I learned a lot in the time that I had Vinz,and in the time I had Xoie, about raising puppies, qualities I should look for in a dog, my own shortcomings, and so on and so forth. I learned about not letting the “dogs are for life” people and their mentality get to me when I realize that sometimes, you’re doing a dog a dis-service by keeping it, because some dogs need different things than what I can give them, no matter now much I wish I could. Vinz flat out needed a yard and some kids to chase. I didn’t have a yard, or the energy to run around for hours on end (or the time). Xoie needed way more devotion and attention than I had to spare, and somebody that she respected (which was totally not me). So, I did what needed to be done. I found them the right home. Didn’t take the easy way out and leave them at a shelter - I gave them what they needed, and I feel I did the right thing for everyone involved.

Which, however, left me without a furry friend, which is a very sad position to be in.

But I learned a few things from it all for my next attempt. First, I evidently can’t raise a puppy. I am horrible at housebreaking, and horrible at making sure that the puppy knows what’s okay to chew on and what’s not. Second, small dogs are brats. Like, really. They’re cute, but they’re brats, and they don’t listen very well. So I went a different route this time.

I’ve adopted a golden retriever/chow chow mix.  He’s about 8 months old, so past the initial puppy stage, but still a young dog. I adopted him from a shelter, instead of a breeder. I didn’t realize how awesome shelter dogs can be! This dog (his name is Toby and he’s AWESOME) seems to be the perfect match for Pod and I. He’s remarkably well behaved, he’s well socialized, we haven’t had any accidents in the house so he appears to be housebroken already, and he knows Sit and Shake. Oh, and he’s adorable.

He’s still adjusting to home life, though. He hasn’t really eaten a whole lot yet, and he follows us where-ever we go or whines if he’s left alone in another room. Today he’s been wandering to the kitchen alone though, so I think he’ll get past that soon.

It also doesn’t seem like he ever learned how to play with toys. He’s pretty disinterested in his rope toy, his plushie toy, the tennis ball.. like he just doesn’t know what to do with them. He also doesn’t seem very amused by treats, though he’s just discovered how great rawhide bones with little meaty-bits in them are. And Greenies.. honestly, I think all dogs love Greenies. But we’re working on the playing.. last night, I heard a Squeak in the other room, which means he at least put the sun plushie in his mouth. Progress! But he seems content to just lay by my feet and have his ears scratched. I loves him. I think I found the right dog for me this time.

So, remember how I was talking about how I wanted a 10 gallon community tank in my living room? I did one better… we bought a 20 gallon tank. It’s so big, I love it!

Today we added the first few fish to it.

I’m working from the living room today so I can observe. They are obviously still in adaptation mode, but I need to make sure that nobody gets bullied. I did my homework and found a list of fish that can be (relatively) safely housed with a male betta, so I’m keeping an eye on them to make sure he doesn’t start picking on the other fish.

Their initial reaction was a bit different than I’d have expected. Here’s a photo of the tank before I put any fish in it:

So, the betta immediately swam into the big tree decoration. He’s come out a couple of times, but mostly is camping out inside, in the dark, far away from the other 5 fish.

I got two mollies, a white molly and a dalmatian molly (mine is more black than white). The white one initially was hanging out near the surface, and ate most of the food I put in there. Now he’s exploring a little bit more, but still spending more time near the surface than anywhere else. The dalmatian one has been exploring pretty thoroughly and likes to follow the bottom feeder around. Now the two mollies are spending more time near each other.

The neon tetra was initially cowering behind the tall plants (literally, he looked like he was shaking) for a while but is now out and about.

The guppy seems the best adjusted so far, he’s been exploring the whole time and is now content to hang out with the tetra; they’re BFF’s hehe.

And, the cory catfish, in true bottom feeder fashion, is playing with the gravel at the bottom of the tank.

So far everybody looks happy but the betta; I prefer hiding in the dark to attacking other fish though, so we’ll see how he does when he’s done playing in the dark.

Once these fish are established, we’ll pick up a few more; either of similar types or more of what we’ve got.There’s a few other kinds that can co-exist with a betta as long as he’s not snarky. If he seems really docile, I might try some angel fish - they’re labeled as “use caution”, so they may or may not get along with the betta, depending on individual temperament.

Or: Why I Can’t Take Jeffry Anywhere

So, Oregon has this state law that says we’re not allowed to pump our own gas, because apparently if we do, we will set ourselves on fire.

Today, Jeffry and I went up to Vancouver, WA to visit a friend of the family and some of my relatives that were in the area for a wedding. The gas light came on shortly after we left their house to come back home, so we stopped at a gas station. Two seconds later, he goes ,

“Awwwww crap.”
“What’s wrong dear?”
“It’s self serve!”
“... and?”
“............”
“... you seriously don’t know how to pump gas?!”
“NO.”

Ladies and gentlemen, my boyfriend doesn’t know how to pump gas.

