Not much new...

That's the reason why I haven't updated recently. Just overall a pretty boring life! The most exciting things lately is that a couple of weekends ago, Andrea and I finally got to hang out again. Busy busy schedules! We ate at the Chatterbox, and then went and walked around Patina. I so <3 that store. Got to do it again sometime!

That night we did the Tombstone Trail with Shaun's friend Raska and my friend Peebs. It was a lot of fun. This year it was down around Rochester, so it was like, a two hour drive. Peebs just moved back up here from Arizona, so he wasn't at all used to the cold weather. And that had been the coldest night by far that night. We felt like we were doing horribly, it was the worst feeling. And the roads were scary! We'd be going up a hilll around a corner, and then all of a sudden they'd drop and turn. I think that all of our sphincters got a lot of exercise that night. We didn't get the mystery question, which probably means that our letter questions were all off. At any rate, as we were pulling up towards the end, Shaun told Raska to fill all of the questions out. I felt a faint niggling thought about that, but being caught up in the moment, I was urging Raska to hurry and get it filled. As it turns out, that was against the rules, to just guess at the answers (unlike college!!!). So because one other team was 1.5 hours late, we ended up getting the Dead Last award. Cool!!! The funny part is that the award for Dead Last was cooler than the awards for actually placing. Overall, it was fun, and Peebs and Raska were impressed and faintly shocked that the TT was actually challenging and fun. The people who won the costume award wasn't (or at least we don't think) it was the same people as last year. The winners were dressed up as 'Trailer Trash'. They were standing in line behind us, and they were HILARIOUS. What a great idea. Can't wait for next year.

Last weekend was season opener, and Shaun has so far managed to be the only person out of my family to provide meat for us in the upcoming year. What a great provider. Our apartment is still great, still like it a LOT better than the last one. I love the fireplace. I'm sitting with it on next to me as I am typing, and its warming me up. The cats love staring at it, too. Silly kitties!!

I don't know what we're doing this weekend, since Shaun really doesn't have to sit out in the woods again. Some time to finish my other paintings would be nice...! Anyway, take care, all!



P.S. Dora's an internet star!
http://www.stuffonmycat.com/index.php?itemid=5495&catid=6

The post I promised!

So here it is. Nothing too terribly fantastic.

Went on vacation a couple of weeks ago. That was a great respite. It was so nice to be able to relax and not have to think about work the entire time. Shaun and I went for walks a few of the mornings. It's a habit I have to pick up again. I went out on the boat once, and got sunburned pretty good that Wednesday. I purchased two pyrex dishes, so now I have something new to collect, apparently. LOVE them.










Then it was back to the same 'ol, same 'ol.

Got to hang out with Jennifer and her roomate Emily last weekend, we went to the Minnesota zoo. I remember it being a lot cooler as a kid. But it was fun to hang out and joke around with friends again. Gave the cats a bath that same weekend. Boy oh boy, that was fun. It's amazing how much skinnier they are when wet. I promise that we didn't give them a bath for no reason - they were kinda greasy and smelled smoky from their stay at my parents'. They were not too happy, but Dora took it better than Cora.

Please, please let me out!

Eh, this isn't so bad!

ME NO WANT!

What happened to you?!

What is that thing?

You shall pay. Oh yes, you shall pay.

This weekend we went to Firestone Friday night (because Shaun's car's running again! YAY!!!), and then up to Hinckley because my aunt and uncle from Colorado were supposed to be in town. Actually, they'll be here tomorrow, so we'll have to go up again next weekend to see them. Which is fine. We don't have any plans anytime soon. The only plans we have to make are what weekend Shaun's going hiking with Rob, when I'm going to go see Le Miz and take classes at Archiver's with Andrea, and plans for our costumes to do the Tombstone Trail. Fun Fun Fun!

A month!?!!?

I completely didn't mean for it to be a whole month between posts, but it is anyway. I meant to create a quick post before we left on vacation (two weeks ago already) but Shaun hustled me out of the apartment before I was able to do so. I don't have the energy to do much more tonight than say that a good post is on its way this week. Ciao for now!

Thoughts & Prayers

Figured it out!

Ok, so even though my stupid computer's USB drive doesn't seem to work... I figured out a way to take pics... using my computer's built-in camera. So, the quality isn't so hot, but it gives an idea, at least.... Sorry about the remainder of the move-in mess that you see...

Living Room

Dining Area, Doors L-R 2nd br, Master, Bath

Computer Desk, Front Door, closet, bathroom

Kitchen

Guest Bedroom, surprised Shaun...

