Wednesday, July 8, 2015

And now it's time for the rest of the story!

Yeah, 7 months later let me tell you about the termination of not only the rodents :) but my car :( as well.
I had been covering those traps in peanut butter and they just kept getting licked clean without catching anything. It was the night before Thanksgiving, I was standing at my kitchen sink when a mother truckin mouse scurried across my foot!! YUCK! He ran through the living room and under the sofa. Which leads me to believe I was right they were likely coming in through the heat which is right along the wall next to my sofa.
That did it! It was time to get serious, it was time to bring in Ronald. Ronald is my friends cat, well kinda his cat. He used to be a stray, now he's part time stray, part time apartment cat, part time bar patron (my friend is a bartender who lives above the bar, Ronald is friends with the owner and all the regulars/employees). So I was leaving to go home for Thanksgiving the next day and on my home I would stop in River Falls to pick up Ronald.
I brought Ronald in and after a few days it seemed his work was done. I hadn't actually seen a dead mouse but I hadn't seen any evidence of mice and I figured he'd either eaten it or at least scared it off pretty good.
I decided it was time Ronald went home. He was ready to go home and I was sick of his kitty litter (Just one of many reasons, I'm not really a cat fan). So I packed up him and his things and we were on our way. As we were driving down the road, the road I live on about 1 1/2 miles away I was adjusting my rear view mirror when....BAM! I rear ended the car in front of me. They hit the car in front of them. They hit the car in front of them. No, that wasn't a typo. I just took out three cars! ( the front one was minor hit/damage). So yeah... Ronald didn't make it home that day. He had to hang out a few more days until his owner came to get him.
As for my car, the insurance company totaled it :( I loved my car, I had only had it just over a year too. And the icing on the cake? One week prior to the accident I spent $500 putting brand new tires on it.
Do you see the damage stupid mice can cause? I had to buy a new car all because of them! But, silver lining... insurance covered the cost of the car and I actually bought one a little cheaper in order to lower my monthly car payment plus it worked out so I could get a bigger vehicle that would better fit the Great Dane I was getting next month!
Yup, I have a great Dane now! So I have a "room mate" again and he is awesome! I've considered starting a new blog just to talk about him. I might just do that one of these days...

Monday, November 24, 2014

I'm back and living with unwanted roommates!

Is blogging still a thing do people do this for funsies any more? Well I've got a story to tell fitting in the old theme Kat and began. But before I get to that. Firstly I moved! I'm in a suburb of the Twin Cities, not exactly my ideal place to live but it's tolerable where I am and most importantly it is because.....I GOT A NEW JOB!! No more misery at Menards :) :) :) anyway in the move I'm pretty sure I threw away the piece of paper with various username/passwords on it which made logging on here slightly difficult seeing as the email address was my old school one which I no longer have. But I knew the words in the password it was just a matter of getting the darn number right. And yeah I could have asked Kat but I didn't want her to know what I was up to. I want it to be a surprise/see how long it takes her to find this!
At any rate on to my story. Here I am still living the apartment life by myself. Well one day (in September I think) when I got home from work, I'm opening my blinds when I notice a little mouse just hanging out on my living room floor. Just sitting still like maybe I won't notice it as long as it doesn't move. So there I am trying to get the courage to just pick the thing up by the tail so I can toss it out the patio door. But I could just imagine it struggling and trying to scratch at me and I just couldn't do it. So I did what any logical adult would do. I got a cottage cheese container put it over the top of it and then slid the cover underneath it to close it up. At this point my plan is to take it outside and drop it out of the container off my balcony. so I get out there and I envision it just dropping back onto my balcony or onto me and I don't know I was just freaked out. So I get the container open just a little bit then I freak out and just drop the whole thing down to the ground. And go back into the apartment. Yeah, I littered and I felt bad about it, but I wasn't going to try to pick it up until later, when figured the mouse could have escaped or maybe it died already, but by the time I looked out the next morning it was gone.
Well a few weeks back I had a bag of flour sitting out on my counter and I noticed one morning that something had nibbled at the bottom of the bag and there was a little flour in the area. Uh. About a week ago now I had left a dish sitting on the counter because my dishwasher was running and the next day I see them. On the plate, on the counter, on my floor, mouse turds. Grrr. So now I've set traps and as much as I want to get the stupid little rodents I'm really not looking forward to finding them. Ish. And I put peanut butter in them and the first time I just put it in the little area that was labeled for bait and they somehow managed to eat the peanut butter without tripping the trap! grr! So now I have it spread all over on it and hopefully I'll get the little mongrel. I don't know what has me so freaked out about the stupid little things, but I really don't like them! And to think there was a time when I was a kid I remember adoring white mice at the pet store and wanting them for pets! No that just creeps me out!
I'm not sure how they are getting in or where they are living, which extra creeps me out. I mean what happens when I go to put a shoe on and there is a freaking mouse in there! So basically, I'm just living in fear these days. No fun!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

We Don't Have Much to Say

You would think that Joy and I have nothing going on in our lives because we clearly find nothing worth blogging about anymore. I'm sure we do, but we're busy and writing somehow gets pushed to the back burner. Well, here goes.

