[Insert title here]

Happy birthday to us, Fo!

To follow up on my last post, Rob has officially landed a job. He'll be working for the EPA as a contractor for the next eight weeks (possibly more. . .). It's not permanent, but it pays really well and can lead to some other good opportunities. In the meantime, he'll be working on his CCNA and his A+ certifications. Until June, though, we're in a good place. He starts tomorrow, and we celebrated with his parents today with a round of putt-putt and dinner at Noodles and Company.

Cool beans!

TTFN.

Four months later, and only one week after finally getting his foot in the right doors, Rob may have finally gotten a real job offer.

*white girl happy dance*

TTFN.

I think I'm trying to engage in too many social networking sites at once. I've been checking my Facebook more often than my lj, and I'm also trying to build my LinkedIn network. Then, there is my Deviant Art page that has yet to come together. I should just give up on it, because by the time I finish it I'll have finally garnered the cash to make my personal site a reality and start the process anew. Go me.

Anywho, life continues as well as can be expected. Rob has gotten "a job" as a part-time customer service rep at Marshall's, but he has some really good prospects that are starting to come in, so he should have a "real" job in a month or so. I'd call that cool beans. It's about time they realized what an awesome person they were missing out on >_<; Until that all comes together, though, I'll be pulling some long days by working a second job also in the retail sector. I'm not looking forward to it at all, but I also don't like the look of my savings account continuously dropping even more. Such is life, I suppose.

Right now, though, I'm trying to avoid the poisonous odor of the enormous Sharpie markers I used to make the bake sale signs for the credit union. It was discovered that I had a knack for making posters (glad my art degree is doing something for me) so I am now the official poster-maker. It wouldn't be so bad if the markers didn't make me feel faint and induce a state of nausea.

In other news, I've been enjoying having the Wake County Library system at my disposal again and have devoured a veritable ton of comics and am making my way through the Obama works. I feel the need to get to understand the man-who-became-President a little better. I figured the best way to do that would be to go to the source, as it were. Although, I have a nice Chomsky volume that is calling my name. Too much to read and too little time. The perennial problem.

I think I should stop at that, though. My head is feeling kite-high at the moment, so I think I need to go further afield to find fresh air before I kill off what few brain neurons I have left at my disposal.

Happy Bunny Day!

TTFN.

How many call backs can you have before something pans out?

This is the last post before disconnecting my computer. Anybody in G-veg who wants to move stuff in the rain is more than welcome to come help us move out. All events start at 10:00 and we have a bag of thank-you gummi bears for anybody willing to come out for the fun!

TTFN.

Rob's got an interview tomorrow. He couldn't give me the full details because he has a bunch of things to do tonight before he'll be ready tomorrow, but send good karma his way. This could be it ladies and gents!

TTFN.

Actually, we got the next size bigger for $4 less than what we were quoted for the smaller size. How cool is that? And, no pet fee for the rats or Loki. Awesome! This is the website for the place http://www.missionresidential.com/View_Property.aspx?PropertyID=26 in case people want to see pictures. We got the 2 bedroom 2 bath with a nook.

TTFN.

I got the job in RTP. I'm just waiting to hear from my current manager when he can let me go, but my new manager would like me there within 3 weeks (but he wants to make sure I have time to move, etc. . . ). I'm excited and scared and everything all at once.

Now we just need for Rob to get an actual interview instead of just a bunch of call backs that don't lead much further. He's going to be in Raleigh next week on the job hunt.

TTFN.

Right, so the big news is that we are going to move to Raleigh, hopefully in about a month or so. I've got an interview tomorrow morning with the Teller Manager of the branch I'm hoping to transfer to. With any luck that will go well, and I'll know soon whether or not giving notice next week will be a good move. I'm really afraid to give notice before I've got anything lined up in Raleigh, so I'm hoping things will fall into place.

Apartment hunting, though, has been a total pain. Everywhere we look is either cheap garbage or overpriced garbage. It's really annoying. Every time I think we've found something really worthwhile I find out something awful about the place. Like roach infestations, or horrible management, or any number of a host of other things. What the hell? Eventually I'm going to have to settle. It's just hard to know when to stop looking and just admit defeat.

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, if anyone knows about apartments in Raleigh (good or bad), let me know. I'd appreciate it.

TTFN.

According to this meme I stole from Sparky, I'm a little bit of a lot of racial stereotypes, but decidedly un-American. There were a number of places where being a vegetarian hurt my chances. As to the chicken question, I did like the taste of chicken, I just have issues with unethical slaugher practices and factory farming methods.

