Pfffft

Sigh...Happy Monday everyone.

The weekend is already over? Really?

At least it was somewhat productive - Husband & I got all! our Christmas shopping done. DONE! We are so on the ball this year. We even did Holiday postcards! Look at us go! Now we just have to wrap & send everything. The optimistic goal is to get that done next weekend. But I'm not going to hold my breathe.

I officially started studying last night. Big Sigh. I really didn't want to, but was in that icky place where I was feeling itchy because I hadn't yet started, so I just decided to bite it and get started. And I started with a doozy - Civ Pro. Hooray for titillating topics! It went fairly smoothly, so I hope this is a sign of things to come with studying this time.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving went swimmingly well. I'm assuming you're all still in food coma as I haven't had ANY visitors for the last two weeks (according to my site meter)! It's shocking!

We put up the Christmas tree last night. It's a fakey, but with two cats (both of whom could still be classified as kittens), a real tree is definitely not worth it! I did decorate it, but only with lights. Husband & I took bets about how long it would take the cats to knock down the tree, and I won. They knocked it down at about 2:30 am on Sunday morning. Which is precisely why I opted for no ornaments & just lights - I don't want to have to collect ornaments every night when I get home from work.

We're moving. Ugh. Because we've just decided in the last few months that we wanted to buy, we not ready to buy immediately - we want to spend some time looking and watching the housing market here - we're moving into another apartment unit. We would have loved to stay in our current unit, but they're making everyone move out at the end of their lease term to do renovations (read: increase rent) on every unit. So we decided we'll probably be further ahead financially if we stay at this apartment complex, so we're going into a renovated (read: more expensive) unit sometime around Christmas. It's supposed to be done around the 20th, but I'm not moving on Christmas (we won't even be here!), so I'm anticipating we'll be in the new unit by the 1st.

Anyways. I am listening to Christmas music at work to keep myself in the Holiday mood. It certainly helps, as I've lately become disenchanted with my job. Ahh, but that's for another post.

Hooray for Snow Days!

What's better than a snow day when you're in elementary school? A snow day when you're an ADULT!!! Hooray! Although perhaps it's technically more of an ice day. The road I live on is blocked off because there's a hill that's a sheet of ice (hmmm, ice sledding, anyone?) and there are 2 Metro buses stuck at the top of the hill from last night! And speaking of last night, it took me 2 hours to get home - miserable.

So I get to stay home today! Hooray!

I hope all of you find something equally joyous today.

Well isn't that interesting...

Maybe I should go back to not updating...visits here have completely dropped off since I started posting again!

In other news, what are all of you doing for Thanksgiving? My dad is currently in town, and tomorrow morning bright and early we are heading down (in a Southerly direction, that is) to my sister's. I'm very excited to see my 7 year old nephew and 1 1/2 year old niece, who is now saying "MINE!" to everything! Oh, and it'll be nice to see my sister, of course.

Anyways, I hope you all have a great Turkey day (or Tofurkey day, as the case may be). I'll be back on Saturday night. See you all then.

Hooray!

This morning I received some delightful news: the tech guy that was trying to extract stuff off my bad hard drive was successful! I am so thrilled! Of course now I have to procure somewhere in the vicinity of 20 CDs to burn this stuff to, but at least I haven't lost anything! Hot dog!

I hope you all have a great day, too!

Blech

Today is the type of day where your shoes eat your socks.

Change is a' blowin'...

Hmm. I feel like we went through a bad breakup but are now forced to be friends. I'm not sure where exactly to start or what to say. I could revert to doing a list, but wouldn't you feel cheated out of a "hey, I'm back" real post?

Let's start with the obvious. I decided the site needed a little revamping. And I'd been away for so long that I didn't realize the changes Blogger had instituted. Not that I'm complaining. I like it. And I think I like the new look to this site. What do you think? (That is assuming there are any of you left as loyal readers given my unexplained, totally un-called for disappearance.)

I finally got my computer back with it's brand-new, empty, wiped-clean harddrive. That's really the rub, there - my laptop is completely free of anything I ever put on it. One of the computer tech guys at work is angelically and heroically trying to extract whatever he can from it, but it's extraordinarily disheartening to not have anything left. If I ever want to put a new CD or new music on my ipod, doing that will (at least as far as I'm aware now) erase what music I no longer own. This doesn't mean I'm a big music thief, it just means that one of my CD cases was stolen (still not over that one) and I'd purchsed iTunes music, that I don't think they'll let me download again just for free.