So I got out and did it and proceeded to laugh at him for the next hour. Heehee

When I got my apartment, I pulled my little 1.5 gallon fish tank back out of it’s box and set it up next to my desk and stocked it with a red/white (he changed colors.. he was more blue/white when I bought him) betta named George. George is the most entertaining fish I’ve ever had. When I first put him in the tank, he was picking fights with his reflection in the tank. Once he got used to himself, he started picking fights with the gravel at the bottom of his tan, which was hilarious. Then when he got bored with that, he started playing with the currant from the water filter… he’d swim up to the top, relax his body, and let the flow send him “flying” across the tank. Super cute. He also likes to stare at me when he knows I’m watching him.

I noticed that George was really fond of laying on top of the little plactic plants that were in there but they didn’t seem to be treating his fins well, so I bought some live plants and a little cave to put in his tank. That triggered the need for an aqaurium.. his tiny tank seems so FULL now, and OMG I really want to do more aquascaping.

A few weeks ago, George got really sick. He turned grey, stopped eating, and spent all his time laying in the corner of his tank. After a few days, his breathing started looking really strained as well. I took in a sample of his water for testing to see if it was a problem with the ph balance or something but I was told that the tank water was nigh perfect. I started reading all about betta illnesses and stuff trying to figure out what was wrong with him. I was worried that I’d look over and find him belly up (and at one point he looked so bad that I almost hoped I would just so he wouldn’t be suffering anymore, cause it broke my heart how miserable he seemed to be) but George is a trooper. I took him in to the fish shop to see what they thought and they said “well, he looks pretty terrible but an antibiotic might help him. don’t get your hopes too high though.”

So we came home and started his antibiotic and stress reducing treatment. Within 3 days he was back to his old self again

But all the research made me realize how fascinating fish really are, and how they have personalities and all that. Pair this with the want to do more aquascaping and I seem to have a problem. I want a 10 gallon community tank for my living room. George is going to stay here by my desk so I can see him all day cause he rocks, but there’s a bunch of fish that you can (relatively) safely tank with one male betta. I saw one once; my friends dad had a large tank with about 9 fish and a male betta; he was HUGE. It was cool. I want a tank like that.

I might get one this month, which would be exciting. I’m researching what kinds of fish I can put together. Anybody have any suggestions?

I know I said I would document it daily for those playing The Home Game, but honestly, there was nothing to report most days. Every other entry would have looked much like Day 3, and wasn’t worth writing home about.

The final tally wound up being 5.6 pounds less than I started at, which isn’t bad at all. I still really think it was all water weight, and noticed the slowdown right at Day 4, which I assume is when I ran out of excess water to drop. Measurements are all about a half inch lower, except stomach which is a full inch lower. Not really a visible difference but not a bad start.

I don’t know that I can confidently say that the SLIMQUICK Cleanse had much, if anything to do with this though… I honestly think that drinking a lot of water (which I am notorious for not having done before starting this program) and eating reasonable food did it all. I’m going to hit all the points that The Cleanse says it helps:

1. Eliminate TOXINS: SLIMQUICK cleanse contains ingredients which help eliminate toxins from the digestive tract.  Toxin elimination is a key process in any cleansing or detoxifying regime.

It’s hard to comment on this specific point. What do toxins look like when they vacate the premises? How do you feel after? I don’t feel any cleaner… *shrug* No ideas on this one.

2. Increase METABOLISM: An increase in metabolic rate helps contribute towards weight loss by increasing calories burned throughout the day. SLIMQUICK cleanse contains clinically researched key ingredients to boost metabolism.

Another one that’s hard to comment on, as you can’t really *feel* your metabolism. Can’t really weigh the weight loss results against anything either as I drank more water and ate less calories while my metabolism was “faster” so there’s no way to measure this claim.

3. Improve functions of DIGESTIVE TRACT: SLIMQUICK cleanse contains ingredients to help with daily functioning of the digestive tract as well as ingredients to help promote a healthy intestinal flora.  Healthy intestinal flora is central to the functioning of the digestive tract.

My digestive tract did not seem improved. More on that in Point 5, which may be a bit TMI.

4. Increase ENERGY: Increased energy expenditure or calorie burning through physical activity is a key factor in any weight-loss program. SLIMQUICK cleanse contains ingredients shown to elevate one’s energy levels.  By increasing energy, women are able to get through their busy days and still have energy to undertake regular physical exercise and maintain an active lifestyle.

Not at all. I felt just as tired the whole time I was on the cleanse than I did before it… moreso on some days. I even cheated one day and had a cup of coffee in the morning and was still not more energized.

5. Cleanse the COLON: SLIMQUICK cleanse contains ingredients which have been shown to help increase one’s ability to achieve effective bowel functions by increasing the frequency of bowel movements and improving the efficiency of the colon.

