Four Bikes in a Cabrio

Yes, you read that right. We stuffed four bicycles into Anna's Volkswagon Cabrio.

Why?

Because Dad's truck is in the shop, and Anna and Jen wanted to go biking. Not to mention, the bikes wouldn't have fit into the Bug.

When we got back, I took seven pictures. Here's one of them.

Boredness

Went to Mom & Dad's last night, but Dad wasn't home. He went to Grandma's house. So Mom made tuna fish so we could have sandwiches for dinner.

I ate my sandwich, then decided I wanted to do a cross stitch project, 'cause I was bored. I picked out a pattern with two quail on it, and started working on it last night. I haven't gotten very much finished, but that's all right. I don't have all the floss I need anyway, so I should probably stretch the floss I do have as long as I can so that I more time to get the other colors.

I also started watching season 1 of Psych last night. Kayla borrowed it, plus the first three seasons of Numb3rs from Kimba. We decided that I would watch Psych while Kayla watches the first season or two of Numb3rs, then I'll start on Numb3rs when I'm ready.

I only got to watch the first episode of Psych before it was one o'clock in the morning, and I had to go to sleep. But that's okay. It was funny.

I keep hitting Ctrl+P while I'm typing this, when I usually mean to hit Ctrl+I, and it's getting a little frustrating that it keeps posting my blog entry before I'm done typing it, so I'm going to stop now.

Completely lost track of time last night.

Last night after work, I decided it would probably be a good idea if I at least tried to sign up for some scholarships. Anna was here, and after a while she, Kayla, and Jen went upstairs to hang out, but my computer was downstairs so I told her I'd be up in a bit to hang out with them.

I didn't get upstairs until after 12:30 this morning--and that was after Anna had already left. I had been looking at scholarships for more than six hours!

Well, scholarships and other things too. I just completely lost track of time.

But I did find this nifty site, http://helium.com/, where you can write stuff, and then people rate you on how well your article fits the title you were given. You can also find publishers looking for free-lancers to write articles with certain titles, and get paid for them.

I looked at all the titles last night that publishers were looking for, but I don't know anything about any of those topics. I did end up posting one essay on Helium that I wrote for one of the scholarships, and I also wrote another article about the rules to Ultimate Frisbee.

Scheduling Fun

I'm a big follower of the belief that "you can't schedule fun," but I've got so many hobbies and things I can never decide which ones I want to do when. So I usually end up just reading all the time. I've been toying around for a while with the idea of scheduling time for hobbies, exercise, laundry, cleaning, and other things, but didn't actually get around to making up said schedule until this evening. I did it in two-week intervals, because some things only need to be done once every two weeks.

Here's what I have for the time before school starts (this coming Sunday until the week of January 28, 2008). Sorry about the small print--it wouldn't fit on the blog screen otherwise. If you click on the images, you will be taken to the full-size versions, which have larger text.

Time Sheet Week

Pay Day Week

Those schedules will have to change slightly if I actually get a part-time holiday job at Barnes & Noble, like I want to. Here's my scheduling plan for after school starts.

Time Sheet Week

Pay Day Week

So, what do you think? Am I crazy?

Drawings

So, I've been drawing this weekend, for the first time in ages. I had to go to Wal-Mart to get more chalk pastels, but that's okay. I also bought an easel. Since I don't have a scanner, I went a little lower-tech, and took pictures of my drawings with my cell phone. I probably could've done better if I'd used my digital camera, but I didn't feel like going upstairs to get the camera and the downloading cord. So, I picture messaged the drawings to my e-mail, downloaded the pictures to my harddrive, and then uploaded them to PhotoBucket.

The first one I drew this weekend was on Thursday. It's a guy with some facial hair who looks like he could possibly be a Weasley, if his hair was redder.

The next one, which I finished on Friday, is of a blonde girl with a celtic knot choker. This was the first one I drew on the easel, and I think it's the best one of the three I did this weekend.

The third one I finished this morning, and is of a blue-eyed red head. I was out of ideas for drawing, so I just asked Kayla what I should draw: guy or girl, hair color, eye color, type of shirt, etc.

Overall, I think I tend to do better if I'm drawing people who don't actually exist. Don't believe me? The three pictures below are my sister Kimba, Anya (from Buffy--a.k.a. Emma Caulfield), and Buffy Summers (a.k.a. Sarah Michelle Gellar) respectively--or at least they're supposed to be. The pixellation doesn't count as messing up, just the actual drawings.

The Bourne Ultimatum

. . . is an awesome movie!