Anywho, ( meme! )

It's taken me a while, in no small part because Rob had overtaken my computer for the better part of a week, but I finally have pictures of our new buddies to share. As I last posted, Charlemagne passed away leaving Chefwick without a companion. Rats are very social creatures, and they will not fare very well by themselves, especially if they've spent most of their lives with a companion. We could tell very soon after the loss of Charlemagne that Chefwick was lonely. We decided very early on that we would have to get him some new friends, so we trolled the pet stores and finally found two little guys in Raleigh over Thanksgiving. We brought them home and introduced them over the weekend. These pictures are from that first introduction. We had to place them in a neutral space for the interaction, so we put them in the bathtub while I cleaned the cage so they could move in together.



This is Chefwick (on the left) and Dig Dug (on the right). Dig Dug, we quickly discovered, is a burrower. Hence, Rob came up with this video game referencing name for him.



This is a shot of all three of them. The black is Chefwick, and the one you can see most of, the one looking right at you, is Dig Dug. Kandinsky is under the rat pile.



This is a better shot of Kandinsky. His markings are slightly darker brown than Dig Dug's.



I just thought this was a good shot of Chefwick.

TTFN.

PS Americorps' application is a bitch. It didn't say I could only use 200 characters for a response until after I'd written all my responses for my skills. . . all 6 or 7 of them. Then, I accidentally closed the window and lost everything. Go me. *sigh*

Charlemagne died tonight about 7:15. He had caught some sort of respiratory infection Wednesday night. The vet saw him first thing Thursday morning, and put him on an antibiotic. She seemed optimistic about his prospects, so I dared to get my hopes up despite the fact that infections like these are usually deadly in rats. He seemed to be doing somewhat better, but he was still not eating as much as normal. He must have been having an even harder time than we had realized, because Saturday he took a turn for the worst. When I picked him up to give him his medicine, he was nothing but skin and bones. He was wasting away and having an increasingly difficult time breathing. I didn't think he would make it through the night, but he was still alive this morning. I held him in a wrapped blanket to keep him warm and to help him feel safe. I cried so much that I don't know if I have any tears left. I couldn't cry when I found him. I just felt empty.

We have to leave him in the cage for Chefwick to realize that he is dead, so he won't think that Charlemagne just disappeared. Then, we need to watch him to make sure he doesn't get depressed over the loss of his friend. We'll need to get him some new companions. The recommendation is to get two young rats or one adult rat.

I just feel a little numb.

TTFN.

PS Thanks, Fo, for listening while I poured my heart out and cried. It helped.

Well, North Carolina may still be "undecided," but Obama won. I don't think I've been this generally pleased with a political outcome, well. . . ever, really. He's not perfect and there are plenty of things I disagree with him on (healthcare, energy policy, etc), but he's a farsight better than the last eight years and immensely better for the next four. I can only hope that the incredible mess we find ourselves in at current does not cloud the entirety of his presidency dooming us to a return to Republicanism.

Here's hoping *crosses fingers*

TTFN.

PS Anybody want to take a roadtrip to DC to see the inauguration? ^_^

The last few weekends have been so hectic that I've hardly been able to catch up with myself. We went to Indiana the weekend before last for Will and Maggie's wedding (which was gorgeous, and much better planned then ours was). We were on the road for a total of 24 hours roundtrip, 12 hours up on Thursday and another 12 hours back on Sunday, plus the 3 hours roundtrip to Greenville. Way too much traveling all at once. Bloomington was really nice. It seemed like a well-rounded community, although I could have been viewing it with rose-tinted glasses. The week at work after we got back flew by in a blur, although I do keenly remember cleaning the rats' cage because it was super-stinky.

This past weekend, I was adopting out cats at Petsmart. I didn't send anyone home, but I was especially paranoid because I had three black cats in my bunch, and I really don't like adopting them out before Halloween unless I get *really* good vibes from the adoptees. I also got to hang out with Jenny and Gabe (for those who are counting, this is the most social I've been in months). We hung around talking and reminiscing. All-in-all, a very pleasant way to spend an evening. I started working on another portrait Saturday and am hoping to have it finished in a few days. It's a family portrait, so it's a little more comples than the single-person portraits I'd been cranking out in a day or two.

