When Bosses Get Back

So the other night we had some CRAZY ass customers come in. The beginning of my part comes in when a VERY nice and honest customer comes over to me and says that she found a yankee candle bag on one of our shirt tables and wanted to turn it in so that nothing happened to it. So I finish folding the jeans that I was fixing and take the bag over to the catalogue desk where our lost and found is. When I get back to the quad there is a couple yelling at Kathy, my manager. The girl is crying and going on and on about how she left her bag somewhere and that it's our fault that it was taken and it was worth $300 (which it wasn't...unless hot topic and yankee candle have gone WAY up on their prices...it wasn't a huge bag, just a small one like what you get and bath and body works) and her boyfriend is going on and on about how it's our fault and we should watch or something like that. So I hear something about a lost brown bag and I ask if it was a yankee candle bag and the girl goes "OMG yes!" and I tell them that I had just dropped it off at the catalogue desk, so they both start to run off when Kathy asks them if they know where it is, and the guy rudely yells "well of course we don't" so Kathy walks them over, and comes back fairly livid because the guy was so rude and both of their attitudes were completely unnecessary. She starts telling us how at first they started yelling and complaining to Julia about how we should watch the fitting room and everything better and then when Julia pointed them to Kathy and the guy tells Kathy that he's been discriminated against ever since he walked into the store, mind you he's a tall skinny white guy that had a goatee and gage earrings...nothing abnormal for Austin. Eventually when they are leaving they come back over and apologize for over reacting...and that's when Kathy politely reprimands them, telling them that going around and making a big scene like they did makes it harder on us and that we take all the found items to our lost and found because it's "not safe" for us to leave them in the quad because technically anyone can walk in and take it.

I swear sometimes people need to take a chill pill, the only reason I would ever start crying is if I'd lost something in a department store like wallet or something VERY important like that, but in the end it's my fault if I leave it unattended, you NEVER leave valuables unattended people will steal them

Whoa customers can be crazy!

First I'd like to point out, if you go to JC Penney to return something nowhere at any of the registers does it say "Returns," at least at our store all the registers can do returns. And second, if there is a long line on one side of the registers and no line on my side it would be good to assume that there is only one line, people don't decided to stand over in a long line for the hell of it, and don't get mad or give me the evil eye when I politely (or as politely as I can) tell you where the line is. Third (and this is old by a few days) but on the bottom of our receipts it has a date in which you can get exactly what you payed back to you if you feel the need to return stuff. JC Penney has one of the easiest return policies ever, as long as you have a tag and a receipt(or the car you payed with) and it's within 90 days of your purchase(it can even be a few days over) we will refund you your money. How hard is it to return stuff within 90 days, that means you basically have 3 months to decide if what you bought is the thing for you.

On a stragley funnier note, tonight Maria and I were checking out customers when Maria gets this lady that WAY too old to be dressing in juniors. She walks up with a bunch of stuff (she's obviously tried on, it has not hangers and is in a very messy pile) and she's wearing just a long work shirt with a belt, and it's not one of the longer ones that are in style...it's something that ones wears when you get out of bead and throw on to go get coffee when at a boyfriends place. So the lady I'm checking out, me and Maria are ringing and whatever when Maria comes across a pair of leggings that aren't ours, she asks me if it's a new brand and before I can get "i've never seen those before" out of my mouth the lady grabs them and says "oh, those are mine!" and then proceeds to put them on, infront of all of us...flashing her underwear and stuff...we all just kind of bow our heads and look away because...what do you really do in a situation like that, other than hold back the omgwtf laughter. The lady I'm checking out mouths '"Oh My God, What the Hell?!" to me and I have no words...I just keep ringing. I mean seriously, why would you leave the fitting room knowing you are missing your pants and then when you find them in the pile of clothes put them on and flash your underwear for everyone to see?! Sometimes retail can be a strange thing to work in!!

Mother Nature Really is a Bitch

So last night was a total lunar eclipse, and of course it was completely cloudy...and tonight there are barley any clouds in the sky. But thanks to YouTube and people being in the right place in the right time here is an AMAZING video of the eclipse from last night!!

On another note, I got to see Matt and Morgan last night, we did a mini little xmas gift exchange. They both liked their gifts and got me totally some totally awesome ones! They got me a phone case with "Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock on the back, and the coolest night light EVER! It's a real leaf that's been dipped in metal...with a moose on it, because who doesn't love moose ;)

Crafty Christmas

So work has been CRAZAY lately, I have now solidified why I never venture to a mall the week before christmas and why I try to get all my Christmas shopping done as soon as possible. This Christmas for a couple of my coworkers and a friend I decided to make them things.

For Ruthann, who is obsessed with Mickey and Disney as much as Heather is, I made a beanie with Mickey years on it:

For Lynne, who is obsessed with pigs, I made a pig coin purse, complete with ears and a tail.

And for Morgan I made a purse, like everyone else, it has a pocket and on the front I tried my best with Japanese characters and yarn and put, what google says, is the character for "friendship" on the front.

I really hope that everyone likes the gifts I made them...I'm always really self-conscious about what people REALLY think of what I make them...do they really like it and will use it? or are they just faking it and just saying they like it to not hurt my feelings =p

So Pretty!

I so want to go to Alaska or some where up north so I can see the Aurora Borealis!

Aurora Borealis timelapse HD - Tromsø 2010 from Tor Even Mathisen on Vimeo.

What I'm Thankful For!