Kayla and I went to see it last night at the $2.99 theater. I only had $1.10, but Tuesday nights are 2-for-1 nights, so Kayla only had to cover me for $0.40. At least I finally got to see it. :)

I don't have much more to say about the movie itself--just that it's mind-blowing, and that I could follow this movie easier than the first two in the trilogy. I think that seeing the first two movies more than once helped, in that my mind was used to keeping up with a plot that moved as fast as the Bourne plots did.

I forgot to mention . . .

Back in either July or August, there was this church dance at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. There was a huge tent where the DJ and all the snacks were setup, and those of us there could walk along the water. It was on Pier 5, I think, and there was a submarine/museum in the harbor, but we couldn't go in because it was after visiting hours. I wasn't all that interested in going, but Anna dragged me there anyway. I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while, and Anna threatened to throw my new-used book in the harbor, and then just put it in her purse--nothing new for Anna.

It's about time I got a new one.

So, I've had this "new every two" plan from Verizon for years now, and I've actually traded up once. The phone I got from that trade-up was ruined in August of 2006 when I took it on a water ride at Hershey Park (I'd forgotten to bring plastic bags for my stuff, and just took my backpack).

After that, I got my current phone (see pics at left), and from what I remember, they told me I'd have to wait two more years from the date of that purchase before I could get a new phone on the "new every two" plan. But I got a call a couple months ago, and they told me that I could get a new phone anyway. I didn't do anything about it then, because my current phone seemed to be working okay, and I didn't want to deal with the possibility that I'd have to pay the difference for the phone (you only get a $100 credit toward a new phone).

But yesterday, I just got sick of it. My current phone is nice, yes, but it's also bulky, heavy, and doesn't get good service on the first floor of my house, or in the basement at work.

So, I looked up new phones at the Verizon website, and found out I could get the phone I've had my eye on for months completely for FREE. All I had to do was redeem my "new every two" credit ONLINE, which gave me another credit for about $30 more. So, I got a $129 phone for $0.

I was expecting it to take a week or two to get the phone through the mail, but at the end of the order I saw that it said 1-2 business days, so I figured on Monday or Tuesday. But no, I got an e-mail a few hours later saying that the phone had shipped and giving me a FedEx tracking number. I checked out the tracking information. Lo and behold, the phone is due to arrive today by 3:00 p.m! As of 8:38 this morning, it's already on the truck for delivery in Hagerstown. This is too cool!

I'm getting the Samsung SCH-u740 (see pic at right), which opens in both directions: the same direction as a regular flip phone, as well as in the direction that my current phone opens (I have The V by LG). One of my co-workers has one, and I've had my eye on getting one of my own since he showed it to me.

Apparently, the delivery requires a signature, but that's okay, since Jen S. and Kayla are usually both home all day anyway. I so cannot wait to go home this evening! Of course, that's not really anything new--I just have a good reason to be excited to leave work today.

Anybody want my old phone? If not, I'm going to give it to this one organization I heard of that provides emergency cell phones to people who can't afford to have a regular cell phone plan--once I've got all of the data transferred, that is.

Renn Fest . . . And Other Exciting Things

So, Anna, Kayla, Jen S, Jason and I went to Renn Fest a few weeks ago. I bought outfits for Jason and Jen. I also rode an elephant with Anna and Jen! It was pretty fun, except for the fact that sitting on the elephant kind of threw my hip out of joint--that was a little uncomfortable. I've been meaning to post pictures from the Festival, but Anna hasn't downloaded any from her camera yet. As soon as she does though, she's promised to e-mail them to me, and then I'll post them.

Things have sort of settled down on the roommate front now. Jen C. kept calling and e-mailing me (can you say "harrassment?") about Amit's part of the security deposit. Finally, Amit called TC (the landlord), and he said he'd take care of it and that Amit can pay TC back. Whew.

Amit and Jen S. are pretty fun, and Amit cooks for us every now and then. Yummy. I don't see much of Stacie, but so far, she's loaned her DVDs for the first and second season of Bones to both Anna and Kayla. Bones is pretty interesting; I think I might just be the next one to borrow the DVDs.

Anna TiVo'd the first two episodes of this new show called Pushing Daisies. It's about this guy who brings people back from the dead, asks who killed them, and then makes them dead again. (If he doesn't, then someone else dies, and he can never touch the first person again, or they'll die too.) It's narrated by Jim Dale, the guy who narrates the (I think) American version of the Harry Potter audio books, as well as the video games. Kayla and I watched the first two episodes last night, and it is hilarious! I'm definitely going to be watching every Wednesday at 8pm.