Walk in closet

Master BR

Bathroom, Dora

***Update***Update****

So. Not much new here, just living in a new place. THANK GOD. I'm waiting until we get our deposit back (or in all actuality, not getting our deposit back) before I speak too much about our old apartment, or place my comments on apartmentratings.com.

I would totally load pictures for you all to see what all went on with the whole moving deal, but.... Shaun's pc is no longer hooked up to the internet due to our new floor plan, and my laptop's USB drive seems to not be working... grr.

We LOVE the new place, we're pretty sure that we'll be living here for a couple of years, saving up a down payment for a house... someday... We've got a HUGE kitchen now with an island, and two bedrooms, a bigger bathroom, and our living room has a fireplace. NICE! That'll be on all winter... since heat is included in rent and the fireplace runs off of that. We have a walk in closet now as well. It's nice to have more room in there.

Still working, it's pretty stressful at times. There's a lot of little things that can go wrong, and it's hard to keep everything straight. I'm shedding hair like crazy between the stress of work and life and everything else. I'm worried I'm going to be bald soon!! Haha.

Andrea and I got to hang out (finally!) last Friday, she came over to see our new place and then we went to dinner and then went to Applebee's for a mucho mudslide. Made me think that I was back in Menomonie! It was great hanging out with a friend again. It's been mostly only Shaun and I together and it was a pleasant change. :) This weekend we're going to head up to H-town for a day, and spend some time with the 'rents. It sounds like Shaun has Tyler talked into driving down here and then hauling his car up to Isanti, where Rob has been kind enough to allow Shaun to park his car and have the Subaru tech guys go there to fix it the following weekend. So HOPEFULLY that'll allow it to get out of our hair soon! Speaking of, I had to renew my driver's license. Yeuck. I don't know why I couldn't have kept my old one. It was a really good picture of me. Drat. Oh, well.

And in closing, I want to wish Jennifer congrats on all of the wonderful things that have happened to her lately! :D

Hello, Friends

Once again, I have been remiss in staying in contact with you all and keeping up to date on my blogger. I've had to be careful about when I call people due to a huge (expensive) overage the other month and now I can really only call people after 9pm or on weekends (unless you're on Verizon, then I can talk anytime :D )

Three weekends ago we went to see Pat McCurdy with Andrea and Brandon (who was in town that weekend) and their friends Shane and Susanne. It was a good time, but due to the venue it was difficult to have a whole lot of conversation. But that's alright. Overall, Pat put on a really good show. We were disappointed that he didn't sing the Paddy song because Shane and Susanne were 'Pat Virgins' but that's ok. He DID get pretty drunk, though - drunker than I've seen him get - he even forgot some lines of a song. Shocking! Afterwards, we drove the other four to their cars because the light rail stopped running at one. Which is stupid since bar time is 2, but I guess perhaps they're trying to get all of the drunkards out of downtown earlier?

Two weekends ago not much happened. Shaun went to P-town and then to Milwaukee to watch the Bush NASCAR race with his Uncle, cousin and dad. I met up with mom in Lino Lakes and we did a little shopping. Other than that, I did nothing all weekend.

Last weekend we did nothing. I have a cold and it managed to strike me miserable over the weekend which is nice, but it was also annoying at the same time. We don't have a whole lot of dinero so it kept us from spending what we don't have. :)

Today is the 4th, and we're packing. Sunday night we got the word that our new apartment was ready for us as of Monday night. So we're going to go get the keys Friday night and start moving little stuff this weekend, and my Dad is coming down Sunday to help us move the larger things. We're hoping to get that done in the morning so that we're not all sweating to death. It's supposed to be like, 98 degrees on Saturday with 89% humidity which means DEATH (or at least feeling like it's almost preferable...). Andrea, if you read this, feel like going to H-town Saturday night for the carnival? Haha. Let me know, I don't have anything better to do.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

So, there's been a few events happening in our lives lately. I'm still working, and I am starting to enjoy it more. It's still not something I want do be doing (read:creative) but it's something I can do and I love the fact that I'm not staring at the clock all day willing the hands to move faster. Shaun tweaked a couple of things on his CareerBuilder profile, and that prompted a couple of companies to want to talk to him. One of them is down by Mankato. For $220,000 around here you're lucky to get a decent sized three bedroom on as small of a plot as possible. I guess that down by Mankato you can get something like a 5 bedroom on a half acre for the same amount. I wonder if the pay scale is also lower in pace with cost of living? Who knows...