So Thanksgiving is going to super crazy, we are going to Ana's aunts house (eyeroll, wasn't told this until about Saturday...that's for asking me what I want to do mom and dad), I'm thinking i'm going to be taking my own car so that I can leave to watch the football game and pack to head back up to Austin for the dreaded Black Friday and my 10 hour shift with a 30 minute lunch =\

But on a much happier note, I've got lots of things to be thankful for and just for fun here they are in picture a fun picture show (well most of them =p):

my parents and the rest of my family!

my awesome friends

the crazy pups

school, it might be taking me forever to finish, but I'm thankful for the education I'm getting

The best 4-legged friend a girl could ask for, love my little baby ^_^

Finally a break!

I've been going non-stop since Wednesday of last week. I picked up an extra shift at work on Thursday so that was nice. I opened at work on Saturday, after a very exciting morning when on my way to work! Saturday night drove down to San Antonio to watch Mom and Heather complete the San Antonio Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon, then drove back up Monday morning for work that afternoon, so crazy!

Saturday: So Saturday morning I'm headed to work when I get flagged down by a poor little old lady walking around in her pj's and no shoes. I roll down my window, because I had to see what was wrong with her and if I could help, and she says that she thinks that someone has broken into her apartment and she didn't want to go back there because she was afraid that they are still there. So I tell her to get into my car and I'll drive her to the front office so that she can sit in there and they can send one of the maintenance men to go over to her apartment and check it out, because 1-there is no friggin' way if there is really someone in her apartment that I'm checking it out by myself and 2-I'm not sure if she's completely sure and I want a more "grown-up" person to help her out. So I drive her to the front office, knowing it's close but hoping that someone is at least there. Luckily one of the main maintenance men is coming out right as I drive up and I flag him down and give him a cliffs notes version of what the lady needs help with and if he could let her sit in the office while he goes and checks out her apartment because I need to get to work. She's already started to get out of my car and walk to him for help when he says "Sorry but the office is closed, I'm only here working on the pool" and basically that I need to drive her back to her apartment. I tell him she refuses to go back to her apartment because she is afraid that someone is in there and there is no way that I'm going to go over there and check it out myself, plus I SERIOUSLY need to get to work, by now the old lady has figured out that he's probably not going to help her so she starts getting back into my car 0_0. I plead with the guy a little longer and he finally caves and says that he'll take her into the office and check out her apartment and then call the police. So I have to hall ass to work, not run on any coffee because I didn't get a chance to drink it and we can't take it out on the floor. I get off at about 4, run some errand, get home pack laundry and Harley and then head down to SA.

Sunday: Wake up at butt crack of dawn, I mean the sun ain't even warm yet =p Get up at 4am, get dressed and catch a ride with mom and dad downtown to meet with their running group and get ready for the "start" of the Marathon at 7am. Took mom less than 30 minutes to cross the start line this year, awesomely better than last year when it took forever, they were hauling ass this year, minus the short stop when an unexpected train coming through stopped corral 10 from going. Then me and dad walk over to the Alamo to watch people pass mile 3. Got to see Heather and wave and scream at her while she went around the corner to make her second pass infront of the Alamo, screamed and cheered for my mom as she did so to, but she was in her zone so she completely ignored us. Then we met up with Brittany at the Starbucks in River City Mall, holy crap it's been FOREVER since I've been in that mall, and decided that we were going to walk over to mile 8 to see Heather and mom. So with out coffee we walk over there, wave to Heather and see mom and get her gloves. Then me and Brittany head to the finish line while dad goes to catch mom in the King William district. Get to see Mom, Heather and Heather's dad cross the finish line, no pictures though, we were on the Full entry side, which was ok, the half side is a pain in the ass to get over to. Mom beat her goal time by about 5 minutes and set her own personal best 2 hours and 40 minutes!! I'm seriously worried that my mom keeps asking me if I want to train and do a half marathon with her I will actually say yes! Got some good pictures afterwards, still waiting for Brittany to post some of hers, but for your viewing pleasure her are a couple:

You can't see it in the one of my mom but she was so cold that her lips were literally blue! Heather's mom was the awesomest, she "finished the full" in under 4 hours, actually they apparently ran out of half marathon metals so they gave her a full metal.

Sunday night we went to a running group member's house for a "OMG WE SURVIVED" kind of get together where they fed us, very good Rudy's BBQ! Then we got home and I had decided that me not falling asleep on the way back up to Austin was preferable and waited until the next morning to drive back up to Austin.

Monday: Get up, finish the rest of my laundry and pack it all up to head back up to Austin for work at 12. I was off all day, dunno what was wrong, but it was just one of the Garfield 'I want to crawl back into bed and pull the blanket back over my head' kind of days. So I get back up to my apartment by a little after 11, had to stop and get some lunch. The cops were out in full swing too, I kid you not, I saw at least 10 cops and state troopers out just in the Austin city limits! So I get home, bring everything in and start getting ready for work, look at my watch a couple times and say to myself 'I have a few more minutes until I really have to leave' I must have zoned out or something because the next minute I look at my watch I have 5 minutes to get to work! I freak out and haul ass out of my apartment and call Ruthann to tell her I'm running late. (Luckily no cops as I speed to work!) I get there about 10 minutes late...stupid lunch traffic! And it's pretty meh the rest of the day, I had a midshift 12-6 so it wasn't too horrible, I went and got my charm bracelet polished at James Avery, one of the awesome perks to working in a mall with a James Avery in it my jewelry is always shiny clean!