In craftsy news, I now know how to crochet. You can call me Harriet Homemaker, it's okay. And yes, I even crocheted on the bus on Friday - and I did feel like a 58-year-old woman, but it's fun. I'm currently making dishcloths for Christmas presents. It keeps me occupied (and not studying, hee!).

Husband & I have decided to enter into a very adult activity: buying real estate. We've started looking with the aim of buying in 6 months to a year. It's very exciting, although I found a townhouse I love, but we're not ready to buy yet, and it's a little more than we could afford right now. I'm hoping that by the time we are ready to buy, I'll be making lawyer money and we can afford something like that.

OK, now it's time to go get one of the cookies I made last night - Dark Chocolate Peppermint. Divine.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Life has gotten kind of crazy. I know that's not really a good excuse for why I haven't been updated, but it is what it is.

Let's start with today and move backwards, shall we?

I found out TODAY that there is a DSW opening up on FRIDAY in Bellevue!!! Hooray!!! I absolutely cannot wait for it to open! And since I'm a DSW Rewards member, I got invited to a preview on Thursday night - I'm SO going to be there!

I am currently engaged in a serious battle of germs in my sinuses. Now that we've moved into the new building at work, it's like an incubation tube for germs... or like working in an airplane cabin. Fantastic. So many people have been sick last week. I'm sure the candy corn I'm currently cracking out on is helping the germ warfare.

I entered into new territory yesterday: I dyed my hair. It's actually not completely died, but instead I got 3 different colors put in with foils. It's very subtle, but I really, really love it! I think next time I'll do it a little bit more obvious.

This last weekend, Husband & I went to see his mom & step-dad in Vegas. It was a quick weekend trip - we flew there Friday night, flew back late Sunday night. But it was so much fun! We went to Red Rock Canyon on Saturday afternoon, then to see Cirque du Soleil's show Ka Saturday night - it was AWESOME!!! We did gamble a little bit, but only on the nickle slots. And I won $8.62! Sunday morning we got up and all went to the driving range - it was my first time hitting a golf ball...let's just say that I'll be checking into lessons come Spring. :-) Then the Mother-In-Law & I went shopping! It was fun! We went to DSW!!!

In the ongoing saga of my poor little laptop-with-the-dead-harddrive, I am still waiting for my system replace disks from Compaq. They were supposed to arrive on the 16th. Apparently, Compaq still doesn't have them from their supplier, and they don't know when they'll get them. This is awesome. Tonight the tech guy offered to give me a deal on a brand-new laptop because this current situation is "ridiculous" (I wholeheartedly agree!) - he said less than $600. While a great deal, I just want my damn system disks so I can have my computer back. That and I'm wondering how low they'll go when I don't have my disks in another 2 weeks. :-)

I have also waged a very serious war with Verizon Wireless. I think I won, but does one ever really know with cell phone companies? They're all out to screw you one way or another, I suppose. I don't think I have the energy to go all back into details, but they were trying to screw me by making me either stay in a contract extension they never told us about or pay through the ass. I think I have gotten the $100 charge reversed, but in any event my contract is up on November 6th. So only a little over 6 more days with them, then I can shop around. What a pain, though. All I have to say is once you sign a contract, NEVER EVER change ANYTHING on your contract or else you'll be getting yourself into a heap of trouble.


This coming weekend I am going to San Francisco to see my two of my bestest friends from college! It'll undoubtedly seem way too short, but regardless, it will be so good to have some quality girl time! The weekend after that my aunt & uncle are coming to visit from Chicago - I can't wait for their visit! Then we have something like 5 days and then my dad is coming for Thanksgiving. It's going to be a busy month! And of course at some point in there I'll start studying again...sigh.

So, how are all of you?

Guess who's having THE BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Let's just have a short recap, shall we?

Saturday morning: I find out I only passed half the bar exam. We're thankful for the bits and pieces.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday: At work, we moved into a new building, a brand, spanking new building, and Tuesday was the first day in the building. We have these new Mutli-Function Devices (or, rather mother f*cking devices as we prefer to call them) that I have jammed every single day this week...jammed to the point that the technician had to call the back-up technician. Lovely.