We got accepted into a different apartment complex in Shakopee. I HATE moving, but in this instance, I cannot WAIT to move in on July 1st. We're going to be moving all of our crap out of here and then clean this place up. I hate this place. I don't think that I can make that clear enough. The new place is certified drug and crime free. There is a strenuous background check before you can get in. It only costs $11 more a month, and it's two bedrooms with a much larger kitchen with an island. The heat is included in our rent, and there's a gas fireplace. I cannot wait to curl up in front of the fireplace. Yay! And so much more room for the cats to run around in! (and a bedroom to close the door on them when they need a 'time out' hehe)

Shaun's car is broke again. He needs to get a new block for it, and apparently a new clutch as well. This is going to cost us anywhere from $1500-2000. Ouch. I'm not going to say anything about my car because that'll jinx us. Last thing we need. At any rate, we are going to drive to Black River Falls in Wisconny to meet up with his parents. His grandparents are gracious enough to let us drive their Ford Ranger while Shaun's car's getting fixed. Thank goodness, because I am getting sick of getting up at 5:45 (I know, it's not really all that early, but it's too early for me) and driving him to work, coming home and sitting for a little bit but not long enough to take a nap and then getting ready. The stipulation for the truck borrowing is that we have to sell the truck for them. I'm not sure what the exact specs on it are, but if you know anyone who'd want an immaculate 02-03 Ranger 2x4 with only about 20,000 miles for $10,000
miles on it, we can fill that need. :) It's also going to be put up on Craigslist - I figure we might get a few more hits on that...

Minnehaha Falls

Us in the Minnehaha

How idyllic.

Love the contrast of the dappled organic leaves to the stark rigidity of the broken rocks

Top of the falls

These little bugger got on me twice. I freaked out both times. For some reason, these caterpillars FREAK me out.

I love the texture of this shot

Foggy Morning

There was some fog the other morning with the sun striking it through a tree and I thought it was gorgeous and had to attempt to capture the ethereal for posterity...

Me to the No Monie!

Cory and Luana @ The Market

Shaun feelin' good before he was feelin' wretched.

Me drinking from Das Boot

The bouncer @ Das Brewhaus

Me and Catie and a scary 'That Guy'

Cora and Dora! (Of Course!)

Oval Kittah!

Youuuu caaaan't seeeee meeee!!!

Heh. You found me.

Look at me, I'm CUUUTE!

Despondency Reigns

Turns out that because I am temporarily employed, we cannot get a mortgage for a house (we were going to get a little extra to pay off credit cards {and not run them up again} and pay off my car because the interest on a mortgage is a lot less than a credit card) so that we'd have breathing room for monthly bills that go along with a house. But basically, it's pointless. I have a job that I really don't think that I am going to enjoy (even though I really like the people I work with and the corporate culture - I get to wear jeans to work!) that is probably ending in 3-6 months, with no guarantee that I will have a job in the end. There is nearly literally nothing in my life that I am pleased about. My weight is depressing me, and I cannot seem to gather the willpower to do anything that's hard about it, and I don't have the dinero to do anything that costs money (gym, personal trainer/motivator, weight watchers, etc.). My personal life could be better. But like my mom says, I shouldn't feel like I owe anything to anyone, and that I am responsible for making me happy. I just think about the odds stacked up against me/us and it just seems impossible. Why can't we just win a million dollars? I realize money isn't the answer to everything, but it sure would take care of a few problems and let me concentrate on the ones it doesn't fix. So for now I just sit and think, think and sit, and become despondent. And as I do that. the hole gets deeper and deeper....

I am gainfully employed!

Today will be my first day. It's for a company that makes those security towers that you see by the door when you go into, say, Target or Kohl's, etc. Should be interesting, can't wait to get into it and see what it's all about! :)

Sorry that I haven't been calling you, friends. I have been doing poorly on that lately, and for that I apologize. Just seems like that lately, just existing was too hard. (Sad, huh?) But now that we have two incomes again, things should be looking up - so expect a call from me! :D

I have a lot of pictures that I've taken recently that I'll post at a later date.

Still Jobless

I'm getting really down. Like, can't-get-off-the-couch-cries-at-a-sink-full-of-dirty-dishes down. We REALLY need me to get a job. I go on interviews for nearly every resume I send out, but apparently I am doing something wrong in them since I never get the job. The one job I really really wanted I didn't get. I just begin to wonder why I went thousands into debt to get a bachelor's degree. It's done me nearly no good. I have multiple staffing agencies working for me but it's been a tedious process.