NO. No, this did not happen at all. If anything, I pooped less than I usually do. I feel rather constipated and would love nothing more than to have an “effective bowel function” right about now. The only effect SLIMQUICK Cleanse had on my poop was making it softer (which wasn’t necessary, my poop was not rock hard thx), smaller and stinkier. I think I’m more backed up now than I was before.

6. Balance BLOOD SUGAR: SLIMQUICK cleanse is designed with ingredients to help balance blood sugar (glucose) and promote healthy blood glucose homeostasis. It is important to maintain blood glucose homeostasis for overall maintenance of bodyweight and good health.

This point, however, I am more than happy to give them. I am inclined to say that it did help stabilize my blood sugar, as I didn’t get dizzy when I got hungry, which happens to me often. My blood sugar has been known to tank with no warning, leaving me feeling horrible on top of being hungry. This did not seem to happen during my cleanse. I was, however, chronically hungry all week.

So, over all, it seems like many of these claims are not really measurable. I did lose 5 pounds during the week long cleanse and am very happy about that, but I just don’t know that I believe the Cleanse had anything to do with that. Drink plenty of water and eat reasonably, and I suspect those first 5 pounds will come off easily… if it works like I think it does you’ll simply pee them away. In a nutshell: I wouldn’t do it again.. at least, not without trying the water-and-healthy-food thing first, to have something to compare to.

I do have the SLIMQUICK Caplets, which I intend to try out starting tomorrow (I really need a break from swallowing ginormous things, ugh!) and will share my thoughts on as they come up. Stay tuned.

SLIMQUICK Cleanse series: Intro · Day 1 · Day 2 · Day 3 · Final Review

Morning weigh-in: 153.2 (down 2.6 from yesterday; 4.4 total) <—wow…

I skipped the Rise and Shine Liver Flush today… I just can’t do the warm lemonade today. Stomach says “do it and die, woman”.

There’s not much new to report today. Yesterday’s menu left a bit to be desired (I was hungry ALL DAY) but I drank tons of water and that helped a bit. Today I’m cheating a little because I didn’t make it to the store, but I’ve made it a point to stay within the calorie guidelines so I think it’ll be okay.

Still doesn’t seem to be any negative side effects from the Cleanse, which makes me happy.

That’s all for now!

SLIMQUICK Cleanse series: Intro · Day 1 · Day 2 · Day 3 · Final Review

Morning weigh-in: 155.8

That’s almost 2 pounds less than yesterday; I’m sure it’s all water weight cause I’ve been peeing like a racehorse, but it’s a nice start

My first thoughts on the Cleanse caplets.. holy crap they’re huge! And I have to take 4 of them! It’s a good thing I mastered the art of swallowing horse pills throughout the years of having a bad immune system!

Within minutes of taking the first dose (right before I was planning on eating lunch) I felt really bloated and like my stomach was way too full. I was hungry right before taking the pills. Food was not an option for a while. After about an hour, it went from bloated and full to kind of gassy and like I really needed to burp, but couldn’t. I managed to eat lunch then, which helped a little, but my stomach felt awful for about 5 hours.

Lunch on day 1 was awesome. I was amazed at how much food I got for so few calories.. I didn’t even need to eat it all (though I contribute some of it to the feeling I got from the capsules).

After a few hours my stomach started to feel better (burping helped; I drank some carbonated water). The second dose, and this afternoons dose did not have the same effect on me, so I think it’s smooth sailing from here. I’m feeling pretty alright, though breakfast is never enough food and I’m hungry straight through lunch time. After lunch I’m fine, though.

More tomorrow.

SLIMQUICK Cleanse series: Intro · Day 1 · Day 2 · Day 3 · Final Review

I’ve started the SLIMQUICK Cleanse today, though I’m a couple hours behind schedule because I slept late, because I’m sick.

Can I just say that the Rise and Shine Liver Flush is going to kill me? OMG. My brain/stomach just doesn’t know how to handle the idea of “warm lemonade” and it was a struggle with my body to drink (and keep down) the warm water with lemon juice. Part of it is because I was queasy to begin with (yay sick!) but I had the same problem with the lemon flavored Theraflu... warm lemonade = ick.

So I’m having Breakfast now (blueberry smoothie) and took some starting measurements. They’re really depressing.

Weight: 157.6
Butt: 43 inches
Stomach (at largest part for me): 40 inches
Waist (actual): 33 inches
Hips: 38.5 inches

(oddly enough, my WHR seems to still be within “healthy range” haha)

The first caplets come before lunch.. I’ll be following the actual Cleanse diet pretty closely today (assuming I can find trout for dinner). Tomorrow I’ll let you know my thoughts on the caplets, and how today went. I’ll be posting scale weight (taken first thing in the morning, after I pee, before my shower, just like today) daily.

Wish me luck!

SLIMQUICK Cleanse series: Intro · Day 1 · Day 2 · Day 3 · Final Review

My whole life, I was pretty skinny.

