The End of The Wagon

The past 4.5 years I have driven a 99 escort station wagon. Otherwise known as The Wagon.  Last week, after 251,215 miles it met its fateful end.
Last Friday my friend Tiffany called to ask if I could pick her up from work because she blew a head gasket while driving in that morning. So we planned for me to pick her up at 10:45 in order for me to drop her off and head in to work at 12.  I set off to pick up Tiffany, stopped to fill my gas tank as I was near empty, and continued to Woodbury. It was snowing lightly, nothing to major and the radio said it would pass through within an hour.  I picked up Tiffany and we were on our way, we were approaching the on-ramp for the highway and I asked Tiff if it was the right place to turn, cause sometimes I get side roads and on-ramps confused.  Well indeed it was our turn.  We weren't traveling real fast as there was snow on the ground and we were about to turn.  But as I turned the car we began sliding around on the road.  Tiffany exclaims "don't hit the wall" and I said "I won't" (I really didn't think we would) but then I realized I could not get control of the car and in fact we would be hitting, so I said "dang it, why'd you say that now we're going to..." SMACK! We hit the wall preventing us from soaring into the highway below.  I watched us hit and the next thing I know I opened my eyes with a ringing in ear, pain in my thumb, and pain in the my shoulder/neck, and realized the air bags had deployed and the car was quite damaged.  Well luckily Tiffany and I were not seriously injured and we only hit a wall no other vehicles. The front bumper was all smashed in and the windshield had cracked in a few places.  And thus ended the wagon.  It was hauled away by a friendly tow driver, I went and cleaned out my belonging and signed over the title earlier this week. I also took the license plates to transfer to my new car.  I got the front one of just fine, but the back one had one nut that just would not come out, I had to get help from the same driver who towed it away, It's like the wagon just didn't want to let go.
The moral of the story is good tires are very important to your car and you should not put off buying them.  Cause even in a pathetic little to hour storm in Wisconsin/Minnesota causes slippery roads.
I can't say I'm terribly upset by the lose of the wagon. I got a new car already, that's much quieter and  nicer to drive.  The wagon was beginning to have its struggles anyway. It's like if something was destined to live to be 100 and die naturally but instead died in an accident at 99.5. Ironically just the Wednesday before my accident a co-worker of mine asked me how many miles my car had because he had the same car as me.  This past week his car died on him on his way to work.  Not a good time for 99 escort station wagons I guess.
I will miss the wagon a little I suppose. Like when it comes moving time, or when I need to put something large in my car.
So Wagon, I am sorry of how I ended things. You didn't deserve such a murderous death, may you rest in recyclable pieces.

Random Sights

Last night while walking up the stairs in my building and I happen to look up at the top of the window and what do I see but a tank top sitting on top of the curtain rod. I mean this window is way up in the air and the tank top seems pretty tucked in there so I really wonder how it got all the way up there.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (a day late)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Last year my brother was really sick so I didn't go back to my parents. This year they had stuff going on and again, I didn't go. However, it made me very thankful for the 2nd year in a row that I had wonderful friends who welcomed me in to spend the day with them and their families. I do feel truly blessed.

I also couldn't help but think about about last Thanksgiving. (For your viewing pleasure refer to last year's blog....http://jkflutterfriends.blogspot.com/2010/11/happy-thanksgiving.html)  I remember it being really cold and there was snow on the ground. Joy and I were sleeping in when we had a lost car pull into our driveway. We thought they were lost because it appeared to be a nice family with a giant cardboard box and we weren't expecting company. Well, it turns out that even though we weren't the specific needy family that requested a Thanksgiving dinner from a local church/charity, we were the fortunate residents to receive an entire dinner on our doorstep. It was pretty amazing and rather funny. I couldn't help but to secretly hope someone would ring my doorbell again this year....

How to Waste the Last 5 Minutes at Work

Have you ever noticed how those last 5 minutes of work go by the slowest? I sure have. That's why I made a list. Don't worry. I'm here to save the day (or the last 5 minutes of your work day).

1) Check your online bill due dates.
2) Throw away garbage from your purse or wallet.
3) Google or youtube something random. Related randomness will generate for your entertainment.
4) Explain to a cold caller from India why you can't just transfer them to the executive team at your company.
5) Chat/flirt with a co-worker. I prefer flirt because quite honestly I could use the practice.
6) Check facebook. Heck, just post how bored you are.
7) Pick the split ends from your hair. Guy equivalent - don't you think about sex every 2.8 seconds or something?
8) Delete old emails.
9) Daydream.
10) Write a list of the top 10 ways to waste the last 5 minutes at work.

<3 always,

Kat

Guess who finally unpacked!

That's right, this girl!
I finally took my day off to be productive and unpack.  All my clothes are now hanging, in my dresser, or in the dirty clothes basket (I only had enough quarters to wash my work clothes today), I even have a semi organized underwear drawer (that's right Kat, I have my underwear in a dresser drawer. The socks however, still live in the tote.)  I have a place for everything and just about everything in its place! Lets be realistic, I'm not the type to really ever have everything in it's place, so almost everything is pretty darn good for me. It only took nearly a month and a half to get there but I can proudly say that the majority of my floorspace is now visible.
Other than that I have nothing exciting to share with the world, just living the dream working at Menards. I've been really slacking in the job search department.  I guess now that I can no longer use the "I should be unpacking" excuse I'll need to get back on that.
Well, I guess that's my monthly update.  Hopefully something more exciting and bloggable (yep, thats a word now) will come about real soon, I know you all live to hear from us ;) 

.....And I Have Neighbors, Among Other Issues

I realize that my blogging tends to sound a little on the glass half empty side. All I can say is that I'm trying to not be such a negative person. You know, enjoy the sunrise (which I did this morning) and stop to smell the flowers (before they freeze to death). Like I said, I'm a work in progress. All joking aside life is going pretty well. I'm content with where I am in life right now. I'm thankful for my faith, family, friends and job. Really that's quite a lot to be thankful for. I just don't think many people would enjoy my rants about the rays of sunshine in life or the furry kittens of the world. Kittens....I'll leave that for another day at Dunn Bros Coffee (where I enjoy their free wifi with coffee).