I took my car in for an oil change and a tune-up on Saturday. Didn't get it back until today though, because it was 1pm when I dropped it off, and they couldn't get to look at it until today. Turns out, the car needed a lot more done than that, especially since I hadn't had any regular maintenance done on it at all, and I've had it for more than a year and a half. I just sunk $677 and change into it today (good thing I had some savings), and it still needs about $1,300-worth of further repairs. Although the two most expensive repairs can wait as long as I'm careful and pay attention to the level of coolant in the reservoir.

I'd been thinking for the last few weeks that I'd go see if the bookstore across the street from my work is hiring part-time holiday help. So, I went over there today at lunch time, but they're only open from 10am-4pm Monday through Saturday. Considering I was looking for a 5:30 or 6pm until about 10pm job for two to three nights a week, plus a Saturday or two per month, that would not have worked.

So, I looked up bookstores in town. There are a lot more than I thought--three on Market Street alone. Then this evening, Kayla came with me to the new Barnes & Noble in the mall so that I could fill out an application. Kayla's friend Madison works there, so I put her name down as a referral. Just waiting to hear from them now.

Fresca tastes terrible when you have a temperature of 100.4.

I had a mostly-nice three-day weekend. Saturday was grocery day, and Anna helped this time, so it was a little more fun than usual. I got a Sprite at the cash register (shopping is thirsty work, so I usually grab one of those 20oz. bottles), and Anna got Green Tea with Citrus. I'd never had it before, so I asked if I could try some, and it was very yummy. I had another one either before or after dinner on Sunday, since Anna had a twelve-pack.

Sunday, we had tacos for dinner, and I got "volunteered" to cut up the meat (we had beef, chicken and pork, and the last two weren't ground at all). I'm terrible at cutting meat, especially when it's not frozen, so I had the knife held all awkwardly in my hand and got a blister about the size of a dime on my right index finger, just above where it meets my hand. It's mostly better now, but it gets a little sore if it rubs something.

Yesterday was Labor Day, so I didn't have to go to work, and I'll still get paid. Anna wanted to stop off at Hobbytown USA and check out prices for possible Christmas gifts, so she got to my house around 3:30-ish. I still had to start my laundry, so we didn't leave until about 4:30.

Anna got her prices, and I bought a wooden yo-yo, a set of marbles, and a jump rope to alleviate some of the boredom--and because I like yo-yos, marbles, and jumping rope, of course.

After that, we went to Wal-Mart (both of the local ones) to get some stuff for the barbecue at Mom & Dad's for the holiday. We went to Mom & Dad's, and then we had to clear the weeds and stuff from the left side (from the back) of the house so that Cali (Kimba's dog) could run around inside the new fence they'd put up. I was pretty tired at that point, and didn't really do much clearing out, but my nose was still itching all night long.

After dinner, Anna lit a bonfire, and she, Kayla, Amit and Jen S. all stayed out and talked while I went inside to the air conditioning. Around 9:30 or 10, everybody went home, including me. By that time, my nose was completely stuffed-up, and no amount of tissues would help. So I tried some nasal spray--which worked for about five minutes--and then gave up.

This morning when I woke up, my nose was even more stuffed. But I went to work, despite my misery. I didn't feel up to packing a lunch, so I figured I'd just go to Beans & Bagels for lunch and treat myself to a ruben just to cheer myself up a bit. That helped (rubens are my favorite type of sandwich, after all), and I still have some macaroni salad in the mini-fridge at the office that I can eat tomorrow if I get the munchies and don't feel like eating any of the cashews I bought on Saturday.

Anyway, I was feeling extra miserable by 5:00, and I was starting to think I might have a temperature, but I didn't have any way to be sure. So, I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home and bought an ear thermometer.

Just my luck. I have a temperature of 100.4. I had thought it was just allergies (it is ragweed season, after all), but no dice. I'm actually sick. Blech. I knew it was a possibility that I'd get sick, what with all the stress of finding two new roommates in such a short time period, but I was kind of hoping to avoid this.

I decided that I would just take it easy tonight, and then if the temperature hasn't gone down (and I'm still feeling oogy) by the time I have to get up for work in the morning, I'll call out and then go to the doctor. I took some Advil around 6, since the bottle says it's a "pain reliever/fever reducer," and I've actually got a little bit of a headache to go along with the fever anyway.

A little while ago, I had three pieces of toast and some of the Fresca I'd bought on Saturday. The toast was fine, but the Fresca tasted like Alka Seltzer--yuck! I love Fresca, usually, but my taste buds are so out of whack now, it's ridiculous. And I dare not cook anything, 'cause I don't want to leave too many germs in the kitchen, since Jen S's niece and nephews are over a lot during the days when Kaety has to work.