Open Road Song

So, because we have a shoot this coming Saturday, my boss decided to give me today off. Probably so he doesn't have to pay me overtime, but also because exhausted Suze = unhappy Suze, and my boss (for his faults) does actually want happy, productive employees.

So! I couldn't fully take advantage of the day off by sleeping in because I had a dentist appointment scheduled for 9am. Alas. Whatever, my teeth are in pretty good shape. Except for one tooth, whose filling is apparently starting to put pressure on the rest of the tooth, which might lead to a crack. Therefore, I get to have a crown put in next month. Yay.

Anyhow, after that I was like, OH MY GOD, I HAVE AN ENTIRE DAY TO MYSELF. SELF, IT IS TIME TO GET SHIT DONE. And shit got done, ya'll. I have done, like, 5 loads of laundry. I cleaned out the hummingbird feeder and refilled it, and put it on the new post I got for that purpose out in the backyard so the sparrows won't frighten the hummingbirds away any longer. I also filled the NEW hummingbird feeder I got and put it on the picture window out front. I harvested all the veggies from the garden, froze the Tabasco peppers and rendered the tomatoes down into sauce. I also went through all the mail, got Coco's pet license renewed, and put my new registration on my car. Hooray! AND I took Coco for a nice long walk in the middle of the day. Shit. Got. Done.

Palmer's out having a drink with a friend, so now I'm chilling on the couch enjoying a beer. Well deserved, I might add!

Went out to the North Bethesda coffee shop today to meet with the owners. Before I'd left, we'd discussed my continuing to work for them, just in a different capacity. After sitting down and talking with them today, it is official - I'm the social media manager for the coffee shop! Again, BAM! We have a whole campaign planned out - well, laid out, a skeleton of a campaign that we'll flesh out, and I have my rate, and my day to go in, and if this turns into a full campaign I might get more days! One of the owners wants to go H.A.M. on this, integrate Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, the website, Yelp, etc., while the other is a little more cautious. But I think we can convince her that going all out is the way to go. Because that would be awesome!

Flush with success, I decided that today needed more awesomeness. So I walked down to the local hardware store and bought some herbs for our container garden! Got oregano, parsley, and basil, along with a new pot for the basil. Got home, transplanted and watered them, and now they're sitting pretty next to the other pots. Rock on!

One less than fun but utterly necessary activity over the past few days has been a thorough clean-up of the couch. Loki waged a campaign of terror and pee against the couch a while ago, and while we battled valiantly, it has never quite recovered. Well, I was sick of it! So! The couch has been stripped, the cover washed with detergent and vinegar (twice), the frame has been sprayed down, and now all the cushion covers are getting washed and the cushions sprayed down. By the time this is over, the couch will smell like roses, dammit! Or at least not cat pee. It is already smelling better, though also worse- by taking the cover off we're allowing the odor to air out, which means that although the couch itself smells better, the apartment doesn't. Ah well. That's what Febreeze and open windows are for. Loki, the troublemaker, has just been looking askance at the cushions and covers strewn about the apartment. As if he weren't the cause of all this to begin with!

That's it for now. Back to sweating in the apartment and cleaning cat pee out of cushions. My life, so awesome.

New Year is really just an arbitrary day to base goals on, I mean, what is to prevent someone from making a goal at any other time of year? Nothing! But New Years is traditional, and comes with all sorts of ideas about new year equaling fresh starts, and so we all decide that on January 1st we're going to completely change ourselves for the better.

I got impatient. Palmer and I went to La Madeleine for breakfast, and while I was sorely tempted by the pastries and the croque monsieur, I restricted myself to an oj, a fruit salad (still don't like cantaloupe, but honeydew is acceptable), and a quiche. I doubt I'll ever just be able to have a fruit salad for breakfast and be satisfied, because I love savory way too much. But if I can do things like start with a fruit salad and then have an egg, I think that'll work out far better than the eggs benedict or canadian bacon that are my weaknesses.

We stopped by World Market after breakfast, and I purchased 2 more antique style furniture knobs for my jewelry case project. I need one more (I forgot how many vertical areas there were) and then some pretty hooks for the horizontal areas. After I get all the knobs, I need to purchase paper to back the case with. I'm thinking just one paper, and maybe I'll alternate between wood and paper. Then, I have to purchase the correct size drill bit. And then crafting!