Now, let's move onto my recent living alone stories and adventures.

First, I live in a decent size apartment complex. There are 24 large units in my building with multiple complexes on the block. Most of the time I'm fortunate enough to live in a world where I feel as if I don't have any neighbors. I hardly hear a peep from them, until last night that is. It's around 10:15pm and I'm really hoping to pass out at any moment. I've been really tired lately. Out of nowhere I hear giggles from a highly pitched annoying sounding female. Then from what I can assume to be her boyfriend starts laughing too. I'm not so cynical where I find this impossible to tolerate. The tickle-me-Elmo fest continued for only a few moments. I then hear her say in her still annoying but now sounding like a baby voice, "Nooooo, this is my bed. My bed. My bed." *giggle giggle* Whatever, they shut up. If my two required years in the dorms taught me anything it's that when you suspect "coitous" (thanks for my education The Big Bang Theory) you're probably going to have to put up with the ruckus. I don't want to be too crude here. We are all adults, hopefully. Well, let's just say that by the end of their horizontal jogging I lost sleep, realized I would have something to blog about and suddenly had the urge to pound a nail into the wall at 6:30am when I would wake up. I'm sure I could find something to hang....
No, in case you're wondering I wasn't that rude even though they were. I did the mature thing - I sang a top 40 medley this morning in the shower.

Last story for the day. In order to get our security deposit back we had to mail in the receipt for our last months utility bill. Joy had lingering bills as well that were partly mine. She sent me a total and I wrote her a check. I intended to send it today after work. Traffic was good and I arrived at the post office at 5:35. What kind of post office closes at 5:30?? Ugh. I continue on my way to the next post office downtown. I knew it would be a hassle, but it was a bigger hassle than I expected. I couldn't find a place to park. Sorry Joy. I'll try and send your check tomorrow!

Kat

Welcome to Minneapolis

For those of you who aren't aware I've been living in Minneapolis now for a first week and half. It's been an adventure so far to say the least. In this short time I've already met many new and wonderful people, started attending a great church, and have been trying extra hard to learn street names (refer to previous posts on my need to learn direction). Here's a simple breakdown of the past 11 days of my life.

1) People: It's been hard adjusting to life in the big city. I'm grateful for all of the new people I've met and truely hope to develop all of the relationships I've made so far. Everyone has been a blessing despite the curves life continues to throw my direction.
2) Places: There are an overwhelming amount of beautiful places to see. There's always something to do here and for my reforming hermit self, this is a good thing.
3) Apartment Life: From the get go moving into my apartment was a hassle. Prepare for some complaining. Moving over Labor Day weekend is probably the worst weekend to move. When you are finally able to locate that checkin list burried underneath boxes and piles of stuff, you'll probably learn the office is closed. You'll be left with no working stove, a clogged bathroom sink, no smoke detector (but hey you don't have a stove. You're in the clear), and bedroom blinds that don't work. All of this is quite an overwhelming feeling. Especially considering I picked a 3rd story apartment because I ran out of energy to keep looking. However, I'm thankful I have a relatively nice and roomie place to live. It's comfortable and safe. Now, I just have to adjust to hearing noises all night. Maybe after a month I'll be able to sleep through the night? Lord willing...
4) Work: Work is going well. Having a 40 hour a week working lifestyle also takes some getting used to. I'm very thankful for having a decent paying job as a recent graduate. But I know it's not something I want to do with my life forever.

In a nutshell life is goodish. The journey has been and always will be filled with ups and downs. Each experience is shaping the person I'm becoming through the good and the bad. I try my best to remain strong and trust that God has a plan for me. There's no need to race through it or push our circumstances. Instead, I prefer to enjoy the crazy rollercoaster day by day.

Don't Worry we Survived Moving

We are moved out and on our own!  Now that we are no longer roomies, I guess we'll just have to share our independent living adventures.

Yeah, it's been a while. But really I had nothing new to share.  My life basically consisted of working and job hunting.  For the last week it has been work, moving, and sleeping.  The move only took me about 7 trips in my station wagon in two days (I could have done it in one but I also had plans to go to the State Fair).  I finally was able to get some major unpacking done the last two days (after only living here 4 days).  My place is finally coming together but I still have plenty of work to do.  It sure was nice when I just went away for a weekend last time and came back to the whole place set up.  Where is Kat when I need her?

I finally got my internet set up this morning. Stupid Comcast.  I called to have everything transferred and they told me I would just need to bring the equipment with me and set it up and they would be able to just turn it on from outside.  Well they were wrong when I finally set it up Tuesday evening it didn't work.  So they had to send someone out this morning.

My new place is pretty nice. I could use more storage, like a coat closet maybe, but otherwise it is suiting me just fine.  The key to my apartment is a little tricky though.  I struggle with normally, so I was a little weary of how it would go after being downtown.  Well Monday night I went out and came back and unlocked the door on the first try, no struggle at all. But just about every time since then I struggle.  And last night I'm pretty sure I heard someone snoring, talk about thin walls! But really that's it, no more complaints, it's a nice apartment.

Side story: Last week my friend Tiffany and I went to the Minnesota state fair after a long hard day of moving.  We decided to sit down for some ice cream and people watching.  While we were sitting there Tiffany spots a little girl (I'd guess about 3) and says I hope she is wearing something under her shirt or dress whichever that is. It was short for a dress but a long shirt. So I'm watching this little girl (and yes she had shorts on) and see she is holding herself so I says to Tiffany, "she needs to pee" and Tiffany looks and says "oh yeah she does, she's gunna end up going right there" about 4-5 minutes later we look over to see a puddle under her and her mom trying to clean off her shoe.  Poor little girl.  Moral of the story parents: pay attention when your child needs to pee.

Otherwise no real exciting stories to share. I'll try to lead a more exciting life so I have more to share.
~ Joy

Things Are Looking Up!