The only downside to the weekend was going to Wal-mart. I haven't been back there since after Christmas in New Mexico, which is almost two years now. Jenny convinced me, however, that to continue not going out of abject moral outrage might be a bit much, especially if I might be able to bring my bottom line a little closer to the black. The experience, unfortunately, did not go well. I arrived optimistic that I might find some savings. As the trip progressed, I found fewer and fewer of the basic foods that Rob and I usually get and a plethora of junk food. Although there were occasional hints of organic or environmentally friendly brands, they were extremely difficult to find. I found myself feeling closed-in and increasingly agitated by my inability to find decent selection at appropriate prices. While it seemed that base prices might be lower at Wal-mart, many of our staple foods (milk, eggs, etc) didn't seem to offer any significant savings over Kroger without sacrificing quality. Indeed, the places where we found the most savings were in the luxury goods that we only ever buy when they're on sale at Kroger. Despite how much I love them, I'm just not going to get wasabi almonds every week. It's a bit much. I was dubious about much of the produce, and a considerable amount of my weekly meals come from the fresh fruits/vegetables in the produce department. There seemed to be a competitive selection of frozen vegetables, but the ice cream was still pretty expensive. The base price was lower than Kroger, but Kroger almost always has at least one brand on sale every week for less than the Wal-mart price of $3.50. On the rare occasions that there isn't any ice cream on sale, we just don't get any that week.

In the end, I ended up almost having a claustrophobic panic attack in the check out line. It's an odd feeling to be so claustrophobic in such a big space, but the manner in which it was set up made it feel confining rather than open. Add in the hundreds of people roaming the store (admittedly, we went at a pretty bad time, but we got up later than expected) and the apathy of the cashier who helped us check out and the experience rates as one of the worst I've had. We ended up spending just shy of $60.00, which was not any savings over having gone to Kroger (where a good number of the cashiers know us by face, if not by name) and potentially we were spending more on a per item basis because we didnt' have the option of choosing something that was "on sale" for dirt cheap, or so it seemed. . . I didn't see any "sale" signs. What it came down to was this, if we just bought name brands at Kroger ignoring weekly sales and coupons, then we might save money going to Wal-mart. However, Wal-mart did not have the selection of foods that we prefer to eat and seemed like, in general, it made it very easy to sacrifice health on the altar of convenience. I think we'll stick with Kroger and avoid Wal-mart for another two years or more.

TTFN.

PS Rob and I may have met another GM in Gabe, which would be nice because I know Rob is itching to be player-side again.

My answer after last night is as follows: so I can jump up and down screaming "Obama!" and waving a Bush/McCain More of the Same poster as Palin drives by in her SUV with her entourage. I don't think I've felt this good about anything I've done recently. It was immensely, deeply satisfying. Even if she didn't care. Even if I was freezing because I was ill-prepared. Even if, even if. It was spectacular. I only chanted "Obama" right as Palin was coming through. The rest of the time I waved my poster and screamed things like "peace" or "woo" when we got an approving honk from a passing car. I may personally prefer Nader to Obama, but in that fateful moment divisively screaming Nader amidst the Obama chant seemed against the entire point of being there: to show opposition to Palin.

Anywho, gotta get ready for work.

TTFN.

I've had people asking about how the credit union is doing, financially speaking, all day. I'd heard before I left for work about the possible buyout of Wachovia, but didn't know that it had actually occurred until a member mentioned that there were some minor runs on the bank in the area resulting from the Citibank buyout. I also was unaware until I got home that the "buyout plan" failed to pass the House. In light of that second bit of news, the air of paranoia in the credit union made spectacular sense. It is without the slightest bit of doubt that I can say that I have some general level of anxiety for the immediate future of the country. I can't say that I put any faith in the band-aid plans being cobbled together by the legislature. It doesn't help that I'm a generally anxious person at my baseline about financial matters. In a way, it makes me wonder if I'm not just staying in my job because I'm afraid of what might happen otherwise. The prospect of moving to another city, let alone another state, makes me want to curl up and whimper. At the same time I find the idea of moving somewhere else, trying to start a more meaningful life, intensely exhilarating. There are times when I'm not sure if I'm being pragmatic, or if I'm just paralyzed.

I don't think I intended to make such a depressing post at the outset, but that's the way it turned out. Better luck next time, I suppose.

TTFN.

Rob's birthday was this past Wednesday. I gave him some headphones last weekend as an early gift because his old pair had finally given up on all chance of life. I'm really awful about being able to wait to give something to someone. . . I just want to skip right to the part where their face gets all bright and joyful after getting something they really wanted/needed. For his "official" birthday present, I got him a Dr. Horrible t-shirt because he's been obsessing over the web series for about a month now. His enthusiasm is almost a little too much for me to take @_@ Anywho, he really liked it and immediately wore it, which made me feel good. My co-workers had given me these looks when the present arrived at work last week as if to say, "She's just getting him a t-shirt. That's sad." It made me feel so judged about something they couldn't even know about. They've only seen Rob a hand full of times, most recently when he came to pick me up after I fainted. They haven't even spoken to him at any length, so how would they know what he would like for his birthday? It was probably just me being overly sensitive.