Tuesday night: after being on hold with Best Buy's Geek Squad for 40+ minutes, I find out my laptop's hard drive is beyond dead. Dead, naughty, gone to hell and burned up, never coming home, GONE. My laptop is less than 2 years old. Stupid piece of Compaq CRAP. I'm just glad I bought the 3 year warranty. In any event, if they can't recover anything off my DEAD & GONE hard drive, I'll have lost: all my pictures, all my music (as in CDs that were stolen, iTunes music I bought, etc.), everything I ever did for any bar exam I've ever taken, everything I did for law school (there are a few things on Husband's Apple computer) ... sob ... GONE.

Wednesday: I went and picked up my essay answers and found out that I missed passing the bar by 12 (TWELVE) points. If I had gotten 10 more points, I could have appealed not passing. At least I was very close - I'd rather be super close than way off the mark.

Thursday morning: I found out some potentially really bad health-related news about Husband's mom. She's probably going to be okay, but we won't know until next week. Sigh.

Thursday night: I take Husband out for dinner & beer, and as we're coming out of the restaurant, I slip on the gravel/small rocks and take a lovely, BIG, HARD fall. I land on my lower back/upper arse and elbow. You should see my bruises. I've got 2 separate spots of bruises on my ass, and my elbow is looking delicious.

Today: I decided to cough up $595 dollars for an bar essay course that is essentially 1-on-1 tutoring. Hopefully exactly what I need.

I think that about covers it...

The proper way to recover from half-disappointments...

I say "half-disappointments" because I half-passed the bar. I'm not complaining - I'm VERY glad I passed part of it, don't get me wrong, I'm just still not over not having passed the other half. Grrrr. At least come February, I only have to re-take the naughty portion. I say "naughty" 'cuz I'm going to kick its ass.

Ok, so, the proper way to recover:

1. Take Monday off. If you're lucky like me, you got today off as a PAID holiday. I know, I know, too cool for school.

2. Sleep in. Only get out of bed when you are good and ready to.

3. Call massage place and make an appointment for an hour and a half hot rocks massage.

4. Go get your eyebrows waxed.

5. Go enjoy the absolute bliss of the hour and a half hot rocks massage. Awesome, by the way, truly awesome. I've been relaxed all afternoon!

6. Go downtown and meet a friend for drinks at this cool wine bar.

7. Come home, eat naughty food, watch bad reality TV (or anything on MTV), cuddle with the cats.

8. Go to bed early. Hot dog - extra sleep!

Apparently we're doing this in baby steps...

Thank you, Bob Wiley, I see your therapist's book "Baby Steps" has jumped from the DVD to my real life. Awesome. I passed half the bar. Seriously. Half the fucking exam.

I can't believe I didn't pass the entire fucking piece of crap exam. I know, I know - at least I passed half of it. We're taking a minute to get to that whole glass-half-full outlook.

Yes, I'm a little angry. I suppose this is normal after all the abuse California put me through. I thought the WA bar would be a more considerate... ah.. lover - more polite, less demanding, more sensitive, less throwing the blame my way...

Apparently, we're only 1/2 way there...now...la la, ...

And yes, this reminds me of a certain Bon Jovi song... and yes, you're all very welcome to sing that particular song to me. In fact it might even be welcome.

I think it's time for another glass of spiked cider - with top-shelp Jamaican rum. Hoo-hah.

I also have to ask - do you any of you know of a good essay tutor?!?

and I also have one more thing to say: LOOK OUT, YOU STUPID PIECE OF FUCKING CRAP EXAM, COME FEBRUARY, YOU'RE GOING TO MEET YOUR FUCKING MAKER! COURTESY OF ME, BITCH, COURTESY OF ME! YOU'RE SO GOING DOWN! (And you might want to put down a piece of padding to cushion your fall, just an FYI.)

You never realize how bumpy a bus ride is until you have to pee...

Tomorrow I am probably geting bar results.

Holy freaking crap, people, holy freaking crap.

Shit shit shit f*ck shit.

That's about all I have to say about that.

Perhaps an R.I.P. for my laptop...

Last night my laptop decided it didn't want to fully boot up. It got part way through, and then decided to go to this very ominous looking blue screen with all sorts of scary code and message that said it was erasing all the physical memory. I've had it less than 2 years... stupid piece of Compaq crap.

