Bad Zipper >:(

The zipper on my pants completely died this morning. You know when the zipper undoes itself automatically and both sides around the zip are open? Yeah, that's what happened. I'm glad I have a long shirt on today. I'm gunna hafta sew something tonight. I have another pair of pants that are too short, so I'm thinking I might just add some length to them and perhaps a side panel (or two ;) ) to make them look like they were made that way. I have an idea in my head that I want it to look like, but I seriously doubt that will actually happen.



Addendum:

Today the OED had an awards lunch. Last year we all went, ate Sonny's and each brought home a certificate. Yay! This year, we went, ate some Sonny's and each brought home a few certificates, and three awards. Two awards were for the whole team. Yay! They were the Survivor award and the best team ever award (that's not what it was called, but that was the point). I got an outstanding customer service award. :) One of the best parts was when we were leaving, someone gave us a tin of cookies to take with us. Score! We made an awards table when we got back to the office.

Happy birthday to me!

I like being crafty. I made red velvet cake truffles for Nicole’s birthday present. They weren’t that hard, but they were a bit tricky. I melted the chocolate chips in the microwave and “painted” it into ice cube trays and put them in the freezer. I read online that chocolate shrinks as it freezes so the cups would just pop out. Lie. I only broke a few though. The next thing was to crumble the cake and mix icing into it to make it pastey. That part was easy. And messy. But not as messy as piping the filling into the cups. After a messy situation with a sandwich bag bursting, we moved the filling to a gallon bag. It lasted a little longer. I ended up piercing the bag with all of my fingers and a seam burst towards the end and red velvet cake was everywhere. It looked like I killed something. And I did this twice :) Topped with pink sprinkles and placed on a pretty plate with a cover, they looked pretty. Apparently they taste good. Andrew wants a “sampling of cakes” for his birthday. But unless they make smaller boxes of cake mix, he might just get one kind. But I have time to come up with something.

The recipe I followed said to dip balls of the cake mix in the chocolate, but making cups was more fun. I think it might be too much chocolate though. The cups would be good filled with anything. Dark chocolate cups filled with cake might be good too.

I love Andrew :) We are going out for pizza at Momo’s tonight (not the grown-up store) and friends are coming over for games after. I heart dump cake. Last night there was a February birthday celebration at Peter & Laura’s. Addy is too cute singing Happy Birthday. Laura liked the dog we got her and I got fabulous gift cards :) and Nicole liked the candy/cake. I think it’s funny that Papa didn’t know it was my birthday :)

The entire state internet/intranet is down. No one has email, internet, intranet or anything happening on a state server. When your job is internet, then there is nothing to do. That’s why I can type this big post. I’m not currently busy. Oh, I will be when we’re up and running again.

It’s like a tiny disgusting snail kiss.
Puppies!
Big ears
Winston
I like Huskies
Heck yes
Squishy
Fuzzy
This pup is beefy
Bulldogs are awesome
So are itty bitty dachshund puppies!
And bassets

Almost Xmas

It's been a long time since I updated this. It's just been really busy at work. Yesterday we exchanged Xmas presents (mostly) and had brownies for John's birthday. LeeAnn gave me a bracelet she made (so pretty!) and she gave Jennifer the pretiest hat and scarf. Jen got us all a yum-o candy and a lottery ticket. We didn't know how it worked, so Andrew called someone to ask. I think it was Laura. I thought that they called you or something if you won. Everyone seemed to like the cocoa cups. But that's a good long story...

So we bought mugs, cocoa packets, marshmallows, and candycanes for the "cup of cocoa" presents. I wanted it to look like I put more work into it than just shoving two cocoa packets into a cup, so I transfered the powder into little baggies I made from celophane (sp?). I kinda made a mess. The mallows went easier into the baggies. (Making the bags involved lining one of our funnels with celophane, dumping the contents into the funnel, and twist-tying it shut.) The fun part was getting the cinnamon incorporated. I wanted to give everyone a complete cup of cocoa. Cinnamon included. So I read somewhere on the internet that you could put stuff in styraws and then seal them up with a flame. Awesome! That's perfect! I tried with terrible results. As I was hunched over the candle with the straw melting and not sealing the way it looked online, Andrew says from the kitchen, "You know that makes poisonous gas?" No. :( He said it would be fine though. So I made the packets in the straws and made a big mess of melted plastic. Woo! But everyone seemed to enjoy the cocoa. Yay!

I managed to finish the craft project last night that was the very first thing we bought this year for Xmas. Sheesh! All's we need is glue and it will be ready to go! If the glue dries in time. :/ Can you staple wood with a regular stapler?

Addy turned 2 on Sunday. It was a fun party! Nicole went all out on the milkshake theme. The cards, the cake, the food. It was pretty awesome :) I'm glad Addy liked our present. I hope she likes her Xmas present! It's not as soft. I think this might be the first present that isn't a stuffed thing. (Don't tell her Nicole!)

I'm impressed with myself. I think I have Andrew stumped with a present that I bought him. Yes! He gave me ideas, but I think hwe gave me too many because he doesn't know wat I got. Hahaha! If he guesses it though I'll kick him in the knee. It's obvious from the shape what it is, but he doesn't know exactly what!

On the radio:
After listing a bunch of things that you can get on the internet, this came on "Living next door to the Wicked Witch of the West? Move! Duh! Then get your change-of-address forms from USA.gov." lol

Speaking of the Wicked Witch, the Wizard of Oz was on recently. I really love that movie. It's on the list of "movies that I like but knowing my usual taste in movies, I shouldn't like it". Like Homeward Bound. Or Down With Love.

Bluebery crack is wonderful.