As a child, my doctors would (mostly jokingly) ask my mother if she ever fed me; she replied with a stoic “Doctor, she eats more than me and her brother combined. Yes, I feed her”. I suppose the amount of running and jumping and falling and climbing I did factored into that, but the truth was I could eat all i wanted, and did. People would be amazed at how much I could eat, and ask me where all that food goes. My typical answer was “to my toes!” My nickname was Katie No-Butt Wagner. It was true. There was no meat on me, anywhere.

When I hit Jr. High and the joys of puberty, I became “curvy”. Still skinny, but with hips that could move a mountain. I’m Hispanic; I expected that. I wore a size 7 juniors jean which was too big for me because a 5 wouldn’t get past my hips. I wore the same pants until college.

In college, my metabolism was still a good friend of mine, but without marching band to keep me moving all the time, I gained a few pounds. No really, only a few. I was not a victim of the Freshman Fifteen; it was more like 5 pounds, max.

After I dropped out of the art school (that’s a whole other story for a different blog post), I got into kickboxing and other strenuous activities. I dropped those last few pounds and was wandering around in that elusive size 5 for a while. I was stoked; I looked good and was in my prime! Wheee. If only I had known those days were so short!

In the 2 years that I’ve been in Portland, I’ve gained a lot of weight. Granted, I probably needed to gain 5-10 pounds, and I did, and felt pretty good… but it didn’t stop there. I am the heaviest and biggest I’ve ever been, and I am not happy about it. I’m not “fat” persay, but having always been so thin, this is kind of a downer for me.

So, now I’m ready to do something. I chatted with the people at Jenny Craig but really, my problem isn’t portion control, so I don’t think that’s quite the right thing for me. My problem is that I eat bad foods and drink too much beer. Ah, beer. Portland has more microbreweries per capita than most places do.. anyway. I know that if I just start eating better foods, and working out more, I can lose the weight. I wanted something to help jumpstart me though.

I’d heard people raving about The Master Cleanse a long time ago, but it just stricks me as way too extreme and probably extremely unhealthy. I can’t imagine not eating for 10 days. And the salt water chug? No thanks.

Recently, on my plane ride back to Portland from a vacation to LA (where I ate horribly, because I was on vacation, sigh), I was reading a Glamour magazine and saw and advertisement for SLIMQUICK Cleanse; a 7 day cleanse option made specifically for women that helps with issues specific to women’s weigh loss. It’s a supplement that you take while still eating actual food, so it seems less drastic than other programs.

I did some research on my good old trusty friend Google, but I couldn’t find anything that didn’t sound like a sales pitch or fake reviews. But, I did find the Cleanse package and the followup SLIMQUICK Caplets for a damn good price, so I figured.. what the hell? I’d try to kill two birds with one stone.

So I bought them, and will be starting the SLIMQUICK regimen (including their recommended diet [as closely as possible, as I’m allergic to most fish] and excercise plan) on Thursday next week to see if I can drop some weight (I’d start tomorrow, but it’s my birthday tomorrow and damn it, what good is a birthday when you’re on a diet?!) (when I get paid, so I can actually afford to buy healthy foods) for Bird One, and I’m going to document my experience for Bird Two; that way, when the next girl that wants to drop some pounds Googles the product, they’ll hopefully find my saga that will be full of useful information. Yay!

Wish me luck!

SLIMQUICK Cleanse series: Intro · Day 1 · Day 2 · Day 3 · Final Review

disclaimer: comments will be monitored more than normal on these posts; I don’t need some sap coming along being rude, and I also don’t need a million weight loss spam comments on my blog. You know who you are… *dirty looks*. Trusted, registered members can post normally (when logged in) but all other comments will be in a queue for moderation.

Yesterday, I rolled out of bed all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (read: exhausted and just wanting to go back to sleep) and plopped down in front of my Mac to start working, just like every other business day. Except, I couldn’t connect to AIM, my work email address, or my work support tool. Everything else seemed to be working though, which was kind of odd. Called my coworker; he said he wasn’t having any trouble, so it had to be on my end.

So I power-cycled my router.. and then couldn’t get to anything on the interwebs. Ok… pick up the phone and call Verizon. Half an hour later, somebody finally picks up the phone and informs me that they’re having outages and that it’ll be working again by the end of the day, get off my phone. Swell. So I packed up and went to a coffee show to hijack some wifi so I can, you know, do my job.

Over 24 hours later, my internet is still not working. I am not a happy camper, at all. I tried calling again this morning and got a busy signal. a;sldkfjgh.

So I’m at the coffee shop again. You know, being here just isn’t fun when I *have* to be. I want to go home!