Well folks, I'm no longer unemployed. Thank God!!! After almost 3 months of unemployment I can finally say that I have a job. I signed up with a job agency around the cities and scored an interview with a medical company. They called me back and offered me the job. Today was my second day and so far I love it! I'll just keep praying the new company that bought them over decides to make my position permanent.

I've also been apartment hunting for places in Minneapolis. One of the reasons being my job is in Minnetonka and I'm hoping to go to grad/law school in the cities. I found a place I was satisfied with and plan on signing the lease ASAP.


Here's the sad news - Joy won't be my roommate anymore. :'( Saying I'm sad to infinity won't begin to put how I feel into perspective. She's kinda cool and all and even puts up with my antics. She doesn't want to move anywhere near the cities unfortunately. We'll soon have to figure out what to do with our blog. *sigh*

Boring Updates on My Life

Lately I've been continuing my never ending job hunting process. I've literally applied to around 100 jobs or more and that's not exaggerating. I wish it were. Out of those jobs I've had 1 interview. I'm playing the waiting game to find out if I move on to the next round or not. Job hunting should not feeling like a game show, but it does. This morning I got a call from an agency staffing around the Twin Cities. She has to call me back now. I pray something leads somewhere soon. Everyone tells me the economy is tough. No kidding. Sadly it's' the current state of my generation to have spent a small fortune on getting a degree and we're stuck accepting low-paying jobs that we could have gotten without a degree only a couple of years ago. It's ever so frustrating. However, I have faith things will look up. I mean they better. I had to buy dress clothes and I have no where to wear them otherwise. That would be a waste.

Harry Potter and River Adventures

Well, it certainly has been a while since I've written on here.  My life has mostly been consumed with working and in my spare time I have been rereading the Harry Potter series so as to prepare for the final movie coming out in 22 short days! I am uber excited, I hope it is as good as part one was. Last night I finished book five (possibly my favorite book, or maybe seven is) so I only have one and a half to go.  I'm only reading to where the first movie left off in the seventh book because I found out that if the book is fresh in my mind it makes the movie less enjoyable (or maybe that was because the sixth movie just wasn't done very well). So 22 days and 52 chapters to go! Plus I'll prolly try to find time to watch the movies too, just maybe not the first three, they get boring after seeing them too much.
Other than that I went for a walk on my day off Monday and decided to venture down by the river in the park.  Well I kind of always wanted to venture beyond the first little water fall that I normally visited last summer when my dog lived with me.  I took my opportunity to walk further up the river beyond it.  I came to another water fall and decided to climb it and continue my river walk.  So I climbed up this 5 foot water fall (cell phone in hand, I guess I was feeling pretty gutsy) well once on top I knew there would be no turning back as I didn't think I could climb back down. So I walked up the river to campus until there was a nice clearing by the path just behind campus.  It was a nice little afternoon adventure.
Other than that there isn't much to report.  The job search has slowed some, I should really put down  the books a little more and look harder, but I can't help but get caught up in my reading. 

Since it's been about a month

Too bad the A-Z challenge is over because we have very little to keep us inspired to write anything. Since it's been nearly a month without any updates I'll give a quick summary.

1. Congrats to Melissa who is all settled into her new place and job. She was a great 3rd roommate and we had tons of fun with her. I guess some people have to grow up. We are proud of you!!!
2. Advice to anyone with a roommate: Never let your drunk friends into your house after bars while your roommate is sleeping - no matter what they threaten to do to your car. We'll leave it at that.
3. Joy is working hard at applying for jobs and trying to figure out what she wants to do with life.
4. I am thinking of buying a magic 8 ball to decide what to do with my life.
5. We have roughly a month to let our landlord know if we are going to renew our lease or not.
6. Major problems: a) We aren't 100% sure we'll be staying in River Falls and b) even if we are, Joy might be too scarred to want to live with me for another year. Maybe she can borrow my magic 8 ball. Just a thought.

Here's My News

Well, I'm gradutated! Finally, it's only taken 5 years. I've graduated with a degree in Sociology. I just wanted to thank God, my family, and friends for helping me through this. In other news, Joy and I just took our Wii fitness test tonight: I am 80. Joy 39. Yup, for once, she is better than me at something. What a small world? jk....ok...she is wayyy better at drinking. "I don't know about way" - Joy

Congrats to Kat

She did it! Kat earned her degree in some blah blah degreee with her made up minor.  So congrats to her. Now onto to finding her a real job and getting outta my hair...
And also congrats to our friends Melissa for graduating and Sasha for getting her masters!

Z is for...

Zeal is what we met the month of April with. We were quite the slackers before, but with the help of this massive A-Z challenge we hit the month head on. We blogged with passion and a desire to finish a challenge! Thank you again to everyone who came by each day to see what random story we had to tell. We had a blast!

Now, I welcome the month of May!! :D

<3 Katrin

Y

Y is for You, all the people who take time to read our blog.
Thanks for stopping by to see our posts. Whether you just stopped by via A-Z or have been a regular follower, I hope you have enjoy reading our blog.
Since most of you are new and found us from A-Z, feel free to continue to stop by if you enjoy a random story now and then about the room mate life. We'll try to write more often as we were kinda slacking from January-March.
And as I am now done with A-Z I bid it a farewell, it has been fun. Hope you enjoyed our letters.

X is for...

X-Men. I'm a fan of the whole series, but really I'm a huge Hugh Jackman fan. I'm not typically one of those girly types who drools over any attractive man, but Hugh Jackman is my exception. Just ask Joy. It can be a little creepy for her when I see him on TV. I just can't help myself.

I'm not very good at science. But I do know there are lots of smart words that start with an x. I however don't like to use them because I have no idea what they even mean. For example, xenogeneic is "of a disease, derived from an individual of different species." There's some useless education for ya.