Tuesday and Today: Last night I closed at work with Susie *ugh* we only said probably 10 words max to each other the entire night *double ugh* Today I had off, so I went and used todays coupon to a cute little dress for this weekend, only payed $13 woot woot! I'm almost finished with my Christmas shopping, I have like 3 people left to buy for and I'm completely done! Now I'm just chillin' on this BEAUTIFUL day in Austin finishing up "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and getting ready to fix Broccoli-Cauliflower Cheese soup for dinner! Can't wait until next week! I have Monday off so I will be taking down all my Halloween/Fall decorations and decorating for Christmas, yes it's a couple days early but I have to work a 10 hour shift on Black Friday so it's the only day I will have the energy and time to do the decorating. Wednesday Harley has her annual vet appoinment to get all her shots, she's going to love me after that! Then Thursday is the day that I will infuse the smell of sage into my hands and eat until I almost explode, and then the UT v A&M game, we NEED to win this game, I don't care if we loose this weekends game against Florida Atlantic, I can't deal with Katie and her "ha ha my school is better than yours" attitude and stupid remarks...plus we seriously need to win at least 1 more game this season!

Ok loves, it's about that time for dinner to be started, I'll be sure to post more pics from the marathon once I get them from Brittany!

XOXO

T

Funny Picture

So I saw this the other day online and had to save it, made me laugh!

Where are peoples brains?!

So Sunday I got to assist our Loss Prevention guy with catching a shoplifter. So I go out to the mall to be with Ben and Terrance when they "catch" her (not like she ran or anything, she came willingly...and very calmly for someone who just got caught). So basically I'm a witness because the lady is being talked to by 2 guys and you know stuff can happen with guys =p. Anyways so they go through the ladies purse and find the dress that she had neatly folded and put in her purse. They fill out the paperwork, saying what she stole and all her info, and she asks: "Well can't I just pay for the dress now because I could loose my job over this?" Ben asks her where she works and she say she works for APD! She works for the Austin Police Department and she thinks it's ok to steal, where the hell are peoples brains these days?! So Ben says no she can't pay for the dress because she'd technically left the store with the stolen merchandise, and that they'd have to wait and see what the police say. So about 5 minutes later Kathleen, my boss, walks in and says that I need to get back out onto the sales floor and that she will stay with the lady and them until the police show up. I'm completely heart broken because I want to know the end of the story, but I go back out. So today I saw Ben and he said that all the police did was write the lady a ticket...for now, but she will probably be loosing her job.

I'm pretty sure that the lady thought I was completely stupid or immature...I mean I was wearing moose antlers and a tail, but hey it was Halloween, it's ok to look kinda stupid ;)

I mean what would you think of an employee if they were dressed like this =p

All Hallows Eve

So at work we got to dress up for Halloween, lots of fun. I crocheted moose antlers and a tail, I was very proud of myself. Harley of course didn't want to be in a picture last night with me in her costume, so individual pictures will have to do ^_^

Harley was a mounted moose head this year, she loved her costume as you can see =p

Harley with one of the pumpkins I carved. She HAD to be in the picture, my lil brat!

I miss my Pro

My MacBook Pro is in the shop getting it's heat censors replaced. The other night after doing a system update it decided it didn't want to turn on. So I plug it in thinking maybe its just the battery needs to be charged (didn't know why though, it had like 50% when i got home), so when I plug it in the little battery on the top usually shows that it's charging, but this time it said "Batter Unavailable" I pop off the power cord and my laptop turns off...yay fun. So I make an apple appointment for after I get off work. Go in for my appointment and the guy runs a test on it, it shows that the battery is dead (don't understand how, it's not even a year old) and the test also showed that the heat censors that say to kick the fans on weren't working properly. So I take it home, back it up and on Sunday when I go down to San Antonio for mom's birthday dinner I grab my old black MacBook to use. I take my laptop in yesterday during my lunch break to do a "quick" drop off and the guys are complete morons. Apparently they did a system update that morning and nobody knows how to use it to check my computer in to drop off for repair. So 30 minutes later(half of my lunch...no rush guys, I'm not starving or wanting to sit and relax) They say they are just going to take it to the back and check it in, why they didn't do this to begin with I have no idea, but the guy comes out and brings me the paperwork to sign saying "Yes please fix my computer" and tells me "Well, we're going to run some test to see what's wrong" and i tell him, the guy that helped me Saturday wrote all about it in the report thing when he ran the diagnostic test and that it just needed to be fixed, but apparently they think i'm completely ignorant when it comes to computers or they don't want to read, so now I'm waiting for a call today for them to tell me that my laptop again failed the heat censor test and that the will be replacing them *eyeroll* I'm hoping that it won't take that long. This poor little MacBook that I'm having to use is just not as fast as my Pro. I have to get used to the mouse on this one again too, it doesn't have the "click anywhere" feature that my pro has. But hey I used this little laptop for almost 4 years, i think I might be able to survive with it for up to a week or so =p

Had a good weekend other than my poor laptop, Friday went to get some beers with Chris, Heather and Patrick at The Hideout for some good beer and catching up. Switched shifts on Saturday with someone so Ididn't have to close (which the store happened to be doing at 10pm...eww) went to Franks with Heather, Chris, Patrick and Ben, had some good drinks and a seriously good and spicy hotdog. Sunday morning Harley and me met up with the gang at Bastrop State Park for a picnic, I highly recommend going there, the hiking trails have some amazingly beautiful views. Then headed back home to drop Harley off, she was completely tuckered out from the picnic and the sun, and headed down to San Antonio to celebrate my mom's birthday with my grandma. (She loved her blanket, which I went down and gave her on Tuesday her actual birthday) Met up with Katie and got the rest of my money and gave her her blanket. Got introduced to her boyfriend, can't really say if I like him or not, didn't really get to talk to him. He introduced himself and then said he didn't watch tennis when Katie was asking me how to spell my last name and I said it was like the tennis players. So I will wait to pass judgement on this one =p

I bought Harley's Halloween costume last night at Target, all their Halloween stuff it on clearance for 15% off!! Best $7 I've ever spent on Harley thus far. For this Halloween she will be a mounted moose head he he he. I find it completely entertaining and think Harley looks absolutely adorable, Harley however looks like a completely abused puppy with the "Mom I will kill you while you sleep" look on her face. But she puts up with it, I don't leave it on her for long, it's a little big on her so if i don't tighten the this just right it will fall over her eyes and she looks like she's just moping about. I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get a chase ^_^

Well kiddos that's all for now. We get to dress up for halloween at work this weekend so I need to figure out an "appropriate" costume to wear.