So I'm on Husband's iBook G4... I'm afraid the inevitable is finally coming to fruition - am I really going to become a Mac convert now?

Husband & I are currently enjoying all the fruits Halloween has to offer - we're getting into our Halloween movie list. Tonight we're watching The Nightmare Before Christmas - very cute! We have already watched Psycho, Night of the Living Dead (the original), and this one. Yes, we are a little slow...but thank goodness for Netflix! And I am chock full of Halloween spirit - my apartment has been decorated for about 2 weeks now. Hooray for Halloween!

And yes, along with all the Halloween lovliness, there are plenty of those little bite-size candy bars. My thighs are happy to say the least. And of course all my nerves waiting for bar results this weekend has me eating without really thinking about it. Ugh. But I. CAN'T. STOP.!!!

In all seriousness, I think the reason I'm so Halloween-crazy is because I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween growing up - I had a very Footloose childhood, but without the fun dancy ending. So naturally I rebelled and am gung-ho into holidays. Especially Halloween. At work we're moving to a new building this weekend, so on Tuesday (I have monday off, lucky dog that I am) I am going to bring in some little Halloween desk decorations. Very excited.

The only thing is that I want to know from you guys about your favorite Halloween costumes. So spill it!

Trying to rack up last-minute karma points...

Blogging has been hard work for me lately. And instead of writing something half-assed, I'd rather just not write anything at all. Stuff has been going on - I got my hair chopped off by a friend who works at a very hoity-toity salon (very cute, short, graduated bob, which has led my stylist friend's husband to call me "Bob"), decorated the apartment for Halloween (hooray!), and made some travel plans.

I think I've come to a conclusion about my job. If I get good news next week (yes, already next week - more on that later), I'm going to begin quietly looking for another job . Don't get me wrong - I really love working for my current employer, but given that it's a fairly enormous corporate gig, my ability to move up from current menial secretarial position to hot-shot attorney isn't exactly mindblowing. I mean, there are opportunities for upward movement, but I'm not sure I'd be able to be patient enough to wait out the process. So I think I'll start seriously looking at options after Christmas - I'm going to try and stick with my verbal year commitment - and hopefully find something perfect. Despite the fact that my job isn't very cerebral, I'm not in a huge rush to leave it willy-nilly. I have really great benefits, and it's paying my student loans...so why leave that stability for anything that isn't a good fit, you know?

Yes, so by next week this time, I should have my bar results. If the postal service is running well and the gods don't hate me. I REALLY don't know how I feel about getting results via the mail, where I'll have to hold an actual envelope and decide whether I want to tear into it or open it slowly with the aid of Vodka. And speaking of vodka, Husband & I just got a very big bottle of vodka and a very big bottle of top shelf rum this weekend. Hooray for liquor! I've been used to getting results in California, where you get your rejection in a more instantaneous fashion. At least I'll have serious confirmation so there'll be no doubts.

If any of you want details about WA bar results, email me & I'll let you know. And may all of us still waiting on results be blessed with lots of good karma...

Apparently you guys aren't joiners...

So either I've gotten really boring and nobody comes to visit anymore, or you're all a bunch of wallflowers.

I saw SARAH JESSICA PARKER!!! She was here promoting her perfume Lovely. I didn't buy the perfume, so I didn't actually get to tell her how much I love her, but I did go up & down the escalators to watch her. And man, is she ever gorgeous in reality! It was so cool!

Of all the people I've seen when I lived in LA, I think I got the most excited about her! So it was a great week!

Who's LOVELY?!?

Guess who I saw today?

No really, GUESS!!!

Here are some hints:

1. She's an actress with a very successful TV show behind her, and she's in films
2. She lives in NYC
3. She's LOVELY (no, not de-lovely, lovely)

What's been going on with me?!?

Dude. I don't know what's been going on with me. I have felt very absent when it comes to writing. Maybe my muse is a little caught up in the stress of waiting for bar results. Maybe I'm just in a lazy spell.

Work is going well. I'm not really challenged, but it is what it is. I do have some crazy co-workers that I will write about... eventually. I just haven't had the patience for sitting down and writing. I think it's more of a general feeling of restlessness. If I find out good news next month, will I be able to be patient & stay at my job until upward movement is possible? Or will I eschew the benefits/fun co-workers/cool corporate culture for an attorney position?