Anyways, we spent yesterday celebrating Rob's birthday, yearly growth, aging, whatever you want to call it. We watched an episode of Burn Notice on Hulu, and hung out with each other talking. Then I took Rob to the local game store so he could look around, but he was too enticed by some Heroclix and got two boxes. He tore both of those open on the drive to the park and rejoiced at some of the minis that he got. Never having really gotten into Heroclix, but having heard Rob and Aaron talk about them far too much for my own good, I could at least rejoice along with him when he got some pieces with cool abilities and not just smile and nod. We took a short walk in the park because it was a pretty hot day, one of the last it looks like from the weather forecast. We got shooed out of the small museum because we didn't have the money for the entrance fee, but we tried to linger in the air conditioned ante-space for as long as we could endure the attendants odd looks.

Rob wanted chinese food, so I took him to Dragonfly. It's a small family-owned restaurant in town about which I'd heard phenomenal reviews from friends and co-workers. I'm pleased to say it definitely lived up to its reputation. The wait staff was incredibly attentive and the food was delicious. I finally found a place that steams its broccoli to perfection: crisp but bright green and obviously fresh from the intense flavor. I felt a little awkward, though, because our waiter didn't seem to speak much english and he was acting so servile. Let me explain. He wasn't just asking us if we wanted a refill, or if everything was ok. He was bowing and presenting the dishes and refilled Pepsi glasses like a servant out of a period movie or in a mansion. I was extremely conscious of an intense feeling of white guilt. Maybe it was an overreaction on my part, but it just felt so surreal at points. I have to wonder whether that was just the way our waiter approached his job, or whether it was something that the owners wanted their entire wait staff to do. In either case, I gave him a 25% tip for his efforts.

We had a little time to kill after lunch so we browsed the Best Buy that was next door, and popped into the Barnes and Noble. There was a really good book on art of dissent with sections about various movements (feminist, animal rights, anti-consumerist, etc) in recent political art. I wish that I had the extra $30 in this month's budget to get it, but I'll just have to wait. At the very least, I'd like to go back and just sit and flip through it some more. We left at about 4:00 so we could get to the movie theater to watch Burn After Reading, which I had promised we would see this weekend. We ended up getting a free soda and popcorn with the movie points we've been slowly collecting, which was an unexpected surprise. I'd been trying to have some friends join us for the movie and to hang out after as a surprise for Rob, but only Kelly and Aaron were free. So, it was less of a surprise "party" than I'd originally planned, but still a lot of fun. Burn After Reading was hilarious. I don't think I've laughed out loud so much in a movie in ages. It is just that brilliant. It's absurdest and dark and completely insane if you're not involved in the story from the start, as one of the characters points out toward the end of the film. I can't recommend it enough. I tell you, the entire audience was laughing so hard, so often, that it was almost like living the tv stereotype of being in a movie theater watching a comedy.

After the movie, Kelly and Aaron came back to our apartment for ice cream cake. I have found that making an ice cream cake is not difficult at all. I made the strawberry cake Friday night so it would be completely cool when I "frosted" it the next day with the ice cream. The trick is to whip the ice cream with a whisk, or (like I did) with an electric mixer until it is the consistency of icing. Then, you just frost the cake like you would if you were using regular icing. The most important thing, though, is to turn your freezer up to full blast or the ice cream won't refreeze fast enough after you put it back in the freezer to keep it from oozing. So, Rob got a strawberry cake with vanilla ice cream and dolphin sprinkles on top. I have to say that I was pretty proud of how it turned out, especially since it was my first effort. Aaron managed to finish almost a quarter of the cake by himself, despite Kelly's warnings about the consequences for his stomach afterward, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

Kelly and Aaron played a game of Guillotine with us and generally hung out for a while before they went home for a late dinner around 9:00. Rob and I finished the day with some Sopranos before turning in for the night. As they say in the kids books, it was a good day.

This morning I woke up and broke the good luck by cutting myself while I was cleaning my palette, so it should be interesting to see how the rest of the day goes. At least I got my plants re-potted so their roots have room to grow. Now, to ride my bike to the pharmacy to get my bc pills and get some painting done.

TTFN.

