was 105, 107, 109. Then I get to go sit for 15 min. to try and bring it down, after the 15 min. it was 107. In the past the highest I hit was 123. I also sit in the lobby area crocheting for about an hour before I sign in. I figured it was so high because I was riding my bike in, and we know I have some issues with bike rides sometimes, so I have been driving the truck in. Apparently that hasn't helped all that much. I am starting to think it is just because of my weight. Always a joyful subject.

On to happier things. Our good friend Scott bought us the first season of Forever Knight, and we have been watching it when DH gets home at night. I have no idea if anyone else out there remembers the show, but it is a favorite of DH's and it isn't a bad show. Speaking of not bad, on Sunday night we went with Scott to see Enter the Haggis perform at a local bar. It was awesome, I really enjoyed the music. If you haven't heard of them, you should go listen to them online. If I have this right, they are a Celtic rock band from Canada. They have a very cool sound.
That's it for now, hopefully I'll have a Thursday Thirteen up tomorrow.
T

Friday update

My goodness has it really been a week since I posted? Wow, must be. Guess that means it is update time.

• So, I made it to Pullman and back with the stuff I needed to get, I even stopped off at my favorite used bookstore, Brused Books. I picked up a Tom Clancy book, Chicken Soup for the Soul audio book, and The Hero by John Ringo. So by the time I got home I had ridden 7 miles, yay me!
• I am thinking about making candles today. My 4 wick candle just died, the wicks went out one by one and the wick started floating in the melted wax. Time to melt it down and pour it into the mold DH bought me. Only problem with that theory is that I can't find my candy thermometer so I would know what temp the wax is, and trust me it has to get to a certain temp before you pour it, or it turns out way funky. Maybe I'll head out to the store and get a new one.
  
• The loss of Gizzy over at Darling Millie, and the news of the shootings over at Virginia Tech has made me very, very sad this week.
  
• All this week my back has been hurting so bad I can hardly move, DH gave me a back rub last night and I feel 75% better :) Horray for Husbands/SO! I slept in today, it was so nice to sleep in the bed without extreme pain.
  
• Even with my back hurting I got a lot done yesterday, dusted all the corners of the house, getting rid off the cobwebs that have accumulated. Emptied the dishwasher, and reloaded it and ran it. Made homemade chicken noodle soup from scratch. Ran loads of laundry, and put them away, that is usually the hard part, getting the laundry put away once it is done. Cleaned out the fridge a little bit. Cleaned up the stove and washed the drip pans, and the under burner area.
  
• I have been working on one of my crochet projects, the ribby ripple, though I am going to run out of the light blue before I think I should, may have to pick up another skein of it.
• I found a piece of technology that I have fallen in lust with, the Sony Reader, soooo cool!! I love to read, and this sounds so very awesome. To bad I don't have any hope of ever being able to afford it.
• I have been thinking I need to start on the quilt I promised my friend Scott. He wants to take a jean quilt to his wife's parents in Taiwan. Luckily I have about a year to finish it. Going to take the material to PPQ on Monday (PPQ is Purple Paisley Quilters).
• I have been listening to Outlander on CD. I have already read this, but it is nice listening to it with the appropriate accents.

So that is what has been going on with me this week.
Hope everyone has a good weekend.
T

Avoidance

So I have been avoiding doing something all this week and all last week too. *Sigh* I have to go to Pullman (neighboring town, aprx. 8 miles away). I don't have a vehicle that will make the trip, so that means taking the bus. Now normally this is not problem, however the place I need to go is across town from where the bus does drop offs. Options after that point are the problem. I can either catch the bus and take it to Pullman, then wait for the Pullman bus to come by and take me across town (for a fee, our towns town bus is free), then I get the thing I need to get, catch the Pullman bus again, and then catch the between towns bus again and go home. The problem with this is that I am not sure which route bus I need to catch in Pullman, there are like 8 that stop where I would be picked up. So the other option is to load my bike onto the bike rack that most of the between town buses have, and when I get dropped off, ride across town, and then back across town to pick up the bus again and go back home. Sounds like the best option right? Well the only issue with that is that the bike racks are kinda tricky, and the driver always seems impatient that and I am just being lazy. And it is fairly cold out, and I just am being lazy and don't wanna go, I just want to ride in a nice warm vehicle, get the stuff, and go back home in a nice warm vehicle. *sigh* so much for that pipe dream.
Anyways, I am about to head out to catch the bus. Good luck to me.
T

Update

So it has been a while since I posted anything, so here is an update.
On Saturday Darling Husband and I rode our bikes to Pullman, which is about 8 miles away. First we walked down to the bike shop to pick up our bikes after their tune up, then we took them both for a test drive. We added a bike rack to the back of my bike, my rear flashing light needed replaced and my headlight needed tightening up. His bike needed the chain tightened, and they tightened up his spokes. We headed straight out from the bike shop on our bike ride. We headed out on the bike trail that runs between our two towns. By the time we got halfway I was feeling pretty worn out, but I persevered and we hit the new overpass that had just been built. In fact the trail had been closed until the overpass was finished, though it wasn't paved under the overpass just graveled. After we went through to other side I was feeling better so we kept going, we finally hit Pullman. Once we hit town we found that they had extended the path across the road where it used to stop. We kept going, to find out where it went to. It kept going and going, it ended up going all the way across town. The really cool thing is that in a town known for its hills the path was flat for the entire length. We had dinner at a local place, and headed back home. We stopped and picked up some groceries on the way home and then rested for the rest of the night. All told we went 23.01 miles!! That is 7 miles more than we had planned. We were amazed that we were even capable of that.