The most annoying parts are: 1, there is NO INFORMATION ANYWHERE about what the hell is going on and why they haven’t fixed it yet, and 2, this is the second time in less than a month that my internet has been down for an extended period of time. Last time, they had a maintenance guy working on the hubs out on the street, and he unplugged my connection and plugged it back into the wrong slot. I called within 10 minutes of my internet dropping (and we know about the hub maintenance because my boyfriend saw the guy outside and asked what was going on) and it took them 7 hours to send somebody to fix it. It took him 2 minutes. You know, I’m pretty sure the guy that broke it in the first place was still there when I called, and yet I had no internet for my entire work day.

Verizon.. seriously? I kind of hate you. I expect to be prorated for these internet-less days.

Don’t even get me started on what I think of the cell phone they sold me and the issues I’ve had with my mobile services; then I’ll never stop.
—————————————————————————

Update: 3:30pm 07/09/09

After spending an hour on the phone troubleshooting stuff, my ticket got escalated and all they figured out was that there was some weird DNS issue going on (which is what Vista’s network diagnostic has been saying all along) and they have no idea why. Somebody will call me “eventually”.

So I cheated and manually set my DNS configurations to “somewhere else” after I got off the phone, and now I have internet. No thanks to Verizon.

Seriously, next time I’m hiring movers. I bribed a friend with pizza and beer and still wound up sore from moving stuff! I hate moving, but I think this is the last time for a while

The new apartment is super cute, and in an awesome location. Pod says he doesn’t think we could have gotten a better place without paying out the nose, and I’m pretty inclined to agree. We’ve got the MAX walking distance on one side, and all kinds of stuff on the other side; Fred Meyer’s, Monteaux’s, IHOP, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Great Clips, and more! Freddy’s has pretty much everything we’d need.

Our couches are totally awesome.. they’re vibrant red without being tooooo bright. Ok, they’re pretty bright, but not Stop Sign Red bright. Our coffee/end table set has cool black bars and black tempered glass.. they’re sleek and shiny and I love them! My new desk sits in the corner and has a whiteboard, though I need a new chair.

We’ve still got some unpacking to do but it feels like home. I can’t wait for it to be all clean and unpacked though! There’s a few sneak peak pictures on my Flickr.

In totally unrelated news, some of you may remember me talking about getting involved with the roller derby. I still really want to do this, but need some help as I’m super broke and getting started is not cheap. I made a page for donations; every little bit will help! If you can’t donate, you might spread the link. Anyway, the page is at Katie On Wheels

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

I very much wish I could spend the day with my mom and grandmother, but they are 1000 miles away I’ll be down there in July though, so I’ll get to see them soon!

I sent my mom a custom card that I made on Scrapblog and some super cute purple dangly earrings that I forgot to take a picture of, and she loved them. I sent my grandma flowers, even though it felt like cheating, but she loved them

What all did you guys do for Mother’s Day?

Can I just say that Spring time makes me ridiculously happy? Cause it does! Portland is still rainy sometimes but we had a few days of clear skys and warm weather and the weather guy says it’s supposed to be nice like that again in a few days. I’m really looking forward to nice weather. Rain is nice and all but I miss the sunshine. I wish I could get a tan up here!

But yea, spring! Believe it or not I actually love bright colors. All the flowers and trees (and yes my allergies will start acting up and then I’ll hate Spring, but that hasn’t happened yet!) and cute clothes! I need to set my sewing machine up somewhere so I can make a ton of skirts and buy a bunch of footless tights and more flats. I found some really cute patterns that I think I can manage (sewing in a straight line isn’t as easy as it sounds ) Spring also makes me kind of crafty. I need to go buy supplies!

In other news, things on all my sites and most sites in the KSF Bloglomerate may be a little wonky for the next week or so; we’re moving servers and that is going to be a huge headache and things *will* go wrong, so don’t be surprised.

That is all!

Today is my last day working technical support for Photoshop and Premiere Pro (and the butt-ton of sub-products that go with them). It’s been an interesting year, that’s for sure.

Usually when I leave a job, it’s a little more bittersweet than this. There are certainly people I’m going to miss here…  Scott, Wesley, Dan, Brandi, Lara, Chris, Larry, Jason and so on and so forth.. but that’s all I’ll miss. Just my peeps. There’s a lot of things about working here that were really getting to me. Like.. have you even been somewhere where you keep wondering “WHY do I keep coming back?!” It was kind of like that. There are more places than this that I feel like that about, but we’ll skip that for now haha. I won’t get into it more though; that’s not the type of dirty laundry I like to air out on my blog. I love and will miss my coworkers though. They brought me cake! Everybody looks sad to see me go.

I am very excited for my new job though! I will be doing email and occasional phone support for Freeway, as well as various other tasks. It is an excellent opportunity and I am looking forward for Monday, when I get to start my new job.

So those of you that keep up with my Twitter may have already picked up that I was in a small car accident late last week. It was between my boyfriends small car and a pickup. It was low speed, but I still got bounced in my seat, and am kind of miserable on and off. My back aches if I sit still too long and my legs hurt if I stand up too long. I’m in good condition though. My boyfriends car though… not so much He’s gotta get a new one. He’s been spending a lot of time looking at the Honda Fit, which I think is hideous but, well, it’s not my car so… /shrug.