W

W is for Wii.  When things get boring, Kat and I often turn to the Wii.  We mainly play Mario Party 8, get a some wii sports in (we're pro bowlers), and have recently cracked out the Wii play (Kat loves racing the cows).  We do team battles in Mario party which of course led to the name of our blog since our Yoshi and Toadette team was named Flutter Friends.  We like to make fun of the other team and are really rather mean about it. You have never seen two "grown women" get more upset about losing or even coming close to loosing a silly little video game.
W is also for the Warblers.  They are a glee club on the show Glee (which I love. Yup total Gleek.) I love the group and of course bought their CD to go with the rest of my Glee music collection.  But I'm a little concerned they may not be on the show anymore since one of the lead characters is no longer in the club :(
Kat also insists that W has to be for wasted. Because somebody went out and had a pretty good time Monday night.  And somebody else might have just been in bed until 2 pm.

V is for...

Victory! I'm nearing the end of my long undergraduate degree and the end is finally in sight. This morning I gave my final presentation in my senior seminar class. Congratulations to me. Now I just have to sail through these next 2 weeks of having nothing to do. Yeah, I think I can handle that.

Us

U is for us. And here we are... 

Here's an old school pic of us back in the dorm days

 Here's us recently out on the town

And just a fun pic of us from Halloween a couple years ago

Things to Think About

I have a job. I work, they pay me.

I pay my taxes, and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.

In order to get that paycheck, in my case, I am required to pass a random urine test (with which I have no problem).

What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test.

So here's my question: Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?

I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet.
I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their butt-doing drugs, while I work.

Can you imagine how much money each state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?

I guess we could call the program: "URINE OR YOU'RE OUT!"

Just a thought, but all politicians should have to pass a urine test, too!

*I did not right this, but I wish I were that clever! All credit goes to Joy's Menard's mailer.

S is for Spidey

This is Spidey. My spider plant that I have had for about 4 years now. I started growing it in a shoe but eventually it got too big and needed a larger pot.  As Spider plants grow they also reproduce little plantlets (as you can see a few hanging down).  Since Spidey already has these and I have no need or want for them when another branch starts sprouting for the plantlets I would break it off and throw it away.  This made Kat quite upset, she didn't like it and claimed it was like plant abortion. She'd try poking the suckers back in soil.  But I'd just go back when she wasn't around and break them up and throw them away and hide them in the garbage.

Well, as you can see Spidey has once again needed re-potting for some time now.  I finally took on this task on my day off Tuesday.  I needed more pots and some potting soil, so I had to go to Menards, which is real annoying, I hate it when I decide I need stuff from there on my day off. But I went and got my supplies and took on my re-potting project.

The roots were just ridiculous and very root bound. I split the main plant into two and gave them each a large pot and put the three babies in their own little pots.

Check out the roots on that thing!

 Now I have a whole little Spidey family, but the problem is which one gets to keep the original name of Spidey since he was split in two?


I really am content with just one spider plant the other four are up for grabs. Hint hint clue anyone in RF reading this.

R is for...

is for really?

Do you ever have one of those moments where after something crazy happens you just sit back and say, really?! I've actually had a couple of those moments just this week. Sometimes people's reasoning skills confuse me and innocently enough or not, I get confused. Such is life though.

My most recent moment happened about 5 minutes ago. I'm sitting at work which for those of you who don't know happens to be at my university's student center. I sit at a desk, answer questions, and try to do enough work to earn my keep. I rarely drink soda, however I happen to have some Pepsi throwback (with real sugar) that I put into one of those stainless steel water bottles. I'm sitting at work talking to my fellow desk worker and go to take a sip of the good stuff. Not realizing how low the contents actually were, I of course tip it real far back spilling it in my hair, on my lap, on my work shirt and my white shirt underneath. Really?! We laughed hysterically over the whole incident. After I gained some composure I had to soak up a rag and wet myself even more...ok, that sounded bad.

Q is for Quiet

is for quiet.  Usually it's what I want Kat to be when she is yakking my ear off about something or nothing.
But really I don't like quiet.  I always need background noise in my life. Probably the result of growing up in a household of 8 people and a zoo of pets.  As if that wouldn't be noise enough we always had a radio or TV on.  There was literally a radio in every room in our house.  So nowadays the silence just gives me the willies and I always have music or the TV going to keep me company.
I can tolerate it when I'm laying in bed though.  It doesn't creep me out at night (prolly cause my mind is too busy thinking and keeping me awake to realize the silence). And a couple weeks ago I even remember waking up one morning, feeling really peaceful because I felt like I couldn't hear a sound, not even the fridge or those annoying birds right outside my window.  But of course once I got out of bed I probably turned the TV on.

Words That Start with P

To be honest, poop candle was one of the first relevant P words to our roommate lives. Need I say more? However, I know we're a judgy culture so to show we're truly educated people I will give a lesson on fun P words.

Psych - If you've never seen the show on USA you should! It's one of my favorite shows and I've literally watched the episodes a million times over. One of the lines in an episode was about pterodactyls. Who knew it started with a p?

Pterodactyl - Not only is it a fun word to say, but it's one of those words that makes you wonder what crack head developed the spelling for it. Anyways, when I was discussing words to blog about I mentioned pterodactyl. Joy didn't realize it started with a p. I told her to google it and google we did. By the way, I don't recommend googling anything right before you need to go to bed. You may be up for hours. For some inappropriate but hilarious humor, we selected about the 4th search down under pterodactyl. If you google it you'll know the one we're referring to. Check out The Oatmeal. Fair warning on this one. Some of the content is just MESSED UP, but some hilarious. I recommend checking out "6 Reasons Bacon is Better Than True Love."

Back to some education courtesy of www.dictionary.com.



Pixilated - 1) Slightly eccetric or mentally discordered, 2) amusingly whimsicle, prankish, silly, or the like.
Plethora - overabundence, extra.

O

When I asked my friend Melissa for an o word to blog about she came up with over can be followed by another word such as oversleep.