As for me, I recently went on vacation to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico with my boyfriend. It was a beautiful place and it felt good to escape the Minnesota cold for a while. During our trip I became scuba certified, swam with dolphins, went on a jet ski, ate dinner at a mansion converted into a restaurant, and went on a pirate ship cruise. It was all incredible! Now, I'm back to the reality of my full-time job (still at the same place) and now I'm half-time with the classes I'm taking. Needless to say I've been keeping busy.

Since I'm oh so busy, I've noticed that I'm rarely home anymore. I suppose this is true for a lot of "young professionals", as we're called. I usually leave the house by 8am, get to work around 8:30, I get done at 5, and I'm home around 5:30ish if traffic is good. If I don't workout on my lunch break or have errands to run, I'm home even later. Not to mention I volunteer every Tuesday night. When I get home I basically prepare myself for the next day, study, and try to spend time with the boyfriend. One thing that I loved about living with Joy was that we rarely had to pick up after each other, and on the occasion we got annoyed we simply said, "Joy/Kat, pick up your junk" (or other suitable words). Life was simple and relatively clean. I lived on my own when I first moved to the cities and this past summer/fall I got a roommate. I do love my roommates because they have always been good friends of mine. I just get easily annoyed by messes, noises, sinks full of dishes, make-up on the counters, and piles of trash. That's partly why I reflect fondly on my time with Joy. She may have her flaws, but that woman knew her place. She only left piles on her own floor, knew how to wash dishes, rarely wore make-up to spill, and took the full trash out on her way to work. What a winner. I'd rather have myself to blame when the place gets messy and living on your own in your early twenties.....ok now mid-twenties, gives you a greater sense of independence and responsibility. Perhaps this next time around I'll downsize my life and get a larger studio. Oh, and a cat.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Let's Sum This Up!

Look at Joy go blogging up a storm. That was some entry! Let's hand out a gold star for actually utilizing our blog!

I guess I have a few things to share since it's been so incredibly long since I've written a thing. I'm going to do a quick list and maybe expand on them later. My break is about to end at work so here goes.


  1. I still work at the same job. The people are nice and I get to wear dress clothes every day. 
  2. I now live in St. Paul. I love it!
  3. I also have a new roommate and not the same one that Joy met.We used to work together at the University Center back in college and it's going pretty great.
  4. I'm back in school! I plan to go for my Master's in Clinical Social Work next year so I'm taking pre-req courses right now.
  5. I'm seeing a guy I met from my work last year. He's an engineer, so I'm a lot dumber but prettier.
  6. I've learned an awful lot about being an adult. Such as how to handle insurance and write letters of dispute to clinics who charge you for tests you declined initially. Fun right?
  7. If you bug your new landlord that your dish washer sucks, he will assume you are a dumb blonde and instruct you that there's an "ON" button for the heat dry option. Then you will get a new one when you demand it. Sweet!
  8. I'm now the group leader for my volunteer group with Free Arts Minnesota. I basically make art projects with little kids and it's amazing!
  9. FACT: I only own a couple pairs of skinny jeans and I DO look good in them. 
  10. Soon I will write a story about the parking Nazi that lives in my building....soon.



Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Oh yeah... that Blog thing Kat and I used to do...

Well it's not like I have completely forgotten this thing existed, it's just that I haven't had any bloggable moments that fit in our room mate/ living situation theme.  Or any exciting things to share with the world in general. But I guess I have some time today for general life updates.

Firstly, like Kat for lent, I have quit Facebook. Last week on my day off I was working on a job application and I would get bored and just go to Facebook to see what was new on there. Of course nothings new though, its only been 15 minutes since I was last on. But alas there I am clicking around looking at people's lives instead of applying for jobs and getting on with my own.  So I decided (well I've known for a while I didn't just decide this) that it is pathetic that I can't get through a job application/ cover letter/ resume without looking at Facebook multiple times. I also just spend too much time on there in general. And for a couple other personal reasons I don't really want to admit to the world, I deactivated my account for a while. When I did it I told myself one month.  I'll be really proud if I make it 2 weeks, but still happy with myself if I make it a week!  And hey now I'm taking time to blog when I probably would have otherwise been on FB!