I have recently become totally addicted to Nip/Tuck. We didn't have cable until we moved here, so when Tivo decided to record a few episodes, I gladly watched. And WOW! do I love it! That and Project Runway have been my obsessions. Oh, um, and Rockstar. I can't help myself. A co-worker & I have bet a cup of coffee over who's going to win. I'll not spill yet who I want to win, but I'll let you know if I win the bet.

The cats are doing good. Cooper got snipped on Saturday and had a rough recovery. Now that he's back in full pouncey form, he & Jiminy are doing great. I think Jiminy had been feeling threatened by Cooper's manliness because Jiminy has been very affectionate and sweet since Cooper's surgery. So things are good on the fur front.

A few weekends ago at dinner, Husband and I allowed ourselves the true luxury of imagining what life will be like if I do pass. I'm trying not to waste energy on thinking about results, but sometimes I can't help it. And it certainly doesn't help when people at work ask me when results are coming out. Believe it or not, that STRESSES ME OUT!!!

OH - I almost forgot to share some very exciting news: we are currently enjoying a 2 week free trial of Netflix. And IT'S AWESOME. We got the first movie today - Fun With Dick and Jane. The movie was funny - I'd recommend it. One of the best parts was at the very end when they thanked all the defunct companies - that was a riot.

Anyways, kids, I'll try to keep up more with posting, but maybe my heads just a little too caught up in Sudoku?

Martha Stewart and her cookies shall be the death of me.

I made Martha Stewart's Double Chocolate Cookies tonight, with Dutch-process cocoa, that my in-laws brought me from the Netherlands. Yeah, 'cuz that's how I roll.

I got the itch for cookies after we'd gone out to RedHook brewery, come home, & gotten my arse beaten at Scrabble... as soon as I said "Double Chocolate Cookies," Husband was on the bandwagon. Nevermind the fact we had to go to the grocery store for more chocolate (in addition to the Dutch processed cocoa, the recipe called for 4 oz of finally beaten and 4 oz of finally chopped "good quality" baking cocoa - of which I decided to mix semisweet & bittersweet), he was on board.

And oh my gawd...we are both going to explode from the chocolatey gooey goodness. I said the cookies were the perfect post-nookie treat, and Husband said "POST?!???", so I guess you know what he thought of them...

The mixture of semisweet & bittersweet, in case you wanted to know, was like C-R-A-C-K. Holy cow! I shall not be leaving the house until Tuesday morning to go to work...

Lucky?

Yesterday, on the 1st of September (not to state the obvious...), I found FOUR pennies, all HEADS UP.

I feel this is going to be a good month - lots of people will find out they passed the bar!

Oh yeah, I still got it.

How do I know I still got it? I got hit on. After the Mariners game on Friday night (wherein they kicked some Boston Butt!) I was waiting for Husband & my cousin to use the restroom when this guy came up to me & said something (ok, so he was maybe a bit drunk...hush!). I didn't understand, so he said "my friends & I are going to this bar, wanna' come?" I said "oh, um, I'm waiting for my husband" and pointed to the bathroom. He then smacked his forehead with his hand and said "OH, OH MAN! I'M SUCH AN ASS!!! I can't believe I'm one of those guys...I just hit on a married chick! I'm so sorry!!!"

Of course I said "that's okay... no really, THAT'S OKAY!" Unsaid: "keep going...no really, tell me more..."

I had a great weekend with my cousin. We went whale watching (awesome - there was a super pod of Orcas!) and ate great foods and spent a day on Bainbridge Island (where I'm moving when I'm a millionaire). It was so nice to be with family!

The cats are now chums, I'm happy to report. That's not to say they don't still fight...they have nightly brawls at 3:30 am on the bed...on top of ME. But there's cuddling. And cuddling is good.

I know I've not been writing very much...and I do feel badly about that, but I've just not been in the mood. And yeah, I suppose I have to be in the mood to write.

Meet Cooper Rufus!

As you can see, Jiminy has taken to bathing Cooper. I'm not sure if Cooper should be offended or not, but he still enjoys it at this point!

Okay, now leave plenty of comments about Cooper's ridiculous cuteness.