XOXO

T

What A Beautiful Day

With the exception of UT loosing this weekend, which wasn't completely unexpected but still disappointing, this weekend was amazing. Work Saturday wasn't too horrible, got a CA and got a free milkshake, plus I won a drawing for a $5 JCP gift card. Sunday I had off and went to Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg with Heather and Chris, and with some of the most AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL fall weather so far this year! Highlight of the festival, other than the tasty beer, sausage and potato pancakes, was when a cop walks up to me and taps me on the shoulder and asks me if that's a beer I'm holding because I look too young to be drinking. Sorry to disappoint Mr Cop but I'm 3 years over the legal drinking limit. So he cards all 3 of us and reads our birth year out loud, apparently being born in '86 and '85 is cutting it close on being able to drinking.

After doing the chicken dance, cuz we're cool like that, and walking around the grounds we went and grabbed some ice cream, Rocky Road Malt, strangely good!

Got home and decorated my apartment for Halloween, just a few more decorations to put up and it will be perfect!

More fun than Homework

So I decided that I wanted to use the purse that I made during the UT v Wyoming game. All I had to do was make the lining in order for it to be finished so after finishing and submitting some homework I did just that. I forgot to sew on the pocket before sewing the lining together and into the purse, so I got to do it all by hand in the end...go me, but other than that no complications. Zipper went in find and works just right ^_^

So here are some pics.

inside showing the pocket

bet you didn't see that moose lining coming =p

outside, the middle is a shell pattern

And now for a dose of cuteness!

Harley loves helping mommy read-study-do homework, she's the best supervisor! ^_^

Party like it's 20-10

So I can officially post pics of my latest creation, didn't want to ruin the surprise for Heather =p

I made my first clutch complete with a zipper. So here are some pics of it:

Heather's Birthday Extravaganza was fun. We started the night off at Rounders Pizza on 6th. If you have been there you must go, awesome wait staff, awesome pizza and awesome garlic knots! Had the AMAZINGLY good French Toast cake from Sugar Mama's Bakery, complete with bacon garnish, oh yeah you read right, bacon garnish on a cake! Then we went to The Highball, a kind of Chucky-Cheese for grownups, and then hit up 6th for a couple drinks and some always fun dancing. Though there was a VERY awkward and strange guy that tried to pick me up, and not the good kind of picking up the literal - tried to I guess pick me up and throw me over his shoulder caveman style - kind of pick up, while Heather, Brittany and me were dancing. BTW thanks to Chris, Wayne, and Matt for saving me on that one, yall are swell guys, standing there laughing while the guy is going all caveman on me is a class act yo. So here are some pics to document this oh so fun occasion!

Oh sometimes.... .... ...

So I finally finished Katie's blanket and posted pics on facebook (here too, the post before this one =p) She thinks it's gorgeous and can't wait to get it next month, I can't wait to get it out of here and get my other $75 muaha ha ha.

But she was looking at the picture the other day, totally strange, but she messaged me and asked if it was hard to make the individual triangles. I'm completely confused by this question, it's made out of squares like I've told her over and over again. But she keeps asking about these triangles and if it's hard to do them individually and then did I sew them all together, I ask her where she see's triangles, it's squares, she goes 'there are holes in a cross pattern, was that hard to make?' So I go and look at the picture again and try and figure out where she's getting triangles from, and the holes she's seeing in the criss-cross pattern are the holes for the corners and the triangles are made from each corner....I tell her this and she still doesn't understand, but she will sit and argue herself to death trying to tell me I know nothing about crocheting and she knows everything there is to know about it, though she's never seen or done it herself. It does boost my ego a little that she does think that it is so complicated and I can do such an amazing job at something so difficult, but she still annoys me a little with her comments and stuff.

Other news, excited for this weekend. Heather is coming in to celebrate her birthday and we are going to party it up!!

I sewed my first zipper last night, so damn proud of myself for it too :p I now know I can do it for my own purse that I crocheted during the last UT game. I'll be sure to post pics of my latest creations as soon as I can!

IT'S DONE!!!

Finally finished Katie's blanket. It doesn't look too horrible, but I still don't really like it, it reminds me of a little girls blanket, but whatever the girls paying me for it. What are you're thoughts? (I think it would have looked better if I'd done one solid blanket with the rows of color, but hey she wouldn't listen to me, and for some strange ass reason she didn't think I could do something that way. Who knows...whatevs it's done and will be out of here next month! So here are some pics:

Crafteeness pt 2

I just finished the 2nd purse of Heather's order this morning. Here are some pics of the lining and then it is modeled by lovely helper Harley, she's so edgy and fashionable ^_^

*sorry for some reason it it won't let me use the correctly oriented picture of Harley, but she still looks faboosh =p

Crafteeness

So I finished Heather's OU purse last night when I got home from work. My first pocket came out totally awesome, if I do say so myself *pats self on back*!