The fact that Shaun's car has been a major pain in the ass hasn't helped any either. I don't know how much I've mentioned, but here's a quick (I hope) summary: Shaun used my last paycheck from Microsoft to use to purchase parts for his exhaust (which I had told him he could get for his birthday, but I thought that we had agreed that he wouldn't get it until we could afford it, which he interpreted as 'Dana got another paycheck'). So he took it up to my parent's house to put it on, but it of course did not go smoothly. So he drove it back down to our place. The following weekend he drove it up to his buddy Dan's place to fix it and bought new gaskets for it. Well, they got everything off but one bolt that went on sideways. So we had no choice but to tow it down to our place again. It was not driveable due to the check engine light being on. So then the following weekend he put post on his Subaru forum and some guy offered to haul it to a shop for him to fix it. Then last weekend we decided to just put the whole exhaust on it and call it done. So that was done, but it kept throwing error codes. So now we aren't sure if it's just because one of the coils became impacted or if the valve/piston ring are wrecked. . So yeah. That's that. Stress and money! But I'm sure it's the same for pretty much everyone.

WORST DAY EVER!!!!!!! RIP...

Found out that my bestest best friend ever has ceased to exist today. We spent some time together this morning and when I tried to get with them again this afternoon, no go.

THEY'RE DEAD.

Turns out that Disney, who owns Drive 105 (go here), KQRS and 93.7 X is selling out to Citadel Broadcasting. Disney is also responsible for destroying my previous favorite radio station, 93.7 The Edge.


Rest in peace, Drive 105, rest in peace. You were my bestest best friend only for a short time, but you are irreplaceable. Especially not by love-oriented soft-rock oldies.



Edit 5/8/07: I was hoping to get one last peek @ Drive 105's site. Well, it is now changed to Love 105. I listened to its stream. It SUCKS. I cannot believe they replaced my Drive with utter crap. Sorry if I am offending those of you who actually enjoy the new genre, but I am so disappointed. As soon as I love a station, it's gone. :( Poor me.

No job yet...

Hey, all - I was hoping to have heard from someone Friday about my employment status - yes or no. Anything, either way, would have been nice. So now I am assuming that they are both "no", even though my mom and Shaun say that the process just might have taken longer than they expected. But I'm not sure... Hopefully they'll get back to me tomorrow about it. That'd be nice. I just hate not knowing. :)

Shaun's car is inoperable. Due to one stubborn bolt, they could not extract the exhaust to reposition it and bolt it back on. They burned through 4 saws-all blades on it and were apprehensive about the possible side effects a plasma cutter might have on it . So we have discussed it and decided to wait until I am employed to get it taken to a shop and repaired (a shop has insurance in case anything goes wrong and they'll replace the damaged parts...). In the meantime, he will carpool to work. Dratted thing, I wish it just would have worked, but apparently right now we are in a 'won't work' period. Ah, well.

Friday night we were up in Forest Lake at Shaun's buddy Dan's place (that's where he drove his car while it more or less worked to 'fix' it...) because I had to drive up and drive him down while the tow truck brought his car down to our place for us. We were told that he would be there no later than 7:53pm, but it wasn't until 10:30pm or so. But I played Guitar Hero in the meantime with Hannah (they made me feel awesome at it even though I hadn't played in like, 2 months) while the boys took the cars around the rally cross track in Danny's field.

Saturday we went to the auto cross in the Valleyfair parking lot to see Dan and Raska race. Turns out they got there too late for registration, so they were just watching/judging. But that's ok, since it started raining after we'd been there about an hour or so. We then went home and crashed for a little while, then drove to the Midtown Global Market to eat at Salsa a la Salsa for Cinco de Mayo. Their food is pretty good, and their house margaritas were $3.00. Luckily for me, their house margaritas also included the strawberry blended type. :D Their margaritas whomped El Lorro's margaritas' ass. Then we came home and crashed some more. Watched this Canadian show, 'Trailer Park Boys'. It was ridiculous. No taste at all. I think the correct phrase to describe it would be 'absurdly comedic'. Today we did a little grocery shopping, and then we stopped at the office to tell them the ceiling is leaking again (like the 4th time since we've moved in here...) and that we'd be moving out at the end of July. The plan is for us to rent something else like, early-mid July and get our rears OUTTA this place. It's just depressing anymore. This place is such a bummer. At any rate, we picked up a little in case the maintenance man comes and I should start sewing my tank top that I have all cut out, but I'm afraid to start in case I mess it up. Wish me luck on that and everything else!!!

Flowers for a 'thank-you'

Cory and Shaun goofing off at our mini grill-out

Andrea not wanting her pic taken

Cap'n Cory at Lock & Dam #1

Our shadows below the roiling boiling dam

The deep-throated roar felt like it was emanating from your own chest

Cory and Andrea @ Lock & Dam 1

Y is for Yarn!!