So I have to share my recent oversleeping story with you.  A few weeks ago I had closed at work (til 10 pm) on Tuesday then had to be back at 8 am on Wednesday. Well I went home showered, set the alarm for 6:57 am, and went right to bed.  But I couldn't fall asleep.  This is a problem for me sometimes.  So I was awake until like 4am.  Then I woke up and looked at my clock. It was 8:04, I thought well gee, my alarm should have gone off  like 5 minutes ago, I must have just shut it off.  oh well it will go off again.  Well 8:20 rolls around and I look at the clock and I think oh shoot its 8:20 I'm suppose to be at work. I heard music and thought it must have been my radio cause of my alarm but then I realized it was my phone, work calling telling me to get my butt to work.  I got up, got dressed and headed to work, punched in 45 minuets late.
Well then the following Sunday I was suppose to work (filling in for a co-worker on my weekend off) at 7:30 am. The alarm went off as scheduled at 6:57 again.  Naturally I snoozed it, then got up and looked at the clock its 7:25. Whoops. Twice within a week.  Got to work twenty minuets late, but my manager said being late was just a good way of filling in for the guy I was working for.

In other news we are Overjoyed to have a new washing machine! It's actually pretty nice. I finally did my laundry, it was getting pretty bad in my room.

N is for...

Nasty Weather!  I feel that only the Midwest would have to 2 weeks of very nice weather and then BAM! Put the flip flops and shorts away and put on your coat because we have snow. Granted it's not very much, but still kinda cruel if you ask me. Last Saturday when I came into work I was hot and it was 70 degrees. The sun was shining and I had to pull out my capris. That is a big deal for me because I usually walk around the house in my plush bathrobe all day just to stay toasty. Today, I put on my coat and yes, even gloves. Dear weather, please send your snow away and bring back the sunshine!!!

Today's Blog is Brought to you by the Letter M

Today M is for Maurices Mainstreet Model Search
My best friend Rachel entered in this modeling contest you can check out her profile and vote for her here:
http://www.mauricesmainstreetmodel.com/4965/rachel-rahmlow

L is for.....

With our numerous posts on bad appliances what else could I possibly relate the letter L to besides for Laundry. Our washer is a fantastic hunk of metal to say the least. It loves us so much that is decides to pay us back by stopping mid cycle, or leaving a pile of soaking clothes at the bottom. Basically, sucking slowly but surely at our utilities budget. Doesn't it know how long of showers we like to take? I guess not. We are now to the point of having to go to the laundry mat. Well, Joy is because I still have a closet full of clean clothes and a drawer full of clean unmentionables. Anyhow, our landlord is supposedly on this task of finding us a "new" washer. by "new" I'm referring to the refrigerator incident of the Fall of 2010. Just to recap, our new fridge was supposed to be "newer and maybe a little bit bigger". Of course it turned out to be smaller and older. There I go again about that darn fridge...

Katrin

I'll make it short and simple

Kooky
Addicted to coffee
Talkative
Reads too many assigned readings
Intriguing  <-- is that the word that boy used?
Nutrition freak

J is for...

J is for Joy! I warned her in advance that J was obviously going to be reserved for her. You already know from all of our adventure stories that we always manage to have a fun time. Whether it's my arranging the house when we move in then leaving for the weekend so she can't find anything, talking her ear off, visiting local establishments, or breaking applicances, we have an odd, but great relationship. I love Joy (in a non-lesbian way) and I feel very blessed to have known her literally forever (5 years)!

J is also for Jesus. I'd feel like a horrible person if I didn't give a shoutout to Jesus here. Afterall, he did die for us and all. But on a serious note my faith is one of the few constants in my life. I don't pretend to live a perfect life, but without Him we wouldn't have a purpose. I know not everyone is religious, so we might have to agree to disagree on this one.

Intexticated

I couldn't think of anything great for "I" so I went to Urban Dictionary clicked on I, closed my eyes and clicked. This is what I came up with:

  

Intexticated

1. Describes people who drive while sending text messages on their phones.

 

"Dude, what was THAT?!"
"Probably just some intexticated highschooler."

"How did she get in a car accident?"
"She was intexticated."

 

2. A state in which someone attempts to walk and compose a text message at the same time. Lack of attention paid to the walking portion causes stumbling, loss of direction, and pedestrian collisions.

 

 John was so intexticated that he didn't see where he was going, and slammed right into his boss.

 

3. When someone becomes completely deaf to reality while texting on their phone.

 

Guy: What do you want to eat tonight
Girl: *no answer*
Guy: Oh yeah, I forgot, you're intexticated when you pick up that phone

 

4. The art of text messaging while intoxicated, usually at bars or parties.

 

example: woman trying to text friend to pick her up as she is intexticated after imbibing large quantites of ETOH:

Can u flocs get me 1/2vhour 93 2 pz
PL (. God ce ne pic menup at 13 poop.
Fyked up??????helpp

 

Dude, sorry what I said last night, but I was really intexticated.

H is for Health

This past week's beautiful weather has encouraged my health routine to start kicking in. I'm not always the best eater or most active person, but a nice day inspires me to go for a jog if I'm feeling really ambitious, or at least a long walk. I can't wait for all the fresh produce that will be around too. Especially strawberries! But don't worry, I'm not going to give a lecture on boring health statistics and why you shouldn't eat cookies for breakfast (Joy!). Instead, try to enjoy the gorgeous weekend by taking your mind off of work and the every day stresses of life!

Let the Good Times Roll

G is for the Good Times...

Like when we go out on the town and lie our faces off to boys (who honestly look like they are about 19) trying to hit on us. Kat, I mean Natasha, is a 4.0 student who is going to law school next fall.

or when we are playing darts and Kat has no idea how to and she thinks getting bust is a good thing
       Joy: I busted
       Kat: thats good isn't it
       Joy: No, you don't want to bust (looks at Kat's chest) well maybe YOU want a bust

or when we went bowling

or when we go ice skating and nearly take out small children on the ice

and the time we went to happy hour walked back home to get a coupon for supper then went back downtown for supper and more drinks

and when we had some peeps over to play loaded questions

and of course you can't forget our apartment hunting adventure

...to name a few.  There will prolly be more and thats exactly why we began our blog.  To share them with the world!