His insurance agency has been really good though. I’ve had to talk to them a few times, and they’re covering my trip to the doctor to make sure that it’s just “normal” aches and pains (it is) and also my trips to the chiropractor, which is awesome. They put my boyfriend in a nice rental car, too.

So, I can now add “been in car accident” in my list of Things I’ve Done Before Dying

So, I’m getting ready to move this weekend. I still have a lot of packing to do… I hate packing. I’ve bribed some friends with pizza and beer to help me move my stuff. I’ve bribed another friend with more pizza to help me paint the walls back to the boring off-white color they were when I got there. I’ve secured a killer vacuum cleaner to rescue my rug that my grandma gave me, and will be renting a super steam cleaner to get the carpet back in passable condition so I don’t have to pay to have it replaced. My plan of attack is to finish packing this week, move the stuff on Saturday (and by “move my stuff” i mean “drive the truck and let the boys load/unload”) during the day, unpack the important stuff Saturday night, and paint the walls and clean the carpet Sunday.

I hate moving. I’m kind of excited though. Xoie will have a friend to play with, since my friend that we’re moving in with has a dog, too. I think having more places to go will help calm her down, as well as running and playing more. Pod is going to bring his computer over to my house so that we can get a little more spread of where we spend our time, cause I’m *always* at his house, and I would really like to spend more time at home, but still spend time with him. We haven’t been playing EQ a whole lot, cause we’ve been playing a lot of Left 4 Dead, which is totally awesome. If you’re on Steam, add me as your friend. lifelessmind. I’d link to my profile but I can’t find the URL while I’m at work cause anything fun is surfblocked.

I had to take back the super sweet 3.16 dual core processor I bought. Turns out my motherboard only supports 65nm processors. So I already bought a new power supply, and got a video card sent to me, and if I bought a new motherboard to go with my new processor I’d need new RAM cause mine is slow, and I’d need a case, and at that point I built a whole new computer and that just wasn’t in my budget I did pick up a 2.2 dual core, which is the best 65nm I can still find at this point.. which, yea, is still better than the 1.8 I had in there, but not NEARLY as exciting as the E8600. Cest la vie. I’m excited for my new video card My friend Shawn says the video card will do me more good than the processor anyway, so the combination of the two is pretty good I’d say.

I’ve also been doing a lot of designing/coding lately. I’ve started (and scrapped) a good 4 or 5 layouts for this site already. I’ve got the main page (mostly) coded for the one I think I’ll be keeping. Here’s a sneak peak of it. Don’t bother clicking any links; none of them work yet. If you have any feedback, let me know. I always like hearing other peoples ideas. I’m also starting a new project. Domain has been bought… but I’ve also scrapped 2 or 3 layouts for that one. I don’t want to get too much into specifics until the site is up, but it was inspired by this random freak-out I had over the weekend. While Kat Scratch Fever mostly is about the NOW of my life, this new project will give a little more insight about my past. I’ll let you know when it’s up and running.

Oh, and I got a new tattoo. I suppose technically it’s 2 tattoos (that technicality meant I had to fill out the paperwork twice! that, and I split it up into two sessions cause we ran out of time the first day). I just got the second one last night and it’s crazy swollen and red still. The left one hurt more than the right one. Probably because I’m right handed so the muscles in my right arm are stronger and more used to abuse. Anyway I don’t have pictures of both of them together yet, but they look the same, just mirror images. Pictures on my Flickr. Go look, leave comments!

That’s all for now.

2008 didn’t go out with a bang, but more of an “oh shit!!” as my glass of red wine fell over onto the beige carpet when I stood up to go give my boyfriend the Midnight Kiss. Oops. So we started 2009 by steam cleaning a section of carpet, and then proceeded to drink more and play Apples to Apples.

I hope everybody had a fun time celebrating and that everybody got home safely. May 2009 not suck

So, as 2008 is on it’s way out, and 2009 comes rushing in, promising shiny things and fresh beginnings (much like many politicians, they mush be in cahoots), it seems everybody is writing blog posts about how 2008 was and what they want out of 2009. We all know that if everybody jumped off a bridge, I might consider doing so as well, so here I am, writing my obligatory Farewell 2008, Hello 2009 post.

I won’t lie and say that 2008 was a great year, or that it was the best I’ve ever had, or that it was easy, because, well… it wasn’t. Not by any stretch of the imagination. On the same note though, it wasn’t all bad either, and certainly wasn’t the worst year of my life.

Even though it’s been almost 2 years since I moved to Portland (and even though I absolutely LOVE it here and will likely not be leaving), it’s still hard to be so far away from my family, and for my friends who know me the best. I have some great friends up here and I love them dearly and am very thankful for them, but they can’t replace the gap in my heart that was once filled by people who have known me for 6+ years, and some who have known me almost my entire life. I kind of live in a shell; my friends here don’t really *know* me because of it, and sometimes I feel alone, and like nobody will really understand how I am feeling, or why I do some of the things I do.