Palmer's back hurt, so we cut the shopping short and came back home, where he's been relaxing on the couch with a heating pad. I was relaxing with him for a while, then decided that I might as well clean and reorganize the kitchen. Which I've done. I've also done laundry and finally finished off that DIY dry erase board. The super glue for the magnets is drying as I type.

We also had to give Loki a bath. We gave Goblin a bath last week because I noticed he had poop stuck in the fur near his butt, and Goblin... reacted badly. We also had to cut out a rather serious mat we discovered while drying him, which has led to the decision to start having Goblin trimmed regularly. Anyhow! Loki also had poopy butt, which I didn't particularly want all over the chairs and carpet, so into the bath he went. Despite the fact that he is bigger, heavier, and more obnoxious than Goblin, Loki was the easier one to bathe. True, he tried to leap out of the tub, and eventually yowled mournfully, but he didn't writhe about nearly as much as Goblin, and actually allowed me to use soap on him. Once we got him out of the tub and were drying him, he calmed down significantly, and even let me pick him up. He's a brat, but he's my fave.

We're hanging out at the apartment until this evening, and then we'll head over to a friend's house for a small party. Should be fun.

Happy New Year everybody!

I spent all last week working really hard on schoolwork, and I did manage to get it all done by the various due dates. But that means that this week I'm feeling super lazy and unmotivated, and all I want to do is surf the internet and watch Doctor Who. I'm on to Season 3, by the way, and I do like Martha quite a bit. I just... wish they'd written her as less love-struck right off the bat. I really liked how they wrote Rose and the Doctor's building friendship and trust, and it just seems that Martha wanted to jump on in and felt like she deserved all his trust at once... whatevs. I still like her, just wish they'd let her and the Doctor build their friendship more organically. I'm about halfway through that season, so anything up until that point is fair game to discuss. But no spoilers please! Or rather, no specific spoilers, I already know quite a bit just by having ya'll as friends :)

Knitting is proceeding apace. After a week of barely any progress due to crazy school demands, I added on about 8 inches last night. I also started in on the stripey bit, and I think the finished product is going to look really cool. I created a "project" for it in Ravelry, thought I've not yet added any pictures. Soon, my dears. Soon.

I may or may not have spent much of Tuesday on craft blogs, bookmarking projects to get started on after Christmas. The first two are the ones I need most, a jewelry case made out of a silverware tray, and an earring holder made from an old picture frame. I showed the second one to Palmer, and he said it looked awesome, and would look really cool hung up on the wall. So yay! I also thoroughly cleaned and organized our bedroom, including sorting through my various necklaces and such. I didn't get rid of a huge amount, but I did cull some older pieces that I don't wear any longer. I also broke apart some pieces that I didn't want to wear, but whose pendants (or charms, or whatever) I wanted to keep.

I've gotten into nail art recently. For those who follow me on Facebook, you've seen my early attempts. I'm going to keep it fairly simple for a while, just practice lines and keeping my non-dominant hand steady. But once I get good at that, just you wait! Awesomeness will occur!

I had the shittiest day yesterday, and I don't really want to talk about it because I already cried all over Palmer. But because he is the best boyfriend, he hugged me and then took me out for sushi and sake, and made me laugh. I love that man. I also really love sushi. How so tasty, raw fish?

That's about it! Gotta go do stat homework, then clean the apartment, then get the car so I can get to work tomorrow morning. THEN there will be knitting and Doctor Who!

In an effort to be less of a crazy shut in, and because we hadn't hung out in forever, I invited cinaea and samanthahirr over for drinks and dinner. Which meant I had to clean! My place is never like, a danger zone, but it had gotten cluttered and messy over the past couple of weeks. So yes, much of yesterday was devoted to getting the recyclables outside, sweeping, cleaning the kitchen, and, of course, cooking! They said they'd be down with a slow cooker dish, so I decided to try my hand at Doro Wat, spicy Ethiopian chicken. Oh my goodness. SO GOOD! So very spicy as well, but so so tasty. Basically you throw boneless chicken thighs in the slow cooker with lots of onions, tomatoes, spices, butter, and water, and by the time its done the chicken is just falling apart, it is so tender. I think the next time I make it (because oh god that recipe is a keeper!) I'm going to add more tomatoes and throw some potatoes in as well. And then maybe serve it with rice, or noodles. Something. Because it was tasty, but I thought it could have used something more. But still! Ethiopian chicken! I can has!