Saturday passed by pretty uneventfully. The storm only caused some branches to get snapped here and there, so life was already continuing normally Saturday morning mere hours after the "tropical storm" hit. At this point, I'm actually having real trouble remembering what I did that day, which only tells me that it must have been pretty unremarkable. I do remember that we tried to go to the park for a walk, Saturday being slightly cooler for spending most of the daylight hours under cloud cover, but the park was inexplicably closed. Rob and I could only postulate that it was for fear of flooding. We couldn't see anything from the roadside entrance. Sunday, I ran around doing chores all morning while Rob slept because they had to be done before we hung out with Kelly and Aaron that afternoon (and I don't think he came to bed until ridiculously late). I also picked up Spore (a gift for both of us) and a set of headphones for Rob (for his birthday). I have one other small gift in reserve until tomorrow. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with friends and having a good time. I had hoped to see Jenny this past weekend, and was planning on inviting her to come over for the aborted walk. Oh well. Next weekend I suppose.

Spore is tons of fun. I've only gotten through the cell stage and into the creature stage, but Rob says he's gotten to civilization and is loving it. I'm finally starting to get weird, but not utterly stupid looking creatures to come out my evolutions. Maybe it's that I'm finally collecting more parts to play with, or that I'm getting a better handle on the system. It's definitely a great game for me, though, because it's something I can pick up for a short while, and then put down so I can go do something else, but then easily come back to.

Yesterday, I went to Garner to see the new credit union computer system in action. I think I was supposed to be more awed by it, or be more confused. My partner kept asking if I had any questions, but the system is really pretty idiot-proof so I couldn't really muster anything to ask her. It didn't help that I'd already read the manual, so most of the instruction was unnecessary on my part. I did get to see some of the little differences between branch operations that can confound members (why won't you do it? the other credit union does! etc). Anywho, I don't know what made the person giving us directions think that it would only take an hour to get from Greenville to Garner, but it definitely takes a solid hour and a half. I don't know if I'll get comp time for the extra transit time that went outside of work hours. . . I'll drop hints today and see if Rose is receptive because I really think it's due.

In either case, I should get ready for work and get Rob up for class.

TTFN.

I finally got to relax a little. I went to the farmers' market Saturday morning and got the last of the season's blueberries (seriously, I got one of only three pints left in the entire market), some peaches, and some tomatoes. I also picked up a homemade cinnamon bun for Rob because he was asleep and couldn't come with me at 8:00 when the market opened (the only time when you can actually get anything, because if you come later it's all picked clean). I took a nice jog after I got back and played DDR for the first time in forever. Let me just say, I sucked so good ^_~ I know that evil dirty thoughts are going through people's heads after that sentence, but I'm keeping it the way it is just because of that reason. Rob and I tried to go for a walk in the park that afternoon, but a storm was blowing in so we had to leave early. That night, we got to hang out with Jenny for a couple of hours while Sparky was at work, which was totally awesome. Sunday, I slept in. I know I did something productive that day, but I can't remember what it was for the life of me. I had a disturbing conversation with my mother that evening, though. It was disturbing, in a way, because I wasn't expecting the subject to get to me as much as it did. Luckinly, Rob was all for going for a walk down the "greenway" to help clear my head, which helped immensely. Monday, I went for a great bike ride. The beauty of the gym being closed for the weekend was that I got to do alternative exercises that I've been meaning to do for a while, but hadn't gotten around to. This is definitely one I'd like to keep doing on a regular basis. I rode around Greenville for more than an hour. To give an idea of how compact G-Veg is, I went clear across town in one direction (Jenny, I rode past your apartment at maybe 8:30 that morning for the kicks ^_^) then circled back in a round-about fashion, just because I could. It was fun, and the traffic wasn't bad even on the main roads because it was a holiday morning. I spent a couple hours painting after I got back and I decided to invest in a few more plants. Of course, it is a little late for me to be getting any more food plants from the local store, but I did manage to get a nice hanging basket for half price because it was getting too large for them to keep around the store. The benefit for me is that I can cut the longer stems and plant them to get two plants for the price of half of one. How cool is that? I also got what was labeled a ficus, but doesn't look anything like the picture of the supposed ficus online. In the end the mystery plant only set me back $3.00, so I'm willing to experiment and hope for the best without feeling like a total jerk if I kill it. I also got an elephant bush which just promises to look really cool once it grows a little. Now, I just need to prove I can keep these plants alive like my rosemary and my basil. We called it a night a little early, although I didn't get the best sleep. . . But, that was really the only down side to a good weekend. This weekend, I'm keeping my eye on the hurricane. My painting is in New Bern, and since it was supposed to be picked up today it will not be insurred when the hurricane potentially comes through. That troubles me. Originally, I was thinking of going to New Bern Saturday morning to pick it up and spend some time hiking in the National Forrest. That plan may have to be ammended based on the weather forecast.

That's about it. TTFN.