F is for Food

F is for food. I love food so much that it only made sense to write about it and I'm sure out won't be the only one out there. In fact as I'm writing this I'm eating my breakfast before I have to go to class. I'm not the frosted mini-wheats kind of girl however. Generally I try to eat healthy. This morning I lightly fried up some broccoli, cauliflower, onion, and green pepper and scrambled up two eggs, then melted swiss cheese on top of it. I love it and it's great that I get a serving of vegetables first thing in the morning (with my coffee of course!). I'm not always this healthy though. Every now and then I have those days where I devour everything in sight and never feel satisfied. But let's be honest - who doesn't have thsoe days? I actually used to hate cooking and had a terrible complex about it. This past year I began to cook more and try new things. Some things are a success such as this brown sugar glazed meatloaf recipe I found. A semi-failure includes a sweet curry chicken with homemade mango chutney. It was a slow cooker recipe and let me say, I'm not a fan of slow cookers. Maybe for things like chilis and soups it makes sense, but not for recipes using meats such as chicken that needs to be cooked through all of the day. Long story short after 4 1/2 hours I had to put it in the oven to cook it the rest of the way. It doesn't taste all that bad though. Fortunately for Joy I also enjoy baking. I haven't had a lot of time for it lately though. One of my favorites is a 3 layer devil's food cake. Another is a recipe I found for peanut butter filled chocolate cookies. They taste amazing but take a long time to make.

I think later I'll share a recipe or two. For now I have to be on my way to class.

Earth Day

Since it's April, I'm going to make E about the earth. After all Earth day is April 22nd. In case you didn't know.  Personally, I love the earth, not in the "tree hugging hippie" kinda way but like the "why the heck are you putting that in a landfill and not recycling it?" or "stop littering kinda way".  I've even been known to pick up litter on my late night walks home from local establishments.  I don't really understand why people want trash just laying all around the world.  I think earth day is just a good way to step back and remember how much we should appreciate the earth whether you plant trees (like I did while student teaching last year), participate in a roadside clean-up, or just breathe in some good clean air that the earth's atmosphere is providing.

Here are some Earth Day facts I dug up:

• Earth Day was first observed on April 22, 1970 in Wisconsin. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended the inaugural event.
• Earth Day 2007 was one of the largest Earth Days to date, with an estimated billion people participating in the proceedings.
• Earth Day is now observed in 175 countries, and coordinated by the Earth Day Network, a nonprofit organization founded by the organizers of the first April 22 Earth Day in 1970.
• In many cities, the Earth Day celebrations are extended to Earth Week, an entire week of activities related to the promotion of activities related to the preservation of Earth. The Earth Week usually start on April 16, and end on Earth Day, April 22nd

By the numbers...

20 million: Number of people who celebrated the first Earth Day

200 million: Number of people who celebrated Earth Day in 1990

500 million: Number of people who celebrated Earth Day in 2000

175: Number of countries worldwide that celebrate a designated Earth Day 

3.7 billion: World population in 1970

6.7 billion: World population in 2009

65.2 million: Number of Google hits for "Earth Day"

146 million: Number of Google hits for "Green Day"

 

D is for Demanding

Today's letter is D. I say demanding because that is the best possible word to describe the relationship Joy and I have. We're fortunate that we picked each other to live with because our personalities are rather similar. We have this quid pro quo type of relationship. For example, Joy previously mentioned all of the hot chocolate we consumed this past winter. She wasn't lying. It was a lot! I would be in the kitchen making myself something to eat and Joy would yell, "Hey, where's my hot chocolate ho?" Pure love right there. Last week I made homemade spaghetti and meatballs. I was rather proud of myself. I had about one serving left and I made that for lunch yesterday. Joy came upstairs and said something like, "What's this?" Me: "My lunch. This was the last of it." Joy: "So...." Actually there was one meatball and some sauce and she helped herself. We'll also demand/guilt the other into getting a water refill, making cookies, dinner, doing laundry, getting the mail, going out and pretty much anything else you can think of. That's just how we roll.
D is also for duh! There are so many routes I could take with this one, however I stick with what we've been blogging about these past few days. As Joy mentioned, I am guilty of turning the wrong burners on and I have to admit that this again happened last night. I was wondering why the water was taking so long to boil. I don't know why I do this. Joy was standing right next to me and she caught me red handed. I announced that "D is for duh!" and I knew I had to blog about this moment.

C is for Addictions

Now, I know many of you are thinking um, addiction starts with A not C.  Let me explain.  Kat and I both have an addiction to a C word.  Hers is coffee, and mine chocolate. 
Kat starts off each day with her cup of coffee and continues to drink it throughout the day.  Personally, I can't stand the stuff.  I can drink flavored cappuccino as long as the flavor and creaminess hides the coffee tastes (Holiday gas station's is awesome, Kwik Trip is okay).  One evening Kat was whining to me about this awful headache she had all day. And I asked her well did you drink coffee today? and she said actually I haven't.  I told her well there's you're problem, you have a caffeine headache cause you're used to having it everyday.  So now she knows better and will not go without her coffee again.
Chocolate, what can I say? I love the stuff, eat it pretty much everyday.  I usually keep a stash in the house, though I have been slacking lately.  A bag of little goodies (Dove with caramel, mini candy bars, etc) just doesn't last me very long though, only a day two.
And when you combine the two (a hot beverage and chocolate) you get hot cocoa.  I'd tell you how much hot cocoa we drank this winter, but I don't even know other than it was A LOT.  I usually made Kat make it for us (she's good at serving me food and beverages).

And of course who doesn't love cookies? and the cookie monster! We make cookies from time to time.  But Kat doesn't get to eat many cause I tend to devour them pretty quickly.

B is for Beautiful!

Yup, I made that.

I've been thinking really hard about what to write about for B. Of course there are many topics but none of them interested me all that much. Today I went for a walk on this gorgeous spring day and I was inspired a little. There were spring buds, families for a stroll with their babies, dogs playing with balls in the yard, people riding bikes, and bugs (unfortunately!). I went for a long walk by the river and took pictures. There's so much beauty in spring that I decided to share some of those pictures. For today, B stands for beautiful!

The Swinging Bridge

The River

There you have my adventures from the day. I hope you enjoyed them!