Here are some pics of my totally awesome handy work =p

Survival

I survived!!

Tax free weekend wasn't too bad actually. Other than the occasional pms-y customer and Susie with her holier-than-thou-attitude it was all smooth sailing. I got the special title of "Quad Captain" Friday and Saturday, basically I got to be the mini manager of the Juniors section. I got to boss people around and make the "serious" decisions. Lots of fun let me tell you. Got 5/6 CA's so that's some nice $$ added to my paycheck. Got me some cheap ass camies, $3 each, some blue converse (not the bright teal that I really wanted, but these work well too :p), the coolest jacket/hoodie(it has headphones in the laces and in the pocket has a place to plug in your iPod, I know awesome right?!), and then a summer bag that I only payed 32 cents for...that's right $0.32, gotta love mail out coupons+clearance+associate discounts ^_^

We were provided lunch on Saturday, Jason's Deli, so good! I'd forgotten how good Jason's Deli is! Super stuffed turkey on wheat with chips, a cookie and sweet tea, yes please for the next few lunches! I would totally be ok with 30 minute lunches if they keep buying us this stuff!

Other news...I've made "progress" on Katie's stupid blanket. I've made perfect squares out of the colors I like and I need to pull out the squares that I made that are too big/counted wrong. The lovely Ms. Heather Kinkade ordered 2 purses from me for a couple of her friends. The one that I've completed is for her person and it has made me bring a yucky fabric into my apartment. =p Though Harley seems to like this "O Who?" fabric, she is currently using the purse and the measured fabric as a pillow...doesn't the dog know she's not going for the right school?! Heather has given me permission to experiment and try my hand at adding a pocket to the inside of this purse =D Pictures will be posted as soon as it is finished!

No other new news on this front really, I set up my eye doctor appointment for the end of next month, my small passport external hard drive so nicely lost all my music files and is corrupt and needs a data retrieval that will cost $400+, and I'm headed down to my parents house for a "weekend" (Wednesday and Thursday) for some much needed laundry doing and to get my new HORIZONTAL drivers license!

A good Laugh

Just in case you didn't see it when I posted it on facebook, he he he

Dear Summer, Where have you gone?!

So I went to get my drivers license renewed today, since it expired on the 22nd and well I guess it was about time to get a "legal" license. I went into the DMV/Drivers License office off S. Congress today, I went with a fully charged battery on my phone figuring I'd be there for an hour or so because with my experience at DMV's that's usually what happens, I was totally and completely WRONG, got there, 1-2 people in front of me, I got fill fill out my form, registered to be an organ donor again (GO ME! ^_^). Sit down for maybe 5 minutes at the most, get my name called and I'm out of there within at most 20 minutes. The guy that took my money and all said he was surprised that it wasn't super busy today, he told me that Thursday's and Friday's are usually the busiest days of the week, so I guess I just got lucky on this one, I'm super excited that my DL will be turned horizontal finally, that way when I go places I don't have to see the waiters and waitresses or whom ever try and calculate how old I am =p

My birthday was really nice. I stayed home all day with Harley chilling and relaxing, then went to dinner with Heather, Chris, Matt, Morgan, Patrick and Cole, and some chick that Cole brought up with him that he says is "like a sister" but I don't buy that story, the way they were acting was definitely not the way I act around Tommy...definitely not! We went to Trudy's and all sat outside, I didn't get any pics really bc apparently when your eating/doing anything outside at Trudy's you can't push tables together, so we had the cool peoples table (mine ;) ) and then those other peoples table. I had my usual stuffed avocado (if you haven't had it go get yourself one with the sueza sauce and refried black beans DELICIOUS!!) and of course a couple mexican martini's! ^_^ Then we went and saw 'The Sorcerers Apprentice." Not a completely bad movie, I thought the end was kind of rushed but other than that, fairly entertaining.

I went home that weekend to see the family...and do a month and a half's worth of laundry, he he he. Went and saw 'Inception' it was awesome! Got a new TV, which was totally amazing and completely needed, Mom (and maybe Dad) are bringing it up to me this Sunday since it wouldn't fit in my car with all the laundry and Harley and her crate. Mommy also bought me an ice cream machine!! I can't wait to try out some recipes I've found online, I made some vanilla already, tasty tasty!

And just because I'm a dork ;) Harley turned 3 on the 31st. I didn't get to do anything special for her because I had to work that day, but she's gotten lots of love and attention since then. A couple days after her birthday was her and mines...anniversary?...She's been my baby puppy dog for 2 years now. I love that dog more than anything, and no matter how much she gets on my nerves and stuff I have no idea what I'd do without her. ok mushy-ness over ^_^

If I don't post in the next few weeks pray for my sanity and patience. It's back to school time and it's been getting super busy at work. This next few weekends are going to be hell at work. The weekend of the 21st is when tax free is and well I worked it last year and though it wasn't that bad i'm hoping this year runs just the same.

And now pics that I do have from my B-day Funness

i love these kinds of pics of Matt & Morgan, I can't count how many I have

Sorry, couldn't help myself on the last one. Nikki and Stormy got a box of new treats and so Nikki took it upon herself to lick all the essence off the old box before we threw it away. And of course since she's just so old and stuff, she didn't even get up to lick it, she tipped it over and then stayed laying down to lick the box...silly puppy she is =p

XOXO

T

ps. if anyone has the "words with friends" app look me up, my user name is jupitermoose

I'm Officially Afriad

CafeWorld, for those of you that aren't completely obsessed with games on FB it's by the same people that do Farmville, has officially joined the stupid Twilight/Vampire craze! Here are soem screen shots I took of the scaryness! Just picture it animated.