Links:

• http://www.cutethingsfallingasleep.org/
• Is there room?
• Urban legend kitty
• I like the cat on the far left.
• Kitty in tree
• Shoe hater
• Xmas costume
• This dog is kind of creepy
• Gary Busey
• Nike Slingshoting
• This train is impressive.
• How much would it suck to be this guy? <-video
• Who thought this one up?
• Some of these are funny. Geek graffiti

Busy busy busy

So yesterday was crazy busy at work. From at least 10 until 4:45 or so, there was back to back stuff to do. The only breaks I took was to change the YouTube song from one Muppet Christmas Carol song to another. A big Commission thing came in that took precedence over everything else, so that got done before lunch, but not much else did. I got to eat with Kelly today. It was fun. I like Kelly. She gave me my Consultis Xmas gift. It is a book just like Andrew wanted. Sheesh. She also gave me some yummy candy. lol

After lunch was a barrage of requests from marine fisheries. When they get going making changes, there really isn’t anything to stop them! j/k. I heart Gus. I accidentally made an entire page of edits from the wrong reference. I was completely done before I realized. Oh man, that was totally a wasted hour. Law stuff cam in as did Birding trail stuff. Lots and lots and lots of stuff today. And I have to do it all twice because of the redesign. I love working at FWC. :) It makes me happy.

Apparently, the La Fiesta on the Parkway is having some trouble. Well it’s just nice that they have activities for roaches; most restaurants aren’t that thoughtful.

03A-07-1	Critical. Observed potentially hazardous food cheese cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit since 10:30 AM discard leftovers at 2:30 PM.
04-01-1	Critical. Cold holding equipment incapable of maintaining potentially hazardous food at proper temperatures. Cooks line prep table. Service unit.
08A-29-1	Critical. Observed uncovered food bag of sugar in holding unit/dry storage area.
08A-29-1	Critical. Observed uncovered food in freezer.
09-05-1	Critical. Observed improper use of bowl/plastic food container or other container with no handle used to dispense food sugar that is not ready-to-eat.
10-04-1	In-use utensil for nonpotentially hazardous food ice not stored in a clean, protected location.
32-15-1	Critical. No handwashing sign provided at a handsink in wai6 station used by food employees.
32-16-1	Critical. Hand wash sink in wait station lacking proper hand drying provisions.
35A-05-1	Critical. Observed roach activity as evidenced by 25 live roaches found under dishwasher.
35A-05-1	Critical. Observed roach activity as evidenced by 20 live roaches found under meat grinder.
35A-05-1	Critical. Observed roach activity as evidenced by 4 live roaches found on walls in meat room.
41B-03-1	Critical. Observed unlabeled spray bottle.
45-36-2	Critical. Hood suppression system tag out-of-date. For reporting purposes only.
47-06-2	Critical. Observed extension cord in use for non-temporary period. For reporting purposes only.
53A-09-1	Critical. No currently certified food service manager on duty with four or more employees engaged in food preparation.

This is the creepiest Santa I’ve ever seen. The caption under the picture was “I can’t believe my Mom gave me to him”. This cartoon is funny.

Busy weekend

This weekend was wonderful. Andrew played poker with his family, I got our house decorated, we played Frisbee golf with Nicole, Robert & Addy, watched the Xmas parade thing, went to Market Days, made fondue, watched a movie and played a game that Lauren gave us for Xmas.

Friday night Andrew went to play poker with his family at Grandpa’s place. That gave me time to decorate the house without whining :). I managed to get everything out this year that wasn’t broken. I was going to wait for Andrew to help me put up the tree because I didn’t remember how to do it, but when I got it out to look, it was easy. The hardest part was finding the lights plug for the middle section that I forgot to plug in. I love our Xmas tree. The snowbabies are perched perilously on the china cabinet. But the display is impressive I think. :)

We woke up later that we were planning to to go to play at the park. Robert is too good at Frisbee golf. It was fun. Addy came and was cute. Nicole played some too. That night we went to the Winter Festival thing downtown with the family. It was fun. Andrew had to work until after it started, so we decided to skip the headache and just park at FSU and walk from there. Let me tell you, that is a haul. We walked through the lights on Park and Addy got her face painted by Daisy the Clown (aka Lauren). Andrew got some food and I got a corndog. We watched the top half of the parade since we were so far back. We saw Lauren on stilts. Woohoo!

Sunday was Market Days. We wandered around all the booths and bought some stuff. We got a crapload of scrubbies. These should last all year. We wore the one we have completely out. It was so worn out it was soft. :) We got some Xmas presents and a birthday present. Andrew also got some dip stuff. It was totally fun. Addy managed to pour an entire bottle of water on herself, so they bought her a new shirt to wear. She was out cold before we left.

The plan was to cook dinner for Lauren & Paige and then take them to see the TCC production of A Christmas Carol. Well, we did the dinner part. Andrew made cheese fondue. It was wonderful. Better than last time. We also had chocolate fondue for dessert. We piled into the car and made it to TCC, but it was strangely deserted. Whoops! No play tonight! Saturday must have been the last day. It was a nice ride though. ;) Instead we watched A Muppet Christmas Carol. Only the best Xmas movie ever. Lauren gave us presents. I got a game that is totally the Calvinball of board games. It was so much fun to play! Andrew got a deep fryer. He was so excited about it. Thanks Lauren! We love you!

We are going to start the shopping tonight for what else we need. I like my secret stocking person. They are easy to buy for :)

Links

I’m not the only nerd
You know how they find images of Jesus in toasted cheese sandwiches?
Cream filling!
Flamingos v gnomes
Ew! Dog germs!
If Chuck Norris was a dog…
Cup-o-pup
Pixilation

Pictures

The Winter Parade thing
Xmas decorations!