I also went through a relatively bad break up earlier in the year (I say relatively because I’ve heard of far worse breakups, but most of mine have been much less painful than this one) that was kind of like going through a divorce, the way we had to separate belongings. It took me a while to get over that.

I’ve moved, and started a new job, and lost friends, and made new friends, and had financial difficulties, and my car broke down, and there was a death in the family, and I’ve have had my ups and downs. Some days I feel more like I’m simply surviving and not really living. Much of my life is still under “trial by fire” status, and I don’t feel like I have any more direction in my life than I had last year…

But it’s okay.

I made it through 2008 a little battered and bruised, but not broken. At the end of the day, I do have good friends here, and a boyfriend that cares about me, even if we have our good days and bad days, and I know that if it ever came down to it, I could be in LA with my family if I need it. I may only be surviving at the moment, but I’m still in one piece. Even if I’m only wandering right now, I know eventually I’ll find my path, and things will straighten out..

2009 may not have all the shiny things I need, but I know I’ll pull through and be that much closed to whatever my ultimate goal is.

So, I did get to fly back on Christmas morning (and sit in my first class seat!) which rocked. The airport was not as bad as I expected it to be, and my seat on the plane was amazing. They fed me breakfast and gave me champagne and the seat was cushy and there was a pilot sitting next to me who didn’t look at me like I was crazy when I asked him if driving the airplane while it is on the ground is like driving a really big car (the biggest difference, he says, is that you don’t start turning until you are physically past where you are going, because the front steering column is behind you, and that when he drives a car he makes obnoxiously wide turns now).

I got to spend Christmas Day with the adopted family for a bit, then with The House which made me happy I love my friends. I loved spending time with my family and chilling out for a couple days, but I am very happy to be back home.

So on Wednesday the 17th, I got on an airplane to Los Angeles for a trip to visit my family.

I got in late Wednesday and then went to sleep. Thursday I did stuff that I have already forgotten about, mostly. I did stuff during the day then went out to dinner with a friend and my mom and my brother at Gardens of Taxco (yum. mega yum!) After dinner I went to my friend Alex’s house and had way more booze than I needed to with him and the kid I went to homecoming with my freshman year of high school and one of their other friends, then we decided to play Rock Band at 3 in the morning. It was great fun until I had to wake up on Friday and was all hung over.

So Friday I did lunch with my old work peeps (but could not eat cause I was hung over) and hung out with them for a while, then took a nap, then went to dinner with Hilary and Sonia Thom and Amber, which was great fun.

Saturday I… did…. stuff? Oh yeah, my family was over for the Christmas shindig and almost all of the family showed up. It was awesome. I love my family Then I found a yarn store and made a pair of fingerless mittens.

So, here’s the great part. Sunday I got all packed up and ready to go home and got a notice that said my flight was canceled. I was less than thrilled, sigh. So I went to the airport to find out when I could go home (cause nobody was answering the phones) and they couldn’t get me on a flight for 4 days. So my trip got doubles.

I’ve been just chilling around town with some people and killing time cause I’m stranded in LA. Supposedly I am supposed to be able to go home tomorrow.. I have to be at LAX at 5 in the morning, which sucks. I hate LAX. Burbank airport is WAAAAAY better. But if my flight actually gets out, I get to fly first class For no extra charge (besides being trapped in LA for an extra 3 and a half days and losing wages cause I don’t have that much vacation time [no worries, my uncle has my back on the lost wages]) even! Yay first class.

So cross your fingers that my flight gets out tomorrow. I love my family but I’ve had enough of Los Angeles and I want to go home now.

I don’t even really like snow. I’ve just had a bad couple of days.

I had Friday off, which one would think would be a good day… not so much.

I started the day by having a dream that I was at my Grandma’s house and we were having the family Christmas party, and nobody showed up. My first thought upon waking up was “...well that sucks. My family is supposed to love me and want to see me damn it!” It only went downhill from there.

I went to Home Depot to pick up a light bulb for my light fixture (I have the Fuga light from IKEA) and the stupid things are $7 each. I bought two so I could replace the dead one and have a spare for next time one dies. After that I went back home to play with Xoie but she wasn’t interested in me and only wanted to chew on her bone. Whatever dog.

I worked a little bit on a project I’m doing, then decided that I needed some shots of Downtown.. so I took a shower, put my dog in her room, and walked to the MAX stop. It started raining 2 minutes after I left my house and was pouring by the time I got off the train in Portland. So I couldn’t pull my camera out.. walked down to Eat Pizza and had some food and killed some time because Pod wasn’t gonna be off work for a little bit. Hopped on the MAX and headed over there, then couldn’t remember what floor he worked on.