I finally started reading Watch on the Rhine by John Ringo with DH. I also started Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes. Soon we will start Take A Thief by Mercedes Lackey. I/we are listening to the audio book Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I read the book many years ago, but it is nice to listen to it read in the accents, since most of it takes place in Scotland and the main character is English. So it is fun to hear the orator say things in an English accent and switch to a Scottish accent for the most of the other people speaking.


I have been frogging this:

I am now down to the bright yellow all the way on the left. I had forgotten that I had combined same colors together, like the orange in the middle is two slightly different oranges, and the red (which you can't see in this pic, but is just after the multi colored red/orange) is two different weights of the same shade of red.


I got my permanent crown put in today, feels nice, though my tongue keeps investigating it because it tastes different and is smoother. It is nice to be able to chew on both sides again.

I miss my cool ranch Doritoes.

T

Belated TT #2

So I called and talked to my family today (Friday). Everybody is fine, oh and younger brother (who is 16 going on 17 in Aug.) is going down to Ogden, UT tomorrow. TO BUY A CAR!!!!
A little back story...
We have a truck that is falling apart and is untrustworthy. In Nov. 06'we blew the engine on our 87' Toyota Tercel. End of Sept. we blew something through the engine on our 88' Nissan Sentra in the middle of the freeway06'. So we blew up two cars in two months. We bought the Tercel to replace the Sentra. Since then we haven't been able to afford to buy a new to us car. Yet my brother in HS can. I am soooo tired of being broke.
So....

Thirteen Things I don't like about being poor/broke 1. We can't get a new to us car, much less a New car, even less get the truck fixed. 2. I would like to join a Health Club so I can lose some necessary weight. 3. I want a house, I want an actual house of our own where we can afford for repairs. 4. I would love to be able to have a pet, or pets :) 5. I'd like to be able to visit our families more often, and without having to drive to do it. 6. I would like to be able to buy the things I see online, like tech and yarn. 7. Being able to up and leave and go some where on the weekend would be nice. 8. New wardrobes are becoming increasingly necessary. 9. Cable TV would be nice. 10. Vehicles and repairs, did I mention that already? :) 11. Being able to afford groceries, electricity, heating, and other necessities without overtime being required would be nice. 12. Being able to afford to go to the doctor when needed would be awesome. 13. New computers all around would be very helpful. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

So, I am feeling very poor today.
Me

Cranky

Cranky today! Yelling children without a mute; heck loud children, adults, and college people without even a volume control have been driving me crazy all day. I have been looking into signing up for PayPal. Horror stories anyone? Happy with it?
Tiredly
Tina

Sort of an ode to my dad

My father has this wonderful, beautiful plan.

In a couple years he plans to sell his house and move with his wife to a house boat in Hawaii.

To know why this is amazing and the last thing I would have expected to hear from my father I suppose you need to know a bit more about my father. My father was born into a hard working farming family in south-eastern Idaho. He grew up working the land, canning, butchering, and making due. When I was growing up we lived in a house my parents built right next to my grandparents house, we had fresh milk in glass gallon jars in the fridge that we had to wait for the cream to rise on, canned goods on the pantry shelves, and homemade salami and meats in the meat house. We moved from that house when I was 4, we moved about 30 minutes away, my dad opened up a butcher shop, and on weekend we all went back out to the about 1 acre of farm land and 6 rows of thorn-less raspberry bushes. We left early and came home when the sun was going down. I learned to catch grasshoppers, and that if you pulled their head off their guts came too. But you had to get the grasshoppers or they would eat up the garden and the raspberry bushes. Dad would go up and turn down the water into the irrigation ditch, and then come back and open up the holes that he plugged last time, letting the water down the rows of corn, potatoes, beans, carrots, peas, squash, cucumbers, zucchini and the raspberry bushes. After harvest we would can and can and can, it was about a month straight of canning items. We even made our own pickles. We still had fresh milk, we had friends in the ward who had a small dairy and we would buy our milk from them at at discount. It still came in gallon glass jars, but it didn't have the cream on top, which was so good on top of a bowl of fresh raspberries. We also had a garden at the house we were renting, the house sat on quite a large bit of land, had about a 1/4 mile driveway to get to the house, then looped back out to the street with a big barn. Which made catching the school bus in the winter rather interesting.

When I was 7 we moved to Tacoma, WA. Talk about culture shock! Even living in a major city my father had his garden. It was a greenhouse he built himself out of heavy plastic sheeting, pvc pipes, screws, and an old house door. Even in late fall when you went into the greenhouse the air was heavy with with wet air and warmth. We had rabbits too which were our semi-lawnmowers and a beautiful half wolf, half german shepard dog named Amber, she was beautiful and friendly and happy. About 3 years later we moved again, back down to southeastern Idaho. We rented for about 6 months before my parents bought a house across town. One of the first things dad did after we moved in was plan out where his garden was going to go. Before that even, I think he was planning it when we first went to look at the place. Since then dad has been in that same house, building and working on that garden spot. He now has chickens that run all over the yard, and a dog that is happy to leave them alone and chew on the scraps from my dad's butchering business.

Thus you see, my dad is addicted to the earth and what he can grow from it. I know he loves the ground, and the animals that roam it. He loves water too, as do I. Swimming is a favorite of us both. I am just expecting to hear that he also has floating barges, one with a chicken coup, and one with a garden or a greenhouse on it.
We have had our differences, but we are in such a better place now. I give some of the credit for that to his wife Kathy. She is a wonderful influence on him, and especially knows when to call him on his BS.
He has worked hard to earn my trust back. Thank you dad for making such an effort to get back into my life and my heart.
I Love You, Dad.

Me and my dad.














Darling Husband, Me and Dad

DH, Me, Dad and Kathy

P.S. I LOVE this dress