B could also stand for.....boob punch! This is in honor of Joy and our times together. Her sisters will also appreciate that this tradition lives on. For those of you who aren't of aware of what this means, it's basically when you're with your girl friend and you're supposed to say boob punch because you joking (but actually) punch them a little in the boob. I however, am very bad at saying this before I punch Joy's boob. I think she's just accepted that I will never do this technique properly.

Today's Blog is Brought to you by the Letter A

At our place A is for Appliances.  We have mentioned them before but don't worry they still don't fail to give us more to talk about. Today, I'll give you the full tour of our appliances.
First, the oven.  As you will recall from a previous post I yanked the oven door off.  It is fixed now, however, the light no longer works inside. Our other stove story is Kat's ability to continually turn on the wrong burner.  I haven't noticed her do it lately though (but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen).  The oven is in good condition though other than the damage I caused.
Next up the microhood.  Probablly the newest appliance provided.  The only real problem with it is the light to light up the stove top.  If you hit it just right you can get it to stay on for a while, but usually I find it's not worth the trouble. Otherwise it works great, the microwave heats nicely and the vent works well (it's just a matter of remembering to turn it on).
Then there's the fridge.  You've heard about the fridge right? How we had one, it was leaky, so we got a new one. Kat loves it.  Well, other than the fact that we really don't have enough space for all of our food, the top shelf sometimes falls down.  It's a real pain in the butt. And as if a small fridge that falls apart wasn't bad enough we have it set below one (on a scale of 1-5, five being the coldest) and we still have ice forming in the back. Stupid fridge.
Now, the newest appliance troubles.  The washer.  It doesn't properly run the spin cycle which leaves clothes still soaking wet.  But we got the landlord on it.  He came and looked at it is going to try to fix it (good luck buddy, I'm pretty sure it is one of the first washers ever created)  or just get us a new (used) one. Can't wait to see how this turns out...
Finally we have our dryer.  I don't believe we've had any problems there.  It works, gets the clothes dry, nothing to complain about.  It's just a little ancient like the washer.
So there you have our appliance tour. Well except I have a small chest freezer- only a couple years old and works fine.

A can also be for application- as in job application, Kat and I are in job hunting mode these days.  I just completed my first teaching application! How exciting!

That's it for today. Adios.

P.S. I know no one ever would have seen that title coming and I'm sure nobody else doing the A-Z challege would use such a title.  I couldn't help it though, I love sesame street!

Topics to Blog About A-Z

Today I was sitting at work and I was telling one of my co-workers about Joy and I's blog. Somehow she ended up finding this web page of things to write about. Amazingly enough they are broken down for grades 1-12.

http://www.thewritesource.com/writing_topics/#inc Check it out! I may or may not steal some of these amazing topics.

I would like to add that somewhere from being in the 1st grade to becoming a 5th year senior in college, that somehow topics become inappropriate to the adult mind. For example, here are some of the topics proposed for first graders.

1. The biggest thing I ever saw
2. Friendly places
3. I know a lot about...
4. I rode on a....
5. What's under my bed...

Here's to an entertaining April!

Kat

Something to look forward to

Since we haven't been sharing much lately I thought it would be fun to decide we are going to blog from A-Z in April that way our readers will actually have something to read (and I just wanna be like Maria). (since I know some people enjoy following such things cough Tiffany cough cough Sasha cough). I haven't told Kat yet but I know she's game. So now you have something to look forward to from us.
Funny story, today we were standing in our friends driveway looking at a friends license plate and Kat says "his license plates are expired. Someone should tell him his plates are expired." I look down and see a 12 sticker and a February sticker and I'm like "uhh Kat?" "he has a 12 sticker and February" Kat "oh, what year is it? it's only 2011 isn't it" Oh, Katrin. I just don't know about that girl most days.
In other news I got my teaching license in the mail the other day. Just in time for applying for job oppenings.  So far there are two oppenings in Wisconsin. So I spent today working on my resume and trying to convince Kat to write a cover letter for me.
Thats about all I got for now. Later Gators!

What To Do On A Sunday Night?

Last Sunday was mostly like another other. Joy and I played some Wii, I complained I was bored, Joy told me to stop complaining. Like I said, the usual. Except it was the start of spring break for me so no classes this week. Since Joy picked the Wii game we were going to play apparently it was up to me to decide our next activity. I said we should flip a coin and started rattling out our options: 1) Play Wii (Mario), 2) Play Board Games, 3) Watch Movies, 4) Go Out, 5) Joy Meets a Boy, and 6) Roll Again. Clearly, there were too many options for coin. Joy said, "Hey, don't you have dice on your phone?" Sure enough I do. No, I didn't buy it. For some odd reason it came on my phone. Joy goes into the bathroom and of course I don't leave her in peace. From outside the door I ask her if she wants the green dice or the orange one. We decide to use both and have a top two kind of strategy. Well, fun for me was that "Joy Meets a Boy" won. So, technically going out was on there twice. Joy swears I must have wanted to go out, but I don't know. It really doesn't take much convincing her anyway. We shook the dice to decide our first bar too and we were out the door and on our way.
We head to Bo's for a couple of drinks. We mainly sat there playing trivia and people watching like creepers. But really, what else is there to do at the bars on a Sunday night during spring break? I pretty much dominated Joy at trivia we got bored and left for Mel's. We only had one there, partially because we were the only two people there besides for the bartender and the regular who practically lives there. We moved on passed several bars because peeking inside there was no one there or much older people. We heard music coming from Shooter's so we headed there. There were a few people so we sat down and had a drink. I should mention there was this special kinda creeper at Bo's who hits on everyone. He happened to show up later but we'll get to that part of the adventure shortly. It was getting late and we were slightly bored. Shooter (the owner) told us to play some music. Joy said, "Well, unless you want to buy us another drink we were gonna bounce." So, he bought us another drink and gave us money to play some songs on the Juke Box. Score. It took us quite a while to pick songs, the creeper showed up, and Shooter left. Oh well. We were enjoying our drinks and chatting when the bartender poured us some shots. I immediately knew what it was - Goldschlager. Yuck! Whatever, it's a free drink. Some obviously wasted woman sat next to me. Thank God she had enough brain cells left to have water. It was especially annoying because she kept leaning towards us trying to hear out conversation and kept laughing at what we were talking about. Ohh, drunk people. Creeper showed up again and after saying Joy needed another drink he bought us more of the good (awful) stuff. I didn't want it so we shared it. Creeper was wasted and obnoxious. We got rid of him fast. As if Joy telling him several times that this was an A and B conversation and C needed to butt out wasn't enough for him to get the picture. It was still a fun night of roommate mayhem out on the town. Good times!