And it's DONE!

Finally completely finished my mom's blanket. It's the length of a twin bed and about as wide too. I did a shell border on it and I think it looks totally awesome. I kinda wish I had made it a little wider, but there's nothing I can do about that now. =p I really hope she likes it. Here's how it looks:

BTW Congrats to Spain for winning their first World Cup!

It's Raining it's Pouring

Haven't been doing much lately. Working is the main thing, which is good, they've been calling me in a lot which helps with the hours and moneyz thing. I've done some nice progress on my mom's blanket, I've got 7 rows of hearts now, it's the nice size of a lapghan, not exactly sure how much longer I want to make it. I'm going to get to 10 hearts and see how it looks, but here's how it looks now:

Katie notified me the other day that she won't be able to pay me the other half of the 150 she's paying me to make her blanket until October...guess what that means for her! She ain't gettin' her blanket until then either!

It's been raining like crazy these last couple of days, thanks to hurricane Alex and his rainbands. This kind of weather makes me want to stay in bed all day long with a good book and just snuggle with the Harley and watch some good tv. I've kinda done that, I've been sitting in bed crocheting with Harley going in and out onto the porch, and then jumping on the bed when it starts to thunder really bad. Then go to work. It's been really good this week, I got really lucky with the rain. Whenever I went in or was leaving it wasn't really raining, it waited until I was safely in the mall or in my apartment. Here's a video I made of the rain today when it was really coming down...yeah I know, I was bored.

Till next time

XOXO

T

Summertime Blues

So I haven't been getting as many hours as I'd like, so it looks like I might be looking into getting a 2nd job, goodbye complete and total social life over the summer *sigh* but hey you gotta do what you gotta do to make rent right? =\

I had most of this week off, Monday thru Thursday =o, so I took the time to go down to SA to see my parents and wish my dad a Happy Father's/Birthday...and do some much needed laundry ;) It was nice, I sat around most everyday and hung out with the puppers and watched the world cup which was really nice. Got some good crocheting done on my friends granny square blanket, I got 2.75 squares done which is pretty good considering each square is 2ft x 2ft ugh! My mom made a comment about it not being completely square, it's my mom she has to criticize, I need to bust out a couple more, it took me about a day or so to make which means I can get the other 4.25 out really fast...and then comes the evil task of putting it together...i need to find the diagram of the way she wants the colors to be arranged...eww. I need to work on my mom's blanket too, I'm about 5(maybe 6...gotta get it out and look :p) hearts in, didn't take it to SA just to make sure that my mom didn't see it. But I think it's coming along nicely, I fully understand the reasons why my mom detest making blankets in the summer, even sitting in an ac-ed breakroom that thing gets damn hot sitting on your lap, but I want it to be done by her birthday in October and when school starts in August I won't have as much time on my hands to work on it.

Sad USA lost to Ghana today, it was a good game, went into OT =( Tomorrow morning Germany plays England, Paul the octopus says that Germany will win, i'll def be getting up to watch it, gotta root for the one team that I like that's still in it!

TTFN homies

XOXO

T

YAY Hours!

So I got a call this afternoon from my manager at JCP, apparently one of the girls that works in the Juniors department called in and quit today, so I get all her shifts for next week, plus the 2 I already had, and I'm taking the opening shift tomorrow! So I'll be getting in about 26 hours next week ^_^

Went to lunch with Mrs. Dana this afternoon, it was Mighty Fine to catch up with her and she liked her purse YAY (yeah I know I'm corny...but he he he =p)

And now a rant, if you don't want to "hear it" don't read it =p. This is just something that's been on my mind for awhile and it's bugging me even though it shouldn't. So here goes...

*rant on*

I decided that I would make a blanket for my friend Katie, well she's paying me to make her a blanket. She's paying me $150, got the first installment the other day, because she wants a granny square and i have no problem making the squares, it's how I learned to crochet, it's the putting it together that I ABSOLUTELY hate to do. So I tell katie to pick out colors, she'd said she wanted maroon and silver/white bc she's up at A&M and all of the suddens she's completely obsessed with the school(and it's not the obsessed that I love my school go team, it's the annoying obsessed like putting down UT any chance she gets and trying to I guess talk/argue me into "realizing" that A&M is so much better than UT. And don't get me wrong I respect A&M it's a good school for certain things, just like UT is a good school for certain things). So she asks me what yarn I'll be using, and I tell her the Red Heart or I Love This Yarn(Hobby Lobby's Brand) and she decides that she's going to go and look at the colors online. 'I love this Yarn' doesn't show colors online so she goes to the Red Heart and looks at all the colors there...then she sends me a PowerPoint presentation of all the colors she wants...I'm like WTF, she went from 2 colors to like 12 and she's sending me all these stupid complicated patterns, even though I told her to pick out of 2. So she finally narrows it down to 6 colors and I think they go...if you're a 7 year old picking out blanket colors, and she sends me a text with a picture of them 1 skein each next to each other and tells me this is what she wants, but what do I think...I tell her that picturing the blanket in my head I don't see it looking very good, and for her to get the picture of what the blanket will look like (she wants 6 2'x2' squares, each square a different color) she needs to go back to walmart and take 3 skeins of each yarn color and block them together in the way she wants...she doesn't want to, she thinks it's going to be fine and that it's pretty going from dark to light/bright to dull-dark again...I just don't see it, but whatever she's paying me right...wrong, she keeps telling me that I need to love the colors too because if I don't LOVE the colors and LOVE the pattern then I won't crochet love into, whatever that kinda bullshit is, by this time it's annoyance going to be crocheted into it. So she see's the pattern that I'm crocheting my mom and asks about the squares to make it, because she doesn't understand crocheting...she has it in her head that anything crocheted is squares, I tell her that it's not squares it's 1 entire piece which is called a filet. She takes this as a 'I can look at other patterns for fillets, so she messages me all these doily patterns, which is usually what filets are used for, and asks me if i could do them but in yarn, or make small squares of them and make them into a blanket. I tell her no can do because you can't really modify a filet pattern to make it smaller and no I don't want to do a filet because then I'll actually have to pay attention and count what I'm doing, and if I'm going to make her a huge blanket I'm not sitting there and counting the entire thing...that's just not happening. So I show her a picture of my UT colors granny square, so she can see the pattern. *this is the part that i just can't seem to let go, I'm fine with the ugly colors and the making of the blanket with "love" and blah blah blah, but this...I don't know if this should offend me and my crocheting skills or if she's just completely stupid when it comes to the way crocheting works and crap* So Katie sees the pattern of my blanket and says she doesn't like it because of all the holes, and i tell her that I can do a filled in granny square and I show her a patter, she says she doesn't care, she just doesn't want a lot of holes in it because she doesn't want the blanket to fall apart when she uses it, and the more holes in the blanket the easier it is to fall apart! I'm seriously considering telling her to fuck the blanket and I ain't fucking doing it. A crocheted blanket should not fall apart with use, maybe in the washing machine or something, but not while using it, unless you take a friggin' pair of scissors or a knife to it. I've never had any of my crocheted creations fall apart or break from use, and believe me I use mine like anything else I have, the only time they get special treatment is when the go through the washing machine and dryer. I know I should just shake it off and put it toward Katie being a complete moron when it comes to crocheting, but it bothers me that she thinks my blanket making skill aren't good enough for the blanket not to fall apart the first time you really use it... Thoughts?