Tried calling but he didn’t answer so I started wandering around the building. It’s fairly small and has lots of locked doors, so I didn’t get lost per say… but I did manage to find the only door to the stairwell that opens on my first try, only to find that the doors from that side are locked. I started panicking and each door I tried that was locked made the stairwell feel smaller. It really, really sucked. Sent a text to Pod telling him I was gonna die in the staircase then finally located an unlocked exit. It was scary

So then when it was time for us to leave, we got on the MAX, and then there was an annoucement saying they were going to delay the train… and then security walked up to me and asked me to get off the train. My eyes got all big and round and Pod was like “uhhhmmm…” and the security guy was like, “are you with her?” “yeah” “okay why don’t you step off too…” and so we got rained on while they figured out that I was not whoever they were looking for, and they let us back on the train, and everybody was staring at us.

So then I was all cold and wet and cranky and my hot chocolate didn’t come with whipped cream. Bleah.

I guess yesterday was sort of mostly okay except I had to work and I got in a fight with Pod and then I had to work today.

But hey, it’s snowing. I threw a snowball at my friend Sam and haven’t fallen on my ass yet so I guess it’s okay.

The message board I’ve been posting on since I was in high school shut down recently. I’m very sad about it. But, some of the members got together and made a new forum. While it’s not going to be able to replace Cockadoodledoo, it’s pretty awesome anyway. It’s still growing, but I think it’d be neat to have some new members on there! If you want to come check it out, it’s called Gazoonies. Tell them Katili sent you.

We’re coming to the end of October, and that means Halloween is coming up! I gotta say though, I’m less enthusiastic about it now that I live in a place that gets cold.

Friday night, I might maybe go to a haunted house type thing, unless Pod comes up with some sort of better idea. Saturday, we are going to go to the pumpkin patch so I can make a jack-o-lantern. We had the funniest conversation about it.

me: I want to go to a pumpkin patch! And make a jack-o-lantern!
him: You would wantonly slaughter an innocent pumpkin all so you can light it’s head up?
me: You should be happy I’d rather stick a knife in a pumpkin than in you. In fact, you should probably encourage this behavior *nod*
him: Pumpkin patch it is!

We’re also going to go to the corn maze, if it doesn’t rain between now and then. I made the mistake of going through the corn maze the day after it rained last year and almost lost a shoe in the mud. I did wind up having to replace them. They’re still on the doorstep of my old apartment, where I took them off because Tom wouldn’t let me into the house with them on.

We’re going to a costume party on Halloween.. I haven’t decided yet what I want to dress up as. It’s too cold to be anything that I would probably usually have been for Halloween down in LA. Last year I dressed up as Little Miss Muffet and my butt threatened to fall off from the cold. Speaking of, I still have that costume, and Megan still has my shoes. We’re really bad at this “remembering to take the other person’s stuff back” thing.

What are you guys all up to for Halloween? Oh, and what was your favorite costume ever?

(My favorite was the time I was like, 5 and dressed up as a bag of jelly beans. It was awesome. My mom still owes me my picture of that.)

I just finished Premiere training yesterday! Included in my Premiere training was Premiere Pro CS3 and CS4 (Mac and Windows), Premiere Elements 4 and 7 (Windows only), OnLocation CS3 (Windows) and CS4 (Mac and Windows), and Encore CS3 and CS4 (Mac/Windows).

So currently, I’ve gotten full on training in all of those, as well as Photoshop CS2, CS3, and CS4 (both platforms), Lightroom 1 and 2 (also both platforms), Photoshop Elements 4 (Windows/Mac), 5 (Windows), 6 (both) and 7 (windows), and installation of all products (CS2, CS3, CS4, both platforms).

How has my head not exploded? I don’t know. Hehe I don’t have to support allllll of those though.

But anyway I am now pretty well versed in the ways of video editing, capturing video, and DVD authoring. It’s pretty fun.

I don’t know how soon I’ll be getting my ACE’s for these products though. I’m not feeling nearly as cocky or even confidant in these programs as I did straight out of training for the other ones.

Yes yes, I’ve been MIA for a little while. *shrug* Real life and all.

So… update. Hmmmmmmmmm. Well.. I was in LA for a few days for a family emergency, my car broke down on the way back and cost $1000 to fix, the Xoie is being a booger face but I love her anyway, I’ve been playing lots of Rock Band and some D&D, I found myself a cute boy who, thus far, has proven himself to be a genuinely nice guy, I got an iPod touch that is currently glued to my hands, and… you know, stuff.

I refuse to apoligze for not blogging more often, and I never understood people who made posts about thinking about closing their blogs. In case anybody hasn’t noticed… if I don’t feel like blogging, I just don’t blog. But, I am still alive. Just in case anybody was wondering.

Oh yeah, and today, one of my pictures made it into Explore on Flickr. This is only my 3rd one to ever be in there. Behold!

I Think We Killed Her - (aka I Think I Might Be A Cylon, aka 073)