I actually had a super busy day yesterday, because not only did I have guests over in the evening, but I had lunch with my dad in Bethesda. We decided to go to Mussel Bar, which I've been to before, but he has not. We got the Wild Shroom Mussels (heavy cream, cheese, mushrooms, and bacon in the sauce with the mussels) and the spinach salad. Sooooo tasty! Since it was his belated birthday present, I treated, and since it was such a nice day outside, we walked around to my coffee shop and I made us fruit smoothies! Of course my coworkers gave me a hard time for not being able to stay away, even on my day off, but whatever, I make a mean smoothie. And a regular commented on how dressed up I look (i.e., NOT in work clothes), which I think was meant to be a compliment. At least, that's how I took it.

Monday afternoon I drove down to Vidal Sassoon to talk with my stylist about being his house model. It was pretty funny, because basically all that happened was this: I walked in, he gave me a hug, touched my hair for like, 10 seconds, and then said, "Ok, so I'm doing a workshop in a month, want to be my model?" cinaea and samanthahirr told me that the new looks are all with slightly longer hair, which explains why he wanted to see mine, I'm just amused that our "meeting" lasted all of two minutes. Anyhow, in a month I should have a funky new haircut! Meanwhile, it'll just get shaggy and more Bieber-ish until then. :D

Tomorrow's plans include breakfast with Palmer, buying short sleeve button down shirts for work, taking old clothes to Value Village to donate them, and going to hang out with lillbet and her friends in the evening. Sometime in there I'll have to squeeze in a few hours of homework. Good times!

That's about it for now. Ciao!

Trying to start posting more regularly, since I've basically been disappeared for months. So I figured an easy way to get back in the swing of things would be to do a Weekend Update! So, let's see-

Friday I got out of work around 8:25, and managed to walk back to my parents place in 15 minutes. I'm getting faster! Got their car and agreed to look after their cats this weekend. Went by my place, fed the cats and cuddled them a bit, grabbed my computer and some laundry and went off to Palmer's. We ordered Thai food, I watched an episode of LOST, and then we were hanging out with his roommate Mike the rest of the night. It was a good time, but we drank way too much, Saturday morning was unpleasant.

Saturday we stumbled out of bed (seriously, quite unpleasant), fed my parents cats, fed my cats, fed ourselves, then sat on the couch staring at our computers until around 8pm, when it was time to feed all sets again. Palmer and I went out to Joe's Crab Shack, which is always quite delicious, and both got the King Crab legs. God, those things are sinfully good. I do wish they would put more Old Bay on the "Chesapeake Style" legs, but ah well. Unfortunately, after the meal my headache returned with a vengeance, and when we got home I went right to bed. Palmer told me that when he came into the bedroom, Loki was curled up between my calves and Goblin was curled up right next to him between my knees. I vaguely remember this, but apparently it was super cute!

Today has been fairly epic. Fed the parents cats, then attempted a trip to Target for Simple Green so I can clean my bathroom properly. I swear to god, no place in this area carries it, it is QUITE frustrating. After Target we met friends at an Indian restaurant for lunch buffet, then decided that we should all go to Value Village to go thrift store shopping. That place is irresistible, I swear. I ended up buying a Polaroid camera, a samovar-style pitcher that is now sitting in my bookshelf, and two shadow boxes with miniature kitchen implements and recipes that I will hang in my kitchen. All awesome!

Unfortunately, this evening we had to take the kitties to the emergency animal clinic. Goblin has been sneezing since we got him, and though the vet had said that it would probably run its course, his cold has been getting worse. And today Loki was totally lethargic and had no interest in food, so we decided we should take them both in to get checked out. Good thing we did! Loki is fine, just a bit under the weather (and he still hates the vet, though he didn't scratch this time- mostly because we just removed the top of the carrier to examine him and the vet had me hold him and talk to him while she checked his vitals), but Goblin's cold has turned bacterial. So! Goblin now has antibiotics that I have to give him once a day, and we have cans of tuna to feed them that should penetrate their stuffy noses and incite their appetites. Hopefully within a few days this will all be behind them.

On the plus side, they are total best buds now. Loki has been repeatedly trying to bathe Goblin over the last several days, and like I mentioned, Goblin loves to sleep next to Loki. It is quite adorable, and I'm glad they're getting along so well. Today they comforted each other after the traumatic ordeal that was the emergency clinic:

( Too cute! )

Anyhow, tomorrow I have to work, but I plan on swinging by Strosneiders in the morning to 1)check for Simple Green, 2)buy some ceramic water dishes for potted plants, and 3)purchase a hanging pot for my spider plant. Then on Tuesday I will continue the epic cleaning project that I started today. Good times!