*end rant*

Now off to make a Veggie Burrito, if I make it right I'll be sure to post the recipe on my other blog!

XOXO

T

blanket...about half way through

So here is the start of my mom's blanket. I started it Tuesday night (?). It's about half way through. The baby blanket pattern I modified is 3 columns of 6 hearts, not sure how it will look with 6 rows of heart...I'll keep posting my progress!

close up of the heart pattern

my complete progress so far

YAY work!

I officially have a summer job. I went in the other night to sign my paper work to work at JC Penney again. Kelley has me on call-ins so that if anyone needs me to fill in I can, she's trying to help me get more hours so that I don't have to get another job, which I really don't want to do but if I can't get enough hours I don't see how I'm going to be able to...live. I should be on the schedule by hopefully next week, which is good. I know this is going to sound bad, but there are some SERIOUSLY good perks to working in a mall with a movie theater! I can't wait until June 29th and 30th, the day before and day of the next Twilight movie comes out. Last summer when the 6th Harry Potter movie came out people started lining up for the midnight showing at like 5pm and most of the teenyboppers would come in one at a time in their Harry Potter costumes and stuff to go shopping and I guess pass the time, very entertaining! I can't wait to see what is in store for all me when the twilight fans start lining up and stuff to see the movie he he he!

I started crocheting a blanket for my mom. I figured she's made blankets for everyone, including me, and nobody has ever made her one. So I decided to make her one, which I'm hoping to have finished way before her birthday in October, but since it is Summer making a blanket is going to get hot. I found a baby blanket patter that I really liked for my mom, so I've modified the pattern to make it afghan size. Should come out nice, I'm getting ready to start my 3rd skein of yarn! I'll be sure to take pictures of my progress and post them here, can't post them on my facebook like I usually do because my mom is one of my friends on facebook and she's started regularly checking it *sigh* and I don't want to ruin the surprise. On a sorta crochet side note, I'd like to thank Mrs. Dana, while making her purse I sewed the lining a little too short to fit the actual purse right, so I figure it's hand sewn I can just take it out and redo it...no can do, apparently my hand sewing job is DAMN good because even after cutting a few stitches that sucker was NOT coming undone. So even though my mom said I could borrow her sewing machine (which is awesome) I know that if I hand sew anything it's not coming apart anytime soon!

Other news? My mom bought a new car this past Monday, Memorial Day. She traded in her Fit for the Honda Insight, which I have named Dimetri which in Russian means "Loves the Earth." I found it fitting because the Insight is a hybrid car, yeah I'm a dork I know :p They're taking it for it's first road trip this weekend. On Sunday there is some kind of green house thing up here in Austin. Sunday is also they're 29th wedding anniversary, I'm thinking while they are up here I'm going to try and take them out to dinner. I'm thinking Hula Hut, I've been craving one of their shrimp po' boys. I guess we'll have to see! ^_^

Until next time Kiddos

XOXO

T

Why I LOVE astronomy

So today's astronomy picture of the day is actually a time lapse video of one night watching the Cotopaxi Volcano in Ecuador. It's absolutely beautifully majestically amazing and captures one of the main reasons that I love astronomy as much as I do! So for you viewing pleasure here's the video!

there's no sound to the video so you can listen to the nice music I've added or just watch the prettyness on mute ^_^

Enjoy!

XOXO

T

P.S. for all you non-astronomy nerds the band of stars/cloud that looks to be going around the volcano...that's an arm of our Milky Way Galaxy *sigh so pretty*!!

Would you like to Supersize that?