Next, as you can see above I'm still on the job hunt. It sucks going to school for something then deciding you no longer desire to do that. However, I am starting in a new department at Menards tomorrow.  After four tiring years in the receiving department I have decided enough is enough and I'm moving to the Building Materials department.  I'm pretty excited to have a change in my life and learn something new, even though it means a 50 cent pay cut, since I won't get paid to drive a forklift any more. But I plan to work more hours and I can also earn spifs for selling things.  Everyone at work tells me "ya know, you have to wear a collared shirt and look professional" (in receiving we can wear Menards T-Shirts and that's about all I've worn in the last 2 or 3 months).  Uh yeah people, I know!  I think they are unaware that underneath the baggy blue t-shirts and ratty jeans, beyond all the sweat and dirt, is a girl, one who used to dress professionally to teach everyday!  I'm actually quite excited about that part.  I can wear nicer clothes because I won't be getting filthy everyday and won't be sweating as much (hopefully), I can wear a regular bra instead of sports bra, and I may even wear my hair down once in a while. In four years in Receiving I wore my hair down for an entire shift once, its safe to say I got paid to do a whole lot of nothing that day. Sure, I'll miss some things and may a few people in receiving, but I definitely won't miss other people or parts of the job.  I'm certainly ready for something new, and since nothing outside of Menards is working out, hopefully this will, at least for a while.

Now I would just like to vent for a bit about today's adventure...Shopping for jeans.
I'll start by saying GRRR!  To start off with, I'm very picky about jeans.  I don't like stupid super faded jeans, a little fade I can deal with (mainly cause you have to these days), and I absolutely don't do holey jeans, I'm pretty good at wearing holes into my jeans all on my own, why the F would I buy them that way? Also jeans are all so dang dark! What's so wrong with just a medium blue color? And I really like light colored jeans. Light colored jeans are apparently impossible to find for under $70 and guess who doesn't have 70 bucks for one pair of jeans, This Girl! Then there's skinny jeans (which I'm sorry to any skinny jean fans but they are stupid, ugly, and don't look good on anyone), straight leg (mom jeans), flare, and boot cut (what I'm looking for).  And what ever happened to making jeans out of denim. REAL STURDY DENIM, ya know the kind where you can actually see and feel the grain, not this stretchy painted blue crap that I could rip with my bare hands, I want jeans that are going to last me a while.
So firstly, I have to find jeans in my price range, in a style that I like. A task in itself.  Then by the time I find some I'm willing to try on, I'm picking out all the wrong sizes cause evidently I've lost some weight since I last went shopping for jeans (I don't even know how many years), and every brand is different, and I'm looking in both junior sizes (which are generally odd) and misses (even), and so it's all just very confusing.  Plus I'm short, so it's nice when brands have short, medium/average, and long options, but not everyone does, or if they do, they are out of short.  Then I liked a pair but they didn't have my size on the shelf, luckily the manican was wearing them, except for I probably needed the short version and ended up with average, but I think they'll be okay once I have shoes on or I'll just chop them off. And I found another pair that I really liked, not too dark or overly faded. Well I ended up spending a bit more than I wanted, but I must have been in and out of at least 25 pairs of jeans at 6 different stores today and I was getting frustrated and hungry so I'm just happy I finally found some.

Also, I just want to share a blog site that I have been enjoying lately thoughtcatalog.com it's a site with a buch of different people blogging.  So for any of you out there that just enjoy reading blogs, there are some pretty funny ones, and some more serious but still good reads. Kat, I think you may personally enjoy this one A Tour of Sex Questions on OKCupid

Well I guess that's all I have to share today.  From what I understand Kat has a new place and new roomie again, maybe she has roomie stories she should be sharing with us...or perhaps we need to find another challenge like the A-Z one we did.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Lent

I'm a Christian who grew up in a non-denominational church and family. Basically I was never required by my faith to do Lent. It was the time of  year I would sit in the cafeteria and shove my face full of all kinds of meat while my friends of other religions whined about what they couldn't eat and the things they decided to give up. This year I decided to observe Lent by giving up something that I felt takes up too much of my time, the time I should be using to focus on God and where I should be in my life. This may sounds silly but I decided to give Facebook a break. It's one of those things I love to hate. I'm always on it out of boredom and I admit that it's a distraction. I thought I might miss out on what's going on with my friends, but if they are real friends we will connect otherwise. Yesterday was day number one and I got to see three of my friends last night. Day number two is here and I have to admit it's a little liberating. Plus, I don't feel like a stalker.

Kat

Friday, February 17, 2012

Living Alone and without Joy

Thanks for that post about me Joy. It warmed my heart. I do agree about the smell of fish being stinky and funny you should mention that. I've only fried fish once in my place. The reason why is because of the smell. It wasn't so much the fish that stank, but rather the lingering smell of oil in my apartment.

There are some pros and cons to living on your own. Here are the top few that pop into my head.

Pros

  1. No one eats your food
  2. You can walk around naked
  3. No one hogs the bathroom
  4. There isn't anyone to scold you for being messy
  5. Everyone is just the way you like it 

Cons
  1. There's never dinner on the table waiting for you when you get home
  2. You can't tell your guests that the mess is actually from your roommate
  3. You can't eat your roommate's food when hungry
  4. Conversations with yourself become normal
  5. You can't blame your belches on the the pit bull