I guess since it's been 2 1/2 months...

I guess I just haven't had much in my life recently that felt blog worthy.  So sorry to anyone who has been looking for anything.
The other night Tiffy and I made plans to hit up the town, first to see the move Rango since it was at the cheap theater and then to karaoke. Kat even came out for a few drinks. On a school night! (thats a pretty big deal for her) It was a pretty fantastice time. We started with a few drinks at good ol' Mel's (where Melissa showed up as well) then off to the corner to sing a few.  After singing and enjoying a few $1 rail drinks Tiff and I headed back to Mels (the school irls had to get home to bed). As it was getting about closing time we were getting ready to go home but then a great song (I don't remember which one) and naturally I NEEDED to dance... on a table.  But they said you cant dance on the table... (so I was like okay and was getting down)...but you can dance on the bar. And so I pulled Tiffany up to the bar and we danced.
Other than that my life hasn't been real exciting I mostly sleep, work, and am currently reading Breaking Dawn. I'm not real into the Twilight series, but everyone else was all about them so I gave them a try. They are no Harry Potter though. Which is what I intend to (re)read next. To get ready for the final movie in July. I can't wait!
So I guess thats all I really have to say for today hopefully I'll have something more exciting and blogworthy soon.

Since Joy Isn't Saying Anything....

It seems like only yesterday that Joy and I moved into our place. We were barely settled in when cops came pounding on our door, or when Thanksgiving morning we received a turkey dinner and all the trimmings on our door step. I thought things were finally starting to slow down. Guess again. Last week I was in the kitchen when I see a car pull in our driveway. He rings the doorbell and asks for Melissa (one of our many former tenants). I told him that she no longer lived here. That should have been enough, but no. He wanted to know how long she'd been gone. I wanted to say, geez she stopped sending me letters ages ago. Really? We moved in here at the end of August so she's long gone. No, I don't know where she moved. He politely thanked me and left....so I thought. About 10 seconds later the doorbell rings again. Now he wants to know if she has a husband. Oh, his name is Paul, I was maid of honor in their wedding. Just kidding!! I didn't say all that, but it was tempting I'm not going to lie.

I'm a Hazard to Myself

I ordinarily think of myself as being put together and organized. Lately I feel like a scatter brain at times. I'm not sure if I'm still trying to adjust to being back to juggling classes, work, and a social life, or maybe I have a major case of senioritis. No matter what my deal is I'm afraid for Joy's sake that one day she'll come home and something catastrophic happened. Let me explain.
One day I had a little pot of water on one burner and a frying pan sitting on the one behind it. I wanted to heat up the water for tea or something before I had to leave for class or work. So, I crank up the burner with the water on it (or so I thought) and went into the bathroom. I hear Joy come up from the basement and say, "Oh, Katrin...." I scorched a frying pan instead of heating up my water. Who doesn't turn on the wrong burner sometimes though, right?
Then, there are the times where I just take a risk while trying to accomplish an ordinary task. This weekend I cleaned, no scrubbed the bathroom clean. This is how adventurous I am on the weekends. Well, our shower has those sliding doors with the metal tracks to keep the doors in place. I just cleaned the tub so it was all wet. I look up and notice the mold forming on the edges of the ceiling. That has got to go. So, naturally I step on the wet metal track barefoot and all while I reach on my tippy-toes trying to get the mold with a sponge. I could have potentially fallen and seriously injured myself, but it was a success. No harm no foul - this time.
Now, to make matters worse I like to burn candles in my room. It smells really nice and helps relax me. I had one sitting on my night table on the other side of my bed, but I figured at the rate I was going it wasn't the wisest choice to have an open flame next to my flammable bedding. Now it sits on top of my TV. The candle was getting really low and I thought I would just let it burn out until I went to sleep. Pretty much the thought of me blowing it out ended as I passed out watching the TV. Yup, I woke up in the morning and realized I fell asleep with the candle burning. Good news was I used up the candle and the house was still intact.

Poor Joy. I'm wondering if she falls asleep at night wondering what catastrophe I might cause during the night. Or maybe she just wakes up feeling grateful to be alive. Yeah, that's it....I bring out the best in people!

Jokes!

I get two goldfish and name them one and two. Why would I do this?

---------------------->So if one dies I still have two!

*Credit to our janitor, Steve.

Now, one of my originals so give me credit darnit.

What happens to a male lizard when he gets old?

----------------------> He gets ereptile dysfunction!

Good Heaven...it's 2011!!!

Apparently Joy and I have been slacking in the blogging department. I can't believe it's 2011! Time is literally flying by. It seems like only yesterday that we moved in together in a non-lover sort of way. Now it's a whole new year and I'm excited for what it will bring. As for me, I'm in my final semester and it feels weird to say that I'm graduating in May. I'm pretty scared about that actually. My plans are still to move towards the Twin Cities, work, study for the LSATs, and hopefully get into one of the laws schools in the area. But I've learned not to plan too much because nothing ever goes the way I plan it to. Time will tell so I'll just take things day by day. So far life is great.  =]

Since the new year I've gotten to try many new and exciting things. I'm learning how to ice skate for a class and my boyfriend introduced me to boot hockey which is a ton of fun! I also got to go to my first NHL game and the Wild won. Plus I tried something I never thought I would try...sushi. It was flash fried crab and a veggie kind. It was quite delicious. I even started the semester by working back at the University Center at the desk. I love it and it's great to be back.

I can't really speak for Joy though. Right now she's out partying like a rockstar while I'm taking a study break. I'm sure she'll delete this before many people read this, but I have to say she looked rather foxy tonight. Oh Joy...