So Karen absolutely LOVED her purse, which makes me super happy. Marcy seemed to like it but she was more excited about the Winnie the Pooh in the cap and gown I got her because well, she loves Winnie the Pooh. I would have put a Winnie the Pooh lining in, but all the Winnie the Pooh fabrics look so baby-ish, which I guess would be normal, but still! The party was fun too, we played Scene It 2nd Edition, I got it at Ross for like $5 LOVE that store!! Then we tried to play Dirty Minds, but it was too complicated for our inebriated minds, then as the grad finally we played taboo, which is always fun to play when your sober or drunk, most of us were sober by the end of the game so we could drive home.

Last night went over to Chris's apartment to play video games, we played the new FIFA World Cup game for Xbox 360, that game is so fun! Makes me even more excited for the World Cup next month!

Just in case YOU aren't ready and excited for the World Cup next month, watch this commercial that Nike made and you should be ready, it's so amazingly awesome!!

Other news? My job interview on Friday went well, I think. I will know by Monday evening if I made it to the second round of interviews or if I'm still jobless, if anything I hope that JC Penny calls me and I can work there again this summer, it's not an ideal job with ideal pay, but it's a job that comes with a steady paycheck and I know what I'm doing already and I know most of the people there already. After my interview I went and checked on the status of my maintenance request that I put in on Tuesday. It won't be happening anytime soon I guess. The overhead light in my kitchen has gone out, well it's kicking the bucket, but it still makes me have to cook by the stove light...which isn't very bright and it makes washing dishes fairly difficult, but apparently a lot of people in the complex are having problems with their AC's, and here in Texas AC trumps lights. Though I don't know how long it would take them to just come in and unscrew the evil light and put in a new one? 5 mins maybe? I would do it but I'm short, I can move the plastic cover to the light, but actually reaching the light just isn't possible without me standing on something, which doesn't super appeal to me because all I have is my office chair, with wheels, or barstools that aren't super easy to stand on. So I guess I'll choose to cook by stove light than kill myself changing a light =p

Well amigos and amigas!

XOXO

T

PS Mrs Dana, I fb messaged you about the purse ^_^

I'm such a cool old lady =p

OK so I've been doing a whole lot of crocheting lately. Last Sunday there was a guy set fire the hotel that is literally like 4/5 buildings down from my apartment complex. So needless to say I was trapped in my apartment all day long. I was supposed to go out and have lunch with a friend that was in town, but since they closed down the access road (at least to 1 lane probably) people were thinking that they could cut in line or go around the fire by cutting through the apartment complex...didn't really work, the backgate we have is for emergency vehicles only so the only 3 exits are to the access road to 35, so there were 2 lines to get out. Then since traffic wasn't moving we actually had a ladder truck try and cut through the complex...which was funny because the lanes between parked cars are barley wide enough for 2 regular cars to go through, watching the ladder truck was interesting, but when I took Harley out to go potty I got to talking to them and they explained about the fire and then I told them about the back gate, and so they turned the truck around, a major feat if you ask me, but I guess they opened the back gate to let people get to Parker Lane that runs behind here.

So since I was stuck all day I decided to crochet some, so I looked up patterns online and found one for a purse that I tried and then one for a blanket I plan on making for my mom. I decided to make a couple purses for a couple of girls I know that are graduating and having a party Friday. So I made them each a purse and picked lining that has something they like on it, personalization and cuteness and all. It did make me want a sewing machine like crazy though. I know my hand sewing isn't completely horrible, but having a sewing machine to make a straight lines and made making the liner go so much faster. Last night when I was practicing/figuring out the lining with my tester purse I went online to see how much a sewing machine would be...I swear if it were possible for them to be around $20/$30 I would have gone out and bought one in a heart beat, but good thing for my credit card and bank account, they're about $60 and up. If I knew that I was going to be doing a lot more sewing and stuff in my future I would consider making the investment, but I'm not sure if I will, though I think the 2 purses that I'm giving to Marcy and Karen look totally awesome and I think I might be able to sell other ones. But I'm sure if I were to sell them I could do it without the lining...maybe sell them for $10-$20 depending on size and stuff. Anywho here are some pics of the purses:

The red one is for Marcy, she's obsessed with Disney so I found a cute fabric with mickey heads all over it and the green one is for Karen, the lining fabric has lizards all over it because she loves lizards, who'd've guessed. I officially love Hancock Fabric too, I found the lizard fabric there and it was so much cheaper than Hobby Lobby, even with their fabric on sale.

I hope the chicas like them! I'm always self conscious about whether people actually like the gifts I make for them. I know I'm probably just paranoid, but what if the person doesn't like the gift that I spent hours making? I put a lot of thought in to them and I don't want them to fake thank me and then in their minds be thing "omg, ew what am I supposed to do with this?! Just smile and say thank you and then when she's gone I'll throw it into my closet or donate it and never see it again!" I guess I'll have to wait until Friday to see/hear their thoughts...

What do you think of them? Would like receiving a gift like this?

Anyways nothing else really to report, still on the job hunt, got a call from some insurance company Monday about a job interview next week so hopefully that will go well...if I ever get the email from the lady, she said she'd e-mail me information about the company and how to get to the place and her phone number, but I haven't gotten it yet, which kind of freaks me out, I don't want to miss the interview because technology is being mean and not wanting to give me information. I guess I'll have to check my spam folder to see if its there...which kind of worries me... is this a good place to work for? LOL, I guess I'll just have to investigate ^_^

Oh yeah, pictures of my fish won't be coming, he's kicking the bucket as I type, I guessing by the morning I'm going to have one dead fish, so I'll be making a trip over to petsmart tomorrow to get my money back, I'm not going to trade it in, there's no point if the dumb fish won't last more than 10 days with me!

Ok, time to try and be productive

XOXO

T